the eighth Socialist Party Convention met on the thirteenth of April. James Maurer, a former State Representative, President of the Pennsylvania Federation of Labor and then Councilman for the town of Reading, was widely considered the frontrunner in the months before the convention met. For his boomers however, Maurer stood that his duties as councilman precluded the possibility of any national tour that would be required of his nomination for the Presidency, and this was declination was made definitive on April tenth. Norman Thomas, a Presbyterian minister who had been one of Maurer's boomers and had himself made it known that he was not a candidate for the Socialist nomination rather swiftly became the new frontrunner, and plans were made for a draft effort. Thomas and Maurer were nominated unanimously for president and Vice President respectively, with both men accepting their nominations. The only trouble arose on the question of Prohibition, where there remained a split in the Party between those who supported the Eighteenth Amendment and those, like Convention Chair Victor Berger, who preferred that it be handled on a state-by-state basis. In the end it was agreed that the Party remain silent on the issue of Prohibition. Workers (Communist) Party Held in the Mecca Temple in New York City, the second Workers' Party Convention met on the twenty-fifth of May. Jay Lovestone served as the convention's keynote speaker, denouncing the Democratic, Republican and Socialist Parties and claiming that the Communists would turn the next "imperialist war" into a civil war. Party Chair William Foster was named as the Party's candidate for the Presidency while Benjamin Gitlow, a former opponent of Foster's within the Party, was named as its candidate for vice president. Scott Nearing was also considered a possible contender for either position on ticket. A platform was adopted which, in addition to calling for American workers to overthrow the capitalistic system of government, also demanded the enactment of social insurance, the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act, a five-hour workday, the withdrawal of troops from Nicaragua and China, and the recognition of the Soviet Union. Socialist Labor Party Held in New York City, the tenth Socialist Labor Party Convention met on the twelfth of May. Initially the ticket was a duplicate of the one nominated four years prior, Frank Johns of Oregon for the Presidency and Verne Reynolds of Michigan for Vice President; however