Politics
Responding to the crisis of the Great Depression, Chadbourne asserted that the capitalist system itself was "on trial" (see above), and argued for the need for intervention by industrialists to curb the downturn. Chadbourne was an early champion of both collective bargaining rights and profit sharing for workers.
Thomas Chadbourne was very active in the United States Democratic Party. Chadbourne was a major supporter of Alfred E. Smith, the Governor of New York. Chadbourne donated $30,000 to Smith's campaign officially, and allegedly provided over $400,000 of cash and stock options to Smith secretly.
Chadbourne carried on a correspondence with president Woodrow Wilson over the course of 1917 to 1921, much of which is reprinted in Chadbourne’s autobiography. Chadbourne sat on the War Trade Board, from which he resigned, despite urgings from the president to stay, in order to attend his ailing wife.
Chadbourne is listed as a top contributor to the “Graphic Founders Fund,” which gave financial support to the monthly publication Survey Graphic, an offshoot of The Survey magazine. Survey Graphic published articles on fascism and anti-Semitism, and is perhaps best known for its role in the Harlem Renaissance.
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