Today in 1934, gubernatorial candidate Upton Sinclair (D-CA) met with President Franklin Roosevelt. Sinclair ran for the House and Senate as a Socialist in 1920 and 1922, and in 1934 he won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. His platform remained socialism. In recalling the 1934 election Sinclair said: "The American people will take Socialism, but they won't take the label. I certainly proved it in the case of EPIC. Running on the Socialist ticket I got 60,000 votes, and running on the slogan to 'End Poverty in California' I got 879,000. "I think we simply have to recognize the fact that our enemies have succeeded in spreading the Big Lie. There is no use attacking it by a front attack, it is much better to out-flank them." He advised Socialists to seek office in the Democratic Party. PHOTO: Ralph Nader speaks with author Upton Sinclair (1878-1968) at the White House after the signing of the 1967 Meat Inspection Bill. Over the course of his long life, Sinclair wrote over 90 books. His biggest success was the 1906 novel The Jungle, which exposed unsanitary conditions in the meatpacking industry.
