THOMAS, ALBERT (1878-1932), French statesman, was born on June 16, 1878, at Champigny-sur-Marne, near Paris. His father was a baker who by great sacrifices enabled his son to receive a college and university education. Scholarships enabled him to travel in Russia and Germany. A sequel to this was his book Le syndicalisme allemand (1903) in which his socialist faith was propounded for the first time.
When, in 1904, Jean Jaures launched l'Humanite he appointed Thomas assistant editor. Thomas played an important part as a right-wing leader in the General Confederation of Labour (C.G.T.). He published in 1908 a volume on the Second Empire in Jaures' great Histoire socialiste.
He was elected to the Chamber for his native city in May 1910 and again in 1914, becoming one of the most active and prominent Socialist members.
He joined his regiment in 1914. After he had seen a few weeks of war service, the Government summoned Thomas and two other Socialists, Jules Guesde and Marcel Sembat, to organize the production of munitions. In May 1915 he entered the cabi net as under-secretary for armaments and also joined the Briand Ministry which followed at the end of the year. Towards the end of 1916 he became minister of munitions, retaining this post in the Ribot Ministry which followed. In April 1917 he was sent to Russia, where he remained for several months and suc ceeded in persuading Kerensky to undertake the ineffectual "great offensive" against the Central Powers.
Meanwhile in France the struggle was becoming very bitter between the majority (pro-war) and the minority (international ist) sections of the French Socialist party, culminating in the Stockholm Conference. Leader, with Renaudel and Sembat, of
the majority party, Albert Thomas was also a strong advocate of the independence of Czechoslovakia and Poland and the crea tion of a "Great Serbia" and a "Great Rumania." Since this "majority wing" policy was opposed by many Socialists, partic ularly in the Paris district, Thomas decided not to stand again in the Paris suburbs and resigned the mayoralty of Champigny. At the elections of Nov. 16, 1919, he was returned as a Socialist in the Tarn, Jaures' former constituency.
During the first session of the International Labour Con ference, held at Washington at the end of the year, Thomas was provisionally appointed director of the International Labour Office (League of Nations) by its governing body; the appoint ment was confirmed at the governing body's second meeting held in Paris in Jan. 1920. Apart from the organization and conduct of the administration and scientific work of the Office, he has been indefatigable in his personal efforts to secure national ratifi cations of conventions adopted by the International Labour Con ference. In 1921 the claims of his work at Geneva led him to resign his seat in the Chamber of Deputies, but he has remained a member of the "right" section of the French Socialist party. As director of the International Labour Office he has played a pre-eminent part in the advance and maintenance of labour stand ards throughout the world. To the present edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, M. Thomas contributed the article INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION. He died May 8, 1932.