Claude Watson
1944/1948 Presidential Candidate
1936 VP Candidate

The Acceptance Speech of Claude A. Watson

An unsigned obituary in the March, 1978 edition of The National Statesman says:

     Dr. Claude A. Watson, Prohibition Presidential Nominee in 1944 and 1948, went to his eternal reward on January 3, 1978.  Ninety-two years of age, Mr. Watson leaves behind Mrs. Maude L. Watson, 2 children, 10 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
     A michigan native, Mr. Watson graduated from Alma College and served as a Free Methodist pastor and conference superintendent.  He moved to California and established a very successful law practice there.  He was licensed to practice before the Federal and US Supreme courts.
     In 1936, he was the Prohibition Vice-Presidential Nominee, running with Dr. D. Leigh Colvin.  In 1944 and 1948, he carried the banner as the Presidential Nominee.  He gained nationwide publicity in 1944, when he questioned why President Roosevelt would not let him have the priority rights needed in wartime for air passage.  When reporters asked Mr. Roosevelt, Mr. Watson got his air tickets.  In 1948, he because the first US presidential nominee to fly his own campaign plane,... and he sent Mrs. Watson on a well publicized trip to the White House to measure for drapes, etc. in case they moved in after the election.
     Dr. Watson's well-reasoned speeches attracted many to the party and among those are many who are leaders, today."

Dr.Claude A. Watson, J.D., L.L.D., the Prohibition Party's nominee for President in 1948, is a resident of Highland Park, a suburb of Los Angeles, California.  He is nationally known as a speaker and writer on the subject of good government.  As the Prohibition Party's candidate for President in 1944, he polled one of the largest votes ever cast for one of that Party's nominees.
     Born in a frame-log cabin near Manton, Michigan, June 6, 1885, he was educated in the Michigan public schools, attending high school and college at Alma, Michigan.  His first job upon leaving college was work as an accountant and auditor for a subsidiary of  the United States Steel Corporation.  Subsequently, he became General Manager of the Four Drive Tractor Company, Inc.
     In 1928, he was admitted to the practice of law in California.  As a member of the State Bar of California, he is now licensed to practice before the federal courts and the Supreme Court of the United States, as well as before all of the courts of California.
     Following in the footsteps of his father, Joseph A. Watson, who served as a minister and a District Superintendent of the Free Methodist Church for many years, Dr. Watson became an ordained minister of that church in 1913.  Although now not serving a pastorate in the ministry, he is active in the work of the church.  He is General Counsel of the Free Methodist Church of North America, and Secretary of the Executive Commission of that body.
     He has 3 college degrees:  Bachelor of Law, Doctor of Jurisprudence, and Doctor of Laws.  In his booklets, "God's Plan for Civil Government," "Fifth Columnists in America," and "Bloody Hands," he eloquently points to the need of Christianity in government.

-- Reprinted from the 1947 Convention souvenir booklet.