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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 6, 1899
Eugene V. Debs on Current Events: Honest Workingmen Held in Idaho Bullpen
From the Social Democratic Herald of September 2, 1899:
CURRENT EVENTS PASSED IN REVIEW
—–MINERS’ “VICTORIES” SO-CALLED
—–
Thirteen-Dollars-a-Month Patriotism
-“Bull Pens” and Socialism-Justice in France
in Spite of Hell and the French Army
-Cleveland Boycott
—–By Eugene V. Debs, Terre Haute, Ind.
[Part II of II.]
Idaho.
The “bullpen” of Idaho is the joint product of Republican, Democratic, and Populistic administration. The pictures drawn of this hellhole by reliable correspondents are enough to make decent devils blush with shame. The Democratic Populistic Governor Steunenberg and the Republican General Merriam, monsters of degeneracy, constitute the tsars of this domain. Here hundreds of honest workingmen, without a charge against them, are corralled like cattle, starved like outlaws, and shot like mad dogs, and while the outrages are being perpetrated in the name of “law and order” their wives are made victims of the lust of their brutal keepers.
We often hear that violent revolution is close upon us, but this is only bluster, for if there were but the faintest revolutionary spirit abroad, the Idaho “Bullpen” would fan it into flame like a cyclone and such fiends as Steunenberg, Merriam, and other degenerate tools of the Standard Oil Company would be hung higher than Haman.
Some of these miners may remember what I told them nearly three years ago about coming events, about voting with the old parties and about socialism. They were not ready for socialism then, but now that their unions are broken up, their homes desolate, and themselves prisoners or exiles, and all this by the capitalist system which they have supported by their own votes, they will be compelled to realize that through socialism alone is there escape from the tyranny of capitalist rule and the atrocities of the wage system.
Dreyfus.
It requires no accurate observer to discover that Dreyfus, the victim of the foulest conspiracy ever conceived, is not being given a fair trial. The refusal of the court to adjourn when his counsel was stricken down by an assassin shows clearly enough which way the wind blows. But whether he is tried fairly or not, one thing is certain and that is that the French people are wide awake, and sooner or later justice will be meted out in spite of hell and the French army. For the epauletted conspirators, from first to last, there is a day of retribution and when it comes there will be such an accounting as even the people of France have never witnessed.
It is not Dreyfus alone that is on trial. Militarism, honeycombed with rottenness, is also arraigned before the high court of the French nation and when the final verdict of the French people shall have been reversed, militarism in France will have been crushed out of existence forever. Through it all there is a mighty mustering of the forces of socialism, and, out of it all there is certain to emerge the socialist republic.
The Cleveland Boycott.
The Street Railway Employees of Cleveland and their sympathizers are putting up a brave fight and we can only hope that victory may perch upon their banner. But they are fighting, barehanded, a powerful foe, backed by municipal clubs and state bayonets.
The attitude of [Peter M.] Arthur, the renegade chief of the Brotherhood of [Locomotive] Engineers, is refreshing, but not at all surprising. The rich old labor leader is simply true to his base record. He is against the Cleveland strikers and against labor generally. He is the pliant tool of the railroads and in 1894 made a record black as a crow’s wing. The Brotherhood of Engineers knows all this and has known it for years and still, to satisfy the general managers, who are the real rulers of the brotherhood, they continue to crown this traitor to labor “Grand Chief,” and for such a brotherhood, honest men should have only unmitigated contempt.
The S. D. P.
The progress our party is making must be a source of gratification to every member. We now have an unbroken chain of branches stretching across the continent, from New England to the Golden Gate. Day by day there are new accessions to our ranks and in 1900 the party will be in superb fighting form.
The carbuncle at New York has come to a head and the pus is flowing freely. Purification is bound to follow, but in the meantime the olfactory nerves will be put to the severest test.
Private advices give assurance that our party stands high with the leaders of the European socialist movement. We have every reason to take courage and put forth the mightiest efforts at our command.
There is a united socialist party just ahead, and its initials will be S. D. P.
Eugene V. Debs.
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[Photograph and emphasis added.]
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SOUCES
Quote EVD, SDP Revolutionary, Sc Dem Hld p1, July 1, 1899
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/social-democratic-herald-us/990701-socdemherald-v02n02.pdf
Social Democratic Herald
(Chicago, Illinois)
-Sept 2, 1899
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/social-democratic-herald-us/990902-socdemherald-v02n11w061.pdf
IMAGE
EVD, Houston Daily Post p6, May 22, 1899
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86071197/1899-05-22/ed-1/seq-6/
See also:
“Current Events”
-from Social Democratic Herald
of September 2, 1899
https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1899/990902-debs-currentevents1.pdf
-from
Eugene V. Debs Internet Archive
https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/
1899
https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/#1899
Announcement:
https://debsproject.org/blog/
The Eugene V. Debs Internet Archive in conjunction with Tim Davenport will be publishing a 6 volume collection of Eugene V. Debs writings. Haymarket Books will be the publishers of the 6 volumes. For weekly updates on this valuable historical project.
Tag: Wardner ID Bullpen of 1899
https://weneverforget.org/tag/wardner-id-bullpen-of-1899/
Re Haman, see:
Esther, chapter 7, verses 6-10
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Esther+7%3A6-10&version=KJV
Dreyfus Affair
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyfus_affair
Cleveland Streetcar Strike of 1899
https://case.edu/ech/articles/s/streetcar-strike-1899
Peter M. Arthur
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_M._Arthur
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers
https://books.google.com/books?id=ljs1AQAAIAAJ
Tag: Social Democratic Party of America
https://weneverforget.org/tag/social-democratic-party-of-america/
More from Debs Internet Archive
“Signs of Social Revolution” by EVD
The Coming Nation of Ruskin TN of Sept. 2, 1899
https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1899/990902-debs-signsofsocialrevolution.pdf
The Coming Nation of Ruskin TN of Sept. 2, 1899
“Eugene V. Debs: Lecture Season of 1899-1900”
-by L.W. Rogers, Manager for Eugene V. Debs
https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1899/990902-rogers-debslecturetour.pdf
“The Future is Bright” by EVD
Duluth Labor World of Sept. 2, 1899
https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1899/990902-debs-thefutureisbright.pdf
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn78000395/1899-09-02/ed-1/seq-1/
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Working Man – The Dubliners