Friends, you need never be afraid
to put your confidence in a man
whom the children and the dogs love.
-E. N. Richardson
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Hellraisers Journal, Monday May 25, 1908
Town Square, Girard, Kansas – Most Famous Citizen Celebrated
Upon learning that Eugene Debs had received the presidential nomination of the Socialist Party of America, the citizens of Girard, Kansas, arranged a celebratory meeting in the town square as a surprise for their most famous and most beloved resident. Mr. Debs did not attend the convention in Chicago and was, therefore, on hand to enjoy the festivities.
From The Girard Press of May 21, 1908:
DEBS JOLLIFICATION MEETING.
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Band, Flowers, and Hand Shaking.Saturday afternoon [May 16th] the citizens of Girard, regardless of political affiliations, held a meeting in honor of Eugene V. Debs, the Socialist nominee for President of the United States. It is not often that a town or community has the honor of being the residence of a nominee for the Presidency, and Girard comes to the front in having this honor, as Mr. Debs has been a citizen of our city for the past year.
The Frontenac band was engaged for this occasion and furnished music in the public square, where a speaker’s platform had been erected. The meeting was at 3 o’clock, and up to this time Mr. Debs had been kept in ignorance of what was going to happen, and was not apprised of the same until a committee waited upon him and escorted him to the park.
E. N. Richardson made the opening talk, in which he paid a glowing tribute to the nominee. He then introduced Mayor W. H. Ryan, who is a candidate for governor on the Democratic ticket, and who, after a few remarks, introduced Mr. Debs.
In Mr. Debs’s introduction he said that his residence in our city had been the most pleasant, and that he felt as much at home in Girard as he did in the town of his birth. He complimented the Girard people upon their hospitality and the good fellowship that existed toward him. He talked at length, and was heard to the end by a large audience.
At the close of his speech a bevy of little girls bearing baskets of flowers went to the platform and presented their floral offerings, after which there was handshaking and congratulations.
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[Paragraph breaks added.]
Nomination Made Unanimous
DEBS AND HANFORD.
At the national Socialist convention in Chicago last week Eugene V. Debs, of Girard, was nominated for President on the first ballot, receiving 152 votes. Other candidates voted for were A. M. Simons, Carl Thompson, and Mr. Carey. The nomination of Debs was made unanimous. Ben Hanford, of California, was nominated for Vice President, receiving 106 votes, while Seymour Stedman got 43; May Wood Simons, 20; Mr. Slayton, 15; Mr. Lipscomb 1, and Mr. Woodby, 1.
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Girard Socialist at Chicago Convention
WERE IN EVIDENCE.
At the national Socialist convention in Chicago last week Benj. F. Wilson was a member of the resolutions committee; J. E. Snyder of the committee on constitution, and Grace D. Brewer of the committee on the Socialist party, while Eugene V. Debs was nominated for President. Girard socialists were surely very much in evidence.
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Celebration in Girard Town Square, Saturday May 16, 1908:
EUGENE V. DEBS’S FIRST CAMPAIGN SPPECH.
Elsewhere we give a local notice of a surprise that was sprung on Eugene V. Debs last Saturday afternoon [May 16th] and below will be found the speeches made by E. N. Richardson and Mr. Debs, which we present to our readers in full, not because we endorse what they contain, but that our readers may see for themselves what a Socialist candidate for President has to say:
Ladies and Gentlemen-My Friends and My Comrades:-Here is a man whom you all know-many of you may not yet agree with him in his political beliefs; many of you will not vote for him, but you all love him-you love him because you can’t help yourself; you love him because he is the most lovable man America has ever produced; you love him because he has a heart in him as big as a mountain, a love for all humanity that there is no room for hatred of any man, woman, or child in all the world. This, friends and fellow citizens, is not a Socialist meeting; it is a good fellowship meeting-we are here today regardless of our political beliefs as the friends and admirers of a fellow citizen whom we all have learned to love, to admire and respect. This gathering demonstrates to ourselves and the world that it is possible for intelligent men and women to get together regardless of political differences and for a little while let the spirit of good fellowship prevail.
Every child in this city knows and loves the man whom we have gathered here today to honor and congratulate; every homeless cur finds a friend in this man; no tramp or jobless man ever appealed to this man in vain. And, friends, you need never be afraid to put your confidence in a man whom the children and the dogs love.
Only the other day I heard a little 4-year-old boy say; “Gee! but I wish Mr. Debs was my papa.” And this little boys’s papa was not grieved; on the other hand his heart was filled with joy that we had in our midst a man who could inspire such sentiments in our children. My own dear little girl just the other day said to me: “Papa, Mr. Debs is the best man in all the world, isn’t he?” And I said, “Yes.”
What greater tribute could be paid any man than the love and confidence of the little children.
The other day I was in Fort Scott, and while there I met an old Missouri Pacific engineer, and in the course of conversation the name of Debs was brought up. This engineer made a remark that impressed me very much. He said: “When ‘Gene Debs’ shakes hands with you his heart comes right down into the palm of his hand.” And it does.
We are here today, friends, to show our appreciation and respect for this man who has won our love and the love of those we love. We may not meet him with flying banners and waving flags, but we meet him with our smiles and we meet him with our tears-our smiles for his joys and our tears for his fears.
Mr. Richardson then in a few well-chosen words introduced W. H. Ryan, mayor of our little city, who spoke as follows:
Mayor Ryan in introducing Mr. Debs assured the gathering that it was all a put up job and fully pre-arranged beforehand to this effect, that if Debs is elected the Mayor is to be sent to the court of St. James, but if Ryan is elected governor Debs is to know the pardoning power is in good hands.
Mr. Debs then delivered the following address:
Ladies and Gentlemen:
When I made some inquiry a few moments ago as the cause of this assembling I was told that it was the beginning of another street fair. I am quite surprised, and agreeably so, to find myself the central attraction. Allow me in the very beginning to express my heartiest appreciation of the more than kind and generous words which have been spoken here for me this afternoon. There are times when words—mere words—no matter how fitly chosen or eloquently expressed—are almost meaningless. As the rosebud under the influence of sunshine and shower opens, so does my heart to receive your benediction this afternoon.
I am a new resident of Girard; have been here but a comparatively short time, and yet I feel myself as completely at home among you, most of whom disagree with me upon vital public questions, as I do in the town in which I was born and reared and have lived all the days of my life. Since the day I first came here I have been treated with uniform kindness. I could not have been treated more hospitably anywhere. I have met practically all of your people, and all of them have taken me by the hand and treated me as cordially as if I had been neighbor and friend with them, and to say that I appreciate this is but to express myself in trite and unsatisfactory terms.
As to the Presidency
The honor to which reference has been made has come to me through no fault of my own. It has been said that some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. It is even so with what are called honors. Some have honors thrust upon them. I find myself in that class. I did what I could to prevent myself from being nominated by the convention now in session at Chicago, but the nomination sought me out, and in spite of myself I stand in your presence this afternoon the nominee of the Socialist party for the presidency of the United States. Long, long ago I made up my mind never again to be a candidate for any political office within the gift of the people. I was constrained to violate that vow because when I joined the Socialist party I was taught that the desire of the individual was subordinate to the party will, and that when the party commanded it was my duty to obey.
There was a time in my life when I had the vanities of youth, when I sought the bauble called fame. I have outlived it. I have at last reached that point when I am capable of placing an estimate upon my own relative insignificance. I have come to realize that there is no honor in any real sense of that term to any man unless he is capable of consecrating himself to the service of his fellowmen. To the extent that I am able to help those who are unable to help themselves, to that extent and to that extent alone, do I honor myself and the party to which I belong. So far as the presidency of the United States is concerned, I would spurn it were it not that it conferred the power to serve the working class, and he who enters that office with any other conception prostitutes and does not honor that office.
The Bounty of Nature.
Now, my friends, I am opposed to the system of society in which we live today, not because I lack the natural equipment to do for myself, but because I am not satisfied to make myself comfortable knowing that there are thousands upon thousands of my fellow men who suffer for the barest necessities of life. We were taught under the old ethic that man’s business upon this earth was to look out for himself. That was the ethic of the jungle; the ethic of the wild beast. Take care of yourself, no matter what may become of your fellowman. Thousands of years ago the question was asked: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” That question has never yet been answered in a way that is satisfactory to civilized society. Yes, I am my brother’s keeper. I am under a moral obligation to him that is inspired, not by any maudlin sentimentality, but by the higher duty I owe to myself. What would you think of me if I were capable of seating myself at a table and gorging myself with food and saw about me the children of my fellow-beings starving to death?
Allow me to say to you, my fellow men, that Nature has spread a great table bounteously for all of the children of men. There is room for all and there is a plate and a place and food for all, and any system of society that denies a single one the right and the opportunity to freely help himself to Nature’s bounties is an unjust and iniquitous system that ought to be abolished in the interest of a higher humanity and a civilization worthy of the name. And here let me observe, my fellow men, that while the general impression is that human society is stationary—a finality as it were—it is not so for a single instant. Underlying society there are great material forces that are in operation all of the circling hours of the day and night, and at certain points in the social development these forces outgrow the forms that hold them and these forms spring apart and then a new social system comes into existence and a new era dawns for the human race
[…..]
Will Establish Private Property.
Now, we Socialists propose that society in its collective capacity shall produce, not for profit, but in abundance to satisfy all human wants; that every man shall have the inalienable right to work, and receive the full equivalent of what he produces; that every man may stand fearlessly erect in the pride and majesty of his own manhood. Every man and every woman shall be economically free…..
We are not going to destroy private property. We are going to introduce and establish private property-all the private property that is necessary to house man, keep him in comfort and satisfy all his physical wants. Eighty per cent of the people in the United States have little or no property of any kind today. A few have got it all. They have dispossessed the people, and when we get into power we will dispossess them. We will reduce the work day and give every man a chance. We will go to the parks, and we will have music because we will have time to play music and inclination to hear it.
Is it not sad to think that not one in a thousand knows what music is? Is it not pitiable to see the poor, ignorant, dumb human, utterly impervious to the divine influence of music? If humanity could only respond to the higher influences! And it would if it had time. Release the animal, throw off his burden; give him a chance; and he rises, as if by magic, to the plane of a man. Man has all of these divine attributes. They are in a latent state. They are not yet developed. It does not pay now to love music.
Keep your eye on the almighty dollar and your fellow man. Get the dollar and keep him down. Make him produce for you. You are not your brother’s keeper in this system. Suppose he is poor! Suppose his wife is forced into prostitution! Suppose his child is deformed! And suppose he shuffles off by destroying himself! What is that to you? But you ought to be ashamed. Take the standard home and look it in the face. If you know what that standard means, and you are a success, God help the failure!
Our conduct is determined by our economic relations. If you and I must fight each other to exist, we will not love each other very hard. We can go to the same church and hear the minister tell us in good conscience that we ought to love each other, and the next day we approach the edge of some business transaction. Do we remember what the minister told us? No, it is gone until the next Sunday. Six days in the week we are following the Golden Rule reversed. Now, when we approach the edge of a business transaction in competition, what is more natural than that we should try to get the better of transaction?—cheat him if we can?
And if you succeed that fixes you as a successful business man. You have all the necessary qualifications. Don’t let your conscience disturb you—that would interfere with business.
Humanity and the Future.
Competition was natural enough once, but do you think you are competing today? Many of you think you are competing. Against whom? Against Rockefeller? About as I would if I had a wheelbarrow and competed with the Santa Fe from here to Kansas City. That is about the way you are competing, but your boys will not have even that chance-if capitalism lives that long. You hear of the “late” panic. It is very late. It is going to be very late. This panic will be with us five years from now, and will continue from now till then…..
When we are in partnership and have stopped clutching each other’s throats, when we have stopped enslaving each other, then we will stand together, hands clasped, and we will be friends. We will be comrades, we will be brothers, and we will begin the march to the grandest civilization that the human race has ever known.
I did not mean to keep you so long this afternoon. I am sure I appreciate the patience with which you have listened to me. From the very depths of my heart I thank you, each of you—every man, woman and child, for this splendid testimonial, for this beautiful tribute which I shall remember with gratitude and love until memory empties its urn into forgetfulness.
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[Paragraph breaks added.]
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SOURCE & IMAGE
The Girard Press
(Girard, Kansas)
-May 21, 1908
Page 8: “Debs Jollification Meeting”
-also source for image of EVD
https://www.newspapers.com/image/183974520
Page 2: “Debs and Hanford”
https://www.newspapers.com/image/183974508
Page 4: Girard Socialist at SPA Chicago Convention
https://www.newspapers.com/image/183974511
Page 5: EVD first Campaign Speech
(Sat May 16th at Girard town square.
-Takes up entire page and continues on page 3.)
https://www.newspapers.com/image/183974514
Page 3: Speech by Debs Continued from page 5.
https://www.newspapers.com/image/183974510
See also:
Tag: Debs Campaign 1908
https://weneverforget.org/tag/debs-campaign-1908/
Pamphlet: The Issue
-Speech delivered by Eugene V Debs
May 16, 1908 at Town Square, Girard, Kansas
CH Kerr, (1908)
Note: there are a few differences in wording between the speech as it appeared in the pamphlet and as it appeared in Girard Press, see above.
http://debs.indstate.edu/d288i88_1908c1.pdf
https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1908/issue.htm
The pamphlet introduces the speech by Debs:
NOTE—Girard, Kansas, is a quiet little city built about a capacious plaza or square. This plaza is carpeted with Nature’s emerald and roofed with the protecting branches of the catalpa and the elm tree. When the news came that Debs had again been chosen as the candidate of the Socialists for that station in our public affairs of most comprehensive service to the people, the citizens, without reference to political faiths, gathered upon this green out of compliment to their fellow-townsman who had been thus honored for the third time by such signal confidence on the part of so many earnest people of the nation at large. These good people of Girard had seen bevies of children following this arch “undesirable citizen” to and from his work, and about the town in his resting hours, for almost the entire period of his residence here, and now it had come to pass that he was loved by every man, woman and child here. They sent for him. Eli Richardson, the “Hot Cinders” Socialist, affectionately known for so long a time as “Baldy,” explained in a few dramatic words the occasion of the gatherIng, and presented Debs with the remark, “You can pin your faith to a man loved by children.” The address which follows, wholly impromptu, is perhaps the most remarkable ever delivered, and came hot from the foundry of his mighty genius and fresh from the loom of his kindly, loyal, loving soul.
Note: The first ad that I could find
for “The Issue” is from Appeal to Reason (page 2) of July 18, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/67587371/
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The Commonwealth of Toil – Pete Seeger
Lyrics by Ralph Chaplin