Category: Eugene Victor Debs

Hellraisers Journal: “You are waging a class fight!” Eugene Debs Speaks at Philadelphia’s Labor Lyceum, Part II

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
Share

Quote EVD, Starve Quietly, Phl GS Speech IA, Mar 19, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 21, 1910
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Eugene Debs Speaks at Mass Meeting

From The Philadelphia Inquirer of March 20, 1910:

PRATT AND DEBS AT LABOR MEETING
—–

EVD, Spk Chc p15, Nov 22, 1909

Sympathetic strikers crowded Labor Lyceum Hall, at Sixth and Brown streets, when their big mass meeting was called to order at 3 o’clock yesterday afternoon [Saturday March 19th], and the streets about the building were blockaded with hundreds who were unable to enter the hall.

Many policemen, under command of Lieutenants Nippes and Ehrsman, were stationed about the entrance to the hall and along Sixth and Brown streets to prevent possible rioting, and riot wagons from City Hall were placed in near-by streets.

C. O. Pratt, the executive chairman of the carmen’s organization, arrived at the Labor Lyceum soon after 3 o’clock in an automobile, and was cheered by the crowd as he made his way to the entrance. The doors had been ordered closed by the police, but the lieutenant in charge made way for Pratt and the speakers with him. As soon as Pratt was inside the hall the crowd picked him up and passed him along to the platform.

Pratt in his speech exhorted the labor men to stand firm in their demands. In concluding he asked all who would remain out on strike to say “aye.” The answering chorus of “ayes” was heard in the streets.

Eugene [V]. Debs, a former Presidential candidate on the Socialist ticket, also addressed the meeting.

[He said:]

You are waging a class fight. I am not here to philosophize, but to tell you to fight and fight to the end, and you will win. There is nothing to concede, nothing to arbitrate. If you concede anything you will lose all. Fight the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company. J. Pierpont Morgan could end the strike in a minute if he wanted to.

———-

[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “You are waging a class fight!” Eugene Debs Speaks at Philadelphia’s Labor Lyceum, Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: “You are waging a class fight!” Eugene Debs Speaks at Philadelphia’s Labor Lyceum, Part I

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
Share

Quote EVD, Lawmakers Felons, Phl GS Speech, IA, Mar 19, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 20, 1910
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – General Strike Committee Sends for Debs

From The Philadelphia Inquirer of March 17, 1910:

[Statement of Philadelphia’s General Strike Committee.]

Phl GS, Murphy n Pratt, LW p1, Newark NJ Str p1, Mar 5, 1910———-

Announcement of the plans of the labor leaders for today was embodied in the following statement issued by the General Strike Committee, from its headquarters at Twelfth and Filbert streets:

In our statement issued last night we announced several mass meetings would be held in different parts of the city, to which organized and unorganized working men and women and the general public are invited. These meetings will be held at Kensington Labor Lyceum. Second and Cambria streets; Mercantile Hall, 849 Franklin street; Academy Hall, 524 South Fourth street, and Labor Lyceum, Sixth and Brown streets, on Thursday, March 17, at 8 P. M.

These meetings will be addressed by C. O. Pratt, Jeff Pierce, organizer of the American Federation of Labor; John J. Murphy and other prominent speakers…

The committee has also made arrangements for holding a monster mass meeting at Labor Lyceum, Sixth and Brown streets, at 3 P. M., Saturday, March 19, which meeting will be addressed by Eugene V. Debs and other prominent speakers…

[Photographs added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “You are waging a class fight!” Eugene Debs Speaks at Philadelphia’s Labor Lyceum, Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: Unity Achieved with Socialist Labor Party at Social Democratic Party Convention, Fourth Day

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
Share

Quote EVD, Proud Socialists SDP Conv, SF Cls Strgl p4, Mar 17, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 19, 1900
Indianapolis, Indiana – S. D. P. “Unity” Convention Nominates Debs

From San Francisco’s Class Struggle of March 17, 1900:

Class Struggle Ns p1, Mar 17, 1900EVD, Debs Harriman Campaign, Class Struggle Ns p1, Mar 17, 1900

[Part II of II.]

FOURTH DAY [March 9th].

SDP Conv, Eugene Dietzgen, Sc Dem Hld p4, Mar 17, 1900

J.C. Chase, who served as chairman on the third day, was again elected to preside.

A motion to elect two delegates to the International Congress at Paris in 1900 was carried. Eugene Dietzgen was elected as one delegate, and on motion the election of the second delegate was referred to the joint committee of 18, the delegate to be elected by referendum.

MacCartney took the floor and stated that Debs had reconsidered his declination. Great applause. Debs was declared the nominee.

G.B. Benham was called upon for a speech, and congratulated the convention upon the nomination of Debs.

A man recognized from the Atlantic to the Pacific as one of the bravest advocates of the rights of the workers that the world has ever seen. His example has inspired the best efforts of the exponents of socialism, and his candidacy cements the union of socialist forces and assures us a grand result for the coming Presidential campaign.

Victor Berger nominated Job Harriman for Vice President. The nomination was received with applause as hearty as that which greeted the nomination of Debs. His nomination was declared unanimous, and all rose and gave three cheers for the candidates. Great enthusiasm. Handshaking was in order.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Unity Achieved with Socialist Labor Party at Social Democratic Party Convention, Fourth Day” →

Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Victor Debs Nominated for President by Social Democratic Party of America

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
Share

Quote EVD, Children of the Poor, AtR p2, Mar 17, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 11, 1900
Indianapolis, Indiana – Social Democratic Party Convention Nominates Debs

From The Indianapolis Journal of March 10 1900:

EUGENE V. DEBS ACCEPTS
—–

HE WILL BE STANDARD BEARER OF
SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY.
—–
He Was Unable to Resist the Pressure
of the Convention-Harriman
for Vice President.
—–

SDP Campaign, EVD n Job Harriman, SF Call p2, Mar 9, 1900

The Social Democratic party, which had been in convention in the city since last Tuesday, adjourned yesterday afternoon after gaining the consent of Eugene V. Debs to make the race for President. Job Harriman, of California, was nominated for the vice presidency. It was also understood before adjournment that the Social Democrats and the Socialist Labor party would amalgamate.

The chief business of the convention yesterday was the selection of candidates. On Thursday Mr. Debs steadfastly refused to accept the nomination, but yesterday, when the convention would not listen to a refusal, and nominated him by acclamation, he decided to accept. Shortly after noon a committee brought him to Reichwein’s Hall and he made his speech of acceptance. He spoke feelingly and was apparently greatly impressed with the situation which confronted him. In beginning his remarks he said he had never been more profoundly Impressed with the conviction that there is a divinity which shapes our ends. He said that on Thursday he left the hall with the determination that he would not accept the nomination.

[He continued:]

But now, with your united voices ringing in my ears, with your impassioned appeals burning and glowing in my breast and your eyes searching the depths of my soul, I am brought to realize that in your voice there is a supreme command of duty.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Victor Debs Nominated for President by Social Democratic Party of America” →

Hellraisers Journal: From Butte Daily Bulletin: Review of “Debs, His Authorized Life and Letters” by David Karsner, Part II

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
Share

Quote EVD, Be True Labor Will Come Into Its Own, OH Sc p1, Nov 5, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 23, 1920
David Karsner, of New York Call, “Paints Debs with Loving Hands” -Part II

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of February 13, 1920:

EVD re Karsner Bio, BDB p3, Feb 13, 1920

[Part II of II.]

EVD, David Karsner, Debs Life n Letters, Brk Dly Egl p4, Jan 17, 1920

Debs was born in Terre Haute, Ind., Nov. 5, 1855. The sixty-five years between that date and the present day which sees him in United States penitentiary at Atlanta, Ga., are of startling significance in the social and economic history of this country.

“He was one of 10 children of Jean Daniel Debs and Marguerite Bettrich Debs, both natives of Alsace.”

“Jean Daniel Debs possessed a well-equipped library of French history as well as the works of some of the most noted French writers including Victor Hugo who was one of their favorites. Very early in his life, Eugene became acquainted with the works of Hugo and the master’s characterization of Jean Valjean in “Les Miserables,” made an indelible impression upon his mind.”

Debs in his early youth saw the Civil war, and Karsner wonders “to what extent these scenes and sounds of conflict influenced Eugene Debs to take his stand against war, but it is notable that not once during his long and varied career as a labor leader has he safe-counseled violence as means to the settlement of any dispute.”

Eugene’s school years were cut short by the necessity for earning money. At the age of 14, Debs began work in the shops and later as locomotive fireman for the Terre Haute and Indiana Railroad company. At first he received one dollar a day, but later, as fireman, was paid on a mileage basis. “Eugene’s pay envelope, which he turned over to his mother unopened, was decidedly slim.”

Debs’ first step in the organized labor movement was taken when the local lodge of the brotherhood of locomotive fireman was organized at Terre Haute on the evening of Feb. 27, 1874. He served in various official capacities as organizer. In 1892 he resigned from a position in which he was receiving $4,000 a year so that he might receive from the American Railway union a $75-a-month position.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From Butte Daily Bulletin: Review of “Debs, His Authorized Life and Letters” by David Karsner, Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: From Butte Daily Bulletin: Review of “Debs, His Authorized Life and Letters” by David Karsner, Part I

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
Share

Quote EVD, Be True Labor Will Come Into Its Own, OH Sc p1, Nov 5, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 22, 1920
David Karsner, of New York Call, “Paints Debs with Loving Hands” -Part I

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of February 13, 1920:

EVD re Karsner Bio, BDB p3, Feb 13, 1920

[Part I of II.]

EVD, David Karsner, Debs Life n Letters, Brk Dly Egl p4, Jan 17, 1920

“Debs, His Authorized Life and Letters,” has just gone into its second edition, (Boni and Liveright, New York). Written for socialists, by a socialist, it might well be termed a book for Americans, since socialism is the great issue of the present day. “Debs” is propagandist. And as such it should be a handbook of ready reference for those who agree with its doctrines, and for those whore aim it is to refute those doctrines. But the book primarily presents the emotional color of Debs’ socialism.

David Karsner, the author, paints Debs with loving hands. He is an ardent disciple. He depicts a man who is not a fiery leader, but rather one who is filled with good-will and a desire for peace on earth. Debs was not born a socialist. He was pushed, says the author by the logic of facts as he saw them, into the opinions that have finally caused his incarceration in prison. According to Karsner, his magnetism does not issue from flame, for he is not a “Red.” He is, says Karsner, a mild and greatly loved leader. He is said to have no desire for honors. Yet he was four times a candidate for the presidency of the United States.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From Butte Daily Bulletin: Review of “Debs, His Authorized Life and Letters” by David Karsner, Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the Cleveland Toiler: Eugene V. Debs on the Power of the Capitalist Press, Fed Fat by Ruling Class

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
Share

Quote AtR p1 Nominates EVD for President, May 24, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 21, 1920
Power of Press Underestimated by American Socialist Movement

From the Cleveland Toiler of February 20, 1920:

The Power of the Press
—–

– by Eugene V. Debs –

EVD f President by OK SP, Mpl Str Tb p2, Feb 2, 1920

The power of the press is sadly underestimated in the socialist movement. The ruling class make no such mistakes. They are keenly alive to the power of the press in molding public sentiment and in shaping affairs in accordance with their interests. The capitalist papers do not suffer for the want of support and never die of starvation. They are fed fat and ungrudgingly by the class in power and in return serve that class with all their power.

Not so with the press of the working class. With scarcely an exception the papers and periodicals published in the interest of labor eke out a precarious existence. Ninety-five percent of them line the highway of the past with their skeletons. They lingered for a brief while and then gave up the ghost, falling victims to the chronic labor-paper malady, starvation.

Of course not all papers claiming to be labor papers are fit to exist. Many of them are fakes and run by political grafters. These often thrive in their blackmail and graft while an honest paper is allowed to die for the want of support.

Working men and women ought to have intelligence enough by this time to discriminate between an honest labor paper and a grafting sheet and they ought to be loyal enough to the working class to give their support to the paper that uses its influence to mold sentiment in favor of their cause and fights their industrial and political battles.

It is when the strike comes that the working class suffer most keenly the lack of a powerful press that reaches the people. They are always at a fearful disadvantage on this account. The capitalists get in a thousand licks to their one, not only because they can get their case before the people in its most favorable light and keep it there, but because they can put the case of the workers in the most unfavorable light and keep it there.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Cleveland Toiler: Eugene V. Debs on the Power of the Capitalist Press, Fed Fat by Ruling Class” →

Hellraisers Journal: Marguerite Prevey: “Unite for Liberation” -Eugene V. Debs Sends Message from Atlanta Prison

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
Share

Quote EVD, Be True Labor Will Come Into Its Own, OH Sc p1, Nov 5, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday November 6, 1919
Eugene V. Debs: “Be true to yourselves and your class.”

From The Ohio Socialist of November 5, 1919:

EVD fr Prison by M Prevey, OH Sc p1, Nov 5, 1919

Cincinnati O. Oct. 23. 1919.

DEAR COMRADE WAGENKNECHT:-

M Prevey by Art Young, Liberator p18, Oct 1919

I visited Gene yesterday accompanied by attorney Castelton [Samuel Castleton] and found slightly improved, he is still in the hospital and will in all probability remain there because of his health. He is no longer obliged to work in the clothing shop as the Warden recognized he must get better air and rest. Every one about the prison appreciates and loves “our Gene,” many prisoners would gladly serve his time for him if they could. The prisoners in the tuberculosis section raise flowers and frequently send him boquets.

He is cheerful and optimistic, the split in the Party is to him an evidence of growth. He said,

Parties will split, but the movement for working-class emancipation never splits, the rank and file in all the Parties are honest and will get together in their own good time.

Tell them to carry on the work for liberation of all political prisoners. All of us will be released when the working-class present a united front. We must see to it that the financial interests are not permitted to overthrow by force the liberties so dearly bought and paid for by the blood of the workers.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Marguerite Prevey: “Unite for Liberation” -Eugene V. Debs Sends Message from Atlanta Prison” →

Hellraisers Journal: Thousands Hear Eugene Debs, Oscar Ameringer, Caroline Lowe at Oklahoma Socialist Encampments

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
Share

Quote EVD Slave is My Brother, AtR p1, May 1, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 24, 1909
Farmers Come from Miles Around for Oklahoma Socialists Encampments

From the International Socialist Review of September 1909:

The Oklahoma Encampment
—–

EVD at OK Socialist Encampment, ISR p278, Sept 1909

SOCIALIST ENCAMPMENTS. Three meetings a day, five days a week for four weeks, makes a total of sixty red hot propaganda meetings a month, with an attendance of from 500 to 10,000 at each lecture. This is what they are doing at the Oklahoma Socialist Encampment.

Successful encampments have already been held at Waurika, Snyder, Elk City, Aline and Woodward and the country for miles around has been showered with literature. The big canvass tent with a seating capacity of 1,000, is always pitched in a shady, well-watered grove, and from every pole top a red flag floats toward freedom.

Scores of covered wagons file into camp during Monday and far into the night, so that by the time the speaking begins on Tuesday, we find ourselves in the midst of a big, happy and seriously-minded family, happy because they have given the capitalist system the slip for a few days and serious because they realize that they are becoming landless farmers.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Thousands Hear Eugene Debs, Oscar Ameringer, Caroline Lowe at Oklahoma Socialist Encampments” →