Category: Eugene Victor Debs

Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs Answers Charges of Idaho Statesman: “Who Are the Wolves?” Part II

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Since the earth belongs to the capitalist class,
why should a grand jury concern itself
in such a small matter as
helping itself to the state of Idaho?
-Eugene Victor Debs

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday May 15, 1907
From the Appeal to Reason: Eugene V. Debs Responds to The Statesman

On April 20th (see below), The Idaho Daily Statesman published an editorial in which it referred to the Appeal as the “Appeal to Treason” and insisted that the Socialists of the Appeal were actually “anarchists…wolves of society.” In the the May 11th edition of the Appeal, Comrade Debs asks, “Who Are the Wolves?” The first part of the response was published in yesterday’s Hellraisers; we conclude today with Part II:

WHO ARE THE WOLVES?
—–
An Inquiry Into Some of the Charges Made Against
the Appeal to Reason by the
Criminal Idaho Statesman.
—–

BY EUGENE V. DEBS.
—–

“The Wolves Are Coming.”

Idaho Timber Frauds, CdA Press, Apr 20, 1907

Now to return to the question, why does the Statesman so violently denounce the Appeal all at once, and quote a column and a half from its pages, a thing it has never done before? The answer is very easy. It wants to use the Appeal as a bogey man with which to scare the grand jury from its trail.

Do you people of Idaho catch on?

One of the trails the grand jury is on is said to lead straight to the Idaho Statesman, and another one may lead from the Statesman to the penitentiary.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs Answers Charges of Idaho Statesman: “Who Are the Wolves?” Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs Answers Charges of Idaho Statesman: “Who Are the Wolves?” Part I

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Since the earth belongs to the capitalist class,
why should a grand jury concern itself
in such a small matter as
helping itself to the state of Idaho?
-Eugene Victor Debs

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday May 14, 1907
From the Appeal to Reason: Eugene V. Debs Responds to The Statesman

On April 20th (see below), The Idaho Daily Statesman published an editorial in which it referred to the Appeal as the “Appeal to Treason” and insisted that the Socialists of the Appeal were actually “anarchists…wolves of society.” In the the May 11th edition of the Appeal, Comrade Debs asks, “Who Are the Wolves?” We will publish the entire response in two parts, beginning today with Part I:

WHO ARE THE WOLVES?
—–
An Inquiry Into Some of the Charges Made Against
the Appeal to Reason by the
Criminal Idaho Statesman.
—–

BY EUGENE V. DEBS.
—–

HMP, Death to WFM, Ryan Walker, AtR May 11, 1907

UT few people are so blind or indifferent as to be oblivious of the mighty struggle now in progress in the existing social and economic order. It is true that only the few who have studied historic and social evolution have any proper understanding of the forces underlying society, or any clear perception of the trend of its development, but the fact that we are living in an era of industrial transformation and that economic conditions are rapidly changing is pretty generally understood by the whole people.

Now the system under which we live, like the one preceding it, and from which it sprang, has its historic limitations and when its mission is accomplished it will be relegated to the past, but this will happen only after the system that is to succeed it has evolved and taken its place in the orderly march of events and the unceasing progress of civilization.

Capitalist society, corner-stoned in wage slavery, will no more last forever than did the feudal system based upon serf-labor. It will serve its historic time and purpose and that will be the end of it. Another and better system will take its place, out of which will rise a higher civilization.

But the dominant class in every system want that system to last forever. They are on top and want to remain there. That is natural enough. Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs Answers Charges of Idaho Statesman: “Who Are the Wolves?” Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs Reveals: Roosevelt Read “Undesirable Citizen” Letter to Supreme Court Justices

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Ring Out May Ninth, O Bells of Labor;
Ring out O’er all the Nation;
This Day They Heroes Consecrate
to Thy Emancipation.
-Appeal to Reason, May 5, 1907

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday May 5, 1907
“Undesirable Citizen,” Eugene V. Debs, Takes on President Roosevelt

From page one of the Appeal to Reason of May 4, 1907:

COLLUSION BETWEEN ROOSEVELT
and SUPREME COURT
—–

BY EUGENE V. DEBS.
—–

HMP, EVD v Roosevelt, AtR, May 4, 1907

The one point of the most vital character in the kidnaping cases is the collusion of President Roosevelt and the Supreme court of the United States, clearly indicated in the dispatches from the white house published in the capitalist press. Read carefully the following extract from the Washington Post of April 4th:

It was ascertained at the white house yesterday that when the president wrote to Chairman Sherman (Oct. 8th, 1906), the letter which was made public yesterday, denouncing Harriman, he expected it would be made public at the time. He authorized Sherman to show it to Harriman, and the republican chairman did so. It was immediately afterward that a friend of Harriman came to Washington and assured the president that the railway magnate had not made some of the statements attributed to him by Sherman. For this reason, it is said, the president did not make public the letter then.

HE DID HOWEVER, SHOW IT TO MEMBERS OF THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT, WHO MADE THE ANNUAL CALL UPON HIM THAT DAY WITH THE COMMENT THAT HE BELIEVED SOME PEOPLE THOUGHT HE DENOUNCED TOO FREQUENTLY WEALTHY EVIL-DOERS AND DID NOT CONDEMN OFTEN ENOUGH MEN OF THE HAYWOOD AND MOYER TYPE. HE, THEREFORE, TOOK CONSIDERABLE PLEASURE IN DEALING COLLECTIVELY WITH HARRIMAN AND HAYWOOD AND MOYER, ALL OF WHOM WERE MENTIONED IN THE SAME CATEGORY IN THE SHERMAN LETTER.

 

Here we have the most startling and extraordinary disclosure, inadvertently made to cover up another Roosevelt exposure, in the political history of the United States. We see the president before the supreme court pronouncing his condemnation upon three citizens on trial for their lives, in a state case which may, and probably will, be appealed to this same supreme court, and whose members are to finally decide whether these three citizens shall live or die. Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs Reveals: Roosevelt Read “Undesirable Citizen” Letter to Supreme Court Justices” →

Hellraisers Journal: May Day Messages from Comrades Big Bill Haywood and Eugene V. Debs

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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BBH Quote re May Day, AtR p2, Apr 27, 1907

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday May 1, 1907
From the Appeal to Reason: Thoughts on May Day and The Red Flag

William D. Haywood writes to the Appeal from the Ada County Jail:

Haywood, Wilshire's Magazine, 1906

May Day of all the year is the most momentous to the workers of the world. In every civilized country the first of May is recognized as International Labor Day. On this day thought-waves are carrying around the globe messages of love and encouragement. “The world is my country man is my brother,” expresses the sublime sentiment of a world-wide fraternity in every land where men and women are straining under the galling chains of oppression. This noble thought quickens the soul and kindles the spark of hope in the breast of the heavy laden.

Brave hearts of every clime are beating in unison and millions of feet are keeping step in the onward, upward march to industrial liberty.

This era of evolution is blotting out racial and national hatreds, the toilers are awakened and conscious of the truth that sufferings now endured are but the labor pains that foretell the new democracy to be born.

WM. D. HAYWOOD,
Ada County Jail, Boise, Idaho.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: May Day Messages from Comrades Big Bill Haywood and Eugene V. Debs” →

Hellraisers Journal: “Undesirable Citizen” Eugene Debs Takes on “Roosevelt and His Regime” for the Appeal to Reason

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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A thousand times rather would I be
one of those men in Ada county jail
than Theodore Roosevelt in
the White House at Washington.
-Eugene Victor Debs

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday April 24, 1907
From the Appeal to Reason: Eugene Debs on Theodore Roosevelt

HMP, Moyer Haywood Pettibone, ab 1906

Eugene Debs, who, along with Bill Haywood and Charles Moyer, has been adjudged an “Undesirable Citizen” by President Theodore Roosevelt, had a few words to say upon the subject in this week’s edition of the Appeal to Reason:

When Roosevelt stepped out of the White House and called Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone murderers, men he had never seen and did not know; men who had never been tried, never convicted and whom every law of the land presumed innocent until proven guilty, he fell a million miles beneath where Lincoln stood, and there he grovels today with his political crimes, one after another, finding him out and pointing at him their accusing fingers.

No president of the United States has ever descended to such depths as has Roosevelt to serve his law-defying and crime-inciting masters.

The act is simply scandalous and without a parallel in American history.

What right has Theodore Roosevelt to prejudge American citizens, pronounce their guilt and hand them over to the hangman? In a pettifogging lawyer such an act would be infamous; in the president of the nation it becomes monstrous and staggers belief.

All that Roosevelt knows about Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone he knows from his friends, their kidnapers.

The millions of working men and women, embracing practically ever labor union in America, count for nothing with him. He is not now standing for their votes. He is fulfilling his obligation to the gentlemen (!) who put up the coin that elected him; paying off the mortgage they hold upon his administration.

Theodore Roosevelt is swift to brand other men who even venture to disagree with him as liars. He, according to himself, is immaculate and infallible.

The greatest liar is he who sees only liars in others.

When Theodore Roosevelt, president of the United States, denounced Charles Moyer, William Haywood and George Pettibone as murderers, he uttered a lie as black and damnable, a calumny as foul and atrocious as ever issued from a human throat. The men he thus traduced and vilified, sitting in their prison cells for having dutifully served their fellow-workers and having spurned the bribes of their masters, transcend immeasurably the man in the White House, who, with the cruel malevolence of a barbarian, has pronounced their doom.

A thousand times rather would I be one of those men in Ada county jail than Theodore Roosevelt in the White House at Washington.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “Undesirable Citizen” Eugene Debs Takes on “Roosevelt and His Regime” for the Appeal to Reason” →

Hellraisers Journal: The Industrial Union Bulletin on Roosevelt’s Square Dealings with Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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The labor giant has slept long,
but is now awakening.
-Eugene Victor Debs

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday April 14, 1907
From The Industrial Union Bulletin: Roosevelt’s “Square Deal”

IUB, Official Publication, IWW, April 13, 1907

The official publication of the Industrial Workers of the World yesterday discussed the remarks of President Roosevelt regarding the citizenship qualities of Comrades Debs, Moyer and Haywood, and included the statement of Bill Haywood, made in response to being termed an “undesirable citizen” by the President of the United States on the eve of his trial.

IS THIS A “SQUARE DEAL”?

HMP, Def Fund, IUB Apr 13, 1907

Nothing has happened in Theodore Roosevelt’s career as president of the United States that so entirely discredits his fitness for that position as the recent reference by him to Debs, Moyer and Haywood, as being “undesirable citizens.” The two latter are soon to appear in court and stand trial for their lives, yet the “chief magistrate” of the nation, oblivious to the ordinary rule that anyone charged with crime is presumed to be innocent until his guilt is proven, has made public an opinion that must be prejudicial to their interests. It is an outrage that ranks with the unlawful acts of the mine owners and McParlands of Colorado. Neither of these men has ever been convicted of any crime, yet their case is prejudged in advance of their appearance in court. It is a shameful and brutal spectacle.

IWW, Gen Sec Trautmann, Ex Brd St J, IUB, Apr 13,1907

The facts are these: The president addressed a letter to Congressman James S. Sherman in which certain matters in dispute between himself and the railway magnate, E. H. Harriman; entirely without warrant and apparently with the sole purpose of creating prejudice against Moyer and Haywood, he denounced the conduct of Harriman in the following terms:

It shows a cynicism and deep-seated corruption which make the man uttering such statements, and boasting, no matter how falsely, of his power to perform such crime, at least as undesirable a citizen as Debs, or Moyer or Haywood.

Fellow-worker Haywood, awaiting his trial in Idaho, gave out the following statement:

 

I do not desire to make an extended statement with regard to President Roosevelt’s reference to me in his letter to Congressman Sherman.

The president says that I am an “undesirable citizen,” the inference being that, as such, I should be put out of the way. His influence is all-powerful, and his statement, coming as it does, on the eve of my trial for my life, will work me irreparable injury, and do more to prevent a fair trial than everything that has been said and done against me in the past.

President Roosevelt is the leading exponent of the doctrine of “fair play and a square deal,” but his reference to me in his letter to Sherman demonstrates that he does not practice what he preaches.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: The Industrial Union Bulletin on Roosevelt’s Square Dealings with Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone” →

Hellraisers Journal: Eugene V. Debs Pleads with Organized Workers of America to Stand Up and Save Life of Tom Mooney

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Comrades, the red blood in you
must now prove itself.
I pledge myself to you
in this fight to its finish.
-Eugene Victor Debs

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Friday April 13, 1917
From the International Socialist Review: Debs Fights for Life of Tom Mooney

Eugene Victor Debs, ISR, Oct 1916

TOM MOONEY SENTENCED TO DEATH

An Appeal to the Organized Workers of America!
By EUGENE V. DEBS

Tom and Rena Mooney, ISR, Dec 1916

A TELEGRAM just received from San Francisco announces the sentence of Tom Mooney. He is to hang by the neck until he is dead. The day set for his murder is May 17th. The capitalist jury and judge have done their foul work, and it is now up to us to do ours.

Tom Mooney is an absolutely innocent man and his conviction an infamous crime. We, the workers of America, are duty bound to challenge the verdict of the capitalists’ jury and set aside the sentence of the capitalist judge. We constitute a court, a jury and a judge of our own.

We sat thru this case from the hour the vile conspiracy was concocted and we knew beyond doubt that Mooney was framed and that he is to be murdered for no other reason than that the corporation criminals, the big capitalist thieves and their official highbinders could not buy him, or silence his agitation.

More than twenty reputable witnesses not only testified to Mooney’s innocence but proved it beyond even the shadow of a doubt. His alibi was without a flaw. He was miles away from the bomb when it exploded in the preparedness parade. He had absolutely no connection with and no knowledge of the affair. Bourke Cockran, the eminent New York lawyer who defended him, is positively convinced of this and so is every other man or woman who attended the trial and is not in the pay or under the influence of the United Railroads, the Manufacturers’ Association, and other red-handed bandits who have for years been plundering San Francisco and have now set themselves up as the autocratic rulers of the Pacific coast.

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Hellraisers Journal: As he faces the gallows, President Declares Haywood to be “UNDESIRABLE CITIZEN”

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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Friday April 5, 1907
From the Montana News: Haywood Trial to Begin May 9th

HMP, Date Set Haywood Trial, Montana News, Apr 4, 1907

UNDESIRABLE CITIZENS

A letter, recently released by the President of the United States, was published in the Washington Evening Star April 2nd, wherein the President declares that Eugene Debs, Charles Moyer, and Bill Haywood are “undesirable citizens.” This follows by only one day the news that Fellow Worker William D. Haywood will go on trial for his life in Boise, Idaho, on May 9th.

The following is the relevant part of the letter written by President Roosevelt to Congressman J. S. Sherman on October 8, 1906 regarding the President’s feud with E. H. Harriman. The last paragraph of the President’s letter reads:

So much for what Mr. Harriman said about me personally. Far more important are the additional remarks he made to you as you inform me, when you asked him if he thought it was well to see Hearstism and the like triumphant over the republican party. You inform me that he told you that he did not care in the least, because those people were crooks and he could buy them; that whenever he wants legislation from a state legislature he could buy it; that he “could buy Congress,” and that if necessary he “could buy the judiciary.” This was doubtless said partly in boastful cynicism and partly in a mere burst of bad temper because of his objection to the interstate commerce law and to my actions as President. But it shows a cynicism and deep-seated corruption which make the man uttering such sentiments, and boasting, no matter how falsely, of this power to perform such crimes, at least as undesirable a citizen as Debs, or Moyer, or Haywood. It is because we have capitalists capable of uttering such sentiments and capable of acting on them that there is strength behind sinister agitators of the Hearst type. The wealthy corruptionist and the demagog who excites, in the press or on the stump, in office or out of office, class against class and appeals to the basest passions of the human soul are fundamentally alike and the are equally enemies of the republic. I was horrified, as was [Elihu] Root, when you told us today what Harriman had said to you. As I say,if you meet him you are entirely welcome to show him this letter, although, of course it must not be made public unless required by some reason of public policy, and then only after my consent has first been obtained.

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Hellraisers Journal: “Hold Your Nerve” by Eugene Debs & Update on Haywood-Moyer Case from Appeal to Reason

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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The issue is Socialism versus Capitalism.
I am for Socialism because I am for humanity.
We have been cursed with
the reign of gold long enough.
-Eugene Victor Debs

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday March 24, 1907
Appeal to Reason: Comrade Debs Exhorts Socialists to Stand Strong

HMP, Hold Yr Nerve by EVD, AtR Mar 23, 1907

Socialist Party of America Button

To join the Socialist movement implies a declaration of war. War on the capitalist system and all its profit-fed institutions!

To issue such a declaration requires some measure of moral courage; to make it good requires a vast deal more.

Many a convert joins with enthusiasm to be extinguished a few months later in ignominy.

He lacks the nerve to stand his ground.

Many another joins the movement and grows stronger from the hour the battle begins; the more he is resisted the stauncher he stands; the more he is persecuted the more resolute he becomes, and in the storm of battle all the heroic fibre within him becomes steel and he rises to the stature of a full-grown man who has the strength to stand alone though all the world turn against him.

He has the nerve!

This is the secret of real heroism.

In writing this brief article on the subject of nerve, we have in mind a large number of Socialists and semi-Socialists who are more or less anxious to serve the movement, but who are so easily deflected from their purpose. They happen to hear of an uncomplimentary remark directed against them, and it strikes at the very heart of their allegiance to the cause. They hear of some temporary defeat of the party, or of some friction within the ranks, and they are at once discouraged.

The trouble is with their nerve. It is this that should have their immediate attention. The comrade lacking nerve, or having but a weak support of himself, will be kept in very hot water in the Socialist movement.

As previously stated, the man who joins the Socialist movement declares war against the capitalist system and capitalist society, and war of this kind is not a May festival. Ferdinand Lassalle, the brilliant social revolutionist, once said that the war against capitalism was not a rosewater affair. He was right. It is rather of the storm and tempest order. All kinds of attacks must be expected, and all kinds of wounds will be inflicted. The new comrade of tender sensibilities will soon get used to having his feelings torn and lacerated if he remains in the movement.

Many honest and well-meaning persons have been completely driven out of the movement because they could not stand the metaphorical shot and shell that were crashing about their heads.

Their hearts were right, but they lacked the nerve.

A fatal defect!

No matter what other good qualities a convert to Socialism may have, he must have the nerve to stick, the nerve to stay, if he is to be of any value to the movement. He must make up his mind that all the trials to which mortal man is subject will fall to his lot one after the other, and that if he lacks the nerve the weak spot in him will sooner or later be put to the test and he will go down and out, never to rise again.

But it is this very trial that serves a most beneficent purpose for both the individual and the movement; it eliminates the weak and unfit, and tempers those qualified for the higher service to which they are sure to be called, because they have the nerve and can stand the test.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “Hold Your Nerve” by Eugene Debs & Update on Haywood-Moyer Case from Appeal to Reason” →

Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs for the Appeal to Reason: Kidnapping Case Brought Before Congress

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Their only crime is
Loyalty to the Working Class.
-Eugene V. Debs

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday March 12, 1907
Girard, Kansas – Eugene V. Debs Fights for Our Idaho Comrades

From the Appeal to Reason of March 9, 1907:

KIDNAPING CASE IN CONGRESS
—–

Appeal Succeeds in Placing Facts of the
Moyer-Haywood Case on Record
in Washington.
—–

BY EUGENE V. DEBS.
Staff Correspondent Appeal to Reason.
—–

HMP, Pettibone Moyer Haywood, AtR, Feb 16, 1907

Washington, D. C., March 2.-At the opening of congress this morning, the Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone case was introduced, together with petitions for investigation and the dissenting opinion of Justice McKenna, of the supreme court. Senator Carmack, of Tennessee, presented the case on the floor of the United States senate, with the request that it be admitted to the records, and this was consented to.

The introduction of the conspiracy was a great surprise to most of the senators, but when the statement was made that the demand for an investigation was backed by two millions of organized workers, the unanimous consent which was necessary, and without which it would have failed, was given by the senate, excepting that Heyburn, of Idaho, requested that the decision of the supreme court be included with the dissenting opinion of Justice McKenna, to which no objection was made on our side.

The foundation is now laid for a congressional investigation and both senators and congressmen agree that, in obedience to the demands of organized labor, this will certainly to be authorized by the next session of congress. Senator Carmack has been particularly helpful in this matter and Senator Lafollette, of Wisconsin, has also treated me with great courtesy.

With this impending congressional investigation, which will develop all the facts in the conspiracy and reveal the whole horrible truth to the people, it is now perfectly safe to predict that Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone will soon have been rescued from the clutches of their kidnapers and would-be murderers and walk forth free men without a blemish upon their honor.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs for the Appeal to Reason: Kidnapping Case Brought Before Congress” →