Category: Eugene Victor Debs

Hellraisers Journal: Fred Warren, the Fighting Editor of the Appeal to Reason, Must Go to Jail for Six Months

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Fred Warren, Justice Will Triumph, ISR p166, Aug 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 16, 1911
Girard, Kansas – Fred Warren, Editor of Appeal Reason, Must Go to Jail

From the International Socialist Review of January 1911:

EDITORIAL

Fred Warren Goes to Jail.

Fred Warren Fighting Editor of Appeal, ISR p427, Jan 1911

On December 30, 1905, Frank Steunenberg was killed by the explosion of a dynamite bomb at Caldwell, Idaho. Several weeks later Charles H. Moyer, President of the Western Federation of Miners; William D. Haywood, Secretary, and George E. Pettibone, an honorary member of the organization, were kidnapped from their home in Colorado and secretly carried off to Idaho on a special train to be tried for the murder of Steunenberg. Requisition papers were issued by the Governor of Colorado on an affidavit signed by the County Attorney in Idaho, setting forth that the men were present in Idaho when the crime was committed and had fled from the state, although every one concerned knew perfectly well that they had not been in Idaho for months. The Western Federation of Miners was at that time engaged in a death struggle with the mine owners, and it is a fair inference that this kidnapping was a preconceived plan to discredit and crush this organization.

The capitalist press of the whole country united to fasten the charge of conspiracy to commit murder upon these men, while the Socialist press, with scarcely an exception, defended them. They were held for nearly a year and a half without trial, while strenuous efforts were made by both accusers and defendants to arouse public opinion on one side or the other. In this situation Fred D. Warren, editor of the Appeal to Reason at Girard, Kans., conceived the idea of giving the American people a striking object lesson. With this in view, he had postal cards printed offering a reward for the kidnapping of ex-Governor Taylor of Kentucky, who was at that time under indictment for murder in his own state and was safe in Indiana, because the Republican governor of that state refused to sign extradition papers.

This object lesson was an important factor in arousing public sentiment for the imprisoned miners, and when Haywood was finally put on trial he was acquitted; the other men were finally discharged. But the government officials and their capitalist masters did not forget the part Fred Warren played in their defeat, and an indictment was brought against him for having “sent scurrilous, defamatory and threatening matter through the mails.” After long delay he was tried and convicted by a packed jury, every member of which was a Republican. From this decision he appealed. Again long delays, and finally, after election is over, the Appellate Court has sustained the decision of the District Court, and Fred Warren must go to jail for six months. On the 21st of January, he is to begin serving his sentence.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for December 1910: Found Standing with Striking Miners and Their Families in Pennsylvania

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Mother Jones, Greensburg PA Cmas 1910, Steel 2, p83———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 15, 1911
Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1910:
–Praised by Max Hayes and Eugene Debs for Work in Pennsylvania

From the International Socialist Review of December 1910:

THE WORLD OF LABOR 

BY MAX S. HAYES.

[…..]

Mother Jones, Latest Picture, Ft Wayne Dly Ns p9, Apr 9, 1910

MOTHER JONES has been busying herself during the past few weeks in trying to bring cheer and comfort to the poor miners in the Irwin-Greensburg soft coal district of Pennsylvania [Westmoreland County], and assisting those unfortunate victims of one of the most heartless lockouts in American industrial history (as has been shown in THE REVIEW) to gain a semblance of humane working and living conditions. Mother is never so happy as when helping “the boys” in the mining fields, and, as every officer and member of the U. M. W. knows, she has gone into districts in Colorado, Alabama, West Virginia and other places where many of the bravest of men have feared to tread. She has faced injunction judges, served time in jail, lived on bread and water and has undergone a thousand hardships where others have hesitated or flunked, and never a word of complaint as to her own sufferings escape her lips. In fact she is as jolly and happy-go-lucky as a girl of sixteen and always refers to her direful experiences as humorous escapades.

Mother Jones only grows sorrowful and indignant when she discusses the fool factionalism among the miners and the sufferings endured by “the boys” and their wives and children, whom she knows and loves and for whom she has done organizing work in past campaigns. She has little patience with the penny-ante politics of this or that alleged leader who aspires for place or power, and when in a reminiscent mood she can relate some wonderful stories.

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Hellraisers Journal: Poem for Eugene Debs by Edmund Vance Cooke, Written During the Trial of “Brave Eugene”

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, Debs Address to the Court, Sept 14, 1918

—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 10, 1921
“Eugene” By Edmund Vance Cooke
(Written in the courtroom while Debs was being tried.)

From the Appeal to Reason of January 8, 1921:

EVD POEM Eugene by EV Cooke, AtR p4, Jan 8, 1921

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Hellraisers Journal: No Christmas Pardon for Eugene Debs from President Wilson: “Not Consonant with Public Interest”

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD if Crime to oppose bloodshed, AtR p1, Oct 23, 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 25, 1920
Atlanta Penitentiary – President Wilson Refuses to Release Eugene Debs

From The Atlanta Constitution of December 24, 1920:

NO XMAS PARDON FOR EUGENE DEBS
FROM PRESIDENT
———-

EVD, w Reed n Young, Liberator, Sept 1918

Eugene V. Debs, socialist candidate for president, now serving a ten-year sentence in the Atlanta federal prison, will not be freed from the penitentiary Christmas day, as has been rumored, according to dispatches received from Washington Thursday night.

There has been much talk in Atlanta, centered around the belief among those who will be extended executive clemency by President Wilson on Christmas day, but it is now understood that the president has refused to extend clemency in the socialist leader’s case, believing it not consonant with public interest.

It has also been said that Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, whom friends of Debs have been inclined to hold responsible for the president’s continued refusal to cut the prison term short, actually recommended the pardon of Debs some time ago.

———-

[Drawing by Art Young and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Social Democratic Herald: “Tribute to Martin Irons” by Comrade Eugene Victor Debs

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, Ferewell Martin Irons, SDH p2, Dec 15, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday December 16, 1900
“Tribute to Martin Irons” by Comrade Eugene V. Debs

From the Social Democratic Herald of December 15, 1900:

EVD, Tribute to Martin Irons, SDH p2, Dec 15, 1900

Martin Irons fr Harpers p236, Apr 10, 1886, LoC
Martin Irons

It was in 1886 that Martin Irons, as chairman of the executive board of the Knights of Labor of the Gould southwest railway system, defied capitalist tyranny, and from that hour he was doomed. All the powers of capitalism combined to crush him, and when at last he succumbed to overwhelming odds, he was hounded from place to place until he was ragged and foot-sore and the pangs of hunger gnawed at his vitals.

For fourteen long years he fought single-handed the battle against persecution. He tramped far, and among strangers, under an assumed name, sought to earn enough to get bread. But he was tracked like a beast and driven from shelter. For this “poor wanderer of a stormy day” there was no pity. He had stood between his class and their oppressors-he was brave, and would not flinch; he was honest, and he would not sell; this was his crime, and he must die.

Martin Irons came to this country from Scotland a child. He was friendless, penniless, alone. At an early age he became a machinist. For years he worked at his trade. He had a clear head and a warm heart. He saw and felt the injustice suffered by his class. Three reductions in wages in rapid succession fired his blood. He resolved to resist. He appealed to his fellow-workers. When the great strike came, Martin Irons was its central figure. The men felt they could trust him. They were not mistaken.

When at the darkest hour Jay Gould sent word to Martin Irons that he wished to see him, the answer came, “I am in Kansas City.” Gould did not have gold enough to buy Irons. This was the greatest crime of labor’s honest leader. The press united in fiercest denunciation. Every lie that malignity could conceive was circulated. In the popular mind Martin Irons was the blackest-hearted villain that ever went unhung. Pinkerton blood-hounds tracked him night and day. But thru it all this loyal, fearless, high-minded working-man stood immovable.

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Victor Debs Issues Statement from Prison: Country Leaped From Frying Pan Into the Fire

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD if Crime to oppose bloodshed, AtR p1, Oct 23, 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 5, 1920
Statement from Convict 9653 E. V. Debs, Socialist Candidate for President

From The Atlanta Constitution of November 4, 1920:

Country Leaped From Frying Pan
To Fire, Says Debs
———-

In Written Statement, Defeated Candidate Declares
Wall Street Is Still in Saddle.
———-

(Wednesday morning Eugene V. Debs, socialist candidate for president, furnished The Constitution the following written statement in regard to the election results.)

EVD 9653 Atlanta Pen, June 14, 1919———-

BY EUGENE V. DEBS.

There was never any doubt about the results of yesterday’s election. The fate of the democratic party was sealed at the Versailles peace conference. One thing was made clear by the election returns. President Wilson, Attorney General Palmer and Postmaster General Burleson now know what the American people think of their despotic administration.

But, unfortunately, the people have not profited by past experience. They need look for no improvement in conditions as the result of the election. Wall street is still in the saddle under Harding as it was under Wilson.

Politically speaking, the American people have the cheerful habit of jumping from the frying pan into the fire and back again. They seem to enjoy the diversion.

Lincoln said “If you want that thing that is the thing you want.”

Harding prays God to help him. The American people will be doing the same thing before they are through with his administration.

For President Harding will take his orders from Wall street, and his administration can be relied upon to see to it that the people get all they voted for-and then some.

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Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: “Working Class Politics” -Speech by Debs at Riverview Park, Chicago

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, Socialists n IU, Chg Sept 18, ISR p258, Nov 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 2, 1910
Chicago, Illinois – Eugene Debs Speaks on Working Class Politics

From the International Socialist Review of November 1910:

EVD ISR p257, Nov 1910

THE campaign of the Socialist party of Cook county, Illinois, was formally opened on September 18th, Eugene V. Debs being the principal speaker. A vast concourse of people were assembled at Riverview Park where the meeting took place. Below will be found some extracts from the speech of Debs, in which he emphasized the necessity of industrial unity as the only means of effective political action. Said Debs: 

We live in the capitalist system, so-called because it is dominated by the capitalist class. In this system the capitalists are the rulers and the workers the subjects. The capitalists are in a decided minority and yet they rule because of the ignorance of the working class.

So long as the workers are divided, economically and politically, they will remain in subjection, exploited of what they produce, and treated with contempt by the parasites who live out of their labor.

The economic unity of the workers must first be effected before there can be any progress toward emancipation. The interests of the millions of wage workers are identical, regardless of nationality, creed, or sex, and if they will only open their eyes to this simple, self-evident fact, the greatest obstacle will have been overcome and the day of victory will draw near.

The primary need of the workers is industrial unity and by this I mean their organization in the industries in which they are employed as a whole instead of being separated into more or less impotent unions according to their crafts. Industrial unionism is the only effective means of economic organization and the quicker the workers realize this and unite within one compact body for the good of all, the sooner will they cease to be the victims of ward-heeling labor politicians and accomplish something of actual benefit to themselves and those dependent upon them. In Chicago where the labor grafters, posing as union leaders, have so long been permitted to thrive in their iniquity, there is especially urgent need of industrial unionism, and when this is fairly under way it will express itself politically in a class conscious vote of and for the working class.

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