I have no country to fight for;
my country is the earth;
I am a citizen of the world.
-Eugene Victor Debs
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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday June 25, 1918
Terre Haute, Indiana – Debs Defends Canton Speech
From The Indianapolis News of June 24, 1918:
DEBS MAKES DEFENSE OF
HIS CANTON SPEECH
—–FLAYS PROFITEERS IN ADDRESS AT TERRE HAUTE.
——PRAISES WILSON PROGRAM
—–Special to The Indianapolis News
TERRE HAUTE. Ind. June 24.-Challenging any one anywhere to show him a Socialist who is a pro-German in the sense of being in sympathy with the German government in the prosecution of this war. Eugene V. Debs, former Socialist candidate for President spoke Sunday afternoon [June 20th] in the ball park here from a flag bedecked platform at a picnic of the Socialists of the Fifth district.
Debs branded as a “lie” the printed reports that he made seditious remarks in a talk last week at Canton, O. He praised the Bolsheviki of Russia, and praised President Wilson for his attitude toward the Bolsheviki.
He declared the Russian revolution to be the most stupendous event in history and predicted the success of the Bolsheviki.
Impatient for Results.
The trouble is the world wants the bolsheviki to give a perfect democracy within twenty-four hours time. Our Wall street would rather see the czar back on the throne than the working people.
All of the profiteers are against President Wilson. Every profiteer despises Wilson.
Debs made a defense of his Canton (O.) talk which is said to have led to a federal investigation.
“Let me tell you why the press lied against me last Sunday in my Canton talk,” said Debs, placing his hands on the American flags decorating the platform.
[Said Debs:]
I made a statement that aroused the wrath of the profiteers. The profiteers want you to believe that the Huns and the traitors are on one side and the saints and saviours are on the other.
Wilson’s Peace Plans.
[Debs declared:]
We Socialists say that the peace plans of President Wilson are right and we stand back of him in that.
Debs praised the I. W. W. and charged that they have been lied against.
In speaking of the Mooney case in California, Debs said:
If that gang sends Tom Mooney to hell, I am here to serve notice that they had better pack up their grips and follow him there. The President has interceded. We Socialists are going to make this a part of the campaign, we are just starting in this district. We are going to discuss this fearlessly.
Keep the Railroads, He Says.
Debs said there was no reason why the railroads should be turned back to private control after the war.
Every politician and speaker talks glibly of democracy. The press recently told of a certain packing house selling 600,000 pounds of rotten ham with which to feed the soldiers. If a Socialist had done that he would have been lynched.
If you go to that packing plant you will find an American flag floating over the plant. The profiteers are the arch traitors and rebels in this country.
———-
[Inset is from The Huntington (Indiana) Herald of June 21st.]
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SOURCE
The Indianapolis News
(Indianapolis News)
-June 24, 1918
https://www.newspapers.com/image/37352652
IMAGE
EVD, re Canton and DoJ, Huntington IN Hld p10, June 21, 1918
https://www.newspapers.com/image/39555693/
See also:
Tag: Eugene Debs Canton Anti-War Speech of 1918
https://weneverforget.org/tag/eugene-debs-canton-anti-war-speech-of-1918/
“A Convention to Restate, Not Apologize.”
by Eugene V. Debs
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/parties/spusa/1918/0621-debs-convention.pdf
Published as “Debs Issues a Statement Correcting Lies Spread by Capitalistic Papers,” in Duluth Truth -page 3 of June 21, 1918
Debs here discusses the St. Louis SPA Manifesto and need to correct certain portions thereof without altering the anti-war position.
See also at link: an interesting note by Tim Davenport.
Hellraisers Journal, Friday May 4, 1917
The Socialist Party of America on War and Militarism
From the International Socialist Review: the SPA Emergency Convention at St. Louis
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