and their brothers,
a million revolutionists at least will
meet them with guns.
-Eugene Debs
Sunday June 17, 1906
Toledo, Ohio – Debs Speaks for Moyer and Haywood at Mass Meeting
From Pennsylvania’s New Castle Herald of June 16, 1906:
TOLEDO SOCIALISTS THREATEN FORCE
—–“We Will Not Hesitate”
is Language of Resolutions
—–
DEBS A SPEAKER
—–
Protests Against Moyer-Haywood Incident-
Sarcasm for United States Senate
—–Special Dispatch to the Herald.
TOLEDO, O., June 16.-“We shall use peaceful means as long as they are accessible to resist oppression and to achieve our complete freedom, but if such means are taken from us, we will not hesitate to resort to those which circumstances may demand.” Such was one resolution adopted by a mass meeting of about 1,200 people held in protest of the Moyer-Haywood incident in Idaho last night.
The meeting was called by the Socialists and was addressed by Eugene V. Debs.
After delineating the story of the Moyer-Haywood case he made an appeal to the working class to rise and act against the capitalistic advances. In his address he took occasion to pay sarcastic respect to Grover Cleveland, the United States Senate and Judge Grosscup, of Chicago. In speaking of Judge Grosscup he designated him as the man who disgraces the bench today and who was appointed by the influence of George M. Pullman and was his tool. He called Cleveland “pompous Grover The first,” and said that the United States Senate was a body of paid corporation lawyers.
The meeting was most enthusiastic and the resolutions demanding a speedy and fair trial of the imprisoned miners or their release in which the opening paragraph appears was passed by a standing vote amid wild excitement.
—–[Photograph added.]
From the Appeal to Reason of June 16, 1906:
The Appeal frequently reprints extracts from speeches made by Comrade Debs. On November 22, 1895, following his release from Woodstock Jail, Debs spoke at Battery D, Chicago, upon the subject of Liberty.
SAID BY DEBS.
—–Extract From the Speech of Eugene V. Debs on “Liberty.”
It does not matter that the Creator has sown with stars the fields of ether and decked the earth with countless beauties for man’s enjoyment. It does not matter that air and ocean teem with the wonders of innumerable forms of life to challenge man’s admiration and investigation. It does not matter that nature spreads forth all her scenes of beauty and gladness and pours forth the melodies of her myriad—tongued voices for man’s delectation.
If liberty is ostracised and exiled, man is a slave, and the world rolls in space and whirls around the sun a gilded prison, a doomed dungeon, and though painted in all the enchanting hues that infinite art could command, it must still stand forth a blotch amidst the shining spheres of the sidereal heavens, and those who cull from the vocabularies of nations, living or dead, their flashing phrases with which to apostrophize Liberty, are engaged in perpetuating the most stupendous delusion the ages have known. Strike down liberty, no matter by what subtle and infernal art the deed is done, the spinal cord of humanity is sundered and the world is paralyzed by the indescribable crime.
Strike the fetters from the slave, give him liberty and he becomes an inhabitant of a new world. He looks abroad and beholds life and joy in all things around him. His soul expands beyond all boundaries. Emancipated by the genius of Liberty, he aspires to communion with all that is noble and beautiful, feels himself allied to all the higher order of intelligences, and walks abroad, redeemed from animalism, ignorance and superstition, a new being throbbing with glorious life.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCES
New Castle Herald
(New Castle, Pennsylvania)
-June 16, 1906
https://www.newspapers.com/image/97054049/
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-June 16, 1906
https://www.newspapers.com/image/66994176/
IMAGES
Eugene Debs, Wilshire’s Magazine, Nov 1905
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/parties/spusa/1905/1100-debs-winningaworld.pdf
Debs Released from Woodstock Jail
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=cUwuAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.PA194
See also:
The Pullman Strike
http://darrow.law.umn.edu/trials.php?tid=10
Liberty by Eugene V Debs
-Speech delivered November 22, 1895, at Battery D, Chicago, upon his release from Woodstock Jail.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1895/951122-debs-liberty.pdf
Debs: His Life, Writings and Speeches
C. H. Kerr, 1908
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=cUwuAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.PR1