Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: Comrade Eugene V. Debs Found in Solitary at Atlanta Federal Penitentiary

Quote EVD if Crime to oppose bloodshed, AtR p1, Oct 23, 1920 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 7, 1921
Atlanta Federal Penitentiary – Comrade Debs Found in Solitary Confinement

From the Appeal to Reason of February 26, 1921:

Eugene V Debs Federal Prisoner No 9653, has been placed incommunicado in Atlanta prison, has been forbidden even to communicate with his wife and brother, and is threatened with solitary confinement, “in the hole,” on bread and water—this fiendish and barbarous punishment being inflicted upon the Grand Old Man of the American labor movement in mad revenge for the latest statement of Debs printed in the Appeal [see below], in reply to President Wilson’s final contemptuous denial of a pardon to Debs.

The above is the startling news that is flashed over the wires of the Appeal, shortly before going to press, in the following telegram from Theodore Debs, brother of ‘Gene:

Terre Haute, Ind., 4:26 p. m., Feb. 21, 1921,

Appeal to Reason, Girard, Kans.

By President Wilson’s special order Gene Debs is now in isolation cell and is deprived from receiving or sending mail even to his wife and is denied all visitors. It is rumored he is to go into the hole on bread and water. This is his punishment for his reply to Wilson’s attitude on his release. It is evident that the intention is to break his spirit and completely destroy his health.

THEODORE DEBS.

This is without doubt the most ghastly information that has come out of Atlanta, where Our Gene is suffering the most brutal torture that his political jailers can inflict in an effort to make him recant, make him renounce the dictates of his conscience, make him betray the comrades in whose cause he became the target of all the enemy’s hatred and venom.

There can be no questioning the accuracy of Theodore Debs’ message, monstrously incredible as it may seem. We know Theodore Debs to be a most careful informant; furthermore he has been constantly in direct touch with Atlanta since his brother Gene was confined in the federal bastile of the South. Theodore Debs is not the kind of man to make rash or hasty statements. Be sure that Theodore Debs’ emergency wire to the Appeal was the result of the most absolute and authentic information and carries with it the most desperate urgency and alarm over the possible fate of his fearless and martyred brother.

The Appeal feels certain that this ruthless treatment of Gene has been inspired by the recently and suddenly active Anti-Debs Lobby which is now functioning night and day at the nation’s capital in an attempt to thwart the wishes of the American people and keep Gene and his comrades behind the prison bars and Gene himself “in the hole” if possible. It is maddening to reflect that while the minions of Wall Street are active in Washington, the friends of Debs have not yet made possible a powerful Debs lobby which should be on the spot night and day to checkmate and counteract the infamous and unscrupulous activities of the sworn foes of Eugene V. Debs. It is not yet too late to speed our full forces to the defense of our beloved Gene.

Space and time forbid us to comment further here upon this terrible news. We are now sending a special letter to the most trusted comrades in the Appeal Army, rallying them to the new campaign for the Debs Amnesty Lobby. Those who have already received their letters about this great move are urged to respond as liberally as possible without a moment’s delay. Those who receive their letters after reading this hurried announcement of the latest astounding development in the Debs case, will need no urging to act promptly in response to our appeal, beyond the bare, overwhelming details of Debs’ helpless and tortured fate as told in the telegram from his brother Theodore. If we are to establish a Debs Amnesty Lobby at Washington, to guard against just such outrages and to move heaven and earth for the early release of Debs and the other political prisoners, then for God’s sake, don’t sit by and do nothing while our enemies marshal their powerful forces to crush that beautiful and noble spirit!

From the Appeal to Reason of February 12, 1921:

Wilson, Sick, Diseased and Exiled, Needs Pardon and Pity of World

[Statement of Eugene V. Debs.]

Woodrow Wilson does not punish me; I cannot be punished. As long as I am true to my ideals, my conscience is clear.

I came here for my convictions and I shall leave with them. If it were only a matter of myself, it would mean nothing, but it means an ideal and a world movement.

I wish to thank my many friends in every walk of life who have stood behind me. I have received as many as eight hundred pieces of mail, telegrams and cards a day, all of them coming from people in every phase of social life. They come from doctors, lawyers, preachers, artists, writers, workers in every part of the world. These thousands of letters bear loving and convincing testimony of a confidence and a faith I would not betray for my life, and their loyalty sustains me. I can spend the remainder of my days here or I would gladly go to the gallows for my convictions and ideals.

When I retire to my cell in the silence of the night and review calmly and unemotionally what transpires, I can picture Woodrow Wilson, the sick man, diseased, an exile from the hearts of his countrymen, with a vision of the spectres haunting him, the chaos he has created, the suffering and sorrows all over the world pointing their fingers at him, and he sick in brain and body with tortures like maggots gnawing in each brain cell.

Then I know that it is Wilson who needs a pardon from the American people, and if I had it within my power I would grant him the pardon that would set him free.

From the Appeal to Reason of March 5, 1921:

After the following article was in type, news came to us that President Wilson denies being personally responsible for the order placing Debs in solitary confinement. This denial, which is evidently made to save Wilson’s face, shows that the outburst of horrified protest from the people against the cruel and unusual treatment of Debs has made an instantaneous impression upon Washington. Now it looks as if the higher ups are trying to get ‘‘from under” and thrust some underling forward as the “goat” to suffer for the sins of the administration. But thinking people will not be so ready to believe the incredible official statement that an order so vital and sweeping as that directed against Debs was issued entirely without the knowledge or authorization of Woodrow Wilson. Underlings do not usually take things in their own hands in this fashion. The blame must be laid directly at Woodrow Wilson’s door. Our experience with statements from Washington designed to fool the people, has taught us to be wary of these statements. We still consider the following article to be an absolutely correct view of the situation, and we let i it stand:

Now Woodrow Wilson says he will keep Gene Debs in solitary confinement in Atlanta prison until Debs apologizes for the statement that he made recently about Wilson! Through the superintendent of prisons, Wilson has told Debs that he must bow the knee in cringing humility and blubber a penitent prayer for forgiveness before Woodrow the First—and the Last—will restore the privileges of simple decency to the greatest leader of humanity in modern times. Wilson surely must he crazy, if he thinks that Gene Debs would sacrifice his splendid manhood to apply the balm of such a dishonest apology to Wilson’s blistered vanity…..