I have no country to fight for;
my country is the earth,
and I am a citizen of the world.
-Eugene V. Debs
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday March 17, 1918
Eugene V. Debs on Indictments of Socialist Comrades
From The Eye Opener of March 16, 1918, page 2:
Indicted, Unashamed and Unafraid.
by Eugene V. Debs
Sunday morning, March 10, the press dispatches in the daily papers announced the indictment the day before in the federal court at Chicago of Adolph Germer, National Secretary; Victor L. Berger, member of the National Executive Committee; J. Louis Engdahl, editor of The Eye Opener; William F. Kruse, Secretary of the Young People’s Socialist League; and Irwin St. John Tucker, writer and lecturer, all of the Socialist Party [of America]. The charge against them is seditious utterance and interference with the prosecution of the war.
The indictments were found Feb. 2, we are told, but secrecy was preserved regarding the proceeding until the administration at Washington could be consulted and its sanction secured before entering the prosecution.
It is thus made clear that this indictment, while ostensibly directed against certain individuals, is in fact the indictment of the Socialist Party by the national administration at Washington.
If Germer, Berger, Engdahl, Kruse, and Tucker are guilty, so are we all. They have but spoken and written what the Socialist Party stands for, and if Socialism, the thing we stand for and shall continue to stand for, is criminal and subject to indictment and prosecution, then the administration, to be logical and consistent, should indict, prosecute, and imprison not only the spokesmen of the party but its entire membership of more than 100,000 social rebels, who in opposing the damnable profiteering system which has precipitated this bloody deluge upon humanity are alike guilty of sedition and disloyalty in the bleared eyes of the autocratic rulers of this country.
The indictment of our comrades, therefore, charging them with disloyalty, disloyalty to the profiteering, plundering, war-waging master class, is the highest proof of their loyalty, loyalty to the victimized, oppressed, robbed, and ravished masses of the people.
I confess to feeling half-ashamed not to have been included in this indictment. I have said and done all the things my comrades are charged with and the administration knows it and has the proof of it, as I happen to know, and yet I am slighted and no call is made upon me by a federal grand jury to defend myself against the charge of disloyalty to the plutocracy of the United States.
The fact that certain editorials of mine, a considerable number of them, posted to the Social Revolution and never reaching it, were systematically “lifted” from the mails, doubtless by the agents of our democratic (!) censorship, may have some significance and perhaps give promise of recognition by some grand jury in the future.
We must understand that the Espionage Act under which our comrades have been indicted is in its essence and intent pure despotism and dictatorship. Under its ample provisions anybody can be indicted and convicted for anything, and for nothing at all. Any criticism of the administration may be construed as treason and punished accordingly. Anyone in the least objectionable to the warlords may be imprisoned at will. He may be absolutely void of offense but it is an easy matter to put words into his mouth by one of the convenient tools employed for that purpose, as in the case of Kate O’Hare, and sentence him to the penitentiary.
Free speech, free assemblage, and a free press, three foundation stones of democracy and self-government, are but a mockery under the espionage law administered and construed by the official representatives of the ruling class.
I do not sympathize with our indicted comrades, I congratulate them. In fact I almost envy them.
I am surprised only by the blind folly of the ruling masters. Their sublime stupidity has surpassed itself. They have aimed a blow at the Socialist Party that will give the party greater impetus and more vital force than could be imparted to it by a thousand of its most effective agitators.
The party indicted is brought in a flash completely to its senses. All its passive spirit is aroused and all its latent power developed. It accepts at once plutocracy’s insolent challenge and becomes militant, aggressive, and resolute in its purpose to maintain its position and fight for its principles.
Comrades of America, in the indictment of our leaders we are all indicted! We are indicted for being socialists, for opposing capitalism and its profiteering, plundering plutocracy upon the one hand and its brutal and debauching wage-slavery on the other hand.
The trumpet-blast of the Revolution now sounds the call to duty and as true socialists we must all unite as one, face the enemy without flinching, stand our ground without fear, and fight with all our might for the triumph of democracy and freedom throughout the world.
[Photograph added.]
From The Eye Opener of March 16, 1918, page 3:
Views on the Double Attack on Russia.
by Eugene V. Debs
NOTE:— All Socialists will be interested in the accompanying statement by Eugene V. Debs on the double attack on Russia by the Germans in the West and the Japs in the East. Debs does not spare the German majority Socialists, neither does he mince words in discussing the position assumed by the entente allies toward the Russian Bolsheviki. He says:
The Revolution in Russia is now in its most critical stages. The near future will determine whether or not the Bolsheviki can maintain their supremacy. They represent the peasants, the workers, and the soldiers—the great bulk of the population. Their demand is the land to the peasants who till it and the tools to the workers who use them. This means real democracy, for which the Russian people alone are fighting in the present war.
Col. William B. Thompson, the American multimillionaire recently returned from Russia, has contributed a million dollars to the Bolsheviki and has openly declared that they stand alone in the fight for genuine democracy.
Prof. Edward A. Ross, eminent sociologist and psychologist of the University of Wisconsin, who has spent several months in Russia, has said the same of the Bolsheviki, to which he has added, “When I left this country, I was convinced America was a great democracy; but now I am sure America is a capitalist republic.”
President Wilson, to his eternal credit, attempted to pave the way to the recognition of the Bolsheviki and back them up in their struggle to crown their revolution with victory. But alas! He stood alone in that position and not word of recognition from the belligerent powers of either side was vouchsafed to the Russian people in the hour of their supreme trial.
Ignore Bolsheviki Plea for Peace.
The invitation extended to the people of all nations by the Bolsheviki to have their representatives meet in conference to arrange the terms of a democratic and permanent peace, was ignored by them all except imperialistic Germany, which took prompt advantage of the opportunity to further its own malevolent designs. The Bolsheviki, thus ignored and deserted, treated with contempt and left to its fate, presents a melancholy spectacle to the world. And now, to crush its last hopes, the military hordes of Germany are pouring across the borders to complete their work of treachery and betrayal. This invasion and conquest, in spite of treaty stipulations submitted to by a helpless people, constitutes one of the crimes of history.
But this is not all, nor is imperialistic Germany alone in seeking to crush the Bolsheviki and rob the Russian people of the fruit of their revolution. We now see Japan, one of the allied powers, preparing to swoop down upon and take possession of Siberia upon the pretext that large stores of munitions and provisions along the line of the Siberian railway may fall into the hands of the Bolsheviki, the representatives and the only representatives of real democracy in Russia. In other words, Germany, on the part of the central powers, and Japan, on the part of the allies, are cooperating harmoniously—deadly enemies though they pretend to be-to destroy the Russian revolution and force the Russian people back into bondage.
It is a thousand pities from my point of view that the allies failed to lend a hand to the Bolsheviki in the hour of their crucial need and when the fruit of their revolution could have been saved to them, and I think this will be the verdict of history. Instead of this, however, all the nations of earth, allies as well as the central powers, have sought either openly or covertly to discredit, defeat, and destroy the Bolsheviki and prevent the rise of the Russian people. The reason for this is obvious enough. If the Russian people could at one stroke rid themselves of their landlords, their capitalists, their exploiters, and their profiteers of all description, the people of all the other countries would speedily follow their example.
Blames German Socialists.
As for the German invasion, my hope is that the Russian people will resist it by all means in their power and that they will not rest until they have driven these ruthless barbarians from their borders. The shame of this invasion is not so much that of the kaiser and the junkers as it is the majority socialists. In standing for this crime, they cap the climax of their betrayal and disgrace of the socialist movement. In standing for this, the majority socialists of Germany prove finally that they will stand for anything except socialism and democracy.
The Austrian socialists have threatened to rise in revolt and have compelled their emperor to renounce any part in or responsibility for the invasion. But the German majority socialists are so thoroughly Prussianized, so completely subjected to the iron will of their military despots, that all they know is to obey orders, even to the extent of becoming the rankest of kaiserites, being used as willing hirelings to stamp out the aspirations of other people to be free.
Thus do we see the meaning of militarism in all its naked horror. And the lesson the Bolsheviki are now being taught by the Prussian hoards may well be taken to heart by the people of all the nations, America included, that is, to beware of the insidious, degrading, body enslaving, and soul destroying curse of militarism!
[Photograph added.]
SOURCE
The Eye Opener
(Chicago, Illinois)
-Mar 16, 1918, page 2
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/parties/spusa/1918/0316-debs-indicted.pdf
-Mar 16, 1918, page 3
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/parties/spusa/1918/0316-debs-russia.pdf
Footnote for page 2 article by Tim Davenport:
Louis Engdahl was targeted for having previously served as editor of The American Socialist, the official organ of the Socialist Party, which ceased publication in 1917 due to its banning from the mails by the Wilson regime. Irwin St. John Tucker was targeted for having briefly served as the head of the SPA’s Literature Department—although he quickly left that post due to a personality conflict with Executive Secretary Adolph Germer.
IMAGES
Socialist Party of America Button
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/eam/spa/socialistparty.html
Eugene Debs, ISR, Sept 1916
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=SVRIAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.PA134