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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 4, 1899
Comrade Debs Has Successful Tour of Texas for S. D. P. of A.
From the Social Democratic Herald of June 3, 1899:
Texas is Coming
[by Eugene V. Debs]
Houston, Texas
[May 21, 1899]
Beginning at Nashville on the 10th of May, this trip has been fruitful of results beyond all expectations. Nearly every meeting has been crowded and in some places many were turned away. Farmers have come in from 30 and 40 miles distant.
At Nashville the Socialist Club voted unanimously to join the Social Democratic Party. At Memphis, I am satisfied the Independent Socialist Society will follow suit. William Pinard, the national organizer of the Barbers’ Union and one of the most progressive trade unionists, will join at Memphis and enter our list of organizers.
At Little Rock a branch is organizing. At Dallas, Fort Worth, Bonham, Cleburne, Waco, San Antonio, and Houston, branches will soon be in active operation.
I have some good news for our comrades from Texas. I feel warranted in saying that the Socialist Party of Texas will soon be in the Social Democratic Party. At Bonham I had a conference with William E. Farmer, the veteran editor of The Social Economist and president of the party. He is heartily with us. At San Antonio I had an extended conference with the Executive Board of the Socialist Party of Texas. We canvassed the situation thoroughly. They unanimously resolved to issue an address to the party, recommending that their locals attach themselves to the Social Democratic Party. A referendum vote is now being taken. I do not have the least doubt that all the locals in the state will come to us in a body.
A committee of the Houston Section S. L. P. [Socialist Labor Party] has just called on me and we had a most pleasant interview. They are true comrades and I was happy to meet them. I assume the responsibility to predict that it will not be long before the comrades who compose this section will be in our party. Let the good work proceed.
The outlook everywhere is immensely cheering. My heart leaps with anticipation for the future. It is coming. The triumph is near. Onward comrades!
———-
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
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SOURCES
Quote EVD Arouse the WorkingMan, Labor and Liberty Speech, Saginaw MI, Feb 5, 1899
https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1899/990205-debs-laborandlibertysaginaw.pdf
Social Democratic Herald
(Belleville, Illinois)
-June 3, 1899, page 1
From Debs Archive
https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1899/990521-debs-texasiscoming.pdf
Note at Debs Archive states:
June 9, 1899, President of the “Socialist Party of America” W.E. Farmer announced that the referendum vote of his party had been nearly unanimous to affiliate en bloc with the Social Democratic Party of America. The Texas organization henceforth adopted the name Social Democratic Party of Texas.
IMAGE
EVD, Houston Daily Post p6, May 22, 1899
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86071197/1899-05-22/ed-1/seq-6/
See also:
Houston Daily Post
“Mailable Edition”
(Houston, Texas)
-May 22, 1899
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86071197/1899-05-22/ed-1/seq-6/
Tag: Social Democratic Party of America
https://weneverforget.org/tag/social-democratic-party-of-america/
For more on William Farmer:
Grass-Roots Socialism
Radical Movements in the Southwest, 1895–1943
-by James R. Green
LSU Press, Jul 1, 1978
(search: “william farmer”)
https://books.google.com/books?id=LuMPvekcRwAC
RE: Debs speaking and organizing for SDP in 1899:
The American Socialist Movement 1897-1912
by Ira Kipnis
(search: “the party grew rapidly after the first year”)
(then search: “eugene v debs” “social democratic party” 1899 texas)
Pickle Partners Publishing, Sep 3, 2018
https://books.google.com/books?id=A75sDwAAQBAJ
Re: “This trip beginning May 10”
Note: starred dates indicate date of actual event.
*May 10-Nashville
The Nashville American -p1 of May 11, 1899
-Speech at Vendome “last night.”
https://www.newspapers.com/image/119182322/
*May 11-Memphis
-see source at Debs Archive
*May 12-Little Rock
The [Little Rock] Arkansas Gazette -p4 of May 13, 1899
Re: Arrived yesterday, leaves today, just passing thru.
https://www.newspapers.com/image/132778938/
*May 15 Bonham
-see source at Debs Archive
*bf May 17-Fort Worth
From May 17th El Paso Times -p4
“spoke to large audience at Fort Worth”
https://www.newspapers.com/image/433038603/
*May 19-San Antonio
-see source at Debs Archive
*bf May 21-Waco
From May 21st Austin Daily Statesman -p10
“spoke in Waco the other night…draws like a house on fire”
https://www.newspapers.com/image/366632521/
*May 21-Houston
-see above at Houston Daily Post of May 22
*May 21 Galveston
The Marshall [Texas] Messenger p3 of May 26, 1899
“Galveston, Tex., May 22.-…lectured here last night”
https://www.newspapers.com/image/319836109/
*By May 24, Debs was in Birmingham
-see Birmingham Labor Advocate -p4 of May 27, 1899
“The lecture of Eugene V. Debs on “Labor and Liberty” was delivered last Wednesday evening [May 24] at the auditorium….”
https://www.genealogybank.com/
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Solidarity Forever – Pete Seeger
Lyrics by Ralph Chaplin