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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday November 8, 1908
Tour of Red Special Ends in Home Town of Eugene Debs
From The Indianapolis News of November 3, 1908:
TERRE HAUTE WELCOMES
“GENE” DEBS BACK HOME
—–BIG DEMONSTRATION FOR THE SOCIALIST CANDIDATE.
—–REGARDS TO BRYAN AND TAFT
—–(Special to The Indianpolis News.)
TERRE HAUTE, Ind., November 3.-“Gene” Debs came home last evening in his “Red Special,” and had a welcome surpassing in enthusiasm any political demonstration seen in Terre Haute in many years. His train was three hours late, owing to a breakdown at Cayuga, but the crowd waited for him, cheering for “Gene.” when he appeared on the stage at the Colosseum 3,000 persons, who had each paid 10 cents admission, packed the place, and as great a crowd outside listened to other speakers. At the Armory another big audience waited for him until after 10 o’clock. Besides paying the admission at the Colosseum there was a liberal contribution when collectors, some of whom were women, wearing red sashes, went down the aisles.
Debs began with a feeling acknowledgment of the personal note in his welcome, referring to the fact that he was born in and always had lived in Terre Haute, where, if any one had ever said an unkind word about him, he never heard of it.
Refers to Rockefeller.
[He said:]
All great movements in their incipiency are unpopular and are led by “undesirable citizens.”
[T]he reference to the designation of him by President Roosevelt causing laughter and applause. He said the two old parties stand for the same system, which has reached the climax of its existence. He declared that Rockefeller “was not born yesterday”; that he knew better than any one else how unpopular he is and the effect of his interview for Taft. The interview, he said, was the shrewdest move in the campaign. He knew that he had exhausted the usefulness of the Republican party to him, and desires Bryan.
Debs said that Taft never sought to explain his record as to labor until he became a candidate. Debs told of Taft going to the West to help in the movement against Haywood, Moyer and Pettibone and called attention to the fact that in all his explanations of his labor record he never referred to the part he played in the fight against the Western Federation of Miners. Bryan, on the other hand, never raised his voice in behalf of the accused men until after they were acquitted when he said he “always knew they were innocent.”
Debs said the federation members had been assessed for Bryan’s campaign in 1896 and 1900 and when the three men were kidnapped a committee went to Bryan and asked him to say a word for them, but he declined to talk. “The first time in his life he ever refused to talk,” the speaker added.
Debs told of asking Taft to divide time with him when both were in Evansville recently and Taft’s refusal and made the point that Taft knew he would be asked some questions about the part he took in the far West against labor.
Has Made Five Hundred Speeches.
W. D. Haywood, who had been with the “Red Special” for two days, was one of the speakers at the meetings. The “Red Special” traveled 20,000 miles, to San Diego, on the Mexican border; Spokane and Duluth, on the north; Concord, New Hampshire, Boston, New York and Baltimore on the east. It is said that only eight times of the sixty-five night meetings have the halls failed to be filled. Debs has spoken 500 times. More than 100,000 coins have been dropped into the contribution boxes, making about $14,000. The cost of the trip will be between $25,000 and $30,000, and the difference is to be made up from direct contributions to national headquarters, more than 250,000 persons having done so.
Hundreds of miners came to the city to join in the demonstration. One hundred and fifty were brought from Clinton on the “Red Special,” and hundreds more came by trolley and the steam railroad. A special train brought 1,200 from Linton and intermediate points. Of thirty-six miners on an interurban car from Sullivan, a straw vote showed 16 for Debs, 10 for Taft, 9 for Bryan and one Prohibitionist.
W. D. Van Horn, president of the Indiana miners and Socialist candidate for Congress in the Fifth district, spoke briefly prior to the arrival of Debs at the Colosseum, and was heartily cheered. He said that in thirty years he had never voted either the Democratic or Republican ticket.
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[Drawing added.]
From The Chicago Daily Tribune of November 2, 1908:
-The Red Special in Chicago
DEBS TALKS TO WILD THRONG
—–
Seventh Regiment Armory Is Packed
to Doors by Socialists.
—–FLAGS OF RED DEFY SHIPPY.
—–
Presidential Candidate Declares
Rockefeller Is for Bryan.
—–
The socialist party parade yesterday afternoon was outclassed for impressiveness by the demonstration given for Eugene V. Debs, presidential nominee, at the Seventh Regiment armory.
The procession through the streets of the south side was orderly and well managed, but the crowd that filled the big new armory almost to the doors, broke from the control of the leaders and became a howling mob when their national standard bearer showed himself.
Inflamed by the sight of half a dozen red banners, flaunted from the balcony, where the speakers were seated, and a score of standards bearing mottoes attacking capital, the 5,000 men, women, and children cheered themselves hoarse. The crush was terrible and several persons were slightly injured in the jam.
Enthusiasm Is Not Curbed.
The uproar continued so long that when Debs was speaking in a hoarse voice he could not be heard more than fifty feet. A still greater outburst came when William D. Haywood waved a red silk handkerchief at his auditors.
[Haywood declared:]
I love the red flag. I love the red flag more than I do the stars and stripes. If that be treason make the most of it. It is flying all over the country.
Some one once said that if an Irishman were elected to the presidency he would paint the White house green. If we carry the election we will paint it red.
Chief Slippy has told you that you must not show your colors. Here they are! I wave this red flag in defiance of Chief Shippy!
Wave Red Flags in Defiance.
The audience could not catch his words, but they recognized the significance of the colors and thousands of little red flags bearing the name of Debs were waved by the excited throng.
The only live subject touched upon by Debs was the question of the beneficiary of Rockefeller’s support.
[Debs asserted:]
Rockefeller doesn’t care whether Taft or Bryan is elected, but he says he is for Taft because he is for Bryan.
Among the standards shown were several relating to “starving school children.”
———-
[Photograph and paragraph breaks added.]
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SOURCES
The Indianapolis News
(Indianapolis, Indiana)
-Nov 3, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/35454381/
The Chicago Daily Tribune
(Chicago, Illinois)
-Nov 2, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/355254827/
IMAGES
Quote EVD re Political Scabbing, AtR p2, Oct 3, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/67587465/
EVD Red Special detail, Zanesville OH Tx Rcdr p1, Oct 20, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/284449515/
Wilshire’s Magazine Volumes 11-13
(New York, New York)
Jan 1907-Dec 1909
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=iau.31858037309105;page=root;view=image;size=100;seq=9
Nov 1908-Cover Wilshire’s
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=iau.31858037309105;view=2up;seq=470
See also:
Re issue of starving school children, Chicago 1908:
The Illinois Issue, Volume 4
Anti-Saloon League of Illinois, 1909
(search: 1908 starving school children)
https://books.google.com/books?id=H17lAAAAMAAJ
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday April 24, 1907
From the Appeal to Reason: Eugene Debs on Theodore Roosevelt
“Undesirable Citizen” Eugene Debs Takes on “Roosevelt and His Regime” for the Appeal to Reason
For more on Taft, Bryan and Haywood-Moyer-Pettibone Case:
-Scroll down to “See also” section:
Hellraisers Journal of November 1, 1908
Red Special in Evansville and Cincinnati, Thousands March, Wave Red Flags, Sing Marseillaise
More from Wilshire’s Magazine
From October Wilshire’s:
“Westward With Debs on the ‘Red Special'”
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=iau.31858037309105;view=2up;seq=462
From November Wilshire’s:
“Taft, Bryan, of Debs-A Dialogue”
-by Gaylord Wilshire
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=iau.31858037309105;view=2up;seq=472
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Ballad of Eugene Victor Debs-Joe Glazer