You need to know that you are fit for something
better than slavery and cannon fodder.
-Eugene Victor Debs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday June 18, 1918
Canton, Ohio – Federal Agents Were on Hand at Nimisilla Park
From the Cleveland Plain Dealer of June 17, 1918:
DEBS URGES AID FOR BOLSHEVIKI FROM AMERICA
—–
Suggests Army of 1,000,000 Socialists to Help
Russia Resist Prussian Aggression.
—–FIGHT CAPITALISTIC WAR
—–
U. S. Agents Hear Speeches
at Canton Convention;
May Act.
—–BY C. R. MILLER.
Staff Correspondent Plain Dealer.
CANTON, June 16.-Hundreds of Socialists, including scores of delegates to the Ohio Socialist party convention which has been in progress here since Friday [June 14th], went on record today as being unequivocally opposed to “a war of capitalism.”
The Socialists of Ohio were urged to stand by the party’s program by Eugene V. Debs, three times Socialist candidate for president, who addressed the closing session of the convention which took the form of a picnic at one of Canton’s public parks.
J. J. Fried, Cleveland Socialist, said Debs had approved a plan for American Socialists’ co-operation with the Bolsheviki by sending an army of 1,000,000 men to their assistance.
Mr. Debs, after paying tribute to Socialist leaders, particularly to those of Cleveland who had “the moral course” to go to jail for the sake of their principles, praised I. W. W. members, referred to the Bolsheviki as “our comrades who have made Russia a land of living light,” and charged the purposes of the allies in the war is the same as that of the central powers-a desire for plunder.
Federal Agents Hear Speech.
Federal agents, American Protective League operatives and city policemen were scattered through the audience of 1,200 which heard the national Socialist leader, a copy of whose speech will be in the hands of the district attorney tomorrow.
United States District Attorney E. S. Wertz at Cleveland, was informed tonight of Debs’ statement concerning the purpose of the allies and immediately declared that if the Socialist speaker had been correctly reported, he will bring the matter to the attention of the federal grand jury in Cleveland tomorrow morning.
“No man in the United States is too big to be prosecuted under the espionage act, and if I find Debs used the words reported to me, I will take immediate action to have him prosecuted,” Mr. Wertz said.
John Sawken of Cleveland was in charge of the federal agents who attended the convention to hear if seditious statements were made by any of the speakers.
Emphatically denying that he had repudiated the Socialist party’s St Louis platform, which pledges the party to oppose conscription and Liberty bonds, Mr. Debs declared that the Socialists must stand more firmly than every their principles.
While he talked from a bandstand in the public park, federal operatives went quietly through the crowd and held for investigation fifty-five young Socialists who could not show draft classification cards.
Predicts Russian Crisis Here.
Debs predicted “a crisis” in America similar to that which placed the Bolsheviki in power in Russia. A great demonstration of cheering and applause swept through the audience when Debs cried:
I hear your heartbeats in response to the Bolsheviki of Russia-heroic men and women who have laid the foundations of the first great democracy that ever drew the breath of life.
He charged Bolsheviki leaders had found in the archives at Petrograd treaties signed by the allies
showing that the purpose of the allies is exactly the same as the purpose of the central powers-plunder.
“Join the Socialist party,” cried Debs to stragglers in the park who fringed the crowd of Socialists.
Join now. You need to know that you are fit for something better than slaver and cannon fodder.
Loud cheering greeted Debs’ approval of the I. W. W.
[He declared:]
Few me have the courage to say a decent word for the I. W. W. I have the courage.
“So have I,” shouted many men among the Socialist delegates.
[Debs continued:]
I have great respect for the I. W. W. When Wall Street says “war” every pulpit in the land yells “war.”
Pointing out I. W. W. resistance to Wall street, he added:
That’s why in the I. W. W. is infamous. It is fighting the fight of the under dog. By the same reason that Sam Gompers is glorified in Wall street, Bill Haywood is despised.
At the park meeting Fried discussed with Mr. Debs a plan for raising an army of a million Socialists. This plan, Fried announced, was approved by Debs.
Army of 1,000,000 to Oppose Prussian Aggression
is Approved by Leaders.
—–
Debs Praises I. W. W. and Cleveland
Comrades in Jail.
—–[Said Mr. Fried:]
The party proposes the raising of an army of a million Socialists by the volunteer method.
[Fried explained:]
This force would be sent to Russia and with the approval of the Bolsheviki would be used to fight Prussianism. Only a Socialist army would be permitted to enter Russia.
In his speech at the park and in private conversation as well. Mr. Debs denied that he had ever repudiated the Socialist anti-war platform.
[He said:]
I approved the spirit and substance of that platform heartily at the time of its adoption. I am not for its repudiation now, but I favor a restatement of the party’s attitude in the light of recent developments.
Such developments, he explained, had to do with the Russian situation.
The conviction of A. L. Hitchcock, socialist board member of Cleveland, for violation of the espionage act, was denounced by the national Socialist leader as “extreme brutality.”
[He declared:]
Hitchcock’s being sent to jail will be worth 25,000 Socialist votes in Cleveland, and that of Mrs. Rose Pastor Stokes will be worth 100,000 votes the country over.
In his public speech Debs declared himself to be as guilty as Mrs. Stokes. He promised that he would not try to establish his innocence if arrested on a similar charge, and added:
The United States under the rule of autocracy is the only country in the world that would send a woman to jail for ten years for exercising the right of free speech.
Socialists, he cried to his audience, must fight militarism wherever it is found.
[He declared:]
Don’t imagine for a moment that all the junkers are confined to Germany.
They want our eyes focused on the junkers of Berlin so we’ll not see those in our own country.
Debs, whose words were followed with intense and enthusiatic interest by the Socialist delegates from all parts of the state, called upon his comrades not to weaken or falter.
[He told them:]
You are in a crucible today. If you permit yourself to be driven out of the party you are not of the stuff of which revolutionists are made.
Imprisonment of Socialists who have not feared to speak of their views on the war, he pointed out would help and not hurt the Socialist movement.
[He declared:]
In a country fighting to make the world safe for democracy, it is dangerous to express an honest opinion. I must be careful what I say.
Before and after his address Debs conferred with Socialist leaders from all parts of Ohio. He visited C. E. Ruthenberg and Alfred Wagenknecht, Cleveland Socialists serving workhouse sentences here.
Referring to this visit in his address he declared,
I’d rather be a free soul in jail than a coward on the street.
Other speakers at the closing session of the convention included Ada Wilkins of Ada, the party’s candidate for governor; Frank Hamilton, Socialist mayor of Piqua; J. W. Starts, Dayton attorney, who defended C. E. Ruthenberg; William Patterson of Toledo, member of the party’s state executive committee; Allen Cook of Canton and Margaret Prevy [Marguerite Prevey] of Akron.
All urged the delegates to stand by the party’s principles. Nearly all held up as “real patriots” Socialists now in prison.
[Said Wilkins:]
If drafted into the army of capitalism I will there await the social revolution such as came in Russia. We must conform to the forces carrying us along until the great crisis comes, when the masses can no longer stand the torture of capitalism.
Tom Clifford, Socialist leader in Cleveland, federal agents charged to day, urged delegates to take a stand against organizing a state militia, and intimated to delegates that Socialists, however, should join such a militia if organized, so that they might get the arms in their own hands.
Leslie H. Marcey [Marcy], Chicago Socialist, arrested here last night, probably will have a hearing in Cleveland tomorrow, it was stated by Federal Agent John sawken.
Marcey, it was said, has been flood cantonments with revolutionary literature, a quantity of which was taken from him by federal agents.
———-
[Photograph added.]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCE
Cleveland Plain Dealer
(Cleveland, Ohio)
-June 17, 1918, pages 1-2
https://www.genealogybank.com/
IMAGE
Debs Speaking at Nimisilla Park,
Canton, Ohio, June 16, 1921
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/2641496
For more on the image:
From Nimisilla Park Archivist’s Attic
https://archivistsattic.wordpress.com/tag/nimisilla-park/
Recently, archivist Mark Holland was doing research on an unrelated matter. While browsing the Western Reserve Historical Society database, Mark spotted the name “Eugene Debs.” Clicking on the link, he was led to the David Rubenstein Gallery of the National Archives. He was astonished to find a crystal clear black and white photograph of Debs addressing a sizeable crowd at Nimisilla Park in Canton, Ohio.
Here is the link which features the photograph:
This is the link given:
http://recordsofrights.org/records/148/eugene-debs-speech-in-canton-ohio
See also:
“Free Speech on Trial
Eugene Debs at Canton, Ohio”
-by Glenn V. Longacre
From Prologue Magazine
Winter 2017–18, Vol. 49, no. 4
https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2017/winter/debs-canton
The Ohio Socialist in Stark County Work House
-across the street from Nimisilla Park were:
C.E. Ruthenberg, A. Wagenknecht and Charles Baker
See 1918 May Day Message from same:
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/parties/spusa/1918/0407-ruth-wag-maydaymsg.pdf
Hellraisers Journal, Friday May 4, 1917
The Socialist Party of America on War and Militarism
From the International Socialist Review: the SPA Emergency Convention at St. Louis
Marguerite Prevey, Prominent Ohio Socialist
Note letterhead: Marguerite Prevey, Opt. D., Akron, O.
-and also signature, page 2
http://visions.indstate.edu:8888/cdm/compoundobject/collection/evdc/id/9583/rec/1
She famously tangled with Mother Jones:
(Scroll to bottom.)
Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for October 1916: Aids New York Street Car Strike & Campaigns for Democrats in Illinois and Kentucky
For Leslie H Marcy, see Mary E Marcy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Marcy
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