Hellraisers Journal: Socialist in St. Louis: Debs Speaks to 6000 Inside Armory While Mother Jones Speaks to 4000 Outside

Pettibone was hounded to his death by Taft.
-Eugene Victor Debs
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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday October 28, 1908
St. Louis, Missouri – Eugene Debs and Mother Jones Speak to 10,000

From the St Louis Post-Dispatch of October 24, 1908:

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Eugene V. Debs, Socialistic candidate for the presidency of the United States, speaking at the First Regiment Armory Friday night [October 23rd], tore into Taft and Bryan to the huge delight of an audience of 6000 people, presumably Socialists, or at least those with Socialistic tendencies, and when he finished his 50-minute speech he retired bathed in perspiration, trembling with exhaustion and tottering from weakness.

He went to the arms of his devoted wife, who hurried him between rows of young militiamen away from his shouting, applauding admirers to a room in the back of the hall, where he descended a ladder to a carriage that was awaiting him in an alley and was driven to his private car and to bed. He was thoroughly exhausted.

Debs arrived in St. Louis at 6:15 Thursday night [Oct 22nd], several minutes late, and his private car was switched out of the Union Station and to a sidetrack along Clark avenue east of Eighteenth street.

Glimpse of Debs Impossible.

On Clark avenue several hundred Socialists with a banner waited to see him, but he was so carefully guarded that his admirers did not get even a glimpse of his car, and after waiting for some time they departed.

Debs is more closely guarded than either Taft or Bryan on his trip. His car is filled with guards who are constantly fending off enthusiasts who wish to see him and who, if they were permitted to talk to him and argue with him, would tell him their little tales of woe and tire him out, for Debs is such a temperamentally sympathetic man that he lets things of that sort worry him.

Debs’ guards do not attempt any violent exclusion, but their force is felt, through his brother, Theodore Debs, his private secretary, Otto McFeeley, a Chicago newspaper man, and a host of others. But first of all, Mrs. Debs, the handsome wife of the big Socialist, defends him.

Private Signal Necessary.

If one has the proper credentials he can get into the Red Special private car, but that doesn’t mean that he can see Debs, who is carefully secluded in a stateroom, where a certain private knock and a password is necessary for entrance. Debs works so hard and makes so many speeches during the day that between them his wife keeps him incommunicado with the rest of the world. She makes him rest.

Debs is tired out. It is plainly apparent that the tall, lean-faced kindly man is feeling the effect of his campaign. When he was in the anteroom of the armory waiting to be conducted to the stage, he paced up and down with bent head concentrating his mind on what he was going to say. And yet he stopped occasionally to smile that wonderfully magnetic smile of his that has made him more friends than anything else. He seemed well enough, but he was tired.

“There is a report that you are suffering from tuberculosis,” was the blunt question put to him by someone.

Is All Right Organically.

[He said, laughing:]

Nonsense, the only thing the matter with me is that I am tired. The demands of the campaign have been pretty hard. I have made 16 speeches since leaving Evansville last night, and I have been on the job a long time. I am all right, except that my throat is tired and I am tired all over. Not a thing the matter with me organically.

Then he was summoned into the hall. As he appeared 6000 people rose and shouted themselves hoarse while he made his way slowly to the stage, helped along by militiamen who kept the crowd from bearing him under.

When he stepped to the front of the big stage, the crowd yelled for 10 minutes.

Before he began to speak a collection to defray campaign expenses was being taken in the hall by men and women, and when the count was finished $275 had been collected inside the hall and $40 from the people outside. It costs $30 a day for the car Debs travels in and from $1.50 to $2 per mile a day to haul it. The meals on the train cost 18 cents each. This expense is paid out of the collections taken at meetings.

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Voice Fails Utterly.

When Debs began his speech his voice was fairly distinct, but as he progressed it gradually failed, until when he finished he could hardly be heard.

Debs’ platform manner is so entirely different from that of Mr. Taft or of Mr. Bryan as to cause comment. In front of him when he spoke Friday night was a railing 25 feet long. All during his speech he paced along it like a tiger in a cage. Bent over it, he walked slowly from one end to the other, handing himself along, slowly, deliberately, appearing to draw himself from one end to the other, hand over hand, his voice shooting out his words slowly and deliberately, keeping pace with his feet and hands. It had a peculiarly effective influence upon those who listened to him.

At the end of the rail, no matter which, he paused for a moment to make a point, and there he did most of his gesticulation, generally by throwing out both hands in a sort of pathetic way.

Attacks Taft’s Judicial Acts.

Debs began his speech by sailing into Taft for making speeches, under Roosevelt’s orders, in support of the kidnapping of Pettibone, Moyer and Haywood whom he declared martyrs.

“Pettibone was hounded to his death by Taft,” he declared referring to the Union Miners’ trials in Colorado and Idaho, and a shout went up that drowned his voice. Then he suddenly shot this into the audience:

But what was Bryan doing all this time? Bryan had much influence in the country but he did not raise his voice to protect labor.

For a moment there was silence, then a deep-throated roar went up.

[Continued Debs solemnly:]

Had Bryan spoken in protest of the outrage against the union miners he would have shaken the nation, but he did not speak. In this hour when labor was about to be nailed to the cross Bryan was silent. Both Taft and Bryan are creatures of the capitalistic class. Both are owned by capital, Taft by big capital and Bryan by little capital.

Girls Present Flowers.

Here Debs was interrupted by two little girls, Charlotte Cruikshank and Liela Ross of Brentwood, St. Louis County, who came to the front of the stage and handed the orator a big bunch of chrysanthemums. Debs took the flowers and stooped and kissed the little girls and they marched off the platform hugely delighted.

Debs then devoted himself to the workingmen, accusing them of being ignorant and careless of their own interests, living in houses not fit for habitation. Not much applause followed this.

Debs’ final appeal, which was intensely forceful, was followed by such applause as only greets great flights of oratory, and while it was beating upon him the Socialist bowed his way back into the arms of his friends completely exhausted by his effort.

Mother Jones Also Spoke.

Outside the Armory Mother Jones and other Socialist orators entertained an overflow meeting estimated at 4000 persons, who were not able to get into the hall. Men standing on the balustrade of the stairway made fervent speeches and tried to satisfy those who had failed to hear Debs.

Debs remained in his car at Clark avenue until Saturday, when he left for Illinois. His departure took place at such an early hour that few were there to bid him farewell, and anyway he was safe in his stateroom and invisible to the world.

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[Drawing details added.]