Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday August 15, 1922 Christmas Eve 1920: Eugene Debs Is Guest of Honor at Prison Banquet
From the Appeal to Reason of August 12, 1922:
Christmas in Prison
By EUGENE V. DEBS
[Part II of II]
Eugene Debs Leaving Atlanta Penitentiary Christmas Day 1921
Some weeks before Christmas [of 1920] a case containing 500 copies of a book, entitled “Debs and the Poets” was shipped to the prison. It was an anthology of verse and comment collected by Ruth Le Prade and published by Upton Sinclair at Pasadena, Cal.
It was the desire of the author and publisher that I autograph the books to be sold by them in the interest of a fund being raised to continue the agitation for general amnesty for political prisoners.
When the books arrived, a copy was scrutinized by Warden Zerbst, who decided that the introduction supplied by Upton Sinclair was not particularly complimentary to the prison idea, nor was some of the poetry. So a copy was sent to Attorney General Palmer, who ruled there was nothing objectionable in it, and that I might be permitted to autograph the copies.
Some friends outside the prison asked the warden if I might be permitted to inscribe the books Christmas Eve night. The request was granted and the hour to begin was fixed at seven o’clock. I went to the clerk’s office, where I found my friends.
The books were piled on either side of me at the clerk’s desk and the work of autographing them commenced.
Ginger Ale Suspected.
In the corridor outside a dozen or more prisoners were assembling the last of the Christmas packages for the convicts and there was an atmosphere of fellowship that pervaded the entire scene.
From time to time prisoners slipped in and out of the room where I was at work to drop a kindly word, and my friends from the outside world remarked upon the amiable manner in which every convict conducted himself.
Later that evening it was suggested by one of my visitors that maybe the prisoners assorting Christmas boxes would like to have a soft drink, so the matter was put up to the chief clerk, who was superintending the work, and he agreed to it. Thereupon my friends went out of the prison and down to a little store outside the gates, where they purchased two dozen bottles of ginger ale.
It happened that when they asked to be readmitted to the penitentiary Deputy Warden Gregory was in the main corridor and he came to the gate to inquire what was in the box they carried.
He was told of its contents and that permit had been secured to bring it in the prison for the men who were at work over the Christmas gifts. The deputy warden felt that he should have first been consulted about the matter and he refused to allow the refreshment to be given to the convicts.
This is but one indication of how senseless and needlessly harsh are prison rules.
Later the deputy attempted to explain in a somewhat apologetic manner to one of my friends that: “Who knows but that those bottles might contain ‘dope’ and ‘files’!”
This, in spite of the fact that he could have reassured himself on that score in a moment by observing that every bottle was sealed.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday August 14, 1922 Christmas 1920: Eugene Debs Denied Release from Prison by President Wilson
From the Appeal to Reason of August 12, 1922:
Christmas in Prison
By EUGENE V. DEBS
[Part I of II]
Eugene Debs Leaving Atlanta Penitentiary Christmas Day 1921
A nation-wide holiday campaign had been inaugurated for my release so that I might return home for Christmas [of 1920]. It has long been a custom with the pardoning power at Washington to grant a meritorious prisoner his freedom as an act of grace at the season of “peace on earth and good will among men.”
President Wilson granted the Christmas pardon as usual, but in this instance it was not in response to the numerously signed petitions representing every state in the union which had been presented to him-the boon was granted to an Indian serving a life sentence for murder.
Attorney General Palmer had finally filed with the President his long delayed and expected report on my case. Speculation was rife as to whether the recommendation would be favorable or otherwise.
The doubt was summarily dispelled when the report flashed over the wires that President Wilson had refused to grant the petition circulated and forwarded to him in my behalf, notwithstanding the Attorney General’s recommendation for my release.
Wilson Wrote Denial.
When Mr. Palmer’s report was placed before the ailing President, the latter had but one word to offer as signifying his attitude toward me. Over the face of the recommendation he scrawled, “DENIED.”
I have been a trifle more than casually interested in the reason that prompted Mr. Wilson to arrive at that state of mind and that reason is furnished by his former private secretary, Joseph P. Tumulty, who, in his book, “Woodrow Wilson as I Knew Him,” sets down this record of the President’s comment in my case:
One of the things to which he paid particular attention at this time, the last days of his rule, was the matter of the pardon of Eugene V. Debs. The day that the recommendation arrived at the White House he looked it over and examined it carefully and said:
“I will never consent to the pardon of this man. I know that in certain quarters of the country there is a popular demand for the pardon of Debs, but it shall never be accomplished with my consent.
“Were I to consent to it, I should never be able to look into the faces of the mothers of this country who sent their boys to the other side. While the flower of American youth was pouring out its blood to vindicate the cause of civilization, this man Debs stood behind the lines, sniping, attacking and denouncing them.
Placed Incommunicado.
“Before the war he had a perfect right to exercise his freedom of speech and to express his own opinion, but after the Congress of the United States declared war, silence on his part would have been the proper course to pursue.
“I know there will be a great deal of denunciation of me for refusing this pardon. They will say I am cold-blooded and indifferent, but it will make no impression on me. This man was a traitor to his country, and he will never be pardoned during my administration.”
Personally I have no fault to find, nor any criticism to level at President Wilson for what he considered to be his proper course. But the interest is quite naturally aroused when we come upon an expression such as the following from Mr. Wilson:
“I have no fault to find, Tumulty, with the men who disagree with me, and I ought not to penalize them when they give honest expression to what they believe are honest opinions.”
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday December 26, 1920 Mingo County, West Virginia – Relief Workers Bring Cheer to Tent Colonies
From The Washington Post of December 25, 1920:
CHRISTMAS CHEER FOR MINGO TENTS ———- Relief Workers Give Fruits and Toys to Strikers’ Families
Williamson, W. Va., Dec. 24 (By the Associated Press).-Relief workers who have been employed during the last week in distributing Christmas cheer to the striking miners and their families in the Tug River coal field, reported to union headquarters here tonight that their task was completed. Two carloads of goods have been assigned to the tent colonists throughout the district, and strikers who reside in houses have been provided with seasonal necessities.
Besides the candies, fruits and toys, nearly 2,000 hams were distributed for those who may not be able to have turkeys. The big community Christmas tree erected in the courthouse yard in Williamson was lighted for the first time tonight with scores of colored electric bulbs. There will be no formal ceremony about the tree, which was intended for the soldiers on strike duty in the coal fields as well as the residents, until tomorrow night. All civic clubs have joined in an effort to make tomorrows celebration the most successful ever held in this community…..
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 25, 1920 Atlanta Penitentiary – President Wilson Refuses to Release Eugene Debs
From The Atlanta Constitution of December 24, 1920:
NO XMAS PARDON FOR EUGENE DEBS FROM PRESIDENT ———-
Eugene V. Debs, socialist candidate for president, now serving a ten-year sentence in the Atlanta federal prison, will not be freed from the penitentiary Christmas day, as has been rumored, according to dispatches received from Washington Thursday night.
There has been much talk in Atlanta, centered around the belief among those who will be extended executive clemency by President Wilson on Christmas day, but it is now understood that the president has refused to extend clemency in the socialist leader’s case, believing it not consonant with public interest.
It has also been said that Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, whom friends of Debs have been inclined to hold responsible for the president’s continued refusal to cut the prison term short, actually recommended the pardon of Debs some time ago.
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