Tag: Debs v. United States

Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs: “I enter the prison door a flaming revolutionist, my head unbent, my spirit untamed…”

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD Enter Prison Untamed, Ipl Str p11, Apr 14, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 15, 1919
The Journey of Eugene Debs from Terre Haute to Moundsville Prison

From The Indianapolis Sunday Star of April 13, 1919:

Debs Leaves Alone on Way to Serve Sentence
—–

(Special to The Indianapolis Star.)

EVD, Bstn Glb p3, Sept 13, 1918

TERRE HAUTE, Ind., April 12,-When Eugene V. Debs was advised by long distance telephone today that no Federal officer would be sent for him, but that he would be expected to report as early as possible to the authorities in Cleveland, O., he made arrangements to depart at 10 o’clock tonight. He engaged his berth on the Big Four train, then quietly proceeded to put his house in order for his period of absence.

Mr. Debs observed his farewell dinner at home with only Mrs. Debs and her mother at the table. He was surprised when advised that he would be permitted to report voluntarily to the Federal Building in Cleveland. It had been thought that an officer would come to accompany him to the prison at Moundsville, W. Va., where he is to serve ten years.

———-

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: Your Liberties Will Go With ‘Gene Debs When He Goes to Prison

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD Slave is My Brother, AtR p1, May 1, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 30, 1919
“…while Debs is in prison, you are not free, no honest man is free…”

From the Appeal to Reason of March 29, 1919:

Banner Headline EVD to Go to Prison, AtR p1, Mar 29, 1919
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The decision of the United States Supreme Court upholding the prison sentence passed upon Eugene V. Debs by a lower federal court came as a distinct shock to several millions of the American people. It is true that the hopes of these people were not pinned to the slender faith that Debs would find a just refuge in this high court of the powers that be. While the Supreme Court frequently sets aside laws with an astonishing alacrity, they are such laws as are obnoxious to privileged interests rather than to plain citizens. Setting aside the Espionage Act, especially to remove the threat of prison from Debs the spokesman of labor, was the last thing the Supreme Court could have been rationally expected to do.

The reply of the Appeal to the Supreme court is simply this: Whatever you can or cannot do, whatever you will or will not do, in the case of Debs makes little difference in the actual and final settlement of the issue. Where ignorance and prejudice are blissfully enthroned, ’tis folly to look for wisdom and tolerance. If you had it in your power and province to make Debs a free man by a mere effortless nod of the head, we know well that you would not do so. Politically you may safely defy any storm of public opinion, because you are secure in your arbitrary life jobs. But there are other branches of the government that depend upon the suffrage of the people and that must, unless madness has seized them and they are led to listen to the most stupid of counsels, place themselves responsive to the manifested will of public opinion. We believe that President Wilson and certain members of his official family are really inclined to favor action that a sufficient sentiment of the people, clearly expressed, may demand. That is to say, we believe that they are wise enough to listen to the people when the people talk loud enough and that they are not so wrapped in reactionary stupidity and prejudice that they will obdurately refuse to follow a course that demonstrates itself to be popular.

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Hellraisers Journal: Debs Bids Farewell to Cleveland Comrades at Speech at West Side Turn Hall, Appeals for Solidarity

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, re Red Roses, OH Sc p4, Mar 19, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday March 21, 1919
Cleveland, Ohio – Eugene Debs Presented with Red Roses at Farewell Address

From The Ohio Socialist of March 19, 1919:

Eugene V. Debs’ Speech at West Side Turn Hall, Cleveland
[Wednesday Evening, March 12, 1919]

EVD, Bstn Glb p3, Sept 13, 1918

Before a capacity audience of 3,000 which filled West Side Turn hall one hour before his scheduled appearance Debs made his farewell speech.

Debs was calm, His opening words were accorded an instantaneous silence. He said:

How true it is that there is a divinity that shapes our ends, roughhew them how we will! It may seem strange to you, but in my plans, in my dreams, I did not think of going to the penitentiary-and I-I had a thousand times rather go there and spend my remaining days there than to betray this great cause.

So far as I am concerned it does not matter much. The margin is narrow, the years between now and the sunset are few, and the only care that I have personally is that I may preserve to the last the integrity of my own soul and my loyalty to the only cause worth living for, fighting for, and dying for.

It is so perfectly fine to me to look into your faces once more, to draw upon you for the only word I have ever had, the only word that I can ever speak for myself. I love mankind, humanity. Can you understand? I am sure you can.

We are close of kith and kin, we are human and when we get into close touch with each other we come to understand that our good depends upon the good of all humanity.

Opposed to System.

I am opposed to the system under which we live. I am opposed to the government that compels you, the great body of the American people, to pay your tribute to an insignificant few who enjoy life while the great body of the people suffer, struggle, and agonize without ever having lived. Can you understand? I am sure you can.

Let me get in touch with you for a while. I am going to speak to you as a Socialist, as a revolutionist, and, if you please, as a Bolshevist.

And what is the thing that the whole world is talking about? What is it that the ruling class power of the world are denouncing, upon which they are pouring a flood of all their malicious lies-what is it? It is the rise of the workers, the peasants, the soldiers, the common man, who for the first time in history said, “I have made what there is, I produced the wealth; I want to be heard.”

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Ohio Socialist: “Debs Goes to Prison,” the Class Character of the Supreme Court Decision

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, Debs Address to the Court, Sept 14, 1918———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday March 12, 1919
“The machinery of capitalism has completed its work…Debs must go to prison.”

From The Ohio Socialist of March 12, 1919:

DEBS GOES TO PRISON

EVD, Bstn Glb p3, Sept 13, 1918

The machinery of capitalism has completed its work and ground out the decision that Eugene V. Debs must go to prison.

No one who has studied the class character of the governmental institutions of this country expected a different verdict than that which has just been rendered by the United States Supreme Court.

It was inconceivable that the Supreme Curt would declare the Espionage law unconstitutional.

The interpretation of the constitution follows the needs of the ruling class. Only unsophisticated persons with a ludicrously naive belief in the “democracy” of modern capitalist government could imagine such a contingency as the Supreme cCourt declaring a law in the interest of the capitalist class unconstitutional in the hour of capitalism’s greatest need.

But if there was no hope for Debs, even though, as many people believe, the Espionage law violates clearly expressed provisions of the national constitution in regard to the right of free speech and free press, it did seem that the selfish interests of the ruling class of this country might save Debs from prison.

Capitalism in this country is resting upon a slumbering volcano-the volcano of a suppressed, oppressed and exploited working class.

In Russia and Germany the volcano has burst and is flinging the debris of capitalism to the four winds.

In England, France and Italy the rumbling which forecasts a similar activity can be distinctly heard.

Even here the warning signals are not wanting. Unemployment, strikes, discontent, Seattle’s [General Strike] and Lawrence’s [Textile Strike], all suggest a growing bitterness that is the sign of a coming eruption.

Well might the ruling class hesitate before adding another grievance, a grievance that will deepen and make more bitter the hatred of the working class of the system that holds them under its iron heel.

That is what the sending of Eugene V. Debs will mean to the ruling class of this country.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Ohio Socialist: “Debs Goes to Prison,” the Class Character of the Supreme Court Decision” →