Hellraisers Journal: From International Socialist Review: “Outlook for Socialism” by Eugene Victor Debs, Part II

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Quote Victor Hugo To Rich n Poor, Firemens Mag p5, Jan 1883———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday September 4, 1900
“Outlook for Socialism in the United States” by Eugene V. Debs

From the International Socialist Review of September 1900:

OutLook for Socialism by EVD, ISR p129, Sept 1900
[Part II of II

-by Eugene Debs, Social Democratic Party’s Candidate for President.]

EVD crpd Nw Orln Tx Dem p3, Jan 26, 1900What the workingmen of the country are profoundly interested in is the private ownership of the means of production and distribution, the enslaving and degrading wage-system in which they toil for a pittance at the pleasure of their masters and are bludgeoned, jailed or shot when they protest—this is the central, controlling, vital issue of the hour, and neither of the old party platforms has a word or even a hint about it.

As a rule, large capitalists are Republicans and small capitalists are Democrats, but workingmen must remember that they are all capitalists, and that the many small ones, like the fewer large ones, are all politically supporting their class interests, and this is always and everywhere the capitalist class.

Whether the means of production—that is to say, the land, mines, factories, machinery, etc.—are owned by a few large Republican capitalists, who organize a trust, or whether they be owned by a lot of small Democratic capitalists, who are opposed to the trust, is all the same to the working class. Let the capitalists, large and small, fight this out among themselves.

The working class must get rid of the whole brood of masters and exploiters, and put themselves in possession and control of the means of production, that they may have steady employment without consulting a capitalist employer, large or small, and that they may get the wealth their labor produces, all of it, and enjoy with their families the fruits of their industry in comfortable and happy homes, abundant and wholesome food, proper clothing and all other things necessary to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” It is therefore a question not of “reform,” the mask of fraud, but of revolution. The capitalist system must be overthrown, class-rule abolished and wage-slavery supplanted by the co-operative industry.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From International Socialist Review: “Outlook for Socialism” by Eugene Victor Debs, Part II”

Hellraisers Journal: From International Socialist Review: “Outlook for Socialism” by Eugene Victor Debs, Part I

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Quote EVD Socialism Portends to Capitalist, ISR p131, Sept 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 3, 1900
“Outlook for Socialism in the United States” by Eugene V. Debs

From the International Socialist Review of September 1900:

OutLook for Socialism by EVD, ISR p129, Sept 1900
[Part I of II

-by Eugene Debs, Social Democratic Party’s Candidate for President.]

SDP Campaign, EVD n Job Harriman, SF Call p2, Mar 9, 1900

The sun of the passing century is setting upon scenes of extraordinary activity in almost every part of our capitalistic old planet. Wars and rumors of wars are of universal prevalence. In the Philippines our soldiers are civilizing and Christianizing the natives in the latest and most approved styles of the art, and at prices ($13 per month) which command the blessing to the prayerful consideration of the lowly and oppressed everywhere.

In South Africa the British legions are overwhelming the Boers with volleys of benedictions inspired by the same beautiful philanthropy in the name of the meek and lowly Nazarene; while in China the heathen hordes, fanned into frenzy by the sordid spirit of modern commercial conquest, are presenting to the world a carnival of crime almost equaling the “refined” exhibitions of the world’s “civilized” nations.

And through all the flame and furore of the fray can be heard the savage snarlings of the Christian “dogs of war” as they fiercely glare about them, and with jealous fury threaten to fly at one another’s throats to settle the question of supremacy and the spoil and plunder of conquest.

The picture, lurid as a chamber of horrors, becomes complete in its gruesome ghastliness when robed ministers of Christ solemnly declare that it is all for the glory of God and the advancement of Christian civilization.

This, then, is the closing scene of the century as the curtain slowly descends upon the blood-stained stage—the central figure, the pious Wilhelm, Germany’s sceptered savage, issuing his imperial “spare none” decree in the snag froid of an Apache chief—a fitting climax to the rapacious regime of the capitalist system.

Cheerless indeed would be the contemplation of such sanguinary scenes were the light of Socialism not breaking upon mankind. The skies of the East are even now aglow with the dawn; its coming is heralded by the dispelling of shadows, of darkness and gloom. From the first tremulous scintillation that guilds the horizon to the sublime march to meridian splendor the light increases till in mighty flood it pours upon the world.

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Hellraisers Journal: The Independent: “The Social Democratic Party” -by Comrade Eugene V. Debs

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Quote EVD, Children of the Poor, AtR p2, Mar 17, 1900

———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday August 24, 1900
Presidential Candidate Eugene V. Debs on Mission of Social Democratic Party

From The Independent of August 23, 1900:

The Social Democratic Party

By Eugene V. Debs,

PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE OF THE PARTY.

SDP Campaign, EVD n Job Harriman, SF Call p2, Mar 9, 1900

———-

In the Presidential election of 1892 the socialist candidate received 21,512 votes; in the election of 1896 the vote was increased to 36,275 votes [Socialist Labor Party]. The following two years witnessed an unprecedented spread of Socialist sentiment and in the Congressional and state elections of 1898 the Socialist candidates received 91,749 votes, an increase of almost 200 percent, in two years. But it must not he assumed that this vote represented the entire political strength of Socialists in the United States. In a number of states the election laws were such that the Socialist ticket could not be placed upon the official ballot, while in many districts the number of socialists was so small and they were so widely scattered that no nominations were made and the socialist vote was not polled.

The figures given are sufficient to indicate that in the United States, as in other countries. International socialism is making tremendous strides and that its seven million supporters, spread over all the belts and zones of the globe, and the most active propagandists ever known, will in the next few years be multiplied into controlling majorities in all lands which have modern industry as the basis of their civilization. Socialism being wholly a question of economic development. This will mean the end of the present capitalist competitive system and the introduction of its economic successor, the cooperative commonwealth.

The movement is international because it is born of and follows the development of the capitalist system, which in its operation is confined to no country, but by the stimulus of modern agencies of production, exchange, communication, and transportation, has overleaped all boundary lines and made the world the theater of its activities. By this process all the nations of the earth must finally be drawn into relations of industrial and commercial cooperation, as the economic basis of human brotherhood.

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Hellraisers Journal: Poem for Eugene V. Debs by Daniel Peters: “The Forward Cry of Social Evolution-Advance! Advance!”

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Quote EVD, Children of the Poor, AtR p2, Mar 17, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday August 16, 1900
Poem for Candidate Debs by Daniel Peters: “Forward Cry of Social Evolution”

From the Social Democratic Herald of August 11, 1900:

POEM f EVD by Daniel Peters, SDH p1, Aug 11, 1900

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Hellraisers Journal: Debs Accepts Nomination for President , Stands for Class-Conscious Socialism

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Quote EVD, Proud Socialists SDP Conv, SF Cls Strgl p4, Mar 17, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal -Tuesday August 7, 1900
Eugene Debs Will Represent International Class-Conscious Socialism

From The Scranton Republican of August 6, 1900:

EVD Accepts Nom, Scranton Rpb p1, Aug 6, 1900

SDP Campaign, EVD n Job Harriman, SF Call p2, Mar 9, 1900—–

SPRINGFIELD, Mass., Aug. 5.-Eugene V. Debs, the presidential nominee of the Socialist Democratic party, has sent his letter of acceptance to William Bubscher, national secretary of the party in this city. Mr. Debs writes his letter from Terre Haute, Ind., under date of July 31,

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Butte Daily Bulletin: Deb Asks Supporters to Work for Release of All Class War Prisoners

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Quote EVD re SP n Working Class, Atlanta Cstn p2, May 30, 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday August 6, 1920
Atlanta Penitentiary – Debs Working for Release of All Class-War Prisoners

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of August 4, 1920:

EVD w SP Com at Atlanta Pen, BDB p2, Aug 4, 1920

DEBS STILL WORKING FOR RELEASE OF FELLOW MEN
—–

(Special United Press Wire.)

New York, Aug. 4.-Added impetus to the movement to secure the release of all political and class war prisoners from the federal and state prisons has been noted here since the receipt of word from Eugene V. Debs, who requested that efforts of individuals and organizations in his behalf alone be ceased and energies turned to the release of all.

Debs, who is the nominee of the Socialist party for president, is undergoing imprisonment at Atlanta federal penitentiary for his struggles in behalf of the workers.

———-

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: “A Personal Letter to the Appeal Army” by Eugene V. Debs

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Quote EVD, Starve Quietly, Phl GS Speech IA, Mar 19, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday July 28, 1910
Eugene V. Debs to the Appeal Army, “It All Depends on You”

From the Appeal to Reason of July 23, 1910:

A Personal Letter to the Appeal Army
—–

BY EUGENE V. DEBS.
—–

EVD Life Size Photo by Jas Soler ed small, ISR p1044, May 1910

Comrades-During the past year or more my work in the field has brought me into personal touch with most of you and I want to express to you this word of appreciation of your personal kindness and your service to the cause. You have made the Appeal the most widely circulated labor and Socialist paper in the world and given it a power which is making capitalist culprits in high places tremble with fear and misgiving. But for this power Warren would long since be in jail and along with him Wayland, myself and the rest of the Appeal staff. The order to this effect was duly issued and the papers prepared but when the time came to move the puppets were paralyzed with fear. They were palsied by the silent power of the Appeal and did not dare to defy its lightning.

This power of the Appeal created by you is the power of the rising people and the degree it registers on the indicator is the degree of their progress toward emancipation.

This power is subject to the laws of growth and decay. Daily hourly, it must advance or it must decline. It cannot remain at a standstill. The very law of its being forbids.

IT ALL DEPENDS ON YOU.

You not only created that power, YOU ARE THAT POWER!

The moral power of the Appeal, in the revolutionary movement of the people is the concrete expression of the moral power of the Appeal Army.

To the extent that you add to the moral stature and strength of the Appeal to Reason you hasten the day of deliverance from the tyranny of plutocracy.

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Hellraisers Journal: Newly Freed, Kate Richards O’Hare Visits with Eugene V. Debs, Imprisoned at Atlanta Penitentiary

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Quote EVD, To Speak for Labor, Canton OH, June 16, 1918———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday July 14, 1920
Atlanta Penitentiary – Kate Richards O’Hare Visits Eugene Debs

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of July 12, 1920:

DRAMATIC VISIT PAID ‘GENE BY KATE O’HARE
—–
Two Comrades Meet in Atlanta Prison
After Long Separation;
Think of Others’ Suffering.
—–

(By the Federated Press.)

Kate Richards OHare w Children, Chg New Day, July 10, 1920, MxOrg

Atlanta, Ga., July 12.-In a visit full of dramatic incidents, Kate Richards O’Hare visited Eugene V. Debs in the federal penitentiary July 3.

Mrs. O’Hare, recently freed from the penitentiary, was ushered into the prison. The two comrades embraced.

“How glad I am to see you free, Kate,” Debs said.

“I’m not used to being free yet,” she answered. They sat down, facing each other across the table. It was a fair afternoon and the rays of the sun filtered through the steel bars of the visitors’ cell, and lighted up the features of Debs, who smiled a smile of joy to see his old friend.

“Your coming here is like a ray of sunlight to me,” said Debs. “Tell me of your prison experiences.”

“I am not thinking of myself,” Mrs. O’Hare answered, “but of little Mollie Steimer, who now occupies my cell at Jefferson City, and of her appalling sentence of fifteen years. She is a little 19-year-old girl, smaller than my Kathleen, and her sole crime is her love for the oppressed.” At Debs’ questions, Mrs. O’Hare related the story of the girl. Debs’ lashes damped and his eyes were tear-stained, his face showed the emotion in his heart.

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs, the Socialist Candidate for President, Greets Running Mate, Seymour Stedman

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Quote EVD re SP n Working Class, Atlanta Cstn p2, May 30, 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 27, 1920
Atlanta Federal Penitentiary – Debs Greets Stedman with a Kiss

From the Appeal to Reason of June 26, 1920:

EVD Kisses Stedman at Atlanta Pen, AtR p2, June 26, 1920

President Should Pardon Debs

William M. Reedy, in Reedy’s Mirror.

President Wilson should order the release from prison of Eugene V. Debs. He will, if he has any place in that heart which so throbs for humanity in the abstract, for the individual man. He will, if he has any admiration for a man whose convictions defy prison and death. He will, if he has any brotherliness for another who obeys those “voices” which Wilson himself hears and obeys as Socrates did his demon. He will not doom Debs to death for his opinions based on a higher law than that of that man-made, Hobbesian God, the State. I understand that Mr. Debs is in a much weakened condition as the result of his confinement, that his physical plight is such as to make his immurement during hot weather extremely dangerous.

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