Tag: Eugene Victor Debs

Hellraisers Journal: “You are waging a class fight!” Eugene Debs Speaks at Philadelphia’s Labor Lyceum, Part I

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, Lawmakers Felons, Phl GS Speech, IA, Mar 19, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 20, 1910
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – General Strike Committee Sends for Debs

From The Philadelphia Inquirer of March 17, 1910:

[Statement of Philadelphia’s General Strike Committee.]

Phl GS, Murphy n Pratt, LW p1, Newark NJ Str p1, Mar 5, 1910———-

Announcement of the plans of the labor leaders for today was embodied in the following statement issued by the General Strike Committee, from its headquarters at Twelfth and Filbert streets:

In our statement issued last night we announced several mass meetings would be held in different parts of the city, to which organized and unorganized working men and women and the general public are invited. These meetings will be held at Kensington Labor Lyceum. Second and Cambria streets; Mercantile Hall, 849 Franklin street; Academy Hall, 524 South Fourth street, and Labor Lyceum, Sixth and Brown streets, on Thursday, March 17, at 8 P. M.

These meetings will be addressed by C. O. Pratt, Jeff Pierce, organizer of the American Federation of Labor; John J. Murphy and other prominent speakers…

The committee has also made arrangements for holding a monster mass meeting at Labor Lyceum, Sixth and Brown streets, at 3 P. M., Saturday, March 19, which meeting will be addressed by Eugene V. Debs and other prominent speakers…

[Photographs added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Unity Achieved with Socialist Labor Party at Social Democratic Party Convention, Fourth Day

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

Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 19, 1900
Indianapolis, Indiana – S. D. P. “Unity” Convention Nominates Debs

From San Francisco’s Class Struggle of March 17, 1900:

Class Struggle Ns p1, Mar 17, 1900EVD, Debs Harriman Campaign, Class Struggle Ns p1, Mar 17, 1900

[Part II of II.]

FOURTH DAY [March 9th].

SDP Conv, Eugene Dietzgen, Sc Dem Hld p4, Mar 17, 1900

J.C. Chase, who served as chairman on the third day, was again elected to preside.

A motion to elect two delegates to the International Congress at Paris in 1900 was carried. Eugene Dietzgen was elected as one delegate, and on motion the election of the second delegate was referred to the joint committee of 18, the delegate to be elected by referendum.

MacCartney took the floor and stated that Debs had reconsidered his declination. Great applause. Debs was declared the nominee.

G.B. Benham was called upon for a speech, and congratulated the convention upon the nomination of Debs.

A man recognized from the Atlantic to the Pacific as one of the bravest advocates of the rights of the workers that the world has ever seen. His example has inspired the best efforts of the exponents of socialism, and his candidacy cements the union of socialist forces and assures us a grand result for the coming Presidential campaign.

Victor Berger nominated Job Harriman for Vice President. The nomination was received with applause as hearty as that which greeted the nomination of Debs. His nomination was declared unanimous, and all rose and gave three cheers for the candidates. Great enthusiasm. Handshaking was in order.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for February 1910, Part II: Found Supporting Black Hills Miners of South Dakota

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, No master no slave, Speech Dec 9, NY Cl p2, Dec 10, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 13, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for February 1910, Part II:
-Found Supporting the Miners of the Black Hills in South Dakota

From the Black Hills Daily Register of February 22, 1910:

Mother Jones Sends Money

Organ D2 WFM, Black Hills Dly Rg p2, Feb 22, 1910

James Kirwan yesterday received a letter from Mother Jones, who is now in Milwaukee, informing him that she was coming to Lead to take a hand in the fight for the right to organize. She asked no money, but, on the contrary, enclosed a check for one hundred dollars, with these words:

My boys in Lead gave me one hundred and fifty dollars for the 1909 Labor Day speech. Fifty dollars of this sum I gave to the Mexicans and I am sending you the balance for the locked-out Black Hills boys.

Further along in her letter, Mother says:

Tell the boys to keep up that fight. Have no surrender written on the banners of the Western Federation of Miners. I am coming up there to take a hand. The Hearst crowd of blood-suckers are organizing to get more profits. We also have a right to organize to give that crew of blood-suckers less profits. Tell my boys to stand pat. Mother.

———-

From the Socialist Montana News of February 24, 1910:

[Mother Jones in Milwaukee]

A non-partisan anti-high-price mass meeting was called for Feb. 15 by the Milwaukee Federated Trades Council Among the speakers who addressed the meeting were A. M. Simons, editor of the Chicago Daily Socialist, and Mother Jones. This so hurt the feelings of Senator Stephenson’s organ, the Free Press, that it indulged in several columns of abuse against the meeting. It had a great deal to say about the “poor attendance” of the meeting, although the hall was packed to the doors, and many were obliged to stand.

The real grievance of this capitalist sheet was that the capitalist politician who addressed the meeting cut a poor figure, having no remedy to offer except the enforcement of the law and investigation of facts which our pocket-books already understand all too well, while the Socialist speakers made ringing addresses which were roundly applauded. Resolutions that the people must own the trusts were adopted by the audience without one dissenting vote.

[Paragraph break added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for February 1910, Part I: Found Fighting for Working Women

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Ladies Women, NYT p3, May 23, 1914———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 12, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for February 1910, Part I:
-Found Fighting for Working Women of Philadelphia and Milwaukee

From the International Socialist Review of February 1910:

Fighting to Live
—–

By Tom A. Price.
—–

* * *

[Mother Jones in Philadelphia.]

Mother Jones. This little woman whose heart is as big as the nation and beats wholly for humanity, came to Philadelphia while the trumpet was still reverberating after the call to arms had been sounded. Under her bold leadership the fighters were organized before the manufacturers had fairly realized that their workers had at last been stung to revolt by the same lash which had so often driven them to slavery.

Mother Jones, ISR Cover crpd p673 ed, Feb 1910

In impassioned speech after impassioned speech Mother Jones urged the girls on to battle. Shaking her gray locks in defiance she pictured the scab in such a light that workers still shudder when they think of what she would have considered them had they remained in the slave pens of the manufacturers. Every man and woman and child who heard her poignantly regrets the fact that her almost ceaseless labors at last drove her to her bed where she now lies ill.

But she had instilled into the minds of her followers the spirit which prompted her to cross a continent to help them. That spirit remains and is holding in place the standard which she raised. It is leading the girls to every device possible to help the cause. Many of them are selling papers on the street that they may earn money to contribute to the union which they love.

* * *

[Photograph from cover of February Review.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Victor Debs Nominated for President by Social Democratic Party of America

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, Children of the Poor, AtR p2, Mar 17, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 11, 1900
Indianapolis, Indiana – Social Democratic Party Convention Nominates Debs

From The Indianapolis Journal of March 10 1900:

EUGENE V. DEBS ACCEPTS
—–

HE WILL BE STANDARD BEARER OF
SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY.
—–
He Was Unable to Resist the Pressure
of the Convention-Harriman
for Vice President.
—–

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

The Social Democratic party, which had been in convention in the city since last Tuesday, adjourned yesterday afternoon after gaining the consent of Eugene V. Debs to make the race for President. Job Harriman, of California, was nominated for the vice presidency. It was also understood before adjournment that the Social Democrats and the Socialist Labor party would amalgamate.

The chief business of the convention yesterday was the selection of candidates. On Thursday Mr. Debs steadfastly refused to accept the nomination, but yesterday, when the convention would not listen to a refusal, and nominated him by acclamation, he decided to accept. Shortly after noon a committee brought him to Reichwein’s Hall and he made his speech of acceptance. He spoke feelingly and was apparently greatly impressed with the situation which confronted him. In beginning his remarks he said he had never been more profoundly Impressed with the conviction that there is a divinity which shapes our ends. He said that on Thursday he left the hall with the determination that he would not accept the nomination.

[He continued:]

But now, with your united voices ringing in my ears, with your impassioned appeals burning and glowing in my breast and your eyes searching the depths of my soul, I am brought to realize that in your voice there is a supreme command of duty.

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Hellraisers Journal: From Butte Daily Bulletin: Review of “Debs, His Authorized Life and Letters” by David Karsner, Part II

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, Be True Labor Will Come Into Its Own, OH Sc p1, Nov 5, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 23, 1920
David Karsner, of New York Call, “Paints Debs with Loving Hands” -Part II

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of February 13, 1920:

EVD re Karsner Bio, BDB p3, Feb 13, 1920

[Part II of II.]

EVD, David Karsner, Debs Life n Letters, Brk Dly Egl p4, Jan 17, 1920

Debs was born in Terre Haute, Ind., Nov. 5, 1855. The sixty-five years between that date and the present day which sees him in United States penitentiary at Atlanta, Ga., are of startling significance in the social and economic history of this country.

“He was one of 10 children of Jean Daniel Debs and Marguerite Bettrich Debs, both natives of Alsace.”

“Jean Daniel Debs possessed a well-equipped library of French history as well as the works of some of the most noted French writers including Victor Hugo who was one of their favorites. Very early in his life, Eugene became acquainted with the works of Hugo and the master’s characterization of Jean Valjean in “Les Miserables,” made an indelible impression upon his mind.”

Debs in his early youth saw the Civil war, and Karsner wonders “to what extent these scenes and sounds of conflict influenced Eugene Debs to take his stand against war, but it is notable that not once during his long and varied career as a labor leader has he safe-counseled violence as means to the settlement of any dispute.”

Eugene’s school years were cut short by the necessity for earning money. At the age of 14, Debs began work in the shops and later as locomotive fireman for the Terre Haute and Indiana Railroad company. At first he received one dollar a day, but later, as fireman, was paid on a mileage basis. “Eugene’s pay envelope, which he turned over to his mother unopened, was decidedly slim.”

Debs’ first step in the organized labor movement was taken when the local lodge of the brotherhood of locomotive fireman was organized at Terre Haute on the evening of Feb. 27, 1874. He served in various official capacities as organizer. In 1892 he resigned from a position in which he was receiving $4,000 a year so that he might receive from the American Railway union a $75-a-month position.

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Hellraisers Journal: From Butte Daily Bulletin: Review of “Debs, His Authorized Life and Letters” by David Karsner, Part I

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, Be True Labor Will Come Into Its Own, OH Sc p1, Nov 5, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 22, 1920
David Karsner, of New York Call, “Paints Debs with Loving Hands” -Part I

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of February 13, 1920:

EVD re Karsner Bio, BDB p3, Feb 13, 1920

[Part I of II.]

EVD, David Karsner, Debs Life n Letters, Brk Dly Egl p4, Jan 17, 1920

“Debs, His Authorized Life and Letters,” has just gone into its second edition, (Boni and Liveright, New York). Written for socialists, by a socialist, it might well be termed a book for Americans, since socialism is the great issue of the present day. “Debs” is propagandist. And as such it should be a handbook of ready reference for those who agree with its doctrines, and for those whore aim it is to refute those doctrines. But the book primarily presents the emotional color of Debs’ socialism.

David Karsner, the author, paints Debs with loving hands. He is an ardent disciple. He depicts a man who is not a fiery leader, but rather one who is filled with good-will and a desire for peace on earth. Debs was not born a socialist. He was pushed, says the author by the logic of facts as he saw them, into the opinions that have finally caused his incarceration in prison. According to Karsner, his magnetism does not issue from flame, for he is not a “Red.” He is, says Karsner, a mild and greatly loved leader. He is said to have no desire for honors. Yet he was four times a candidate for the presidency of the United States.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From Butte Daily Bulletin: Review of “Debs, His Authorized Life and Letters” by David Karsner, Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the Cleveland Toiler: Eugene V. Debs on the Power of the Capitalist Press, Fed Fat by Ruling Class

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote AtR p1 Nominates EVD for President, May 24, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 21, 1920
Power of Press Underestimated by American Socialist Movement

From the Cleveland Toiler of February 20, 1920:

The Power of the Press
—–

– by Eugene V. Debs –

EVD f President by OK SP, Mpl Str Tb p2, Feb 2, 1920

The power of the press is sadly underestimated in the socialist movement. The ruling class make no such mistakes. They are keenly alive to the power of the press in molding public sentiment and in shaping affairs in accordance with their interests. The capitalist papers do not suffer for the want of support and never die of starvation. They are fed fat and ungrudgingly by the class in power and in return serve that class with all their power.

Not so with the press of the working class. With scarcely an exception the papers and periodicals published in the interest of labor eke out a precarious existence. Ninety-five percent of them line the highway of the past with their skeletons. They lingered for a brief while and then gave up the ghost, falling victims to the chronic labor-paper malady, starvation.

Of course not all papers claiming to be labor papers are fit to exist. Many of them are fakes and run by political grafters. These often thrive in their blackmail and graft while an honest paper is allowed to die for the want of support.

Working men and women ought to have intelligence enough by this time to discriminate between an honest labor paper and a grafting sheet and they ought to be loyal enough to the working class to give their support to the paper that uses its influence to mold sentiment in favor of their cause and fights their industrial and political battles.

It is when the strike comes that the working class suffer most keenly the lack of a powerful press that reaches the people. They are always at a fearful disadvantage on this account. The capitalists get in a thousand licks to their one, not only because they can get their case before the people in its most favorable light and keep it there, but because they can put the case of the workers in the most unfavorable light and keep it there.

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Hellraisers Journal: Marguerite Prevey: “Unite for Liberation” -Eugene V. Debs Sends Message from Atlanta Prison

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, Be True Labor Will Come Into Its Own, OH Sc p1, Nov 5, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday November 6, 1919
Eugene V. Debs: “Be true to yourselves and your class.”

From The Ohio Socialist of November 5, 1919:

EVD fr Prison by M Prevey, OH Sc p1, Nov 5, 1919

Cincinnati O. Oct. 23. 1919.

DEAR COMRADE WAGENKNECHT:-

M Prevey by Art Young, Liberator p18, Oct 1919

I visited Gene yesterday accompanied by attorney Castelton [Samuel Castleton] and found slightly improved, he is still in the hospital and will in all probability remain there because of his health. He is no longer obliged to work in the clothing shop as the Warden recognized he must get better air and rest. Every one about the prison appreciates and loves “our Gene,” many prisoners would gladly serve his time for him if they could. The prisoners in the tuberculosis section raise flowers and frequently send him boquets.

He is cheerful and optimistic, the split in the Party is to him an evidence of growth. He said,

Parties will split, but the movement for working-class emancipation never splits, the rank and file in all the Parties are honest and will get together in their own good time.

Tell them to carry on the work for liberation of all political prisoners. All of us will be released when the working-class present a united front. We must see to it that the financial interests are not permitted to overthrow by force the liberties so dearly bought and paid for by the blood of the workers.

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