Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 11, 1912 Belleville, Illinois – Debs Interviewed by Frank A. Wiedinger
From the St. Louis Star of November 4, 1912:
Debs Calls T. R. Chief Thief of Socialist Party’s Plank ———–
SAYS COLONEL IS A POLITICAL “DR. F. A. COOK”
BY FRANK A. WIEDINGER.
Pressure from below has for years been forcing the old parties to steal the planks of the Socialists, but in this campaign, in trying to keep up with the irresistible demand of the masses for remedial legislation, Theodore Roosevelt has become the chief offender.
Roosevelt feels that his existence depends upon keeping himself in the limelight. He knows that he would be a political corpse if he did not continually turn to the spectacular. He is now poaching on the Socialist preserves and going farther than we ourselves have even gone.
In thus assuming the spectacular, Roosevelt has become a political Dr. Cook. He is a monumental faker. He is a four-flusher. He tells the masses that he, and he alone, is standing for their interests, but the masses will no longer stand for him.
In this wise Eugene V. Debs, Socialist nominee for President, paid his caustic respects to the Progressive standard-bearer in a talk with the writer yesterday noon after a great Socialist rally in the Dreamland Theater at Belleville, Ill.
Both in the interview and in the public speech which preceded it, Mr. Debs devoted the major part of his utterances to Colonel Roosevelt. He also scored Taft and Wilson, but only as the “tools of the capitalistic classes.” In talking of Roosevelt his declarations were mainly in a personal vein, though he resorted to ridicule rather than direct attack.
In so doing he left the distinct impression that seems to obtain also in both Republican and Democratic circles, that he believes Roosevelt is the one who will gain the largest popular vote at the polls tomorrow, and that hence he is the one against whom all the foes of the progressives should turn their batteries.
[Continued Mr. Debs:]
Every decent man regrets and denounces the attempt to assassinate Roosevelt at Milwaukee, and none more so than the Socialists, but there is a thought connected with the first announcement of the shooting which shows how the press is ruled by the capitalists.
“Roosevelt Shot Down By a Socialist,” the papers announced in big flaring headlines. As a matter of fact, investigation showed that not only was Schrank not a socialist, but that on the contrary he had been a steady reader of Republican and Democratic literature. No wonder he was a maniac. This false announcement is only one of the many instances in which the capitalistic press, with one voice, seeks to throw all possible onus of crime upon the socialists.
These same papers, day after day, devoted columns and pages to Roosevelt’s condition, but if a downtrodden laborer was killed while at work because his employer had placed him at defective machinery, or if a sick child died of neglect while the mother was scrubbing at night in a big office building in order to get money for medicine and food, you might search these same papers from beginning to end and find not a mention of either case.
Cites Economic Injustice.
Why is this? Is the life of one human, in the final analysis, worth more than the life of another? The general answer to this would be yes, but I say no-a thousand times no. Given equal opportunity that same workingman might have become the great man which Roosevelt admits that he himself is. That dead child was as dear to its mother as are any of his own to this apostle of large families.
Possibly the reason these instances are generally ignored by the papers is that by calling attention to them they must at the same time reveal the economic injustice under which this country is now suffering. Vote the Socialist ticket on Tuesday and you can correct these conditions.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday November 6, 1902 Eugene V. Debs Describes the Western Labor Movement
From the International Socialist Review of November 1902:
The Western Labor Movement [by Eugene V. Debs] ———-
There seems to be considerable misapprehension, especially among Socialists, in regard to the trade union movement of the Western states, whose delegates, recently assembled in national convention, adopted the platform of the Socialist Party and pledged the support of their organizations to the International Socialist movement. This radical departure from the effete and reactionary non-political policy of the American Federation of Labor, so long and so earnestly striven for by the Western leaders, and so entirely compatible with the Socialist conception of class-conscious and progressive trade unionism, should have been met with the prompt and hearty approbation of every unionist and every Socialist in the land. That such was not the case, the lukewarm comment and half-approving, half-condemning tone of the Socialist Party press, with but one or two exceptions, bear convincing testimony, while the uncalled for, unwise, and wholly unaccountable official pronunciamento of the St. Louis “Quorum,” purporting to speak for the National Committee, capped the climax of unfairness and injustice to the Western movement. [See REVIEW of October 1902]
Stripped of unnecessary verbiage and free from subterfuge, the Socialist Party has been placed in the attitude of turning its back upon the young, virile, class-conscious union movement of the West, and fawning at the feet of the “pure and simple” movement of the East, and this anomalous thing has been done by men who are supposed to stand sponsor to the party and whose utterance is credited with being ex cathedra upon party affairs.
They may congratulate themselves that upon this point at least they are in perfect accord with the capitalist press, and also with the “labor lieutenants,” the henchmen, and the heelers, whose duty it is to warn the union against Socialism and guard its members against working class political action.
The writer takes issue with these comrades upon this vital proposition; and first of all insists that they (including the members of the Quorum) speak for themselves alone, as they undoubtedly have the right to do, and that their declaration in reference to the American Labor Union is in no sense a party expression, nor is it in any matter binding upon the party, nor is the party to be held responsible for the same.
As a matter of fact the rank and file of the Socialist Party, at least so far as I have been able to observe, rejoice in the action of the Denver convention, hail it as a happy augury for the future, and welcome with open arms the Western comrades to fellowship in the party.
“Why didn’t they stay in the Federation of Labor and carry on their agitation there? Why split the labor movement?” This is made the burden of the opposition to the Western unionists, who refused to be assimilated by Mark Hanna’s “Civic Federation”-the pretext for the scant, half-hearted recognition of their stalwart working class organization and their ringing declaration in favor of Socialism and in support of the Socialist Party.
And this objection may be dismissed with a single sentence. Why did not those who urge it remain in the Socialist Labor Party and carry on their agitation there? Why split the Socialist movement?
It is not true that the Western unionists set up a rival organization from geographical or sectional considerations, or to antagonize the Federation; and they who aver the contrary know little or nothing about the Western movement, nor about the causes that brought it into existence. A brief review of these may throw some light on the subject.
In 1896 the annual convention of the Federation of Labor was held in Cincinnati. The Western Federation of Miners, at that time an affiliated organization, was represented by President Edward Boyce and Patrick Clifford, of Colorado. The strike of the Leadville [Colorado] miners, more than 3,000 in number, one of the bloodiest and costliest labor battles ever fought, was then in progress and had been for several months. The drain and strain on the resources of the Western Federation had been enormous. They needed help and they needed it sorely. They had always poured out their treasure liberally when help was needed by other organization, East as well as West, and now that they had reached their limit, they naturally expected prompt and substantial aid from affiliated organizations. Boyce and Clifford appealed to the delegates. To use their own language they were “turned down,” receiving but vague promises which, little as they meant, were never fulfilled. At the close of the convention they left for home, disappointed and disgusted. They stopped off at Terre Haute to urge me to go to Leadville to lend a helping hand to the striking miners, which I proceeded to do as soon as I could get ready for the journey. It was here that they told me that the convention was a sore surprise to them, that 3 or 4 men had votes enough to practically control the whole affair, and that the dilatory and reactionary proceedings had destroyed their confidence in the Federation.
Afterward I was told by the officers in charge of the strike that no aid of the least value, or even encouragement, had been rendered by the Federation of Labor and that the financial contributions were scarcely sufficient to cover the expense of the canvass for same.
It was not long after this that the Western miners withdrew from the Federation and a couple of years later, conceiving the necessity of organizing all classes of labor in the Western states, which as yet had received but scant attention, the American Labor Union was organized, the Western Federation of Miners being the first organization in affiliation with the new central body.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday November 2, 1912 On the Campaign Trail with Eugene V. Debs, Socialist Party of America
From the InternationalSocialistReview of November 1912:
On the Road With Debs By ELLIS B. HARRIS
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We Are All Optimistic
HOW can we help it after the realization that not only this is our year, but that all the years to come are to be the fulfillment of Marx’s promise to the working class, inevitable Socialism. And Socialism means the system of co-operation in which man’s inhumanity to man can no longer prevail. Then the countless millions that now mourn shall stand free men erect and smiling in the glorious vision of a universal brotherhood that they, the tireless and unconquerable working class have at last brought to practical realization; a condition in which the evil star of exploitation has set to rise no more.Not only this notion, but the whole world shall be consecrated and glorified in a service of justice, truth and love; when property right shall be the right of all the workers to possess all property in the means of production and distribution; and then control it so that man may freely enjoy life and liberty.
Time was when nearly if not quite all of the people could be fooled most if not all of the time by a system of education that teaches that capital is prior to labor; that it belongs to a sort of philanthropic organization that gives employment to the working class and is therefore necessary as an initiative to labor; that being based on private ownership and being the source of the very existence of man, it is therefore more than man and man must be subservient to it.
On this sort of education we have builded a heartless commercialism that is sapping the life blood of the nations to fertilize and make more productive the private property of a master class, property held to be more sacred than the mothers and children of all the races of men on whom this ruling class subsist.
Comes the propaganda of Socialism with the new education based on history, evolution and a true political economy; teaching the unimpeachable laws of value, industrial evolution and economic determinism; making plain to the workers the ages of class struggle that have forced them continually to fight for life against the ruling class and that shall ultimately unite the toiling masses into one great union and a solidarity of comradeship that shall win a final and lasting triumph for all mankind.
To fully realize and appreciate the success of our ceaseless campaign, one cannot confine himself to a view of any particular locality. He must have every opportunity to come in direct touch with it throughout all of the states. One must see the awakening and hear the collective voice of the masses assembled as we have seen them, east, west, north and south; and mingle with them amidst such inspiring scenes as that of Madison Square Garden, New York, and Philadelphia Convention Hall, where twenty thousand people stood beneath a very sea of waving scarlet banners and shouted themselves hoarse for the revolution and Socialism.
Heartily I wish that every comrade might share this trip with the Debs party. That they might touch hands with and feel the heart throb, through that touch of the nation’s working class. Spirits in revolt, thousands of them, class conscious, self-sacrificing and indefatigable.
[Debs asserts:]
One fact in which we may all find comfort, no matter how dark our skies may seem, is that the common heart of humanity is sound and beats true.
And nothing proves the assurance so well as the experiences of our campaign tour, where the rhythmic pulse of the collectivity is made manifest in the desire to hear some message of Socialism.
Here is the rush and the crush of the common fellowship; the good natured crowding of happy men and women that feel they are akin in this, the lobby of a brighter future. I say happy, for here at last they seem to realize that in their unity lies the achievement of every desire and effort for an abundant and happy life. They are not all Socialists by any means, but they are all interested in our message. They are all responsive to the principles of our party as they fall from the lips of its eloquent advocate, comrade Debs.
This is what we see on every hand, a thoroughly dissatisfied working class in every state in the Union, exploited by a plutocracy of wealth, which commands all the powers of government. The struggle for existence has at last become unbearable to the great majority.
The seed of Socialism that we have sown and are still sowing is coming to blossom in the great heart of working man and woman and no one who has seen it in all its phases of development can ever doubt the harvest yield.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday October 2, 1912 “The Battling Miners of West Virginia” by Edward H. Kintzer, Part I
From the International Socialist Review of October 1912:
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[Part I of II]
WEST VIRGINIA is living under martial law in the mining war that has been raging in that state for several years. Mother Jones, the veteran of many labor battles, is the central and inspiring figure. In her eightieth year she is today leading the fight in the strike, which started last April. In her characteristic way, she has has more than once defied the military authorities who are making and executing the mine-owner-made laws. When informed that the militia were endeavoring to arrest her for what they called inflammatory speeches, she said:
If they want the chance, I will give it to them. I’d just as soon sleep in a guard house as in a hotel.
At Pratt and Holly Grove Junction guard houses are being filled with miners for the slightest offenses. The militia has taken control, making and executing the laws without regard for the civil code, in all favor to the mine owners, just as have the judicial courts since Capitalism has ruled in the mining industry.
Martial Law Welcomed.
Fierce were the conflicts of 1897 when Eugene V. Debs led the striking miners in the Fairmont district and in 1902, when Mother Jones played a prominent part in that great strike. But never before has any part of the state been under martial law.
When it came it was welcomed by the strikers, for they had suffered such outrages at the hands of a private army in the employ of the coal barons that anything was preferable-even death-to a continuation of the horrors they had perpetrated.
Governor Glasscock appointed a commission to “examine” into the private army system and the wages and working conditions of the miners. The United Mine Workers demanded that the intense over-capitalization of the companies also be considered.
Later the governor issued a proclamation, ordering the mine guards and the strikers to lay down their arms. This was resented by the strikers who claimed that if they obeyed this order the guards would not and they would be helpless before armed thugs. In reply to this proclamation Mother Jones led 10,000 miners to Charleston, where they demanded that the governor order the mine guards out of the region. She declared that he would be to blame for any trouble that might follow if the guards were not sent away. So horrible had been the acts of the guards that the miners were ready to kill on sight.
America has no better example of the conflict between the two important economic classes than this one in the Kanawah coal mining district. Here Capitalism has mocked the sentiment of the founders of the state and by force of a private army abrogated the constitution this new state adopted. Born in the stress of a civil conflict over a question of bondage, the native coal miners of West Virginia have never learned to submit tamely to an interference with their liberties. .
And yet no people have been more thoroughly exploited than the workers of West Virginia. Mine workers that have been on strike since April are desperate over their frightful condition of starvation and disease. Yet every one is loyal and will die rather than submit to the mine guards.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 1, 1902 Comrade Eugene Debs on Class Consciousness and the Ballot
From the Duluth Labor World of August 30, 1902:
GENE DEBS DEFINES LABOR LEADERS DUTY ———-
The time is near at hand when a member of a union will be expelled just as promptly for casting a scab ballot, that is to say for supporting the party of the enemy of labor, as if he took the place of a member while out on strike.Indeed, there may be some justification for the latter, but there can be none for the former act of treason, except alone that of ignorance. And thus it is the duty of the true leader to use his best efforts to overcome, so that the workers on all occasions, economically, politically, and otherwise, can use their entire organized class power in resisting the capitalist system, and in charging it at every point until finally it is overcome and the world’s workers stand forth free men.
The action taken by the three national conventions of labor organizations recently held at Denver [W. F. M., A. L. U. and United Association of Hotel and Restaurant Employes] in adopting a working class political program, has created widespread interest in every part of the country. The reactionary element predict for the new policy speedy and complete failure. So certain are they of this that they do not hesitate to misrepresent the action of the conventions and bear false testimony against those who took part in them. A number of misleading statements have appeared in the papers, and others are quietly circulated to bring the personnel of the conventions into disrepute, and this is engaged in by those who lack the courage to openly charge and face the men who led the movement which culminated in a new departure, which promises to remould the entire labor movement of the country, and bring it up-to-date in all its economic and political equipment.
The two men who led and inspired the conventions were Edward Boyce, president of the Western Federation of Miners, and Daniel McDonald, president of the Western, now the American Labor Union. McDonald was unanimously reelected upon that issue and holds his position by practically the unanimous confidence of the members of his great and growing organization. Edward Boyce retired from official life, honored by every true man and only hated by those who found him staunch and incorruptible, and utterly incapable of being swerved from his duty to his fellowmen. The name of this man will be honorably written in the history of trades unionism, as he has already written it in the deeds of duty that live forever.
I need not, at this time, repeat the terms of the essential change which has taken place in the Western labor movement. It is all summed up in this single statement that it has adopted a working-class political platform and is now equipped for united action in the political field in every contest until the victory is finally won.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday August 28, 1912 “The Supreme Campaign Issue” by Eugene Debs, S. P. A. Presidential Candidate
From The Pittsburg Press of August 27, 1912:
WHAT EUGENE V. DEBS STANDS FOR
A concise statement by the Presidential candidate of the Socialist party on “The Supreme Campaign Issue.”
Written especially for THE PITTSBURG PRESS.
BY EUGENE V. DEBS
The supreme issue in this campaign is Capitalism versus Socialism. The Republican hosts under Taft, the Democratic cohorts under Wilson and the Progressive minions under Roosevelt are but battalions of the army of capitalism.
Opposed to them are the ever augmenting phalanxes of the world’s workers, organizing in the ranks of the Socialist party, to do battle for the cause of Socialism and industrial emancipation.
Nothing in the political history of the world has presented so inspiring vision as the formation of the battle lines for the campaign in America.
For the first time since the civil war is a political cleavage upon a great moral question. It is the question of the right of one class of human beings exploiting another class of human beings to the very point of physical existence.
It is a question of human freedom versus human slavery.
This question is as old as the race, but for the first time in human history the issue is stripped of all subterfuge and the exploited class have the political power in their own hands to accomplish by peaceful means their own emancipation.
No longer can the political harlots of capitalism betray the workers with issues manufactured for that purpose. The beating of tariff tom-toms, the cry for control of corporations, the punishment of “malefactors of great wealth,” the wolf cry of civic righteousness under capitalism, will not avail the politicians in this campaign.
Neither will the purely political issues of direct legislation, the recall, direct election of senators, or the economic reforms promised, of old-age pensions, minimum wage, industrial insurance and welfare of labor, about which the politicians of capitalism are now so much concerned, bring aid or comfort to them, for the people know that all of these are a part of the program of Socialism and that they are only seized upon by designing men who are not Socialists in an effort to deceive the people and prolong the reign of capitalism.
Taft may have stolen delegates enough to secure his renomination, but it remained for Roosevelt to burglarize the Socialist platform in order to secure his election under false pretenses.
The millions of American tillers of the soil and toilers of factory, mine and railroad, have abandoned once and forever all political parties of whatever name which do not challenge the very existence as an institution, and they are in open, organized and intelligent revolt against the system.
They have bunched all the so-called issues of all the capitalist parties, along with wage-slavery, poverty, ignorance, prostitution, child slavery, industrial murder, political rottenness and judicial tyranny, and they have labeled it “Capitalism.” They are bent upon the overthrow of this monstrous system and upon establishing in its place an industrial and social democracy in which the workers shall be in control of industry and the people shall rule.
The Socialist party offers the only remedy, which is Socialism.
It does not promise Socialism in a day, a month, or a year, but it has a definite program with Socialism as its ultimate end. Its advocates are men and women who think for themselves and have convictions of their own and they are in deadly earnest.
The hour has struck! The die is cast and Socialism challenges the institution of Capitalism.
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.”
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Pressure from below has for years been forcing the old parties to steal the planks of the Socialists, but in this campaign, in trying to keep up with the irresistible demand of the masses for remedial legislation, Theodore Roosevelt has become the chief offender.
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