To speak for labor; to plead the cause
of the men and women and children who toil;
to serve the working class,
has always been to me a high privilege;
a duty of love.
-Eugene Victor Debs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Friday September 13, 1918
Cleveland, Ohio – Eugene Debs Addresses the Jury
From The Milwaukee Leader of September 12, 1918:
Jury in Eugene Debs’ Trial
on Free Speech Gets Its Instructions:
Former Candidate for President Makes Address in Own Defense,
Refusing to Retract Anything Uttered in his Canton Talk—
Case Will Be Appealed if Jury Returns Verdict of Guilty.
by J. Louis Engdahl
Comrade Debs at Canton, June 16, 1918
(CLEVELAND) — Federal Judge D.C. Westenhaver Thursday instructed the jury in the case of Eugene V. Debs, national Socialist leader, charged with making disloyal utterances.
The jury is expected to retire by noon or before.
Westenhaver defined the four counts on which Debs is being tried. They are:
-Caused and attempted to incite insubordination, disloyalty, and mutiny and refusal of duty in the military and naval forces of the United States.
-Obstructed the recruiting and enlistment service.
-Provoked, incited, and encouraged resistance to the government.
-Opposed the cause of the United States at war with Germany.
There is a penalty of 20 years’ imprisonment and a $10,000 fine on each count.
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday February 27, 1918
Buffalo, New York – Kate O’Hare to Speak on Thursday
From the Buffalo’s Socialist New Age of February 23, 1918:
Tribune of The People,
–Speaker at Music Hall
—-Faces 5 Years in Jail
—–
FIVE YEARS AWAY FROM HER CHILDREN
-KATHLEEN, JUST STANDING WHERE CHILD TURNS TO MAIDEN;
AFFECTIONATE, BROWN-EYED GENE, NOW NINE YEARS OLD;
KEEN, ALERT VICTOR, THE OTHER TWIN,
AND DICK, 14 THE ELDEST.
—–
Kate Richards O’Hare, who was considered the most powerful woman orator in the Socialist movement, and whose ability as a lecturer is comparable only with such men as Eugene V. Debs and William Jennings Bryan, will deliver one of her mastery addresses under the auspices of the Socialist Party in Elmwood Music Hall on the evening of Thursday, February 28th. Mrs. O’Hare is known throughout the length and breadth of the land as a most eloquent advocate of the cause of Socialism, and a fearless defender of the rights of the oppressed.
SENTENCED FOR
FIVE YEARS.
Recently she has been sentenced to five years in a Federal prison for alleged violation of the espionage law, in which she was accused of stirring up opposition to the draft in a speech delivered last summer in North Dakota. She is out on bail pending the appeal of her case.
