The people are as capable of achieving
their industrial freedom as they were
to secure their political liberty,
and both are necessary to a free nation.
-Eugene Victor Debs
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday January 7, 1908
Goldfield, Nevada – What to do with Roosevelt’s Troops, Part II
From the Appeal to Reason of January 4, 1908:
CAUGHT IN THEIR OWN NET
—–
Federal and State Authorities in a Quandary
as to What to Do With the
Soldiers at Goldfield.
—–Instantaneous and Widespread Effect of the
“Goldfield Extra” Issued by the
Appeal to Reason Protesting
Against Troops.
—–
BY EUGENE V. DEBS.
[Part II]The history of strikes shows beyond question what soldiers are used for. Honest union men who dare assert their rights are not protected, but scabs who are imported from slums and reek with crime, “gun-men” and professional strike-breakers, and other degenerates hired to undermine labor and defeat its aspirations, are saints and saviors, and must have the soldiers of the republic to see that no harm comes to them in their holy mission, and that nothing occurs to prevent them from consummating the munificent work to which their energies are so unselfishly consecrated.
In the eyes of soldiers in the employ of this capitalistic government of ours, honest workingmen who seek to defend their rights, and stand up for their homes, their wives and babes, are traitors to be shot and rioters to be bayoneted, while scabs are patriots to be protected in the name of law and order.