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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 21, 1899
On Municipal Water Ownership, the Public, and the Plutocrat
From the Appeal to Reason of February 18, 1899:
Tag: Social Democratic Party of America
Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones 1898, Part II: June-December; Found in Kansas and Nebraska
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 11, 1899
-Mother Jones News Round-Up for the Year 1898, Part II
October 9, 1898
In the pages of the Appeal to Reason of July 2, 1898, Mother Jones was found as “Mary G. Jones” on the list of delegates who bolted the Convention of the Social Democracy, held in Chicago during June of 1898. The disgruntled delegates immediately set about to establish a rival organization called the “Social Democratic Party of America,” and are now calling for “every loyal supporter of socialist principles” to “promptly come to the front and join” the new party. Mother Jones finds herself in good company as Eugene V. Debs and his brother, Theodore, are among the prominent Socialists who have joined the newly founded S. D. P.
July 1898 also found Mother Jones speaking in Omaha to packing house strikers. It was reported that she was speaking as “a traveling representative of the paper known as the “Appeal to Reason.”
In October 1898, Mother Jones was found in the “two Kansas Citys” preaching socialism along with Mrs. Anna Ferry Smith of San Diego. It was reported that the two women had traveled by a horse-drawn wagon from Chicago, speaking on street corners along the way.
In December 1898, Mother Jones was found leaving Kansas City and heading towards Texas “in a prairie schooner drawn by one white horse.” She was next found in Fort Scott and Mound City, Kansas. The Mound City Torch reported:
She is on her road to Texas, traveling in a private carriage alone. She is distributing literature and lecturing on needed reforms as she goes.
Hellraisers Journal: From Social Democratic Herald: “The March of Socialism” by Eugene V. Debs
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Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 3, 1899
Eugene V. Debs: “The name of the Social Democratic Party suits me precisely.”
From the Social Democratic Herald of January 28, 1899:
The March of Socialism
[by Eugene V. Debs]
Each passing day adds new testimony to the progressive march of socialism throughout the civilized world. A letter just received from Russia contains words of greeting and congratulation, and prompts me to pen this article for The Herald. The Social Democratic Party of the United States commands the confidence and respect of the leading socialists of other nations, and they look to our party to organize the socialists of this country and bring them into harmonious alliance with the hosts of international socialism, in the universal battle for the overthrown of capitalism.
The work accomplished during the past few months is as gratifying and inspiring to socialists as it is abhorrent and alarming to their enemies. The superb victory at Haverhill sent a thrill of joy and consternation, hope and horror through the country. The plutocratic press is still harping upon it, wondering how it happened and predicting all sorts of evils if there is any spread of this dread affliction. They are straining their old power to scare the people and make them mind their masters, as they have been so long in the habit of doing. Riley’s nursery tale warning aptly illustrates the situation:
The plutocrats and their parasites will not contemplate with calm indifference the march of socialism. Every artifice known to their Machiavellian resources will be employed to resist the advance. The ignorant and servile can be easily deflected from their course, but the thinking and vigilant will do ceaseless sentinel service and be prepared to parry every blow and expose every device and intrigue of the enemy.
Hellraisers Journal: Debs in Omaha, Believes Workingmen Will Soon be Ready for Economic Revolution by United Ballot
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Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 23, 1898
Omaha, Nebraska – Eugene Debs Tells Old Story of Wealth and Poverty
On Wednesday December 21st, Eugene Debs was interviewed in Omaha and said, in part:
It is the old, old story—economics—the concentration of industry. The middle class of middlemen are being obliterated; they buy goods in small quantities and pay more than the department stores which buy by the carload. The department store advertises cheap goods, gets the laboring man’s cash, and the little corner grocery has the “credit” business. The small dealer is crushed: labor is pinched and suicides have increased 200 percent in the last ten years…..
I believe the present system, so destructive to the better elements of mankind, is soon to be eradicated, and that by the workingmen. They are beginning to think, and from the products of their minds is developing an economic revolution.
From the Omaha World-Herald of December 22, 1898:
Morally I Mean to Pay Them
[Interview with Eugene Debs]
No, I did not attend the [A. F. of L.] convention at Kansas City. I am in deep sympathy with the meeting and wanted very much to go, but my lecture engagements prevented. I have been speaking every night for two weeks.
With what success?
At Boone, Iowa, I had a fair audience, but usually through Iowa my audiences were not large. You know, the railroads and other corporations have no love for me, and it is given out cold to the men, and many of them who would attend stay away, fearful of incurring the displeasure of the powers that be. Especially is this true in railroad towns. However I cannot complain: I speak and the papers report and thus I reach the masses.
Hellraisers Journal: Eugene V. Debs to Comrades of the Social Democratic Party: “Prepare for the work of the future.”
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday November 27, 1898
Message from Eugene Debs to Local Branches of S. D. P. of A.
From the Social Democratic Herald of November 26, 1898:
To Local Branches
[-from Eugene V. Debs]
Marquette, Mich., Nov. 20, 1898
Comrades:—
The recent election had gratifying results for us, but these results are of permanent value to our cause only to the extent that we follow them up with renewed vigor and determination. Each branch should at once prepare for the work of the future. In this work each member should enlist with heart and hand. There is not a moment to be lost. Henceforth we are in the field to press our claims and advocate our principles in municipal, state, and national campaigns until we have swept the country and the cause of socialism in triumphant.
The National Headquarters of our party should have its resources strengthened in order that organizers may be placed in the field and the work of propaganda pressed with all possible vigor. The admission fees of new members and quarterly dues should therefore be promptly remitted, and the returns should be full and complete. Besides this, a thorough canvass should be made for subscribers to the Social Democratic Herald. Each branch should appoint an agent and each member should assist in securing subscribers. Let this work be taken in hand at once and our subscription enlarged, so that in the near future the size of our paper can be increased to meet the growing demands of the organization.
Comrades, action only will determine your interest in our cause. Words, promises, professions will not do. The time to act is now, and you, each of you, is expected to do his duty. Will there be any who fail to respond?
[Drawing of Debs added.]
Hellraisers Journal: Eugene V. Debs on “Social Democracy” and the Social Democratic Party of America
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 9, 1898
Debs on Capitalism Run Riot and the Battle for Social Democracy
From the Social Democratic Herald of October 8, 1898:
Social Democracy
-by Eugene V. Debs
In the outset, and to “clear the deck” for action, some attention should be paid to definitions. What is meant by the term, “Social Democracy?” The term “social” as applied to “democracy” means, simply, a society of democrats, the members of which believe in the equal right of all to manage and control it. Reading this definition, men are likely to say, “There is nothing new in that,” and they speak understandingly. The men and women who are engaged in organizing the Social Democratic Party of America are not pluming themselves upon the novelty of their scheme for the improvement of social, industrial, and political conditions. They claim for their movement a common-sense basis, free from the taint of vagary and in all regards preeminently practical.
The wise man is credited with saying, “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun” [Ecclesiastes 1:9]. Crediting the declaration of Solomon as conclusive, there must have been a time before he lived when something like “social democracy” of which I write existed in the earth, the germ idea of which, though latent for centuries, has aroused men from their lethargy from time to time in the processes of evolution, to find its most potent expression in the present era of “progress and poverty,” civilization and savagery, wealth and war, charity and greed, aroused them to an interest in socialism, which, with the chivalric courage of crusaders and the revolutionizing zeal of iconoclasts, has appeared to do battle for the regeneration of society.
No one hesitates to admit that the task is herculean; no one underestimates the power of opposing forces. Their name is legion, and they are organized forces—close, compact, resourceful, and defiant. They do not propose to surrender, compromise, nor arbitrate. They have the masses in the dust, their claws upon their throats and their hooves upon their prostrate forms. In the face of all the verified facts that startle thinking men, there is no requirement for extravagant speech.
Hellraisers Journal: Eugene V. Debs: “The Social Democratic Party has made a grand beginning.” Calls Comrades to Duty
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Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 30, 1898
Chicago, Illinois – Eugene Debs Calls Comrades to Duty
From the Social Democratic Herald of September 24, 1898:
To Our Comrades!
[-by Eugene V. Debs]
The summer’s heat is ended, and with the bracing air of autumn comes the call to duty. The slogan has been sounded, and every true comrade will hasten to his post.
The Social Democratic Party has made a grand beginning. In its councils harmony and enthusiasm prevail. In every department there is confidence and goodwill. The local branches are composed of true socialists, and, with but few exceptions, are in excellent order. The party has made many of its nominations for fall election, and now steady work, unabating energy, and unfaltering courage are required to make the record of the campaign a certificate of the party’s soundness and splendor.
Therefore, each comrade to his task—alert, dutiful, determined. The very mustering of the forces is an inspiration. The contemplation of the battle makes the blood flow quicker and the heart throb faster. What ecstasy for the soul not dead or stupefied! By its vivifying magic even the rag of poverty becomes a royal robe and the face of misery glows with the soul-born promise of deliverance.
Hellraisers Journal: Eugene V. Debs for Social-Democratic Herald: “The Social Democratic Party and Labor Day”
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Hellraisers Journal, Friday September 9, 1898
Eugene Debs on Labor Day: “This day is consecrated to the working class.”
From The Social-Democratic Herald of September 3, 1898:
The Social Democratic Party and Labor Day
It is eminently fitting that The Herald, as the representative of the Social Democratic Party, should show due recognition of Labor Day. This day is consecrated to the working class, and the Social Democratic Party is the party of that class.
What shall be said of labor’s holiday and its opportunities? The interrogatory is inviting. Much can be said and will be said, but only that is worth of consideration which provokes inquiry or challenges reflection.
Where the day is given wholly to sports, most of which do no rise above the “greased pig” level, its significance is lost. For such as these, Labor Day means nothing except a few hours’ release from slavery. I would not have solemnity the order of the day, I would not deny a due share of pleasure and recreation, but above all, the central object of this day, that of discussing the rights and duties of the working class, and considering ways and means of emancipation from the bonds of capitalism, should be the commanding feature of every program and impressed upon the minds of all.
The capitalist class are immensely pleased to see Labor Day turned into a cheap circus and given entirely to “horseplay.” They command the day and contribute to its observance and smile upon the antics of their slaves.
Hellraisers Journal: Eugene V. Debs Sends Message to Comrades of Newly Formed Social Democratic Party of America
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Hellraisers Journal, Monday July 18, 1898
Eugene V. Debs: “The Social Democratic Party of America lives.”
From the Chicago Social Democratic Herald of July 16, 1898:
The Future
To the Social Democratic Party.
Comrades:—
That I have not earlier sent greeting to my comrades is due to prolonged indisposition. The incessant work and travel of more than 20 years have temporarily placed me hors de combat [out of the fight]. But only temporarily. With returning health and strength my work will be continued. It is not a little disquieting to have to “let go,” even for a little while, when there is such urgent need for action.
The separation at the late convention was inevitable. It had to come. The contemplation of division was painful, as only those can fully realize who were party to it. But painful as it was, the operation had to be performed. And it was a success, for the Social Democratic Party of America lives. All the members are full fledged socialists. They are in accord with the program of international socialism. There is not only in the number opposed to independent political action, not one that asks or expects anything from any old capitalist party, by whatever name it may be called.
There is harmony. There is oneness of purpose, there is true-hearted fidelity to principle, there is unrelaxing energy, and these qualities in alliance presage success.
So I contemplate the course of events with serenity.
Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: “Social Democratic Party of America” -Letter from Chicago Delegates
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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday July 7, 1898
On the Formation of the Social Democratic Party of America
From the Appeal to Reason of July 2, 1898:
The Social Democratic Party of America.
———-CHICAGO, June 16, 1898.
To Members of the Social Democracy of America:
COMRADES: There has been a division of the delegates who met in annual convention in this city in the name of the Social Democracy, beginning June 7th and ending June 11th, and the result has been the formation of a new party, known as the Social Democratic Party of America.
To report the truth respecting the withdrawal of the undersigned delegates from the convention, and the causes which led thereto, and to the formation of a new party, is the purpose of this address, and we bespeak for it the calm and serious consideration its importance demands.
Soon after the convention was called to order it became apparent that the delegates were divided into two factions, and as the deliberations proceeded the breach which separated them grew wider and all hope of bringing them into harmonious alliance vanished.
The prime factor in the disruption of the Social Democracy was the appearance in the convention of a number of delegates representing Chicago branches which were reported to have been organized within two or three days of the time the convention met, and these delegates were sufficient in number to control the convention. As a matter of fact they were chosen for that purpose and for that purpose alone, and it can be proved that the branches they were alleged to represent had not, and have not now, any existence.
That there was an undercurrent to defeat independent political action, especially in some sections in which certain delegates were personally interested, was too plainly evident to admit of doubt. The intense activity of certain other persons who are known to be violently opposed to political action emphasized the conviction that “colonization” was made the pretext for defeating the independent political program of the organization.
