Hellraisers Journal, Monday July 6, 1908
Compassion of Eugene Debs Re-Converts Florence Kelley
From The Socialist Woman of July 1908:
A RE-CONVERT.
—–
Rose Pastor Stokes.
Florence Kelley
Mrs. Florence Kelley is one of the noblest women I know, and has worked for twenty years or more for Socialism among trades unionists and other classes of men and women. She used to belong to the Socialist party, but has not been a party member for many years. Last Sunday Mrs. Kelley was present at the mass meeting of the Christian Socialist Fellowship, when Eugene V. Debs spoke.
She was there when everybody else on the program spoke; but when she heard his wonderful plea for the woman who is not “fallen” but “knocked down;” for his sisters who are forced by a cruel and heartless system to sell their honor for a living, when she heard him declare, in a voice broken with emotion, that he honors these sisters of his and places his arm about them, and takes his stand by their side, Mrs. Kelley could not hear more.
Her face was flushed, and I saw the tears she wouldn’t let come to her eyes, as she exclaimed: “I am ashamed to be out of the party that has a man like that at its head! I’ll take out my membership card for him tomorrow.”
And her word is as good as her bond. Welcome to another new comrade!-The New York Evening Call.
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday July 5, 1898
Controversy Continues over Division in Social Democracy
From the Omaha Western Laborer of July 2, 1898:
Social Democracy:
The Withdrawal of Debs and What It Means
by Joseph R. Buchanan
“What’s the matter with Debs?”
I have heard that query propounded many times during the past four weeks. Men whom I met at different places on a trip from New York to Omaha and return asked me the question. The division in the Social Democracy was in the mind of everyone who asked it, and what they really wanted to know was the cause of the split in that organization. I was in Chicago two or three days after the break occurred [June 11th], and I met and talked with representative men of each wing of the divided movement. I tried hard to see Debs but failed. However, I saw two men who undoubtedly had the knowledge to speak for his side, and they claimed the authority to do so. However, both sides agree as to the real reason of the division, and that reason is not a secret, as it was given in the daily press of Chicago at the time.
A minority of the delegates to the national convention held in Chicago [June 7-11] wanted to change the program and policy of the Social Democracy by abandoning the colonization feature. When the test vote was taken, the result showed 52 for retaining the colony scheme and 37 against. The 37 bolted the convention and Debs joined them. They afterward met and decided to reorganize the minority on educational and political lines, entirely abandoning the colony project and to go forth with a new plan for a socialistic political party
Hellraisers Journal: Saturday June 20, 1908
Chicago, Illinois – Socialist Party Platform and Principles
From the International Socialist Review of June 1908:
Socialist Platform.
PRINCIPLES.
Human life depends upon food clothing and shelter. Only with these assured are freedom, culture and higher human development possible. To produce food, clothing or shelter, land and machinery are needed. Land alone does not satisfy human needs. Human labor creates machinery and applies it to the land for the production of raw materials and food. Whoever has control of land and machinery controls human labor, and with it human life and liberty.
To-day the machinery and the land used for industrial purposes are owned by a rapidly decreasing minority. So long as machinery is simple and easily handled by one man, its owner cannot dominate the sources of life of others. But when machinery becomes more complex and expensive and requires for its effective operation the organized effort of many workers its influence reaches over wide circles of life. The owners of such machinery become the dominant class.
In proportion as the number of such machine owners compared to all other classes decreases, their power in the nation and in the world increases. They bring ever larger masses of working people under their control, reducing them to the point, where muscle and, brain are their only productive property. Millions of formerly self-employing workers thus become the helpless wage slaves of the industrial masters.
As the economic power of the ruling class grows it becomes less useful in the life of the nation. All the useful work of the nation falls upon the shoulders of the class whose only property is its manual and mental labor power—the wage worker—or of the class who have but little land and little effective machinery outside of their labor power—the small traders and small farmers. The ruling minority is steadily becoming useless and parasitic.
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, Wednesday June 19, 1918
Canton, Ohio – Echoes from Nimisilla Park
On Sunday June 16th, Eugene Debs arrived at the Nimisilla Park, in Canton, for a grand picnic given by the Socialist Party of Ohio on the final day of the state convention. He came directly to the park following a brief visit with the Ohio Comrades, C. E. Ruthenberg, Alfred Wagenknecht, and Charles Baker who are now residing behind the bars of the Stark County Work House, across the street from the park.
Comrade Debs walked through the crowd smiling and came to the front of the platform. He gave a speech which is certain to be remembered for years to come.
Debs spoke for about two hours, and said, in part:
-(Emphasis added.)
Comrades, friends and fellow-workers, for this very cordial greeting, this very hearty reception, I thank you all with the fullest appreciation of your interest in and your devotion to the cause for which I am to speak to you this afternoon.
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.
I have just returned from a visit over yonder, where three of our most loyal comrades are paying the penalty for their devotion to the cause of the working class. They have come to realize, as many of us have, that it is extremely dangerous to exercise the constitutional right of free speech in a country fighting to make democracy safe in the world.
I realize that, in speaking to you this afternoon, there are certain limitations placed upon the right of free speech. I must be exceedingly careful, prudent, as to what I say, and even more careful and prudent as to how I say it. I may not be able to say all I think; but I am not going to say anything that I do not think. I would rather a thousand times be a free soul in jail than to be a sycophant and coward in the streets. They may put those boys in jail—and some of the rest of us in jail—but they can not put the Socialist movement in jail. Those prison bars separate their bodies from ours, but their souls are here this afternoon. They are simply paying the penalty that all men have paid in all the ages of history for standing erect, and for seeking to pave the way to better conditions for mankind.
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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Canton Anti-War Speech of Eugene Victor Debs
Sunday June 16, 1918
Note: clicking on the five tweets below will lead to threads with excerpts from the famous speech by Eugene Debs, 45 in all-some long, some short. Based on charges steming from this speech, Comrade Debs was later prosecuted and sent to Atlanta Federal Prison. Follow Hellraisers Journal for the rest of the story.
Comrades, friends and fellow-workers, for this very cordial greeting, this very hearty reception, I thank you all with the fullest appreciation of your interest in and your devotion to the cause for which I am to speak to you this afternoon.
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.
Free Speech or Lack Thereof
It is extremely dangerous to exercise the constitutional right of free speech in a country fighting to make democracy safe in the world.
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday June 11, 1918
Fort Wayne, Indiana – Claude G. Bowers Describes Debs on Speaker’s Platform
Following a speech given May 20th by Eugene Debs at Moose Hall in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Claude G. Bowers devoted space in his column, “Kabbages and Kings,” to give a moving description of Debs as he appeared on the speaker’s platform:
Last week a tall, lean, long-legged man with a lean, thin, sharp face and piercing eyes, stood on the platform at the Moose hall in this city and talked for more than an hour on “Socialism and Democracy.” It was evident that the greater part of the audience was in sympathy with his ideas and more than ordinarily in love with the man. He was a socialist,-perhaps the most famous America has produced….
There was no bitterness against men. Very little mere bitterness against principles and systems. The most biting things were the flash of wit and humor. These cut like a knife but the audience laughed. The speaker was Eugene V. Debs. As an orator he is among the finest….
[Note: the entire column can be found below.]
[Inset is from The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette of May 19th.]
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday June 8, 1898
Terre Haute, Indiana – Debs Speaks in Favor of Socialism
From the Huntington Weekly Herald of June 3, 1898:
Debs Talks at Terre Haute.
Terre Haute, Ind., June 2-Eugene Debs Spoke on “The Coming Nation” at the Opera House here [on Tuesday May 31st] to a large audience. The address was for the benefit of the Central Labor union, which has been organized on a stronger basis than ever before in the city. The receipts were large and the fund for the union’s new headquarters will be considerably increased. Debs’ address was an argument in favor of socialism.
———-
[Photograph added.]
From the Terre Haute Gazette of June 1, 1898:
Debs’ Lecture on the “Coming Nation”
—–
For the first time in the record of the ages the inalienable rights of man—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—have been usurped.
On July 4th, 1776, our forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence by which the ruler descended form his sceptered throne, the gem of liberty was planted in eternal truth, the workingman stood erect in his heaven-decreed prerogative, freed from his bonds.
It was decreed by the infinite that man should stand forth the coronated sovereign of the world. The song of liberty is the song of the stars. There is no more appropriate theme and to wave the banner of freedom. No matter how nature may be decked with beauty, no matter if she sends forth a succession of glorious melodies, if liberty is ostracized and expelled, the world wheels round the sun a gilded prison, a blot to the Siberian sphere of the heavens.
Strike down liberty, no matter by what subtle art, and the world becomes paralyzed by an indescribable power. Strike down the fetters of the plain, and it becomes a new world through the almighty genius of liberty. Its works redeem the poor man from animal suspense and make of him a new being. In our courts the product of our political liberty is being realized to a gratifying extent. I believe in a few years woman will be franchised and we will elect the officers of our country by direct vote. The political democracy will be complete.
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday May 26, 1908
Girard, Kansas – Town Throws Surprise Party for ‘Gene Debs
From the Appeal to Reason of May 23, 1908:
All of Girard and half of the county assembled in the court house park last Saturday afternoon [May 16th]. A hastily improvised platform had been erected, and, to the music of bands and lusty cheering of the citizens of this little town, irrespective of party affiliation, ‘Gene Debs was escorted forward and introduced to the enthusiastic crowd by Mayor Ryan. The mayor was preceded by E. N. Richardson, who, in a few moments’ speech, voiced the sentiment of every man and woman and child in Girard when he said:
Ladies and Gentlemen-My Friends and My Comrades:-Here is a man whom you all know-many of you may not yet agree with him in his political beliefs; many of you will not vote for hem, but you all love him-you love him because you can’t help yourself; you love him because he is the most lovable man America has ever produced…
Comrade Debs had been kept in complete ignorance of the little surprise party. For a few moments he seemed overwhelmed at the expressions of good will and the smiling faces on every hand. But he quickly recovered from the slight embarrassment, and began to talk. And such a talk! As a father talks to his children, Debs talked to those gathered under the shade of the spreading elms in the court house yard. It wasn’t a wildly enthusiastic gathering, such as one would expect to see on an occasion like this. It was rather a gathering of men and women in dead earnest who realized the deep significance of the occasion and were determined to let no single word which fell from the speaker’s lips escape them. One could almost feel the spirit of the revolution-it impressed me as a counterpart of those meetings of colonial patriots just prior to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. “Momentous and significant.” These words sum up the Girard meeting at which the citizens of this village, without a dissenting voice expressed their congratulations to their fellow townsman, nominated for the presidency by the Socialist national convention.
At the close of the address a group of little children, bearing baskets of flowers and wreaths, and their little faces suffused with smiles, marched to the platform and literally smothered their friend with roses. Tears came to the big brother’s eyes as he gathered the little ones to him. An hour later, I passed ‘Gene sitting on the curb with a dozen bright haired lassies clinging to his arms and shoulders! Mark my words: “You can pin your faith to the man loved by children.”
Friends, you need never be afraid
to put your confidence in a man
whom the children and the dogs love.
-E. N. Richardson ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Monday May 25, 1908
Town Square, Girard, Kansas – Most Famous Citizen Celebrated
Upon learning that Eugene Debs had received the presidential nomination of the Socialist Party of America, the citizens of Girard, Kansas, arranged a celebratory meeting in the town square as a surprise for their most famous and most beloved resident. Mr. Debs did not attend the convention in Chicago and was, therefore, on hand to enjoy the festivities.
From The Girard Press of May 21, 1908:
DEBS JOLLIFICATION MEETING.
—–
Band, Flowers, and Hand Shaking.
Saturday afternoon [May 16th] the citizens of Girard, regardless of political affiliations, held a meeting in honor of Eugene V. Debs, the Socialist nominee for President of the United States. It is not often that a town or community has the honor of being the residence of a nominee for the Presidency, and Girard comes to the front in having this honor, as Mr. Debs has been a citizen of our city for the past year.
The Frontenac band was engaged for this occasion and furnished music in the public square, where a speaker’s platform had been erected. The meeting was at 3 o’clock, and up to this time Mr. Debs had been kept in ignorance of what was going to happen, and was not apprised of the same until a committee waited upon him and escorted him to the park.
E. N. Richardson made the opening talk, in which he paid a glowing tribute to the nominee. He then introduced Mayor W. H. Ryan, who is a candidate for governor on the Democratic ticket, and who, after a few remarks, introduced Mr. Debs.
In Mr. Debs’s introduction he said that his residence in our city had been the most pleasant, and that he felt as much at home in Girard as he did in the town of his birth. He complimented the Girard people upon their hospitality and the good fellowship that existed toward him. He talked at length, and was heard to the end by a large audience.
At the close of his speech a bevy of little girls bearing baskets of flowers went to the platform and presented their floral offerings, after which there was handshaking and congratulations.
Debs Talks at Terre Haute.
