Hellraisers Journal – Saturday July 22, 1922 Photograph of Eugene Debs at Lindlahr Sanitarium near Chicago, Illinois
From The West Virginian of July 21, 1922:
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Eugene Debs, Socialist leader, is a patient at a Chicago sanitarium where he is undergoing treatment for insomnia. “I am not ill, but for the first time in my life I feel tired and worn,” he says. Shown with him are Drs. Boerma Daniels an Matthiesen Yunkers.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 27, 1921 Atlanta Penitentiary – Debs Weeps as 2,300 Convicts Cheer His Release
From The Indianapolis Star of December 26, 1921:
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(Special to The Indianapolis Star.)
ATLANTA, Ga. Dec. 26.-Eugene V, Debs left prison today. His going was the occasion of the most unique demonstration in American prison history.
Twenty-three hundred men, convicted of crimes unnumbered, their faces pressed against the bars of the windows on three floors of the big Federal penitentiary, shouted and cheered him and before them all, in the great foreground, he broke down and cried like a child.
Recovering himself, he stepped into an automobile and was driven off, the voices of the 2,300 following him for half a mile.As this is written, on a train bound for Washington, with Debs as a passenger in a day coach, the mystery surrounding the celebrated convict deepens. Why is he going to the capital? He refuses to say, but he has admitted he has a mission there. Whether or not the trip is a condition of his release he declines to say, but the fact that he was driven to the station in the automobile of the warden, four of whose deputies are aboard this train, would indicate that while Debt is out of prison he is not yet free.
“Citizen of the World.”
So far as he himself is concerned, however, he construes himself a liberated “citizen of the world,” the phrase having to do with President Harding’s refusal to grant a pardon which would have restored the prisoner’s civil rights.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 7, 1921 Atlanta Federal Penitentiary – Comrade Debs Found in Solitary Confinement
From the Appeal to Reason of February 26, 1921:
Eugene V Debs Federal Prisoner No 9653,has been placed incommunicado in Atlanta prison, has been forbidden even to communicate with his wife and brother, and is threatened with solitary confinement, “in the hole,” on bread and water—this fiendish and barbarous punishment being inflicted upon the Grand Old Man of the American labor movement in mad revenge for the latest statement of Debs printed in the Appeal [see below], in reply to President Wilson’s final contemptuous denial of a pardon to Debs.
The above is the startling news that is flashed over the wires of the Appeal, shortly before going to press, in the following telegram from Theodore Debs, brother of ‘Gene:
Terre Haute, Ind., 4:26 p. m., Feb. 21, 1921,
Appeal to Reason, Girard, Kans.
By President Wilson’s special order Gene Debs is now in isolation cell and is deprived from receiving or sending mail even to his wife and is denied all visitors. It is rumored he is to go into the hole on bread and water. This is his punishment for his reply to Wilson’s attitude on his release. It is evident that the intention is to break his spirit and completely destroy his health.
THEODORE DEBS.
This is without doubt the most ghastly information that has come out of Atlanta, where Our Gene is suffering the most brutal torture that his political jailers can inflict in an effort to make him recant, make him renounce the dictates of his conscience, make him betray the comrades in whose cause he became the target of all the enemy’s hatred and venom.
There can be no questioning the accuracy of Theodore Debs’ message, monstrously incredible as it may seem. We know Theodore Debs to be a most careful informant; furthermore he has been constantly in direct touch with Atlanta since his brother Gene was confined in the federal bastile of the South. Theodore Debs is not the kind of man to make rash or hasty statements. Be sure that Theodore Debs’ emergency wire to the Appeal was the result of the most absolute and authentic information and carries with it the most desperate urgency and alarm over the possible fate of his fearless and martyred brother.
The Appeal feels certain that this ruthless treatment of Gene has been inspired by the recently and suddenly active Anti-Debs Lobby which is now functioning night and day at the nation’s capital in an attempt to thwart the wishes of the American people and keep Gene and his comrades behind the prison bars and Gene himself “in the hole” if possible. It is maddening to reflect that while the minions of Wall Street are active in Washington, the friends of Debs have not yet made possible a powerful Debs lobby which should be on the spot night and day to checkmate and counteract the infamous and unscrupulous activities of the sworn foes of Eugene V. Debs. It is not yet too late to speed our full forces to the defense of our beloved Gene.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 26, 1920 -Mother Jones News for August 1920, Part II Found in Washington, D. C., Opining on Women, the Ballot, and Labor Struggles
From The Washington Times of August 29, 1920:
SEES CURE IN RIGHT VOTING ——- Victory Futile, Says 90-Year-Old Leader, If “Ownership of Bread” is Lost. ——-
“No nation can ever grow greater or more human than its womanhood and I am not expecting the millennium as a result of woman’s privilege to vote,” said Mother Jones, noted woman leader, here today.
I am anxious to see women stand aide by side with men in developing the human family, but all of the ballots in the world will not change conditions for the people’s welfare unless attention is focused upon the disease causing the trouble.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 19, 1900
Indianapolis, Indiana – S. D. P. “Unity” Convention Nominates Debs
From San Francisco’s Class Struggle of March 17, 1900:
[Part II of II.]
FOURTH DAY [March 9th].
J.C. Chase, who served as chairman on the third day, was again elected to preside.
A motion to elect two delegates to the International Congress at Paris in 1900 was carried.Eugene Dietzgen was elected as one delegate, and on motion the election of the second delegate was referred to the joint committee of 18, the delegate to be elected by referendum.
MacCartney took the floor and stated that Debs had reconsidered his declination. Great applause. Debs was declared the nominee.
G.B. Benham was called upon for a speech, and congratulated the convention upon the nomination of Debs.
A man recognized from the Atlantic to the Pacific as one of the bravest advocates of the rights of the workers that the world has ever seen. His example has inspired the best efforts of the exponents of socialism, and his candidacy cements the union of socialist forces and assures us a grand result for the coming Presidential campaign.
Victor Berger nominated Job Harriman for Vice President. The nomination was received with applause as hearty as that which greeted the nomination of Debs. His nomination was declared unanimous, and all rose and gave three cheers for the candidates. Great enthusiasm. Handshaking was in order.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 18, 1900
San Francisco’s Class Struggle of March 17th Claims “Unity Achieved”
The first national convention of the Social Democratic Party of America was called to order Tuesday morning, March 6, 1900 by Chairman Jesse Cox, at Reichwein’s hall, Indianapolis, Ind. The Class Struggle of March 17th, official organ of the Socialist Labor Party of California, described the convention in detail in an article written by Editor G. B. Benham.
[Part I of II.]
At 10 o’clock am Tuesday, March 6th, the convention was called to order and William Mailly, editor of the Haverhill Social Democrat, was elected chairman. Strickland was made secretary and Johnson of Chicago and Val Putnam of St. Louis assistant secretaries.
The usual committees were appointed, and an order of business was adopted. The credentials committee had an amount of work that does not usually fall to such committees, for the arrangement and basis of representation is not of the character generally used in representative bodies. Any number of members may sign the credentials of a delegate and his vote in the convention is the vote of the number who signed the credentials. Any local organization can thus send as many delegates as they desire. In fact a member can send himself, sign his own credentials, and his voice is recorded as one vote on the floor of the convention, but the vote depends entirely upon the number of signers of the credentials. Thus Margaret Haile has 196 votes, and Martin of Ohio has 1 vote.
The total number of delegates present was 67, representing 17 states, showing total membership represented 2,043.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 4, 1908
The Journey of Red Special as Told by Charles Lapworth
In this month’s edition of the Review, Comrade Lapworth tells the inspirational story of the journey of the Red Special which carried Eugene Debs, the presidential candidate of the Socialist Party of America, across the nation, ending with a big rally and last campaign speech at Terre Haute.
From the International Socialist Review of December 1908:
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday November 7, 1908
1908 Campaign Ends with Taft Elected and Debs Victorious
From the Appeal to Reason of November 7, 1908:
Debs Victorious
Taft Elected
Debs Re-visits Woodstock Jail
FROM THE RED SPECIAL
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Debs Re-visits Woodstock Jail in
Last Days of Long Journey
-Vote should Be at Least a Million.
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Madison, Wis., Oct. 30.-We are now on the homeward lap, and when this is read by the Appeal readers the “Red Special” will have passed into history. This morning our first stop out of Chicago was at Woodstock, Ill. On arrival there the “Red Special” crew, and the assembled citizens marched to the Woodstock jail headed by the the “Red Special” band. On arrival at the court house, Harry Parker, manager of the train, called the meeting to order and made a few happy introductory remarks. Comrade Debs then addressed the people, recalling the time when he came to Woodstock as a prisoner, the intense feeling that then prevailed against him and how that had changed until now the people were as friendly and sympathetic as they were then hostile and hateful.
Hellraisers Journal Sunday November 1, 1908
Cincinnati and Evansville Socialist Give Red Special a Red Welcome
From the Appeal to Reason of October 31, 1908:
FROM THE RED SPECIAL.
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Debs and Taft in Evansville Same Day, But Latter
Ignores Proposal of the Socialists
to Exchange Audiences.
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Special Telegram to the Appeal.
St. Louis, Oct. 23.-At Evansville last night there were rival political demonstrations between the republicans and the Socialists. Taft and Debs both arrived at about the same time, and the old town was hot with excitement.
From the Evansville Press October 22, 1908
The local committee of the Socialists proposed to the republican committee an exchange of audiences for twenty minutes by the republican and Socialist orators for educational purposes, thus giving each orator the opportunity to address both audiences. The invitation was respectfully or otherwise ignored. Thus is there another bluff called. The republicans and the democrats both put up the claim that their campaigns are educational, but when they are called by the Socialists, and given a chance to make good, they expose their dishonesty and false pretense by refusing to address Socialists meetings or allowing Socialists to address their meetings.
Taft did but little at Evansville other than to explain his labor record. It surely needs explaining, and he has been working on the job ever since his nomination. The Socialist candidate, in his speeches at Evansville, put Taft on the rack and showed what his true attitude toward labor is by recalling the trip he made to Idaho to support the infamous Gooding in the conspiracy to murder Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday October 31, 1908
Philadelphia Police Club and Arrest Supporters of Comrade Debs
From the Appeal to Reason of October 24, 1908:
“Riot” to Hear Debs!
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The Philadelphia Inquirer October 12, 1908
The Philadelphia North American, under scare head lines, tells a story which has no parallel in the history of political gatherings in America. Debs was scheduled to speak in three halls in different parts of Philadelphia and long before the doors opened the streets were jammed with men, women and children who were not only anxious to hear the message of Socialism, but willing to pay for this privilege as well!
Says the North American: “Crowds packed every hall, 7,000 being the estimated number inside while as many more lined the streets outside.”
So great was the anxiety of the hungry multitude to listen to the gospel of Socialism that they crowded the doors and became frantic in their efforts to get on the inside.
There was no disorder, yet the police proceeded to club inoffensive women and children and arrest men who protested against the outrages. Here is the North American’s version of the activity of the police:
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