Tag: USA v Debs 1918

Hellraisers Journal: Debs Released from Atlanta Penitentiary, Weeps as 2,300 Convicts Cheer for His Freedom

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
Share

Quote EVD if Crime to oppose bloodshed, AtR p1, Oct 23, 1920—————

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:

Ipl Str p1, Dec 26, 1921
——Ipl Str p1, Dec 26, 1921———

(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. 

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Debs Released from Atlanta Penitentiary, Weeps as 2,300 Convicts Cheer for His Freedom” →

Hellraisers Journal: Poem for Eugene Debs by Edmund Vance Cooke, Written During the Trial of “Brave Eugene”

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
Share

Quote EVD, Debs Address to the Court, Sept 14, 1918

—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 10, 1921
“Eugene” By Edmund Vance Cooke
(Written in the courtroom while Debs was being tried.)

From the Appeal to Reason of January 8, 1921:

EVD POEM Eugene by EV Cooke, AtR p4, Jan 8, 1921

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Poem for Eugene Debs by Edmund Vance Cooke, Written During the Trial of “Brave Eugene”” →

Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs: “I enter the prison door a flaming revolutionist, my head unbent, my spirit untamed…”

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
Share

Quote EVD Enter Prison Untamed, Ipl Str p11, Apr 14, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 15, 1919
The Journey of Eugene Debs from Terre Haute to Moundsville Prison

From The Indianapolis Sunday Star of April 13, 1919:

Debs Leaves Alone on Way to Serve Sentence
—–

(Special to The Indianapolis Star.)

EVD, Bstn Glb p3, Sept 13, 1918

TERRE HAUTE, Ind., April 12,-When Eugene V. Debs was advised by long distance telephone today that no Federal officer would be sent for him, but that he would be expected to report as early as possible to the authorities in Cleveland, O., he made arrangements to depart at 10 o’clock tonight. He engaged his berth on the Big Four train, then quietly proceeded to put his house in order for his period of absence.

Mr. Debs observed his farewell dinner at home with only Mrs. Debs and her mother at the table. He was surprised when advised that he would be permitted to report voluntarily to the Federal Building in Cleveland. It had been thought that an officer would come to accompany him to the prison at Moundsville, W. Va., where he is to serve ten years.

———-

[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs: “I enter the prison door a flaming revolutionist, my head unbent, my spirit untamed…”” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: Your Liberties Will Go With ‘Gene Debs When He Goes to Prison

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
Share

Quote EVD Slave is My Brother, AtR p1, May 1, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 30, 1919
“…while Debs is in prison, you are not free, no honest man is free…”

From the Appeal to Reason of March 29, 1919:

Banner Headline EVD to Go to Prison, AtR p1, Mar 29, 1919
—–

The decision of the United States Supreme Court upholding the prison sentence passed upon Eugene V. Debs by a lower federal court came as a distinct shock to several millions of the American people. It is true that the hopes of these people were not pinned to the slender faith that Debs would find a just refuge in this high court of the powers that be. While the Supreme Court frequently sets aside laws with an astonishing alacrity, they are such laws as are obnoxious to privileged interests rather than to plain citizens. Setting aside the Espionage Act, especially to remove the threat of prison from Debs the spokesman of labor, was the last thing the Supreme Court could have been rationally expected to do.

The reply of the Appeal to the Supreme court is simply this: Whatever you can or cannot do, whatever you will or will not do, in the case of Debs makes little difference in the actual and final settlement of the issue. Where ignorance and prejudice are blissfully enthroned, ’tis folly to look for wisdom and tolerance. If you had it in your power and province to make Debs a free man by a mere effortless nod of the head, we know well that you would not do so. Politically you may safely defy any storm of public opinion, because you are secure in your arbitrary life jobs. But there are other branches of the government that depend upon the suffrage of the people and that must, unless madness has seized them and they are led to listen to the most stupid of counsels, place themselves responsive to the manifested will of public opinion. We believe that President Wilson and certain members of his official family are really inclined to favor action that a sufficient sentiment of the people, clearly expressed, may demand. That is to say, we believe that they are wise enough to listen to the people when the people talk loud enough and that they are not so wrapped in reactionary stupidity and prejudice that they will obdurately refuse to follow a course that demonstrates itself to be popular.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: Your Liberties Will Go With ‘Gene Debs When He Goes to Prison” →

Hellraisers Journal: Debs Bids Farewell to Cleveland Comrades at Speech at West Side Turn Hall, Appeals for Solidarity

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
Share

Quote EVD, re Red Roses, OH Sc p4, Mar 19, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday March 21, 1919
Cleveland, Ohio – Eugene Debs Presented with Red Roses at Farewell Address

From The Ohio Socialist of March 19, 1919:

Eugene V. Debs’ Speech at West Side Turn Hall, Cleveland
[Wednesday Evening, March 12, 1919]

EVD, Bstn Glb p3, Sept 13, 1918

Before a capacity audience of 3,000 which filled West Side Turn hall one hour before his scheduled appearance Debs made his farewell speech.

Debs was calm, His opening words were accorded an instantaneous silence. He said:

How true it is that there is a divinity that shapes our ends, roughhew them how we will! It may seem strange to you, but in my plans, in my dreams, I did not think of going to the penitentiary-and I-I had a thousand times rather go there and spend my remaining days there than to betray this great cause.

So far as I am concerned it does not matter much. The margin is narrow, the years between now and the sunset are few, and the only care that I have personally is that I may preserve to the last the integrity of my own soul and my loyalty to the only cause worth living for, fighting for, and dying for.

It is so perfectly fine to me to look into your faces once more, to draw upon you for the only word I have ever had, the only word that I can ever speak for myself. I love mankind, humanity. Can you understand? I am sure you can.

We are close of kith and kin, we are human and when we get into close touch with each other we come to understand that our good depends upon the good of all humanity.

Opposed to System.

I am opposed to the system under which we live. I am opposed to the government that compels you, the great body of the American people, to pay your tribute to an insignificant few who enjoy life while the great body of the people suffer, struggle, and agonize without ever having lived. Can you understand? I am sure you can.

Let me get in touch with you for a while. I am going to speak to you as a Socialist, as a revolutionist, and, if you please, as a Bolshevist.

And what is the thing that the whole world is talking about? What is it that the ruling class power of the world are denouncing, upon which they are pouring a flood of all their malicious lies-what is it? It is the rise of the workers, the peasants, the soldiers, the common man, who for the first time in history said, “I have made what there is, I produced the wealth; I want to be heard.”

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Debs Bids Farewell to Cleveland Comrades at Speech at West Side Turn Hall, Appeals for Solidarity” →

Hellraisers Journal: Debs Case on Appeal Before Supreme Court to be Hurried at Request of Federal Prosecutors

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
Share

EVD Quote, cry for freedom, Duluth Truth, Feb 15, 1918
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday November 26, 1918
Case Against Comrade Debs to Be Hurried Before Supreme Court

From the Ohio Socialist of November 20, 1918:

Debs Case To Be Hurried
—–

EVD Rose Stokes Max Eastman, Cleveland During Trial, Sept 1918

—–

The daily press carries the report that the case against Comrade Debs on appeal before the Supreme Court is to be hurried, the government prosecutors having asked the Supreme Court to advance the case.

Why this unseemly haste one may ask? Is it feared that with the coming of peace the policy of continuing the jailing of prominent Socialists may meet with the disapproval of the common herd who are learning so fast these days? Do the government prosecutors fear to have an American Liebknecht free in the land? This leads to another question: Isn’t it possible that Debs in prison will become a more potent power against the capitalist system than Debs in freedom?

Liebknecht in prison or Liebknecht free the revolution came just the same to Germany. Take your choice gentlemen, for whether Debs goes to prison or remains free the capitalist system of production is doomed, and all the courts of all governments can not give it one breath of life.

[Photograph added.]

———-

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Debs Case on Appeal Before Supreme Court to be Hurried at Request of Federal Prosecutors” →

Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Victor Debs Addresses the Court: “The cross is bending, the midnight is passing…”

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
Share

Quote EVD, The Cross is Bending, Sept 14, 1918
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Monday September 16, 1918
Cleveland, Ohio – Eugene Debs Address the Court, Part II

On September 12th, Comrade Debs was convicted under the Espionage law on charges based upon his Anti-War Speech delivered at Canton, Ohio, on June 16th. On Saturday September 14th, Debs appeared at Federal Court in Cleveland, Ohio, in order to receive the sentence of Judge Westenhaver. The motion for a new trial was denied and Debs was asked if he had anything to say before sentence was pronounced. Comrade Debs faced the Judge and spoke:

STATEMENT TO THE COURT, PART II

EVD, Debs to Terre Haute, Ipl Str p2, Sept 15, 1918

I believe, Your Honor, in common with all Socialists, that this nation ought to own and control its own industries. I believe, as all Socialists do, that all things that are jointly needed and used ought to be jointly owned—that industry, the basis of life, instead of being the private property of the few and operated for their enrichment, ought to be the common property of all, democratically administered in the interest of all.

John D. Rockefeller has today an income of sixty million dollars a year, five million dollars a month, two hundred thousand dollars a day. He does not produce a penny of it. I make no attack upon Mr. Rockefeller personally. I do not in the least dislike him. If he were in need, and it were in my power to serve him, I should serve him as gladly as I would any other human being. I have no quarrel with Mr. Rockefeller personally, nor with any other capitalist. I am simply opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful, to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all of the days of their lives secure barely enough for existence.

This order of things cannot always endure. I have registered my protest against it. I recognize the feebleness of my effort, but, fortunately, I am not alone. There are multiplied thousands of others who, like myself, have come to realize that before we may truly enjoy the blessings of civilized life, we must reorganize society upon a mutual and cooperative basis; and to this end we have organized a great economic and political movement that spreads over the face of all the earth.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Victor Debs Addresses the Court: “The cross is bending, the midnight is passing…”” →

Hellraisers Journal: Comrade Eugene Victor Debs Addresses the Court, Sentenced to Ten Years, Admitted to Bail

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
Share

Quote EVD, Debs Address to the Court, Sept 14, 1918
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday September 15, 1918
Cleveland, Ohio – Eugene Debs Address the Court, Part I

On September 12th, Comrade Debs was convicted under the Espionage law on charges based upon his Anti-War Speech delivered at Canton, Ohio, on June 16th. On Saturday September 14th, Debs appeared at Federal Court in Cleveland, Ohio, in order to receive the sentence of Judge Westenhaver. The motion for a new trial was denied and Debs was asked if he had anything to say before sentence was pronounced. Comrade Debs faced the Judge and spoke:

STATEMENT TO THE COURT, PART I

EVD, Debs Gets 10 Years, Akron Eve Tx p1, Sept 14, 1918

Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

If the law under which I have been convicted is a good law, then there is no reason why sentence should not be pronounced upon me. I listened to all that was said in this court in support and justification of this prosecution, but my mind remains unchanged. I look upon the Espionage Law as a despotic enactment in flagrant conflict with democratic principles and with the spirit of free institutions.

Your Honor, I have stated in this court that I am opposed to form of our present Government; that I am opposed to the social system in which we live; that I believed in the change of both—but by perfectly peaceable and orderly means.

Let me call your attention to the fact this morning that in this system five per cent of our people own and control two-thirds of our wealth; sixty-five per cent of the people, embracing the working class who produce all wealth, have but five per cent to show for it.

Standing here this morning, I recall my boyhood. At fourteen I went to work in a railroad shop; at sixteen I was firing a freight engine on a railroad. I remember all the hardships and privations of that earlier day, and from that time until now my heart has been with the working class. I could have been in Congress long ago. I have preferred to go to prison. The choice has been deliberately made. I could not have done otherwise. I have no regret.

In the struggle, the unceasing struggle, between the toilers and producers and their exploiters, I have tried, as best I might, to serve those among whom I was born, with whom I expect to share my lot until the end of my days.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Comrade Eugene Victor Debs Addresses the Court, Sentenced to Ten Years, Admitted to Bail” →