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, Monday January 6, 1908
Goldfield, Nevada – What to do with Roosevelt’s Troops, Part I
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 I]
When President Roosevelt issued his order, based upon the requisition of Governor Sparks and the Mine Owners of Nevada, converting the mining town of Goldfield into a military camp, the whole country was more or less surprised. It was the suddenness of the action of the president rather than the action itself which created such intense interest and elicited approval of provoked condemnation, according to the point of view.
The telegraphic dispatch containing this military order struck the APPEAL almost as if it had been a blow in the face.
There was absolutely nothing in the Goldfield situation to warrant such an arbitrary act of interference in a purely local situation. The president knew it, and so did every one else at all familiar with the situation. The act could have but one meaning and one purpose. The APPEAL instinctively understood it. The blow had been struck without warning; it must be returned without delay. The facts of the case must be given to the working class as promptly and as fully as the means and facilities at the command of the APPEAL would allow.
