THOUGH JAILED, HE SPEAKS 
 
 DEBS 
 
 HIS AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 By David Karsner 
 
 AN AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY 
 
 "You will write just the kind of a book that Time and History will 
 require, and in every line in every page, you w^ill be speaking for 
 me w^itK my authority given to you -without reservation or qual- 
 ifications." — Eugene V. Dehs to David K,arsner. 
 
 Every Copy Sold Helps 
 Political and Industrial Prisoners 
 
 BONI AND LIVERIGHT 
 
 Publishers New York 
 
DEBS 
 
 His Authorized Life and 
 
 Letters from Woodstock 
 
 Prison to Atlanta 
 
 By DAVID KARSNER 
 
 Forbidden to write an in- 
 troduction to this book, Debs 
 issued it verbally and his 
 spoken message introduces 
 to the world a volume that 
 presents the intimate, vivid 
 picture of the man and the 
 times in which he has played, 
 and still hopes to play, an 
 important and significant 
 role. 
 
 It is written by the man 
 who Debs declares to be the 
 most qualified in America 
 to undertake the task. 
 
 $1.50 
 
 BONI & LIVERIGHT 
 
 Puhlishers New York 
 
University of California • Berkeley 
 
 Jack Fleming Prison Collection 
 
DEBS 
 
Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive 
 
 in 2007 witii funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/debsliisautlioriz;eOOkarsricli 
 
Photograph by Allen Drew Cook 
 
 EUGENE VICTOR DEBS 
 
DEBS 
 
 His Authorized Life and Letters 
 
 BY 
 
 DAVID KARSNER 
 
 BONI AND LIVERIGHT 
 
 Publishers New York 
 
COPTBIGHT, 1919, 
 
 BONI & LIVERIGHT. INC. 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTEB PAGS 
 
 Introductory — Debs's Authorization and In- 
 dorsement vii 
 
 I. "As Firm as Granite" 1 
 
 II. Trial, Conviction and Appeal 14 
 
 III. The Journey to Prison 58 
 
 rV. Two Months at Moundsville Prisoii ... 79 
 
 V. Transferred to Atlanta 101 
 
 VI. Early Days and Backgrounds 110 
 
 VII. Labor Unionist and Woodstock . . . 130 
 
 VIII. Four Presidential Campaigns 179 
 
 IX. Libertarian and Lover 209 
 
 X. His Impress on the Future 224 
 
 Appendix . . i 229 
 
INTEODUCTION 
 
 DEBS'S 'AUTHORIZATION ANP INDORSEMENT 
 
 EUGENE VICTOR DEBS, a federal convict in tlie 
 United States Prison at Atlanta, Ga., was pro- 
 hibited, under the prison rule, from doing any sort 
 of writing except the one letter a week to his family. 
 He could not, therefore, write an introduction to this 
 volume. Consequently, I visited him at the Atlanta 
 Prison on July 17, 1919, and in the presence of Warden 
 Fred G. Zerhst, Debs authorized and authenticated this 
 record of his life in these words: 
 
 **I am exceedingly glad that you were commissioned 
 to write this book which, I am sure, will com© to be 
 recognized as an important and an imperishable con- 
 tribution to American labor history. Although th<e 
 rules of the prison do not permit me to write an 
 introduction to your book, or to do any writing of any 
 kind aside from my one letter a week to my family, in 
 this spoken word I authorize you to write the story. 
 
 **I give to you as the author, and to Boni and 
 Liveright as the publishers, not merely my word of ap- 
 proval and hearty indorsement of your book, but my 
 warm appreciation of this manifest interest in the cause 
 in which I have been privileged to serve all of my life. 
 You will write just the kind of a book that Time and 
 History will require, and in every line, on every page 
 you will be speaking for me with my authority, given 
 to you without reservations or qualifications. 
 
 **More than any other person you have been pe- 
 
 vii 
 
viii INTRODUCTION 
 
 euliarly identified with the whole story since it be- 
 gan with the trial in September, 1918. Your daily 
 reports of the trial in Cleveland, your several accounts 
 of the trip we took from Terre Haute to Moundsville 
 Penitentiary last April, and your several interviews with 
 me at Moundsville, all printed in The New York Call; 
 were rare specimens of newspaper accuracy and jour- 
 nalistic skill. I say this not as flattery, but as the per- 
 sonal conviction which I have expressed to you in writing 
 before. 
 
 *' Honestly, I do not know of a man in America who 
 is placed in so advantageous a position, from so many 
 angles, to write this book, as yourself. I suppose that 
 other books along similar lines and covering the same 
 subject will be bound to follow, but already you are 
 fortified with a, thorough knowledge of the case and 
 have an understanding and an appreciation of its his- 
 toric significance to be able, more than any other, to 
 write authoritatively. As you have so far been the 
 newspaper historian of my trial, conviction and im- 
 prisonment, you will now become the historian of the 
 whole story in a much larger and more permanent sense. 
 
 *'And I indorse and shall stand by your book as being 
 the real and true history of such facts, incidents and 
 data that you may deem necessary to write about, com- 
 ment upon or interpret, and you therefore understand 
 without further word from me that I place abundant 
 faith in your moral and intellectual integrity. If I 
 did not feel absolutely sure that you would discuss your 
 subject frankly, fearlessly, justly and accurately, and 
 in the same intellectually honest spirit that I would 
 write of it, I should of course be compelled to withhold 
 my imprimatur from your book. 
 
 *' During this past year, crowded with these mo- 
 mentous months when we have been together under the 
 most trying circumstances, you have measured beyond 
 every test of loyalty and devotion as a friend and com- 
 
INTRODUCTION ix 
 
 rade, and have given me cause to regard you always 
 as my younger spiritual brother. 
 
 *'I wish your book every success; which I am sure it 
 will have; and you have my authority to sign my name 
 to what I have told you in this interview, inasmuch as 
 the rules of the United States Prison here do not per- 
 mit me to give you my written word." 
 
 Still in the presence of the warden, 'Gene Debs sealed 
 these words with an affectionate embrace. Then he 
 slowly backed off to the door, smiling and serene, walked 
 rapidly down the silent marble corridor with light and 
 agile tread, and the heavy iron door slammed and locked 
 as he slipped beyond, and became again a common con- 
 vict, U. S. No. 9653. 
 
DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE 
 AND LETTERS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 "AS FIRM AS GRANITE'' 
 
 SO far as I am concerned these stone walls and steel 
 bars do not exist; I do not see them. My spirit 
 soars beyond this institution and mingles with the spirits 
 of my comrades, loyal and devoted all, throughout the 
 country and the world. For my own self I am serene 
 and dauntless, and for my comrades I am confident that 
 the cause in which and for which they are working all 
 their waking hours will soon triumph, and in that blessed 
 day the workers of the world will inaugurate the great- 
 est liberty and democracy that the world has ever known. 
 Tell my comrades that I am all right and that there 
 is nothing to worry about; and now is there anything 
 else that you wanted to see me about?'' 
 
 Eugene Victor Debs, a Federal prisoner serving a sen- 
 tence of ten years for violating the Espionage Act by 
 making a speech at Canton, Ohio, on June 16th, 1918, 
 which the government construed as being inimical to 
 the success of the war in which it was engaged with 
 the Allied Powers against Germany, had been speaking 
 to me for half an hour in the private office of the warden 
 at the Atlanta Federal Prison. I told him that there 
 were a thousand things about which I should like to 
 speak to him, but he instantly assured me that it was 
 unnecessary; that while he had not received a single 
 paper or periodical since he came to Atlanta, June 14th, 
 
 1 
 
2 DEBS—AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 1919, from Moundsville Penitentiary, West Virginia, 
 where he began to serve his term exactly two months 
 before, still he knew, felt, all the important happenings 
 and did not need to be enlightened. 
 
 * ' I can feel the vibrations of the warm, firm and tender 
 hearts beating in unison for freedom and democracy 
 all over the world. The swelling note of their song 
 reverberates through these corridors, and I know they 
 are active. At night, in my prison cell I can feel the 
 warm and tender fingers of little children upon my face, 
 and all these things give me strength and courage to face 
 the future, whatever it may hold, with serenity and com- 
 posure.'* 
 
 Debs was now standing, clad in the prison blue, his 
 lean hands placed firmly upon each of my shoulders, 
 his six foot figure, gaunt and slender, slightly stoop- 
 ing, his smooth, lean and mobile face wreathed in a 
 smile, and his spectacled gray-blue eyes moist and ra- 
 diant. A few feet from us Warden Fred G. Zerbst was 
 standing at his yellow roll-top desk, wearing an expres- 
 sion on his face which to me seemed to betoken a mixture 
 of astonishment, sadness and sympathetic amusement. 
 In a moment Debs was backing off to the door and as 
 he turned his head before he stepped down the white 
 marble corridor he bowed and waved his hand to the 
 warden in a courteous manner, as an expression of his 
 thanks to his keeper for permitting the interview. Debs 
 was wearing cheap canvas ** sneakers'' over rough cot- 
 ton socks. Before the echo of the slamming iron door 
 behind him had died out in the sepulchral corridor, 
 Warden Zerbst and I, both still standing, were looking 
 very foolishly at each other. 
 
 **Did the government build this prison for such 
 inen?" I asked. 
 
 **The government built this prison for men who vio- 
 late Federal laws," replied the warden judiciously. Be- 
 fore his answer came I imagined there was a negative 
 
'*AS FIRM AS GRANITE'' 3 
 
 reply to my inquiry in his mind. But if there was he 
 gave it no voice. 
 
 During this talk with Debs he mentioned having seen 
 a newspaper article purporting to be a statement of A. 
 Mitchell Palmer, Attorney General of the United States, 
 to the effect that if Debs would repent things might be 
 made easier for him. A liberal interpretation of this 
 statement might be made to imply that Debs could 
 have a pardon if he would but ask for it and say he 
 was sorry for what he had done. In speaking of the 
 newspaper article he had read Debs^s eyes narrowed 
 almost to slits, and his great jaw tightened, and the 
 flesh on his long and narrow chin was drawn as his 
 mouth contracted with the gritting of his teeth. 
 
 * * Repent ! Repent ! " he snapped. ' ' Repent for stand- 
 ing like a man ! For having a conviction about a public 
 question, and standing by it and for the Cause ! Why, 
 before I would don the sackcloth and get down into 
 the ashes before the Attorney General or any man on 
 earth for having a principle I would gladly walk to 
 the gallows or the stake. If I should do such a thing 
 as that the barbaric tortures of the Inquisition would 
 be too good for me. 
 
 **No! Not in a thousand years shall I repent for a 
 single principle that I possess. They are dearer to me 
 than liberty, than life itself.'' Pointing his finger in 
 his most characteristic manner in the direction of the 
 iron gray gate at the entrance, he continued: 
 
 **The flies will carry me through that keyhole piece 
 by piece before I shall ever confess sorrow or penitence 
 for standing like a man, and by my constitutional rights 
 as an American citizen." Debs was on fire. His great 
 frame was hot in the molten passion of his spirit. He 
 was now manifesting the grand bitterness of his na- 
 ture, which, from another side is cooled from a tower 
 of fire and force, to a stooping figure of infinite tender- 
 
4 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 ness, mercy, compassion and love. ''No," said he, "I 
 am as firm as granite ! ' ' 
 
 It can be said without exaggeration that Eugene V. 
 Debs is one of the most celebrated prisoners ever placed 
 behind steel bars in America. Before his incarceration 
 he had enjoyed national, even international, fame for 
 twenty years, having first been a candidate for Presi- 
 dent of the United States on the Social-Democratic 
 Party's ticket in 1900. In the three successive presi- 
 dential campaigns he again led the Socialist Party. He 
 resolutely declined to accept the nomination for the fifth 
 time in 1916 when his party again looked to him to be 
 their leader. In that presidential year, still eager to 
 carry on the propaganda of Socialism, he permitted 
 his state (Indiana) organization to run him for 
 Congress in the Fifth District, which embraces Terre 
 Haute, the town in which he was born and has lived all 
 his life. Of Debs 's four presidential campaigns we shall 
 deal later. They have been mentioned here merely by 
 way of suggesting the national character and import of 
 this man, many of whose thousands of political opponents 
 are among his personal friends, and whose breadth of 
 intellect, spirit and vision transcends any single creed, 
 dogma or political party. Although the Socialists claim 
 him particularly, and he glories in their claim, he steps, 
 in fact, far beyond the Socialist creed, a man whose 
 spiritual figure will loom larger on the social horizon 
 with the passing of time. It may be that Debs will be 
 remembered and revered in history long after his im- 
 mediate political attachment has been eclipsed by other 
 creeds and formulas looking toward the perfect day 
 and the noble spirit. 
 
 Debs stepped into a felon's cell as philosophically as 
 if he were stepping into a train to go to some meeting 
 place to address a large audience. He donned the prison 
 gray at Moundsville and the prison blue at Atlanta with 
 the same equanimity with which he would put on civilian 
 
''AS FIRM AS GRANITE" 5 
 
 clothing at home. In both prison experiences he has 
 exhibited the same irrefragable determination of spirit 
 and mental serenity that he has manifested on unnum- 
 bered occasions in industrial and political contests. 
 There was no boast in the statement which he gave to 
 me just before he entered Moundsville Prison April 
 13th, 1919: 
 
 ''I enter the prison doors a flaming revolutionist — 
 my head erect, my spirit untamed and my soul uncon- 
 querable. ' ' 
 
 I saw Debs first at the Atlanta Prison on June 18th. 
 He had arrived there from Moundsville Prison the previ- 
 ous Saturday afternoon, June 14th. I was permitted 
 by Warden Zerbst to see Debs only because I presented 
 a letter to him written by Warden Joseph Z. Terrell of 
 Moundsville Prison, which introduced me **as a writer 
 of The New York Call, a close personal friend of Debs, ' ' 
 and stated that I had been permitted to see Debs sev- 
 eral times and that ''not once did he deviate from my 
 instructions as to what he might say to Debs, or the 
 length of his visit.*' The Atlanta warden was insistent 
 that I write "no sensational interview" in case he should 
 let me see Debs. The government did not permit news- 
 paper people to interview prisoners, he said. Sitting 
 on the veranda of the warden's dwelling, we held quite 
 a lengthy talk about Debs and his case. 
 
 The first five days of Debs's stay at Atlanta he was 
 locked in a cell, having been numbered 9653. In a letter 
 from Warden Terrell, Zerbst was familiarized with the 
 humane treatment and consideration accorded Debs 
 at Moundsville, and Zerbst was requested to be as kind to 
 Debs as the prison rules of Atlanta would permit. Zerbst 
 told me, on my first visit, that he intended to place Debs 
 in the hospital, in a clerical position similar to that which 
 he held at Moundsville for the two months that he was 
 there. In my presence, Zerbst so informed Debs of his 
 intentions. 
 
6 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 **"Well, warden, that is very kind of you, but I think 
 I should like to have a little manual labor, too. I am 
 very familiar with overalls. At home in Terre Haute I 
 am scarcely out of blue jeans. I am the official swabber 
 of my back alley. I give it a bath every day. One day 
 at home while I was sweeping the alley, an old neighbor 
 of mine, a very poor man, came along and said, 'Look 
 yere, Mr. Debs, you're keepin' a good man out of a job 
 by sweepin' that alley yourself.' 
 
 ** 'Well, neighbor, how much a day would you get 
 for doing this work ? ' I asked him. 
 
 " 'Two dollars, Mr. Debs.' 
 
 "So I gave him the two dollars and I kept the job, and 
 we were both happy and contented." 
 
 I left the prison in June with the impression that 
 'Gene would be treated almost as well as he had been at 
 Moundsville. His friends were astonished upon learn- 
 ing in July that he had been assigned to work in the 
 clothing department, and slept in a cell with five other 
 prisoners; that to all outward intents and purposes this 
 would be his routine life for the coming ten years. 
 
 In July, Zerbst voluntarily explained that Debs had 
 requested his present employment in the clothing ware- 
 house instead of the hospital assignment. But I learnedl 
 from Debs's own lips the reason. He had been proffered 
 the hospital assignment, which would have allowed him 
 to sleep in a dormitory instead of a cell, and a bed in- 
 stead of a bunk. When he went to the hospital one of 
 the attaches, remarking to another, said, "He will 
 cheat the government out of his sentence; he'll never 
 live ten years." Debs heard the slur, and refused 
 to go to work in the hospital, but he did not explain to 
 Zerbst the reason, and that official never knew, believ- 
 ing that ' ' Debs prefers the other work. ' ' At Atlanta the 
 rigorous prison rules were applied in all their severity 
 to Debs just as they apply to the 1700 other prisoners. 
 Debs expressed himself to me as being glad that this 
 
''AS FIRM AS GRANITE" 7! 
 
 was so. He refused to place himself in the position of 
 being the recipient of special favors that were not ac- 
 corded his fellow convicts. "What was good enough, or, 
 rather, what was bad enough for them, was equally good or 
 bad enough for him, and he would not have it otherwise. 
 As to the treatment accorded Debs at Atlanta, and 
 his reactions to it, we might just as well let the great 
 humanist speak for himself in his letter to his brother, 
 Theodore, at Terre Haute : 
 
 Theodore Debs, U. S. Penitentiary, 
 
 1218% Wabash avenue, Atlanta, Ga. 
 
 Terre Haute, Indiana. July 3d, 1919. 
 
 My dearest Old Pard: 
 
 A thousand loving greetings to you and Gertrude 
 and Marguerite and *'Babe"! You know why, under 
 my limited writing privileges, you have not heard from 
 me before. And you know, too, that you have been in 
 my heart every moment since we embraced in love and 
 farewell that never-to-be-forgotten night. You are the 
 sweetest, faithfullest, darling of a brother a mortal ever 
 had. Kate* has been telling me all about how good and 
 sweet and attentive you and Gertrude and Marguerite 
 have been to her, and that has been of inexpressible 
 solace to me — ^We all may write a special letter on the 
 Fourth of July and it is this letter that I'm now writing 
 to you. Please drop a line to Marguerite and tell her 
 why I can't write and that I send my love and tenderest 
 devotion to them all. The ride down here was hot and 
 tiresome but I stood it well. Had but an hour's notice 
 before leaving and everything was kept profoundly se- 
 cret. The first five days here I was locked in my cell 
 day and night. I'm now assigned to clerical work in 
 Clothing Room, very light, and in charge of Mr. Boyle 
 and Mr. Barry (?), two very fine men. We work from 
 
 * Mrs. Katherine M. Debs, Terre Haute, Indiana, wife of Eugene 
 V. Debs. 
 
6 DEBS—AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 8 till near 4 — then twenty minutes in yard, then sup- 
 per. We are in our cells from 5 p. m. to 7 a. m. — Satur- 
 day and Sunday p. m. we have out in the grounds from 
 about 1 to 4. There are six of us in one cell — ^my five 
 companions are the finest kind of fellows and I love them 
 all. One is a German, one a Jew, one an Irishman and 
 two Americans. They are all fine, bright fellows and 
 they vie with each other in being kind to me. Don't let 
 any one send me anything as it cannot come to me under 
 the rules. I have not received a package of any kind, 
 nor a Socialist paper or magazine since IVe been here. 
 Cigars, fruit, candy, eatables cannot come to me, so 
 please notify Germer * and the papers not to send me 
 anything as it will not reach me. Tell the comrades I 
 cannot write to them. I can write but one letter a week 
 and that to my family. A special letter requires appli- 
 cation in writing, special permission, and must be con- 
 fined to the one subject for which it is written, which 
 must be specified. The application must be approved by 
 the guard before it can be passed on — it may or may 
 not be granted and when written it may or may not be 
 sent. I am treated exactly the same as the common run 
 of prisoners and have no complaint on that score. The 
 prisoner here to whom we sent a little money for to- 
 bacco about two years ago has been very kind to me 
 and returned it many fold. Bread cast upon the waters, 
 etc. I'm in perfect health. My spirits could not be 
 more serene and dauntless. I calmly await the future. 
 All's well. 
 
 My love and kisses to you all and forever, 
 
 Gene. 
 Eugene Y. Debs, 
 No. 9653. 
 
 Debs himself had related to me on my visit in July the 
 
 substantial facts concerning his treatment and estate 
 
 * Adolph Germer, National Secretary, Socialist Party, Chicago. 
 
''AS FIRM AS GRANITE '* 9 
 
 at Atlanta Prison. After he had mentioned the different 
 nationalities of his five cell mates he said: 
 
 ''And I am an internationalist, so we all get along 
 splendidly together." 
 
 He said he was not being persecuted at the prison 
 because of his social ideas. But I could easily under- 
 stand without a word from him, by the flash of his eyes 
 and the stiffness of his jaws, with what hatred he re- 
 garded all prisons, and with what sympathetic under- 
 standing he entered into the dull, drab lives of his fel- 
 low prisoners. 
 
 "You remember," he said to me on one of my visits 
 to his cell, "you remember what Lincoln said when at 
 New Orleans he saw a young negress being sold on the 
 block? He said: 'If I ever get a chance I'll hit at the 
 very foundations of chattel slavery, and 1 11 hit it hard. ^ 
 Well, if I ever get out of here alive I'll strike at the 
 prison system harder than Lincoln ever hit at chattel 
 slavery." 
 
 At Atlanta Debs and his five cell mates alternated in 
 teams of two each week sweeping, swabbing and washing 
 the cell, which was neither a difficult job nor a long 
 one for six healthy and normal human beings, consider- 
 ing the fact that the cell was only ten by eight feet. In 
 the sextette cells there are three steel bunks in tiers on 
 each side of the walls. A thin straw mattress is thrown 
 over the springless steel frame of each. A rough sheet 
 and a blanket make up the clothing. 
 
 "Last week," said Debs, "came the turn of my Jewish 
 comrade and me to sweep and wash the floor and walls. 
 A line in the cement floor running down the middle of 
 the cell furnished the division of our labor. I had my 
 back turned to the fellow, as I was washing the wall 
 between the bunks, and when I turned around I saw that 
 the rascal had hunched over on my side of the line and 
 had washed almost the entire floor. I naturally gave 
 him a good talking to, and told him that since the govern- 
 
10 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 ment had given me a job I wanted to fill it, and that 
 he should * shinny over on his own side.' " 
 
 Debs has not often been in accord with the ideas of 
 priests and preachers, and when he was visited in his cell 
 at Atlanta by them the occasion presented an opportun- 
 ity to deliver himself on the subject, as he put it, of 
 churchianity versus Christianity. 
 
 ''I have already had two visitors," said Debs, with 
 a merry twinkle in his eye, **yes, one a priest and the 
 other a preacher. They came at different times, but on 
 the same mission, to save my soul. They both wanted 
 to know what religion I professed. I told them that 
 their churches and their theologies were not for me — I 
 have no use for them. Their tendencies are not to serve 
 but to enslave. To conceal rather than reveal the true 
 and vital significance of the Sermon on the Mount.'* 
 So, Debs said he told the two clergymen that he be- 
 longed to no church, and bowed to no image. He said 
 he believed firmly in immortality, and saw the spiritual 
 likeness of God in the face of every breathing being. 
 
 *'I told my friends of the cloth that I did not be- 
 lieve Christ was meek and lowly, but a real, living, vital 
 agitator who went into the Temple with a lash and a 
 knout and whipped the oppressors of the poor, routed 
 them out of doors and spilled their blood-got silver on 
 the floor. He told the robbed and misruled and exploited 
 and driven people to disobey their plunderers! he de- 
 nounced the profiteers, and it was for this that they 
 nailed his quivering body to the cross and spiked it to 
 the gates of Jerusalem, not because he told men to love 
 one another. That was a harmless doctrine. But when 
 he touched their profits and denounced them before their 
 people he was then marked for crucifixion. I did the 
 same thing in a different way," continued Debs on this 
 occasion, speaking in a most impersonal matter-of-fact 
 manner, with not the slightest suggestion of self-praise, 
 but rather in a vein of deep humility. ''I did the same 
 
"AS FIRM AS GRANITE '' lH 
 
 thing, but I fared better than Christ. They nailed hini 
 to the cross and they threw me in here. We have pro- 
 gressed quite some in two thousand years. If Christ 
 could go to the cross for his principles, surely I can go 
 to prison for mine, and I want nothing more than the 
 strength to be able to serve in this slight way those wha 
 have done so much for me. To be here for the reason 
 that I am here is a high privilege, and, in a sense, a 
 vindication of many things, all of which will come out 
 all right in God's good time. All of us but need the 
 strength to face the future together.*' 
 
 Debs is a most religious man. He accepts Literally 
 what he conceives to be the principles for which Christ 
 was crucified. He is a Christian to whom the church 
 offers nothing but an apology for Christ. He was a 
 personal friend of Robert G. Ingersoll, and he admired 
 the speeches and writings of the great agnostic, and 
 understood their significance as few men in that period 
 did. Debs is preeminently an agitator, a crusader. He 
 has lived close to the pulsing heart of the human race. 
 He accepts the Socialist philosophy because he is sure 
 it can be made to serve the poor and make them rich in 
 the good things of life. In his heart and soul there is no 
 trace of hatred for a living soul, and he has said time and 
 again that he would serve those who oppose him just as 
 much as those who are with him. Few men in America 
 have possessed the gift of oratory that belongs to Eugene 
 V. Debs. What he once said of Ingersoll, that "flowers 
 blossom upon his lips, and you can hear the ripple of 
 silver springs in the music of his voice, ' ' is likewise said 
 of him. In his forty years of agitation in behalf of the 
 workers and the organized labor movement of America 
 Debs has addressed millions of people. Once when he 
 came to New York to make an address at Madison Square 
 Garden the hall was crowded to the last inch. Lincoln 
 Steffens, the journalist, had a seat offered him on the 
 platform which he declined, saying he would rather go 
 
12 DEBS— AUTHOEIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 down under the stage so that he might be able "to feel 
 'Gene's vibrations.'* 
 
 Debs was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, November 
 5, 1855. In his sixty-fifth year he enjoys fair health, 
 despite the results of a severe nervous breakdown a few 
 years ago which left him prostrated for some while. He 
 stands a little over six feet, is slender and gaunt like 
 Lincoln. When speaking, both in public and in private, 
 he gesticulates frequently with his large, lean right 
 hand, extending and separating his fingers, with his 
 thumb curved far back. The gestures of that right hand 
 are a vital part of his talk, and in his grip you can feel 
 the sincere, pulsing heart of the man. His baldness, 
 which extends back beyond the crown of his head, ac- 
 centuates the myriad tiny veins, lines of suffering, and 
 the valleys and crevices in his face. 
 
 Debs has made his living for many years by his 
 speeches and writings, although by far the most of his 
 speeches have been delivered without any thought of 
 pay, and the major portion of his writings have been 
 given freely to the small daily and weekly papers whose 
 political and economic doctrines he supports. Scores of 
 weeklies and radical publications claim him as their 
 ** contributing editor," although most of them are finan- 
 cially unable to contribute toward his material well- 
 being. For many years an article in any one of these 
 publications signed by his name has been considered a 
 **star feature," and is reprinted again and again until 
 it has run its printorial course from coast to coast, from 
 the Gulf to the regions farthest north. He has had 
 compensatory attachments with The Appeal to Beason 
 of Girard, Kansas, when that free-lance Socialist weekly 
 was conducted under a former management, and later 
 he wrote a weekly editorial for The Bip Saw, another 
 free-lance Socialist weekly, published at St. Louis, and 
 which later became known as The Social Bevolution just 
 before it went into eclipse. He has written for a num- 
 
**AS FIRM AS GRANITE *' 13 
 
 ber of the more widely known publications, too, and 
 always in the style and manner of an agitator, a cru- 
 sader. Several scores of his most significant articles 
 have been reprinted in leaflet and pamphlet form, and 
 have had tremendous sales in which Debs has almost 
 never shared, the profits going into the coffers of the 
 particular enterprising Socialist Party branch to en- 
 able it to increase its propaganda for Socialism in its 
 community. Times uncounted he has traveled long dis- 
 tances to address meetings, paying every expense, even 
 railroad fare, out of his own pocket. He is reckless with 
 money — gives it away. Many stories have been told 
 about him concerning the number of overcoats he has 
 given to poor derelicts whom he chanced to meet in his 
 travels about the country. Once he came to Philadelphia 
 to address a large rally of his party. He was met at the 
 railroad depot by friends and an escorting committee. 
 He saw in the group an old and staunch friend, Horace 
 Traubel, poet and editor, a man of his own beliefs. 
 
 ''Horace, have you got any money?" Debs asked, 
 when the greetings were over. Traubel had in his pocket 
 twenty dollars which he gave over to Debs without fur- 
 ther word. 
 
 **I haven't got a cent," explained Debs. ''On my 
 train coming east there was an old woman with several 
 children, and the poor soul had lost her ticket. The con- 
 ductor was going to put her off. I gave her every cent 
 I had so she could go on her way." And Traubel was 
 reimbursed by Debs as soon as the latter arrived home 
 at Terre Haute. 
 
 The simplicity and sincerity of his kindnesses have 
 been the simplicity and sincerity of his powerful attacks 
 against whatever he considered to be injustice. Keenly, 
 persistently, he has sought his goal. Bitter criticism, pun- 
 ishment, could not affect the vision in his soul. Sixty- 
 four years of age — a ten-year term of imprisonment — 
 simply, serenely, he took that vision with him into his cell. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 TRIAL, CONVICTION AND APPEAL 
 
 THE Debs case was the result of a speech made by- 
 Debs in Canton, Ohio, June 16, 1918, before the 
 Ohio State Socialist Convention.* He had made a num- 
 ber of other speeches to his comrades in the Socialist 
 movement at various times during the year from April 
 6, 1917, the date on which Congress declared that a state 
 of war existed between the United States and the Ger- 
 man Imperial Government, up to the Canton address. 
 On June 20, 1918, a Federal grand jury empaneled at 
 Cleveland, in the Eastern Division of the Northern Dis- 
 trict of Ohio, returned an indictment, consisting of ten 
 counts, against Debs under Section Three of the Act of 
 June 15, 1917, as amended by Act of May 16, 1918, and 
 known as the Espionage Law. On September 9, 1918, 
 Debs went to trial at Cleveland before Judge D. C. 
 Westenhaver. He was represented by Seymour Sted- 
 man, of Chicago ; William A. Cunnea, of Chicago ; Joseph 
 W. Sharts, of Dayton, Ohio, and Morris Wolf, of Cleve- 
 land. The government was represented by United States 
 District Attorney E. S. Wertz, assisted by F. B. Kav- 
 anaugh, and one or two other assistants. On the previ- 
 ous day, Sunday afternoon, Debs, at his home in Terre 
 Haute, calmly discussed his case with his counsel, feeling 
 almost certain that the following week would find him 
 convicted. With the knowledge of the fates of several 
 hundred other Socialists, Industrial Workers of the 
 World, Bible students and political and religious free- 
 
 * Salient extracts from the Canton speech may be found in the 
 Appendix. 
 
 14 
 
TRIAL, CONVICTION AND APPEAL 15 
 
 thinkers, convicts under the Espionage Act, still fresh 
 in his mind, Debs could not well be sanguine concerning 
 his own fate. 
 
 He took the position from the beginning of his predica- 
 ment that the Federal Constitution protected, or was 
 intended to so protect, his rights as an American citizen, 
 born in the United States. He stood squarely upon the 
 First Amendment : 
 
 ''Congress shall make no law respecting an establish- 
 ment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, 
 or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or 
 the right of the people peacefully to assemble and to peti- 
 tion the Government for a redress of their grievances." 
 
 Over and against that guarantee was the Espionage 
 Act, passed originally June 15, 1917, and amended May 
 16, 1918. The original act was as follows: 
 
 (Title I, Section 3.) ''Whoever, when the United 
 States is at war, shall (1) wilfully make or convey false 
 reports or false statements with intent to interfere with 
 the operation or success of the military or naval forces 
 of the United States or to promote the success of its 
 enemies, and whoever, when the United States is at war, 
 (2) shall wilfully cause or attempt to cause insubordina- 
 tion, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty, in the mili- 
 tary or naval forces of the United States, or shall (3) 
 wilfully obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service of 
 the United States, to the injury of the service or of the 
 United States, shall be punished by a fine of not more 
 than ten thousand dollars or imprisonment for not more 
 than twenty years, or both." 
 
 Of far more drastic nature was the amended act : 
 
 "Whoever, when the United States is at war, shall 
 wilfully make or convey false reports or false statements 
 with intent to interfere with the operation or success 
 of the military or naval forces of the United States, or 
 to promote the success of its enemies, or shall wilfully 
 make or convey false reports or false statements, or say 
 
16 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 or do anything except by way of bona fide and not dis- 
 loyal advice to an investor or investors, with intent to 
 obstruct the sale by the United States of bonds or other 
 securities of the United States or the making of loans by 
 or to the United States, and whoever, when the United 
 States is at war, shall wilfully cause, or attempt to cause, 
 or incite or attempt to incite, insubordination, disloyalty, 
 mutiny, or refusal of duty in the military or naval forces 
 of the United States, or shall wilfully obstruct or at- 
 tempt to obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service of 
 the United States, and whoever, when the United States 
 is at war, shall wilfully utter, print, write or publish 
 any disloyal, profane, scurrilous or abusive language 
 about the form of government of the United States, or 
 the Constitution of the United States, or the military or 
 naval forces of the United States, or the flag of the 
 United States, or the uniform of the army or navy of 
 the United States, or any language intended to bring the 
 form of government of the United States, or the Consti- 
 tution of the United States, or the military or naval 
 forces of the United States, or the flag of the United 
 States, or the uniform of the army or navy of the United 
 States into contempt, scorn, contumely, or disrepute, or 
 shall wilfully utter, print, write or publish any language 
 intended to incite, provoke or encourage resistance to 
 the United States, or to promote the cause of its ene- 
 mies, or shall wilfully display the flag of any foreign 
 enemy, or shall wilfully, by utterance, writing, printing, 
 publication or language spoken, urge, incite or advocate 
 any curtailment of production in this country of any 
 thing or things, product or products, necessary or essen- 
 tial to the prosecution of the war in which the United 
 States may be engaged, with intent by such curtailment 
 to cripple or hinder the United States in the prosecution 
 of the war, and whoever shall wilfully advocate, teach, 
 defend, or suggest the doing of any of the acts or things 
 in this section enumerated, and whoever shall, by word 
 
TRIAL, CONVICTION AND APPEAL 17 
 
 or act, support or favor the cause of any country with 
 which the United States is at war, or by word or act op- 
 pose the cause of the United States therein, shall be pun- 
 ished by a fine of not more than ten thousand dollars 
 or imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or 
 both.'' 
 
 Several hours before Judge Westenhaver 's court con- 
 vened that morning" Debs was busy every moment, both 
 at the Holland Hotel and the Gillsy House, around the 
 corner, holding impromptu receptions with his friends 
 and counsel, seeming to be wholly oblivious of the ordeal 
 through which he must pass in the coming week. He 
 was calm and composed, and to one anxious friend, who 
 expressed deep concern over the outcome of the trial. 
 Debs said: "This is but another milepost along the 
 pathway of progress. We shall not tarry here very 
 long. ' ' As he entered the courtroom, clad in fresh sum- 
 mer gray, he was instantly surrounded by a large group 
 of his fellow Socialists who had been standing in line 
 outside the judicial doors for several hours in the hope 
 of getting a seat to witness the trial of their chief. Debs, 
 walking with one of his counsel, took his seat at a table, 
 folded his hands in his lap, and appeared eager for the 
 curtain to rise on what was to be the climax of his career. 
 He followed closely the examination of the veniremen, 
 appearing to be not so much concerned as a defendant, 
 as interested as a spectator. After four hours of ex- 
 amination and cross-examination of a score or more of 
 prospective talesmen, twelve men were chosen to try 
 the case. A jury of farmers had been selected. They 
 all evinced their thorough nationalism by the answers 
 they gave to pertinent and leading questions of Debs's 
 counsel. All believed in the form of government of the 
 United States, its Constitution, including the First 
 Amendment, which several of them had heard read and 
 explained for the first time in their lives, and disclaimed 
 any prejudice against Debs or the party he represented. 
 
18 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 Assistant District Attorney Kavanaugli presented the 
 government's case to the jury. He was a prepossessing 
 young man, and accepted the duty that lay before him 
 with ardor and vehemence. 
 
 *'This man is the palpitating pulse of the sedition 
 crusade/' he exclaimed, adding later, ''by his words 
 shall he be judged^ and by his words shall he be con- 
 demned." His address lasted the better part of an 
 hour, and, when it was finished, Debs leaned across the 
 counsel table and complimented his adversary upon his 
 efforts. 
 
 Stedman, speaking for Debs, justified, by the Consti- 
 tution of the United States, everything his client had 
 said in his Canton speech, and when he said to the jury : 
 ** You would not indict "Woodrow Wilson because he wrote 
 in his book, ' The New Freedom, ' that wars are brought 
 by the rulers and not by the people, ' ' there was applause 
 in the rear of the courtroom. The court quickly smoth- 
 ered this demonstration, and the participants, including 
 Mrs. Rose Pastor Stokes, a New York worker in the So- 
 cialist cause, who at that time was herself convicted of 
 violating the Espionage Act, were fined. Mrs. Stokes, 
 who sat by Debs during his trial, was enjoying her free- 
 dom under bail pending the disposition of appeal of her 
 case. Stedman paid tribute to Debs and his life work, 
 concluding with the words : 
 
 **We ask you to judge Eugene V. Debs by his life, his 
 deeds and his works. If you will do that we shall abide 
 by your verdict." 
 
 Clyde R. Miller, a newspaper reporter of Cleveland, 
 was the chief witness for the government. He testified 
 that he was sent by his paper, the Cleveland Plain 
 Dealer, to report the proceedings of the Socialist con- 
 vention at Canton on June 16th, and that he had inter- 
 viewed Debs at the Courtland Hotel in Canton just 
 before he delivered his address. Miller testified that he 
 had particularly asked Debs whether the newspapers 
 
TRIAL, CONYICTION AND APPEAL 19 
 
 had correctly reported him when they stated that he had 
 repudiated the St. Louis Majority Eeport of the So- 
 cialist Party.* Denying the statements that he had re- 
 pudiated the anti-war proclamation of his party, Miller 
 testified that Debs said in that interview: 
 
 *'I approved of the adoption of the platform in form 
 and substance at the time it was created, but in the 
 light of the Russian situation I think we should have 
 put forth a restatement of the aims of the Socialist 
 Party.'' Miller also quoted Debs as saying to him: 
 **In a land where they are fighting for democracy one 
 must be very careful what one says if one would keep 
 out of jaiL" 
 
 *'He told me it was his opinion that the Bolsheviki 
 of Russia were the inspiration of the world, and that 
 he hoped their ideas would come to prevail in America, ' ' 
 Miller swore. *'He told me, further, that the Socialist 
 movement in America was growing numerically and 
 morally as a direct result of the arrest and conviction 
 of radicals under the Espionage Law." There was 
 nothing venomous in the character or quality of the 
 young reporter's testimony. He appeared rather to be 
 personally sympathetic toward Debs, and to be laboring 
 under some discomfiture in having to testify against 
 the old agitator. 
 
 The most astonishing revelation of the trial came 
 with the testimony of Virgil Steiner, a youth of twenty 
 years, when he said that he had been pressed into serv- 
 ice by the Department of Justice to take a stenographic 
 report of Debs's address at Canton, despite his admis- 
 sion on the witness stand that his knowledge of short- 
 hand was so meager that he had practiced it but little 
 even in common office dictation. The young man ad- 
 mitted^ that he was hopelessly at a loss in following 
 
 * Proclamation of the Socialist Party expressing opposition to 
 the war. Adopted in national convention at St. Louis, Mo., April 
 5, 1917, and known as the St. Louis Majority Eeport, other reports 
 having been offered. 
 
20 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 Debs's speech, and that very early in the address he 
 abandoned all attempt to follow Debs verbatim. He 
 admitted to the court that he would rest between long 
 sentences and exclamations, and then would "jump in" 
 to follow the thread of the discourse. This is all the 
 more significant when we consider the fact that it was 
 Steiner's version upon which the indictment against 
 Debs was drawn, coupled with the testimony of Miller 
 before the grand jury. At the time the Department of 
 Justice agents at Canton pressed Steiner into service 
 as a government stenographer to take a speech of a man 
 who would probably be sent to the penitentiary the 
 lad was employed by a motor ear concern at Canton. 
 The Steiner version was read to the jury and only 
 forty minutes were required for the reading, whereas 
 Debs talked for about two hours on that occasion. Con- 
 trasted with the Steiner version, Edward B. Sterling, 
 32 years old, a lawyer of Canton, was employed by the 
 Ohio State Socialist Convention to take in shorthand 
 and transcribe the entire Canton speech. Sterling told 
 the court that he had twelve years' experience as a 
 shorthand reporter, and had *' taken down" many 
 speeches of representatives and senators in Congress. 
 Both shorthand reporters were made to read to the jury 
 their respective versions. Sterling read with great ef- 
 fect, and he seemed to emphasize of his own accord the 
 high lights, oratorical flights and dramatic climaxes 
 contained in the bulky printed manuscript he held in 
 his hand. There were many moist eyes in the court 
 room while Sterling read the speech, and the jury gave 
 it strict attention. Only the prosecutors seemed to 
 effect infinite weariness. With minor and slight reserva- 
 tions Debs stated that the Sterling version was correct. 
 During a ten-minute recess that day Debs walked to 
 the back of the court room where young Steiner was 
 sitting, and, putting his hands on the shoulders of the. 
 boy, assured him that he had done the best he could 
 
TRIAL, CONVICTION AND APPEAL 21 
 
 under the circumstances, and told him not to feel hu- 
 miliated in the least, that his abilities in that line had 
 been unfairly taxed. The youth was nearly in tears as 
 'Gene gently patted his face and told him not to worry. 
 On another similar occasion, when Miller had concluded 
 his testimony and took his seat at the press table, 'Gene 
 left his chair and leaning over the shoulders of news- 
 paper men said very softly to Miller: 
 
 **Mr. Miller, all that you said about me is true. You 
 quoted me straight and accurate. I don 't want you ever 
 to feel that you have done me an injury by testifying 
 against me. You had to do it, and you did it like a 
 gentleman. We all do what we cannot possibly help 
 doing, and no blame or stigma attaches to any of us 
 for doing that." 
 
 On Wednesday, September 11, shortly before 11 
 o'clock counsel for the government informed the court 
 that the prosecution had presented its case. The heads 
 of Debs's four lawyers bent together in a conference 
 that lasted exactly one minute ; then Stedman informed 
 the court that the defense also rested its case. Debs 
 had been fully cognizant of this move beforehand. I 
 am told that it was originally his desire to caution his 
 attorneys against making even an opening statement in 
 his behalf. If such had been his intention, it was doubt- 
 lessly prompted by his feeling of certainty that, under 
 the circumstances, it would be useless to make a defense 
 when he held, in the first instance, that the Espionage 
 Act was a flagrant violation of the Federal Constitu- 
 tion, and that the constitutionality of the act itself had 
 never been determined by the Supreme Court. 
 
 Debs and his counsel retired to an ante-room and 
 when they returned Stedman briefly announced to the 
 court: *'Mr. Debs will plead his case before the jury." 
 Debs had been working during the night on the address 
 that he was now to make. I remember seeing him in 
 his room at the Gillsy House from my own room, just 
 
22 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 across an areaway, sitting at his window, clad in pa- 
 jamas, calmly smoking a long black cigar, with a paper 
 pad resting on his knee and jotting down notes for the 
 speech that will, it has been said, take its place as a 
 classic of oratory and as a libertarian exposition. Cer- 
 tainly, it is one of the most remarkable speeches deliv- 
 ered by a defendant before a jury. 
 
 Assistant District Attorney Breitenstein opened final 
 arguments for the government. He paid a glowing trib- 
 ute to Debs as a man, but condemned his word. ''God 
 only knows the harm he has done the United States by 
 his fiery eloquence," said the prosecutor. Debs had a 
 kind word and warm smile for the prosecutor when he 
 had concluded, and they exchanged handclasps across 
 the table. At that moment that table seemed wider 
 than the seven seas, so far apart were the intellectual 
 and social leanings of these two men, now smiling into 
 each other's face in comradely manner. 
 
 The luncheon recess was announced by the court. 
 In the corridor Debs was instantly surrounded by an 
 ever-growing group of friends and followers. With diffi- 
 culty he made his way to the elevator, and walked 
 straight to his hotel. He partook of no luncheon, pre- 
 ferring to go to his room to be alone with his thoughts. 
 Long before the court was opened for afternoon session 
 the federal building was jammed with struggling hu- 
 manity, trying to edge its way toward the courtroom. 
 The doors were flung open £ind there ensued a veritable 
 stampede for seats on the painfully straight benches. 
 Spectators perched themselves on window ledges, and 
 crowded every aisle. When the last available inch had 
 been occupied the doors were locked, shutting out ten 
 times as many people as were in the room. The mo- 
 ment was tense with dramatic interest and expectancy. 
 Judge Westenhaver warned the spectators that any at- 
 tempt to applaud or otherwise show approval or disap- 
 proval would be sharply and sternly dealt with. The 
 
TRIAL, CONVICTION AND APPEAL 23 
 
 twelve men in the jury box shifted to attention in their 
 seats. Reporters had sharpened the points of a dozen 
 pencils in order not to miss a word of Debs's plea for his 
 rights as an American citizen. 
 
 He arose from his seat beside his counsel, and slowly 
 walked over to the jury. With right hand extended, 
 the arm crooked at the elbow, the left hand placed 
 firmly at his side, he commenced. 
 
 *'May it please the Court, and Gentlemen of the 
 Jury:* 
 
 *'For the first time in my life I appear before a jury 
 in a court of law to answer to an indictment for crime. 
 I am not a lawyer. I know little about court procedure, 
 about the rules of evidence or legal practice. I know 
 only that you gentlemen are to hear the evidence brought 
 against me, that the Court is to instruct you in the law, 
 and that you are then to determine by your verdict 
 whether I shall be branded with criminal guilt and be 
 consigned, perhaps to the end of my life, in a felon's 
 cell. 
 
 ''Gentlemen, I do not fear to face you in this hour 
 of accusation, nor do I shrink from the consequences of 
 my utterances or my acts. Standing before you, charged 
 as I am with crime, I can yet look the Court in the 
 face, I can look you in the face, I can look the world 
 in the face, for in my conscience, in my soul, there 
 is festering no accusation of guilt. 
 
 ''Permit me to say in the first place that I am en- 
 tirely satisfied with the Court's ruling. I have no fault 
 to find with the district attorney or with the counsel for 
 the prosecution. 
 
 "I wish to admit the truth of all that has been testi- 
 fied to in this proceeding. I have no disposition to deny 
 anything that is true. I would not, if I could, escape 
 the results of an adverse verdict. I would not retract 
 
 * Because of its importance. Debs 's speech has been included in 
 its entirety. 
 
24 DEBS—AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 a word that I have uttered that I believe to be true to 
 save myself from going to the penitentiary for the rest 
 of my days. 
 
 **I am charged in the indictment, first, that I did 
 willfully cause and attempt to cause or incite, insubordi- 
 nation, mutiny, disloyalty and refusal of duty within 
 the military forces of the United States; that I did ob- 
 struct and attempt to obstruct the recruiting and enlist- 
 ment service of the United States. I am charged also 
 with uttering words intended to bring into contempt and 
 disrepute the form of government of the United States, 
 the Constitution of the United States, the military forces 
 of the United States, the flag of the United States, and 
 the uniform of the army and navy.'* 
 
 The Court: **Mr. Debs, permit me to say that the 
 last charge which you have read to the jury has been 
 withdrawn from their consideration by the Court." 
 
 Debs : ' ' Pardon me. I was not aware of that. ' ' 
 
 The Court: ''I have directed a verdict of 'not 
 guilty' as to that charge." 
 
 Debs: ''I am accused further of uttering words in- 
 tended to procure and incite resistance to the United 
 States and to promote the cause of the Imperial German 
 Government. 
 
 *' Gentlemen, you have heard the report of my speech 
 at Canton on June 16, and I submit that there is not 
 a word in that speech to warrant these charges. I ad- 
 mit having delivered the speech. I admit the accuracy 
 of the speech in all of its main features as reported in 
 this proceeding. There were two distinct reports. They 
 vary somewhat, but they are agreed upon all the ma- 
 terial statements embodied in that speech. 
 
 **In what I had to say there my purpose was to edu- 
 cate the people to understand something about the 
 social system in which we live and to prepare them to 
 change this system by perfectly peaceable and orderly 
 
TRIAL, CONVICTION AND APPEAL 25 
 
 means into what I, as a Socialist, conceive to be a real de- 
 mocracy. 
 
 "From what you heard in the address of counsel for 
 the prosecution, you might naturally infer that I am 
 an advocate of force and violence. It is not true. I 
 have never advocated violence in any form. I always 
 believed in education, in intelligence, in enlightenment, 
 and I have always made my appeal to the reason and 
 to the conscience of the people. 
 
 *'I admit being opposed to the present form of gov- 
 ernment. I admit being opposed to the present social 
 system. I am doing what little I can, and have been 
 for many years, to bring about a change that shall do 
 away with the rule of the great body of the people by 
 a relatively small class and establish in this country an 
 industrial and social democracy. 
 
 "In the course of the speech that resulted in this in- 
 dictment, I am charged with having expressed sympathy 
 for Kate Richards O'Hare,* for Rose Pastor Stokes, for 
 Ruthenberg,t Wagenknechtf and Baker.f I did ex- 
 press my perfect sympathy with these comrades of mine. 
 I have known them for many years. I have every rea- 
 son to believe in their integrity, every reason to look 
 upon them with respect, with confidence and with ap- 
 proval. 
 
 "Kate Richards O'Hare never uttered the words im- 
 puted to her in the report. The words are perfectly 
 brutal. She is not capable of using such language. I 
 know that through all of the years of her life she has 
 been working in the interests of the suffering, struggling 
 poor, that she has consecrated all of her energies, all 
 of her abilities, to their betterment. The same is true 
 
 * Mrs. Kate Richards O 'Hare, Socialist worker of St. Louis, Mo,, 
 convicted and serving a sentence of five years at Jefferson City, 
 Mo., prison for making a speech alleged to be in violation of the 
 Espionage Law. 
 
 t C. E. Euthenberg, Alfred Wagenknecht and Charles Baker,, 
 Cleveland Socialists, sentenced to serve one year each at the Stark 
 County workhouse for infractions of the military laws in 1917. 
 
26 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 of Rose Pastor Stokes. Through all her 4if e she has 
 been on the side of the oppressed and downtrodden. 
 If she were so inclined she might occupy a place of ease. 
 She might enjoy all of the comforts and leisures of life. 
 Instead of this, she has renounced them all. She has 
 taken her place among the poor, and there she has 
 worked with all of her ability, all of her energy, to make 
 it possible for them to enjoy a little more of the com- 
 forts of life. 
 
 **I said that if these women whom I have known all 
 of these years — that if they were criminals, if they 
 ought to go to the penitentiary, then I, too, am a crim- 
 inal, and I ought to be sent to prison. I have not a 
 word to retract — not one. I uttered the truth. I made 
 no statement in that speech that I am not prepared to 
 prove. If there is a single falsehood in it, it has not 
 been exposed. If there is a single statement in it that 
 will not bear the light of truth, I will retract it, I 
 will make all of the reparation in my power. But if 
 what I said is true, and I believe it is, then whatever 
 fate or fortune may have in store for me I shall pre- 
 serve inviolate the integrity of my soul and stand by 
 it to the end. 
 
 **When I said what I did about the three comrades 
 of mine who are in the workhouse at Canton, I had in 
 mind what they had been ever since I have known them 
 in the service of the working class. I had in mind the 
 fact that these three working men had just a little while 
 before had their hands cuffed and were strung up in that 
 prison house for eight hours at a time until they fell 
 to the floor fainting from exhaustion. And this because 
 they had refused to do some menial, filthy services that 
 were an insult to their dignity and their manhood. 
 
 *'I have been accused of expressing sympathy for the 
 Bolsheviki of Russia. I plead guilty to the charge. I 
 have read a great deal about the Bolsheviki of Russia 
 that is not true. I happen to know of my own knowl- 
 
TRIAL, CONVICTION AND APPEAL 27 
 
 edge that they have been grossly misrepresented by the 
 press of this country. Who are these much-maligned 
 revolutionists of Russia? For years they had been the 
 victims of a brutal Czar. They and their antecedents 
 were sent to Siberia, lashed with a knout, if they even 
 dreamed of freedom. At last the hour struck for a 
 great change. The revolution came. The Czar was 
 overthrown and his infamous regime ended. What fol- 
 lowed? The common people of Russia came into power 
 — the peasants, the toilers, the soldiers — and they pro- 
 ceeded as best they could to establish a government of 
 the people." 
 
 District Attorney Wertz : ' ' If the Court please, I 
 would like to ask the Court to instruct the defendant 
 that his arguments are to be confined to the evidence 
 in the case. There isn't any evidence in this case about 
 the Bolsheviki at all or the Russian revolution.'' 
 
 The Court: *'I think I will permit the defendant 
 to proceed in his own way. Of course, you are not a 
 lawyer, Mr. Debs. The usual rule is that the remarks 
 of counsel should be confined to the testimony in the 
 case, but it does not forbid counsel from making refer- 
 ences to facts or matters of general public history or 
 notoriety by way of illustrating your arguments and 
 comments upon the testimony in the case. So I will 
 permit you to proceed in your own way." 
 
 Debs : * ' Thank you. It may be that the much-despised 
 Bolsheviki may fail at last, but let me say to you that 
 they have written a chapter of glorious history. It 
 will stand to their eternal credit. The leaders are now 
 denounced as criminals and outlaws. Let me remind 
 you that there was a time when George Washington, 
 who is now revered as the father of his country, was 
 denounced as a disloyalist; when Sam Adams, who is 
 known to us as the father of the American Revolution, 
 was condemned as an incendiary, and Patrick Henry, 
 who delivered that inspired and inspiring oration, that 
 
28 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 aroused the Colonists, was condemned as a traitor. They 
 were misunderstood at the time. They stood true to 
 themselves, and they won an immortality of gratitude 
 and glory. 
 
 *'When great changes occur in history, when great 
 principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong. 
 The minority are right. In every age there have been 
 a few heroic souls who have been in advance of their 
 time who have been misunderstood, maligned, perse- 
 cuted, sometimes put to death. Long after their mar- 
 tyrdom monuments were erected to them and garlands 
 were woven for their graves. 
 
 **I have been accused of having obstructed the war. 
 I admit it. Gentlemen, I abhor war. I would oppose 
 the war if I stood alone. When I think of a cold, 
 glittering steel bayonet being plunged in the white, 
 quivering flesh of a human being, I recoil with horror. 
 I have often wondered if I could take the life of my 
 fellow man, even to save my own. 
 
 ''Men talk about holy wars. There are none. Let me 
 remind you that it was Benjamin Franklin who said, 
 'There never was a good war or a bad peace.' 
 
 "Napoleon Bonaparte was a high authority upon the 
 subject of war. And when in his last days he was 
 chained to the rock at St. Helena, when he felt the skele- 
 ton hand of death reaching for him, he cried out in 
 horror, 'War is the trade of savages and barbarians.' 
 
 "I have read some history. I know that it is ruling 
 cleisses that make war upon one another, and not the 
 people. In all of the history of this world the people 
 have never yet declared a war. Not one. I do not be- 
 lieve that really civilized nations would murder one 
 another. I would refuse to kill a human being on my 
 own account. Why should I at the command of any 
 one else, or at the command of any power on earth? 
 
 "Twenty centuries ago there was one appeared upon 
 earth we know as the Prince of Peace. He issued a 
 
TRIAL, CONVICTION AND APPEAL 29 
 
 eommand in which I believe. He said, *Love one an- 
 other. ' He did not say, * Kill one another, ' but * love one 
 another.' He espoused the cause of the suffering poor 
 — just as Rose Pastor Stokes did, just as Kate Richards 
 'Hare did — and the poor heard him gladly. It was not 
 long before he aroused the ill will and hatred of the 
 usurers, the money changers, the profiteers, the high 
 priests, the lawyers, the judges, the merchants, the 
 bankers — in a word, the ruling class. They said of him 
 just what the ruling class says of the Socialist to-day, 
 *He is preaching dangerous doctrine. He is inciting 
 the common rabble. He is a menace to peace and order. * 
 And they had him arraigned, tried, convicted, con- 
 demned, and they had his quivering body spiked to the 
 gates of Jerusalem. 
 
 ''This has been the tragic history of the race. In the 
 ancient world Socrates sought to teach some new truths 
 to the people, and they made him drink the fatal hem- 
 lock. It has been true all along the track of the ages. 
 The men and women who have been in advance, who 
 have had new ideas, new ideals, who have had the cour- 
 age to attack the established order of things, have all 
 had to pay the same penalty. 
 
 *'A century and a half ago, when the American col- 
 onists were still foreign subjects, and when there were 
 a few men who had faith in the common people emd 
 believed that they could rule themselves without a king, 
 in that day to speak against the king was treason. If 
 you read Bancroft or any other standard historian, you 
 will find that a great majority of the colonists believed 
 in the king and actually believed that he had a divine 
 right to rule over them. They had been taught to 
 believe that to say a word against the king, to question 
 his so-called divine right, was sinful. There were min- 
 isters who opened their Bibles to prove that it was the 
 patriotic duty of the people to loyally serve and sup- 
 port the king. But there were a few men in that day 
 
30 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 who said, 'We don't need a king. We can govern our- 
 selves.' And they began an agitation that has been 
 immortalized in history. 
 
 ** Washington, Adams, Paine — these were the rebels 
 of their day. At first they were opposed by the people 
 and denounced by the press. You can remember that 
 it was Franklin who said to his compeers, ' We have now 
 to hang together or we'll hang separately by and by.' 
 And if the Revolution had failed, the revolutionary 
 fathers would have been executed as felons. But it did 
 not fail. Revolutions have a habit of succeeding when 
 the time comes for them. The revolutionary forefathers 
 were opposed to the form of government in their day. 
 They were opposed to the social system of their time. 
 They were denounced, they were condemned. But they 
 had the moral courage to stand erect and defy all the 
 storms of detraction; and that is why they are in his- 
 tory, and that is why the great respectable majority of 
 their day sleep in forgotten graves. The world does not 
 know they ever lived. 
 
 *'At a later time there began another mighty agita- 
 tion in this country. It was against an institution that 
 was deemed a very respectable one in its time, the in- 
 stitution of chattel slavery, that became all-powerful, 
 that controlled the President, both branches of Con- 
 gress, the Supreme Court, the press, to a very large ex- 
 tent the pulpit. All of the organized forces of society, 
 all the powers of government, upheld chattle slavery in 
 that day. And again there were a few lovers of liberty 
 who appeared. One of them was Elijah Lovejoy. Elijah 
 Love joy was as much despised in his day as are the 
 leaders of the I. W. W. in our day. Elijah Lovejoy 
 was murdered in cold blood in Alton, Illinois, in 1837 
 simply because he was opposed to chattel slavery — ^just 
 as I am opposed to wage slavery. When you go down 
 the Mississippi River and look up at Alton, you see a 
 magnificent white shaft erected there in memory of a 
 
TRIAL, CONVICTION AND APPEAL 31 
 
 man who was true to himself and his convictions o£ right 
 and duty unto death. 
 
 ' ' It was my good fortune to personally know "Wendell 
 Phillips. I heard the story of his persecution in part, 
 at least, from his own eloquent lips just a little while 
 before they were silenced in death. 
 
 '* William Lloyd Garrison, Garret Smith, Thaddeus 
 Stevens — ^these leaders of the abolition movement, who 
 were regarded as monsters of depravity, were true to 
 the faith and stood their ground. They are all in his- 
 tory. You are teaching your children to revere their 
 memories, while all of their detractors are in oblivion. 
 
 ''Chattel slavery disappeared. We are not yet free. 
 We are engaged in another mighty agitation to-day. It 
 is as wide as the world. It is the rise of the toiling and 
 producing masses who are gradually becoming conscious 
 of their interest, their power, as a class, who are organ- 
 izing industrially and politically, who are slowly but 
 surely developing the economic and political power that 
 is to set them free. They are still in the minority, but 
 they have learned how to wait, and to bide their time. 
 
 ''It is because I happen to be in this minority that 
 I stand in your presence to-day, charged with crime. 
 It is because I believe, as the revolutionary fathers be- 
 lieved in their day, that a change was due in the inter- 
 ests of the people, that the time had come for a better 
 form of government, an improved system, a higher so- 
 cial order, a nobler humanity and a grander civilization. 
 This minority that is so much misunderstood and so bit- 
 terly maligned is in alliance with the forces of evolu- 
 tion, and as certain as I stand before you this after- 
 noon, it is but a question of time until this minority 
 will become the conquering majority and inaugurate the 
 greatest change in all of the history of the world. You 
 may hasten the change; you may retard it; you can 
 no more prevent it than you can prevent the coming of 
 the sunrise on the morrow. 
 
32 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 *'My friend, the assistant prosecutor, doesn't like 
 what I had to say in my speech about internationalism. 
 "What is there objectionable to internationalism? If 
 we had internationalism there would be no war. I be- 
 lieve in patriotism. I have never uttered a word against 
 the flag. I love the flag as a symbol of freedom. I ob- 
 ject only when that flag is prostituted to base purposes, 
 to sordid ends, by those who, in the name of patriotism, 
 would keep the people in subjection. 
 
 **I believe, however, in a wider patriotism. Thomas 
 Paine said, *My country is the world. To do good is 
 my religion.' Garrison said, 'My country is the world 
 and all mankind are my countrjrmen. ' That is the es- 
 sence of internationalism. I believe in it with all of my 
 heart. I believe that nations have been pitted against na- 
 tions long enough in hatred, in strife, in warfare. I be- 
 lieve there ought to be a bond of unity between all of 
 these nations. I believe that the human race consists of 
 one great family. I love the people of this country, but I 
 don 't hate the people of any country on earth — not even 
 the Germans. I refuse to hate a human being because he 
 happens to be bom in some other country. Why should 
 I ? To me it does not make any difference where he was 
 born or what the color of his skin may be. Like myself, 
 he is the image of his creator. He is a human being 
 endowed with the same faculties, he has the same aspira- 
 tions, he is entitled to the same rights, and I would in- 
 finitely rather serve him and love him than to hate him 
 and kill him. 
 
 **We hear a great deal about human brotherhood — 
 a beautiful and inspiring theme. It is preached from 
 a countless number of pulpits. It is vain for us to 
 preach of human brotherhood while we tolerate this 
 social system in which we are a mass of warring units, 
 in which millions of workers have to fight one another 
 for jobs, and millions of business men and professional 
 men have to fight one another for trade, for practice — • 
 
TRIAL, CONVICTION AND APPEAL 33 
 
 in which we have individual interests and each is striv- 
 ing to care for himself alone without reference to his 
 fellow men. Human hrotherhood is yet to he realized 
 in this world. It can never he under the capitalist- 
 competitive system in which we live. 
 
 ''Yes, I was opposed to the war. I am perfectly will- 
 ing, on that count, to he hranded as a disloyalist, and 
 if it is a crime under the American law, punishable by 
 imprisonment, for being opposed to human bloodshed, 
 I am perfectly willing to be clothed in the stripes of a 
 convict and to end my days in a prison cell. 
 
 **If my friends, the attorneys, had known me a little 
 better they might have saved themselves some trouble 
 in procuring evidence to prove certain things against 
 me which I have not the slightest inclination to deny, 
 but rather, upon the other hand, I have a very consid- 
 erable pride in. 
 
 *'You have heard a great deal about the St. Louis 
 platform. I wasn't at the convention when that plat- 
 form was adopted, but I don't ask to be excused from 
 my responsibility on that account. I voted for its adop- 
 tion. I believe in its essential principles. There was 
 some of its phrasing that I would have otherwise. I 
 afterwards advocated a restatement. The testimony to 
 the effect that I had refused to repudiate it was true. 
 
 *'At the time that platform was adopted the nation 
 had just entered upon the war and there were millions 
 of people who were not Socialists who were opposed to 
 the United States being precipitated into that war. 
 Time passed; conditions changed. There were certain 
 new developments and I believed there should be a 
 restatement. I have been asked why I did not favor a 
 repudiation of what was said a year before. For the rea- 
 son that I believed then, as I believe now, that the state- 
 ment correctly defined the attitude of the Socialist Party 
 toward war. That statement, bear in mind, did not 
 apply to the people of this country alone, but to the 
 
34 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 people of the world. It said, in effect, to the people, 
 especially to the workers, of all countries, 'Quit going 
 to war. Stop murdering one another for the profit and 
 glory of the ruling classes. Cultivate the arts of peace. 
 Humanize humanity. Civilize civilization.' That is 
 the essential spirit and the appeal of the much-hated, 
 condemned St. Louis platform. 
 
 *'Now, the Republican and Democratic parties hold 
 their conventions from time to time. They revise their 
 platforms and their declarations. They do not repudi- 
 ate previous platforms. Nor is it necessary. With the 
 change of conditions these platforms are outgrown and 
 others take their places. I was not in the convention, 
 but I believed in that platform. I do to-day. But 
 from the beginning of the war to this day, I have never, 
 by word or act, been guilty of the charges that are em- 
 braced in this indictment. If I have criticized, if I 
 ever condemned, it is because I have believed myself 
 justified in doing so under the laws of the land. I 
 have had precedents for my attitude. This country has 
 been engaged in a number of wars, and every one of 
 them has been opposed, every one of them has been 
 condemned by some of the most eminent men in the 
 country. The war of the Revolution was opposed. The 
 Tory press denounced its leaders as criminals and out- 
 laws. And that was when they were under the 'divine 
 right' of a king to rule men. 
 
 "The War of 1812 was opposed and condemned; the 
 Mexican war was bitterly condemned by Abraham Lin- 
 coln, by Charles Sumner, by Daniel Webster and by 
 Henry Clay. That war took place under the Polk ad- 
 ministration. These men denaunced the President ; they 
 condemned his administration; and they said that the 
 war was a crime against humanity. They were not in- 
 dicted; they were not tried for crime. They are hon- 
 ored to-day by all of their countrymen. The War of 
 the Rebellion was opposed and condemned. In 1864: 
 
TRIAL, CONVICTION AND APPEAL 35 
 
 the Democratic Party met in convention at Chicago and 
 passed a resolution condemning the war as a failure. 
 What would you say if the Socialist Party were to meet 
 in convention to-day and condemn the present war as a 
 failure? You charge us with being disloyalists and 
 traitors. Were the Democrats of 1864 disloyalists and 
 traitors because they condemned the war as a failure? 
 
 ''I believe in the Constitution of the United States. 
 Isn't it strange that we Socialists stand almost alone 
 to-day in defending the Constitution of the United 
 States? The revolutionary fathers who had been op- 
 pressed under king rule understood that free speech 
 and free press and the right of free assemblage by the 
 people were the fundamental principles of democratic 
 government. The very first amendment to the Consti- 
 tution reads: * Congress shall make no law respecting 
 an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free ex- 
 ercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or 
 of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to 
 assemble, and to petition the government for a redress 
 of grievances.* That is perfectly plain English. It 
 can be understood by a child. I believe that the revolu- 
 tionary fathers meant just what is here stated — that 
 Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of 
 speech or of the press, or of the right of the people to 
 peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for 
 a redress of grievances. 
 
 *'That is the right that I exercised at Canton on the 
 16th day of last June ; and for the exercise of that right 
 I now have to answer to this indictment. I believe in 
 the right of free speech in war as well as in peace. I 
 would not, under any circumstances, gag the lips of my 
 biggest enemy. I would under no circumstances sup- 
 press free speech. It is far more dangerous to attempt 
 to gag the people than to allow them to speak freely 
 of what is in their hearts. I do not go as far as Wen- 
 dell Phillips did. Wendell Phillips said that the glory 
 
36 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 of free men is that they trample unjust laws under their 
 feet. That is how they repealed them. If a human 
 being submits to having his lips sealed, to be in silence 
 reduced to vassalage, he may have all else, but he is 
 still lacking in all that dignifies and glorifies real man- 
 hood. 
 
 ''Now, notwithstanding this fundamental provision in 
 the national law. Socialists' meetings have been broken 
 up all over this country. Socialist speakers have been 
 arrested by hundreds and flung into jail, where many 
 of them are lying now. In some cases not even a charge 
 was lodged against them, guilty of absolutely no crime 
 except the crime of attempting to exercise the right 
 guaranteed to them by the Constitution of the United 
 States. 
 
 *'I have told you that I am no lawyer, but it seems 
 to me that I know enough to know that if Congress 
 enacts any law that conflicts with this provision in the 
 Constitution, that law is void. If the Espionage Law 
 finally stands, then the Constitution of the United States 
 is dead. If that law is not the negation of every funda- 
 mental principle established by the Constitution, then 
 certainly I am unable to read or to understand the Eng- 
 lish language. 
 
 To THE Court : "Your Honor, I don't know whether 
 I would be in order to quote from a book I hold in my 
 hand, called 'The New Freedom,' by Woodrow Wilson, 
 President of the United States." 
 
 The Court: "I will grant you that permission." 
 
 Debs: "I want to show the gentlemen of the jury, 
 if I can, that every statement I made in my Canton 
 speech is borne out in this book by Woodrow Wilson, 
 called 'The New Freedom.' It consists of his cam- 
 paign speeches while a candidate for the presidency. 
 Of course, he uses different language than I did, for 
 he is a college professor. He is an educated gentleman, 
 I never had a chance to get an education. I had to go 
 
TRIAL, CONVICTION AND APPEAL 37 
 
 to work in my childhood. I want to show you that 
 the statement made by Rose Pastor Stokes, for which 
 she has been convicted, and the approval of which has 
 brought condemnation upon me, is substantially the 
 same statement made by Mr. Wilson when he was a 
 candidate for the presidency of the United States : 
 
 *' 'To'day, when our government has so far passed 
 into the hands of special interests; to-day, when the 
 doctrine is implicitly avowed that only select classes 
 have the equipment necessary for carrying on govern- 
 ment ; to-day, when so many conscientious citizens, smit- 
 ten with the scene of social wrong and suffering, have 
 fallen victims to the fallacy that benevolent government 
 can be meted out to the people by kind-hearted trustees 
 of prosperity and guardians of the welfare of dutiful 
 employees — to-day, supremely does it behoove this na- 
 tion to remember that a people shall be saved by the 
 power that sleeps in its own deep bosom, or by none; 
 shall be renewed in hope, in conscience, in strength, by 
 waters welling up from its own sweet, perennial springs. ' 
 
 *'So this government has passed into the hands of 
 special interests. Rose Pastor Stokes^ language is some- 
 what different. Instead of 'special interests' she said 
 * profiteers.' She said that a government that was for 
 the profiteers could not be for the people, and that as 
 long as the government was for the profiteers, she was 
 for the people. That is the statement that I indorsed, 
 approved and believed in with all my heart. The Presi- 
 dent of the United States tells us that our government 
 has passed into the control of special interests. When 
 we Socialists make the same contention, we are branded 
 as disloyalists, and we are indicted as criminals. But 
 that is not all, nor nearly all: 
 
 " 'There are, of course, Americans who have not yet 
 heard that anything is going on. The circus might 
 come to town, have the big parade and go, without their 
 catching a sight of the camels or a note of the calliope. 
 
38 DEBS— AUTHOKIZED LIFE AND LETTEES 
 
 There are people, even Americans, who never move 
 themselves or know that anything else is moving. ' 
 
 *'Just one other quotation: *For a long time this 
 country of ours has lacked one of the institutions which 
 free men have always and everywhere held fundamental. 
 For a long time there has been no sufficient opportunity 
 of counsel among the people; no place and method of 
 talk, of exchange of opinion, of parley. Communities 
 have outgrown the folk-moot and the town meeting. 
 Congress, in accordance with the genius of the land, 
 which asks for action and is impatient of words — Con- 
 gress has become an institution which does its work in 
 the privacy of committee rooms and not on the floor of 
 the Chamber; a body that mgikes laws, a legislature; 
 not a body that debates, not a parliament. Party con- 
 ventions afford little or no opportunity for discussion; 
 platforms are privately manufactured and adopted with 
 a whoop. It is partly because citizens have foregone 
 the taking of counsel together that the unholy alliances 
 of bosses and Big Business have been able to assume to 
 govern for us. 
 
 '* *I conceive it to be one of the needs of the hour 
 to restore the processes of common counsel, and to sub- 
 stitute them for the processes of private arrangement 
 which now determine the policies of cities, states and 
 nation. We must learn, we freemen, to meet, as our 
 fathers did, somehow, somewhere, for consultation. 
 There must bo discussion and debate, in which all freely 
 participate.' '^ 
 
 *'Well, there has been something said in connection 
 with this about profiteering — in connection with this 
 indictment. 
 
 To THE Court: ** Would it be in order for me to 
 read a brief statement, showing to what extent profiteer- 
 ing has been carried on during the last three years T' 
 
 The Court: "No. There would be no concensus of 
 opinion or agreement upon that statement. It is a mat- 
 
TRIAL, CONVICTION AND APPEAL 39 
 
 ter that is not really in the case, and when you go to com- 
 pile a statement, you are then undertaking to assume 
 something without producing evidence to substantiate it. ' ' 
 
 Debs: *'Now, in the course of this proceeding you, 
 gentlemen, have perhaps drawn the inference that I 
 am pro-German, in the sense that I have any sym- 
 pathy with the Imperial Government of Germany. My 
 father and mother were bom in Alsace. They loved 
 France with a passion that is holy. They understood 
 the meaning of Prussianism, and they hated it with 
 all their hearts. I did not need fo be taught to hate 
 Prussian militarism. I knew from them what a hateful, 
 what an oppressive, what a brutalizing thing it was and 
 is. I cannot imagine how any one could suspect that 
 for one moment I could have the slightest sympathy 
 with such a monstrous thing. I have been speaking 
 and writing against it practically all of my life. I 
 know that the Kaiser incarnates all there is of brute 
 force and of murder. And yet I would not, if I had 
 the power, kill the Kaiser. I would do to him what 
 Thomas Paine wanted to do to the king of England. 
 He said, 'Destroy the king, but save the man.' 
 
 **The thing that the Kaiser incarnates and embodies, 
 called militarism, I would, if I could, wipe from the 
 face of the earth, — not only the militarism of Germany, 
 but the militarism of the whole world. I am quite 
 well aware of the fact that the war now deluging the 
 world with blood was precipitated there. Not by the 
 German people, but by the class that rules, oppresses, 
 robs and degrades the German people. President 
 Wilson has repeatedly said that we were not making 
 war on the German people, and yet in war it is the 
 people who are slain, and not the rulers who are respon- 
 sible for the war. 
 
 ''With every drop in my veins I despise kaiserism, 
 and all that kaiserism expresses and implies. I have 
 sympathy with the suffering, struggling people every- 
 
40 DEBS— AUTHOEIZED LIFE AND LETTEES 
 
 where. It does not make any difference under what 
 flag they were bom, or where they live, I have sympathy 
 with them all. I would, if I could, establish a social 
 system that would embrace them all. It is precisely at 
 this point that we come to realize that there is a reason 
 why the peoples of the various nations are pitted against 
 each other in brutal warfare instead of being united in 
 one all-embracing brotherhood. 
 
 **War does not come by chance. War is not the re- 
 sult of accident. There is a definite cause for war, 
 especially a modem war. The war that began in Eu- 
 rope can readily be accounted for. For the last forty 
 years, under this international capitalist system, this 
 exploiting system, these various nations of Europe have 
 been preparing for the inevitable. And why? In all 
 these nations the great industries are owned by a rela- 
 tively small class. They are operated for the profit of 
 that class. And great abundance is produced by the 
 workers; but their wages will only buy back a small 
 part of their product. What is the result ? They have 
 a vast surplus on hand ; they have got to export it ; they 
 have got to find a foreign market for it. As a result 
 of this these nations are pitted against each other. 
 They are industrial rivals — competitors. They begin to 
 arm themselves to open, to maintain the market and 
 quickly dispose of their surplus. There is but the one 
 market. All these nations are competitors for it, and 
 sooner or later every war of trade becomes a war of 
 blood. 
 
 **Now, where there is exploitation there must be 
 some form of militarism to support it. Wherever you 
 find exploitation you find some form of military force. 
 In a smaller way you find it in this country. It 
 was there long before war was declared. For in- 
 stance, when the miners out in Colorado entered upon 
 a strike about four years ago, the state militia, that is 
 under the control of the Standard Oil Company, 
 
TRIAL, CONVICTION AND APPEAL 41 
 
 marclied upon a camp, where the miners and their wives 
 and children were in tents, — and, by the way, a report 
 of this strike was issued by the United States Commis- 
 sion on Industrial Relations. When the soldiers ap- 
 proached the camp at Ludlow, where these miners, with 
 their wives and children, were, the miners, to prove 
 that they were patriotic, placed flags above their tents, 
 and when the state militia, that is paid by Rockefeller 
 and controlled by Rockefeller, swooped down upon that 
 camp, the first thing they did was to shoot these United 
 States flags into tatters. Not one of them was indicted 
 or tried because he was a traitor to his country. Preg- 
 nant women were killed, and a number of innocent chil- 
 dren slain. This in the United States of America, — 
 the fruit of exploitation. The miners wanted a little 
 more of what they had been producing. But the 
 Standard Oil Company wasn't rich enough. It insisted 
 that all they were entitled to was just enough to keep 
 them in working order. There is slaverj^ for you. And 
 when at last they protested, when they were tormented 
 by hunger, when they saw their children in tatters, they 
 were shot down as if they had been so many vagabond 
 dogs. 
 
 *'And while I am upon this point let me say just 
 another word. Workingmen who organize, and who 
 sometimes commit overt acts, are very often times con- 
 demned by those who have no conception of the con- 
 ditions under which they live. How many men are 
 there, for instance, who know anything of their own 
 knowledge about how men work in a lumber camp — a 
 logging camp, a turpentine camp? In this report of 
 the United States Commission on Industrial Relations 
 you will find the statement proved that peonage existed 
 in the state of Texas. Out of these conditions springs 
 such a thing as the I.W.W. — ^When men receive a pit- 
 tance for their pay, when they work like galley slaves 
 for a wage that barely suffices to keep their protesting 
 
42 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 souls within their tattered bodies. When they can en- 
 dure the conditions no longer, and they make some sort 
 of a demonstration, or perhaps commit acts of violence, 
 how quickly are they condemned by those who do not 
 know anything about the conditions under which they 
 work ! 
 
 * * Five gentlemen of distinction, among them Professor 
 John Graham Brooks, of Harvard University, said that 
 a word that so fills the world as the I.W.W. must have 
 something in it. It must be investigated. And they 
 did investigate it, each along his own lines, and I wish 
 it were possible for every man and woman in this coun- 
 try to read the result of their investigation. They tell 
 you why and how the I.W.W. was instituted. They tell 
 you, moreover, that the great corporations, such as the 
 Standard Oil Company, such as the Coal Trust, and the 
 Lumber Trust, have, through their agents, committed 
 more crimes against the I.W.W. than the I.W.W. have 
 ever committed against them. 
 
 *'I was asked not long ago if I was in favor of shoot- 
 ing our soldiers in the back. I said, *No, I would not 
 shoot them in the back. I wouldn't shoot them at all. 
 I would not have them shot.' Much has been made of 
 a statement that I declared that men were fit for some- 
 thing better than slavery and cannon fodder. I made 
 the statement. I make no attempt to deny it. I meant 
 exactly what I said. Men are fit for something better 
 than slavery and cannon fodder ; and the time will come, 
 though I shall not live to see it, when slavery will be 
 wiped from the earth, and when men will marvel that 
 there ever was a time when men who called themselves 
 civilized rushed upon each other like wild beasts and 
 murdered one another, by methods so cruel and bar- 
 barous that they defy the power of man to describe. I 
 can hear the shrieks of the soldiers of Europe in my 
 dreams. I have imagination enough to see a battle- 
 field. I can see it strewn with the legs of human beings, 
 
TRIAL, CONVICTION AND APPEAL 43 
 
 who but yesterday were in the flush and glory of their 
 young manhood. I can see them at eventide, scattered 
 about in remnants, their limbs torn from their bodies, 
 their eyes gouged out. Yes, I can see them, and I can 
 hear them. I have looked above and beyond this fright- 
 ful scene. I think of the mothers who are bowed in 
 the shadow of their last great grief — ^whose hearts are 
 breaking. And I say to myself, *I am going to do the 
 little that lies in my power to wipe from this earth 
 that terrible scourge of war.' 
 
 **If I believed in war I could not be kept out of the 
 first line trenches. I would not be patriotic at long 
 range. I would be honest enough, if I believed in blood- 
 shed, to shed my own. But I do not believe that the 
 shedding of blood bears any actual testimony to patri- 
 otism, to lead a country to civilization. On the con- 
 trary, I believe that warfare, in all of its forms, is an 
 impeachment of our social order, and a rebuke to our 
 much vaunted Christian civilization. 
 
 **And now. Gentlemen of the Jury, I am not going^ 
 to detain you too long. I wish to admit everything that 
 has been said respecting me from this witness chair. 
 I wish to admit everything that has been charged against 
 me except what is embraced in the indictment which I 
 have read to you. I cannot take back a word. I can't 
 repudiate a sentence. I stand before you guilty of hav- 
 ing made this speech. I stand before you prepared to 
 accept the consequences of what there is embraced in 
 that speech. I do not know, I cannot tell, what your 
 verdict may be; nor does it matter much, so far as I 
 am concerned. 
 
 ** Gentlemen, I am the smallest part of this trial. I 
 have lived long enough to appreciate my own personal 
 insignificance in relation to a great issue that involves 
 the welfare of the whole people. What you may choose 
 to do to me will be of small consequence after all. I am 
 not on trial here. There is an infinitely greater issue 
 
44 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE A^^D LETTERS 
 
 that is being tried in this court, though you may not 
 be conscious of it. American institutions are on trial 
 here before a court of American citizens. The future 
 will tell. 
 
 **And now, Your Honor, permit me to return my 
 hearty thanks for your patient consideration. And to 
 you, Gentlemen of the Jury, for the kindness with which 
 you have listened to me. 
 
 **My fate is in your hands. I am prepared for the 
 verdict.*' 
 
 Debs had ^spoken for the better part of two hours. 
 If there had resided any doubt in the minds of his 
 friends and followers in the courtroom as to his fate, 
 after hearing his speech to the jury it vanished. His 
 jury speech had been a restatement of his Canton ad- 
 dress and an amplification of it. If his Canton speech 
 warranted an indictment for crime what would his 
 speech* to his jury bring upon him? Debs made just 
 the kind of a speech to the jury that the government 
 counsel wanted him to make. He had admitted having 
 obstructed the war. He would oppose it if he stood 
 alone. He had approved of the I.W.W., 101 of whose 
 national ofScers, organizers, editors and speakers, in- 
 cluding William D. Haywood, general secretary- 
 treasurer, had been convicted and sentenced to prison 
 for terms ranging from one to twenty years, only a 
 few weeks before his own trial began. The I.W.W. 
 had been convicted of conspiracy to obstruct the gov- 
 ernment in prosecuting the war. Debs had not availed 
 himself of a single legal loop through which he might 
 escape a prison sentence. His manner of speech was 
 not defiant, but calm, composed and candid. He said 
 all that he believed to be true on a number of public 
 questions. Even in that courtroom, on that late sum- 
 mer's afternoon, in a moment when the whole nation 
 was aroused by war, when American soldiers were at 
 the throat of a fast-weakening and retreating foe across 
 
TEIAL, CONVICTION AND APPEAL 45 
 
 the seas, Debs still pleaded with twelve average Ameri- 
 can citizens to give a thought to the Constitution of 
 the land which guaranteed to a minority citizenry a free 
 and public expression of political opinions. It was an 
 astonishing request, so simple, naive and child-like. It 
 was like asking men whose homes had just been up- 
 rooted by a hurricane or tidal wave to remember the 
 soft and odorous nights of June whose breezes were so 
 gentle as not to stir a maple leaf. Debs resumed his 
 seat amid the silent plaudits of his followers. For he 
 had set one more example for the libertarians of the 
 world to follow if they would be true to their convic- 
 tions. An agent of the Department of Justice who 
 had been more or less active in assisting the prosecution 
 said to one of the journalists at the press table: **YouVe 
 got to hand it to the old man, he came through clean." 
 
 District Attorney Wertz spoke for the remainder of 
 the day in final argument for the government. The 
 prosecutor roundly denounced Debs and the Socialists, 
 as was his duty, and said that all rights of free speech 
 were adjourned. He stated that it was possible that 
 the reason Abraham Lincoln was not arrested and con- 
 victed for criticizing President Polk in 1846 for waging 
 war against Mexico was because there was no Espionage 
 Law at that time to apply. The prosecutor even said 
 that Debs would be apt to carry his right to free speech 
 to the extent of yelling *'fire" in a crowded theater if 
 it pleased him to do so. 
 
 At the conclusion of that court day Debs was greeted 
 outside the doors by a throng of Socialists and ad- 
 mirers who had been unable to gain admittance. A 
 young girl who had been standing in the crowd out- 
 side the doors all day long pushed her way by sheer 
 force through the crowd to Debs's side. In her arms 
 she carried a huge bouquet of red roses caught at the 
 stems with a wide splash of red satin ribbon. She 
 thrust the flowers into 'Gene's arms, and then swooned, 
 
46 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 Debs catching her and holding her in his long, lean 
 arms. He carried her into an ante-room, kissing her 
 brow and saying : * * I would rather have lived to witness 
 this token of love and generosity of my unknown com- 
 rade than to have my freedom. These are the incidents 
 that make life so full and fine." 
 
 That night he remained in his room writing letters 
 and smoking. I visited him for a few moments and 
 expressed my admiration for the address he had made. 
 ''Well,'' he said quietly, "this time to-morrow we shall 
 know how much American citizens care for liberty and 
 their Constitution.'' He said that for him everything 
 was all right, that he had not the least concern over 
 what the verdict might be. *' *I have made my bed 
 and am prepared to lie in it.' " 
 
 The following day, September 12th, Judge Westeu- 
 haver delivered his instructions to the jury. In effect, 
 the court told the jury that it was not a crime for a 
 person to disapprove of the war, or even to criticize 
 the Administration and the conduct of the war, so long 
 as such criticism and disapproval was not made with 
 criminal intent. The jury was instructed that the Es- 
 pionage Law, even in its amended form, was not in- 
 tended to stifle the opinions of freemen which may be 
 at variance with those of the majority of the people 
 and the government, and that if the jury found that 
 Debs, in his Canton speech, had no criminal intent to 
 thwart the energies of the government in the prosecu- 
 tion of war with Germany it was clearly their duty to 
 return a verdict of ' ' not guilty. ' ' It was not necessary, 
 ruled the court, for the government to prove that the 
 Canton speech had actually caused insubordination, in- 
 cited mutiny and promoted the cause of Germany. It 
 was sufficient if the jury believed that it was the specific 
 intention of Debs to do these things. 
 
 The jury was instructed to disregard the testimony 
 of witnesses who appeared against Debs, the court stat- 
 
TRIAL, CONVICTION AND APPEAL 47 
 
 ing that such evidence was admitted only by way of 
 indicating to the jury **the state of mind of the de- 
 fendant. ' ' With the constitutional right of free speech 
 the court dealt at length, maintaining that the right 
 should be denied and must be denied any person who 
 willfully sought to obstruct the government in time of 
 war, or tried to delay the production of materials neces- 
 sary for its prosecution, or who interfered with the 
 enlistment and recruiting service. The talesmen were 
 told, finally, to disregard Debs's statement that the Es- 
 pionage Law was invalid because it abridged the Con- 
 stitution, stating that that point was for the courts to 
 determine. 
 
 Shortly before eleven o'clock the jury retired to their 
 rooxji with a copy of the indictment and Debs's Canton 
 speech. The indictment had been stripped to three 
 counts from its original ten, conviction on each count 
 to carry a maximum sentence of twenty years imprison- 
 ment and a fine of ten thousand dollars for each offense. 
 While the jury debated, Debs sat at the counsel table 
 and wrote letters and told stories and anecdotes to 
 interested friends. He was in high spirits. Telegrams 
 of congratulations from all parts of the country poured 
 into his hands from followers who had read newspaper 
 accounts of his address on the previous day. By six 
 o'clock in the afternoon the jury reached its verdict of 
 *' Guilty as charged in the indictment. ' ' The court 
 fixed Saturday morning, September 14th, as the time 
 for sentence. Debs spent the intervening day at Akron, 
 Ohio, the home of Mrs. Marguerite Prevy, a personal 
 friend, who was also a Socialist worker, and one of two 
 of Debs's bondsmen. While at Akron, Debs was visited 
 by his lawyers, all of whom were Socialists, and who 
 prevailed upon him to take advantage of the oppor- 
 tunity that would be given him the following day to 
 address the court before sentence should be imposed. I 
 am told that Debs was at first disinclined to do this, 
 
48 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 feeling rather weary of the whole proceeding, but on 
 second thought he was convinced that he should make 
 the most of the situation by speaking for the future. 
 
 The proceeding on Saturday morning, September 
 14th, was as follows : 
 
 District Attorney Wertz: *'If the Court please, 
 I move for the imposition of sentence.'* 
 
 Judge Westenhaver: (To the clerk) **You may 
 inquire if the defendant has anything to say.'' 
 
 The Clerk: *' Eugene Y. Debs, have you anything 
 further to say in your behalf before the Court passes 
 sentence upon you?" 
 
 Debs: *'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 of earth. 
 I said then, I say now, that while there is a lower class 
 I am in it ; while there is a criminal element, I am of it ; 
 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 
 law, but my mind remains unchanged. I look upon 
 it as a despotic enactment in flagrant conflict with 
 democratic principles and with the spirit of free insti- 
 tutions. 
 
 **I have no fault to find with this court or with the 
 trial. Everything in connection with this case has 
 been conducted upon a dignified plane, and in a respect- 
 ful and decent spirit — with just one exception. Your 
 Honor, my sainted mother inspired me with a reverence 
 for womanhood that amounts to worship. I can think 
 with disrespect of no woman, and I can think with re- 
 spect of no man who can. I resent the manner in which 
 the names of two noble women were bandied with in 
 this court. The levity and the wantonness in this in- 
 stance were absolutely inexcusable. When I think of 
 
TRIAL, CONVICTION AND APPEAL 49 
 
 what was said in this connection, I feel that when I pass 
 a woman, even thong'h it be a sister of the street, I should 
 take off my hat and apologize to her for being a man. 
 
 ''Your Honor, I have stated in this court that I am 
 opposed to the 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 peace- 
 able 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 the railroad shops; at 
 sixteen, I was firing a freight engine on a railroad. I 
 remember all the hardships, all the 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 bom, with whom I expect to share my lot until the 
 end of my days. 
 
 *'I am thinking this morning of the men in the mills 
 and factories; I am thinking of the women who, for a 
 paltry wage, are compelled to work out their lives; of 
 the little children who, in this system, are robbed of 
 their childhood, and in their early, tender years, are 
 seized in the remorseless grasp of Mammon, and forced 
 into the industrial dungeons, there to feed the machines 
 while they themselves are being starved body and soul. 
 I can see them dwarfed, diseased, stunted, their little 
 lives broken, and their hopes blasted, because in this 
 
50 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 high noon of our twentieth century civilization money 
 is still so much more important than human life. Gold 
 is god and rules in the affairs of men. 
 
 *'The little girls, and there are a million of them 
 in this country — this the most favored land beneath the 
 bending skies, a land in which we have vast areas of 
 rich and fertile soil, material resources in inexhaustible 
 abundance, the most marvelous productive machinery on 
 earth, millions of eager workers ready to apply their 
 labor to that machinery to produce an abundance for 
 every man, woman and child — and if there are still 
 many millions of our people who are the victims of 
 poverty, whose life is a ceaseless struggle all the way 
 from youth to age, until at last death comes to their 
 rescue and stills the aching heart, and lulls the victim 
 to dreamless sleep, it is not the fault of the Almighty, 
 it can't be charged to nature; it is due entirely to an 
 outgrown social system that ought to be abolished not 
 only in the interest of the working class, but in a 
 higher interest of all humanity. 
 
 **When I think of these little children — ^the girls 
 that are in the textile mills of all description in the 
 East, in the cotton factories of the South — ^when I think 
 of them at work in a vitiated atmosphere, when I think 
 of them at work when they ought to be at play or at 
 school, when I think that when they do grow up, if 
 they live long enough to approach the marriage state, 
 they are unfit for it. Their nerves are worn out, their 
 tissue is exhausted, their vitality is spent. They have 
 been fed to industry. Their lives have been coined into 
 gold. Their offspring are born tired. That is Avhy 
 there are so many failures in our modern life. 
 
 **Your Honor, the five per cent of the people that I 
 have made reference to constitute that element that 
 absolutely rules our country. They privately own all 
 our public necessities. They wear no crowns; they 
 wield no scepters; they sit upon no thrones; and yet 
 
TRIAL, CONVICTION AND APPEAL 51 
 
 they are our economic masters and our political rulers. 
 They control this government and all of its institutions. 
 They control the courts. 
 
 ''And, Your Honor, if you will permit me, I wish to 
 make just one correction. It was stated here that I had 
 charged that all federal judges were crooks. The charge 
 is absolutely untrue. I did say that all federal judges 
 are appointed through the influence and power of the 
 capitalist class and not the working class. If that 
 statement is not true, I am more than willing to re- 
 tract it. 
 
 "The five per cent of our people who own and 
 control all the sources of wealth, all of the nation's in- 
 dustries, all of the means of our common life, it is they 
 who declare war ; it is they who make peace ; it is they 
 who control our destiny. And so long as this is true, 
 we can make no just claim to being a democratic gov- 
 ernment — a seK-goveming people. 
 
 **I believe, Your Honor, in common with all Socialists, 
 that this nation ought to own and control its 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 pri- 
 vate property of the few and operated for their enrich- 
 ment, ought to be the common property of all, demo- 
 cratically administered in the interest of all. 
 
 *'John D. Rockefeller has to-day 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 person- 
 ally, nor with any other capitalist. I am sunply oppos- 
 ing a social order in which it is possible for one man 
 who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a 
 
52 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while mil- 
 lions of men and women who work all of the days of 
 their lives secure barely enough for an existence. 
 
 ' ' This order of things cannot always endure. I have 
 registered my protest against it. I recognize the feeble- 
 ness of my effort, but, fortunately, I am not alone. 
 There are multiplied thousands of others who, like my- 
 self, 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 is spread over the face of all the earth. 
 
 * ' There are to-day upwards of sixty million Socialists, 
 loyal, devoted, adherents to this cause, regardless of 
 nationality, race, creed, color or sex. They are all mak- 
 ing common cause. They are all spreading the propa- 
 ganda of the new social order. They are waiting, 
 watching and working through all the weary hours of 
 the day and night. They are still in the minority. 
 They have learned how to be patient and abide their 
 time. They feel — they know, indeed, — that the time is 
 coming, in spite of all opposition, all persecution, when 
 this emancipating gospel will spread among all the 
 peoples, and when this minority will become the trium- 
 phant majority, and sweeping into power, inaugurate the 
 greatest change in history. 
 
 *'In that day we will have the universal common- 
 wealth — not the destruction of the nation, but, on the 
 contrary, the harmonious cooperation of every nation 
 with every other nation on earth. In that day war 
 will curse this earth no more. 
 
 * ' I have been accused, Your Honor, of being an enemy 
 of the soldier. I hope I am laying no flattering unction 
 to my soul when I say that I don't believe the soldier 
 has a more sympathetic friend than I am. If I had 
 my way there would be no soldiers. But I realize the 
 sacrifices they are making. Your Honor. I can think 
 
TRIAL, CONVICTION AND APPEAL 53 
 
 of them. I can feel for them. I can sympathize with 
 them. That is one of the reasons why I have been 
 doing what little has been in my power to bring about 
 a condition of affairs in this country worthy of the 
 sacrifices they have made and that they are npw making 
 in its behalf. 
 
 *'Your Honor, in a local paper yesterday there was 
 some editorial exultation about my prospective im- 
 prisonment. I do not resent it in the least. I can under- 
 stand it perfectly. In the same paper there appears 
 an editorial this morning that has in it a hint of the 
 wrong to which I have been trying to call attention. ' ' 
 
 Reading: ** *A senator of the United States receives 
 a salary of $7500— $45,000 for the six years for which 
 he is elected. One of the candidates for senator from 
 a state adjoining Ohio is reported to have spent through 
 his committee $150,000 to secure the nomination. For 
 advertising he spent $35,000 ; for printing $30,000 ; for 
 traveling expenses $10,000 and the rest in ways known 
 to political managers. 
 
 " 'The theory is that public office is as open to a 
 poor man as to a rich man. One may easily imagine, 
 however, how slight a chance one of ordinary resources 
 would have in a contest against this man who was will- 
 ing to spend more than three times his six years' salary 
 merely to secure a nomination. Were these conditions 
 to hold in every state, the senate would soon become 
 again what it was once held to be — a rich men's club. 
 
 '' 'Campaign expenditures have been the subject of 
 much restrictive legislation in recent years, but it has 
 not always reached the mark. The authors of primary 
 reform have accomplished some of the things they set 
 out to do, but they have not yet taken the bank roll 
 out of politics.' 
 
 "They never will take it out of politics, they never 
 can take it out of politics in this system. 
 
 ''Your Honor, I wish to make acknowledgment of 
 
54 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 my thjuiks to the counsel for the defense. They have 
 not only defended me with exceptional legal ability, but 
 with a personal attachment and devotion of which I 
 am deeply sensible, and which I can never forget. 
 
 *'Your Honor, I ask no mercy, I plead for no im- 
 munity. I realize that finally the right must prevail. I 
 never more clearly comprehended than now the great 
 struggle between the powers of greed on the one hand 
 and upon the other the rising hosts of freedom. I can 
 see the dawn of a better day of humanity. The people 
 are awakening. In due course of time they will come 
 into their own. 
 
 **When the mariner, sailing over tropic seas, looks 
 for relief from his weary watch, he turns his eyes 
 toward the Southern Cross, burning luridly above the 
 tempest-vexed ocean. As the midnight approaches, the 
 Southern Cross begins to bend, and the whirling worlds 
 change their places, and with starry finger-points the 
 Almighty marks the passage of Time upon the dial of 
 the universe; and though no bell may beat the glad 
 tidings, the look-out knows that the midnight is passing 
 — that relief and rest are close at hand. 
 
 **Let the people take heart and hope everywhere, for 
 the cross is bending, the midnight is passing, and joy 
 Cometh with the morning. 
 
 ** *He is true to God who is true to man. 
 Wherever wrong is done 
 To the humblest and the weakest 
 'Neath the all-beholding sun. 
 That wrong is also done to us, 
 And they are slaves most base 
 Whose love of right is for themselves 
 And not for all the race.' 
 
 *'Your Honor, I thank you, and I thank all of this 
 court for their courtesy, for their kindness, which I shall 
 remember always. 
 • *'I am prepared to receive your sentence.'' 
 
TRIAL, CONVICTION AND APPEAL 55 
 
 The Court overruled the motion of Debs's counsel for 
 a new trial on the ground of a faulty indictment and 
 immaterial and improper evidence introduced by the 
 prosecution. Judge Westenhaver made a lengthy state- 
 ment from the bench, reviewing the evidence. He said 
 that men of the power and influence of Debs were re- 
 sponsible in a large measure for *' other ignorant and 
 unthinking foreigners" getting into similar difficulty. 
 The Court held he yielded to none in his sympathy and 
 tenderness toward the poor and the struggling, and ex- 
 pressed his amazement at *'the remarkable self-delusion 
 and self-deception of Mr. Debs who assumes that he is 
 serving humanity and the downtrodden.'' 
 
 *'I am a conserver of the peace and a defender of 
 the Constitution of the United States," avowed the 
 Court, looking squarely into the face of Debs whose eyes 
 met squarely those of his judge. The Court admitted 
 his admiration of Debs's sincerity and courage, and 
 added that the principles which Debs had espoused be- 
 fore the jury and the Court were ** anarchy pure and 
 simple," and not in conformity with any works on 
 Socialism that he had read. The Court denounced as 
 enemies those persons 'Svithin our borders who would 
 strike the sword from the hand of this nation while she 
 is engaged in defending herself against a foreign and 
 brutal power." 
 
 The Court then sentenced Debs to serve ten years in 
 the West Virginia State Penitentiary at Moundsville 
 on each of the three counts upon which he was found 
 guilty, the sentence to run concurrently. Debs's bail 
 of $10,000 was continued, and he was released, but only 
 on condition that he would remain at his home in Terre 
 Haute or within the jurisdiction of the Court pending 
 the disposition of his appeal to the Supreme Court of 
 the United States. The Socialist Party had decided 
 that Debs should make a nation-wide speaking tour in 
 behalf of other political and industrial prisoners con- 
 
66 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 victed under the same statute, but the ruling of the 
 Court limited his activities in this direction to the 
 northern judicial district of Ohio and his home town. 
 Debs held scores of meetings in the cities and towns 
 embraced by this area while his appeal was being pre- 
 pared. He did not miss a single opportunity to ad- 
 dress his followers, and each address was substantially 
 a reiteration of the principles enunciated in his Canton 
 and jury speeches. 
 
 On March 10th, 1919, the Supreme Court of the 
 United States upheld the conviction and sentence of 
 Debs.* 
 
 Debs was at home when the news reached him that 
 his appeal had been denied. He gave the following 
 broadside to the press associations : 
 
 *'The decision is perfectly consistent with the char- 
 acter of the Supreme Court as a ruling class tribunal. 
 It could not have been otherwise. So far as I am per- 
 sonally concerned, the decision is of small consequence. 
 But there is an issue at stake of vital interest to the 
 American people. It involves the fundamental right 
 of free speech. With this, our boasted freedom is a de- 
 lusion and a farce. 
 
 ''The Supreme Court has dodged the issue. It has 
 held the Espionage Law valid without affirming its 
 constitutionality. The real issue before the court was 
 the constitutionality of the act. This issue the Supreme 
 Court did not dare to decide. What the Supreme Court 
 did decide is that the Constitution is another 'scrap of 
 paper. ' 
 
 "Great issues are not decided by courts, but by the 
 people. I have no concern in what the coterie of be- 
 gowned corporation lawyers in Washington may decide 
 in my case. The court of final resort is the people, and 
 that court will be heard from in due time. 
 
 * Full text of decision of Supreme Court in the Debs case may 
 be found in the Appendix. 
 
TRIAL, CONVICTION AND APPEAL 57 
 
 *'The decision just rendered places the United States 
 where old Russia under the Czar left off. It is good 
 for, at least, a million Bolshevist recruits in this country. 
 
 ^'I stand by every word of the Canton speech. The 
 Supreme Court to the contrary, notwithstanding, the 
 Espionage Law is perfectly infamous, and a disgrace, as 
 well, to the capitalist despotism at whose behest it was 
 enacted. 
 
 *' Sixty years ago the Supreme Court affirmed the 
 validity of the Fugitive Slave law to save chattel 
 slavery. Five years later that infamous institution was 
 swept from the land in a torrent of blood. I despise 
 the Espionage Law with every drop of blood in my 
 veins, and I defy the Supreme Court and all its powers 
 of capitalism to do their worst. 
 
 '*A11 hail to the workers of America and the world! 
 
 **The day of emancipation is dawning." 
 
CHAPTER III 
 THE JOURNEY TO PRISON 
 
 IT was about eleven o'clock on Saturday morning, 
 April 12tli, 1919, when tlie telephone rang in Debs's 
 home. District Attorney Wertz, of Cleveland, was at 
 the other end of the wire. Debs answered. The dis- 
 trict attorney informed Debs that he should make ready 
 at once to come to Cleveland and surrender himself to 
 the government authorities who would take him to the 
 Moundsville penitentiary. Debs was told that no 
 guards would be sent to Terre Haute to accompany 
 him on the journey to Cleveland. 
 
 "Thank you, Mr. Wertz, I'll be right along," said 
 Debs as he hung up the receiver. 
 
 From that moment until 9.30 o'clock in the evening, 
 Debs was busying himself at home packing for the jour- 
 ney to prison. Mrs. Debs helped him with this and that, 
 reminding him to write that little note before he went 
 away, and * ' Don 't you think you should attend to this ? ' * 
 All day long telegrams and special delivery letters 
 poured into his home at 451 North Eighth street. They 
 were from his friends in all corners of the continent. 
 
 I had arrived in Terre Haute a little before 2 o 'clock. 
 There were crowds at the station and I felt sure that 
 Debs had gone away. I was aware that his moments of 
 freedom were few. I hailed a taxi-cab. "Take me to 
 Debs's home," I urged. A moment later it occurred to 
 me that, possibly, the driver did not know where Debs 
 lived. I told him. The driver smiled. "I wish I had 
 a dollar for every man I've driven to Debs's home. 
 Why, more people in Terry Hut know where 'Gene 
 
 58 
 
THE JOURNEY TO PRISON 59 
 
 Debs lives than they know the location of City Hall.'* 
 In a few moments we were at the Debs home. A tall, 
 matronly woman, with gentle and kindly face, opened 
 the door. There was a slight hesitancy in her manner. 
 It instantly occurred to me that persons coming to that 
 home on this day were no less than intruders, inter- 
 lopers. Yes, Debs was at home, she said, but very busy. 
 ''He is upstairs now writing letters," she said. A few 
 moments after I had stepped into the parlor I heard 
 'Gene's footsteps on the stairs. His eye was clear, and 
 his voice was firm, sweet and resonant. His shoulders 
 were slightly more stooped, possibly due to his recent 
 confinement to bed with lumbago. It was a wonderful 
 spring day down there in southern Indiana. Every- 
 where one sensed the budding and bursting of new life. 
 Debs felt it. 
 
 **Well, I am ready to go to prison. I am ready to 
 pay the ultimate penalty for speaking what to me was 
 the truth. I said in court at Cleveland that I had not 
 one word to retract. I have not a word to retract now. 
 I would say over again what I said at Canton." His 
 mouth contracted as his lips tightened in determination. 
 I asked Debs if he could tell me what his feelings were 
 on the eve of his going to prison. He smiled, and I 
 knew at once that I had asked a foolish question, for 
 his answer to it was flashed in his confident, winning 
 manner. 
 
 ''What about a pardon?" he repeated my question. 
 *'I don't know anything about one. I have asked for 
 none, nor shall I. I stand on the threshold of going to 
 prison with malice toward none, and with perfect faith 
 in the rectitude of my course and an absolute confidence 
 in the justice and ultimate triumph of the cause to 
 which I have gladly given my services. To ask a par- 
 don would be to confess guilt. ' ' Debs 's eyes were flash- 
 ing fire, and a steely glint stole into them. Debs said he 
 thought that the reactionary element in the political and 
 
60 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 industrial spheres of the country feared the spread of 
 Bolshevism over the United States, and that if they 
 could but cut out its tongue, meaning the elimination of 
 himself, they would have killed it. At that time he 
 thought it not unlikely that President Wilson might 
 intervene, though he did not expect or wish it. 
 
 ** Wilson has a vision,'' Debs said. ** There is some 
 light on his social horizon, however much it may be 
 obscured by the clouds that hover around him. He 
 sees, or seems to see, at some moments, that the liberties 
 of the people cannot be crushed by repressive measures, 
 but there are tremendous forces behind the President, or 
 before him, I don't know which, that won't let him be 
 free." 
 
 He mentioned the large and enthusiastic meetings he 
 had been holding in the northern judicial district of 
 Ohio, and while speaking of them he became oblivious of 
 the gray journey he was soon to take to prison. 
 
 Only a few persons in Terre Haute knew that Debs 
 was leaving them that night. A few of his townsmen 
 were bent upon holding a huge demonstration in his 
 honor. Debs requested them to call it off. *'I just 
 want to slip out quietly now. When I come back — 
 that will be the time." 
 
 A little way down the street from his two-story frame 
 dwelling two children were playing with a kitten. I 
 had just left Debs's home, but as an experiment I wanted 
 to know what his little neighbors thought of him. I 
 asked one of them where Debs lived. 
 
 ** Right in that second house from the comer, two 
 doors above Sycamore street. You can't miss him; he's 
 the man with the kind face." Then the little girl 
 chirped up: *'Yes, the other day he patted me on my 
 head and told me not to hurt my kitten, and I have 
 not squeezed it since." This led me to talk to whom- 
 ever I chanced to meet about 'Gene Debs for the re- 
 mainder of the afternoon. 
 
THE JOURNEY TO PRISON 61 
 
 Down on the railroad tracks near the station was a 
 watchman's shanty. Inside was the watchman, an old 
 man, looking to be about sixty years. His face was 
 red and weatherbeaten. His eyes were red, too, from 
 the wind and cinders. He was reaching his arm 
 through the window to dip a cup into a pail of water 
 that was placed on an upturned box. 
 
 *'Well, I guess I oughta know where 'Gene lives," 
 he said, answering my inquiry. He gave me the accu- 
 rate direction. 
 
 ''You know they're taking him away to prison to- 
 night?" I ventured. 
 
 "Yes, I know it." A fierce glint tempered with sad- 
 ness stole into the old railroader's eyes. 
 
 "I suppose you are going up to say 'Good-by' to 
 him before he goes away?" 
 
 ' ' Oh, 'Gene never goes out of Terry Hut but what he 
 comes by this shanty and yells in 'So long. Bob, I'll 
 see you soon again.' He'll be comin' 'long here to-night 
 before he goes away. I'll bet he won't be gone as long 
 as some of those times when he made the run for Presi- 
 dent." That night, just before train time, 'Gene, his 
 brother Theodore, and I were walking from his home 
 to the station. 
 
 "Just a minute, boys," said 'Gene. "I want to stop 
 at that shanty over there and say 'So long' to Bob." 
 
 Strolling down Seventh street towards the center of 
 the city's heart an elderly man hove into sight. He 
 looked as though he might be a retired wage worker, 
 too old now, maybe, to work at whatever had been his 
 trade. A butt of a cigar was gripped between his brown 
 teeth, and a battered light felt hat dipped over one eye. 
 His clothes hung upon his slender frame in a manner 
 resembling nothing so much as a scarecrow's. I put 
 the same questions to him. With some show of city 
 pride after the manner of an elder citizen who has a 
 
62 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 speaking acquaintance with all the local celebrities, my 
 friend owned that he knew Debs "very well/' 
 
 "I once worked for him," he vouchsafed, swelling up 
 just a little. "Yes, siree, I tinkered 'round his front 
 porch and painted 'er up. So 'Gene is leavin' Terry 
 Hut for prison to-night ! Well, I'll be damned. That's 
 tough, ain't it?" I ventured the suggestion that some 
 day Terre Haute would erect a monument to the mem- 
 ory of its foremost citizen. 
 
 "Well, I don't know. Now, we ain't much on monu- 
 ments here in Terry Hut. We don't go in for the deco- 
 rations. Did you see that Soldiers' and Sailors' monu- 
 ment down there in the park on your way up? Ain't 
 that a hell of a lookin' thing? No, siree, we don't go 
 in much for the monuments in Terry Hut. Well, I'll 
 just go 'round and say *Good-by' to 'Gene before he 
 goes." The old wage worker slowly ambled off toward 
 the Debs home to take his parting farewell. 
 
 Down at the Terre Haute House some leading citizens 
 and politicians were standing in groups out on the 
 pavement. Several iron rods that supported the awning 
 were bent in just about up to a man's shoulder, and 
 several citizens were settled snugly against them. The 
 bar was crowded. The next man to me was drinking 
 slowly from a glass of beer. He wore striped trousers 
 that were frayed at the heels, and a black cutaway coat 
 that was green and shiny at the back and elbows. A 
 greenish black braid ran around its edges and the cuffs. 
 A high Piccadilly collar with soiled flaps pinched his 
 neck. He had a professional air about him. We struck 
 up a conversation about Debs. 
 
 "Well, I should say I do know him — for twenty 
 years, sir." 
 
 "What does Terre Haute think about Debs going to 
 prison?" I inquired. 
 
 "Well, now, speaking for myself," he began, "I've 
 known Mr. Debs for many years. I like him person- 
 
THE JOURNEY TO PRISON 63 
 
 ally, but he's got some cranky notions in his head. If 
 he didn't have them fool ideas about saving humanity 
 he'd be all right. What's more, sir, humanity as it is 
 ain't worth anybody goin' to jail for." He gulped to 
 the dregs. 
 
 * ' I '11 tell you, I hope Debs goes to prison, and I hope 
 he s-e-r-v-e-s twenty-four hours just to prove to him and 
 his followers that the law is bigger 'n he is." 
 
 ' ' Everybody in Terre Haute loves Debs, ' ' an editor of 
 the Terre Haute Tribune told me, "but many of them 
 think he was mighty foolish to make that speech at 
 Canton when he did. He had no right to do that. I 
 guess the feeling in Terre Haute about Debs is some- 
 thing like this: ninety-five per cent of the people don't 
 like his ideas, but they worship the man. They all love 
 him. But there is probably not one man or woman in 
 that ninety-five per cent but who would gladly go to 
 jail for 'Gene if they could." 
 
 Shortly before nine o'clock I went back to the Debs 
 home. Lights were shining through the side windows 
 of his sitting room, which was simply furnished, like 
 any ordinary American home. It was marked by its 
 orderliness and comforts, without any pretensions or 
 luxuries. Debs was sitting in an ample rocking chair 
 smoking a cigar. He might just have returned from 
 a campaign trip. There was good nature all around. 
 'Gene seemed to be the one least affected by the ordeal 
 through which he must pass in the days and months to 
 come. Around him were his wife, Theodore and his 
 wife and daughter, Mrs. Debs's aged mother, and her 
 brother, Arthur Baur, a local druggist. 
 
 In a vase on a table was a huge bunch of American 
 Beauty roses, the gift of Mrs. Flynn, an old washer- 
 woman, and a neighbor. ''She is a Roman Catholic," 
 Debs said, "and every morning for many years she 
 has prayed for me." Debs blew a ring of blue smoke 
 and smiled sadly. The rear of the house resembled a 
 
64 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 miniature horticultural hall filled with myriad flowers 
 that had been brought to the house aU that day and 
 evening, the gifts of Debs's neighbors, many of whom 
 did not share his social ideas, but who were deeply fond 
 of and admired the man. Debs spoke of a rich over- 
 all manufacturer who lived a few doors from him. * ' Of 
 course he doesn't like the hard things I say about capi- 
 talism, but he is a splendid neighbor. He was here 
 to-day to say farewell." 
 
 ''Well, Eugene, we had better start," put in Mrs. 
 Debs, rising. 
 
 ''Yes," replied Debs. "We don't want to miss the 
 train." 
 
 Theodore, who has been closer than a brother to 'Gene, 
 got Debs's coat from the rack. Mrs. Debs's mother was 
 weeping softly. 'Gene went over to her side and patted 
 her cheek. "It is all right, mother," he said with in- 
 finite tenderness, ' ' it will come out all right in the end. ' ' 
 
 In spite of the fact that on that very afternoon a 
 delegation representing the Terre Haute branch of So- 
 cialists and the Terre Haute Central Labor Union called 
 on him to obtain his permission to hold a demonstration 
 that night, — which Debs refused, — there were at the 
 Big Four Railroad station more than 200 of the old 
 guard, the faithful comrades who would not let their 
 'Gene go away without a farewell and a last shake of 
 his hand. Debs strolled right into the crowd. In- 
 stantly he was surrounded. Those who could not edge 
 their way right up to him reached over the heads of the 
 others and tugged at his coat sleeves. They repre- 
 sented, typically so, the American labor movement. 
 They were not all Socialists. But they were all work- 
 ing men and women. Debs went from one to the other 
 avowing his love for them all, and pledging anew to 
 them his devotion to their common cause. One big miner 
 thrust his huge form through the crowd. His gnarled 
 hand clasped Debs's arm. Tears flowed freely from his 
 
THE JOURNEY TO PRISON 65 
 
 eyes as he said : ** We're with you, 'Gene, — ^by God, we're 
 with you to the last man." 
 
 *'I know it," said Debs, patting his cheek and kiss- 
 ing his brow. ** Until the last drop we'll stand together, 
 all of us. Only by standing together can we hope for 
 victory. You boys take care of the outside and I'll 
 take care of the inside." A volley of (»heers from two 
 hundred strong throats rent the air. Debs passed into 
 the station and the crowd followed. Every few mo- 
 ments some one would start ** three cheers," and the 
 throng would shout its response. Merchants competing 
 with each other for trade and profits could not possibly 
 be more competitive than were these men, vicing with 
 each other just to touch the garments of 'Gene Debs. 
 Out on the platform they surged as the train pulled 
 into the station. As Debs mounted the steps of his car 
 a Pullman porter doffed his cap. Debs had been a pas- 
 senger in his car many times before, on happier occa- 
 sions. Instantly Debs removed his own hat. Then the 
 crowd uncovered, even the women removing their hats. 
 In this manner they stood for some minutes. In front 
 of the crowd a soldier was standing. On one sleeve 
 were two gold stripes, indicating a year's service in 
 France, and on the other sleeve one gold stripe, indicat- 
 ing a wound received in battle. He stood first on one 
 foot, then on the other. When he could restrain him- 
 self no longer he climbed up the steps, grasped Debs 
 by the hand and shouted: 
 
 **Mr. Debs, I went through hell over there for them, 
 and now I'm ready to go through hell over here for 
 you." The crowd let out a whoop. "And there are a 
 million more like me," shouted the soldier back to the 
 crowd. As the train slowly puffed its way out of the 
 shed Debs threw a kiss to his wife, and his friends. A 
 little way down the platform a young woman was walk- 
 ing with a man. She pulled a red flower from her 
 
66 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 bosom and threw it at Debs who was still standing on 
 the platform. 
 
 Arthur Baur and myself, who were to accompany 
 Debs to prison, went with him to the club car while 
 the porter made up his berth. Earlier that day Debs had 
 said: 
 
 ''During my incarceration my comrades will be true 
 and my enemies will be satisfied, and therefore, as far 
 as I am concerned, all will be well with the world." 
 
 I asked him how Mrs. Debs was bearing up under 
 the strain. 
 
 ''She has stood shoulder to shoulder with me through 
 every storm that has beat upon us, and she is standing 
 firm now. ' ' Debs said that it was his wife 's regret that 
 she could not go with him to prison. "But she cannot 
 do that, so she will remain here to keep the home fires 
 burning. ' ' 
 
 All about the Debs home there was every outward 
 indication that 'Gene would remain undisturbed for the 
 rest of his life. A man was working in the little garden 
 in back of the home, laying out new flower beds for 
 Mrs. Debs and pruning the trees on the strip of lawn 
 in front of their house. Quietly standing by his side 
 throughout all of his trials and tribulations, throughout 
 all of the homage and glory that have been lavished 
 upon her husband, Mrs. Debs declined to give her own 
 opinion concerning the plight in which Debs found him- 
 self. It has been her life rule to permit Debs to speak 
 for himself on every matter of public import. On that 
 day her hair seemed just a wee bit whiter; her cheeks 
 may have lost a little of their accustomed rosiness; she 
 might even have been somewhat thinner; but she was 
 quite as erect, and carried her head in the same un- 
 afraid manner as of old, resembling nothing so much as 
 a great tree in some forest over which has swept many a 
 strong wind, yet which remains steadfast, braced to 
 weather any storm that may arise again. 
 
THE JOURNEY TO PRISON 67 
 
 Debs smoked two or three cigars as we sat in the 
 club car. He was lively, mostly in reminiscent mood, 
 and in excellent spirits. During the conversation I 
 suggested to him that his imprisonment would tend to 
 accelerate whatever boom may otherwise have been 
 started for him for President. He waved it aside, 
 saying, "When the presidential year comes around I'll 
 be the best swabber of floors, or the best prison clerk, 
 in Moundsville. ' ' 
 
 This led him to speak of leaders. 
 
 *'Very often a leader is, in fact, a misleader. It is 
 the workers, the men and women who do all the hard 
 work in every line of trade and profession — in building 
 up their own Socialist branches and their unions, to 
 whom all the credit, homage, honor and glory is due. 
 They are the salt of the earth, the gold in the rain- 
 bow, — these simple people, these Jimmie and Jane Hig- 
 ginses who work early and late for the cause, who ar- 
 range the meetings, who wash the dishes after the festive 
 dinners — ^how much we owe to the workers. They ex- 
 pect no pay and they receive no honors. If you were 
 to approach them with your thanks for the good they 
 have done, they would blush to the roots of their hair. 
 I have had a regret all of my days that I shall not live 
 long enough to repay these dear comrades of mine for 
 the wonderful love and honors they have showered upon 
 me with their seamed and scarred hands, worn and 
 shriveled from the toil that has been their lot. Their 
 joy is to serve, yet none serve them. All that I am in 
 this world is what my comrades have made me. They 
 are the fruit of the choicest tree that ever grew. 
 
 Across from us, sitting in the brightly lighted car, 
 sat several men, smoking and drinking light beverages. 
 They were going somewhere for business or pleasure. 
 Debs was going to prison. They knew he sat within a 
 few feet of them. A little while before they had come 
 out on the platform at Terre Haute to see what all the 
 
68 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 racket was about. People asleep in their berths had 
 come out with wraps about their pajamas and night- 
 gowns. One tall fellow, clad in pajamas, shook Debs's 
 hand and said: "Mr. Debs, I am going to Canton. 
 Have you ever been there ? ' ' 
 
 *'0h, yes,'^ replied Debs, appreciating the humor, *'I 
 once made a speech there which the government didn't 
 like.'' 
 
 ** Suppose," I asked him during the evening, ** sup- 
 pose President Wilson should cable a pardon for you 
 without any strings attached to it, an unconditional 
 pardon, what would you do ? What would be your atti- 
 tude?" At that time President Wilson was in Paris 
 helping to arrange the terms of peace for the world 
 which for the five preceding years had been swept by 
 war. Debs drew on his cigar. As the blue smoke curled 
 from his lips his answer was ready: 
 
 * * I should refuse to accept it, unless the same pardon 
 were extended to every man and woman in prison under 
 the Espionage Law. They must let them all out — 
 I.W.W. and all — or I won't come out. I don't want 
 any special dispensation of justice in my case. It is 
 perfectly clear. I always have taken that position and I 
 cannot too strongly reassert it now. ' ' 
 
 All during the trip to Cleveland Debs talked gayly 
 enough. He told stories of how back in 1896 he had 
 campaigned for William Jennings Bryan for President. 
 Even during that campaign. Debs said, he was getting 
 along fast toward Socialism. ** Bryan's lieutenants 
 wanted me to espouse the Sixteen-to-one, Free Silver 
 panacea, but I was talking straight Industrial Unionism, 
 and those were the days, too, when to talk for Indus- 
 trial Unionism, or the One Big Union, was to espouse 
 * anarchy,' for the American Federation of Labor was 
 at that time growing fast toward its full strength as a 
 craft union movement, and Bryan's managers antici- 
 pated a number of votes from that element." Debs's 
 
THE JOURNEY TO PEISON 69 
 
 crowds in those early days ran neck and neck in num- 
 bers with those of Bryan himself, and this fact would 
 au^r well for his power as a speaker nearly a quarter 
 of a century ago. 
 
 ''Many years ago," he went on, "during the great 
 Cripple Creek strike in Colorado I was invited to go out 
 there and help organize the miners, who were struggling 
 to obtain the eight-hour day. In those days the ' Eight- 
 Hour Day' movement was labor heresj^ I would not 
 again go into a situation such as I found out there for 
 anything in the world — not for anything except Social- 
 ism. 
 
 * ' The towns were flooded with armed thugs, who were 
 ordered to shoot all labor agitators on sight. The busi- 
 ness men and mine owners were determined they would 
 not allow a labor union in that district. I went out 
 there. At the station I was met by a large group of 
 armed thugs, the sheriff and his deputies. They made 
 up their minds that I should not make a speech that 
 night.'' Debs said he told the leader of the gang that, 
 ''This will either be the beginning of organized labor 
 in Colorado or the end of me. ' ' 
 
 "They held conference on the curb while I went to 
 a hotel. That night I made my speech and held a most 
 successful meeting. The next morning I was standing 
 on the curb near my hotel, talking with several of the 
 union men. There were only a few who had dared to 
 be seen with me. One of the men drew my attention 
 to a big, hulking fellow not ten feet away. He was the 
 biggest man I ever saw in two boots. He had a deadly 
 eye. I could see the butts of two guns protruding from 
 his hip pockets. 
 
 " 'See that fellow over there, Mr. Debs,' one of my 
 friends said to me. 'Well, he is a sure shot. He was 
 never known to miss the man he went after. Last night 
 that man stood not ten feet away from your stand all 
 the while you were talking. You have not left his sight 
 
70 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 since then. He has been following you every step, and 
 he'll be the last man to see you out of town.' 
 
 ** 'Is that so?' I said to my friend. I walked over 
 to the strong man on the curb and extended my hand 
 to him. 
 
 '* 'My friends have been telling me that you were 
 at my meeting last night, that you have been watching 
 my movements ever since, and that you are the sure 
 shot of Colorado. I am glad to meet you.' 
 
 ** *Yes, Mr. Debs, I've been watching you pretty care- 
 fully. I knew that they were out to get you in this 
 yere burg. I hail from Vincennes, Indiana, and I know 
 you're on the level with the workingmen. I jest made 
 
 up my mind that any who laid his dirty hands 
 
 on you would be carted out of this yere region a corpse. ' 
 
 *'The fellow blushed to the roots of his hair like a 
 girl when I thanked him for the personal service he had 
 rendered to me. I have found on so many occasions 
 that it is almost impossible to declare accurately who 
 are our friends and who are our enemies." 
 
 At five 'clock next morning Debs was up and dressed. 
 He said he had slept only about an hour, but had been 
 resting with his thoughts. While the train was creeping 
 slowly into the Cleveland yards Debs asked me to take 
 his statement ''for my comrades throughout the United 
 States." I had no paper at hand, so I fished a book 
 from my grip, and was ready to write his statement in 
 the back of it. This is the statement : 
 
 "As I am about to enter the prison doors, I wish to 
 send to the Socialists of America who have so loyally 
 stood by me since my first arrest this little message of 
 love and cheer. These are pregnant days and promising 
 ones. 
 
 ''We are all on the threshold of tremendous changes. 
 The workers of the world are awakening and bestirring 
 themselves as never before. All the forces that are 
 playing upon the modern world are making for the 
 
THE JOURNEY TO PRISON 71 
 
 overthrow of despotism in all its forms, and for the 
 emancipation of the masses of mankind. 
 
 ' ' I shall be in prison in the days to come, but my 
 revolutionary spirit will be abroad and I shall not be 
 inactive. Let us all in this supreme hour measure up 
 to our full stature and work together as one for the great 
 cause that means emancipation 'for us all. 
 
 **Love to all my comrades and all hail to the revolu- 
 tion." 
 
 When the Cleveland newspapers announced, Saturday 
 evening, that Debs would leave Terre Haute that night 
 for Cleveland, the Socialists hastily prepared for a mass 
 meeting at which Debs was to speak. Dodgers printed 
 in scarlet ink were scattered through the streets of the 
 city. It was to be a meeting to protest against the im- 
 prisonment of Debs and the other political and indus- 
 trial prisoners. The meeting did not take place because 
 Debs was spirited out of Cleveland three hours after he 
 arrived. At the depot he was met by Mrs. Marguerite 
 Prevy, who had driven up from Akron with her sister, 
 Mrs. May Deibel, and her husband, John. They were 
 staunch friends of Debs. The breakfast over, Debs went 
 to the Gillsy House. He was writing a note to his folks 
 at home, telling of his safe arrival, when two United 
 States deputy marshals came to his room and ordered 
 him to come with them to the Marshal's office in the 
 Federal building. With Debs at that moment were Mrs. 
 Prevy, J. Louis Engdahl and Alfred Wagenknecht, the 
 last two coming from Chicago as representatives of the 
 National Socialist Party, and who would accompany 
 the Debs party to Moundsville. 
 
 After a few minutes' stay at the Federal building, 
 where Marshal Charles W. Lapp prepared the necessary 
 documents for delivering Debs to prison, the prisoner, 
 with Marshal Lapp and a deputy, appeared at a side 
 exit, £ind entered an automobile. Those of us who were 
 to accompany him got into another automobile. The 
 
72 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 Debs car tore through the city streets. It turned cor- 
 ners sharply, the driver ignoring all traffic regulations. 
 Our car kept up the whole distance, recklessly brushing 
 passing vehicles and moving trolley cars. Traffic police- 
 men waved their arms in frantic yet futile attempt to 
 halt the dual speeders. For an hour this mad race con- 
 tinued, until finally the Debs car drew up before a 
 suburban railroad station where the Marshal purchased 
 three tickets for Youngstown. His pursuers did like- 
 wise. Debs was taken to a private compartment of the 
 train and we were allowed to sit with him. The Marshal 
 then told us that we were to make the trip to Mounds- 
 ville from Youngstown by trolley. This was done to 
 forestall any demonstrations for Debs by his followers 
 along the route. The trip was uneventful. Debs told 
 stories of his life, of the American Railway Union's 
 strike back in 1894, and similar incidents of his career. 
 Every now and then he would turn to Marshal Lapp, 
 who wanted to be congenial and affable, slap him on 
 the knee and ask him how he felt. Just before wo 
 reached Youngstown Debs remarked to the Marshal that 
 it might take some while to get to Moundsville by trolley. 
 
 *'Well, we can make an all-day job of it,'' smiled 
 Lapp. 
 
 ''Oh, yes," rejoined Debs, with perfect good hu- 
 mor, *'we have ten years in which to get there." Debs 
 said he never felt in better spirits in all his life, and 
 added, ''This is the beginning of a great event for us 
 all." At Youngstown, a little boy of twelve years, the 
 son of a Socialist, espied Debs walking through the 
 streets with his guards on the way to the interurban 
 station. The little fellow threw himself in 'Gene's 
 arms. After a half -hour wait we were aboard a trolley 
 for Leetonia; from there to East Liverpool; to Steu- 
 benville; to Wellsburg, West Virginia; to Wheeling, 
 where Debs was allowed thirty minutes for supper. He 
 had not eaten since early morning in Cleveland. We, 
 
THE JOUENEY TO PRISON 73 
 
 reached Wheeling by eight o'clock. Debs was kept 
 jumping off and on trolley cars all day Sunday. He 
 was an old man, 64 years old, recently confined to bed 
 with illness. There was not one word of complaint 
 from him, yet he was visibly exhausted. When one of 
 his party complained about his being '* kidnaped*' in 
 this fashion. Debs only smiled and said, * ' It *s all right ; 
 let them have their inning now; we'll have ours some 
 day." 
 
 Debs's trolley slid across trestles, jolted and jostled 
 along the foothills of the AUeghenies, with every now and 
 then happy couples getting on and off the various cars 
 on which we traveled. They were making merry on a 
 Palm Sunday frolic. Once, I was reminded of what a 
 barber in Terre Haute had remarked in speaking casu- 
 ally to a customer about Debs's impending imprison- 
 ment. *'Well, it's coming along to Easter time, and 
 we're getting ready for another crucifixion." 
 
 Late in the afternoon Debs was so weary he could 
 hold up his head no longer. Presently it bent slowly 
 toward his breast, and in this posture he slept as the 
 car rocked his head from side to side. Life's grayest 
 shadows held no sadder picture than this. We who 
 accompanied Debs to prison shall never forget his sad 
 and sleeping figure, with head bent on bosom, his long 
 frame cramped in a trolley car seat, with two guards 
 ever vigilant, moving along the Ohio Valley, with the 
 river flowing at our right, with great earth swells ris- 
 ing and falling on either side like huge brown and 
 green waves. 
 
 Shortly before ten o'clock we arrived at Moundsville. 
 The great turrets of the prison arose before us like 
 ancient towers. As we passed along the wall, sickly 
 yellow lights shone through the grated windows like a 
 sieve held over a number of candles. Debs was still 
 carrying his heavy grip which he would let none of his 
 party carry for him. He was walking slowly beside 
 
74 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 Marshal Lapp, and he was talking softly to his guard. 
 I heard him say this: 
 
 ''Marshal, you have treated me like a gentleman all 
 the way down here. I should not wish you ever to feel 
 that you have done me the slightest injury or harm by 
 bringing me here. I understand perfectly why I am 
 going to prison, and I am glad to come here for the 
 reason that I am coming here. So set your conscience 
 at perfect ease so far as I am concerned." Debs^s long 
 arm slowly stretched across the broad shoulders of his 
 guard and in this fashion he entered the prison — ^with 
 poise and composure. 
 
 Once inside the prison, Debs was met by the warden^ 
 Joseph Z. Terrell. In his characteristic half-stooping 
 manner. Debs extended his hand to the warden. In a 
 moment the formalities were over and Debs stepped 
 into an automatic turn-table inclosed in a double barred 
 grating. At the first meeting, the warden spoke kindly 
 to his new charge. Debs was taken to a receiving cell, 
 No. 51, in the south wing of the prison. He had em- 
 braced each of us just before he stepped into the turn- 
 table. There was a moment's turning of his head, and 
 his face was sadly radiant in the mellow glow of an 
 incandescent hanging in the hall. The warden assured 
 us that Debs would be well taken care of in the prison. 
 
 "He will not be on exhibition for the curiosity seek- 
 ers, and I shall respect his wishes, so far as the rules 
 will allow, as I would those of a man of similar character 
 and intelligence," said Terrell. From the first it was 
 apparent that Debs was in good and kind hands as far 
 as a prison is concerned. Debs was to be allowed to 
 write as many letters as he pleased, subject, of course, 
 to prison censorship, whereas the rules permitted only 
 one each week. He would be assigned to light and easy 
 clerical duty in the hospital. 
 
 Moreover, the warden would allow Debs to receive 
 any number of Socialist newspapers and publications, 
 
THE JOURNEY TO PRISON 75 
 
 the only restriction being that he would destroy them 
 when he had read them. This provision was made with 
 a view to keeping the other prisoners "from being con- 
 taminated by Socialist ideas." The warden would also 
 allow Debs to receive, reasonably, unrestricted visits 
 from members of his family and personal friends. Be- 
 fore we left that night the warden permitted us to go 
 to Debs's cell and bid him good-night. He had removed 
 his coat and vest, collar and tie. He was preparing 
 for bed. We did not linger before his barred door. 
 With one hand gripping the steel rods of his cage, he 
 extended the other through the grating and bid us each 
 good-by. His cell was jet black within. In the night 
 it was impossible for the eye to discern its length or 
 width. 
 
 *'It is all right, boys," said Debs; **I am going to 
 sleep the sleep of the just to-night. I am very tired. 
 Don't worry for me, or about me. We know what we 
 are about, and I shall be very comfortable here." His 
 face was close up to the bars, looking after us as we 
 walked down the narrow iron balcony to the floor. 
 Something that we could not name rose in our throats 
 to choke us. Something that we could not define or 
 see rose up before us to beat us down. The sound of 
 our footsteps on the granite floor aroused the sleeping 
 prisoners in that section, and in a moment there was a 
 chorus of coughing such as is heard in a hospital for 
 consumptives. 
 
 Debs was given number 2253. On the prison records 
 his occupation was entered as writer and lecturer. He 
 was the only convict among the 896 men there at that 
 time who would not be permitted to practice his trade 
 or profession. Debs was told that he would be expected 
 to obey all the rules of the prison, and Debs promised 
 that he would, saying to the warden : * * If I transgress, 
 it will not be intentional, and I want you to call my at- 
 tention to my error so I will not repeat it." 
 
76 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 The next afternoon, Monday, April 14, 1919, Debs 
 was assigned to the prison hospital. He had bathed 
 and donned the prison uniform, a light gray with tiny 
 checks. The suit bore no external stamp or marking 
 of identification, as is customary, and, in fact, it was 
 not unbecoming to him. It was the sort of clothing 
 that any one might purchase in a very cheap clothing 
 store, the material hard and durable. We found him 
 sitting in a low rocker, reading and smoking his pipe. 
 His room was ample, with two windows, and containing 
 a single white iron bed. In one corner of his room 
 there was a stationary white wash-stand, and in another 
 a gas heater was burning brightly to take away the 
 chill. Debs was as comfortable as it is possible for a 
 man to be in prison. There were no bars at his win- 
 dows, which faced the green sward, and the door to his 
 room and the one opening out to the prison yard was 
 unlocked at all times. He could stroll about the yard 
 as often and as long as he chose. 
 
 As we entered his room, Debs put down the book he 
 had been reading, disturbing a large gray cat that was 
 sleeping at his side. The warden observed his book. 
 It was John Reed 's first volume of the Russian Bolsheviki 
 Revolution, entitled ''Ten Days That Shook the World." 
 Warden Terrell told Debs that he had free access to 
 the prison library. ''We have a rule here, Debs," said 
 the warden, "that prisoners must be checked up on the 
 books they take from the library, but we will waive that 
 rule for you. I know you appreciate the value of good 
 books." 
 
 "Indeed I do, Mr. Warden," replied Debs with his 
 thanks. 
 
 Debs said he had "slept like a log" in his cell, and 
 now felt "as chipper as a young goat on a tin roof." 
 He laughed good-naturedly as he looked at his prison 
 garments, and called them his new spring suit. Debs 
 said that he had already "met some fine men in the 
 
THE JOURNEY TO PRISON 77 
 
 prison." His neighbor in the next cell had confided to 
 him that he came originally from McKees Rocks, Penn- 
 sylvania, where he had been a miner and a Socialist, 
 and had once voted for Debs for President. In the 
 yard, during his morning walk, another prisoner had 
 come up to him and extended his hand. 
 
 '^'"Well, Mr. Debs, IVe wanted this honor to meet 
 you all my life, but, by God, I'm sorry to meet you in 
 here," the convict had said. Debs hastily clasped the 
 man's extended hand and said, *'As well meet here as 
 anywhere ; the meeting is the thing that counts, not the 
 place." All day Monday two Negro prisoners were 
 busily engaged scrubbing the floors of the room that 
 Debs was to occupy, fumigating it, and, generally, ** put- 
 ting his house in order." One of these men was called 
 ' ' Old Nigger Bill. ' ' He instantly attached his affections 
 to Debs. This darky had twice escaped execution for 
 murder, and had since been offered a pardon which he 
 had declined with thanks, having no home and no where 
 to go. 
 
 At the warden's invitation we dined with him and 
 his family that evening. As we chatted with Debs's 
 keeper and his wife in their private apartments on the 
 top floor of the prison, the warden's little girl, Barbara 
 Lee, romped and played on the floor. Debs's name was 
 mentioned frequently, and finally the brown-eyed baby 
 looked up into her father's eyes and asked: ''Daddy, 
 who is Debs?" The warden gently referred the child's 
 inquiry to me. With a bound she ran over to me and 
 climbed upon my lap. I had been playing * * patty-cake, 
 patty-cake, baker's man" with her. 
 
 **Debs is a good, kind man," I told her, ''who loves 
 all little boys and girls. And all little boys and girls 
 who meet him come to love him, too. If he were up here 
 now he would get right down there on the floor and 
 play with you." The little girl danced off my lap and 
 ran over to the warden, clapping her hands with glee. 
 
78 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 ' * Oh, Daddy ; Mr. Debs is a kind man wlio loves 
 children, and he plays with them, too; do you think he 
 will ever come upstairs and play with me?" There 
 was anxious hope in the baby's voice as she 'put her 
 unanswerable question. None of us knew how to reply 
 to the child whose imagination had been gripped by the 
 thought of a possible playmate. 
 
 *'No, I don't think Mr. Debs will ever have time to 
 come up and play with you, Barbara Lee," said her 
 father finally, *'but you shall see him some day." The 
 little girl ran back to me as though I could somehow 
 bring into being the thoughts that raced through her 
 mind. I told her that some day, when she had grown to 
 be a big girl, she might be glad and proud that she had 
 once lived in the same house with Debs. I told her that 
 many of his friends would wish they could say they had 
 lived under the same roof with him. She looked at me 
 wonderingly with big, brown eyes. 
 
 During the meal the warden impressed upon us that 
 he had received no instructions from any one to show 
 Debs any special favor or consideration. He said he was 
 merely treating his prisoner as the latter 's age, charac- 
 ter and intelligence demanded. 
 
CHAPTER lY 
 TWO MONTHS AT MOUNDSVILLE PRISON 
 
 THERE was no question about Debs being the recip- 
 ient of special favors from the warden at Mounds- 
 ville. His mail was unrestricted and untampered. He 
 never took the full advantage of favors that might easily 
 have been extended to him by Terrell. For instance, 
 there was a rule in the prison that all lights must be 
 out at nine o'clock at night. Debs had a room which 
 we could call private. None shared it with him and it 
 contained only his personal property. It is unlikely 
 that the guards in the prison yards would have raised 
 objection had Debs kept his light burning after the 
 forbidden hour. Most of them, if not all, were aware 
 that Debs was the most celebrated prisoner the prison 
 had ever held, and all of them came to respect him, both 
 for his personal evidences of kindness within the prison 
 walls, and for what they knew him to be in the outside 
 world. Debs promptly turned his light off at nine 
 o'clock each night. 
 
 It is customary, I am told, according to prison regu- 
 lations, for officials to examine carefully all papers and 
 magazines and books before they are turned over to 
 the prisoner. This is done, not so much to censor the 
 written contents, as to guard against the smuggling in 
 of drugs, "sleep powders," flat files or saws to the 
 prisoners. Many prisons forbid any printed matter 
 coming to the prisoners except that sent direct from 
 publishers. Debs, however, received vast quantities of 
 printed matter of every radical description, about fifty 
 per cent, of which came direct from his friends. Almost 
 
 79 
 
80 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 from the first, his full mail was turned over to him un- 
 opened. It reached such volume that he could easily 
 have used a private secretary in prison. Instead, it 
 was his custom to assort his mail and dispatch the 
 more general letters to his brother, Theodore, in Terre 
 Haute, who would answer each missive. Visitors came 
 to see him by the scores. Within two short months, 
 Moundsville became the mecca for the nation's radicals, 
 liberals, and those curiously interested in celebrated and 
 public personages. At one time a delegation of fifty 
 Socialists marched into the warden's office from a small 
 Ohio town nearby to see Debs. Of course, this vanguard 
 was denied its mission, but the leader of the group was 
 passed through the prison gates, and was granted a brief 
 interview with his chief. Debs at Moundsville soon 
 found himself in the position of trying to minimize the 
 favors that were being showered upon him from every 
 hand. It was his deep concern not to incur the dislike 
 or enmity of his fellow prisoners by these evidences of 
 official partiality. He received boxes of candy, fruit, 
 cigars, smoking tobacco and flowers in abundance ; these 
 he distributed among the patients at the hospital in 
 which he was supposed to be a clerk to the chief physi- 
 cian. Never in all his days had ''Old Nigger Biir' 
 smoked so many and such good cigars as those he relished 
 with ever-increasing frequency during the stay of Debs. 
 Bill loved to bathe in the reflected glory of 'Gene, and 
 finally came to look upon himself as Debs's personal 
 valet. He would scrub the bathtub to a fine polish each 
 morning before Debs took his plunge, and once Debs 
 remarked, ''The old rascal seems to think he is filling 
 the tub with holy water for a prince or potentate." 
 
 On one of my visits to Moundsville, Warden Terrell 
 escorted me over to Debs's room. Debs was seated at 
 his table writing letters. He instantly arose and greeted 
 his keeper kindly as though Terrell were an old friend. 
 For some minutes both men chatted in clubby fashion, 
 
TWO MONTHS AT MOUNDSVILLB PRISON 81 
 
 laughing and jesting. It seemed that Debs quite forgot 
 that he was the prisoner, and Terrell seemed oblivious 
 of the fact that it was he who had finally ordered the 
 barred gates closed upon Debs. The next moment Debs 
 stooped over his big suit-case, fished out a fresh box of 
 cigars, and offered it to the warden. The latter hesitated 
 and Debs took up a handful of the Havanas and thrust 
 them in the warden's coat pocket. Terrell protested 
 that he had a box of cigars of his own. 
 
 ''Well, take these anyway, Mr. Warden," said Debs, 
 ''they were sent to me yesterday by one of the sweetest 
 comrades I ever knew.** 
 
 The warden smiled. "Do you know, Debs,'* he said 
 in mock-serious tone, "I am beginning to feel the least 
 bit jealous of you. If I had so many people who loved 
 me as intensely as your friends love you, and who would 
 say such nice things about me as they say about you, 
 I think I should be willing to be a prisoner myself.** 
 Debs showed the slightest trace of embarrassment. 
 
 "Well, Mr. Warden, if you are ever in my place I want 
 to be your warden so that I might have a chance to treat 
 you as kindly as you have treated me,'* said Debs, and 
 both men laughed at the incongruity of the picture. 
 
 "Oh, Debs, I'm not treating you kindly,** argued the 
 warden ; " I am merely treating you like a man. * * 
 
 It was a bright, sunny summer *s day, and more than 
 800 prisoners were scattered about on the spacious 
 sward of the prison. Some were sitting alone. Others 
 were in small groups. Many of them were smoking 
 pipes, cigars and tobacco. But for the monotonous simi- 
 larity of their clothing, and the gray stone wall that 
 stretched forty feet from the ground and inclosed them, 
 one could not have thought of these men as prisoners, 
 but as workmen enjoying a half holiday. They were, 
 indeed, enjoying a half holiday, for Warden Terrell had 
 ordered all work suspended at noon that day, Saturday. 
 These men were not workmen, though they had once 
 
82 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 been such, and many of them would be again. Now 
 they were all convicts. Bankers, tellers, burglars, slay- 
 ers, counterfeiters, forgers — men imprisoned for every 
 conceivable offense, and now all on the same dead level 
 of equality in the eyes of the state and of society. As 
 "Warden Terrell passed these different groups of men not 
 a man lowered his eyes. Many of them looked straight 
 at their keeper, some with smiling eyes of friendly ac- 
 knowledgment, some with blank expressions, some whose 
 faces were alight with hope of future liberty, while 
 others gazed straight ahead at the great gray wall as if 
 that stone panel were the very end of life and its mys- 
 teries. On the lawn, the prison band was playing popu- 
 lar airs. This was the scene that met Debs's eyes as he 
 looked out of the window, brushing aside the white scrim 
 curtains that hung from the lower half of the sashes. 
 Pinned on the wall by the side of his bed was a maga- 
 zine print of Christ, On his table, a rough affair of the 
 kitchen variety, painted with lead gray color, were nu- 
 merous magazines and photographs of children and 
 friends throughout the country. These had been sent 
 to him since his incarceration. On the radiator there 
 was a large picture of a little girl, the daughter of a 
 Socialist in Ohio. Several candy boxes containing flow- 
 ers plucked in open fields by children lay on a chair. 
 One of these he showed to me and the letter that ac- 
 companied it; 
 
 457 West 151st St., 
 
 New York City, N. Y., 
 
 May 27, 1919. 
 Dear Comrade Debs: 
 
 Just a few lines to let you know how many of us 
 still love you. I hope, and all my friends hope, that the 
 prison bars do not ruin your health. Comrade, you 
 have no idea how bad we feel about you. Isn't it awful 
 that you must stay there? It is very noble of you in- 
 deed not to want to come out unless your fellow workers 
 
TWO MONTHS AT MOUNDSVILLE PRISON 83 
 
 come out. But don't you worry, all will turn out all 
 right, those Conenscious (conscientious) Objectors and 
 other fellow-workers and dear Kate O'Hare, who have 
 worked for the cause, will come out. Though it isn't 
 pleasant to be behind bars, it must feel wonderful to 
 know you have accomplished a great deal and that you 
 are behind bars for a very good cause. 
 
 But let's not talk about that. Spring is just as beau- 
 tiful, and I am sending you a Lily-of-the-Yalley from 
 our garden. I hope you soon will be able to enjoy spring 
 again. Of course you will, and when you do I certainly 
 will rejoice, and so will all my friends. Don't lose 
 courage, dear Comrade, remember your little comrades 
 still love you, and you love us, that we know. Just 
 you wait, when you come out all nature will rejoice with 
 you and all who love you. 
 
 Comrade, remember when at Carnegie Hall I gave you 
 a bunch of American Beauties, with a banner with 
 "Votes for Women" on it, and when you lifted me up 
 and kissed me that thrill went through me I shall never 
 forget. To be kissed by such a wonderful man. . . . 
 
 But all your work to give women the vote was not 
 useless, for you see they got the vote. Also your work 
 for Socialism will not be useless. The working class 
 shall soon wake up and realize. I am now just eleven, 
 and when I grow up I will follow your footsteps. I 
 hope I and all my fellow comrades will be able to enjoy 
 your nobl© work. 
 
 Yours for a Wonderful Cause, 
 Your Little Comrade, 
 
 Hazel Klotz. 
 
 To this little girl 's letter Debs replied on May 31 : 
 My dear Comrade Hazel: 
 
 Your very dear letter with the Lily-of-the-Yalley at- 
 tached has come to me and I thank you with all my 
 heart for your loving remembrance. You are certainly 
 a true little friend and a noble young comrade. . . . 
 
84 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 I note all you say and your sweet message touches 
 me deeply. How very fortunate I am to have the con- 
 fidence and love of such fine comrades ! All is well with 
 me here and in good time everything will eome out 
 right. Thanking you again, my dear little comrade, 
 and with much love to you and all your household and 
 other comrades, I am ever, 
 
 Yours devotedly, 
 
 E. V. Debs. 
 
 Referring to his mail, Dehs said letters had been pour- 
 ing in upon him by the thousands. On Easter Sunday 
 he received a dozen boxes of flowers. 
 
 *'I want to say that if I had to come to prison, I am 
 glad I came here, I have not heard an unkind word 
 since I arrived, and every official, from the warden 
 down, has been kind to me and solicitous about my 
 health," said Debs. The matter of the warden's treat- 
 ment to him is further attested by him in the following 
 letter to me: 
 
 Moundsville, W. Va., April 22, 1919. 
 My dear Comrade David: 
 
 A thousand thanks! You can never know how very 
 much I appreciate all your kindness. Your coming 
 here with me was so good of you, and the many fine 
 things you have said and written in your splendid ar- 
 ticles will abide with me for all time. 
 
 I wish you could have been here long enough to know 
 the warden, Mr. Terrell, as I have learned to know 
 him. He occupies a very trying and difficult position 
 and my being here under the circumstances does not 
 make things easier for him. He has certainly treated 
 me as well as he possibly can under the rules of the 
 prison which, as you know, he is expected to enforce 
 impartially, and there are not a few who would be glad 
 to see him subject me to the severest discipline and set 
 me at the hardest tasks. Mr. Terrell has had all regard 
 for my health, and he has in every other way treated 
 
TWO MONTHS AT MOUNDSVILLE PRISON 85 
 
 me not only humanely but kindly, and I am sure he 
 has the welfare of all the prisoners at heart and does 
 the very best he can by them all. But after all, it's a 
 prison, and I am sure there are many thin^ he would 
 do differently if he were free to carry out his own indi- 
 vidual wishes. Hundreds of letters, telegrams, etc., are 
 coming here. I could not begin to answer them all even 
 if it were not for the prison rules. I appreciate each 
 loving word — each touch of comradely kindness. 
 Believe me always, always. 
 Yours in loving comradeship. 
 
 Gene. 
 
 P.S. — Tell the comrades they must not worry about 
 me in the least. I am all right. There is nothing to 
 regret, nothing to fear — there is everything to hope for, 
 and to live and work for. 
 
 On Easter Sunday he went to the chapel services. 
 
 "I sat in the middle of all the prisoners," said 'Gene. 
 ''It was a wonderful sight. In the very midst of all 
 their sorrows and their miseries there was a wonderful 
 spirit that shone in the faces of all the prisoners. I 
 would not have missed this experience for anything in 
 the world. It means so much to me. It has enriched 
 my life. Why, I have callers every day. These men, 
 scores of them, come to my room and ask me to write 
 letters for them, letters to their families and applica- 
 tions for pardons. They all seem to have discovered me. 
 They tell me their stories and their hopes for the 
 future." 
 
 Debs spoke of Archdeacon Spurr of the Reynolds 
 Memorial Hospital, near Moundsville, who had paid 
 him frequent visits. 
 
 ''The deacon brought me this tie that I am wearing, 
 and asked me if I needed any money for my family! 
 What do you think of that? If there was as much 
 kindness and good feeling on the outside world as I have 
 seen within these walls all would be well with the 
 
86 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 world/' he said. Debs's tie was dark blue, of the flow- 
 ing variety. ''The deacon is not a bit 'churchy/ just 
 a fine human being with a great heart/' Debs volun- 
 teered. At the end of this visit, April 28, I mentioned 
 that I might have time to stop at Altoona, Pennsylvania, 
 to see William P. Gable, whom I knew to be a man 
 of generous heart, and for many years a warm admirer 
 of Debs; that I would go west and try to see Mrs. 
 O'Hare at Jefferson City, Missouri, prison, and to 
 Leavenworth, Kansas, prison to see William D. Hay- 
 wood. Debs's face lit up at once at the mention of 
 these names. 
 
 **Be sure you give Gable my love," he said. "His 
 is one of the sweetest natures I ever knew — an exceed- 
 ingly good and generous man. When you get to Leav- 
 enworth take my love to Bill Haywood and the other 
 boys. We are all in prison for the same thing — at- 
 tempting to be true to ourselves and those whom we 
 serve. In the final sum we all stand together — I. W. W. 
 and all — the world's workers. 
 
 "If you are allowed to see Kate, tell her I am keep- 
 ing the light burning in West Virginia as I know she 
 is doing in Missouri. Her case was harder than mine. 
 She left four beautiful children behind when they took 
 her off to prison. I had no little children of my own 
 to leave — I just left all the children behind." There 
 was a strain of infinite tenderness and sadness in his 
 voice as he spoke the last, and his whole frame was 
 vibrant with the love that flooded his heart and moist- 
 ened his pale blue eyes. 
 
 On my second visit, June 7, Debs talked of prisoners, 
 the prison problem and John Brown, the martyred 
 abolitionist of Civil War days. 
 
 "I have been in many jails and prisons, and have 
 seen numberless criminals, old and young, male and 
 female, and of every hue and shade, and my heart 
 is with them all. I cannot pity them without con- 
 
TWO MONTHS AT MOUNDSVILLE PRISON 87 
 
 demning myself. But I can love them, and I do. I 
 love them for what they are, foul and repulsive as they 
 may appear to those whose cry of 'unclean' but mocks 
 the dead sense of their own guilt and shame. 
 
 *'Many an innocent soul,'' he went on, raising his 
 voice, '* branded with crime, is vainly beating its tired 
 wings against the steel bars of a prison cage. But the 
 guilty ! Who shall dare to judge them ? What sinless, 
 spotless saint among us may pronounce them wicked 
 and sentence them to prison? The very lowest and 
 most degenerate of criminals is not a whit worse than 
 I. The difference between us is against me, not him. 
 All of my life I have been the favored one, the creature 
 of fortune. We both did the best we could, and the 
 worst we knew how, and I am the beneficiary of society 
 of which he is the victim. ' ' The last remark caused me 
 to remind Debs that he was not now **the favored 
 creature" of society, but rather its banished benefactor. 
 
 **No, that is not exactly correct," he replied at once. 
 "I am so much more fortunate than those who are now 
 sharing my lot with me. My thoughts are not in this 
 place ; I do not see these gray walls, nor am I conscious 
 of these steel bars. Only my clay is here, and that 
 might just as well be here as anywhere else. I can live 
 here with my soul at peace ; I can live on the increment 
 of the love of my comrades and friends in the world 
 outside these walls. But these men — and I know many 
 of them by their first names now — were once workmen. 
 For the most part they have been used and exploited. 
 When they had nothing more to give, had given their 
 all — soul and body — and strove at last to make the best 
 of a bad bargain and erred, society then put them out 
 of sight. They were no good any longer. They could 
 not be used any longer. Put them away! They are 
 unclean ! 
 
 ''Think of the monstrous crime of punishing the 
 brother we have deformed for the wrong he has suf- 
 
88 DEBS—AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 fered at our hands! Think of torturing his body and 
 deforming his soul for having had the awful misfortune 
 to be the dehumanized victim of our own inhumanity. 
 Is it any wonder that in a perverted, wicked system 
 the basest passions are aroused, hate and lust fill the 
 world, and fire and slaughter ravage the race?" 
 
 Rarely before had his eyes betokened firmer conviction 
 than when he said now: 
 
 **I belong in prison. I belong where men are made 
 to suffer for the wrongs committed against them by a 
 brutalizing system. I have talked about this thing and 
 these social conditions all of my life, and now the fates 
 have given to me the opportunity to practice what I 
 have preached. 
 
 *'I belong to this stratum of society,'* he repeated 
 with signal emphasis. ''The roots of the social system 
 are here. They are nowhere else. 
 
 '*I would not harm a hair in the head of any human 
 being on earth," he went on, with rising fire and re- 
 newed force, ''but before I pass beyond I would like 
 to have all the plutocrats, the profiteers, the exploiters 
 of labor and their mistresses in their satins and their 
 jewels — all those who believe this is a just social system 
 and who support it — to sit in a great grandstand, and 
 I would then parade before their seeing eyes this pageant 
 of misery — the criminals, the sick, the halt and the 
 blind. I think that any man or woman who could wit- 
 ness such a spectacle without feeling his and her just 
 share of social responsibility for it all must surely have 
 hearts of granite, and have become as gross and as 
 dehumanized as they make out these poor souls to be." 
 Debs 's eyes wandered toward the window whose curtains 
 were gently blowing in the June breeze, and he saw 
 precisely the very same creatures about whom he had 
 just been speaking so vehemently. At this moment the 
 prison band struck up "Maryland, My Maryland." 
 Long ago the Socialists had parodized the words and 
 
, TWO MONTHS AT MOUNDSVILLE PRISON 89 
 
 entitled them ''We'll Keep the Red Flag Waving." 
 Debs noted the significance of the music. There was 
 flare and fire in the swelling notes that flew high 
 over the prison walls just like the hopes of some of 
 the men who dotted the green sward here and there 
 within the inclosure. 
 
 "Of course, it is fine and thrilling to be in the outside 
 world mingling with noble spirits and kindly souls 
 who illuminate the earth with the fight of their generous 
 love, but some must be in places like this, else how could 
 we differentiate between light and darkness? And I 
 am as pleased to be here as any.'' 
 
 Maybe a few among those who know Debs have some- 
 times thought that the stone walls, the steel bars and the 
 locks would harden his heart, tame the currents that 
 sweep his mind and weaken his spirit. Men have been 
 broken in chains and in other forms of restraint. They 
 have become sullen and dead to all save the physical life 
 under the pressure of prison. But Debs says that many 
 of these were of broken or wavering spirit before they 
 were fettered and striped, and when the last straw in 
 the form of a cell was weighted upon them they were 
 left stranded, suspended between the spiritual and phys- 
 ical eqtiations, jvith little or no conception of the re- 
 storative power of the former, and with but a sickening, 
 haunting memory of the latter. More than once Debs 
 has said he could go to the stake without batting an 
 eye and with song in his heart, if he knew he was right. 
 That is actually the manner in which he entered prison 
 three times in his life — Woodstock, Moundsville and 
 Atlanta. His spirit is adamant. It has and will sustain 
 him to the end of his days. 
 
 While Debs talked rapidly and earnestly of the prison 
 problem, I remembered having read his speech on 
 that very subject, delivered before the Nineteenth Cen- 
 tury Club, at Delmonico's, New York, March 21, 1899. 
 
90 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 I shall quote certain pregnant passages from that 
 speech : 
 
 * * From the earliest ages there has been a prison prob- 
 lem. The ancients had their bastiles and their dungeons. 
 Most of the pioneers of progress, the haters of oppres- 
 sion, the lovers of liberty, whose names now glorify 
 the pantheon of the world, made such institutions a 
 necessity in their day. But civilization advances, how- 
 ever slowly, and there has been some progress. It re- 
 quired five hundred years to travel from the inquisition 
 to the injunction. 
 
 ' * In the earlier days punishment was the sole purpose 
 of imprisonment. Offenders against the ruling class 
 must pay the penalty in prison cell, which, not infre- 
 quently, was equipped with instruments of torture. 
 With the civilizing process came the idea of the reforma- 
 tion of the culprit, and this idea prompts every investi- 
 gation made of the latter-day problem. The inmates 
 must be set to work for their own good, no less than 
 for the good of the state. 
 
 *'It was at this point that the convict labor problem 
 began and it has steadily expanded from that time 
 to this and while there has been some temporary modi- 
 fications of the evil, it is still an unnjitigated curse 
 from which there can be no escape while an economic 
 system endures in which labor, that is to say, the laborer, 
 man, woman and child, is sold to the lowest bidder in 
 the markets of the world. ... 
 
 ''Fortunately the system of leasing and contracting 
 prison labor for private exploitation is being exposed 
 and its frightful iniquities laid bare. Thanks to or- 
 ganized labor and the spirit of prison reform, this hor- 
 rifying phase of the evil is doomed to disappear before 
 an enlightened public sentiment. . . . 
 
 ' ' All useful labor is honest labor, even if performed in 
 a prison. Only the labor of exploiters, such as specula- 
 tors, stock gamblers, beef-embalmers and their mercen- 
 
TWO MONTHS AT MOUNDSVILLE PEISON 91 
 
 ary politicians, lawyers and other parisites — only such 
 is dishonest labor. A thief making shoes in a peniten- 
 tiary is engaged in more useful and therefore more 
 honest labor than a *'*free'* stone mason at work on a 
 palace whose foundations are laid in the skulls and 
 bones and cemented in the sweat and blood of ten 
 thousand victims of capitalistic exploitation. In both 
 cases the labor is compulsory. The stone mason would 
 not work for the trust magnate were he not compelled 
 to. . . . 
 
 *'To the student of social science the haggard fact 
 stands forth that under the competitive system of pro- 
 duction and distribution the prison problem will never 
 be solved — and its effect upon trade and industry will 
 never be greatly modified. The fact will remain that 
 whatever labor is performed by prison labor could and 
 should be performed by free labor, and when in the 
 march of economic progress the capitalist system of 
 industry for private profit succumbs to the Socialist 
 system of industry for human happiness, when the fac- 
 tory, which is now a penitentiary crowded with life 
 convicts, among whom children often constitute the ma- 
 jority — when this factory is transformed into a temple 
 of science, and the machine, myriad armed and tireless, 
 is the only slave, there will be no prison labor and the 
 problem will cease to vex the world, and to this it is 
 coming in obedience to the economic law, as unerring in 
 its operation as the law of gravitation. 
 
 ''That prison labor is demoralizing in its effect on 
 trade and industry whenever and wherever brought into 
 competition with it, especially under the various forms 
 of the contract system, is of course conceded, but that 
 it has been, or is at present, a great factor in such de- 
 moralization is not admitted. There is a tendency to 
 exaggerate the blighting effect of prison labor for the 
 purpose of obscuring the one overshadowing cause of 
 demoralized trade and impoverished industry. 
 
92 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 *' Prison labor did not reduce the miner to a waUdng 
 hunger pang, his wife to a tear-stained rag, and his home 
 to a lair. Prison labor is not responsible for the squares 
 of squalor and miles of misery in New York City, Chi- 
 cago and all other centers of population. Prison labor 
 is not chargeable with the sweating dens in which the 
 victims of capitalistic competition crouch in dread and 
 fear until death comes to their rescue. Prison labor had 
 no hand in Coeur d *Alene, Tennessee, Homestead, Hazle- 
 ton, Virdin, Pana, that suburb of hell called Pullman, 
 and other insanguine industrial battlefields where thou- 
 sands of workingmen after being oppressed and robbed 
 were imprisoned life-felons, and shot down like vaga- 
 bond dogs; where venal judges issued infamous injunc- 
 tions and despotic orders at the behest of their masters, 
 enforcing them with deputy marshals armed with pis- 
 tols and clubs and supported by troops with gleaming 
 bayonets and shotted guns to drain the veins of work- 
 ingmen of blood, but for whose labor this continent 
 would still be a wilderness. Only the tortures of hun- 
 ger and nakedness provoked protest, and this was si- 
 lenced by the bayonet and bullet; by the club and the 
 blood that followed the blow. 
 
 "Prison labor is not accountable for the appalling 
 increase in insanity, in suicide, in murder, in prostitu- 
 tion and a thousand other forms of vice and crime which 
 pollute every fountain and contaminate every stream 
 designed to bless the world. 
 
 ''Prison labor did not create our army of unem- 
 ployed, but has been recruited from its ranks, and both 
 owe their existence to the same social and economic 
 system. 
 
 *'Nor are the evil effects confined exclusively to the 
 poor working class. There is an aspect of the case 
 in which the rich are as unfortunate as the poor. The 
 destiny of the capitalist class is irrevocably linked with 
 the working class. Fichte, the great German philoso- 
 
TWO MONTHS AT MOUISTDSVILLB PRISON 93 
 
 pher, said: * Wickedness increases in proportion to the 
 elevation of rank. ' 
 
 ** Prison labor is but one of the manifestations of our 
 economic development and indicates its trend. The 
 same cause that demoralized industry has crowded our 
 prisons. Industry has not been impoverished by prison 
 labor, but prison labor is the result of impoverished 
 industry. . . . 
 
 *'The prison laborer produces by machinery in abun- 
 dance but does not consume. The child likewise produces, 
 but owing to its small wages, does not consume. So 
 with the vast army of workers whose wage grows smaller 
 as the productive capacity of labor increases, and then 
 society is afflicted with over-production, the result of 
 under-consumption. What follows? The panic. Fac- 
 tories close down, wage workers are idle and suffer, 
 middle class business men are forced into bankruptcy, 
 the army of tramps is increased, vice and crime are ram- 
 pant, and prisons and workhouses are filled to overflow- 
 ing as are sewers when the streets of cities are deluged 
 with floods. 
 
 * * Prison labor, like all cheap labor, is at first a source 
 of profit to the capitalist, but finally it turns into a 
 two-edged sword that cuts into and destroys the system 
 that produced it. . . . 
 
 "There is proverb which the Latin race sent ringing 
 down the centuries which reads, 'Orrvma Vinoit Amor/ 
 or 'Love conquers all things.' Love and labor in al- 
 liance, working together, have transforming, redeeming 
 and emancipating power. Under their benign sway the 
 world can be made better and brighter. 
 
 "Isaiah saw in prophetic vision a time when nations 
 should war no more — ^when swords should be trans- 
 formed into plowshares, and spears into pruning hooks. 
 The fulfillment of the prophecy only awaits an era when 
 Love and Labor, in holy alliance, shall solve the economic 
 problem. . . . 
 
94 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 "The army of begging Lazaruses, with the dogs lick- 
 ing their sores at the gates of palaces where the rich are 
 clothed in purple and fine linen, with their tables groan- 
 ing beneath the luxuries of all climes, make the palaces 
 on the highland where fashion holds sway and music 
 lends its charms, a picture in the landscape which, in 
 illustrating disparity, brings into bolder relief the hut 
 and the hovel in the hollow where want, gaunt and hag- 
 gard, sits at the door and where light and plenty, cheer- 
 fulness and hope are forever exiled by the despotic de- 
 cree of conditions as cruel as when the Czar of Russia 
 ordered to his penal mines in Siberia the hapless sub- 
 jects who dared whisper the sacred word of liberty — as 
 cruel as when this boasted land of freedom commands 
 that a far away, innocent people shall be shot down in 
 jungle and lagoon, in their bamboo huts, because they 
 dream of freedom and independence/' 
 
 Sixty years ago — in 1859 — ^John Brown, of Kansas, 
 was hung by the neck at Charlestown, Virginia, that 
 portion of the state which is now West Virginia, be- 
 cause he carried the black man^s burden in his heart. 
 He was executed for having attempted to free the 
 chattel slaves from bondage by his raid on Harper's 
 Ferry, but the slaves either did not wish to be free, or 
 else were entirely ignorant of the measure of freedom 
 that would have been theirs had John Brown and the 
 other abolitionists of that period accomplished their 
 purpose, which was ultimately tried and vindicated a 
 few years later in the War of the Rebellion. Of course, 
 it was merely a coincident that Eugene Victor Debs was 
 originally sentenced to serve his term of ten years in 
 prison in West Virginia, the same state in which Brown 
 paid the full pound of flesh for his devotion to a prin- 
 ciple. In prison, in the year 1919, in the moment of 
 the most widespread propaganda and preachments for 
 world-wide liberty and democracy, I spoke with Debs 
 
TWO MONTHS AT MOUNDSVILLE PRISON 95 
 
 about John Brown, whose martyred memory is dear to 
 him, and which he passionately reveres. 
 
 ''Many years ago," Debs said, "I went over every 
 foot of ground trod by John Brown and his men — at 
 Harper's Ferry, across the bridge, and the nine-mile 
 stretch to Charlestown. I went through the jail where 
 Brown lay for days preceding his execution. 
 
 *'I have the candle," he went on, "which Brown 
 used to light up his cell at Charlestown. But John 
 Brown did not need the light of a candle to light up his 
 cell; the white light of his soul was quite sufficient." 
 Debs also treasures a button from Brown's coat which, 
 he says, has been properly authenticated. 
 
 In some respects Debs and Brown are similiar in 
 their principles, and the impassioned manner in which 
 both sought to bring them into effect. The dissimilarity 
 of the two men appears, however, in their methods of 
 procedure, their tactics. It has been said that were 
 Brown alive in our time he would have enlisted his 
 energies in the cause of the Industrial Workers of the 
 World — his mind seeming to have taken the turn of 
 ''direct action," as proved by his fearless, yet fool- 
 hardy raid upon Harper's Ferry with a beggardly 
 handful of followers pitted against the entire South. On 
 the other hand. Debs is no less zealous, nor less fearless, 
 but his appeal has been made not to unthinking mobs, 
 who could be swayed by their emotions, but to the in- 
 telligent and thinking working class ; his appeal is made 
 to their reason, not to their emotions, despite the fact 
 that Debs himself is highly emotional, and his speeches 
 do assume the character and tone of an agitator, a cru- 
 sader. 
 
 That both men believed their cause was just and pur- 
 sued it unflinchingly in the face of extreme adversity 
 is further attested by passages from their speeches to 
 the court before sentence was pronounced upon them. 
 Brown said : 
 
96 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 ''In the first place, I deny everything but what I- 
 have all along admitted — the design on my part to free 
 the slaves. I certainly intended to have made a clean 
 thing of that matter, as I did last winter, when I went 
 into Missouri and took slaves without the snapping of 
 a gun on either side, moved them through the country 
 and, finally, left them in Canada. I designed to have 
 done the same thing again, on a larger scale. That was 
 all I intended." 
 
 Debs said: 
 
 *'Yes, I was opposed to war. I would have been op- 
 posed to war if I stood alone. I am perfectly willing, on 
 that count, to be branded as a disloyalist, and if it is 
 a crime under the American laws, punishable by im- 
 prisonment, for being opposed to human bloodshed, I 
 am perfectly willing to be clothed in the stripes of a 
 felon and to end my days in a prison cell." 
 
 While John Brown was riding to his execution in a 
 large furniture wagon drawn by two white horses, and 
 which also contained his coffin, he remarked : 
 
 "What a beautiful country this is. I have never 
 been down this way before." 
 
 On his ride in a trolley car down the Ohio Valley 
 from Cleveland to Moundsville, Debs said: 
 
 * ' What a beautiful day it is. I have been all over this 
 part of the country and have talked to thousands of 
 these miners." 
 
 At one point in the John Brown talk Debs remarked 
 that while Brown was lying in his cell at Charlestown 
 an old Negro slave pleaded on his bended knees to his 
 master for the privilege of taking an ax and going into 
 Brown's cell and braining him. 
 
 **That was his way of attesting his loyalty to his 
 master who held him in bondage, body and soul. That 
 was his way of proving his slavishness and abject ser- 
 vility. 
 
 ** There are to-day workmen with minds that run in 
 
TWO MONTHS AT MOUNDSVILLE PRISON 97 
 
 the same groove as their master's, and doubtless, some 
 of them would attest their slavishness and devotion to 
 their industrial masters by doing the same thing to 
 other John Browns/' 
 
 Once during his trip to Moundsville, Debs remarked : 
 
 **Were I to engage in satire, I would say how ironical 
 it seems that I, who have been forty years in the service 
 of organized labor am now being taken to prison by 
 union men." Just before this remark was passed a 
 conductor had come through the car to collect fares 
 and on the lapel of his coat was his union button. 
 
 Not only was Debs taken to prison without any or- 
 ganized opposition from the American labor movement, 
 but the American Federation of Labor, at its 1919 con- 
 vention at Atlantic City, did nothing to obtain his re- 
 lease; neither did it ask for the release by amnesty of 
 any political and industrial prisoners convicted and 
 sentenced under a war-time statute — the Espionage Law. 
 Despite this gross neglect of Debs, there were a number 
 of bodies within that organization in several parts of 
 the country who espoused his cause and petitioned for 
 his release. 
 
 The Chicago Federation of Labor, embracing a quar- 
 ter of a million organized workers, for instance, adopted 
 the following resolution after the major body of the 
 American Federation of Labor had adjourned: 
 
 ''Whereas, Eugene V. Debs has devoted the larger 
 part of his life to the working class in its struggle for 
 better conditions; and 
 
 ''Whereas, he was convicted and sentenced to ten 
 years imprisonment as a result of war-time passion, the 
 war now being ended, the Chicago Federation of Labor 
 insisting upon restoring pre-war liberties, urge the im- 
 mediate release of Eugene V. Debs and urge that reso- 
 lutions to this effect be adopted by all labor bodies and 
 upon adoption that a copy be sent to the President of 
 the United States, the Senators of the state where 
 
98 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 adopted and the congressmen of the district wherein 
 the resolution is adopted.'* 
 
 It cannot be said that there has existed friendliness 
 between Debs and the executive and administrative offi- 
 cials of the American Federation of Labor. On the con- 
 trary, he has attacked them unsparingly in the Socialist 
 press, for what he has construed as being their reaction- 
 ary tendencies not only in the affairs of their own 
 organization, but in their policies and attitude toward 
 matters of public import. In a word, Debs is revolu- 
 tionary, while the American Federation of Labor, offi- 
 cially, he claims, has not yet reached even the rebel 
 stage. 
 
 Debs's affections as a labor leader are more attached 
 to the Industrial Workers of the World, in the crea- 
 tion of which organization he played no little part. 
 
 When our conversation had departed from the subject 
 of John Brown, Debs inquired about the welfare and 
 whereabouts of several persons with whom his name and 
 his affections have been connected for many years. Es- 
 pecially mentioned among these was Horace Traubel, 
 who had been extremely ill, and who died September 8th, 
 1919. 
 
 Follows one of Debs's letters written in prison to 
 Traubel : 
 
 Moundsville, W. Va., April 25, 1919. 
 My beloved Horace: 
 
 Your beautiful messages, with you and your wonderful 
 love in each word, are with me and my heart sings in 
 love and gratitude. You have been with me every hour 
 and every moment since I 've been here, and I 've pressed 
 you so close to my heart that I've forgotten all about 
 prison walls. 
 
 Dear Dave Karsner, who so loves us both and who is 
 equally dear to me, told me all about you. I 'm so sorry 
 you 're not well. You simply must come back to yourself 
 and to me for we need you now, dear brother, as never 
 
TWO MONTHS AT MOUNDSVILLE PKISON 99 
 
 before. I wish you knew how immortally great you are, 
 what an incomparable contribution you have made to 
 humanity, and how very necessary you are now to the 
 world. 
 
 I have a truly wonderful letter from our dear Mildred 
 Bain — a prose-poem — of love and devotion in all its 
 beauty and perfection. What a rare courageous, lofty 
 soul she is, and how rich you are in her noble appre- 
 ciation, and how indebted to you I am for sharing in 
 her precious confidence and regard. I remember the 
 liappy hour we had with her splendid husband, Frank, 
 and some good day I hope to have the joy of meeting 
 these loving souls. 
 
 My writing is limited under the prison rules. You 
 understand that my messages go to you daily without 
 the written page and that my heart is and always will 
 be with you. 
 
 I am well cared for here in every way, so give yourself 
 no concern about me. I have everything I need and a 
 perfectly humane Warden who is as good to me as the 
 rules will allow — I 'm here for a purpose and I know how 
 to be patient. The lessons I am learning here are of 
 inestimable value to me and I am not sorry that my 
 lot is cast for a time among "Les Miserables." 
 
 With my heart's enduring love to you and dear Mrs. 
 TraUbel and Gertrude and her husband, I am 
 Yours until the stars go out, 
 
 Gene. 
 
 As we shook hands in parting, I realized that Debs 
 was not conscious of me as an individual; and as he 
 looked into my eyes I knew that his vision, as always, 
 vaulted all walls and mountains, and bridged all rivers 
 and horizons; he was looking, as always, far beyond 
 the immediate person, and was clasping the hand of the 
 miner, the trench digger, the locomotive fireman, the 
 carpenter, the bricklayer, the mason, the mechanic — the 
 artisan everywhere ; his love was smiling upon the half- 
 
100 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 starved and stunted shop worker, the little children bent 
 in arduous toil at the looms in the southland ; the breaker 
 boys in the mines, the teachers, the organizers, and the 
 Jimmie and Jane Higginses — ^he was bestowing his bene- 
 diction upon the people who toil everywhere. Myself, 
 each person he spoke to, was only the reprenentative of 
 all men and women to him. 
 
CHAPTER Y 
 TRANSFERRED TO ATLANTA 
 
 IT was a day of mourning among the prisoners at 
 Moundsville when Debs was transferred to Atlanta. 
 On the morning of June 13, 1919, after Debs had had 
 his breakfast, Warden Terrell came to his room in the 
 prison hospital and told him that he was to pack his 
 things at once and take the trip to Atlanta prison. He 
 was given one hour to get ready. The warden stated 
 afterward that when he first told Debs the latter had 
 appeared startled, and then slightly depressed, but he 
 had made no scene nor visible sign of his feelings, and 
 quietly replied that he would "be ready in a jiffy.'' 
 The blue serge suit that he had worn to prison was 
 brought to him, and in a few minutes he was dressed. 
 He began at once to pack his large leather suit-case. 
 It was soon apparent to Debs that he could not take with 
 him to Atlanta all of his prison property. There had 
 accumulated many gifts, enough to fill two ample pack- 
 ing boxes, since he had been at Moundsville, so "Old 
 Nigger Bill,'' Debs's side-partner and self-appointed 
 valet, was instantly mustered into active service by Debs 
 to help him pack. 
 
 When "Old Nigger Bill" was called into the room 
 and his eyes fell upon Debs clothed in street attire they 
 danced to the tune of the song that was in his heart 
 for he thought that Debs had been pardoned. But when 
 he was made to understand the full import of this sud- 
 den change he could not be comforted. 
 
 "What am dey doin' dis foh, Mistah Debs?" he in- 
 quired with husky voice; "ain't we all happy heah to- 
 
 101 
 
102 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 gethu? Ain't we gettin' along all right?'' Debs took 
 the two fat cheeks of the old Negro ''lifer" between his 
 palms and patted them gently, saying as he did so, 
 *'It is all right, Old Bill, everything will come out all 
 right; we'll not forget each other, will we?" The two 
 men set to work at packing. 
 
 "Old Bill" started to weep softly. Every little while 
 he would sing with violent emphasis a verse from some 
 Methodist hymn, in vain and futile attempt to smother 
 his sobs. 
 
 ''Now stop that crying. Bill, and wrap up this bundle 
 for me," Debs would command in kindly tones. "One 
 would suppose that you were losing your wife, the way 
 you are carrying on, you old rascal." 
 
 "Old Bill" dropped on the floor the bundle he was 
 tieing and looked straight into Debs's eyes. 
 
 "I'm losin' the best friend I evah had, Mistah Debs," 
 sobbed the darky, breaking afresh into a flood of tears. 
 "It wouldn't be so bad if you was goin' home, but to 
 help you to go to another prison — it's too much, Mistah 
 Debs, it's too much." Finally the packing was accom- 
 plished. Debs addressed each parcel, indicating where 
 it should be sent. This was done at the suggestion of 
 the warden who assured Debs that all of his property 
 would be well cared for, even that which he might chose 
 to leave behind for some future time. 
 
 Debs then went the rounds of the hospital, bidding 
 each man good-by and extending his hand to all alike. 
 Some of the prisoners were abed, while others were in 
 wheel chairs on the porch. To each man Debs gave 
 cigars, fruit and candy which had been sent to him by 
 his friends. Tears ran in rivulets down the hollow 
 cheeks of three tubercular patients over whom Debs had 
 w^atched with tender care. There was unutterable sad- 
 ness and misery among these men. They were not So- 
 cialists. They did not comprehend the social ideals to 
 which Debs adhered. "They had come to know him only 
 
TRANSFERRED TO ATLANTA 103 
 
 as a man — a loving, gentle, thoughtful, tender compan- 
 ion who understood them; one who did not pity them, 
 but who championed them. They understood this only 
 from the look in his eyes, and from the smile that 
 wreathed his wrinkled face when he was near them. And 
 now he had bid them good-by. 
 
 One of them called after him: 
 
 **If ever you run again for President, Mr. Debs, and 
 I'm out of here, put me down for one vote." 
 
 *'And if ever you are in sorrow or trouble," replied 
 Debs, *'put me down as one friend." 
 
 When Debs finally left the prison ''Old Nigger Bill" 
 was sitting on the stone steps of the hospital, a broom 
 between his knees, his kinky head lying heavily in his 
 folded arms. He had cried all he could. The tears 
 would not come any more. But Time would, and with 
 it would come balm for his poor, distracted soul. 
 
 It is doubtful if the movements of a President of the 
 United States have ever been guarded with more care 
 and caution in critical moments than were those of 
 Debs from the time he left Moundsville until he reached 
 Atlanta. He motored to Wheeling, a ten-mile run, with 
 Warden Terrell, the latter 's son, just home from college, 
 and a prison guard. At the Baltimore and Ohio railroad 
 station the party was joined by United States Marshal 
 Ned Smith, of Fairmont, West Virginia, and Deputy 
 Joyce of Parkersburg. Debs chatted pleasantly with 
 the warden and his son. When Debs entrained there 
 were more than one hundred persons in the train shed, 
 and not a single person, aside from the members of his 
 party, knew that he was there. 
 
 Fearful lest some hitch might occur at the last mo- 
 ment to balk their plans to spirit Debs away into the 
 south, the United States Marshal had instructed the 
 managers of the Western Union and the Postal Telegraph 
 companies in Wheeling to accept no newspaper "copy" 
 from any reporter dealing with the Debs case. This 
 
104 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 censorship of the nation's wires concerning Debs was 
 kept for twenty-four hours, being lifted at seven o 'clock 
 the next morning, June 14, when Debs was then but 
 a few hours away from Atlanta Prison. 
 
 Debs left Wheeling on the 10 :40 train for Cincinnati, 
 where he changed for the Louisville and Nashville rail- 
 road to Atlanta. He and his party arrived in the South- 
 ern city early Saturday afternoon. The entire trip was 
 made in a private compartment on both railroads. Debs 
 told me later when I visited him at Atlanta that both 
 his guards had been genial and courteous to him and 
 tried to make the trip as comfortable as possible, but 
 Debs spoke of the incident as ''kidnaping." At Cin- 
 cinnati he gave the following statement to the press : 
 
 *'The first I knew I was to be transferred was this 
 morning when I was told to get ready. It is all the 
 same to me. I would have made no legal effort to pre- 
 vent my transfer had I known of the plans. I care 
 nothing about technicalities. During my trial I cau- 
 tioned my lawyers to make no technical exceptions, and 
 I admitted the truth when it was presented by the gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 *'In Moundsville I was treated with fairness and kind- 
 ness and so were the other prisoners as far as I could 
 observe. I was there two months and Warden Terrell 
 showed himself to be a good administrator and at the 
 same time a humane and considerate man." 
 
 Solicitous about Debs's welfare up to the last. War- 
 den Terrell wrote a personal letter to Warden Fred G. 
 Zerbst of Atlanta Federal Prison, which Marshal Smith 
 took with him, explaining the manner and method of his 
 treatment of Debs at Moundsville and expressing the 
 hope that Warden Zerbst would himself be able to 
 treat Debs in the same kindly manner. 
 
 **I am just as much concerned about Debs as a man 
 as any of his followers, ' ' Terrell said to me when I vis- 
 
TRANSFEERED TO ATLANTA 105 
 
 ited him a few days after Debs had left his prison. * * I 
 told him that if any time I could serve him he should 
 call upon me, and I mean that from the bottom of my 
 heart." Of course there was not the slightest political 
 affinity between Debs and his former keeper. Terrell 
 is a Democrat and a member of his party in West Vir- 
 ginia. He is the political appointee of a Democratic 
 governor. Terrell does not believe in Debs's social ideas. 
 He regards them as visionary and impractical, but as a 
 man Debs rises to heroic figure in the -warden's esteem. 
 This was brought about during the two months that 
 Debs was Terrell's ward. The men had never met be- 
 fore, although Terrell did know, as every one else does, 
 of Debs by his reputation and public career. 
 
 **I never in my life met a kinder man," were Terrell's 
 words. ''He is forever thinking of others, trying to 
 serve them, and never thinking of himself." 
 
 For six weeks after Debs was shifted to Atlanta the 
 reasons for his transfer were as mysterious as the se- 
 crecy which had shrouded his actual movement to the 
 Southern prison. Cryptic and laconic statements made 
 by several officials of the Department of Justice at 
 [Washington in answer to inquiries of his friends and at- 
 torneys only served to heighten the suspicion in the 
 minds of Debs's thousands of followers throughout the 
 land that he had been ordered transferred to another 
 prison because of the kindnesses and considerations 
 given to him by his keeper at Moundsville. The of- 
 ficials at Washington had the facts and could have 
 allayed the mental unrest of Socialists and liberals in- 
 terested in Debs and his welfare by giving them to the 
 public. They chose not so to do. 
 
 Joseph W. Sharts, an attorney at law, of Dayton, 
 Ohio, who was associated in the defense of Debs at his 
 trial in Cleveland, inquired of the Department of Jus- 
 tice the reasons of Debs's removal. In reply he received 
 the following: 
 
106 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 Sib: 
 
 The Department of Justice has your letter of the 
 18th instant, in which you ask to be informed as to the 
 grounds upon which Federal Prisoner, Eugene V. Debs, 
 was transferred from West Virginia penitentiary to the 
 Atlanta Federal prison. 
 
 Debs was ordered transferred upon a demand made 
 by the State Board of Control for his removal. 
 Respectfully, for the Attorney General, 
 Claude R. Porter, 
 Assistant Attorney General. 
 June 21, 1919. 
 
 On June 26, Mr. Sharts dispatched a second letter to 
 the Department of Justice, inquiring upon what legal 
 grounds Attorney General Palmer had removed Debs. 
 Sharts quoted the law to the Attorney General upon 
 which a federal prisoner may be removed. This statute, 
 it appears, gives three grounds upon which such re- 
 moval can be made: First, the health of the prisoner, 
 at his request ; second, brutal treatment at the first place, 
 at his request for removal; third, the insecurity of the 
 place of confinement. 
 
 Under date of July 1, 1919, Sharts received the fol- 
 lowing reply: 
 Sir: 
 
 In reply to your letter of the 26th ultimo, you are 
 informed that the West Virginia State Board of Control 
 demanded the removal of Federal Prisoner Eugene V. 
 Debs from the West Virginia Penitentiary, and the 
 transfer thereupon was directed by the Attorney General 
 in accordance with the power vested in him by law to 
 transfer federal prisoners under certain conditions. 
 Respectfully, for the Attorney General, 
 William L. Finson, 
 Assistant Attorney General. 
 
 When the nation-wide interest in Debs's removal, 
 coupled with the fact that his treatment at Atlanta 
 
TRANSFEERED TO ATLANTA 107 
 
 was on the same dead level with that accorded the com- 
 monest prisoner, which is not conducive to perfect health 
 nor happy spirits, was brought to the attention of John 
 J. Cornwell, Governor of West Virginia, through a news- 
 paper article in a Chicago Socialist paper. Governor 
 Cornwell at once sent to me personally copies of the 
 official correspondence between the West Virginia 
 State Board of Control and F. H. Duehay, Superin- 
 tendent of Prisons, Department of Justice, Washington, 
 D. C. 
 
 The State Board of Control set forth in their letter, 
 dated June 2, 1919, the fact that it had entered into an 
 agreement with the Federal Government to receive and 
 care for federal prisoners at the Moundsville Peniten- 
 tiary for the sum of forty cents per day. Since that 
 agreement was made, the Board complained, few federal 
 prisoners had been received at Moundsville, and there 
 was a likelihood that they would not receive any more. 
 The Board's letter further stated: 
 
 **We have Eugene V. Debs . . . confined in the West 
 Virginia Penitentiary, and since his admittance we 
 have had to put on extra guard force, which has in- 
 creased our expenses $500.00 per month, but we felt it 
 necessary to do this for his safety as well as that of the 
 other prisoners. If we cannot get some federal prison- 
 ers to help bear this extra expense in connection with 
 his care we shall have to ask to have him cared for in 
 some other institution." 
 
 The Board's letter concluded with the request: 
 
 *'Will you kindly let us know if you cannot arrange 
 to let us have 100 or 150 prisoners. ' ' 
 
 In response to this letter Mr. Duehay, under date of 
 June 5, 1919, replied that the government had found 
 it necessary to use several state penitentiaries for the 
 care of regular federal prisoners, as well as a number of 
 federal prisoners charged with violation of the Espion- 
 age Law, since the two federal prisons, Atlanta and 
 
108 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 Leavenworth, had become overcrowded during the war 
 with a lar^e number of military prisoners. Since the 
 signing of the armistice, however, many of the militarj 
 prisoners had been released, and this had made room for 
 regular federal prisoners. 
 
 Then Mr. Duehay stated in his letter : 
 
 *'In accordance with your request, I will have orders 
 prepared immediately for the transfer of Federal Pris- 
 oner Eugene V. Debs from the Moundsvilld institu- 
 tion.'' 
 
 The orders were prepared and Debs, as we have seen,, 
 was removed to Atlanta Prison on June 13. 
 
 There does not appear to be anything mysterious, on 
 the face of these two documents at least, in the removal 
 of Debs. The matter might easily have been cleared up 
 by giving this official information to the public, straight- 
 ly and directly. On the other hand, the officials in Mr. 
 Palmer's department succeeded in arousing bitterness, 
 if not hatred in some quarters, against an important arm 
 of the government which, many persons imagined, had 
 been raised to strike Debs down; to shorten his life by 
 forcing him to spend fourteen hours of every day in 
 a cell with five other prisoners; to deny him any and 
 all considerations as a political prisoner, which he is in 
 fact ; and to cut him off from the world and its interests 
 by withholding from him all newspapers, magazines and 
 I^ooks — leaving him absolutely alone. 
 
 "Warden Terrell did not know that Debs was to be 
 removed until a few hours before it happened. He was 
 as surprised as any, he told me, when Marshal Smith 
 demanded that he surrender Debs. The warden was 
 not only shocked but regretful that Debs was going 
 from him. Terrell stated that when Debs first came to 
 Moundsville he did order one extra arc light installed 
 at the comer of the hospital building near the room 
 which Debs occupied. If I remember correctly, the 
 warden also stated that he did order a patrol of two 
 
TRANSFERRED TO ATLANTA 109 
 
 extra guards in the vicinity of the hospital. He ex- 
 plained that he took this extra precaution not on Debs's 
 account, but because he did not know the character of 
 some of Debs's friends who called to see him, and rather 
 than bar them all out he had installed the extra guards. 
 These he discontinued, however, after the first week or 
 two that Debs was there, explaining later that he felt 
 certain that Debs would encourage the visit of none 
 whom he suspected as being untrustworthy. 
 
 If we assume the correctness of Warden Terrell's ver- 
 sion of the expense entailed by his keeping Debs, it 
 would appear that the State Board of Control might 
 have overstated the total liability incurred by his pres- 
 ence there in order to convince the government of the 
 necessity of their receiving more federal prisoners at 
 the rate of forty cents per day per man, and thus 
 assure the self-sustaining qualities of Moundsville 
 Prison. 
 
 On the other hand, the whole incident might easily 
 have arisen through misunderstanding; but whatever 
 the motives or the lack of them, Debs was unquestionably 
 the victim. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 EARLY DATS AND BACKGROUNDS 
 
 EUGENE VICTOR DEBS was bom November 5, 
 1855, in Terre Haute, Indiana. BCe was one of ten 
 children of Jean Daniel Debs and Marguerite Bettrich 
 Debs, both natives of Alsace. The father was born at 
 Colmar, Alsace, France, December 4, 1820. He left 
 Colmar on a sailing ship bound for America on No- 
 vember 10, 1848, and arrived at New York City Janu- 
 ary 20, 1849. Marguerite Marie Bettrich followed Mr. 
 Debs to America shortly afterward, leaving Colmar on 
 August 7, 1849, and arriving at New York September 
 11, 1849. They were married in New York City two 
 days later. The early movements of the parents are 
 accounted for as follows: Left New York for Cincin- 
 nati, Ohio, September 30, 1850 ; left Cincinnati for Terre 
 Haute, May 20, 1851 ; left Terre Haute March 24, 1854, 
 returning to New York and locating in Williamsburg, 
 Long Island, now Brooklyn; left Brooklyn September 
 25 of the same year, returning to Terre Haute where 
 they permanently located. Of the ten children, six lived 
 to adult age, four sisters, and one brother, Theodore. 
 They made a happy family group. Both parents were 
 passionately fond of their native country, France, the 
 father having many stories to tell the children, gathered 
 about their humble fireside, of France's shadows and 
 sunshine. Jean Daniel Debs possessed a well equipped 
 library of French history, as well as the works of some 
 of the most noted French writers, including Victor 
 Hugo, who was one of their favorites. Very early in 
 his life, Eugene became acquainted with the works of 
 
 110 
 
EARLY DAYS AND BACKGEOUNDS 111 
 
 Hugo, and the master's characterization of Jean Yal 
 Jean in *'Les Miserables" made an indelible impression 
 upon his mind. 
 
 Despite the happy and loving family in which Eugene 
 was fortunate to have been bom, his childhood was 
 somewhat shadowed by the gathering clouds of war 
 which were soon to deluge the nation with the blood 
 of its sons and fathers in fratricidal strife over the 
 issue of chattel slavery. He saw Indiana's manhood 
 march away to the battlefields, strong and sure in the 
 justice of their cause, and he saw them return to their 
 homes and huts, maimed, diseased and afflicted with all 
 the nameless ailments to which a warrior is heir. He 
 heard the shrill sounds of strife and pain, the tramp, 
 tramp, tramp of marching men going to victory and to 
 death, and he saw some of them return beaten and sick 
 in soul and body. One could not say to what extent 
 these scenes and sounds of conflict influenced Eugene 
 Debs to take his stand against war, but it is notable that 
 not once in his long and varied career as a labor leader 
 has he ever counseled violence as a means to the settle- 
 ment of any dispute. On the other hand, he has never 
 compromised with a principle that he held to be right 
 and just, but he has said again and again that if those 
 principles were right and were just they would be ac- 
 cepted through the enlightened reason of mankind. To 
 force them upon people not ready or willing to accept 
 them would be to defeat the principle itself. That has 
 been his stand on every public question, and not once 
 has he deviated from it. 
 
 Eugene was devoted to his father and mother, as 
 were all the children who affectionately called them 
 ** Dandy" and ''Daisy." There were no jealousies or 
 cross currents of petty feelings in the family circle. 
 Love, one for another, was not only felt, but expressed 
 in acts of service and of sacrifice. Mrs. Debs died April 
 
112 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 29, 1906, and the elder Debs followed her soon after- 
 wards — November 27, 1906. 
 
 On the occasion of the golden wedding anniversary of 
 his parents at Terre Haute, September 13, 1899, Eugene 
 Debs, surrounded by his brothers and sisters, and their 
 husbands, wives and children paid a tribute to his 
 mother and father in word pictures that mark him 
 forever a poet and artist, a man with a woman's heart, 
 a son with a grateful soul. This was the picture he 
 painted: 
 
 ''The celebration of a Golden Wedding is a rare oc- 
 currence in the history of families; only to the favored 
 few is such a blessing vouchsafed. It is an occasion when 
 nuptial vows pledged at Hymen's altar take on inex- 
 pressible sacredness. A far distant day is recalled when 
 'two souls with but a single thought' and two loving 
 hearts that 'beat as one' courageously and confidently 
 entered upon the voyage of matrimony. 
 
 " . . . In fancy 's eye we see their beautiful and vine- 
 clad France; we see them in the bloom and strength 
 of youth, standing at the altar and pledging to each 
 other unchanging fidelity in storm and shine, ready to 
 meet the future as the days unfolded their duties, their 
 opportunities, their tasks and trials, sustained by a 
 faith and hope which cheered them on their pilgrimage 
 through aU their married days. 
 
 "... Love has been their guiding star; no cloud 
 ever obscured it; and the darker the day of adversity 
 the brighter shone their love which bathed their home 
 in its mellow, cheering light. 
 
 "In celebrating this Golden Wedding Anniversary, 
 all the halcyon days of our lives are included and there 
 come to us messages from the past, under the sea and 
 over the land, burdened with the aroma of violets and 
 roses, caught from the flower gardens of memory, 
 planted in youth and blooming in perennial beauty of 
 old age. 
 
EARLY DAYS AND BACKGROUNDS 113 
 
 **The serenity, the rare loveliness of this scene create 
 emotions which no words, however fitly chosen, can ex- 
 press. I can but say in the name of my sisters and 
 my brothers and those younger in the family bonds of 
 allegiance to our father — the patriarch of these sons and 
 daughters — that we tender him our warmest congratula- 
 tions upon this rare occasion. When we greet him our 
 hearts are in our hands ; when we kiss his time-furrowed 
 cheeks our hearts are on our lips, and when we con- 
 gratulate him upon this, his golden wedding anniversary, 
 our hearts are in our words. 
 
 *'. . . There are two words in our language forever 
 sacred to memory — Mother and Home! Home, the 
 heaven upon earth, and mother its presiding angel. To 
 us, children, here to-day, mother and home have realized 
 all the longing, yearning aspirations of our souls, and 
 now, in this blissful presence, we quaff to our mother 
 cups full and overflowing with the divine nectar of our 
 love. I need not attempt to recite her deeds of devotion. 
 There is not a page of our memory, not a tablet of our 
 hearts, that is not adorned and beautified by acts of her 
 loving care, in which her heart and her hands, her eyes 
 and her soul, in holy alliance, ministered to our happi- 
 ness. There was never a time when there was not a 
 song in her heart, sweeter than ^olian melody, wooing 
 her children from folly to the blessedness, security, 
 peace and contentment of home. Her children were her 
 jewels in home's shining circle, and if by the fiat of death 
 a gem dropped away, the affectionate care it had received 
 added soulful charm to her lullaby songs when at night 
 she dismissed us and sent us to dreamland repose. 
 
 *'. . ."We do not ask what the future has in store, 
 we only know that we have the bride and groom in our 
 presence, and that it is an inexpressible joy to pledge 
 them anew our unfaltering devotion and our eternal 
 love.'' 
 
 Eugene was always a ''home boy," and in his later 
 
114 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 life no man enjoyed more than he his family circle. 
 He never sought diversion in any social club or lodge, 
 always preferring to spend his evenings quietly at home 
 with his parents while they lived, and with his wife and 
 intimates in his later years. Debs himself once men- 
 tioned this attachment. He said : 
 
 *'My father and I were boon companions, and I tell 
 you, I miss it when I cannot have my Sunday evening 
 talks with him. When I am out traveling, every day 
 seems alike, but when Sunday evening comes, I in- 
 variably feel something tugging at my heartstrings." 
 
 In many ways he has paid tribute to his mother. 
 Once he remarked: 
 
 *'The dominant influence in my life has been my 
 mother. Whatever of good there is in me I owe to 
 her. Do you know, I care absolutely nothing for the 
 praise or condemnation of the world so long as my 
 wife and mother think I am in the right. ' ' 
 
 After the death of his mother. Debs wrote a poem to 
 her memory. It was one of the very few times, if not 
 the only one, when he was moved to express himself 
 in verse. The poem, entitled "Where Daisy Sleeps," 
 which he wrote in May, 1906, follows: 
 
 The grass grows green 
 Where Daisy sleeps; 
 The Mulberry tree its vigil keeps 
 Where Daisy sleeps. 
 
 The winds blow soft ' 
 
 Where Daisy sleeps; 
 
 The modest, blue-eyed violet peeps 
 
 Where Daisy sleeps. 
 
 The birds sing sweet 
 Where Daisy sleeps; 
 The mournful willow bends and 
 
 weeps 
 Where Daisy sleeps. 
 
EARLY DAYS AND BACKGROUNDS 115 
 
 The sun shines bright 
 
 Where Daisy sleeps; 
 
 Each changing season sows and 
 
 reaps 
 Where Daisy sleeps. 
 
 The flowers bloom fair 
 
 Where Daisy sleeps; 
 
 The evening shadow softly creeps 
 
 Where Daisy sleeps. 
 
 Our hearts beat true 
 Where Daisy sleeps; 
 And love its watch forever 
 
 Where Daisy sleeps. 
 
 Eugene *s parents were very poor. The elder Debs 
 was always scrupulously honorable in all his dealings. 
 Eugene had been born in a frame dwelling at No. 447 
 North Fourth street, Terre Haute. There were many 
 children and it was a problem to support them; so 
 Eugene's school years were cut short with his gradua- 
 tion from the Old Seminary School, in Terre Haute. 
 Upon the site of that latter-day institution now stands 
 the imposing structure of the Indiana State Normal 
 School. In May, 1870, at the age of fourteen, Eugene 
 began to work in the shops, and later as locomotive fire- 
 man for the Terre Haute and Indianapolis Railway 
 Company, now a part of the Pennsylvania Railroad. 
 When Eugene took his lantern and left his home every 
 night for the railroad yards his mother could not con- 
 ceal her fears for the safety of the lad who must act 
 as fireman on that unballasted and prairie railroad. 
 Eugene's pay envelope, which he turned over to his 
 mother unopened, was decidedly slim. At first he re- 
 ceived one dollar a day, and later, as fireman, was paid 
 on a mileage basis. It was the tears and fears of his 
 mother that caused him to abandon his railroad em- 
 ployment in October, 1874, for a clerkship offered him 
 
116 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 by Herman Hulman, of the firm of Hulman and Cox, 
 grocers, at Terre Haute. Eugene spent five years as a 
 grocery clerk, relinquishing this employment in Sep- 
 tember, 1879, when he was elected city clerk, an office 
 which he held four years. 
 
 Thirty-three years after Debs had left the employment 
 of Hulman and Cox, he was a candidate for President 
 of the United States on the Socialist ticket. His former 
 employers publicly made the following statement, among 
 other testimonials, to the voters of the nation concerning 
 Debs: 
 
 "Terre Haute, Ind., July 6, 1912. 
 
 **In response to your request for an expression from 
 us of our opinion of Mr. Eugene V. Debs, we wish to 
 say that we have intimately known Mr. Debs for more 
 than forty years; and for five years of this time he 
 was in our employ. 
 
 **We consider Mr. Debs unselfish and generous- 
 hearted; a man whose life has been devoted to helpful 
 service to his fellow-men. His chief delight seems to be 
 to serve others. 
 
 **In all business transactions between us we have 
 found him to be honorable and upright — a man of strict 
 honesty and integrity, and devoid of the desire to over- 
 reach or take advantage or deal unjustly with others. 
 
 **As a public man he has had many opportunities to 
 * feather his nest,' but he has uniformly refused to do so. 
 
 "No man who knows him as we do could ever suspect 
 Mm of using any public trust for private gain. 
 
 "Many years of close acquaintance have revealed his 
 many fine qualities to us, his thorough reliability, his 
 moral uprightness, his deep sincerity, his honesty of 
 purpose and his rich endowment of mind and heart." 
 
 We might pause here a moment to go back to the 
 reference in the Hulman letter that Debs has uniformly 
 refused to "feather his nest." It is doubtful if any 
 
EARLY DAYS AND BACKGROUNDS 117 
 
 man in America has had more opportunities thrust in 
 his way to capitalize his talents than Debs. 
 
 He has been blind to all glitter of gold, and deaf to 
 the tinkle of silver. He could have been a very rich 
 man, either in a public or private way, had he deigned 
 to use his silver tongue for the gathering of gold dollars. 
 Instead, he has given all and received little. He has 
 given to the poor even when he did not actually have 
 it to give, but borrowed. Debs is a very poor man in 
 the material sense. All of their lives, he and his devoted 
 brother Theodore, who has managed his four presiden- 
 tial campaigns and his lecture tours, have struggled in 
 a hand-to-mouth way to make ends meet. A number 
 of years ago there was an article published in The 
 Twentieth Century Magazme, which has since ceased to 
 exist, entitled ''The Personal Side of Eugene V. Debs.'* 
 In the article appeared a picture of the old shack of a 
 house in which he was born, and also the picture of the 
 modem house which he now maintains as his home, at 
 451 North Eighth street. This article brought forth a 
 number of editorals from reactionary and anti-labor 
 newspapers, seeking to prove that Debs's preaching was 
 not practiced by him, simply because he was bom in a 
 shack and now dared to live in a modern dwelling. 
 
 George Bicknell, poet, artist and craftsman, and for 
 some while Chautauqua manager, once was instrumental 
 in having a Chautauqua Bureau offer Debs twenty dates 
 during one month at $150 each. Debs declined the 
 offer, preferring to work in the interests of labor for a 
 trifle more than his traveling expenses. 
 
 Upon one of my visits to him in prison. Debs spoke 
 of having received a deed to a house and lot bequeathed 
 to him by a woman in California, whom he did not know 
 by name and had never to his knowledge seen. The 
 deed had been properly affixed by the executors of the 
 dead woman's estate, and the property was ready for his 
 use or disposal. Debs had, just a few days before, sent 
 
118 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 the deed to his brother Theodore, at Terre Haute, in- 
 structing him to have a lawyer arrange for the transferal 
 of the property to the Socialist Party's branch in the 
 vicinity of the property so his comrades might have use 
 of it as their headquarters and club-rooms. There are 
 incidents of this nature, too numerous to mention, show- 
 ing how Debs has resolutely set his face against any 
 money-making enterprise, or any scheme that would 
 have enriched himself financially. 
 
 Debs's first step into the organized labor movement 
 was taken when, on the evening of February 27, 1875, 
 the local lodge of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Fire- 
 men was organized at Terre Haute. He had organized 
 the Brotherhood of Railroad Brakemen, now the Brother- 
 hood of Railway Trainmen; he had helped to organize 
 the Switchmen's Mutual Aid Association, the Brother- 
 hood of Railway Carmen, the Order of Railway Telegra- 
 phers, and other labor unions. It was at the Buffalo Con- 
 vention, in 1878, that he was first recognized as a labor 
 leader of force and intellect, for the convention made 
 him associate editor of the Firemen's Magazine. In 
 July, 1880, he was appointed Grand Secretary and 
 Treasurer, and editor and manager of the Firemen's 
 Magazine. He served in the former capacity until Feb- 
 ruary, 1893, and in the latter capacity until September, 
 1894. 
 
 We are told by Stephen Marion Reynolds, in his 
 sketch of Debs's life, that when Debs took charge of the 
 affairs of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen *'the 
 order had only sixty lodges and $6,000 debt. In a 
 short time he had been able to add 226 lodges and had 
 wiped out the debt. When he decided to resign he was 
 receiving $4,000 per year. It was at the Cincinnati 
 Convention, 1892, he tendered his resignation, which 
 was unanimously refused; he was unanimously re- 
 elected to all the offices previously held. He again 
 tendered his resignation and insisted upon its accept- 
 
EARLY DATS AND BACKGROUNDS 119 
 
 ance, with the frank statement that ''organization" 
 should be broad enough to embrace all the workers, and 
 that he desired and proposed to give all his energy to 
 the building up of such an organization. The conven- 
 tion unanimously voted to give him, as a mark of appre- 
 ciation, $2,000 for a trip to Europe, for rest and en- 
 joyment; this he declined." 
 
 The true motives that impelled Debs to relinquish the 
 offices he held with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Fire- 
 men are best stated by him in his own words uttered at 
 the time: 
 
 ' ' I do this because it pleases me, and there is nothing 
 I would not do, so far ajs human effort goes, to advance 
 any movement designed to reach and rescue perishing 
 humanity. I have a heart for others and that is why I 
 am in this work. When I see suffering about me, I my- 
 self suffer, and so when I put forth my efforts to relieve 
 others, I am simply working for myself, I do not con- 
 sider that I have made any sacrifice whatever; no man 
 does, unless he violates his conscience." 
 
 In June, 1893, Debs, with the assistance of a few 
 others organized the American Railway Union, at 
 Chicago. His salary dropped from $4,000 a year, which 
 he received from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Fire- 
 men, to $75 a month from the A. R. U. During the last 
 two years of the American Railway Union's existence 
 Debs drew no salary at all. Of his activities in the 
 A. R. U. we shall deal at length in the succeeding chap- 
 ter, for they mark one of the most important epochs in 
 his career, including, as they do, the great railroad 
 strike of 1894, the Pullman strike in the same period, 
 his trial for murder, treason and conspiracy, and his 
 subsequent imprisonment at "Woodstock Jail, Illinois. 
 
 Debs furnishes us with an illuminative and vigorous 
 picture of those early days in the labor movement. He 
 had been admitted as a charter member of the Brother- 
 hood of Locomotive Firemen when it was organized in 
 
120 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 Terre Haute in 1875 by Joshua A. Leach, then Grand 
 Master. Debs was at once chosen secretary. 
 
 '' 'Old Josh Leach/ as he was affectionately called, 
 a typical locomotive fireman of his day," Debs wrote 
 years later, "was the founder of the brotherhood, and 
 I was instantly attracted by his rugged honesty, simple 
 manner and homely speech. How well I remember feel- 
 ing his large, rough hand on my shoulder, the kindly 
 eye of an elder brother searching my own as he gently 
 said, *My boy, you're a little young, but I believe you're 
 in earnest and will make your mark in the brotherhood. ' 
 Of course, I assured him that I would do my best. What 
 he really thought at the time flattered my boyish vanity 
 not a little when I heard of it. He was attending a 
 meeting at St. Louis some months later, and in the 
 course of his remarks said : ' I put a tow-headed boy in 
 the brotherhood at Terre Haute not long ago, and some 
 day he will be at the head of it. ' 
 
 ''The years have played their pranks with 'Old Josh' 
 and the rest of us. "When last we met, not long ago, and 
 I pressed his good right hand, I observed that he was 
 crowned with the frost that never melts. 
 
 "My first step was thus taken in organized labor and 
 a new influence fired my ambition and changed the whole 
 current of my career. I was filled with enthusiasm and 
 my blood fairly leaped in my veins. Day and night I 
 worked for the brotherhood. To see its watchfires glow 
 and observe the increase of its sturdy members were the 
 sunshine and shower of my life. To attend the 'meeting' 
 was my supreme joy, and for ten years I was not once 
 absent when the faithful assembled. 
 
 "... With all the fire of youth I entered upon the 
 crusade which seemed to fairly glitter with possibilities. 
 For eighteen hours at a stretch I was glued to my desk, 
 reeling off the answers to my many correspondents. Day 
 and night were one. Sleep was time wasted. Oh, what 
 days ! And what quenchless zeal and consuming vanity I 
 
EARLY DAYS AND BACKGROUNDS 121 
 
 All the firemen everywhere — and they were all the world 
 — were straining: 
 
 '* 'To catch the beat 
 
 On my tramping feet.' 
 
 *'My grip was always packed; and I was darting in 
 all directions. To tramp through a railroad yard in 
 the rain, snow or sleet half the night, or till daybreak, or 
 to he ordered out of the roundhouse for being an 'agita- 
 tor, ' or put off a train, sometimes passenger, more often 
 freight, while attempting to deadhead over the division, 
 were all in the program, and served to whet the appe- 
 tite to conquer. 
 
 * * One night in mid-winter at Elmira, N. Y., a conduc- 
 tor on the Erie kindly dropped me off in a snowbank, and 
 as I clambered to the top I ran into the arms of a police- 
 man, who heard my story and on the spot became my 
 friend. 
 
 * * I rode on the engines over mountain and plain, slept 
 in the cabooses and bunks, and was fed from their pails 
 by the swarthy stokers who still nestle close to my heart, 
 and will until it is cold and still. 
 
 **. . . And so I was spurred on in the work of organ- 
 izing, not the firemen merely, but the brakemen, switch- 
 men, telegraphers, shop men, track-hands, all of them 
 in fact, and as I had now become known as an organizer, 
 the calls came from all sides and there are but few 
 trades I have not helped to organize and less still in 
 whose strikes I have not at some time had a hand.'' 
 
 Debs has steadfastly disclaimed being a ** labor lead- 
 er." Several years ago he spoke these words to an 
 audience of laboring people: 
 
 "I am not a Labor Leader; I do not want you to 
 follow me or any one else. If you are looking for a 
 Moses to lead you out of this capitalist wilderness, you 
 will stay right where you are. I would not lead you 
 into this promised land if I could, because if I could 
 lead you in, some one else would lead you out. You 
 
122 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 must use your heads as well as your hands, and get 
 yourselves out of your present condition ; as it is now the 
 capitalists use your heads and your hands/' 
 
 It has been his pride that he has remained in the ranks 
 of the workers, sharing with them their few joys and 
 their many sorrows and setbacks. A man who steps 
 out of the ranks and becomes a leader, especially in the 
 labor movement, often loses psychological and spiritual 
 connection with those from whose ranks he has emerged, 
 and becomes, in fact, imbued with viewpoints and ideas 
 alien to the progress of labor. The history of the 
 American labor movement, and doubtless the same could 
 be said of the labor movements of other countries, has 
 been replete with instances of ''leaders" who have risen 
 to power over the backs of the workers, sometimes by the 
 choice of the latter and sometimes by the cunning of the 
 ambitious ones, only to play into the hands of political, 
 industrial and economic reactionary forces whose sys- 
 tem of handling the workers is inimical to their social 
 progress. Since this has been so in almost every move- 
 ment down the long winding track of the ages it might 
 be said to be " natural ' ' ; but whether it is or not, Debs 
 has constantly cautioned the workers, wherever he has 
 spoken to them, against being led by the Moseses who 
 may, or may not have, their own axes to grind on the 
 stones that the workers have dug and polished. 
 
 It was in 1878 that Debs made his first political 
 speech, advocating the principles of the Democratic 
 Party. Almost immediately after that oration he was 
 tendered the nomination for a seat in Congress and de- 
 clined it. His acceptance at that time would have been 
 tantamount to his election. That is what he meant when 
 he said in his speech before Judge Westenhaver in Cleve- 
 land in 1918 before sentence was passed upon him: '*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 regrets. '* 
 
EARLY DAYS AND BACKGROUNDS 123 
 
 Determined to thrust political honors upon him, the 
 Democratic Party of Indiana nominated him for a seat 
 in the State Legislature in 1885 and he was elected. It 
 was his avowed purpose to seek to obtain for the working 
 class in general, and the railroad employees in particu- 
 lar, much-needed legislation for their benefit. In the 
 same year, on June 9th, he was married to Katherine 
 Metzel. Mrs. Debs was bom in Pittsburgh, but her 
 parents were of Kentucky. Few women have sacrificed 
 their own interests to their husband's ideals and work 
 as Mrs. Debs has throughout all of these years. Upon 
 all occasions when the labor movement or the Socialist 
 Party have claimed him for national tours or separate 
 engagements she has yielded cheerfully to their demands, 
 always with the feeling that the world had more claim 
 upon him than herself. In this spirit of understanding, 
 sympathy and helpfulness. Debs has had to absent 
 himself many times from his home and family ties for 
 months at a stretch, returning sometimes for a few brief 
 hours or a day, only to take up again a speaking cam- 
 paign, or the bitterness of a strike. 
 
 Mrs. Debs has for many years assisted Eugene with 
 his vast correspondence, keeping his scrap-book up to 
 date, filing his hundreds of books, papers and magazine 
 articles in proper order so that they might be accessible 
 to him at all times either for writing articles or as ref- 
 erence for speeches. Although they have no children, 
 both are passionately fond of youngsters, and sometimes 
 they have kept for long periods the children of their 
 immediate family, sometimes those of their neighbors, 
 and once, about half a dozen years ago, Eugene and 
 Mrs. Debs opened their home to a young girl whose life 
 was almost ruined because of an unhappy experience 
 in Terre Haute. Upon this occasion many newspapers 
 throughout the country hurled their epithets at him for 
 having "darkened his threshold with the shadow of a 
 fallen woman." These were the same journals that, 
 
124 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 each Monday morning, print extracts from the sermons 
 of noted preachers for the delectable palates of their 
 readers. 
 
 When twenty-three years old, Debs met Wendell 
 Phillips and Robert G. IngersoU. Two years later, in 
 1880, he met Susan B. Anthony. From these early 
 meetings with those rebellious, agnostic and pioneer 
 spirits grew friendly attachments which endured 
 throughout the life time of all three. The great ora- 
 torical powers of IngersoU and Phillips moved and in- 
 spired Debs as nothing else had done up to that time. 
 To the very end of Colonel Ingersoirs life he kept up 
 a steady correspondence with him upon all vital ques- 
 tions and was aided by IngersoU 's suggestions. In 
 those fallow years Debs was reading and studying, try- 
 ing as best he could to make up for the lack of a decent 
 education. 
 
 He was a live and an aggressive member of the Occi- 
 dental Literary Club in Terre Haute, of which he was 
 one of the founders. He frequently took the floor in 
 debate with older members, and made speeches under 
 the club's auspices to ** outsiders '* who might deign to 
 **drop in.'' He was always attracted to persons who 
 stood out because of their principles from the apathetic 
 multitudes. He delights in recalling snatches of con- 
 versation he has had with those lonely vanguards of 
 movements, ideas and philosophies which one day may 
 be accepted by the people. Once he referred to his talk 
 with WendeU PhiUips: 
 
 ** *Debs, the world will never know with what bitter 
 and relentless persecution the early abolitionists had to 
 contend,' " Debs quoted him as saying. ** Wendell 
 Phillips was a perfect aristocrat; a royal man, who in- 
 stantly challenged respect and admiration. Wendell 
 PhiUips was treated as if he had been the worst felon 
 on earth. They went to his house to mob him, and 
 
EARLY DAYS AND BACKGROUNDS 125 
 
 why? Because he protested against sending a fugitive 
 Negro back into the hell of slavery.'' 
 
 In 1880 he persuaded Susan B. Anthony to come to 
 Terre Haute to speak at a series of meetings on the 
 question of Woman's Suffrage. 
 
 '*! can never forget the first time I met her," he 
 wrote some years ago. **She impressed me as being a 
 wonderfully strong character, self-reliant, thoroughly in 
 earnest, and utterly indifferent to criticism. There was 
 never a time in my life when I was opposed to the equal 
 suffrage of the sexes. I could never understand why 
 woman was denied any right or opportunity that man 
 enjoyed. Quite early, therefore, I was attracted to the 
 woman suffrage movement." 
 
 Debs became determined, with the aid of Mrs. Ida 
 Husted Harper, who afterward became Miss Anthony's 
 biographer, to have the pioneer suffragist speak: at Terre 
 Haute. He, with a few friends, met Miss Anthony at 
 the railroad station, and walked with her to a hotel. 
 
 **I can still see the aversion so unfeelingly expressed 
 for this magnificent woman. Even my friends were dis- 
 gusted with me for piloting such *an undesirable citizen' 
 into the community. As we walked along the street I 
 was painfully aware that Miss Anthony was an object 
 of derision and contempt, and in my heart I resented 
 it and later I had often to defend my position, which, 
 of course, I was ready to do." 
 
 The meeting of Miss Anthony and her co-workers in 
 Terre Haute were poorly attended, and all but barren 
 of results. Debs says that people would not come to her 
 meetings in those days even to satisfy their curiosity, 
 *'and it would not have required any great amount of 
 egging-on to have excited the people to drive her from 
 the community." 
 
 Debs did not see Miss Anthony again for a number 
 of years, meeting her for the last time at Rochester, a 
 short while before her death. 
 
126 DEBS—AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 **Her life work was done and her sun was setting/' 
 he wrote. *'How beautiful she seemed in the quiet 
 serenity of her sunset! Twenty-five years before she 
 drank to its dregs the bitter cup of persecution, but now 
 she stood upon the heights, a sad smiling light in her 
 sweet face, amidst the acclaims of her neighbors and 
 the plaudits of the world.*' 
 
 Debs himself confesses that his powers of speech and 
 writing were not due to education or to training, for he 
 had but little of either. 
 
 "While a mere boy, firing a switch engine at night, he 
 managed to attend a school half a day each day, sleep- 
 ing the mornings and attending school afternoons. From 
 his meager earnings he bought an encyclopedia on the 
 installment plan, one volume each month, and began 
 to read and study history and literature and to devote 
 himself to grammar and composition. The revolutionary 
 history of the United States and France stirred him 
 deeply and their heroes and martyrs became his idols. 
 Thomas Paine, he says, towered above them all, and a 
 thousand times since he has found strength and in- 
 spiration in the words of Paine, ** These are the times 
 that try men's souls." 
 
 Of the intensiveness of his early studies he says that 
 from the time he began to read with a serious mind, 
 feeling keenly his lack of knowledge, he observed the 
 structure and studied the composition of every para- 
 graph and every sentence, and when one appeared strik- 
 ing to him, because of its perfection of style or phrasing, 
 he would read it a second time or perhaps commit it to 
 memory. In all of his reading, and it has been volumi- 
 nous and varied, Debs has chosen such subjects and 
 topics as would assist him to increase his own powers 
 of expression, both oral and written, and at the same 
 time broaden and enlighten him. He has especially 
 
EARLY DATS AND BACKGROUNDS 127 
 
 stored away in his mind the histories of all the sufferings 
 of all races. 
 
 The schools he attended were primitive, and when he 
 left them at the age of fourteen years he could scarcely 
 write a grammatical sentence. He supplemented his 
 elemental education in the ways indicated above, spe- 
 cializing, however, in the orations of men who spoke in 
 advance of their time. 
 
 Patrick Henry's revolutionary speech claimed his 
 earliest attention, and Robert Emmet's immortal ora- 
 tion was a great favorite and moved him deeply. Drake 's 
 *' American Flag" stirred his blood, as did also Schiller's 
 ^ ' Burgschaf t. " He would often shut himself up in 
 a room and recite the speeches of these heroes, always 
 making sure that no one was listening. Everything that 
 was revolutionary, that spoke for the toilers and gave 
 voice to their unexpressed yearnings appealed to his 
 imaginative mind and tender heart. He had a passion 
 for Patrick Henry and his burning defiance of King 
 George inspired the first speech that Debs ever attempted 
 to deliver in public. 
 
 This was before the Occidental Literary Club in Terre 
 Haute. Debs loves to tell now of how he shuddered 
 upon facing the crowded little room, and how the cold 
 sweat stood in beads upon his brow when he realized 
 the awful plight he had invited upon himself and the 
 utter hopelessness of escape. 
 
 ''The spectacle I made of myself that evening will 
 never be effaced from my memory, and the sympathetic 
 assurances of my friends at the close of the exhibition 
 did not relieve the keen sense of humiliation and shame 
 I felt for the disgrace I had brought upon myself and 
 my patron saint. The speech could not possibly have 
 been worse and my mortification was complete. In my 
 heart I hoped most earnestly that my hero's spiritual 
 ears were not attuned to the affairs of this earth, at least 
 that evening. 
 
128 DEBS—AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 Upon the invitation of the Department of Education 
 of the University of Wisconsin, under whose direction 
 there was being conducted an investigation of the sub- 
 ject of ** Distinguished Contemporary Orators and Lec- 
 turers, ' ' Debs contributed a paper entitled, * ' The Secret 
 of Efficient Expression." 
 
 Among other things he wrote : 
 
 **The secret of efficient expression in oratory — if se- 
 cret it can be properly called — is in having something 
 efficient to express and being so filled with it that it ex- 
 presses itself. The choice of words is not important 
 since efficient expression, the result of efficient thinking, 
 chooses its own words, molds and fashions its own sen- 
 tences, and creates a diction suited to its own purposes. 
 
 '*. . . No man ever made a great speech on a mean 
 subject. Slavery never inspired an immortal thought or 
 utterance. Selfishness is dead to every art. The love 
 of truth and the passion to serve it light every torch 
 of real eloquence. Had Ingersoll and Phillips devoted 
 their lives to the practice of law for pay the divine fire 
 within them would have burned to ashes and they would 
 have died in mediocrity. 
 
 **. . . The highest there is in oratory is the highest 
 there is in truth, in honesty, in morality. All the vir- 
 tues combine in expressing themselves in beautiful words, 
 poetic phrases, glowing periods, and moving eloquence. 
 
 *'The loftiest peaks rise from the lowest depths and 
 their shining summits glorify their hidden foundations. 
 The highest eloquence springs from the lowliest sources 
 and pleads trumpet-tongued for the children of the 
 abyss. ' ' 
 
 We could not conclude this phase of the life of Debs, 
 his early struggles and the backgrounds that bring his 
 portrait out in relief, without a word about his brother, 
 Theodore Debs. In fact, any record of Eugene's life 
 that omits Theodore is, in the final estimate, woefully 
 incomplete. 
 
EARLY DAYS AND BACKGROUNDS 129 
 
 Some years ago, Eugene was tendered a notable re- 
 ception by his friends and followers in Boston. After 
 every speaker had toasted him, Horace Traubel arose 
 and said that no one could really claim knowing Debs 
 without knowing his brother Theodore and his wife. 
 Debs instantly admitted the truth of this statement, and 
 thanked the speaker for bringing it to the attention 
 of the assemblage. Theodore has been a tireless worker, 
 for a score of years and more, by Eugene's side. He 
 has had no public recognition or honors, and has never 
 sought any. Only those who have come very close to 
 Eugene know Theodore. Yet, behind almost every pub- 
 lic career one finds the sacrificial hand and devoted 
 heart. He has managed nearly every one of Eugene's 
 national lecture tours; he has cared for him after the 
 strain and stress of public speaking, actually putting 
 him to bed and giving him quiet and comfort in prep- 
 aration for the next meeting. 
 
 For a number of years Theodore Debs has found it 
 necessary to maintain an office in Terre Haute for 
 handling Eugene's enormous mail. When Debs is ab- 
 sent, Theodore answers all correspondents, and they are 
 many. There has always existed a most complete com- 
 munion and camaraderie between these two men, and 
 to consider one without the other would be much like 
 appraising the value of steam without considering the 
 engine from which it issued. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 LABOR UNIONIST AND WOODSTOCK 
 
 THE year 1893 was one of desolation and hopeless- 
 ness for the wage earners of America. Due to the 
 financial panic of that year, which followed in the 
 train of bond issues floated by the government in an 
 effort to make up the deficit due to declining federal 
 revenues, the workers were thrown out of employment 
 by tens of thousands when factories closed and bank- 
 ruptcies were the order of the day. Those workers who 
 had managed to keep their employment were receiving 
 wages far blow a decent living standard. Industrial 
 unrest and chaos was widespread. From distant and 
 scattered points bands of unemployed workers were 
 marching across the country to join the main contin- 
 gent led by ''General" Jacob Coxey headed for the 
 national capital to seek redress for their grievances. 
 ** General" Coxey was arrested at Washington. The 
 railroad workers of the country, and those employed 
 by the Pullman Palace Car Company at South Chicago, 
 Illinois, were affected by wage reductions; this created 
 a sullen temper among the toilers, not calculated to 
 produce confidence in or make for the stability of any 
 government. 
 
 The American Railway Union had been organized at 
 Chicago in June, 1893, with Debs at the head of the 
 organization. This was one of the very first attempts in 
 this country at industrial unionism, or **One Big 
 Union," a form of organization which has come to be 
 looked upon by a large number of workers in this and 
 other countries as a most efficacious method of gaining 
 
 130 
 
LABOR UNIONIST AND WOODSTOCK 131 
 
 quick results in the furtherance of their industrial and 
 economic programs. To have thought of, much less 
 fathered, such a program in those days was tantamount 
 to stamping one's self an anarchist and inviting derision 
 from the conservative press and public. 
 
 On April 13, 1894, the strike was called on the Great 
 Northern Railroad, and lasted eighteen days. On April 
 16, members of the American Railway Union received a 
 circular letter containing the scale of wages paid on 
 the Great Northern lines, and showed that train dis- 
 patchers were receiving $80 per month; freight con- 
 ductors, $78; freight brakemen, $42 to $53; engineers, 
 in some instances, $2.80 per day; inspectors, $35 per 
 month; operators, $37.50 to $41.50; roundhousmen, $1 
 per day ; trackmen and truckmen, $1 per day. Paralleled 
 with this scale of wages it was shown that in many rail- 
 road centers, Butte, Montana, for instance, the cheapest 
 board was $26 per month. The officials of the Great 
 Northern soon learned of the circular sent to its em- 
 ployees, and at once sent out a cipher dispatch to its 
 superintendents and managers to remove all agitators 
 and those known to be in sympathy with the A. R. U. 
 Debs and his co-officials learned of this step taken by the 
 railroad to break down the morale of the men, and the 
 strike was speedily called. The railroad was given no 
 time to prepare a counter offensive. From the Butte 
 headquarters of the A. R. U. came the appeal to the 
 men, couched in the following vein : 
 
 **We need your financial and moral support every- 
 where. It is the greatest strike the world has ever seen. 
 Give us your moral and financial support through the 
 general office at Chicago. Act quickly. See if we can- 
 not break the chains that are being forged to reduce us, 
 not only to slavery, but to starvation." 
 
 This appeal was all that was required to enlist the 
 full and hearty support of the railroad workers. In 
 
132 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 many ways they pledged to their leaders their loyalty 
 to the A. R. U. 
 
 On April 13, C. W. Case, general manager of the 
 Great Northern lines, received the following letter from 
 the A. R. U. : 
 
 **I am instructed by your employees to say that unless 
 the scale of wages and rules of classes of employees 
 that were in effect prior to the first cut made August 1, 
 1893, are restored and switchmen at Great Falls and 
 Helena receive the same pay and schedules as at Butte 
 and the management agrees to meet the representatives 
 of the employees at Minot not later than ten days hence 
 and formulate schedules accordingly, all classes of em- 
 ployees will quit work at 12 o'clock noon this 13th day 
 of April.'' 
 
 The late James J. Hill, owner of the Great Northern, 
 and for many years before his death called ' ' the empire 
 builder" because of bis vast railroad and financial in- 
 terests in the northwest, was taken completely unawares. 
 He instructed his managers to issue appeals to the men 
 to remain loyal to the company and promised them 
 rapid promotion if they would but turn their faces 
 from the American Railway Union. On April 22, Debs, 
 as president of the A. R. U., and George W. Howard, 
 as vice-president, addressed a large meeting of railroad 
 workers in St. Paul, where the general offices of the 
 Great Northern were located and the home city of 
 James J. Hill. As a result of that meeting the A. R. U. 
 added 225 members. With imminent defeat staring him 
 in the face, Mr. Hill called a conference of a few rail- 
 road managers and labor leaders, the main theme of his 
 talk to them being that he would offer arbitration. 
 When Mr. Hill had concluded, a tall, gaunt man arose 
 in the back of the council chamber. Moving slowly to the 
 front where Mr. Hill sat the man began to speak. It 
 was Debs. These were his words: 
 
LABOR UNIONIST AND WOODSTOCK 133 
 
 **Let me say that we do not accept the proposition. 
 Efforts have been made ever since this trouble started to 
 divide the organization and make trouble between the 
 Union and the Brotherhoods. I understand such to be 
 the policy of this company. 
 
 **Now, if the other organizations represent the men, 
 let them set your wheels turning. Our men will not 
 go back to work. My idea is that in raising the ques- 
 tion of representation you have sought to evade the 
 issue. We presented the terms upon which we would 
 go to work. I am authorized to say that we will settle 
 on these terms and on no others. This grievance is a 
 universal grievance and all the men are united in this 
 action. It will be to no avail to attempt to divide us 
 into factions. If wages are not restored you can no 
 longer have the service of the men. For the past week 
 we have restrained the men from leaving your employ. 
 Now, understand me that I am too much of a gentleman 
 to make a threat and I do not mean this as anything 
 but a plain statement of fact, but if there is no adjust- 
 ment, those men will withdraw from your service in a 
 body. They are convinced that their demand is a just 
 one. If their request is not complied with they will, 
 without regard to consequences, continue this struggle 
 on the lines already laid down and fight it out with all 
 the means at their command within the limits of the law. 
 We understand your position ; you understand ours. We 
 will not withdraw from this conference. We shall be 
 in the city several days and shall be glad to receive any 
 further communications from you." 
 
 Failing completely to break the strike, reduce the 
 morale of his employees, or to bargain with Debs for a 
 compromised settlement, Mr. Hill next enlisted the aid 
 of Knute Nelson, then governor of Minnesota, now 
 United States Senator. Debs told me how Governor 
 Nelson had sent for him to come to his executive of- 
 fices. Debs went and was kept waiting in the office of 
 
134 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 the Governor for many minutes, the Governor being pres- 
 ent, giving no sign of knowing that Debs was in the 
 room. 
 
 Finally, Governor Nelson approached Debs with the 
 inquiry, *'Do you wish to see me?'' 
 
 **No, Governor, I do not wish to see you, but you 
 have indicated your wish to see me, and here I am," 
 Debs replied. 
 
 * * So you are Eugene V. Debs, ' ' Governor Nelson said, 
 backing off and surveying the tall figure before him 
 from head to foot. Debs said the Governor at once 
 launched into a livid denunciation of him, employing 
 frequent use of such epithets as ** agitator, ' ' ''for- 
 eigner," ''anarchist," and so on, and wound up by 
 harshly condemning him for "stirring up strife among 
 peaceful and contented workingmen." 
 
 ' ' When he had finished, ' ' Debs said, relating the story, 
 "his face was purple and I thought he might succumb 
 to his anger. 'Now, Governor, I have listened to all you 
 have had to say, ' I remarked. ' Are you through ? ' Nel- 
 son said he was. 
 
 " 'Well, then, for the first time in your life look into 
 the eyes of a man/ " Debs said he explained to the 
 Governor very briefly and tersely the issues of the strike 
 and concluded with: 
 
 "I have never in my life worn the collar of a pluto- 
 crat, nor jumped like a jack when he pulled the string 
 as you have done for Mr. Hill. Now, Governor, I know 
 something about railroads, and you may, with my con- 
 sent, take the B Line and go to hell. ' I left him standing 
 in the middle of his executive chamber," Debs con- 
 cluded. This little incident of the A. R. U. strike he 
 related while going to Moundsville prison. 
 
 The Great Northern strike was won in eighteen days 
 and not one drop of human blood was shed. It was the 
 first signal victory achieved by the workers in this coun- 
 try standing together, united, for their demands, and 
 
LABOR UNIONIST AND WOODSTOCK 135 
 
 the result heartened the forces of labor allied with other 
 trades and revived their spirits which had been all but 
 annihilated after the Haymarket riots and hangings 
 seven years before. 
 
 Debs returned to his home in Terre Haute on May 
 3, 1894, and four thousand of his friends, neighbors, 
 men, women and children, greeted him with shouts and 
 music. He addressed his fellow citizens in a public park, 
 near the Terre Haute House. A carriage had been 
 provided for him to ride in from his home to the park, 
 but Debs chose to walk amid the shouting throng. We 
 shall set down here only the salient points of his address 
 on that occasion: 
 
 *'. . . The contest on the Great Northern system has 
 no parallel in the history of railroad trouble. From the 
 hour the strike commenced the men were united; they 
 stood shoulder to shoulder — engineers, firemen, brake- 
 men, conductors, switchmen, and even the trackmen and 
 freight handlers, who are generally first to suffer, stood 
 up as one man and asserted their manhood. 
 
 "One of the remarkable features, very remarkable, in 
 the contest, was the good feeling which prevailed during 
 the eighteen days of the strike, and the good feeling 
 lasted during the trying and anxious hours of arbitra- 
 tion. I am glad, my friends, to be able to say to you to- 
 night, that in all those eighteen days there was, from one 
 end of the Great Northern road to the other, not a 
 single drop of human blood spilled. The American 
 spirit of fair play was uppermost in the minds of the 
 manly men who were involved in the trouble, and their 
 fight for wages was conducted without rowdyism or 
 lawlessness. The reduction on the Great Northern Rail- 
 way was without cause. In resisting it, the employees 
 met solidly organized capital face to face, and man to 
 man, and for eighteen days not a pound of freight was 
 moved and not a wheel turned, with the exception of mail 
 trains. As a result of this unification, this show of 
 
136 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 manliness and courage on the part of the employees, they 
 gained 971/2 per cent, of what they claimed as their 
 rights. 
 
 ''The arbitration of the differences was entrusted 
 into the hands of fourteen representative business men 
 of the Twin Cities, with Charles Pillsbury, the merchant 
 miller prince, as chairman. The preliminaries leading 
 up to that memorable meeting of arbitration covered 
 many weary hours, but once in session and facing the 
 great question of wages of thousands of men, these four- 
 teen men, all of whom were men of capital and employers 
 of labor, reached a verdict in one hour, a verdict for the 
 employees, by which $146,000 more money will monthly 
 be distributed among the deserving wage earners than 
 would have been had they not stood up for what they 
 knew to be justly theirs. 
 
 *'My glory, my friends, consists in the gladness which 
 I know will be brought into the little cottage homes 
 of the humble trackmen among the hills in the west. I 
 -san almost see the looks of gratitude on the faces of 
 these men's wives and little children. In all my life I 
 have never felt so highly honored as I did when leaving 
 St. Paul on my way home. As our train pulled out of 
 the yards the tokens of esteem, which I prize far more 
 highly than all others, was in seeing the old trackmen, 
 men whose frames were bent with years of grinding 
 toil, who receive the pittance of from 80 cents to $1 a 
 day, leaning on their shovels and lifting their hats to 
 me in appreciation of my humble assistance in a cause 
 which they believed had resulted in a betterment of their 
 miserable existence. ..." 
 
 As so often happens in times of industrial strife, the 
 demonstration of solidarity plus victory of the American 
 Railway Union over the Great Northern system, brought 
 renewed hope and inspiration to the workers in kindred 
 and other trades, and two months after the Great North- 
 em strike the workers of the Pullman Palace Car Com- 
 
LABOR UNIONIST AND WOODSTOCK 137 
 
 pany, at South Chicago, Illinois, now Pullman, went 
 out. This was in June, 1894. 
 
 The American Railway Union officials, against the 
 advice of Debs, decided again to call a strike in sym- 
 pathy with the Pullman workers. "Debs believed that 
 the abnormal and unfavorable conditions raised too 
 many obstacles against success," wrote James Oneal 
 in the New York Call Magazine, July 7, 1918. "How- 
 ever, the decision was against his advice and, taking his 
 orders from the organization, he entered into the strug- 
 gle with all his might. A number of railroads were tied 
 up, others were partially crippled and the union achieved 
 a larger measure of success than even the optimistic had 
 dreamed of." 
 
 The second A. R. U. strike was so widespread and dev- 
 astated the profits of the railroad owners to such an 
 extent that the magnates of that period resolved to an- 
 nihilate the American Railway Union root and branch 
 and imprison its leaders. For this purpose the admin- 
 istration of President Grover Cleveland was prevailed 
 upon to begin prosecutions against Debs and his co- 
 officials of the A. R. U. The federal courts were not 
 used for this purpose, however, until after President 
 Cleveland had ordered out the federal troops to go to 
 Chicago "to preserve order and protect private prop- 
 erty." As to the manner in which the United States 
 soldiers of that period executed their orders from the 
 federal government we shall deal later, for the record 
 has been fully set down in the minutes of the meetings 
 of the commission appointed by President Cleveland in 
 the summer of 1895 to investigate the causes of the Chi- 
 cago strike. It appears that President Cleveland sent 
 federal troops into Chicago primarily to see that the 
 strikers did not interfere with the movement of mail 
 trains or molest their crews. John P. Altgeld, then 
 Governor of Illinois, protested to Washington against the 
 sending of federal soldiers into Chicago and the state, 
 
138 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 claiming that the regular police force was sufficient and 
 competent to handle whatever situation might arise. 
 His protest was ignored. 
 
 One of Debs's most bitter opponents during the 
 A. R. U. strike was John R. Walsh, then a powerful 
 Chicago banker and a rising figure in the financial 
 world. He had acquired a newspaper, the Chicaga 
 Chronicle, to assist him in his ascendency toward the 
 white light of fame. About ten or twelve years after 
 the A. R. U. strike Walsh was sent to the Joliet Peni- 
 tentiary, Illinois, as a bank wrecker. Petitions were cir- 
 culated by his friends for his release from prison so 
 that he might die on the outside. 
 
 Judge Peter S. Grosscup, of the federal district court 
 in Chicago, played an important role in the labor drama 
 of that period. Judge W. W. Woods was called upon to 
 sit in the * ' conspiracy trial ' ' growing out of the Pullman 
 strike, through which the Railroad Managers' Associa- 
 tion of that' period hoped to send Debs to prison for 
 life. Some years ago Judge Woods died, * ' and the world 
 now does not know that he ever lived,'' said Debs in 
 referring to him. 
 
 E. St. John was chairman of the Railroad Managers' 
 Association of that period. It is said that he had a 
 reputation of being one of the most powerful and suc- 
 cessful of all the managers. He had claimed that the 
 American Railway Union and Debs could not disturb 
 the operation of the Rock Island railroad, but when the 
 strike came, the Rock Island was tied up tight from one 
 end of the system to the other. 
 
 Such were the characters who played their parts in 
 one of the greatest labor dramas this country has ever 
 known. Some are asleep to-day in graves forgotten 
 by all save their immediate friends and relatives, while 
 others have been reduced to the level of mediocrity and 
 impotency. Since then, with every passing year, Eugene 
 V. Debs has mounted one rung after another of the lad- 
 
LABOR UNIONIST AND WOODSTOCK 139 
 
 der and to-day, even though he is in prison, he is by all 
 odds one of the most powerful public figures in America. 
 
 A special grand jury was impaneled in the United 
 States District Court of Northern Illinois on July 10, 
 1894. Judge Grosscup instructed the jury concerning' 
 the crimes of insurrection, conspiracy, etc., and the jury 
 then set to work to consider whatever evidence might 
 be brought to its attention concerning the activities of 
 the American Railway Union and the Pullman strike. 
 The late Richard Olney, then attorney general in Presi- 
 dent Cleveland's cabinet, had appointed Edwin Walker, 
 an attorney in the employ of the Chicago, Milwaukee 
 and St. Paul Railroad, special counsel to assist in the 
 prosecution of the Debs case. Mr. Walker and Attorney 
 Wright, of the Rock Island system, were in attendance 
 during the deliberations of the grand jury. 
 
 E. M. Mulford, of the Western Union Telegraph Com- 
 pany, was the sole witness examined by the grand jury, 
 and he had produced for the jurors copies of telegrams^ 
 sent from the headquarters of the A. R. U. and those 
 received by the strikers' officials. With no further evi- 
 dence than these copies of telegrams, and without further 
 preliminaries the grand jury returned indictments 
 against four officials of the American Railway Union. 
 These were Debs, president; George W. Howard, vice- 
 president; Sylvester Kelliher, secretary; and L. W. 
 Rogers, director and editor of the Bwilway Times. With- 
 in ten minutes after Judge Grosscup received the in- 
 dictments warrants were drawn for the arrest of Debs 
 and his co-officials. A raid was promptly made upon 
 the A. R. U. headquarters, all books, blank books, papers 
 and correspondence of the union seized and other office 
 paraphernalia confiscated by the raiders. The private 
 mail of President Debs was seized but this was returned 
 to him the following day by order of the court. 
 
 The four men were re-arrested on July 17 for con- 
 tempt of court on the petition of Special Counsel Walker,. 
 
140 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 who alleged violation of the restraining injunction which 
 had been issued by Judges Grosscup and Woods. This 
 was in many respects the most astonishing injunction 
 ever issued from a federal bench, since by it it became a 
 crime to use persuasion on workingmen to join a strike. 
 Neither President Debs nor his three colleagues would 
 consent to give bail and the four men were sent to Cook 
 County Jail, in Chicago, where they remained until July 
 23. On that day the A. R. U. lawyers moved for a dis- 
 missal of the contempt proceedings, arguing that they 
 were virtually for the same offense charged in the indict- 
 ment, and that no man could be tried twice on the same 
 charge. This motion was denied by the court, and the 
 plea of the four defendants for a trial by a jury met 
 with the same fate. Everything seemed to indicate that 
 the cards were stacked. 
 
 The directors of the A. R. U. were included in the 
 proceedings later through the filing of a supplemental 
 information in the contempt case. Originally sixty-nine 
 persons were named in the omnibus indictments for 
 conspiracy to obstruct the United States mails, but before 
 the case went to trial the government attorneys entered 
 a nolle pros, as to a number of defendants, leaving forty- 
 five to answer to the charges against them on January 
 8, 1895. There were seven indictments against Presi- 
 dent Debs, Vice-President Howard and Editor Rogers, 
 and three indictments each against the full board of 
 directors of the American Railway Union. President 
 Debs and his three colleagues were placed under $25,000 
 bonds in all of the conspiracy indictments, with the ex- 
 ception of the omnibus indictment. Debs and the 
 A. R. U. officials were represented in court by S. S. 
 Gregory and Clarence S. Darrow, and John J. Hanahan 
 was represented by Thomas W. Harper, of Terre Haute. 
 The government was represented by Edwin Walker, an 
 attorney in the employ of the railroad managers, and 
 named special attorney general by Attorney General 
 
LABOR UNIONIST AND WOODSTOCK 141 
 
 Olney; District Attorney J. C. Black, and his predeces- 
 sor, T. B. Milchrist. 
 
 Upon the opening of court Attorney Gregory objected 
 to the presence of Mr. Walker as representative of the 
 government on the ground that he was at that time in 
 the employ of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul 
 railroad, but the court did not consider there was any- 
 thing irregular or unusual about that. 
 
 MR. DARROW ARGUES FOR DEFENSE 
 
 "Men have a right to strike," said Attorney Milchrist 
 in his opening remarks to the jury, eight of whom were 
 farmers, one an insurance agent, one a real estate 
 dealer, one a painting and decorating contractor, and 
 one a dealer in agricultural implements. 
 
 ''If this is so, it ends this case," replied Mr. Darrow 
 in his opening address. 
 
 Darrow argued that there was a statute which made 
 the obstruction of a mail car punishable by a fine of 
 $100, yet ''in order to make felons of honest men, who 
 never had a criminal thought, they passed by that 
 statute to seize on one that makes conspiracy to obstruct 
 the mails a crime punishable by imprisonment in the 
 penitentiary. To hound these men into the penitentiary 
 is their purpose, yet they call this respect for law. Con- 
 spiracy from the days of tyranny in England down to 
 the day the General Managers' Association used it as a 
 club has been the favorite weapon of every tyrant. It is 
 an effort to punish the crime of thought. If the govern- 
 ment does not, we shall try to get the General Managers 
 here to tell what they know about it. . . . 
 
 "These defendants published to all the world what 
 they were doing, and in the midst of a widespread 
 strike they were never so busy but that they found 
 time to counsel against violence. For this they are 
 brought into a court by an organization which uses 
 
142 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 the government as a cloak to conceal its infamous pur- 
 poses." 
 
 Hundreds of telegrams, all signed by Debs, were placed 
 in evidence, and they showed plainly that Debs had 
 cautioned the various A. R. U. delegates and organizers 
 on the different railroad lines against the use of violence 
 in any form. 
 
 Following is a copy of one of the telegrams read to 
 the jury and which became a part of the record: 
 
 ''July 16, 1894. 
 *'C. S. McAuLiFFE, Wisconsin. 
 
 *'We have assurances that within 48 hours every 
 labor organization will come to our rescue. The tide 
 is on and the men are acquitting themselves likes heroes. 
 Here and there one weakens, but our cause is strength- 
 ened by others going out in their places. Every true 
 man must go out and remain out until the fight is over ; 
 there must be no half-way ground. Our cause is gaining 
 ground daily and our success is only a question of a 
 few days. Don't falter in this hour but proclaim your 
 manhood. Labor must win now or never. Our victory 
 will be certain and complete. Whatever happens don't 
 give any credence to rumors and newspaper reports. 
 
 ''E. Y. Debs." 
 
 It was admitted that copies of the telegram just quoted 
 were sent to forty points. After the federal troops had 
 been sent into the strike zones Debs sponsored telegrams 
 to be sent to his lieutenants in various parts of the coun- 
 try like the following: 
 
 * * To call out the troops was an old method for intimi- 
 dation. Commit no violence. Have every man stand pat. 
 Troops cannot move trains. Not scabs enough in the 
 world to fill places, and more help accruing hourly. ' ' 
 
 There were more than 9,000 telegrams sent out by 
 the A. R. U. officials during the strike, but not more 
 than 150 were read to the jury. When the most im- 
 portant of these messages had been entered upon the 
 
LABOR UNIONIST AND WOODSTOCK 143 
 
 record the government put on the witness stand B. 
 Thomas, president of the Chicago and Western Indiana 
 Railway company. He testified as to the formation of 
 the General Managers' Association, stating that it was 
 organized April 20, 1886, and that its purpose was to 
 consider matters relating to railroad management and 
 wages. Mr. Thomas admitted that the managers had 
 agreed to act as a unit in resisting petitions from the 
 railroad employees for increases in wages. He further 
 admitted that a number of agencies had been established 
 at strategic points in the country where men could be 
 quickly assembled to take the places of strikers. The 
 expenses of the association were apportioned among the 
 several railway systems that supported it, he testified. 
 
 When Mr. Thomas had completed his testimony Mr. 
 Darrow read to the jury from the minutes of a meeting 
 of the Association on August 31, 1893, that a general 
 combination of railroad managers throughout the coun- 
 try was highly desirable, and a committee of five was 
 named to carry this idea into effect. The object of this 
 combination, the minutes stated, was to regulate wages 
 and make them uniform on the various competitive rail- 
 road systems. 
 
 On September 21, 1893, the Association met again 
 and passed a resolution regretting that it had become 
 necessary for the railroad companies to reduce the wages 
 of their employees generally. Mr. Darrow likewise read 
 the above minute to the jury. 
 
 On February 6, 1895, there was an air of expectancy 
 in the courtroom when Debs was called to take the wit- 
 ness stand. He told briefly of his early life, the forma- 
 tion of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, and 
 stated that more than four million dollars had passed 
 through his hands while he was secretary and treasurer 
 of the organization. Then he followed with a brief 
 history of the labor union development of railway em- 
 ployees, and of his joining the American Railway Union 
 
144 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 when it was founded in 1893. Asked by government 
 counsel what the object of the A. R. U. was, Debs re- 
 plied : 
 
 *'A unification of all railroad employees for their 
 mutual benefit and protection." 
 
 He stated that with the concentration of the smaller 
 railroads into the larger ones, which had been taking 
 place for twenty years, and the subsequent gradual re- 
 duction of wages of the men in all departments, it was 
 the only logical step when they decided to organize them- 
 selves into one union that would embrace and include 
 them all, as it had been demonstrated that the men 
 could gain little of permanent or tangible value when 
 they were organized along craft or trade lines. Debs 
 said that when the strike was called on the Great North- 
 em system the A. R. U. had a membership of 150,000. 
 
 Prior to the advent of the American Railway Union, 
 Debs testified, there were several railroad organizations, 
 and that they had been at odds for a long time. The 
 same classes of men were eligible to the various organi- 
 zations, and the Railroad Managers' Association seized 
 upon this situation to play one organization against an- 
 other, thus creating factionalism between the employees 
 and keeping down the scale of wages. It was this con- 
 dition that led to the formation of the ' * One Big Union ' ' 
 of all railroad employees — the American Railway Union 
 — which was, in fact, one of the first attempts in this 
 country at industrial unionism instead of craft organi- 
 zation. The A. R. U., like the Western Federation of 
 Miners, which latter organization came into being about 
 the same time, was one of the forerunners of the In- 
 dustrial Workers of the World, whose hundred and more 
 leaders and organizers are now in Leavenworth Federal 
 Prison and other penal institutions for violation of the 
 Espionage Law, the very same statute upon which Debs 
 was convicted and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. 
 
 Debs first learned of the strike conditions at Pullman, 
 
LABOR UNIONIST AND WOODSTOCK 145 
 
 he testified, when he returned from St. Paul to his home 
 in Terre Haute in May, 1894. Asked if the strike was 
 brought on by his advice he replied: 
 
 *'No, it was done contrary to my advice. I first went 
 to Pullman on the 14th of May, after the strike occurred, 
 and stayed there part of that day and evening. I went 
 again on May 18th." Debs explained that he had in- 
 vestigated the conditions at Pullman by talking with 
 the workers and their families, and other sources. He 
 also talked with the Rev. Mr. Carwardine, who had held 
 a pulpit in Pullman for three years, and who said he 
 knew at first hand of the oppressive industrial condi- 
 tions under which the men toiled. 
 
 ' * The result of the investigation was that I came to the 
 conclusion that the Pullman company was in the wrong ; 
 that wages had been unjustifiably reduced below the 
 living point and that rents were much too high in com- 
 parison with what was charged for the same class of 
 dwellings elsewhere." At this point Judge Grosscup 
 would not permit Debs to tell the jury of the actual 
 living conditions of the people at Pullman. 
 
 The convention of the A. R. U. was held in Chicago 
 on June 12, 1894, he said, and was attended by 425 
 delegates from nearly every state in the country. The 
 meetings were open and newspaper reporters were pres- 
 ent at all sessions, except one executive session, which 
 was called to consider the financial affairs of the Union. 
 This convention voted $2,000 of the Union's funds to 
 be paid over to the Relief Committee at Pullman, and 
 the money was used to assist the distressed families of 
 the Pullman strikers. 
 
 There were delegates at this convention. Debs said, 
 who spoke of the situation at Pullman, and finally a mo- 
 tion was made to declare a boycott against the Pullman 
 cars and instructing railway men against hauling them. 
 Debs testified that as chairman of the convention he de- 
 clined to entertain the motion, as he believed the Pull- 
 
146 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 man situation was a very serious matter, and that no 
 action should be taken hastily or until every means 
 toward a decent settlement had been exhausted. He 
 urged the convention to appoint a committee to try to 
 settle the Pullman strike by arbitration and thus avert 
 a general strike that would involve the A. R. U. That 
 committee was appointed and on June 16 it reported to 
 the A. R. U. officials that the Pullman company posi- 
 tively refused to confer with any members of the 
 A. R. U., and would seek to adjust its troubles with the 
 Pullman employees themselves as individuals. They ab- 
 solutely declined to recognize a union of their men. 
 
 Another committee, composed entirely of Pullman 
 employees, called on Mr. Wicks, vice-president of the 
 Pullman Company, and they reported back to the 
 strikers that Mr. Wicks had told them the company 
 **had nothing to arbitrate," and that he regarded the 
 strikers **as men on the sidewalk, so far as their rela- 
 tions with the Pullman Company was concerned." 
 
 Continuing his testimony. Debs said that a few days 
 later Rev. Mr. Carwardine addressed the A. R. U. Con- 
 vention, told of the living conditions of the workers at 
 Pullman, and pleaded with the convention to ''act 
 quickly in the name of God and humanity." 
 
 The convention immediately considered a resolution to 
 declare a boycott against Pullman cars, and appointed 
 a committee to notify the Pullman Company that 
 unless they agreed to arbitrate their differences with 
 their men the boycott would become effective at noon 
 of June 26th. The committee visited Mr. Wicks, and 
 reported that he was still obdurate. Debs was asked if 
 he had ever counseled violence or lawlessness on the 
 part of strikers or workingmen. 
 
 ''Never in my life have I broken the law or advised 
 others to do so," he replied. 
 
 When Debs had concluded his testimony, United States 
 Deputy Marshal Jones reported to the court that he had 
 
LABOR UNIONIST AND WOODSTOCK 147 
 
 made diligent but futile search for George M. Pullman. 
 ** Nobody seems to know the exact whereabouts of that 
 gentleman," were his words to the court. The judge 
 then sent for Mr. Johnson, one of Mr. Pullman's office 
 subordinates, Mr. Johnson testified that he had taken 
 Deputy Jones's card into Mr. Sweet, private secretary 
 to Mr. Pullman, who in turn had carried the card to the 
 inner office of the magnate, returning in a few moments 
 and saying that Mr. Pullman was not in. Mr. Johnson 
 told the court that Mr. Pullman had arrived at his of- 
 fice at the usual hour that morning. 
 
 Later on. Debs, in one of his speeches, referred to the 
 absence of Mr. Pullman as follows: 
 
 **When the trials were in progress at Chicago Mr. 
 George M. Pullman was summoned to give some testi- 
 mony. Mr. Pullman attached his car to a New York 
 train and went East, and in some way the papers got 
 hold of the matter and made some publication about 
 it, and the judge said that Mr. Pullman would be dealt 
 with drastically. In a few days Mr. Pullman returned 
 and he went into chambers, made a few personal ex- 
 planations and that is the last we heard about it. Had 
 it been myself I would have to go to jail. That is the 
 difference. Only a little while ago Judge Henford cited 
 Henry C. Payne, of the Northern Pacific, to appear be- 
 fore him to answer certain charges, and he went to 
 Europe." 
 
 Jennie Curtis followed Debs on the witness stand and 
 testified that at the time the Pullman strike was called 
 the employees in those car shops were indebted to the 
 amount of $70,000 to Mr. Pullman for rent, and indi- 
 cated that this money was owed to Mr. Pullman by his 
 employees because the wages which he paid them were 
 scarcely adequate to enable them to purchase food and 
 the bare necessities of life. 
 
 Debs was recalled to the stand and admitted that on 
 June 28 he had sent out a manifesto over his own signa- 
 
148 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 ture, copies of which were given to the newspapers and 
 to the Associated Press, counseling peaceful conduct 
 by the strikers and ordering a strict compliance with the 
 laws. The manifesto concluded with: 
 
 *'A man who will violate law is against the interests 
 of labor/' 
 
 Counsel for the government asked Debs what wages 
 he received in 1875 as fireman : 
 
 *'I began at $1 a night," he replied. ''I was after- 
 wards paid by the mile." 
 
 ''Your salary as President of the American Railway 
 Union still continues, does it not ? ' ' inquired Mr. Walker 
 for the prosecution. 
 
 *'No, sir J I cut it off myself last September," Debs 
 replied. 
 
 ' ' The purpose of your Union was to get the control of 
 all the railroad employees in the hands of the American 
 Railway Union, was it not?" 
 
 "Yes, sir; under the limitations of the constitution 
 and by-laws." 
 
 Debs said that the Great Northern strike was a peace- 
 ful one and that no intimidation had been used to bring 
 new members into the fold. 
 
 "You simply took possession of the road and held it f " 
 asked Attorney Walker. 
 
 **No, sir; we simply went home and stayed there," 
 answered Debs. Government's counsel asked Debs to 
 explain the meaning of the word "strike." Debs re- 
 plied : 
 
 "A strike is a stoppage of work at a given time by 
 men acting in concert in order to redress some real or 
 imaginary grievance." 
 
 "Mr. Debs, will you define the meaning of the word 
 'scab'?" 
 
 "A scab in labor unions means the same as a traitor to 
 his country," Debs replied. "It means a man who bo- 
 
LABOR UNIONIST AND WOODSTOCK 149 
 
 trays his fellowmeh by taking their places when they 
 go on a strike for a principle. It does not apply to 
 non-union men who refuse to quit work.*' 
 
 Mr. Pullman was still absent on the following day, 
 and one by one his private secretaries and other officials 
 of his company mysteriously disappeared when deputy 
 marshals were sent by the court to serve subpoenas upon 
 them. Judge Grosscup appeared to be greatly chagrined 
 over the disappearance of witnesses whom the defense 
 desired should testify in the lawsuit. 
 
 Not even the power and prestige of the United 
 States district court was adequate to induce unwilling 
 witnesses from the Pullman Company to appear before 
 ihe defendants and their counsel and testify as to their 
 own knowledge of the industrial and social causes that 
 brought on the great strike of 1894. In the light of past 
 performances it now becomes apparent that the Rail- 
 road Managers' Association of that period did not desire 
 to continue the trial, and one morning, when court had 
 convened, Judge Grosscup announced as follows: 
 
 ''Owing to the sickness of a juror and the certificate 
 of his physician that he will not be able to get out for 
 two or three days, I think it will be necessary to adjourn 
 the further taking of testimony in this case.'' Debs 
 and his co-defendants were astonished by this sudden 
 turn of events, and their lawyers pleaded with the court 
 to allow the lawsuit to proceed, but to no avail. Dis- 
 trict Attorney Black asked that the court allow the case 
 to continue with eleven jurors, but Judge Grosscup de- 
 cided that this would make the whole proceedings in- 
 valid. Clarence Darrow asked that a juror be selected 
 to fill the place of the sick member and have read to 
 him the whole record of the case as it had progressed 
 up to that point. But arguments were unavailing. So, 
 on February 12, 1895, Judge Grosscup discharged the 
 jury and continued the Debs case until the first Mon- 
 
150 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 day in May. Debs was sorely disappointed. He and 
 his fellow officials of the American Railway Union were 
 confident of an acquittal at the hands of the jury, and 
 this belief was strengthened by the fact that when court 
 had adjourned, that day the jurors made a rush for 
 Debs, grasped his hand and congratulated him heartily 
 upon the stand he had taken. 
 
 The jurors shook hands with the judge, and then 
 surrounded Debs and his fellow defendants and at- 
 torneys. Mr. Walker and his associates for the prose- 
 cution got a decidedly cool reception. 
 
 Several of the jurors did not hesitate to tell Debs 
 that when they went into the jury box they were all 
 but convinced that he and his co-defendants were guilty 
 of the charges named in the indictment, and that they 
 thought a five-year term in the penitentiary might not 
 be too severe punishment for them. But the evidence 
 introduced by the government and the defense, coupled 
 with the honesty and candor of Debs himself upon the 
 witness stand had convinced all of them that they were 
 witnessing one of the most atrocious ''frame-ups" ever 
 perpetrated by a corporation cloaking itself in the toga 
 of a federal court. 
 
 So far as the court records are concerned in the Debs 
 case the juror is still sick. The case was not brought 
 up in May, as scheduled, nor has it ever been brought up 
 since, and the indictments against Debs and his fellow 
 officials of the American Railway Union were never 
 withdrawn. 
 
 Debs was sentenced to serve six months in Woodstock 
 Jail, Woodstock, Illinois, for contempt of court. He 
 completed his sentence on November 22, 1895. 
 
 One week after the federal grand jury at Chicago had 
 indicted him he received a telegram from his home as 
 follows : 
 
LABOR UNIONIST AND WOODSTOCK 151 
 
 '*Terre Haute, Ind., July 18, 1894. 
 Received at Chicago. 
 To Eugene V. Debs. 
 
 Stand by your principles, regardless of consequences. 
 Your Mother and Father/' 
 
 About the same time he received a telegram from 
 Eugene Field, the Chicago poet and Indianian: 
 
 "Dear 'Gene: I hear you are to be arrested. When 
 that time comes you will need a friend. I want to be 
 that friend. 
 
 *' Eugene Field." 
 
 This simple note from the poet is among Debs's most 
 treasured possessions saved from that period of terror 
 and turbulence. 
 
 While Debs was serving his sentence at Woodstock 
 Jail, messages and telegrams, books and papers of every 
 description and kind poured into his cell in as great 
 a volume as they came to him during the two months 
 he was at Moundsville Prison in 1919. Every telegram 
 and every message was one pledging love and devotion 
 to him, and congratulating him for his fearlessness and 
 courage in championing the cause of the workers. 
 
 Some of the newspapers of that day seem to have been 
 mildly fair in their editorial discussion of the Debs case. 
 For instance, the Chicago Times, of February 13, 1895, 
 printed the following editorial under the caption, ' ' Shall 
 Debs Be Tried Again?" 
 
 ''Owing to the illness of one juror the conspiracy 
 cases against Eugene V. Debs and his associates of the 
 American Railway Union have come to a sudden stop. 
 The propositions of the defense to continue the hearing 
 of the case with eleven jurors, or to swear in a twelfth 
 juror and proceed after the evidence already in had 
 been read to him, were both opposed by counsel for the 
 government and the railroads. As the matter now 
 stands, a new jury will have to be impaneled and the 
 
152 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 whole thing gone over again, unless the Government de- 
 cides to abandon the prosecution. 
 
 *'It is exceedingly unfortunate that the present trial 
 should have been interrupted in this unforeseen fash- 
 ion. A judicial declaration upon the issues involved 
 would have been of very decided value to all classes of 
 society. As the evidence has been detailed day after 
 day in the very full reports in the columns of the Times, 
 the people have been able to gain a clearer and more 
 exact idea of the incidents of the great strike than was 
 possible in the moments of heated controversy last sum- 
 mer. It does not seem like overstatement to say that 
 there was every indication that the defense would be 
 successful. The charge of conspiracy, had not, at the 
 time of the abrupt termination of the case, been at all 
 forcefully substantiated. 
 
 ** Interviews with the released jurors established the 
 fact that they would have acquitted the defendants had 
 the case been carried to its regular conclusion. It is 
 credibly asserted that the prosecution has for some time 
 apprehended such an outcome of the trial, and it was 
 probably for this reason that the attorneys for the Gov- 
 ernment exercised their undoubted right to protest 
 against continuing with an incomplete jury. 
 
 "In this situation the question arises whether the 
 Government shall proceed further with this prosecution. 
 Heavy expense is involved in it and it will consume 
 much of the time of a court already overcrowded with 
 business. It is just, too, to call attention to the fact 
 that the defendants are poor men. The expenses of 
 the defense have thus far been met by voluntary con- 
 tributions from other poor men, who are in sympathy 
 with the men on trial. There is obvious injustice in 
 enlarging the financial burden by bringing these men 
 again to trial. 
 
 ''In the opinion of the Times enough has been done 
 to maintain the dignity of the State in this matter. 
 
LABOR UNIONIST AND WOODSTOCK 153 
 
 Further prosecution of Debs and his associates would 
 look like persecution. The Government would better 
 abandon the case forthwith." 
 
 The matter of Mr. Pullman's disappearance caused 
 the Chicago Times to say editorially on February 8, 
 1895: 
 
 *' Magnate Pullman is still missing. His whereabouts 
 seem to give no concern to his immediate attendants, but 
 Judge Grosscup of the United States Court is showing 
 some anxiety to learn where he is and why it is that he 
 has not been served with a process calling him into 
 court. An examination of Magnate Pullman's colored 
 door-keeper made by the Judge personally disclosed 
 that he saw the magnate enter his office Monday at 
 10:30 o'clock, an hour after a deputy marshal called, 
 but he has since mysteriously disappeared. 
 
 **Why this assumption of right to inquire into the 
 personal movements of so great a man as Mr. Pullman ? 
 Ought we not, rather, anxiously unite in efforts to ascer- 
 tain whether he is entirely safe, for if Magnate PulL 
 man were to disappear into thin air, it is doubtful if the 
 world would continue to revolve upon its axis and make 
 its usual diurnal revolution. Human laws are made for 
 the mass of mankind. Why should Magnate Pullman, 
 who does not belong to the mass, but is a being apart, 
 constructed of superior clay, be subjected to any such 
 belittling regulation? Magnate Pullman keeps more 
 bar-rooms in more states in the union than any grog 
 shop seller and employs more male chamber-maids than 
 any other magnate in the bed-house business. 
 
 **The (Chicago) Tribune finds excuses for the mag- 
 nate. It says : ' It is not strange that he should be un- 
 willing to go on the stand and be questioned by Mr. 
 Darrow, Mr. Geeting (?) (Gregory) and the other law- 
 yers for the defense. It is not pleasant for a person 
 who is at the head of a great corporation, who has many 
 subordinates and no superiors, and who is in the habit 
 
154 DEB&— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 of giving orders instead of answering questions, to be 
 interrogated by persons who are unfriendly to him, and 
 who may put disagreeable inquiries which he has to reply 
 to civilly.' 
 
 *' That's it. Mr. Pullman is superior to the law. 
 Like the king, he can do no wrong, and no processes 
 can lie against him. The Tribune, however, we are bound 
 to say, weakens a little, for it adds: 'Nevertheless, it is 
 the duty of all men to appear in court when they are 
 wanted there.' 
 
 ' ' . . . There was some music here last June and July. 
 It was music that never should have been played if 
 Magnate Pullman had been like the ordinary run of 
 human beings, but, being altogether an extraordinary 
 creature, he waved his baton and the band began to play, 
 but, far from facing the music which he himself had 
 set in motion, he retired with a lawyer bodyguard to 
 the East and viewed the concert from a distance of a 
 thousand miles. Really, he had nothing to fear, for, as 
 it turned out, not a single pane of glass in his marvelous 
 town was broken by what he regarded as a fearful mob. 
 
 **The outcome of the present matter will be, of course, 
 a demonstration that Magnate Pullman is a bigger man 
 than the United States Court." 
 
 On January 1, 1895, the Bailway Times, the organ of 
 the American Railway Union, published the following 
 notice : 
 
 *'The general offices of the American Railway Union 
 and the Bailway Times have been removed to Terre 
 Haute, Indiana. The directors having been sentenced to 
 prison, the change was made so that the work of the Or- 
 der could be efficiently and economically done during 
 their confinement. The work of organizing and equip- 
 ping the A. R. U. will be pushed with unabated vigor. 
 Insurance and secret work will be adopted as soon as it 
 can be done under temporarily trying circumstances. 
 
LABOR UNIONIST AND WOODSTOCK 155 
 
 **A11 correspondence should be addressed to Eugene 
 V. Debs, Terre Haute, Indiana. 
 **Terre Haute, Ind., Jan. 1, 1895.'' 
 
 DEBS IN WOODSTOCK JAIL. 
 
 With Eugene Debs in jail, a number of newspapers 
 printed the following story on January 9, 1895: 
 
 ''Woodstock, 111. — Eugene V. Debs, George Howard, 
 Sylvester Kelliher, Louis W. Rogers, William E. Burns, 
 James Hogan and Leroy Goodwin are confined in the 
 McHenry County Jail. Last evening, as he sat in what 
 Cook County prisoners would call a palace, Mr. Debs 
 issued a manifesto to the American people, which con- 
 tains the following: 
 
 ** 'In going to jail for participation in the late strike 
 we have no apologies to make nor regrets to express. 
 I would not change places with Judge Woods, and if 
 it is expected that six months, or even six years, in jail 
 will purge me of contempt, the punishment will fail of 
 its purpose. 
 
 " 'Candor compels me to characterize the whole pro- 
 ceeding as infamous. It is not calculated to revive the 
 rapidly failing confidence of the American people in the 
 federal judiciary. There is not a scrap of testimony 
 to show that one of us violated any law whatsoever. 
 If we are guilty of conspiracy, why are we punished for 
 contempt ? 
 
 " 'I would a thousand times rather be accountable 
 for the strike than for the decision. 
 
 " 'We are, by chance, the mere instrumentalities in 
 the evolutionary processes in operation through which 
 industrial slavery is to be abolished and economic free- 
 dom established. Then the starry banner will symbolize, 
 as it was designed to symbolize, social, political, religious 
 and economic emancipation from the thraldom of 
 tyranny, oppression and degradation.' " 
 
156 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 Eugene V. Debs entered "Woodstock jail a fearless, 
 courageous and candid man, who had a genius for lead- 
 ership. It would be too moderate to say that he was 
 extremely popular among the railroad workers and those 
 employed in allied trades. But he had not yet acquired 
 national prominence. His own personality had been 
 submerged in the issues of the strike itself, and if the 
 public regarded him at all in that period it was as a 
 man who would soon be lost to view, and carrying for- 
 ever upon his escutcheon the stigma of a prison sen- 
 tence. Rarely does the public ever know the true char- 
 acter of the man it has sent to prison. The federal 
 judge who consigned Debs to Woodstock Jail for con- 
 tempt of his court could not know that by his act he 
 had set in motion all the latent spiritual powers of 
 Debs, and had caused to sprout within him the seeds 
 of greatness which, at every recurring opportunity and 
 season, would blossom more and more. 
 
 While Debs was in jail at Woodstock he wrote a 
 series of very remarkable letters, one of which we shall 
 quote in full here: 
 
 ''Woodstock, 111., 
 ''August 29, 1895. 
 "Mr. Ed. H. Evinger, 
 
 "Labor Day Committee, Terre Haute, Ind. 
 
 "Dear Sir and Brother: — I am in receipt of your es- 
 teemed favor of the 19th inst., in which you say: 'We 
 have been unable to get a representative labor speaker 
 for our Labor Day celebration and the committee ordered 
 me to ask you to write us a letter to be read on the oc- 
 casion. ' 
 
 "In responding to your request I am disposed to re- 
 cite a page of what all Christendom proclaims 'sacred 
 history. ' 
 
 "There existed some twenty-five hundred years ago 
 a king clothed with absolute power, known as Darius, 
 who ruled over the Medes and the Persians. He was 
 
LABOR UNIONIST AND WOODSTOCK 157 
 
 not a usurper like William A. Woods, the United States 
 Circuit Judge. Darius was royal spawn. His right to 
 rule was what kings then, as now, claimed to be a 'di- 
 vine right.' All the people in Darius' empire were 
 slaves. The will of the king was absolute. What the 
 king said was law, just as we now find in the United 
 States of America that what a United States judge says 
 is law. Darius, the Persian despot, could imprison at 
 will; the same is true of Woods, the despot. There is 
 absolutely no difference. Do I hear an exception? Al- 
 low me to support my indictment by authority that 
 passes current throughout the Republic. Only a few 
 days ago the venerable Judge Trumbull, one of the 
 most eminent jurists and statesmen America has ever 
 produced, wrote these burning words : ' The doctrine an- 
 nounced by the Supreme Court in the Debs case, carried 
 to its logical conclusion, places every citizen at the 
 mercy of any prejudiced or malicious federal judge, who 
 may think proper to imprison him.' This states the 
 case of the officers of the American Railway Union in 
 a nutshell. They violated no law, they committed no 
 crime, they have not been charged, nor indicted, nor 
 tried, and yet they were arbitrarily sentenced and thrust 
 in jail and what has happened to them will happen to 
 others who dare protest against such inhumanity as 
 the monster Pullman practiced upon his employees and 
 their families. 
 
 ''More than twenty-five hundred years have passed 
 to join the unnumbered centuries since Darius lived and 
 reigned, and now in the United States we have about 
 four score Darius despots, each of whom may at his 
 will, whim or pleasure, imprison an American citizen — 
 and this grim truth is up for debate on Labor Day. 
 
 "It will be remembered that during the reign of 
 Darius there was a gentleman by the name of Daniel 
 whom the king delighted to honor. The only fault that 
 could be found with Daniel was that he would not wor- 
 
158 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 ship the Persian gods, but would, three times a day, 
 go to his window, looking toward Jerusalem, and pray. 
 This was his crime. It was enough. The Persians had 
 a religion of their own. They had their gods of gold, 
 brass, stone, clay, wood, anything from a mouse to a 
 mountain, and they would not tolerate any other god. 
 They had, in modern parlance, an 'established church,' 
 and as Daniel, like Christ, would not conform to the 
 Persian religion, 'the presidents of the kingdom, the 
 governors and the princes, the counselors and the cap- 
 tains,' or as in these later days the corporations, the 
 trusts, the syndicates and combines, concluded to get 
 rid of Daniel and they persuaded Darius to issue an 
 injunction that no man should ' ask a petition of any God 
 or man for thirty days save of thee, O King' — and the 
 king, a la Woods, issued the decree. But Daniel, who 
 was made of resisting stuff, disregarded the injunction 
 and still prayed as before to his God. Daniel was a 
 hero. In the desert of despotism he stands forever : 
 
 ^' 'As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form, 
 Swells from the vale and midway leaves the storm : 
 Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, 
 Eternal sunshine settles on its head.' 
 
 *'But the bigots triumph for a time. The king's de- 
 xjree must stand, and Daniel, as a penalty for prayer, 
 must be cast into the lion 's den and the bigots, the pluto- 
 cratic pirates and parasites of that period, thought that 
 would be the end of Daniel. They chuckled as in fancy 
 they heard the lions break his bones and lap his blood. 
 They slept well and dreamed of victory. Not so with 
 the king. He knew he had been guilty of an act of 
 monstrous cruelty and in this the old Persian despot 
 was superior to Woods. The king could not sleep and 
 was so pained over his act that he forbade all festivities 
 in his palace. In this he showed that he was not totally 
 depraved. The king had a lurking idea that somehow 
 
LABOR UNIONIST AND WOODSTOCK 159 
 
 Daniel would get out of the lion's den unharmed and 
 that he would overcome the intrigues of those who had 
 conspired to destroy him. Early in the morning he 
 went to the mouth of the den. Daniel was safe. His 
 God, unlike the Supreme Court, having found Daniel 
 innocent of all wrongdoing, locked the jaws of the lions 
 and Daniel stood before the king wearing the redemp- 
 tion of truth, more royal than a princely diadem. Then 
 the king who had been deceived by the enemies of Dan- 
 iel, the sycophants and the vermin of power, gave his 
 wrath free rein and had them cast into the lion's den 
 where they were devoured by the ferocious beasts. 
 
 ** History repeats itself. I am not a Daniel, but I am 
 in jail, by the decree of the autocrat. I appealed from 
 one despot to a whole bench for justice, and the appeal 
 was unheeded. I and my associates were innocent. 
 There was no stain of crime upon our record but neither 
 innocence nor constitution was of any avail. To placate 
 the corporations, the money power, the implacable ene- 
 mies of labor, we were sent to prison and here alone, con- 
 templating the foul wrong inflicted upon me and my 
 associate officials of the American Railway Union, with 
 my head and heart and hand nerved for the task, I write 
 this letter to be read on Labor Day to friends and 
 neighbors in the city of my birth. 
 
 **It is not a wail of despondency nor of despair. 
 The cause for which I have been deprived of my liberty 
 was just and I am thrice armed against all my enemies. 
 To bear punishment for one's honest convictions is a 
 glorious privilege and requires no high order of courage. 
 
 *'No judicial tyrant comes to my prison to inquire 
 as to my health or my hopes, but one sovereign does 
 come by night and by day, with words of cheer. It is 
 the sovereign people — the uncrowned but sceptered ruler 
 of the realm. No day of my imprisonment has passed 
 that the bars and bolts and doors of the Woodstock 
 Jail have not been bombarded by messages breathing 
 
160 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 devotion to the cause of liberty and justice, and as I 
 read and ponder these messages and as I grasp the 
 hands of friends and catch the gleam of wrath in their 
 defiant eyes and listen to their words of heroic courage, 
 I find it no task to see the wrath of the sovereign people 
 aroused and all opposition to the triumphant march of 
 labor consigned to oblivion, and as an earnest of this' 
 from every quarter come announcements that the Ameri- 
 can Railway Union is growing in membership and 
 strength, destined at an early day to be, as it deserves 
 to be, an organization, which by precept, example, and 
 principle will ultimately unify railroad labor in the 
 United States and make it invincible. There is a mighty 
 mustering of all the forces of labor throughout the 
 country. Labor is uniting in one solid phalanx to secure 
 justice for labor. When this time comes, and coming 
 it is, peacefully, I hope, no judicial despot will dare to 
 imprison an American citizen to please corporations. 
 When this time comes, and coming it is as certain as 
 rivers flow to the sea, Bullion and Boodle will not rule 
 in Congress, in legislatures and in courts, and legisla- 
 tors and judges and other public officers will not be 
 controlled, as many of them are, by the money power. 
 There is to come a day, aye, a labor day, when from 
 the center to the circumference of our mighty Republic, 
 from the blooming groves of orange to waving fields of 
 grain, from pinelands of Maine to the Pacific Coast, the 
 people shall be free, and it will come by the unified 
 voice and ' vote of the farmer, the mechanic, and the 
 laborer in every department of the country's industries. 
 ''I notice in your letter that you say : * We have been 
 unable to get a representative labor speaker for our 
 Labor Day celebration,' and here let me say that on 
 Labor Day all men who wear the badge of labor are 
 'representative speakers' — not * orators,' perhaps, as 
 the term is accepted to mean, and yet orators in fact, 
 from whose lips fall 'thoughts that breathe and words 
 
LABOR UNIONIST AND WOODSTOCK 161 
 
 that burn'; coining warm from the heart, they reach the 
 heart and fan zeal in a great cause into a flame that 
 sweeps along like a prairie fire. It has been the good 
 fortune of labor to produce from its ranks men who, 
 though unlearned in the arts of oratory, were yet ora- 
 tors of the highest order, if effect instead of fluency is 
 considered. It is the occasion that makes the orator 
 as it is the battle that makes the veteran. Mark An- 
 tony said: 'I am no orator like Brutus,' but when he 
 showed Cagsar's mantle to the populists of Rome and 
 pointed out where the conspirators' daggers had stabbed 
 Caesar, the oratory of Brutus paled before his burning 
 words. And ever^^ man, however humble he may esteem 
 himself, may on Labor Day hold up the Constitution of 
 the United States and point to where the judicial dagger 
 stabbed liberty to death, and make the people cry out 
 for the reenthronement of the Constitution — and Terre 
 Haute has a hundred such orators. 
 
 ''I write in the hurry and press of business. Before 
 me are a hundred letters demanding replies. I pass 
 them by to respond to an appeal from my home, and 
 in fancy, as I write, I am with you. I am at home 
 again. My father bending beneath the weight of many 
 years salutes me. My mother, whose lullaby songs nestle 
 and coo in the inner temple of my memory, caresses me 
 — ^her kiss baptizes me with joy and as if by enchant- 
 ment: 
 
 'Years and sin and folly flee. 
 And leave me at my mother's knee.' 
 
 **In this mood I write with the hope that the cele- 
 bration at Terre Haute will inspire renewed devotion to 
 the interests of labor, and with a heart full of good 
 wishes, I subscribe myself, 
 
 ''Yours fraternally, 
 
 ''E. V. Debs." 
 *'Dict. E. V. D." 
 
 The business of the American Railway Union was 
 
162 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 conducted by Debs and his associates from the Wood- 
 stock Jail for the six months that they were imprisoned. 
 The Railroad Mgmagers' Association was not idle either 
 in those days, for they had their agents stationed on 
 every railroad line where the A. R. U. had a unit of 
 organization, and it was the business of these agents 
 to report to their superiors the presence of A. R. U. 
 men and union organizers who were summarily dis- 
 missed from the company's employ. 
 
 Just before his release from Woodstock Jail, which 
 occurred November 22, 1895, a friendly committee of 
 labor men in Chicago sent out invitations ''to liberty- 
 loving citizens" to attend a reception at Battery D, 
 Chicago, to Debs as a " testimony of their sympathy with 
 Mr. Debs and his colleagues in their unjust and unlawful 
 imprisonment and as an expression of popular aversion 
 to judicial despotism and devotion to civil and consti- 
 tutional liberty." 
 
 Debs's last night in Woodstock was spent in sound 
 slumber. At one second after midnight the sheriff 
 aroused him and told him that he was free. All that 
 day and night great crowds of farmers and men and 
 women and children of all classes and conditions had 
 made the journey to Woodstock from Chicago, fifty-five 
 miles distant, and from adjacent towns, to get a look 
 at the man who had defied the titanic railroad combina- 
 tions of that day, Eind who had gone to prison as a re- 
 sult of his efforts in behalf of the toiling masses. 
 
 Debs had his breakfast that morning with the Sheriff, 
 and the morning was spent in visiting, with his brother 
 Theodore, the townspeople of Woodstock, who had in 
 many ways indicated to him while he was in jail their 
 kindness and interest. Debs was to leave Woodstock on 
 the five o'clock train for Chicago, where a huge demon- 
 stration had been arranged in his honor. As he was 
 standing on the steps of the sheriff's residence a throng 
 of burlv workingmen hove into view. Debs was already 
 
LABOR UNIONIST AND WOODSTOCK 163 
 
 surrounded by shouting, yelling men, women and chil- 
 dren eager to show him their joy and appreciation. 
 The men pushed their way through the throng and all 
 at once one of them shouted, ''Lift him up so we all 
 can see him." Debs was hoisted upon the shoulders of 
 several men and in this fashion he was carried to the 
 railroad station to await the coming of the train. It 
 was estimated that ten thousand people swung into ir- 
 regular lines behind the few men who were carrying 
 Debs on their shoulders. The hands of excited and ex- 
 ultant women and children covered his dangling legs 
 and farmers and working men tugged at his coat sleeves. 
 One or two small-town bands, catching the spirit of 
 the occasion, got their pieces together and furnished flar- 
 ing music. No county fair or Chautauqua could have 
 inspired as much enthusiasm as these simple country 
 folk exhibited over the liberation of this simple man 
 who was, in fact, overwhelmed and humbled by the 
 show of love and feeling of his fellow citizens. 
 
 Crowds surged around the train as it rounded the 
 curve at the station, and hundreds boarded it. The 
 ride to Chicago was made amid singing and band music 
 and the noise of the grinding wheels was drowned in 
 the merriment of those who were determined to turn to 
 victory what the court had decreed as defeat. 
 
 The train arrived at the Wells street station, and 
 despite a falling rain and mud and slush, the news- 
 paper reports of the period estimated that 100,000 
 people of all shades and conditions of life swarmed into 
 the shed of the depot, literally sweeping Debs off his 
 feet and carrying him to a waiting carriage drawn by 
 six white horses. But if there was any one who thought 
 Debs would ride while they walked they were soon to 
 be disappointed, for when Debs saw the carriage await- 
 ing him he said, *'No. If the rest walk, I shall walk, too. 
 What is good enough for them is also good enough for 
 
164 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 That occasion was so significant in view of the condi- 
 tions that had provoked it that I must yield to the 
 temptation to quote from a newspaper of that day, the 
 Chicago Chronicle, of November 23, 1895: 
 
 *'The arrival of the train bearing the party with Mr. 
 Debs, which was carefully awaited, was the signal for a 
 mighty yell. The crowd on the platform started it and 
 it was taken up by those who thronged the stairs leading 
 down to the platform and those who were above in the 
 street. The cheering became deafening. When Debs 
 appeared on the platform of the coach the cheers be- 
 came a tumult of frantic yells. Those who were nearest 
 the labor leader rushed to him and seized him in their 
 arms and bore him from the car into the surging, strug- 
 gling, pushing, cheering, yelling throng. Sitting on 
 the shoulders of men and raised above the heads of the 
 crowd, bareheaded and smiling, Debs acknowledged the 
 salutes of the crowd, bowing and waving his hat. Which 
 ever way the labor leader turned there was a fresh 
 outburst of cheers, but so great was the crowd that it 
 remained wedged together. No one could move. The 
 police cried in vain, but they could hardly hear their own 
 voices. . . . Those who were near enough reached out to 
 touch the leader's garments and those who were not were 
 madly striving to do so, 
 
 ''The men who were bearing Debs on their shoulders 
 had not gone ten paces from the car when they could 
 go no farther. From every direction the crowd faced 
 toward their idol. Men cried for air and egress from 
 the pressing mass, but no one heard them. The police- 
 men were as powerless as every one else. . . . 
 
 ' ' The slender form of the man whose presence brought 
 out the outpouring was all the while held aloft and safe 
 from the crush. A smile was playing over his clean-cut 
 features. His face was aglow with the triumph of the 
 hour. . . . 
 
 "Never did men strive and struggle so to demonstrate 
 
LABOR UNIONIST AND WOODSTOCK 165 
 
 their love for a fellowman just released from a convict's 
 cell. Theirs was no outward show alone. There was 
 no sycophancy in them. . . . When he reached the Wells 
 street bridge he asked those who bore him to set him 
 down where his old lieutenant, William E. Burns, who 
 was also a prisoner with Debs in Woodstock Jail, had 
 gotten near enough to speak to him. They halted then 
 to form a line to march in order to Battery D. 
 
 ''More than fifty of the labor unions of Chicago were 
 represented in the six coaches that went out to Wood- 
 stock to receive Mr. Debs. The procession that marched 
 through the storm was composed of the members of 
 every trade union in the city, wearing badges and march- 
 ing in his honor." 
 
 The Chicago Evening Press, of November 23, 1895, 
 was moved to say editorially of Debs's release: 
 
 ''In the face of facts developed yesterday, it is idle 
 to say that Eugene V. Debs has lost the esteem of the 
 masses. No such demonstration as was made in his 
 honor yesterday and last night has been seen in this 
 city in many years, if at all. Had he been the victorious 
 soldier returned fresh from conquests instead of a con- 
 vict liberated from prison, his welcome could not have 
 been more spontaneous, enthusiastic, sympathetic." 
 
 After pointing to the fact that very often rich men and 
 officials of corporations do not go to prison for trans- 
 gressing the laws, and showing that it was common for 
 the trusts to debauch the courts and bribe legislators, the 
 Press concluded its editorial comment with this poignant 
 paragraph : 
 
 "The day must never come when there is no law. 
 But it must come when Justice will rip the bandage 
 from her eyes and see and call for the Havemeyers and 
 the Standard Oil Magnates, as well as for the Debses." 
 
 SPEECH OF DEBS AFTER HIS REI/EASE 
 
 In crowded Battery D, Debs delivered what was per- 
 
166 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 haps the most brilliant oration he had made up to that 
 time. As he was closing, he said : 
 
 '*In prison my life was a busy one and the time for 
 meditation and to give the imagination free rein was 
 when the daily task was over and Night's sable curtains 
 enveloped the world in darkness, relieved only by the 
 sentinel stars and the earth's silver satellite 'walking 
 in lovely beauty to her midnight throne.' It was at 
 such times that the reverend stones of the prison walls 
 preached sermons, sometimes rising in grandeur to the 
 Sermon on the Mount. It might be a question in the 
 minds of some if this occasion warrants the indulgence 
 of the fancy. It will be remembered that ^sop taught 
 the world by fables and Christ by parables, but my 
 recollection is that the old stone preachers were as epi- 
 grammatic as an unabridged dictionary. I remember 
 one old divine stone who one night selected for his text 
 * George M. Pullman,' and said, 'George is a bad egg; 
 handle him with care. If you crack his shell the odor 
 would depopulate Chicago in an hour.' All the rest of 
 the stones said 'Amen' and the services closed. 
 
 "I have borne with such composure as I could com- 
 mand the imprisonment which deprived me of my lib- 
 erty. Were I a criminal, were I guilty of crimes merit- 
 ing a prison cell, had I ever lifted my hand against the 
 life or liberty of my fellowmen, had I ever sought to 
 filch their good name I could not be here. I would have 
 fled from the haunts of civilization and taken up my 
 residence in some cave where the voice of my kindred 
 is never heard; but I am standing here with no self- 
 accusation of crime or criminal intent festering in my 
 conscience, in the sunlight, once more among my fellow- 
 men, contributing as best I can to make this celebration 
 day from prison a memorial day. ..." 
 
 The next day Debs went to his home in Terre Haute. 
 The same demonstration, on a smaller scale, awaited his 
 iarrival. It had been raining all that day but this fact 
 
LABOR UNIONIST AND WOODSTOCK 167 
 
 did not dampen the enthusiasm of his fellow townspeo- 
 ple. Several hundred miners, with the Coal Bluff Band, 
 escorted him to his home, a few blocks distant. That 
 evening the throngs gathered about his home and in- 
 sisted that he come to the Armory to address them. 
 The streets along the route were alight with Roman 
 candles. His speech on that occasion was brief, the 
 most of the time being consumed in shaking hands with 
 his townsmen. Debs did speak sharply on that occasion 
 of the judiciary and its tendencies, saying: 
 
 "If all the common people united and asked for the 
 appointment of a federal judge their voice would not 
 be heeded any more than if it were the chirp of a 
 cricket. Money talks. Yes, money talks. And I have 
 no hesitancy in declaring that money has invaded, or the 
 influence, that power conferred by money, has invaded 
 the Supreme Court and left that august tribunal reeking 
 with more stench than Coleridge discovered in Cologne 
 and left all the people wondering how it was ever to 
 be deodorized. There is something wrong in this coun- 
 try; the judicial nets are so adjusted as to catch the 
 minnows and let the whales slip through and the federal 
 judge is as far removed from the common people as if 
 he inhabited another planet. As Boyle O'Reilly would 
 say: 
 
 '* 'His pulse, if you felt it, throbbed apart 
 
 From the throbbing pulse of the people's heart.' *' 
 
 No matter where he goes, what the circumstances are, 
 or under whose auspices, Debs touches all with whom he 
 comes in contact by his kindness and his love. When 
 he left Woodstock Jail he carried in his pocket a testi- 
 monial from the inmates, as follows: 
 
 **We, the undersigned, inmates of Woodstock Jail, 
 desire to convey to you our heartfelt thanks and grati- 
 tude for the many acts of kindness and sympathy shown 
 
168 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 to us by you during your incarceration in this institu- 
 tion. 
 
 **We selfishly regret your departure from here into 
 the outer world and scenes of labor. Your presence here 
 has been to us what an oasis in a desert is to the tired 
 and weary traveler, or a ray of sunshine showing through 
 a rift in the clouds. 
 
 '*With thousands of others we rejoice and extend to 
 you our most earnest congratulations upon your restora- 
 tion to liberty. 
 
 ' ' Hoping you may have a long, prosperous and happy 
 life, success in all your undertakings, especially the 
 'American Railway Union,' we all join in wishing you 
 Godspeed and beg to subscribe ourselves. Your friends, 
 Charles E. Anderson, Paul Wambach, 
 Edward Madden, W. E. Horton. 
 
 To Eugene V. Debs, Esq., 
 
 Woodstock, HL, Nov. 22, 1895. 
 
 The legal expenses of the American Railway Union in- 
 cident to the trial of its officials had amounted to more 
 than forty thousand dollars, and, when the Union fell 
 apart. Debs, for many years, helped to pay oif this obli- 
 gation through his lectures and writings, despite the fact 
 that there was no personal obligation resting upon him 
 so to do. 
 
 Debs entered Woodstock Jail a labor unionist, and, 
 after spending six months in a cell he came out a So- 
 cialist, thoroughly convinced that the full measure of 
 justice and liberty which he had hoped for could not 
 be gained for or by the working class unless they were 
 to act in concert, industrially and politically. This 
 conviction dawned upon him while he was yet in prison. 
 
 On November 23, 1895, the day following Debs's re- 
 lease from Woodstock, there appeared in The Coming 
 Nation, one of the earliest Socialist journals in this 
 country, a letter by Debs first advocating the use of the 
 ballot by working men as a means toward establishing 
 
LABOR UNIONIST AND WOODSTOCK 169 
 
 '*the Cooperative Commonwealth." We shall quote 
 only a paragraph from this letter which reflected the 
 Socialistic trend of his mind twenty-five years ago: 
 
 '*. . . Above all, what is the duty of American work- 
 ingmen whose liberties have been placed in peril ? They 
 are not hereditary bondsmen; their fathers were free- 
 bom — their sovereignty none denied and their children 
 yet have the ballot. It has been called a 'weapon that 
 executes a free man's will as lightning does the will of 
 God.' It is a metaphor pregnant with life and truth. 
 There is nothing in our government it can not remove 
 or amend. It can make and unmake presidents and 
 congresses and courts. It can abolish unjust laws and 
 consign to eternal odium and oblivion unjust judges, 
 strip from them their robes and gowns and send them 
 forth unclean as lepers to bear the burden of merited 
 obliquy as Cain with the mark of a murderer. It can 
 sweep our trusts, syndicates, corporations, monopolies 
 and every other abnoi*mal development of the money 
 power designed to abridge the liberties of workingmen 
 and enslave them by the degradation incident to pov- 
 erty and enforced idleness as cyclones scatter the leaves 
 of our forests. The ballot can do all this and more. 
 It can give our civilization its crowning glory — the Co- 
 operative Commonwealth. To the unified hosts of Amer- 
 ican workmen fate has committed the charge of rescuing 
 American liberties from the grasp of the vandal horde 
 that have placed them in peril, by seizing the ballot and 
 wielding it to regain the priceless heritage and to pre- 
 serve and transmit it, without scar or blemish to the 
 generations yet to come." 
 
 The following year, 1896, Debs followed the banner 
 of Bryan, ' ' but I was a long way toward Socialism even 
 at that time," he said many years afterward. 
 
 A year later, 1897, Debs ceased all compromise and 
 equivocation with the political and industrial question, 
 coming out publicly for Socialism. His announcement 
 
170 DEB&— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 of his stand took the form of a circular letter addressed 
 to the members of the American Railway Union on Janu- 
 ary 1, 1897. This circular bore the caption: "Present 
 Conditions and Future Duties," and concluded with 
 this statement: 
 
 ''The issue is Socialism versus Capitalism. I am for 
 Socialism because I am for humanity. We have been 
 cursed with the reign of gold long enough. Money con- 
 stitutes no proper basis of civilization. The time has 
 come to regenerate society — we are on the eve of a 
 universal change.'' 
 
 Just six months later the American Railway Union 
 held its convention in Chicago. Debs and the majority 
 of the delegates favored political action. On June 21, 
 1897, the Social-Democratic party was formed, and this 
 was the beginning of the Socialist movement in the 
 United States, with Debs as its devoted champion and 
 leader. 
 
 COMMISSION INVESTIGATES STRIKE 
 
 Before we leave this phase of his life it seems neces- 
 sary to take up, very briefly, the report of President 
 Cleveland's commission appointd by him to investigate 
 the causes of the Pullman and the A. R. U. strikes. 
 This commission met in Chicago in the summer of 1895. 
 In order that he might attend its sessions and testify, 
 Debs was taken daily from Woodstock Jail to Chicago by 
 two deputy sheriffs. 
 
 Upon taking the stand Debs said : 
 
 "Government supervision would not answer the pur- 
 pose of preventing strikes. No good could come from 
 compulsory arbitration ; that is a contradiction in terms. 
 Even if some means of enforcing the decree could be 
 devised, those against whom the decree was rendered 
 would not be satisfied. The basis must be friendship 
 and confidence. Government ownership of railroads 
 
LABOR UNIONIST AND WOODSTOCK 171 
 
 would be better than railroad ownership of govern- 
 ment.'* 
 
 "What about strikes in other industries?" inquired 
 Commissioner Worthington. Debs replied: 
 
 * ' The replacement of the wage system by the Coopera- 
 tive Commonwealth could alone solve the problem; as 
 long as a man is dependent on another for work, he is 
 a slave. With labor-saving machinery, which term is 
 now a misnomer, as it is really labor-displacing machin- 
 ery, unrestricted emigration and ten men bidding for a 
 job, wages are bound to go lower and lower. Capitalists 
 instinctively feel their affinity. I want the working 
 people to feel the same way. To illustrate — in the late 
 strike we did nothing to interfere with the Chicago 
 Herald's business, yet the Herald felt its kinship to the 
 capitalists who owned the railroads and made unmiti- 
 gated war on the railroad employees. ' ' 
 
 *'If such a unification of working people was accom- 
 plished, would it not have a dangerous power?" asked 
 Commissioner Keman. 
 
 ' ' A little power is more dangerous than great power, ' ' 
 Debs answered. **If you have one hundred switchmen 
 working in a yard and ten or twelve of them are organ- 
 ized, you will have a strike on your hands very soon. 
 The unification of labor would mean the abolition of the 
 wage system." 
 
 At another point Debs said : 
 
 *'It is understood that a strike is a war, not neces- 
 sarily of blood and bullets, but a war in the sense that 
 it is a conflict between two contending interests or classes 
 of interest. There is more or less strategy, too, in war 
 and this was necessary in our operations in the A. R. U. 
 strike. Orders were issued from here; questions were 
 answered and our men kept in line from here." 
 
 There was some remarkable testimony given to the 
 commission by federal, state and municipal officials, as 
 well as newspaper reporters, concerning the conduct of 
 
172 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 federal soldiers and deputies who were sent into the 
 strike zone **to maintain law and order and protect 
 private property." For instance, Chief Deputy U. S. 
 Marshal Donnelly said: 
 
 *'We had a re^lar force of men sworn in of between 
 fourteen and fifteen hundred, and then we swore in 
 four thousand for the railroads. The government armed 
 and paid the regular force and the railroads armed and 
 paid the others. The first lot of men we got were a 
 poor lot. We went on the street and got such men as 
 we could. The better class of men said they wouldn't 
 serve against the strikers. At first we didn't ask for 
 any certificates of character or fitness. We received our 
 instructions from Attorney General Olney. He told us 
 to hire all the men we needed. The number we needed 
 was decided on at conferences between the United States 
 District Attorney and Mr. Walker, special Assistant Dis- 
 trict Attorney, and attorney for the Chicago, Milwaukee 
 and St. Paul Railway. The railroads would send in a 
 batch of men, saying they were all right, and we gave 
 the * stars' to the railroads and took their receipt for 
 them. These railway deputies were not under our 
 orders; they made their reports to no one except the 
 chief detectives of the railroads. They derived their 
 authority from the United States. All the violence I 
 saw and the car burning was done by boys — tough kids." 
 
 Superintendent Brennan, of the Chicago Police De- 
 partment, in his report to the City Councils, stated that 
 the strike was orderly and peaceable '* until the army 
 of thugs, thieves and ex-convicts" were sworn in as 
 United States deputies by Mr. Walker. On page 356 
 of the commission's report appears this statement: 
 
 ** Superintendent Brennan, of the Chicago Police, 
 testified before the Commission that he has a number of 
 deputy marshals in the county jail arrested while serv- 
 ing the railroads as United States deputy marshals for 
 highway robbery." 
 
LABOR UNIONIST AND WOODSTOCK 173 
 
 Ray Stannard Baker, then a reporter for the Chicago 
 Becord, who, during the World Peace Conference at 
 Versailles in 1919, was head of the American Informa- 
 tion Press Bureau, testified as to his knowledge concern- 
 ing the character of the U. S. deputies : 
 
 **From my experience with them it was very bad. I 
 saw more cases of drunkenness, I believe, among the 
 United States deputy marshals than I did among the 
 strikers." 
 
 On page 370 of the report appears this comment of 
 Harold I. Cleveland, reporter for the Chicago Herald: 
 
 * * I was on the tracks of the Western Indiana fourteen 
 days. ... I saw in that time a couple of hundred dep- 
 uty marshals. I think they were a very low, contempti- 
 ble set of men.'' 
 
 On page 39 of the Commission's report we find that 
 the late Mayor Pingree of Detroit came to Chicago with 
 telegrams from the mayors of over fifty of the largest 
 cities all urging that there should be arbitration. He 
 was turned down without ceremony, and afterwards de- 
 clared that the railroads were the only criminals and 
 that they were responsible for all the consequences. 
 
 Mr. Harding, reporter for the Chicago Times, testi- 
 fied as follows: 
 
 ** Captain O'Neill, of the Stock Yards, told me that 
 volleys of shots were fired by the soldiers or the militia 
 every day or night, which, on investigation, proved to 
 have no cause other than the desire to create excitement. 
 A crowd would naturally gather, newspaper reporters 
 would flock around and they would gather something to 
 tell, to brag about in the papers. I know this is so from 
 talks with the men themselves." 
 
 After examining hundreds of witnesses the Commis- 
 sion made its report to President Cleveland. That re- 
 port is in many respects a remarkable document and 
 constitutes one of the most valuable histories of that 
 phase of the American labor movement in which Debs 
 
174 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 was a prime factor. We shall set down here only a 
 few of the salient features of that report which, by the 
 way, President Grover Cleveland virtually repudiated 
 in an article signed by him, and reviewing and com- 
 menting upon the Pullman and A. R. U. strikes. This 
 article of the late President was published in McChire^s 
 Magazine, July, 1904, under the title, * ' The Government 
 in the Chicago Strikes of 1894/' At the time of the 
 publication of President Cleveland's article, in which 
 the former chief executive naturally upheld and justified 
 the conduct of his administration in that period of tur- 
 bulence, Debs was engaged in his second campaign for 
 President on the Socialist Party ticket. 
 
 Debs at once set himself to the task of replying to 
 President Cleveland's article. McClure^s did not pub- 
 lish it. Debs's answer finally appeared in the Socialist 
 weekly, The Appeal to BeasoTi, August 27, 1904. Debs 
 referred to that report as follows: 
 
 *'0n page 44 of the Commission's report it is stated: 
 
 ** * United States deputy marshals, to the number of 
 3,600, were selected by and appointed at the request of 
 the General Managers' Association, and of its railroads. 
 They were armed and paid by the railroads, and acted 
 in the double capacity of railroad employees and United 
 States officers. While operating the railroads they as- 
 sumed and exercised unrestricted United States author- 
 ity when so ordered by their employers, or whenever 
 they regarded it as necessary. They were not under the 
 direct control of any government official while exercising 
 authority. This is placing officers of the government 
 under control of a combination of railroads. It is a bad 
 precedent that might well lead to serious consequences.' 
 
 "As to the part the strikers played in the rioting and 
 car burning that took place, we find on page 38 that : 
 
 '* 'The strike occurred on May 11, and from that time 
 until the soldiers went to Pullman, about July 4, 300 
 strikers were placed about the company 's property, pro- 
 
LABOR UNIONIST AND WOODSTOCK 175 
 
 fessedly to guard it from destruction or interference. 
 This guarding of property in strikes is, as a rule, a mere 
 pretense. Too often the real object of guards is to pre- 
 vent newcomers from taking strikers' places, by per- 
 suasion, often to be followed, if ineffectual, by intimida- 
 tion and violence. The Pullman company claims this 
 was the real object of these guards. The strikers are 
 entitled to be believed to the contrary in this matter, 
 because of their conduct and forebearance after May 
 11. It is in evidence, and uncontradicted, that no vio- 
 lence or destruction of property by strikers or sjnn- 
 pathizers took place at Pullman, and that until July 3 
 (federal troops appeared on the scene on this date) 
 no extraordinary protection was had from the police or 
 military against anticipated disorder.' " 
 
 The newspapers of that period, obviously persuaded 
 by the railroad corporations, printed articles to the 
 effect that the A. R. U. strikers were guilty of high 
 crimes and wholesale destruction of railroad property. 
 It will be remembered that it was upon these charges 
 that the federal grand jury at Chicago based the in- 
 dictment against Debs and his associates. Concerning 
 this matter the Commission says, on page 45 of its 
 report : 
 
 ' * There is no evidence before the Commission that the 
 officers of the American Railway Union at any time par- 
 ticipated in or advised intimidation, violence or de- 
 struction of property. They knew, and fully appre- 
 ciated, that as soon as mobs ruled the organized forces 
 of society would crush the mobs and all responsible for 
 them in the remotest degree, and that this meant defeat. 
 The attacks on corporations and monopolies by the lead- 
 ers in their speeches are similar to those to be found 
 in the magazines and industrial works of the day." 
 
 On page 46 of the same report we read : 
 
 **Many impartial observers are reaching the view 
 that much of the real responsibility for these disorders 
 
176 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 rests with the people themselves and with the government 
 for not adequately controlling monopolies and corpora- 
 tions, and failing to reasonably protect the rights of 
 labor and redress its wrongs." 
 
 The subtle manner in which the message of Socialism 
 began to seep through the bolted doors and barred win- 
 dows of Woodstock Jail to Debs is best told by him- 
 self:* 
 
 **It all seems very strange to me now, taking a back- 
 ward look, that my vision was so focalized on a single 
 objective point that I utterly failed to see what now 
 appears as clear as the noonday sun — so clear that I 
 marvel that any workingman, however dull, uncompre- 
 hending, can resist it. 
 
 *'But perhaps it was better so. I was to be baptized 
 in Socialism in the roar of conflict and I thank the gods 
 for reserving to this fitful occasion the fiat, 'Let there 
 be light!' — the light that streams in steady radiance 
 upon the broadway to the Socialist Republic. 
 
 **The skirmish lines of the A. R. U. were well ad- 
 vanced. A series of small battles were fought and won 
 without the loss of a man. A number of concessions were 
 made by the corporations rather than risk an encounter. 
 Then came the fight on the Great Northern, short, sharp, 
 and decisive. The victory was complete — the only rail- 
 road strike of magnitude ever won by an organization 
 in America. 
 
 **Next followed the final shock — the Pullman strike — 
 and the American Railway Union again won, clear and 
 complete. The combined corporations were paralyzed 
 and helpless. At this juncture there were delivered, 
 from wholly unexpected quarters, a swift succession of 
 blows that blinded me for an instant and then opened 
 wide my eyes — and in the gleam of every bayonet and 
 the flash of every rifle the class struggle was revealed. 
 
 * * ' How I Became a Socialist, ' ' in New YorTc Comrade, April, 
 1902. 
 
LABOR UNIONIST AND WOODSTOCK 177 
 
 This was my first practical lesson in Socialism, though 
 wholly unaware that it was called by that name. 
 
 *'An army of detectives, thugs and murderers were 
 equipped with badge and beer and bludgeon and turned 
 loose ; old hulks of cars were fired ; the alarm bells tolled ; 
 the people were terrified ; the most startling rumors were 
 set afloat; the press volleyed and thundered, and over 
 all the wires spread the news that Chicago 's white throat 
 was in the clutch of a red mob ; injunctions flew thick 
 and fast, arrests followed, and our office and headquar- 
 ters, the heart of the strike, was sacked, torn out and 
 nailed up by the 'lawful^ authorities of the federal 
 government; and when in company with my loyal com- 
 rades I found myself in Cook County Jail at Chicago 
 with the whole press screaming conspiracy, treason and 
 murder, and by some fateful coincidence I was given the 
 cell occupied just previous to his execution by the as- 
 sassin of Mayor Carter Harrison, Sr., overlooking the 
 spot, a few feet distant, where the anarchists were 
 hanged a few years before, I had another exceedingly 
 practical and impressive lesson in Socialism. 
 
 *' Acting upon the advice of friends, we sought to 
 employ John Harlan, son of the Supreme Justice, to 
 assist in our defense — a defense memorable to me chiefly 
 because of the skill and fidelity of our lawyers, among 
 whom were the brilliant Clarence Darrow and the ven- 
 erable Judge Lyman Trumbull, author of the thirteenth 
 amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery in the 
 United States. 
 
 *'Mr. Harlan wanted to think of the matter over 
 night ; and the next morning gravely informed us that 
 he could not afford to be identified with the case, 'for,' 
 said he, 'you will be tried upon the same theory as were 
 the anarchists, with probably the same result.' That 
 day, I remember, the jailer, by way of consolation, I 
 suppose, showed us the blood-stained rope used at the 
 last execution and explained in minutest detail, as he 
 
178 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 exhibited the gruesome relic, just how the monstrous 
 crime of lawful murder is committed. 
 
 *'But the tempest gradually subsided and with it the 
 blood-thirstiness of the press and 'public sentiment.' 
 "We were not sentenced to the gallows, nor even to the 
 penitentiary — though put on trial for conspiracy. . . . 
 
 *'The Chicago jail sentences were followed by six 
 months at Woodstock and it was here that Socialism 
 gradually laid hold of me in its own irresistible fashion. 
 Books and pamphlets and letters from Socialists came by 
 every mail and I began to read and think and dissect 
 the anatomy of the system in which workingmen, how- 
 ever organized, could be shattered and battered and 
 splintered at a single stroke. The writings of Bellamy 
 and Blatchf ord early appealed to me. The * Cooperative 
 Commonwealth' of Gronlund also impressed me, but the 
 writings of Kautsky were so clear and conclusive that I 
 readily grasped, not merely his argument, but also 
 caught the spirit of his Socialist utterance — and I thank 
 him and all who helped me out of darkness into light. 
 
 '*It was at this time, when the first glimmerings of 
 Socialism were beginning to penetrate, that Victor L. 
 Berger — and I have loved him ever since — came to 
 Woodstock, as if a providential instrument, and deliv- 
 ered the first impassioned message of Socialism I had 
 ever heard — the very first to set *the wires humming 
 in my system.' As a souvenir of that visit there is in 
 my library a volume of * Capital,' by Karl Marx, in- 
 scribed with the compliments of Victor L. Berger, which 
 I cherish as a token of priceless value. 
 
 * * The American Railway Union was defeated but not 
 conquered — overwhelmed but not destroyed. It lives 
 and pulsates in the Socialist movement, and its defeat 
 but blazed the way to economic freedom and hastened 
 the dawn of human brotherhood." 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 FOUR PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS 
 
 IN four presidential campaigns— 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912 
 — Debs was the standard-bearer of the Socialist 
 Party, and in 1916 he could have had the nomination 
 had he not positively declined to make another national 
 campaign. In that year Allan Benson, publicist, was 
 the choice of the Socialists, while Debs stumped his 
 home state, Indiana, as candidate for Congress. Of the 
 campaign in 1900 but little is known save by those 
 Socialists who date their membership in the party back 
 twenty years. James Oneal, a member of the National 
 Executive Committee of the party, and an intimate 
 friend and neighbor of Debs for many years, stated 
 that there was no stenographic record made of the 1900 
 convention proceedings, and whatever record was kept 
 has not been published. The Socialist movement in 
 those days was known as the Social-Democratic Party. 
 It was usually regarded by the public as a fanatical 
 band bent upon subtle destruction of the commonwealth 
 *' through their impossible economic and political theo- 
 ries." William McKinley and William Jennings Bryan 
 were the nominees of the Republican and Democratic 
 parties, respectively, but neither of them expended more 
 energy or made a more intensive campaign than Debs 
 who covered every state and territory, not once but sev- 
 eral times. Debs's vote in that year was 96,116.* 
 
 Despite the comparative insignificance of his vote, 
 that campaign stamped Debs a national figure, an orator 
 of the first rank, of great eloquence and arresting sin- 
 cerity. So, four years later it was but natural that 
 
 * Figures from 1919 ** World Almanac and Encyclopedia.'^ 
 
 179 
 
180 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 the Socialists in national convention should again honor 
 their foremost member. 
 
 On May 5, 1904, George D. Herron made the speech 
 nominating Debs for president. Mr. Herron has since 
 gained some prominence outside of the Socialist move- 
 ment, from which he has severed his connections, by his 
 public writings approving the administration of Presi- 
 dent Woodrow Wilson in the World War of 1914-1919. 
 Mr. Herron closed his speech nominating Debs in this 
 vein: 
 
 **. . . I am sure that in the intensifying struggle that 
 will bring upon us, in the next four or five years, things 
 of which we do not now dream, that may try men's souls 
 and bodies and faith, try the whole manhood of men as 
 possibly men were never tried in human history^I feel 
 that when that crisis or that day of judgment comes, the 
 working class Socialist movement of America will be as 
 great as its cause, and that it will rise up to match its 
 opportunity. 
 
 **Now, there is no man in America who more surely 
 and faithfully incarnates the heart-ache and the protest 
 and the struggle of labor for its emancipation, or more 
 surely voices that struggle, than Eugene V. Debs. . . . 
 I count it as among the great joys of my life — I do not 
 say honors, because I have done with them long ago — I 
 count it among the great joys and opportunities of my 
 life to stand before you to-day and nominate Eugene V. 
 Debs as the candidate of the Socialist Party of the 
 United States for President in our coming national cam- 
 paign.'' 
 
 There were no other persons nominated and the con- 
 vention made Debs 's choice unanimous. At this conven- 
 tion Benjamin Hanford was unanimously chosen as the 
 Vice-Presidential nominee. Morris Hillquit, recognized 
 as one of the leading spokesmen for the American So- 
 cialist movement, in seconding Hanford 's nomination, 
 said : 
 
FOUR PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS 181 
 
 * ' . . . Under no circumstances could any better choice, 
 any worthier choice, have been made for associate to the 
 presidential candidate than you have made by the selec- 
 tion of Benjamin Hanf ord. . . . The strength and brains 
 of the working class of this country will be well repre- 
 sented on our ticket. ' * 
 
 In his speech of acceptance Hanford, now dead, paid 
 a glowing tribute to Debs, stating that it was the opinion 
 of the majority of the delegates long before the con- 
 vention assembled that Debs would be the best possible 
 bearer of the party's banner. 
 
 On May 6 Debs appeared before the convention and 
 made his speech of acceptance. In introducing Debs to 
 the convention. Chairman Seymour Stedman said: 
 ''^ Comrades, it is my pleasure to present to you the 
 Ferdinand La Salle of the twentieth jcentury. ' ' 
 
 Debs replied, in part, as follows: 
 
 "In the councils of the Socialist Party the collective 
 will is supreme. Personally, I could have wished to 
 remain in the ranks, to make my record, humble though 
 it might be, fighting unnamed and unhonored, side by 
 side with my comrades. I accept your nomination, not 
 because of any honor it confers — for in the Socialist 
 movement no comrade can be honored except as he hon- 
 ors himself by his fidelity to the movement. I accept 
 your nomination because of the confidence it implies, 
 because of the duty it imposes. I cannot but wish that 
 I may in a reasonable measure meet your expectations ; 
 that I might prove myself fit and worthy to bear aloft in 
 the coming contest the banner of the working class ; that 
 by my utterances and by my acts, not as an individual, 
 but as your representative, I may prove myself worthy 
 to bear the standard of the only party that proposes to 
 emancipate my class from the thralldom of the ages. . . . 
 
 * * To concentrate myself to my part in this great work 
 is my supreme ambition. I can only hope to do that 
 part which is expected of me so well that my comrades, 
 
182 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 when the final verdict is rendered, will say, *He is not 
 remembered because he was a candidate for President; 
 he did not aspire to hold office; he did not try to asso- 
 ciate his name with the passing glories, but he did 
 prove himself a worthy member of the Socialist Party; 
 he proved his right to a place in the International So- 
 cialist movement.' . . . 
 
 **From the depths of my heart I thank you. I thank 
 you and each of you, and through you those you repre- 
 sent. I thank you not from my lips merely. I thank 
 you from the depths of a heart that is responsive to 
 your consideration. We shall meet again. We shall 
 meet often. And when we meet finally we shall meet as 
 a victorious host to ratify the triumph of the Socialist 
 Republic. ' ' 
 
 In the campaign of 1904 Debs had, as his leading op- 
 ponents, Theodore Roosevelt and Judge Alton B. Par- 
 ker, Republican and Democratic nominees respectively. 
 In this campaign, as in the previous one. Debs was ac- 
 companied by his brother Theodore Debs, and several 
 other veteran Socialist campaigners, among whom was 
 Stephen Marion Reynolds. Debs carried the message 
 of Socialism into every state in the Union and into 
 every territory. For two months before the election he 
 was on the road constantly, sometimes delivering six to 
 ten speeches a day. The intensiveness of his campaign 
 was the marvel of political circumstances, and the sin- 
 cerity with which he conducted it evoked the admiration 
 of all who heard him. 
 
 In 1904 Debs's vote jumped to 402,321.* The in- 
 creased Socialist vote of over 400 per cent, gave rise to 
 the gravest fears and the wildest joys — fears in the con- 
 servative camps, joys in the radical camps. 
 
 Between the years 1904-1908, and for some while after 
 the latter year, Debs was contributing editor to the 
 Appeal to Reason, when that free-lance Socialist weekly 
 
 * Figures from 1919 '* World Almanac and Encyclopedia.'' 
 
FOUR PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS 183 
 
 was published by the late J. A. Wayland, and edited 
 by Fred Warren at Girard, Kansas. Between the presi- 
 dential campaigns referred to, Debs toured the country 
 several times under various auspices of the labor move- 
 ment. He was never too tired to respond to a pressing 
 demand, and they were many, to stop off at a wayside 
 town or village to address his comrades. Scores of times 
 after filling strenuous speaking engagements he has 
 sat up all night on trains so that he might stop off at 
 some city or town along the route to visit a faithful 
 follower whom he knew to be ill or in need. i 
 
 With the financial panic of 1907 a cloud of indus- 
 trial depression again settled over the country, and the 
 Socialists turned their attention to plans for the most 
 intensive presidential campaign they had ever waged. 
 The Socialists were the first of the political parties to 
 hold their national convention. William H. Tait was the 
 candidate of the Republicans, and Mr. Bryan, for the 
 third time, was the choice of the Democratic Party. 
 On May 14 Delegate Phillip H. Gallery, of Missouri, 
 made the opening speech nominating Debs for PresU 
 dent. At the conclusion of his oration Gallery told the 
 delegates that if they nominated Debs he would ''bring 
 a message of hope to the weary mothers in the sweat- 
 shops, the thousands of child slaves in the factories, and 
 to all of those who, with tired hands and saddened faces, 
 bear the burdens of the world's work. It has been said 
 of this comrade that he has made mistakes, to which 
 we answer, ' To err is human, to forgive is divine. ' This 
 comrade bears the battle scars of twenty-five years of 
 service in the labor movement." 
 
 John Spargo, who was a delegate from New York, and 
 who had given many years of his life to the Socialist 
 movement before he became a missionary and an apolo- 
 gist for the reactionary elements of the social system, 
 in Russia as well as in the United States, made a brilliant 
 
184 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTER-^ 
 
 speech seconding Debs's nomination. Among other 
 things, Spargo said: 
 
 *'*We need above everything else, as our standard 
 bearer, a man who will give us back our standard un- 
 sullied and unspoiled as he takes it ; we need a man who 
 will carry it from east to west and from north to south 
 not merely without dishonor, but with the spirit of in- 
 spiration and of the revolution of the working class 
 along with it. Eugene V. Debs is not only a man who 
 will carry the spirit of the working class revolution 
 along with its banner; he is the personification of the 
 revolt of the working class in this country. . . . Eugene 
 V. Debs drank the genius and passion for liberty from 
 his mother's breasts. . . . He has breathed that genius 
 and that passion with every breath of his own in these 
 twenty-five years. . . . When Eugene V. Debs was bom 
 I think the morning stars must have sung together. 
 When Eugene V. Debs was cradled I think that the great 
 spirit of liberty must have watched with proud rejoicing 
 and said, 'Here is my champion; here is my voice to 
 cry out to all the world and say, as the prophet said of 
 old, *Let my people go!' When Eugene V. Debs 
 speaks there rises before the gaze of every workingman 
 in this country whose heart responds to the yearning 
 for liberty, a vision of breaking chains, a vision of the 
 uprising protesting host marching out of its misery, 
 marching out of its servitude, marching on and on to 
 that great freedom to which we all aspire. Therefore 
 I second the nomination of Eugene V. Debs." 
 
 Delegate Seymour Stedman, of Chicago, opposed the 
 nomination of Debs and named A. M. Simons, who, like 
 Spargo and Herron, among others, ceased his activities 
 in behalf of Socialism when war came to America in 
 April, 1917. Delegate Stedman read to the convention 
 
 * Pages 147-148, ''Proceedings National Convention of Socialist 
 Party, 1908. 
 
FOUR PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS 185 
 
 a letter from Debs which he had received that day. The 
 
 letter follows: 
 
 *' Seymour Stedman, Chicago, 111. 
 
 ''My dear Steddy: Telegram sent by yourself, Wil- 
 liams and Berger has been received this moment. I am 
 sorry not to be able to comply with your request. The 
 Appeal has undertaken certain special work of some im- 
 portance on the strength of my being here, and I can- 
 not well abandon it at this time. I should be h^ppy, 
 of course, to attend the convention and to meet the com- 
 rades if the situation were such that I could do so. I 
 see that my friends have again been very kind to me in 
 this matter of nomination. I had hoped that my name 
 would not be mentioned in that connection this year, 
 and I hav^e done what I could to discourage it; the rea- 
 sons for this purely from the party standpoint, seem 
 quite apparent to me. As for myself personally, I never 
 had any ambition along that line. If I do anything 
 worthy of keeping my name alive I prefer that it shall 
 be done as a private in the ranks and not by having 
 my name associated with some public office or with what 
 may seem to be the desire of some public office. With 
 loving regards, etc., 
 
 '*I am yours in the same old way, 
 
 "Eugene V. Debs." 
 
 It appears that Stedman had opposed Debs's nomina- 
 tion on the ground that Eugene's health might be seri- 
 ously impaired if he were to submit himself again to the 
 rigors of another national campaign. 
 
 On the other hand, Benjamin Hanford, of New York, 
 who was one of the most brilliant men the Socialist 
 movement of this country has yet produced, and the 
 originator of the term "Jimmie Higgins" for those 
 who do the hard, grinding work of party building with- 
 out thought of reward or recognition, whose services are 
 all a matter of love, and who are served by none, arose 
 
186 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 in the convention and seconded the nomination of Debs 
 after reading a letter from him, which follows : 
 
 * * As to my throat and general health, I have improved 
 considerably since I have had a chance to lead something 
 like a regular life and get a reasonable amount of rest. 
 I visited a specialist again a few months ago, and he 
 assured me that my throat was greatly improved. At 
 present I feel no ill effects. My general health is about 
 all that could be desired. So far as strength is con- 
 cerned, I never had more to my credit, if as much. In 
 the coming campaign, however, I would prefer, if I had 
 my choice, to so see what I could do with my pen and give 
 my tongue a rest. I feel as if I can write a campaign 
 and make some of the enemy take notice that there are 
 Socialists in the field. Now, I will tell you candidly 
 just how I feel. I have never refused to do, so far as I 
 could, anything the party commanded me to do, and 
 never shall. I have taken the nomination under protest, 
 but I have no desire to run for office and a positive 
 prejudice against the very thought of holding office. 
 To obey the commands of the Socialist Party I violated 
 a vow made years ago that I would never again be a 
 candidate for political office. My whole ambition — and 
 I have a goodly stock of it — is to make myself as big 
 and as useful as I can, as much opposed to the enemy 
 and as much loved by our comrades as any other private 
 in the ranks. You need have no fear that I shall shirk 
 my part in the coming campaign. I shall be in condi- 
 tion, and I hope there will be no good ground for com- 
 plaint when the fight is over. 
 
 *'Very sincerely, 
 
 ''Eugene V. Debs." 
 
 There was total of 198 votes cast at this convention, 
 159 of which were received by Debs. On motion of Dele- 
 gate Victor L. Berger, of Milwaukee, and seconded by 
 Delegate Stedman of Chicago, the convention made the 
 ^vote for Debs unanimous. 
 
FOUR PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS 187 
 
 For a second time Ben Hanford was chosen as Vice- 
 Presidential nominee. When Debs heard that his old 
 friend and comrade, Hanford, had again been chosen 
 for the second post of honor, he wrote to him: 
 
 *'Girard, Kansas, May 15, 1908. 
 Ben Hanford, care Socialist Convention, Brand's Hall, 
 Chicago. 
 
 ** Hearty congratulations and handclasps across the 
 spaces. The posts of honor assigned us are posts of 
 honor only because they are posts of duty and responsi- 
 bility. You will vindicate brilliantly the wisdom of the 
 convention and I hope at least to keep it from reproach. 
 Greetings to the greatest convention ever assembled in 
 the United States. Cheers for the revolution. 
 
 ** Eugene V. Debs." 
 
 This was followed the same day by a letter accepting 
 the nomination, which follows: 
 
 *'Girard, Kansas, May 15, 1908. 
 ''Frederic Heath, Secretary, Socialist Party Conven- 
 tion: 
 
 ''My dear Comrades: — Deeply touched by the incom- 
 parable honor you have for the third time conferred 
 upon me, I accept the nomination for the presidency, 
 returning to each of you, to the convention as a whole, 
 and to the party at large, my sincere thanks. The hearty 
 unanimity with which the nomination is made, and the 
 magnificent spirit in which it is tendered fill me and 
 thrill me with inexpressible emotion and arouse within 
 me all the latent energy and enthusiasm to serve the 
 Socialist Party and the great cause it represents, with 
 all the mental, moral and physical strength of my being. 
 
 "Personally, I had earnestly hoped the convention 
 would choose otherwise, but as individual desire is sub- 
 ordinate to the party will, I can only wish myself 
 greater strength and fitness to bear the revolutionary 
 banner of the working class you have placed in my 
 hands. 
 
188 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 ** Permit me to congratulate you upon the nomination 
 of Comrade Hanford, and to express my personal grati- 
 fication in having a comrade so loyal to share in uphold- 
 ing the proletarian standard. At a later day I shall 
 make formal answer to your notification. 
 
 ''This year the command to advance must be issued 
 to all the hosts of Socialist emancipation. The working 
 class of the United States must be aroused this year 
 and made to feel the quickening pulse, the throbbing 
 hope and the stern resolve of the social revolution. 
 The greatest opportunity in the history of the Socialist 
 movement spreads out before us like a field of glory. 
 
 ' ' The principles of the Socialist Party are resplendent 
 with the truths which crown them. Its very name is 
 prophetic and its spirit is literal fulfillment in this 
 auspicious hour supreme with opportunity. Duty to the 
 cause transcends all else, and touching elbows, and hearts 
 keeping time to the quick steps of the revolution, we 
 march beneath the banner (no compromise) to certain 
 victory. 
 
 **My soul love and greeting to you all, my comrades. 
 My heart is full and overfiowing. With every drop of 
 my blood and every fiber of my being I render obedience 
 to your command, and offer myself body and soul, to 
 the Socialist Party, the working class and the revolu- 
 tion. 
 
 ''Eugene V. Debs.'' 
 
 It was the almost unanimous opinion of political ob- 
 servers and experts of that day — 1908 — that there had 
 never been waged before in this country a political cam- 
 paign as spectacular and as replete with dramatic cir- 
 cumstance, nor one as pregnant and promising of great 
 results as that which Debs carried from one end of this 
 country to the other for sixty days before election. 
 The meetings of William H. Taft and William Jennings 
 Bryan were largely attended, and both candidates pro- 
 voked enthusiasm wherever they appeared, but at the 
 
FOUR PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS 189 
 
 Debs meetings, no matter where they were held, men, 
 women and children fought for vantage points and in 
 some sections of the country trampled upon each other 
 in their wild determination to clasp the hand or tug at 
 the coat sleeve of this **new Napoleon of the west,'' 
 whose message to his followers was not concerned so 
 much with politics and cure-alls for social ills as it 
 was with love, one for another, a plea for universal hap- 
 piness and personal kindness, and a solemn command for 
 the assertion of manhood and womanhood, and the pro- 
 tection for childhood. Like a Savonarola commanding 
 his followers to destroy their idols and bum their vani- 
 ties, and pay heed only to the word of God, Debs told 
 the multitudes who flocked to hear him to bow before 
 no king or tyrant, to accept the word of no leader as 
 the gospel truth, but to use their heads with the same 
 energy as they had for many years used their hands, 
 to crown themselves sovereigns in the glory of their 
 own manhood. Every speech that he made was di- 
 rected to the personality of the individual, and every 
 word was struck off from his heart like sparks from 
 steel and went straight to the heart of the person. 
 
 Brand Whitlock, former mayor of Toledo, Ohio, and 
 United States minister to Belgium, on June 16, 1908, 
 commented on the Republican National Convention, as 
 follows : 
 
 '*A few weeks ago another convention was held in 
 Chicago, not on the Lake Front, nor was there any 
 parade on the Lake Front. That convention was held 
 back in the heart of Chicago, where, perhaps, the misery 
 and squalor of our industrial life shows more glaringly 
 than in any city in the country. That convention, ac- 
 cording to the frugal reports, was disorderly. It was 
 a real convention and all real conventions are disor- 
 derly. The delegates were intensely in earnest, every 
 one had to make a speech, every one had to try to get 
 other men to help him realize his ideals. That was the 
 
190 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 convention of the Socialist Party. One wonders how 
 long it will be before this well-mannered crowd on the 
 Lake Front learns of that other convention so much like 
 the one forty-eight years ago (Lincoln's in 1860), and 
 begins to inquire what it is all about. To-day in the 
 midst of all this conspicuous waste, talking with such 
 lack of interest of Taft, and of how Bryan might beat 
 him if Bryan were new, it is evident that they do not 
 know that there is such a thing as an economic question, 
 or a hungry workless man in the world. Didn 't Lincoln 
 set men free forty years ago ? ' ' 
 
 The two major political parties were making much 
 ado about the funds contributed by corporations and 
 rich individuals to each other's campaign fund. This 
 controversy caused Debs to issue a statement from Terre 
 Haute concerning the funds contributed to the Socialist 
 treasury : 
 
 *'The Socialist Party has always published all re- 
 ceipts and expenditures in connection with its political 
 campaigns, and this year will be no exception to the 
 rule. 
 
 *'The campaign fund of the Socialist Party is made 
 up almost wholly of the nickels and dimes of the work- 
 ing class, and all contributions are published in the 
 official bulletin of the national party at the time they 
 are made, and at the close of each campaign due report 
 of all receipts and expenditures is made by the campaign 
 committee and the national secretary, copies of which 
 are furnished to the party press and the party member- 
 ship. Not a dollar so far has been received by the So- 
 cialist Party from any corporation, and not a dollar 
 ever received by it has been used except for the educa- 
 tion of the working class. 
 
 '* Eugene V. Debs." 
 
 The National Executive Committee of the Socialist 
 Party, early in July, decided to raise a fund from the 
 membership of the party to finance a "Red Special' ' 
 
FOUR PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS 191 
 
 carapaign train which would carry Debs into every nook 
 and corner of the United States. The train consisted 
 of a combined sleeper, observation and dining coach, a 
 baggage car and an engine. As the ''Red Special" en- 
 tered each state local speakers and candidates were taken 
 aboard to assist in the work in their states. There was 
 a "Red Special" band of music on the train to arouse 
 the public as the candidate approached a city or town. 
 The baggage car was filled with Socialist literature of 
 every description and this was circulated freely through 
 the country. ' ' The Red Special ' ' cost the Socialist Party 
 $20,000, every penny of which was contributed volun- 
 tarily by the membership and sympathizers. 
 
 The Socialist train left Chicago on August 31, for the 
 west. Not one town was omitted from its itinerary. 
 No sooner had it gotten under steam than the Demo- 
 cratic Party newspapers printed stories accusing the 
 Republicans of financing the expedition to worry the 
 Democrats. This statement was promptly disproved by 
 the publication of the names and addresses of persons 
 who had contributed toward the enterprise. 
 
 Harry C. Parker, of Philadelphia, was in general 
 charge of the train on its westward sweep. 
 
 Before the ''Red Special" started Debs had been 
 campaigning in several states of the west, especially 
 Kansas. On August 24, he wrote as follows : 
 
 "The meetings out here are big as all outdoors and 
 red hot with enthusiasm. Ye Gods! But these are 
 pregnant days! The hosts pour in from all directions 
 — ^men, women, children and babies, and all of them, 
 including the babies, are up in arms against the capi- 
 talist system. The farmers out here, thousands of them, 
 are revolutionary to the core and ripe and ready for 
 action. Socialists are nearly as thick out here, and 
 quite as strictly strenuous, as the grasshoppers used to 
 be. The plutes will need the doctor and the preacher 
 when the votes are counted. The 'Red Special' is trump. 
 
192 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 The people are wild about it and the road will be lined 
 with the cheering hosts of the proletarian revolution. 
 
 '* Eugene V. Debs. " 
 
 Debs received a letter from Alexander Law, of the 
 National Committee for the Unemployed, asking him to 
 address the jobless workers, who would gather in New 
 York on September 25. All the presidential candidates 
 had been invited to speak before that body. On August 
 10 Debs replied from Girard, Kansas, as follows: 
 
 ''My dear Sir: — ^Your favor of the fourth instant 
 has been received and noted. Replying, I have to say 
 that I am vitally interested in the question of the un- 
 employed and appreciate the invitation you extend to 
 attend the convention of the unemployed to be held in 
 September, but as I shall be engaged in campaign work 
 at that time, it will be impossible for me to join you, 
 gladly as I would do so under other circumstances. 
 
 "Thanking you for your kindness, and hoping that 
 your convention may be fruitful of good results, espe- 
 cially in opening the eyes of the working class to the 
 fact that it is the capitalist system which is responsible 
 for unemployment, and that this system must be abol- 
 ished before the problem can be solved, 
 
 * ' I remain, yours fraternally, 
 
 "Eugene Y. Debs." 
 
 The Negroes' National League, through its president, 
 Rev. J. Milton Waldron, addressed a letter to Debs 
 asking him to state his position on the Negro question. 
 In his reply, dated from Girard, Kansas, June 30, 1908, 
 Debs wrote, in part : 
 
 ' ' The people of your race are entitled to all the rights 
 and opportunities that other races are entitled to, but 
 they have never had them, nor will they ever have them 
 under the administration of either the Republican or 
 Democratic parties. 
 
 "Let me say to you candidly that in the individual 
 matter of defeating William H. Taft as the candidate 
 
FOUR PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS 193 
 
 of the Republican Party we cannot join you. We So- 
 cialists attach no importance to mere individuals in 
 political campaigns, and have no sympathy with any 
 movement designed to inflict punishment on individual 
 candidates for real or fancied wrongs. We are organized 
 to overthrow the capitalist system which is maintained 
 politically by both the Republican and Demoeratic par- 
 ties, and to establish the Socialist Republic in which all 
 men and all women, regardless of race, nationality or 
 creed, may enjoy equal freedom. To accomplish this we 
 are not making war upon individuals, but upon a social 
 and industrial system, in which individuals, especially 
 those prominent in political life, do practically as they 
 must to obtain their ends. 
 
 ^'The Brownsville affair, we admit, was disgraceful 
 and indefensible ; but it cannot be said that it was due 
 to race discrimination. At least the outrage cannot be 
 supported upon that theory. The officials of the Western 
 Federation of Miners were not Negroes, but white men, 
 and yet they were kidnaped by conspiracy of Republi- 
 can governors and by sanction of President Roosevelt 
 and at the behest of the Mine Owners' Association. It 
 is not a question of race, but a question of class. The 
 white working man is no higher in the present social scale 
 than is the Negro, and although the prejudice of the one 
 against the other is assiduously cultivated by the ruling 
 class, that class has no more real regard for a wage 
 slave of one color than of another. 
 
 *'I agree perfectly to what you say about President 
 Roosevelt. He is in truth a czar, but whether he is or 
 is not makes but little difference, after all, in this capi- 
 talist system. The President of our so-called Republic 
 has equal power, to say the least, with the Emperor of 
 Germany, or the King of England, and, as a matter of 
 fact, he makes use of power which neither of these 
 monarchs would dare exercise over their subjects. This 
 country is ruled to-day by the President and the Su- 
 
194 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 preme Court, and this resolves itself practically into the 
 President alone, since Supreme Court judges are crea- 
 tures of his appointment. 
 
 *'In this system class rules class and will while the 
 system lasts, and this, as I have already indicated, is 
 not a race question, but a class question, and when the 
 Negroes, the great mass of whom are wage earners, 
 develop sufficient intelligence to understand their true 
 economic and political interests, they will join and 
 support the Socialist Party, the only political party in 
 the world to-day whose declared purpose is to abolish 
 class rule and establish a republic whose fundamental 
 principle is the equal rights and freedom of all. 
 
 ''Ever since the close of the Civil War the Republi- 
 can Party has used the Negro as a political asset. The 
 Republican Party cares not one whit more for the Negrc 
 than does the Democratic Party. . . . The Northern Rcx 
 publican manufacturer places precisely the same esti- 
 mate upon the Negro as the Southern cotton-grower. 
 He esteems him for the use he can make of him and the 
 surplus value he can extract from his labor power. . . . 
 
 *'The Socialist Party wants every Negro vote it can 
 get, provided it represents the intelligence, dignity and 
 honesty of the man who casts it. The Socialist Party 
 does not invest in whiskey and cigars as a means of in- 
 fluencing the votes of Negroes or others, nor does it 
 spend a single cent to influence any man's vote except 
 as that vote can be influenced in an educational 
 way. . . .'* 
 
 Failing of a broad-gauged argument upon which they 
 might meet the Socialist's theories, the stump speakers 
 of both the major parties accused Debs of belittling the 
 flag of the nation, to which accusation he replied on 
 September 5: 
 
 ''We say that the national flag has been polluted by 
 the plutocracy who have used it to shield themselves in 
 their evil doing. It is not at present the flag of the 
 
FOUR PEESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS 195 
 
 patriot but has become the flag of predatory wealth, in 
 its exploitation of the working class and its ravages upon 
 the people generally. This is the only objection the 
 Socialists have ever urged against the colors of the 
 United States, and in this position they have the indorse- 
 ment of every true patriot in the land. It is the corrupt 
 and truckling politician who goes to the legislature and 
 Congress, either as a so-called representative or as a 
 lobbyist to defeat the will of the people, who is the first 
 to point to the flag and claim to be a patriot in its 
 name.*' 
 
 At Muscatine, Iowa, Debs addressed 2,000 people. As 
 he was going through the train-shed of the depot to 
 board the "Red Special" an impressive and pathetic 
 scene was enacted. James Carter, an aged employee of 
 the Rock Island Railroad, pushed his way through the 
 crowds and nudged up alongside of Debs. The tall, 
 gaunt man turned swiftly around ; there was an instant's 
 hesitation and then Debs threw both his arms around the 
 old railroader and pressed him close to his bosom. He 
 kissed his seamed face and patted his furrowed cheeks. 
 'Gene and Jim had not met for thirty years — since their 
 boyhood days when both were working on the Vandalia 
 Railroad, in Indiana. In those days both men were 
 fired with ambition, and now, in the middle of their 
 life's span they had met again and tears, big and hot, 
 rolled down the cheeks of each. 
 
 On his swing around the country at that time, and 
 before and since, Debs ran across hundreds of old 
 American Railway Union men, and together they spun 
 their yarns about the old days of great strike in '94. 
 Debs went out of his way hundreds of times to visit the 
 homes of these old veterans, and he was usually laden 
 with gifts for the wife and children of his former com- 
 rade. 
 
 On September 3, the Kansas City Times commented 
 about Debs's meeting in that city: 
 
196 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 ''Eugene V. Debs, candidate for President of the 
 United States of the Socialist Party, spoke to a crowd 
 of 2,500 to 3,000 persons, all of whom paid an admission 
 fee, in Convention Hall last night. Mr. Debs, though 
 the greatest spell-binder of the party, is drawing just $3 
 a day for conducting his own campaign. The audience 
 was composed largely of workingmen, but there were 
 many business men who listened attentively to every- 
 thing Mr. Debs said. A large number of women were 
 also present. 
 
 *' 'This is about the time of the year,' said Debs, 
 'when the orators of the capitalist parties — the Demo- 
 crats and Republicans — are coming before you and 
 telling you how intelligent you are — they tell you how 
 intelligent you are to keep you ignorant. We tell you 
 how ignorant you are to make you intelligent. You 
 produce all wealth and have none of it. The capitalist 
 class produces no wealth and has all of it. You make 
 automobiles and — walk.' 
 
 " 'And get run over,' shouted a voice from the audi- 
 ence. ' ' 
 
 Further down the column, the Times said : 
 
 "When the 'Red Special' bearing Eugene V. Debs and 
 his party reached here at 6:30 o'clock last night there 
 were several hundred men and women waiting. They 
 swarmed into the cars to see the candidate. But Mr. 
 Debs with his secretary had shut himself up in his pri- 
 vate office. He would see no one — and small wonder at 
 that, for he had made ten speeches, some of them forty 
 minutes in length, since leaving Des Moines at six 
 'clock in the morning. . . . The train was getting more 
 behind schedule at each special stop but there was no 
 other graceful way out of the predicament when a 
 crowd of farmers surrounded the train yelling 'Debs!' 
 At little towns the 'Red Special' band tried to put off 
 the enthusiasts with a lively rendition of 'Marseillaise,' 
 
FOUE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS 197 
 
 but there was nothing doing in that line. The French 
 anthem only made them worse." 
 
 Several times while the ''Red Special" was touring 
 the western part of the country Debs issued appeals 
 to the membership of the Socialist Party for more funds 
 to enable the train to invade the east. Once, at least, 
 there seemed to be a likelihood that the "Red Special" 
 would have to be abandoned for lack of financial fuel; 
 but this discouraging barrier was surmounted and the 
 train rolled on to the eastward with its band and cam- 
 ipaigners. On September 29, the train rolled into 
 Toledo, Ohio. Thousands of people were at the depot 
 to welcome Debs and the "Red Special," among them 
 being Brand Whitlock, who was at that time mayor of 
 the city. Mr, Whitlock, who has since become an inter- 
 national figure because of the part he played in aiding 
 Belgium, not only greeted Debs most cordially, but the 
 newspapers of that period report that he contributed five 
 dollars to the "Red Special" campaign fund. A tre- 
 mendous parade was held in which Mayor Whitlock 
 took part, the papers so reported. That evening a rous- 
 ing meeting was held at Memorial Hall, which held 
 2,000 people. Several overflow meetings were addressed 
 by Debs. Congressman Isaac R. Sherwood, of Ohio, ap- 
 plauded Debs's arraignment of the "System." 
 
 The Miners' Magazine for September, 1908, com- 
 mented upon the fact that Debs had been refused per- 
 mission to speak in the famous Stanford University 
 Chapel, in San Francisco. Said the Miners* Magazine: 
 
 "... The class which dominates this institution feel 
 no generous thrills vibrating their hearts for the class 
 whose cause Debs advocates and defends. It is doubtful 
 if Christ returned to earth and preached the same doc- 
 trines that He proclaimed nineteen hundred years ago 
 that He would have been admitted to the chapel of 
 Stanford University. ' ' 
 
 San Francisco was not the only city, by any means, 
 
198 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 that made it difficult for Debs to have his hearing be- 
 fore the people. In Philadelphia one of the heads of 
 the police department tried to raise barriers in the way 
 of Debs speaking there. The Philadelphia Socialists 
 sought to obtain the Grand Opera House for the Debs 
 meeting which was scheduled for October 11th. Charles 
 W. Ervin, now editor-in-chief of the New York Call, 
 who for many years has been a faithful and loyal devo- 
 tee to the cardinal principles of social and economic jus- 
 tice, and personally friendly to Debs, was at that time 
 chairman of the Campaign Committee for Philadelphia. 
 The manager of the Grand Opera House informed Mr. 
 Ervin by letter that Debs could not have the Grand 
 Opera House except by order of the Department of 
 Public Safety. Mr. Ervin adjusted the matter by hav- 
 ing Debs speak in two smaller halls instead of the 
 large one. 
 
 Before Debs's humanistic qualities and kindliness had 
 become a matter of almost universal knowledge, and 
 before many people knew that every phase and angle 
 of his many-sided life was spotless, he was subjected time 
 and again to unfounded accusations concerning his pub- 
 lic career. Most of the time Debs did not bother to 
 answer these taunts and calumnies. Like every other 
 self-respecting public man, he allowed his life's record 
 to stand as the answer to those who would revile him 
 and bear false witness against him. In 1908 when he 
 was assailed by some of his political adversaries, the 
 Socialist National Campaign Committee at Chicago 
 caused to be published in the Socialist press of the 
 country a letter written the year before by the mayor of 
 Terre Haute, Indiana, Debs's home city. The letter 
 follows : 
 
FOUR PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS 199 
 
 Executive Department ♦ 
 City of Terre Haute, Indiana 
 James Lyons, Mayor 
 
 "February 27, 1907. 
 **Mr. John Cuthbertson, 
 
 *' Crooked Lake, Michigan. 
 
 * * Dear Sir : — ^Yours of the 24th inst. received request- 
 ing information without any political bias as to the 
 standing of Eugene V. Debs in this community. 
 
 *'In reply, will state that while the overwhelming ma- 
 jority of the people here are opposed to the social and 
 economic theories of Mr. Debs, that there is not perhaps 
 a single man in this city who enjoys to a greater degree 
 than Mr. Debs the affection, love and profound respect 
 of the entire community. 
 
 **He is cultured, brilliant, eloquent, scholarly and 
 companionable, loveable in his relations with his fellow- 
 man. At home he is known as 'Gene, and that perhaps 
 indicates our feeling towards him as a man, independent 
 of his political views. 
 
 ''He numbers his friends and associates among all 
 classes, rich and poor, and some of the richest men here, 
 people who by very instinct are bitter against Socialism, 
 are warm personal friends of Mr. Debs. 
 
 ''His personal life is spotless and he enjoys a beautiful 
 home life. Few public men have been more persistently 
 and cruelly misrepresented by the press of the country. 
 
 "When such men as James Whitcomb Riley, the 
 Hoosier Poet, comes to Terre Haute, he is always the 
 guest of Mr. Debs. 
 
 "If you care to use this letter in any way for pub- 
 lication, you are at liberty to do so. Every word I have 
 written, and I am not in sympathy with Mr. Debs's 
 views on Socialism, I know would be heartily indorsed 
 by the people of this city. Very respectfully, 
 
 "James Lyons, 
 
 "Mayor." 
 
200 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 On October 2, 1908, the ''Red Special" arrived in 
 New York state, and this was cause for great demonstra- 
 tions in every city and town. At Rochester, for in- 
 stance, 5,000 people struggled for paid admission into 
 Convention Hall. Many hundreds more were unable to 
 edge their way inside. Debs often falls into epigrams 
 in his speeches, as, for instance, at Rochester when he 
 said: 
 
 ''The capitalist refers to you as mill hands, farm 
 hands, factory hands, machine hands — ^hands, hands! 
 You are the horny-handed sons of toil. If you ought 
 to be proud of your hands the capitalist ought to be 
 ashamed of his. 
 
 "A capitalist would feel insulted if you called him a 
 hand. He's a head. The trouble is he owns his head 
 and your hands." 
 
 Four days before Debs spoke at the Hippodrome in 
 New York City every seat in the great amphitheater was 
 sold. One of the newspapers of New York City in com- 
 menting on the meeting, said: 
 
 ' ' With a deafening roar 10,000 men and women trans- 
 formed the interior of the Hippodrome into a moun- 
 tainous red-capped wave of revolution that whistled 
 and screamed for Socialism when Eugene V. Debs ap- 
 peared and answered the cry of humanity. For twenty- 
 five minutes the full-lunged protest gave tongue to the 
 protest against the 'System' in an unparalleled demon- 
 stration." 
 
 "What was deemed still more remarkable about the 
 meeting," spoke another newspaper, "was that all these 
 people had paid from 15 cents to 50 cents for admission. 
 No other political party than the Socialist could do the 
 same thing." 
 
 After this giant meeting had closed Debs dodged back 
 of the stage to the exit so quickly that the audience did 
 not know he was escaping. They filed into the street, 
 and several thousand enthusiasts struggled to keep his 
 
FOUR PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS 201 
 
 waiting automobile from turning a wheel toward his 
 hotel. They wanted to meet the man himself. They 
 demanded to touch the hand of the human dynamo 
 that had ignited the latent moral and spiritual powers 
 within them, transfiguring them from mere workaday 
 automatons into flaming symbols of revolt. 
 
 Joshua Wanhope, an old sailor, and one of the most 
 brilliant writers of the Socialist movement, had been 
 campaigning with Debs on the ''Red Special" as candi- 
 date for governor of New York. Of the Hippodrome 
 meeting "Wanhope said : 
 
 ''If Roosevelt were here I believe he would remark, 
 with amazement, upon the astonishing increase of 'un- 
 desirable citizens!' It might impress Mr. Gompers with 
 the untruth of his assertion as to Debs being the Apostle 
 of Failure. This audience does not look like failure, 
 or, if it do€S, the English language needs a new dic- 
 tionary. I never was an optimist. But unless all signs 
 fail, this generation is not going to pass until we see 
 Socialism realized." 
 
 One of the best speeches of Debs's career was deliv- 
 ered at that Hippodrome meeting. We should like to 
 set down here a few of the salient points which he de- 
 veloped in his oration: 
 
 ' THE PASSING OP CAPITALISM 
 
 "... Capitalism has fulfilled its mission, for the 
 capitalist class can no longer control the productive 
 forces, nor manage industry, nor give emplojrment to 
 the workers. And so the historic mission of this move- 
 ment is to abolish capitalism, based upon private own- 
 ership, and recognize society upon a basis of collective 
 ownership of the means of production and distribu- 
 tion. This change is coming just as certain as I stand 
 in your presence. It will come as soon as you are ready 
 for it, and you will be ready for it just as soon as you 
 understand what Socialism means. 
 
202 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 *' INDIVIDUALITY 
 
 **. . . You read in the newspapers that under Social- 
 ism you will be reduced to the dead level of degradation. 
 You are there now. They tell you that Socialism will 
 destroy your individuality. You haven't got any. The 
 wage slave has no individuality. What is individuality ? 
 It is the expression unhampered of the individual's 
 mental and moral and spiritual qualities. It is the hu- 
 man being in full bloom. The thirty million wage work- 
 ers who are dependent upon the capitalist system for 
 work are walking apologies, most of them. They have 
 hinges in their knees. They doff their hats in the pres- 
 ence of a two by four boss. They are repressed and 
 cramped and their aspirations are stifled, because they 
 have got to beg for work, and therefor they have to beg 
 to live, and they have no individuality. 
 
 ''They tell you that Socialism would break up the 
 family, destroy the home. There are 80,000 divorces a 
 year under capitalism. Capitalism destroys the family 
 all over this country in all the circling hours of the 
 day and night. How about the families of the five mil- 
 lion who have no work? Who have got to leave their 
 families, or their huts, or their hovels, or their lairs in 
 a vain search somewhere else for other masters, and 
 after they reach a point four or five hundred miles 
 away from home and their last penny is gone and their 
 clothes are seedy they receive a letter from home. Ob- 
 serve them closely as they read it ; you will find the tears 
 coursing down their cheeks. The wife reports that the 
 rent is due and that she and the children are about to 
 be evicted and put upon the street. The children are 
 hungry. These men become tramps. Their lives are 
 destroyed, their homes are wrecked, and the happiness 
 of all these people is wrecked. 
 
FOUR PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS 203 
 
 - THE FRUIT OF CAPITALISM 
 
 * ' Nothing is certain in this system except uncertainty. 
 You may have $50,000 and die in an almshouse and sleep 
 your last sleep in a Potter's field. If you are a work- 
 ingman and you have a little girl of eight or ten, and 
 your wage is small, or you are out of a job at the very 
 age when this child ought to be under the care of a 
 loving mother and have a comfortable home, and be out 
 in the sunlight and have wholesome food — and nothing 
 is so easily produced — the child is under the hunger 
 whip of capitalism, and at eight or ten she has got to 
 go to a mill or a factory and she stands beside the ma- 
 chine all day long. She feeds the machine. The ma- 
 chine starves her. If it be written in the book of fate 
 that that blue-eyed child of yours that you love far 
 more than you do your own life . . . shall perish in a 
 brothel hell, I want you to know that you are respon- 
 sible for it if you support this System. 
 
 AN OBLIGATION 
 
 *'. . . You and I who are on earth to-day are under 
 great obligation to the splendid men, the magnificent 
 women, who made sacrifices that we might enjoy some 
 degree of liberty, some degree of civilization. We can 
 only discharge that obligation by doing or trying to do 
 something in the interest of those who are to come after 
 us. It ought to be the high mission of every man and 
 woman to do something to make it possible for some 
 child to come to his or to her grave and place a flower 
 where he or she sleeps and say, 'This world is better 
 and brighter for me because of your having been here. ' 
 
 THE END OF WARS 
 
 **. . . With the end of industrial and commercial 
 competition comes the end of war, and with the begin- 
 ning of world-wide cooperation comes the inauguration 
 
204 DEBS^AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 of the reign of peace on earth and good will toward all 
 men. So that when this movement sweeps into power, 
 and establishes an industrial democracy, every man will 
 have the inalienable right to work, will receive what he 
 produces, may stand forth a free man, enjoy the fruit 
 of his labor, have a comfortable home, a happy wife, 
 his children at play or at school; and in that hour the 
 badge of labor will be the only badge of nobility.'' 
 
 On October 23, 1908, Debs spoke at Evansville, In- 
 diana. Mr. Taft made a speech in the same city that 
 night and the newspapers of that city commented upon 
 the fact that more people had paid an admission fee to 
 hear Debs than those who went to hear Mr. Taft at a 
 free meeting. 
 
 On the eve of the national election in 1908, October 
 28, the national Socialist movement felt itself consider- 
 ably strengthened by the fact that Charles Edward Rus- 
 sell, noted magazine writer and author of several books 
 on social and economic subjects, definitely allied himself 
 with the Socialist Party by applying for membership. 
 ^'It seems to me that essential conditions have grown 
 worse instead of better," said Mr. Russell. "The So- 
 cialist Party is the only party that promises to deal 
 adequately with these conditions, hence all my sympa- 
 thies are with the Socialist Party." At the same time, 
 Lincoln. Steffens, radical American publicist, while not 
 allying himself with the party, in a public statement to 
 the press, urged the people to support Debs for Presi- 
 dent and the other Socialist candidates. Mr. Russell, in 
 1916, broke away from the Socialist Party on the war 
 question, favoring American preparedness for battle 
 with Germany, while the major sentiment in the party 
 was pacifistic at that time. Debs was one of the first 
 persons to come to Mr. Russell's defense in a statement 
 in the party's press, saying that while he heartily dis- 
 agreed with ]\Ir. Russell's views on preparedness and 
 the part America should play in the World War, yet he 
 
FOUR PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS 205 
 
 acknowledged the courage and candor that Mr. Russell 
 had displayed in stating his position in face of almost a 
 hundred per cent, opposition of his party. 
 
 One of the last campaign speeches that Debs made 
 in that year was at Woodstock, Illinois, the town in 
 which he had served a six-months' jail sentence thirteen 
 years before for contempt of court in connection with 
 the American Railway Union strike. Debs spoke from 
 the steps of the jail to half a thousand people, among 
 whom was Mr. Eckert, who was Debs's jailer in 1895. 
 Debs referred to the jail as the college where he had 
 been educated, and there was no trace of bitterness in 
 his words as he showed a few of his friends the cell 
 where he had been confined as a defiant labor unionist. 
 
 The last campaign speech that Debs made that year 
 was in Chicago, the day before election, in the Seventh 
 Regiment Armory, where a crowd estimated at 16,000 
 people struggled to hear him. Before the meeting, there 
 was a parade in which 14,000 Chicago workers marched 
 along a route extending two miles. Debs, on foot, 
 marched at the head of this great labor procession, which 
 recalled the distant days when a similar demonstra- 
 tion had been made in his honor upon his release from 
 Woodstock Jail. 
 
 At his home in Terre Haute, surrounded by his wife 
 and his brother Theodore, members of his immediate 
 family and a few friends, Debs, on election night, was 
 enjoying his first rest in many arduous months. His 
 was not the concern which must have possessed Mr. Taft 
 and Mr. Bryan, for he knew well enough he had not been 
 elected. He had not campaigned for that purpose. 
 Had the miracle of miracles happened, and he had 
 found himself actually the President-elect there would 
 not have been an unhappier man than he, for that office 
 would have imposed upon him the duty of performing 
 many unkind and questionable, if subtle, acts such as 
 must needs be performed by any public officer, no mat- 
 
206 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 ter how high-spirited he may be, and 'Gene Debs simply 
 could not do an unkind thing or perform any act that 
 would redound to the injury of a human being — he 
 could not do that, not even to be President of the 
 United States. But he had waged an educational cam- 
 paign for Socialism, the like which this country had 
 never seen before. More than that, he had left a trail 
 of light wherever he had gone, and had brought cheer 
 and hope to the workers. 
 
 Before the votes were even counted he telegraphed to 
 the party press a statement in the course of which he 
 said : 
 
 ' ' The campaign is ended, and my very first thought is 
 of the kindness shown me and the loyal support given 
 me in every part of the country. "While at times the 
 * exactions were trying, I was sustained every hour by the 
 loving care and unflagging support of comrades. To 
 me this was the beautiful and satisfying feature of the 
 campaign. It expressed the true spirit of Socialist com- 
 radeship, which is the making of our movement, and 
 which will sustain it through every ordeal until it is 
 Anally triumphant." 
 
 Despite the tremendous meetings, wild enthusiasm and 
 the ''Red Special," the Debs vote in 1908 showed but a 
 slight increase over that of four years before. The 
 Socialist vote in 1908 was 420,973.* 
 
 The 1912 convention of the Socialist Party, which was 
 held at Indianapolis, was even more disorderly, if by 
 that term enthusiasm is implied, than Brand Whitlock 
 had discovered at the 1908 convention in Chicago. Dur- 
 ing those four years the Industrial Workers of the 
 "World had grown to be an organization wielding con- 
 siderable influence in industries that employed large 
 numbers of unskilled workers, and poorly paid skilled 
 ones. Debs had been one of the leading spirits in the 
 initial organization of the I. W. W. in 1905. Even be- 
 
 * Figures from the '* World Almanac and Encyclopedia," 1919. 
 
FOUR PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS 207 
 
 fore that period he had taken his stand for industrial 
 unionism as against trade unionism. In 1908 the 
 I. W. W. eliminated the political clause from its Pre- 
 amble, an act which Debs termed ''a monstrous blun- 
 der."* Despite his disagreement with the Chicago fac- 
 tion of the I. W. W., who were non-political, Debs con- 
 tinued to entertain a strong regard for the I. W. W. 
 movement generally because of its uncompromising at- 
 titude on all economic and industrial questions affecting 
 the real wage earners of America. 
 
 When the delegates assembled in 1912 at Indianapolis 
 it was apparent that a serious division would come in 
 the party because of the I. W. W., who counted among 
 its membership many Socialists. The conservative wing 
 of the party maintained that the I. W. W. was a de- 
 structive organization because it openly advocated ''sa- 
 botage" and "direct action" against employers, and, 
 moreover, discouraged political action. William D. 
 Haywood, who was a member of the National Executive 
 Committee of the Socialist Party,, and at the same 
 time active in the councils of the I. W. W., led the fight 
 of ''the Reds" in that convention. Despite distinct 
 division in the convention between these two elements, 
 when the time came for choosing a presidential candi- 
 date, it was a foregone conclusion that Debs would be 
 nominated for the fourth consecutive time. Both sides 
 could, and did, accommodate their tactical differences, 
 for both factions knew that Debs, more than any other 
 man in the American labor movement, stood solidly and 
 squarely for the complete overthrow of the capitalist 
 system by both industrial and political methods, intelli- 
 gently and peaceably applied, and in the final analysis 
 that was the aim of both the I. W. W. and the Socialist 
 Party. 
 
 As one observer at the convention put it, "The next 
 
 *Page 252, ''The I. W. W., A Study of American Syndicalism," 
 by Paul Frederick Brissenden. 
 
208 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 business was the nomination for president on the So- 
 cialist ticket, and a roll call being ordered, Dan Hogan 
 got a chance to yell for Debs. After that there was 
 nothing to it. It was clearly evident that both sides 
 were ready to get together on Debs. ' ' * The total vote 
 of the "delegates for President showed 165 for Debs; 56 
 for Emil Seidel, former Socialist mayor of Milwaukee, 
 "Wisconsin, and 54 for Charles Edward Russell, of New 
 York. Mr. Seidel was chosen Vice-Presidential nominee, 
 Mr. Russell declining to accept the nomination. 
 
 Debs made a whirlwind campaign in 1912, with three 
 adversaries. President Taft, Woodrow "Wilson and Theo- 
 dore Roosevelt. When the votes were counted Debs had 
 polled 897,011,t more than doubling his vote in 1908. 
 
 At this moment, with Debs in a prison cell, he is 
 again being talked of in the Socialist press, as the party's 
 choice for President in 1920. **We will run him for the 
 White House from his prison cell in Atlanta," some of 
 his followers assert, arguing that if Debs is still a pris- 
 oner during the next campaign that fact would make 
 him a highly dramatic figure in the political equation. 
 
 * Page 827, International Socialist Eeview, June, 1912. 
 
 t Figures from the "World Almanac and Encyclopedia," 1919. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 LIBERTARIAN AND LOVER 
 
 GOD was feeling mighty good when he made 'Gene 
 Debs, and he didn't have anything else to do all 
 day/' wrote James Whitcomb Riley, the ''Hoosier 
 Poet." 
 
 The great minds and tender hearts of America have 
 long been attracted to Debs, and this is especially true 
 of the poets. It is extremely doubtful if any other 
 single American, not excepting Lincoln, has inspired 
 the poets of his native country more than 'Gene Debs. 
 We are not speaking now of the Socialist poets — persons 
 of his own political faith and economic creed — ^but rather 
 of those singers, past and present, who have brought 
 laughter and tears to the public generally. Debs has 
 at one time or another been linked with the best and 
 most famous of them by silver threads of fellowship. 
 One of the earliest of those was Riley. Debs soon per- 
 ceived the genius of the Indianian. Away back in those 
 early years — the eighties — when he was tramping the 
 country trying to organize the railroad firemen he found 
 time to drop off at Indianapolis to see Riley. The poet 
 was not at home. But Debs arranged with the poet's 
 manager to have him come to Terre Haute. Debs has 
 told this story himself, and we shall let him tell it now : 
 
 *'The first appearance of the Hoosier Poet in our 
 city was anything but. a shining success, although the 
 poet gave a brilliant exhibition of his wonderful powers 
 as a mimic and as an impersonator of the characters 
 sketched in his poems and studies. The entertainment 
 was given in the old Dowling Hall, and there was a 
 painfully diminutive attendance. 
 
 2PD * 
 
210 DEB^— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 ''Riley himself had more than measured up to ex- 
 pectations. He was, indeed, a delicious treat to those 
 who could appreciate his quaint humor, his melting 
 pathos, his poetic imagery and his flawless, faithful im- 
 personation. His hoosier farmer was fresh from the 
 soil, a breathing, boasting, homespun reality. His dan- 
 dified schoolmaster teaching a country class was the 
 very perfection of mimic art, while his child-stories, told 
 in their own simple, guileless fashion and accentuated 
 with their own eager, impulsive gestures, were too mar- 
 velously true to nature to admit even of the faintest 
 suspicion that, in heart and imagination, the poet had 
 outgrown his own Elysian childhood. 
 
 ''Surely, I argued to myself that night, this settles 
 the question of Riley's genius, and never again will the 
 God-gifted Hoosier Poet be humiliated by so paltry an 
 audience in Terre Haute. On his next visit he will 
 without doubt be greeted by an overflowing house and 
 given a rapturous ovation. 
 
 ' ' But alas ! the second audience was even smaller than 
 the first. My surprise and mortification may be im- 
 agined. But I was more than ever determined that the 
 people of Terre Haute should see James Whitcomb 
 Riley and realize that a poet had sprung up out of their 
 own soil — a native wild flower at their very feet — whose 
 fame would spread all over the land and beyond the 
 seas to the most distant shores. A third attempt resulted 
 in another dismal failure.*' 
 
 Debs says that it was not until some few years later 
 that Riley, who had met Bill Nye, whose fame as a 
 humorous philosopher was then in the ascendant, was 
 invited at the instance of the latter to appear before the 
 assembled authors and their guests at their national 
 entertainment held at the Academy of Music in New 
 York. 
 
 "To be sure,'* says Debs, "he had already received 
 a letter from Longfellow, highly commending a poem 
 
LIBERTARIAN AND LOYER 211 
 
 which chanced to come under the eye of the elder poet, 
 but his fame was chiefly confined to his native state and 
 even there to limited circles. But when he rendered 
 his dialect masterpiece, 'When the Frost Is on the 
 Punkin/ in his own inimitable style, he thrilled with 
 ecstasy the cold and critical literary audience which 
 had been surfeited with dignified and prosaic discourse, 
 and the house echoed and reechoed with excited ap- 
 plause." 
 
 *'I remember once asking Riley if his work came 
 easy,'' Debs said, ''and his witty answer came back to 
 me: 'Easy! I should say not. It's like grinding sau- 
 sage meat with bones in it." On another occasion Debs 
 asked Riley if he had worked very hard over a certain 
 task he had performed and if he felt tired when he had 
 finished it. 
 
 "I felt when I had got through with that job as if I 
 had given birth to a rough-shod colt." 
 
 For many years Debs and the Hoosier Poet exchanged 
 visits between Terre Haute and Indianapolis. Riley 
 lived in the latter city. Following one of Debs's visits to 
 Riley he had sent the poet some roses of which he was 
 passionately fond. Then came this letter from Riley: 
 
 "Dear Debs: — ^Do you think I've entirely forgotten 
 all I owe you ? No : that query is gratuitous, and knowl- 
 edge of your loyalty throughout the past forbids all 
 affection of questioning it now. But I 've been anything 
 but a well man for a long, long time, and in consequence 
 I've simply been deprived of the pleasure of expressing 
 to you, until now, my ripest, richest gratitude for your 
 recent floral remembrance. Tom Moore sings in effect, — 
 
 * ' * You may break the little bench-legg 'd poet if you will, 
 But the scent of Debs's basket of roses will cling round 
 him stni!' 
 
 ' ' May this find you as glad at heart as your gift made 
 me, and may your gentle interest in all human kind never 
 
212 DEB&— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 wax nor wane though all the stars of heaven keep up 
 their specialty. My love to you — ^your brother, and all 
 friends, particularly Ben Cox. 
 
 "Affectionately as always yours, 
 
 ''J.W.Riley/' 
 The same visit of Debs to Riley and the same bunch of 
 roses inspired the poet to sing of ''Them Flowers," 
 dedicating his song "To My Good Friend Eugene V. 
 Debs. ' ' This is the last of three stanzas of the poem : 
 
 **You see, it's like this, what his weaknesses is, — 
 
 Them flowers makes him think of the days 
 Of his innocent youth, that mother o' his. 
 
 And the roses that she us't to raise: — 
 So here, all alone with the roses you send — 
 
 Bein' sick and all trimbly and faint, — 
 My eyes is — my eyes is — my eyes is — old friend — 
 
 Is a-leakin ' — I 'm blamed if they ain 't ! " 
 
 A few more of Riley 's homely lines to 'Gene Debs : 
 
 ''Go, search the earth from end to end. 
 And Where's a better all-round friend 
 Than Eugene Debs? — a man that stands 
 And jest holds out in his two hands 
 As warm a heart as ever beat 
 Betwixt here and the Mercy Seat!'' 
 
 Late in the life of Wendell Phillips, and early in the 
 life of Debs, the two men met. The suns and sorrows 
 of many years had already shed their light and shadow 
 upon the head of the great orator and apostle of human 
 liberty, while the other man, much younger, was yet to 
 come through the sunrise and twilight of the years that 
 would bring to him triumph and travail. It was in 
 1878, and Debs was already touching elbows with the 
 protagonists of revolt and the active and intellectual 
 spirits of his day. Debs had invited "Wendell Phillips 
 to come to Terre Haute to lecture. The meeting was 
 poorly attended. As chairman of the lecture committee 
 it fell to Debs to pay the lecturer his fee. The audience 
 
LIBERTAEIAN AND LOVER 213 
 
 had not been large and the financial loss was consider- 
 able. ''Mr. Phillips felt this keenly, and it plainly dis- 
 tressed him not a little/' Debs wrote of the incident 
 many years later. '' 'Please take back part of the fee 
 to cover your loss, ' he said to me in the kindest possible 
 way, when I placed the money in his hands. 
 
 " *No, Mr. Phillips,' I said, 'you have earned it, it 
 is yours and you must keep it. If we had come out 
 ahead you would have accepted no more than your 
 fee and we cannot consent to your accepting less than 
 the stipulated amount.' He generously insisted upon 
 handing back part of the money, but it was as per- 
 sistently declined, and he consented at last, reluctantly, 
 to keep it. Behind the gentleman I could visualize the 
 man, the warrior, the liberator, the humanitarian, the 
 lover of his kind. I did not look upon him with awe, but 
 with reverence and love. He had fought for me and my 
 class with all his strength of body and soul his whole 
 life long. He had been hated, denounced, and socially 
 exiled that I and mine might live and enjoy, aspire and 
 fulfill, and here he stood, and with my own eyes I could 
 now behold the man, meditate upon his greatness, and 
 find inspiration in his noble example." 
 
 It was in that same period that Debs met Robert G. 
 Ingersoll. As one of the prime movers of the activities 
 of the Occidental Literary Club in Terre Haute, Debs 
 invited Ingersoll to lecture under the club's auspices. 
 The hall in which the meeting was held was packed to 
 the doors. IngersoU's subject was "The Liberty of 
 Man, Woman and Child." Debs introduced the famous 
 orator to the audience. 
 
 "Never until that night had I heard real oratory; 
 never before had I listened enthralled to such a flow of 
 genuine eloquence," wrote Debs in his "Recollections 
 of Ingersoll." 
 
 "The speaker was in his prime, not yet forty-five, tall, 
 shapely, graceful and commanding, the perfect picture 
 
214 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 of the beau ideal of his art. Never can I forget his 
 features, his expressive eyes, his mellifluous voice, his 
 easy, graceful gestures, and his commanding oratorical 
 powers. He rippled along softly as a meadow brook or 
 he echoed with the thunder of some mighty cataract. 
 He pleaded for every right and protested against every 
 wrong. His words fell as pearls in sunshine from his 
 inspired lips and his impassioned periods glowed with 
 the fervid enthusiasm of their thrice-eloquent author.'* 
 Debs tells how he happened to be in Ingersoll's room in 
 an Indianapolis hotel when the latter received a telegram 
 requesting him to deliver a lecture in Philadelphia for 
 the benefit of Walt Whitman, "and I can still see his 
 fine features light up as he said, 'Certainly I will. It 
 will give me real pleasure to be of service to dear Old 
 Walt.' " On another occasion Ingersoll visited Terre 
 Haute again and Debs walked with him to the railroad 
 station. When the train came and Ingersoll got aboard 
 Debs made up his mind in an instant to go along and 
 swung on, riding with him to Cincinnati. 
 
 ' ' It was while he was being thus shamefully maligned, 
 misrepresented and persecuted for denying that God 
 was a monster and that a roaring hell awaited most of 
 his children, that his calm courage, his serene self- 
 reliance, and his eloquent and fearless espousal of the 
 truth as he saw it, enlisted my sympathy," says Debs 
 in his ** Recollections."* '*H'e stood his ground alone 
 and fought his fight without compromise to the end. I 
 can never forget how his heroic spirit stirred me ; how I 
 felt myself thrilled and inspired by his flaming appeal 
 and impassioned eloquence. He did more than any other 
 man, living or dead, to put out the fires and fears of 
 hell and rid the world of superstition. Scarcely any one 
 outside of an asylum any longer believes in the bar- 
 barous dogma of an everlasting torture chamber. The 
 Reverend Billy Sunday is one of the few monuments of 
 
 * Pearson's Magazine, 1915. 
 
LIBERTARIAN AND LOVER 215 
 
 the stone-age of theology. He plagiarizes Ingersoll to 
 fan the dying embers into flame again and to keep sal- 
 vation on a sound and paying commercial basis. 
 
 "Robert Ingersoll could without doubt have been 
 President of the United States. But not for one mo- 
 ment was he tempted by the lure of political prefer- 
 ment. The highest office the people had to bestow ap- 
 peared contemptible to him because he knew it could 
 be obtained only at the politician's price of manhood 
 and self-respect." 
 
 For a number of years IngersoH's birthday, August 
 11, was the occasion of a letter or telegram of congratula- 
 tion from Debs and his family. Ingersoll wrote in 
 acknowledgment of one of these: 
 Walton, 
 Dobb 's Ferry-on-Hudson, 
 
 August 12, '92. 
 *'My dear Mr. Debs: 
 
 "A thousand thanks for your beautiful telegram. 
 The years are growing short. Time seems in a hurry 
 to bring the birthday around. Well, all we can do iir 
 to get what good we can out of the days that pass. 
 
 Each moment is a bee that flies 
 With swift and unreturning wing, 
 
 Giving its honey to the wise. 
 And to the fool its poison sting. 
 
 ' ' I hope that you and yours will have honey all your 
 lives. We all send best regards to your father and 
 mother — to your sisters and to Mrs, Debs and yourself. 
 In spite of the hot weather we are all perfectly well — ■ 
 including the baby. 
 
 **With more thanks for your kindness, I remain, 
 ** Yours always, 
 
 ''R. G. Ingersoll." 
 "Mrs. Ingersoll says — 'Give my love to all' — and sa 
 L" 
 
216 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 Debs met John Swinton, the famous radical American 
 journalist, in the days of the Pullman strike. Swinton 
 had been one of the staunchest champions of the rail- 
 road workers. * ' He stood face to face with "Wall Street, ' ' 
 wrote Debs of him, ''and charged it with infamous 
 crimes, and when John Swinton spoke the people lis- 
 tened." 
 
 Swinton had enjoyed the friendship of Horace Greeley, 
 Charles A. Dana, the elder James Gordon Bennett and 
 other notable journalists of that period. He was at one 
 time or another editor and chief editorial writer of the 
 principal New York daily newspapers. But he was fear- 
 less and courageous, and he saw beneath superficial in- 
 ferences. That might explain his early attraction to 
 Debs. Swinton wrote a book during the Pullman strike, 
 ** Striking for Life; or Labor's Side of the Labor Ques- 
 tion. ' ' Like many another sincere thinker and friend of 
 the people, Swinton died in poverty when he might have 
 acquired riches and the plaudits of the public. ' ' He was 
 truly great," wrote Debs of him, ''and uncompromising- 
 ly honest, scorning to barter his principles and convic- 
 tions for a gilded cage and a life-ease of pampered self- 
 indulgence to soften his brain, eat out his hesirt, and 
 petrify his soul. 
 
 "I can still hear him as he held my hand in his 
 humble flat in New York, as he put me through a course 
 of questioning as to how much I could stand for the sake 
 of labor: 'They'll break your heart.' When I an- 
 swered, 'I'll not let 'em,' he said, 'Bravo!' " 
 
 The very thing that made the rich and powerful and 
 the ignorant hate and condemn Debs in those years of 
 industrial turmoil endeared him to the heart of John 
 Swinton. A fine eulogy of Debs by Swinton was in- 
 spired by the former's imprisonment in a Chicago jail 
 in those days. This he included in his book : 
 
 "I am not afraid thus to praise Eugene Victor Debs, 
 though he is a new figure in the gallery of my statuary. 
 
LIBERTARIAN AND LOVER 217 
 
 I praise him though he be a victim of Grosscup's ruth- 
 less law ; though he has been assailed by Cleveland and 
 Olney, Pullman and Egan, Schofield and Miles, by the 
 rapacious corporations, the dastardly plutocracy, the 
 Sodomite preachers, the Satanic press, and our bribe- 
 taking Congressmen. I praise him, though he is in 
 prison." 
 
 On July 5, 1894, Swinton wrote to Debs as follows : 
 
 **You are waging a Napoleonic battle amidst the ad- 
 miration of millions. God give you the victory for the 
 sake of all mankind. ... I wrote to President Cleveland 
 three days ago. Be strong, Brother Debs.'' 
 
 While Debs was in jail at Woodstock, Swinton wrote 
 on July 17, 1895: 
 
 ''You do not seem to have been aware that I was in 
 the prison with you by day and by night, during the 
 past month. Never a word have you spoken to me, 
 though you were in my company. 'Not a mutineer walks 
 handcuffed into jail but I am handcuffed to him and walk 
 by his side.' I have not at any time thought you cared 
 for my praises, so I shall not praise you now. But I 
 believe you are of stout heart, and I must hope you are 
 not depressed in spirit. Be strong! I know you will 
 be faithful unto death. I send you my best love. 
 P. S. — Sunday of this week was the anniversary of the 
 Fall of the Bastile." 
 
 In 1897, when Swinton learned that the Railroad 
 Managers' Association were determined to stamp out of 
 industrial life the American Railway Union, and that 
 their detectives were dogging the footsteps of Debs day 
 and night, he wrote on June 30: 
 
 "The strength of your faith, the liveliness of your 
 hopes, the persistency of your valor, the breadth of your 
 thought, and the energy of your genius fill me with 
 admiration. These things belong to that kind of Amer- 
 icanism which is ever regenerative." 
 
 Debs was forever paying tribute and homage to the 
 
218 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 heroes and martyrs of his country. His writings and 
 his letters are filled with words of kindness and gentle 
 thoughts for those who have struggled to make this 
 planet a better and a brighter place. Of Swinton he 
 wrote : 
 
 *'The world owes more, far more, to John Swinton 
 than it knows or perhaps ever can know. He was one 
 of the real heroes of American history. He lived and 
 labored wholly for his fellowmen. He struggled bravely 
 with all the adverse fates and forces that others might 
 be spared the pains and privations that fell to his lot 
 and have life richer and more abundant. Aye, he fought 
 as heroically and unselfishly for humanity as any man 
 that ever won the crown of martyrdom." 
 
 Debs delights in reminiscencing about Eugene Field, 
 the poet and humorist. These choice spirits first met 
 in April, 1893, and although their personal attachment 
 endured only for a short year, Field dying suddenly in 
 his forty-fourth year, in 1894, Debs owns that he never 
 had a truer friend. 
 
 Within a few hours after Debs and Field first met, 
 the poet returned with copies of his books beautifully 
 inscribed and these are now among the treasured posses- 
 sions in Debs's library. Debs writes of Field's life in 
 the Rockies:* 
 
 '* Eugene Field was never more at home than among 
 these sturdy pioneers who opened the treasure chambers 
 of the Rocky Mountains and scattered their gleaming 
 secrets broadcast over the continent. They were after 
 his own heart and he rejoiced like the big boy he was, 
 in having found his way to the golden west and for 
 living for once among God's own people. No wonder 
 the change came upon him like a revelation and attuned 
 his muse to the sweet minstrelsy that was soon to carry 
 his name back to the Hampshire Hills where he had 
 
 * Pearson 's Magazine. 
 
LIBERTARIAN AND LOVER 219 
 
 spent his boyhood and echo his fame to the remotest 
 parts of the country/' 
 
 Field once came to Terre Haute with George W. 
 Cable, the Southern novelist. Debs says that the opera 
 house was crowded and Field captured the audience 
 by his simplicity in reciting his charming bits of child- 
 hood rime. *'IIe had wonderful dramatic resources," 
 says Debs, **and his pathetic passages moved his audi- 
 ence to tears. ' ' At the close of the entertainment Field, 
 who was the guest of Debs and his family during his 
 stay in Terre Haute, was invited to a friend's house, 
 *'and here occurred an incident that revealed his pas- 
 sionate love for children of whom a number were in 
 attendance," says Debs. 
 
 ''After a time the little folks withdrew to another 
 room to seek their own enjoyment. Not long afterwards, 
 Field also disappeared. The reason soon became ap- 
 parent. Peals of laughter issued from the adjoining 
 room. Hilarity was evidently at high tide in the child- 
 world. And no wonder. Field had gotten among them 
 and was both ring-master and clown of the show, and 
 when the door was opened he was found minus his dress 
 coat, down on the floor on all fours, and cutting such 
 antics as made the little folks scream with delight." 
 
 Among the messages that Debs received from his 
 many friends while he was imprisoned at Woodstock 
 in 1895 came one from Eugene Field. Here is the 
 note: 
 
 "Now that you are settled in your summer quarters 
 I shall soon be out to see you." But the visit was never 
 made, for Field went to bed soon after and never got up. 
 
 It would require the writing of another book to at- 
 tempt to tell of the number of libertarians and world 
 lovers about whom Debs has written and paid tribute 
 in his speeches, and to record the thousands of testi- 
 monials that have been written and spoken in appre- 
 ciation of his own life and works. His private mail 
 
220 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS ' 
 
 in Terre Haute is normally a very large one, and since 
 his arrest, trial and imprisonment under the Espionage 
 Act he has been literally swamped with letters praising 
 his courage and devotion to his principles from people 
 in all walks of life. At his home, Theodore Debs, with 
 the aid of several secretaries, has been kept busy day 
 and night answering these thousands of letters in which 
 the authors have pledged their money, and even their 
 lives to the cause for which Debs stands. 
 
 The world has a habit of estimating a public man, 
 not upon his record as a diplomatist, or in his dealings 
 with state affairs, no matter how brilliantly and success- 
 fully he might have executed the arduous tasks set be- 
 fore him, but it searches his career as a public servant 
 to learn what he has done and contributed to the ele- 
 mental happiness and well-being of those who came un- 
 der his immediate political charge. If that record 
 is bright and yields itself to the nobler instincts of the 
 people that man lives in history and those who come 
 after him sing praises to his name even though he may 
 never have written a treaty of peace for the nations of 
 the world. The men who live in history, whose names 
 shine with all the luster of a star, are those who culti- 
 vated the arts of kindness and justice and who have 
 cared for, rather than crushed, those persons whom all 
 the world knows were truly concerned with the happi- 
 ness of their f ellowmen. Speeches and phrases are things 
 that die when the word is spoken, but acts, for good or 
 for evil, are affairs never to be erased as long as there 
 are people to compile the records of human history. 
 More has been written and spoken in America for lib- 
 erty and democracy in the past two years than in any 
 other country on earth, yet, it is a fact, tragic to relate, 
 that much has been done in America in the same period 
 to crush liberty and stamp out democracy in this Re- 
 public. Nothing more than a survey of the list of 
 libertarians and true democrats punished by imprison- 
 
LIBERTARIAN AND LOVER 221 
 
 ment under tlie Espionage Law is necessary to convince 
 a fair-minded person of the truth of this assertion. 
 
 Debs, as we know, was one of these libertarians so 
 punished — Debs of whom Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, 
 the world-famous sculptor who designed the Statue of 
 Liberty that stands in New York harbor, said: 
 
 "He is endowed with the most precious faculty to 
 which one can aspire — the gift of language ; and he uses 
 it for the proclamation of the most beautiful thoughts. 
 His beautiful language is that of an Apostle.'' 
 
 "When Debs had made his speech before the jury in 
 his trial at Cleveland, Edmund Vance Cook, the Cleve- 
 land poet, was moved to write a poem to the towering 
 figure in that court room. He called it * ' Eugene. ' ' The 
 second verse reads: 
 
 *'We may bind and make you mute, 
 We may stripe you in the suit 
 Of the meanest felon. Aye, 
 We may scourge and crucify, 
 But your soul, sublime, serene, — 
 Who can crucify Eugene?" 
 
 More than a year ago, when I was Sunday editor of 
 a New York daily paper, I wrote to Debs and asked him 
 if he would write something for us about the Russian 
 Revolution. He promptly complied with my request. 
 I shall quote a few paragraphs from his article : — 
 
 "The Russian Revolution is without a precedent or 
 a parallel in history. Monumental in its glory, it stands 
 alone. Behold its sublime majesty, catch its holy spirit 
 and join in its thrilling, inspiring appeal to Ihe op- 
 pressed of every land to rise in their might, shake off 
 their fetters and proclaim their freedom to the world! 
 Russia, domain of darkness impenetrable, transformed 
 in a flash into a land of living light ! Russia, the goddess 
 of freedom incarnate, issuing her defiant challenge ta 
 the despotisms of the world! 
 
 "The heart of Russia in this hour of her glorious 
 
222 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 resurrection is the heart of humanity; the soul of her 
 triumphant revolution is the soul of a new-bom world. 
 Verily, the last are now first, and the world's most 
 pitilessly plundered and shamelessly exiled have become 
 the world's revolutionary redeemers and supreme libera- 
 tors. . . . 
 
 *'The Bolsheviki demanded nothing for themselves 
 they did not demand in the same resolute spirit for the 
 proletariat of all the world, and if history records the 
 failure of their cause it will be to the eternal shame of 
 those for whom these heroes offered up their lives and 
 who suffered them to perish for the lack of sympathy 
 and support. . . . 
 
 *'A11 the forces of the world's reaction, all its dynas- 
 ties and despotisms, all its kingdoms and principalities, 
 all its monarchies and imperialism, all its ruling and 
 exploiting classes, and their politicians, priests, pro- 
 fessors and parisites of every breed — all these are pitted 
 openly or covertly against the Russian Revolution and 
 conspiring together for the overthrow of the victorious 
 Russian proletariat and the destruction of the new-bom 
 democracy. But, whatever may be the fate of the revo- 
 lution, its flaming soul is immortal and will flood the 
 world with light and liberty and love." 
 
 Debs has written and spoken much about children 
 whom he loves. Once he wrote: **What sweet emo- 
 tions the recollections of childhood inspire, and how 
 priceless its treasured memories in our advancing and 
 declining years! Laughing eyes and curly hair, little 
 brown hands and bare feet, innocent and care-free, 
 trusting and loving, tender and pure, what an elevating 
 and satisfying influence these little gods have upon 
 our maturer years. 
 
 ' * Childhood ! What a holy theme ! Flowers they are, 
 with souls in them, and if on this earth man has a 
 sacred charge, a holy obligation, it is to these tender buds 
 and blossoms of humanity." 
 
LIBERTAEIAN AND LOVER 223 
 
 A friend of Debs, a few years ago, sent him a card 
 with some verses of his own composition announcing 
 the birth of a baby girl. In a little while the mail 
 brought a letter from the simple man : 
 
 ''The glad tidings of the new life and the new light 
 in your home came when I was far away or this ac- 
 knowledgment would have been sooner made. "With all 
 my heart I send love and congratulations to the beauti- 
 ful and transfigured mother, the joyous and exultant 
 father, and the sweet and tender babe. 
 
 **It is all beautiful to me and I can see it all and 
 feel the thrill of it all as if I were in the very heart of 
 your beloved family. My blessings upon the mother and 
 the babe, and upon all of your godly household. 
 
 *'The riches of the world are now yours in all their 
 abundance and all your comrades will unite in the 
 celebration of your joy. 
 
 ''Allow me, beloved comrade, to join in the beautiful, 
 characteristic father greeting you have extended to the 
 babe: 
 
 ** *With outstretched arms and open heart I welcome 
 you into this world of war with my love of peace.' '* 
 
CHAPTER X 
 HIS IMPRESS ON THE FUTURE 
 
 OF all the human sciences, character study and ap- 
 praisal is perhaps the most illusive and deceptive. 
 We cannot know exactly the amount of good nor the 
 extent of evil that has been accomplished and perpe- 
 trated by a single individual. Men do place some sort 
 of estimate, however worthy or accurate it may be, upon 
 the acts of their fellowmen for good or bad report. 
 Historians follow in their train years, sometimes ages, 
 later and assume to render the final verdict based, not 
 upon their own knowledge of events, but upon the ac- 
 cumulative evidence attending to and surrounding the 
 individual and the time in which he lived. This report, 
 written on parchment and bound in sheep's skin, is 
 passed down among men waiting in the corridors of the 
 years, and they scan it eagerly for the word of praise 
 or blame, according to their instincts, their feelings and 
 their emotions, sometimes their intellects ; they, in turn, 
 accept or discard the historian's word, according to 
 which side their interests, material or otherwise, lie. 
 After all, people believe those things about people that 
 they want to believe, and no amount of argument, how- 
 ever convincing, changes them until they themselves 
 want to change. That change, if it does come, occurs 
 of its own volition through circumstances over which 
 the person has little, if any, control and at the time 
 when the moral, spiritual or intellectual interests have 
 become allied with or against the principles embodied in 
 the person with whom the historian deals. There is, 
 however, a cosmic intelligence and understanding and 
 
 224 
 
HIS BCPRESS ON THE FUTURE 225 
 
 this does in time defeat whatever unjust prejudice or 
 fulsome praise may have existed. In the light of logic 
 and the sense of sciene, water comes to its own level, and 
 a diamond will endure long after the jewelers who ap- 
 praised its value are dead. 
 
 The assayist tests the worth of his precious metal by 
 applying acid to its surface, while society employs the 
 use of punishment and persecution upon its choicest 
 spirits; unlike the assayist, society is not content with 
 mere surface application of its venom and vitriol, but 
 attempts to torture the heart and twist the soul of the 
 man under its microscope. Failing in this, it some- 
 times kills him outright as a warning to others who may 
 have his social and spiritual bent. Nothing could be> 
 more cruel than the composite social mind which sub- 
 jects its component parts to the most excruciating pains. 
 Yet, paradoxically, the world-mind progresses and mani- 
 fests a commonhood of tenderness and kindness and 
 reciprocity. If the first premise were not true we should 
 not have that pantheon wherein sit the shades of the 
 gods who have illuminated all the pages of history hy 
 their glorious deeds and sacrifices for the well-being of 
 their fellowmen, and who have pushed forward the hand 
 of time through travail to triumph. If the second con- 
 elusioH is false then why come these admiring audi- 
 ences, these teeming thousands to bow before their idols, 
 to cherish their memories and to celebrate them in song 
 and story? Truly, truly, the world is a fickle lover! 
 It first condemns the man it later condones. Sometimes 
 it kisses the hand that strikes it to earth. But oftener 
 it reveres the memory of the man it has crushed. Which 
 but proves the transparency of the human mind and 
 the winding ways through which it must pass before 
 it may arrive at any settled estate of estimate and bal- 
 ance. 
 
 It is not given to all men' of strong mind and great 
 heart to garner some of the fruits from the seeds they 
 
226 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 have sown. Many of the martyrs of history have come 
 to ignominious ends without ever having known that 
 they had caused one quickened heart-heat, or had started 
 a ripple in the social stream. Others have been more 
 fortunate. They have lived to see the changing tides and 
 to witness the shifting scenes, and they have had the 
 satisfaction of knowing that in these processes of inex- 
 orable evolution they have played their part. 
 
 Eugene Victor Debs, now in the autumn of his life, 
 a prisoner of the United States government, belongs 
 to this latter group. No man, living or dead, has more 
 faithfully consecrated his life to the cause of social 
 justice and fair dealing, man to man, than Debs. Like- 
 wise, he has been severely punished for it. But he has 
 fought the good fight and kept the faith of his fathers 
 whose names are all in history, and who are revered 
 even by the children of the races. Perhaps men will 
 always differ concerning the wisdom of the special 
 political and economic theories through which Debs 
 chose to exert his influence; but no matter, for in the 
 just verdict of mankind the world will agree that Debs 
 was honest, kind, sincere, loyal, devoted, true, lovable 
 and loving, always doing what he could in rain oi* 
 shine, in prison or at home, to make this world a better 
 and a brighter place for the people who inhabit it, and 
 for those who will come afterward. For these things, 
 these traits — which are akin to Christhood — ^will he be 
 honored in the ages to come. 
 
 The principle for which Debs stands — Socialism — is 
 already accepted, in one form or another, in various 
 countries. This change in economic and political forms 
 of government has been hastened by the World War 
 which has just closed, and which Debs opposed. Debs 
 believed that these same changes could have been brought 
 about through an enlightened intelligence and an ex- 
 erted will of the people who have actually brought them 
 about — ^the world's workers. He has been a life-long 
 
HIS IMPRESS ON THE FUTURE 227 
 
 antagonist of the principle of violence and force no 
 matter by whom it is practised. He would not injure 
 or kill his biggest enemy if by so doing ho would advance 
 the cause nearest his heart, and therefor he would not 
 be cowardly enough to encourage another so to do. 
 He believed that the people could do what they were 
 of a will to do ; that they could change the form of gov- 
 ernments under which they lived and arrange industries 
 so that they would serve the people instead of exploit 
 them, by acting in concert politically, economically and 
 industrially. He did not believe it was necessary for the 
 workers of one country to hate those of another and to 
 meet on the battlefields to kill one another in order to 
 have happier lives at home. 
 
 There is an ever-increasing number of people who be- 
 lieve that Socialism is the next step; who believe that 
 it is the only possible form of human proeedure by 
 which people can live happily together and enjoy the 
 fruits of their labor. Debs, believing this with all his 
 heart and mind, has struggled unceasingly to bring 
 this about. By his courage and his loving, tender heart 
 he has done more than any other man in America to 
 set forth the program which he and his followers believe 
 will make for happiness and justice in the present and 
 the future. 
 
 He has fought his enemies with love, pity and com- 
 passion. They have fought him with blood and bludgeon, 
 persecution and prison. He has attacked their citadels 
 with his eloquence and persuasion. They have returned 
 the attack with injunctions and indictments. The fu- 
 ture must decide this political and industrial question. 
 As for Debs, as a man, as a leader of men, as a lover of 
 liberty, as a determined spirit, and as a gentle soul, he 
 has already left his impress on the future. There awaits 
 him a page in history, and a niche in the temple of fame, 
 not beside those who have purchased their way into 
 posterity with blood or gold, but beside those who have 
 
228 DEBS— AUTHORIZED LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 been elevated to immortality through the common esti- 
 mate of the common people. 
 
 I have had no illusions about this book as being a final 
 word on Debs*s career. It could not possibly be so, for 
 the subject of my study still lives and has other work to 
 do. All that has been attempted here was to give an 
 authoritative record of his life's work, to set down as 
 accurately as it was in my power to do, those incidents 
 in his life which, accumulated, make him the splendid 
 figure that he is in the eyes of those who love him 
 almost to the point of idolatry — and thousands of such 
 persons heartily disbelieve in Socialism. 
 
 As I complete this task, dear 'Gene, I give you my 
 hand and my heart, for they are all that I have to give, 
 without stint or diminution, in appreciation of your 
 many kindnesses to me, of the too generous words that 
 you have put on paper from your prison cell, and for 
 the noble things you have said and done for humanity. 
 For these things I am your debtor for the rest of my 
 days — and now I lay this paltry tribute at your feet. 
 The world may scoff at it, but in your generous heart 
 you will accept it for what it is intended to be. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 EUGENE V. DEBS was sentenced to ten years in 
 prison under the Espionage Act for making a 
 speech at Canton, Ohio, June 16, 1918, before the State 
 Convention of the Socialist Party of Ohio. The follow- 
 ing are extracts from that speech as reported by a gov- 
 ernment stenographer and included in the indictment. 
 The government stenographer admitted in court that 
 he was inexperienced and was unable to follow Debs's 
 speech accurately or verbatim. However that may be. 
 Debs admitted that what the government stenographer 
 reported him as saying was substantially correct, but 
 actually and technically at variance with the text of his 
 speech. The extracts follow: 
 
 *'I have just returned from a visit from yonder 
 (pointing to workhouse) 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 danger- 
 ous to exercise the constitutional right of free speech 
 in a country fighting to make democracy safe for the 
 world. I realize in speaking to you this afternoon that 
 there are certain limitations placed upon the right of 
 free speech. I must be extremely 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 I do not think. And I 
 would rather a thousand times be a free soul in jail than 
 a sycophant or coward on the streets. They may put 
 those boys in jail, and some of the rest of us in jail, 
 but they cannot put the Socialist movement in jail. 
 Those prison bars separate their bodies from ours, but 
 
 229 
 
230 APPENDIX 
 
 their souls are here this afternoon. They are simply- 
 paying the penalty that all men have paid in all of the 
 ages of history for standing erect and seeking to pave 
 the way for better conditions for mankind. 
 
 ''If it had not been for the men and women who, in 
 the past, have had the moral courage to go to jail, we 
 would still be in the jungles. . . . 
 
 ''Why should a Socialist be discouraged on the eve 
 of the greatest triumph of all history of the Socialist 
 movement? It is true that these are anxious, trying 
 days for us all, testing those who are upholding the 
 banner of the working class in the greatest struggle the 
 world has ever known against the exploiters of the 
 world; a time in which the weak, the cowardly, will 
 falter and fail and desert. They lack the fiber to endure 
 the revolutionary test. They fall away. They disappear 
 as if they had never been. 
 
 ' ' On the other hand, they who are animated with the 
 unconquerable spirit of the social revolution, they who 
 have the moral courage to stand erect, to assert their 
 convictions, to stand by them, to go to jail or to hell 
 for them — ^they are writing their names in this crucial 
 hour, they are writing their names in fadeless letters 
 in the history of mankind. Those boys over yonder, 
 those comrades of ours — and how I love them — aye, 
 they are our younger brothers, their names are seared 
 in our souls. 
 
 "I am proud of them. They are there for us and 
 we are here for them. Their lips, though temporarily 
 mute, are more eloquent than ever before, and theii* 
 voices, though silent, are heard around the world. 
 
 "Are we opposed to Prussian militarism? Why, we 
 have been fighting it since the day the Socialist move- 
 ment was born and we are going to continue to fight 
 it to-day and until it is wiped from the face of the 
 earth. Between us there is no truce, no comprom- 
 ise. . . . 
 
APPENDIX 231 
 
 *'Do not imagine for one moment that all the pluto- 
 crats and Junkers are all in Germany; we have them 
 here in our own country, and these want to keep our 
 eyes focused upon the Junkers in Germany so we won't 
 see those within our own border. I have no earthly use 
 for the Junkers of Germany and not one particle more 
 use for the Junkers in the United States. 
 
 ' ' They tell us we live in a great republic. Our insti- 
 tutions are democratic. We are a free people. This is 
 too much, even as a joke. It is not a subject for levity ; 
 it is an exceedingly serious matter. . . . 
 
 ** Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels. It has 
 been the tyrant who wrapped himself in a cloak of re- 
 ligion or patriotism, or both. They would have you be- 
 lieve that the Socialist Party consists in the main of 
 disloyalists and traitors. It is true, in a certain sense. 
 "We are disloyalists and traitors to the real traitors of 
 this nation. . . . 
 
 *'Why, the other day they sent a woman to Wichita 
 Penitentiary for ten years. Just think of sentencing a 
 woman to the penitentiary for talking. The United 
 States under the rule of the plutocrats is the only coun- 
 try which would send a woman to the penitentiary for 
 ten years for exercising the right to free speech. If 
 this be treason, let them make the most of it. Let me 
 review another bit of history. I have known this woman 
 for ten years. Personally I know her as if she were 
 my own younger sister. She is a woman of absolute 
 integrity. She is a woman of courage. She is a woman 
 of unimpeachable loyalty to the Socialist movement. 
 She went out into Dakota and made her speech, followed 
 by plain-clothes men in the service of the government, 
 intent upon encompassing her arrest, prosecuted and 
 convicted. She made a certain speech and that speech 
 was deliberately misrepresented for the purpose of se- 
 curing her conviction. The only testimony was that 
 of a hired witness. . . . And thirty farmers who went 
 
232 APPENDIX 
 
 to Bismark to testify in her favor, the judge refused to 
 allow to testify. This would seem incredible to me if 
 I had not had some experience of my own with a Federal 
 court. Who appoints the Federal courts ? The people ? 
 Every solitary one of them holds his position through 
 influence and power of corporation capital. And when 
 they go to the bench, they go there not to serve the peo- 
 ple, but to serve the interests who sent them. The 
 other day, by a vote of five to four, they declared the 
 Child Labor Law unconstitutional; a law secured after 
 twenty years of education and agitation by all kinds of 
 people, and yet by a majority of one, the Supreme 
 Court, a body of corporation lawyers, with just one 
 solitary exception, wiped it from the statute books, so 
 that we may still continue to grind the blood of little 
 children into profit for the Junkers of Wall Street, and 
 this in a country that is now fighting to make democracy 
 safe for the world. These are not palatable truths to 
 them. And they do not want you to hear them and 
 that is why they brand us traitors and disloyalists. If 
 we were not traitors to the people, we would be eminently 
 respectable citizens and ride in limousines. It is pre- 
 cisely because we are disloyal to the traitors that we are 
 not disloyal to the people of this country. . . . 
 
 *'IIow short-sighted the ruling class is. The ex- 
 ploiter cannot see beyond the end of his nose. He has 
 just been cunning enough to know what graft is and 
 where it is but he has no vision. You know this is a 
 great throbbing world that speaks out in all directions. 
 Look at Rockefeller. Every move he makes hastens the 
 coming of his doom. Every time the capitalist class 
 tries to hinder the cause of Socialism they hurt them- 
 selves. Every time they strangle a Socialist newspaper 
 they add a thousand voices to those which are aiding 
 Socialism. The Socialist has a great idea. An expand- 
 ing philosophy. It is spreading over the face of the 
 earth. It is as useless to resist it as it is to resist the 
 
APPENDIX 233 
 
 rising sunrise. Can you see it? If you cannot you are 
 lacking in vision, in understanding. What a privilege 
 it is to serve it. I have regretted a thousand times I 
 can do so little for the movement that has done so much 
 for me. The little that I am, the little that I am hoping 
 to be, is due wholly to the Socialist movement. It gave 
 me my ideas and my ideals, and I would not exchange 
 one of them for all the Rockefeller blood-stained dollars. 
 It taught me how to serve; a lesson to me of priceless 
 value. It taught the ecstasy of the handclasp of the 
 comrade. It made it possible for me to get in touch with 
 you, to multiply myself over and over again; to open 
 the avenue to spread out the glorious vistas; to know 
 that I am kin with all that throbs that become class 
 conscious. Every man who toils, every one of them, is 
 my comrade. . . . 
 
 ''Here I hear your heart beats responsive to the 
 Bolsheviki of Russia. (Applause.) Yes, those heroic 
 men and women, those unconquerable comrades, who 
 have by their sacrifice added fresh luster to the inter- 
 national movement. Those Russian comrades who have 
 made greater sacrifices, who have suffered more, who 
 have shed more heroic blood than any like number of 
 men and women anywhere else on earth. They have led 
 the first real convention of any democracy that ever 
 drew breath. The first act of that memorable revolution 
 was to proclaim a state of peace with an appeal not to 
 the kings, not to the rulers, but an appeal to the people 
 of all nations. They are the very breath of democracy ; 
 the quintessence of freedom. . . . 
 
 ''Wars have been waged for conquests, for plunder, 
 and since the feudal ages along the Rhine, the feudal 
 lords have made war upon each other. They wanted to 
 enlarge their domains, to increase their power and their 
 wealth and so they declared war upon each other. But 
 they did not go to war any more than the Wall Street 
 Junkers go to war. Their predecessors declared the 
 
234 APPENDIX 
 
 wars, but their miserable serfs fought the wars. The 
 serfs believed that it was their patriotic duty to fall upon 
 one another, to wage war upon one another. And that 
 is war in a nutshell. The master class has always brought 
 a war and the subject class has fought the battle. The 
 master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, 
 and the subject class has had all to lose and nothing to 
 gain. They have always taught you that it is your pa- 
 triotic duty to go to war and slaughter yourselves at 
 their command. You have never had a voice in the 
 war. The working class who make the sacrifices, who 
 shed the blood, have never yet had a voice in declaring 
 war. The ruling class has always made the war and 
 made the peace. 
 
 *' 'Yours not to question why, 
 Yours but to do and die.' 
 
 ''Another bit of history that I want to review is that 
 of Rose Pastor Stokes, another inspiring comrade. She 
 had her millions of dollars. Her devotion to the cause 
 is without all consideration of a financal or economic 
 view. She went out to render service to the cause and 
 they sent her to the penitentiary for ten years. What 
 has she said ? Nothing more than I have said here this 
 afternoon. I want to say that if Rose Pastor Stokes is 
 guilty, so am I. If she should be sent to the peniten- 
 tiary for ten years, so ought I. "What did she say ? She 
 said that a government could not serve both the profi- 
 teers and the employees of the profiteers. Roosevelt 
 has said a thousand times more in his paper, the Kansas 
 City Star. He would do everything possible to discredit 
 Wilson 's Administration in order to give his party cred- 
 it. The Republican and Democratic parties are all pa- 
 triots this Fall and they are going to combine to prevent 
 the election of any disloyal Socialists. Do you know of 
 any difference between them? One is in, the other is 
 out. That is all the difference. 
 
APPENDIX 235> 
 
 **Rose Pastor Stokes never said a word she did not 
 have a right to utter, but her message opened the eyes 
 of the people. That must be suppressed. That voice 
 must be silenced. Her trial in a capitalist court was very- 
 farcical. What chance had she in a corporation court 
 with a put-up jury and a corporation tool on the 
 bench? ... 
 
 ''The heart of the international Socialist never beats 
 a retreat. They are pressing forward here, there, every- 
 where, in all the zones that girdle this globe. These 
 workers, these class-conscious workers, these children of 
 honest toil are wiping out the boundary lines everywhere. 
 They are all proclaiming the glad tidings of the coming 
 emancipation. Everywhere they are having their hearts 
 attuned to the sacred cause; everywhere they are mov- 
 ing toward democracy, moving toward the sunrise, their 
 faces aglow with the light of the coming day. These 
 are the men who must guide us in the greatest crisis the 
 world has ever known. They are making history. They 
 are bound upon the emancipating of the human race. 
 
 ' * They have been sufficient to themselves, pressing for- 
 ward to the heights. Do you wish to hasten the coming 
 day? Join the Socialist Party. Do not wait for the 
 morrow. Come now. Enroll your name. Take your 
 place where you belong. You cannot do your duty by 
 proxy. You have got to do it yourself. You will have 
 no occasion to blush. You will know what it is to be a 
 man or a woman. You will lose nothing. You will gain 
 everything. You are very apt to find something. You 
 need to know that you are fit fo;* something better than 
 slavery and cannon fodder. ... 
 
 ''There is a great deal of hope for our comrades, 
 Wagenknecht, Ruthenl^erg and Baker. Anybody can be 
 nobody, but it takes a man to be somebody. Turn your 
 back upon that corrupt Republican Party and that still 
 more corrupt Democratic Party, the gold-dust twins of 
 the ruling class. Get into a minority party that fights 
 
236 APPENDIX 
 
 for a cause. Make that change. It will be the most im- 
 portant change you ever made in your life. You will 
 thank me for having made the suggestion. It was a day 
 of days for me. I passed from darkness to light. . . . 
 
 "Among other things they tell you to cultivate war 
 gardens. Government reports now show that 52 per cent 
 of the arable, tillable soil is held out of use by the 
 profiteers. They do not allow others to cultivate it. 
 They keep it idle, to enrich themselves. Thus, it makes 
 their land valuable. It is not the fault of the people ; it 
 is the fault of the landlords. And while we are upon 
 the subject, think about the landlord. The landlord is 
 the great patriot. He is fighting to make the world safe 
 for democracy. He it is who profits at the expense of the 
 people under the pretense of being a great patriot. It is 
 he whom you need to wipe from power. It is he who 
 diminishes your health and your liberty far more than 
 the Prussian junker on the other side of the ocean. . . . 
 
 **A change is needed, a change of system from despot- 
 ism to democracy, a change from slavery to freedom; 
 a change from brutehood to brotherhood. To accom- 
 plish this you have got to organize, and to organize not 
 along the zig-zag lines laid down by Sam Gompers who, 
 through all of his career, has been on the side of the 
 capitalist class. You never hear the capitalist papers 
 speak of him except in praise. Gompers was always con- 
 servative. . . . 
 
 **Few men have the courage to say a decent word in 
 favor of the I. W. W. I have. (Here several in the 
 crowd yelled, *So have I.') 
 
 **I have a great respect for the I. W. W. ... It is 
 only necessary to label a man *I. W. W.' to lynch him. 
 Just think of the state of mind for which the capitalist 
 press is responsible. 
 
 **When Wall Street yells war, you may rest assured 
 every pulpit in the land will yell war. The press and 
 the pulpit have in every age and every nation been on 
 
APPENDIX 237 
 
 the side of the exploiting class and the ruling class. 
 That's why the I. W. W. is infamous. 
 
 ''The I. W. W. in its career has never committed 
 as much violence against the ruling class as the ruling 
 class has committed against the people. The trial at 
 Chicago is now on, and they have not proven violence in 
 a single solitarj^ case, and yet, one hundred and twelve 
 men have been on trial for months and months without 
 a shade of evidence. And this is all in its favor. And 
 for this and many other reasons, the I. "W. W. is 
 fighting the fight of the bottom dog. For the very rea- 
 son that Gompers is glorified by Wall Street, Bill Hay- 
 wood is despised by Wall Street. . . . 
 
 "And now for all of us to do our duty. The call is 
 ringing in your ears. Do not worry over the charge of 
 treason to your masters, but be concerned about the 
 treason that involves yourself. . . . We Socialists are 
 the builders of the world that is to be. We are inviting 
 you this afternoon. Join and it will help you. In 
 due course of time we will proclaim the emancipation of 
 the brotherhood of all mankind." 
 
 Following is the decision of the Supreme Court of the 
 United States, rendered March 10th, 1919, in the case of 
 Debs: 
 
 SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 No. 714— October Term, 1918. 
 Eugene Y. Debs, Plaintiff^ 
 
 in Error, 
 
 VS 
 The United States of 
 America. 
 
 In Error to the District 
 Court of the United States 
 for the Northern District 
 of Ohio. 
 
 (March 10, 1919.) 
 
 Mr. Justice Holmes delivered the opinion of the 
 Court. 
 
238 APPENDIX 
 
 This is an indictment under the Espionage Act of 
 June 15, 1917, c. 30, p. 3, as amended by the Act of May 
 16, 1918, c. 75, p. 1, 40 Stat.— It has been cut down to 
 two counts, originally the third and fourth. The former 
 of these alleges that on or about June 16, 1918, at Can- 
 ton, Ohio, the defendant caused and incited and at- 
 tempted to cause and incite insubordination, disloyalty, 
 mutiny and refusal of duty in the military and naval 
 forces of the United States and with intent so to do 
 delivered, to an assembly of people, a public speech, set 
 forth. The fourth count alleges that he obstructed 
 and attempted to obstruct the recruiting and enlistment 
 service of the United States and to that end and with 
 that intent delivered the same speech, again set forth. 
 There was a demurrer to the indictment on the ground 
 that the statute is unconstitutional as interfering with 
 free speech, contrary to the First Amendment, and to the 
 several counts as insufficiently stating the supposed of- 
 fence. This was overruled, subject to exception. There 
 were other exceptions to the admission of evidence with 
 which we shall deal. The defendant was found guilty 
 and was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment on each 
 of the two counts, the punishment to run concurrently 
 on both. 
 
 The main theme of the speech was Socialism, its 
 growth, and a prophecy of its ultimate success. With, 
 that we have nothing to do, but if a part of the manifest 
 intent of the more general utterances was to encourage 
 those present to obstruct the recruiting service and if in 
 passages such encouragement was directly given, the 
 immunity of the general theme may not be enough to 
 protect the speech. The speaker began by saying that 
 he had just returned from a visit to the workhouse in 
 the neighborhood where three of their most loyal com- 
 rades were paying the penalty for their devotion to the 
 working class — these being Wagenknecht, Baker, and 
 Ruthenberg, who had been convicted of aiding and abet' 
 
[APPENDIX 239 
 
 ting another in failing to register for the draft. RUTH- 
 ENBERG V. UNITED STATES, 245 U. S. 480. He 
 said that he had to he prudent and might not he ahle 
 to say all that he thought, thus intimating to his hear- 
 ers that they might infer that he meant more, but he did 
 say that those persons were paying the penalty for stand- 
 ing erect and for seeking to pave the way to better con- 
 ditions for all mankind. Later he added further eulogies 
 and said that he was proud of them. He then expressed 
 opposition to Prussian militarism in a way that natural- 
 ly might have been thought to be intended to include the 
 mode of proceeding in the United States. 
 
 After considerable discourse that it is unnecessary to 
 follow, he took up the case of Kate Richards O'Hare, 
 convicted of obstructing the enlistment service, praised 
 her for her loyalty to Socialism and otherwise, and said 
 that she was convicted on false testimony, under a rul- 
 ing that would seem incredible to him if he had not had 
 some experience with a Federal Court. We mention this 
 passage simply for its connection with evidence put in at 
 the trial. The defendant spoke of other cases, and then, 
 after dealing with Russia, said that the master class has 
 always declared the war and the subject class has always 
 fought the battles — that the subject class has had noth- 
 ing to gain and all to lose, including their lives ; that the 
 working class, who furnish the corpses, have never yet 
 had a voice in declaring war and have never yet had a 
 voice in declaring peace. *You have your lives 'to lose; 
 you certainly ought to have the right to declare war if 
 you consider a war necessary. ' The defendant next men- 
 tioned Rose Pastor Stokes, convicted of attempting to 
 cause insubordination and refusal of duty in the mili- 
 tary forces of the United States and obstructing the re- 
 cruiting service. He said that she went out to render 
 her service to the cause in this day of crises, and they 
 sent her to the penitentiary for ten years ; that she had 
 said no more than the speaker had said that afternoon; 
 
240 APPENDIX 
 
 that if she was guilty so was he, and that he would not be 
 cowardly enough to plead his innocence; but that her 
 message that opened the eyes of the people must be 
 suppressed, and so after a mock trial before a packed 
 jury and a corporation tool on the bench, she was sent 
 to the penitentiary for ten years. 
 
 There followed personal experiences and illustrations 
 of the growth of Socialism, a glorification of minorities, 
 and a prophecy of the success of the international Social- 
 ist crusade, with the interjection that *'you need to know 
 that you are fit for something better than slavery and 
 cannon fodder. ' ' The rest of the discourse had only the 
 indirect though not necessarily ineffective bearing on the 
 offences alleged that is to be found in the usual con- 
 trasts between capitalists and laboring men, sneers at the 
 advice to cultivate war gardens, attribution to pluto- 
 crats of the high price of coal, etc., with the implica- 
 tion running through it all that the working men are not 
 concerned in the war, and a final exhortation, ''Don't 
 worry about the charge of treason to your masters ; but 
 be concerned about the treason that involves your- 
 selves.'' The defendant addressed the jury himself, and 
 while contending that his speech did not warrant the 
 charges said, '*I have been accused of obstructing the 
 war. I admit it. Gentlemen, I abhor war. I would op- 
 pose the war if I stood alone." The statement was not 
 necessary to warrant the jury in finding that one pur- 
 pose of the speech, whether incidental or not, does not 
 matter, was to oppose not only war in general but this 
 war, and that the opposition was so expressed that its 
 natural and intended effect would be to obstruct re- 
 cruiting. If that was intended and if, in all the circum- 
 stances, that would be its probable effect, it would not be 
 protected by reason of its being part of a general pro- 
 gram and expressions of a general and conscientious be- 
 lief. 
 
 The chief defences upon which the defendant seemed 
 
[APPENDIX 241 
 
 willing to rely were the denial that we have dealt with 
 and that based upon the First Amendment to the Con- 
 stitution, disposed of in SCHENCK V. UNITED 
 STATES, ANTE. His counsel questioned the sufficiency 
 of the indictment. It is sufficient in form. FROH- 
 WERK V. UNITED STATES, ANTE. The most im- 
 portant question that remains is raised by the admission 
 in evidence of the record of the conviction of Ruthen- 
 berg, Wagenknecht and Baker, Rose Pastor Stokes, and 
 Kate Richards 'Hare. The defendant purported to un- 
 derstand the grounds on which these persons were im- 
 prisoned and it was proper to show what those grounds 
 were in order to show what he was talking about, to 
 explain the true import of his expression of sympathy 
 and to throw light on the intent of the address, so far as 
 the present matter is concerned. 
 
 There was introduced also an *' Anti-war Proclama- 
 tion and Program" adopted at St. Louis in April, 1917, 
 coupled with testimony that about an hour before his 
 speech the defendant had stated that he approved of 
 that platform in spirit and in substance. The defendant 
 referred to it in his address to the jury, seemingly with 
 satisfaction and willingness that it should be considered 
 in evidence. But his counsel objected and has argued 
 against its admissibility, at some length. This document 
 contained the usual suggestion that capitalism was the 
 cause of the war and that our entrance into it '*was in- 
 stigated by the predatory capitalists in the United 
 States." It alleged that the war of the United States 
 against Germany could not ^ ' be justified even on the plea 
 that it is a war in defence of American rights or Amer- 
 ican 'honor.' " It said: **We brand the declaration of 
 war by our Government as a crime against the people 
 of the United States and against the nations of the 
 world. In all modern history there has been no war 
 more unjustifiable than the war in which we are about to 
 engage." Its first recommendation was, '* continuous, 
 
242 APPENDIX 
 
 active, and public opposition to the war, through dem- 
 onstrations, mass petitions, and all other means within 
 our power. ' ' Evidence that the defendant accepted this 
 view and this declaration of his duties at the time that he 
 made his speech is evidence that if in that speech he used 
 words tending to obstruct the recruiting service he meant 
 that they should have that effect. The principle is too 
 well established and too manifestly good sense to need 
 citation of the books. "We should add that the jury 
 were most carefully instructed that they could not find 
 the defendant guilty for advocacy of any of his opinions 
 unless the words used had as their natural tendency and 
 reasonably probable effect to obstruct the recruiting ser- 
 vice, etc., and unless the defendant had the specific 
 intent to do so in his mind. 
 
 Without going into further particulars we are of opin- 
 ion that the verdict on the fourth count, for obstructing 
 and attempting to obstruct the recruiting service of the 
 United States, must be sustained. Therefore it is less 
 important to consider whether that upon the third count, 
 for causing and attempting to cause insubordination, 
 etc., in the military and naval forces, is equally im- 
 pregnable. The jury were instructed that for the pur- 
 poses of the statute the persons designed by the Act of 
 May 18, 1917, registered and enrolled under it, and thus 
 subject to be called into the active service, were a part 
 of the military forces of the United States. The Gov- 
 ernment presents a strong argument from the history of 
 the statutes that the instruction was correct and in ac- 
 cordance with established legislative usage. We see no 
 sufficient reason for differing from the conclusion, but 
 think it unnecessary to discuss the question in detail. 
 
 Judgment affirmed. 
 A true copy. 
 
 Test: 
 
 Clerk Supreme Court, U. S. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 243 
 
 Oire fRM •(IdrM* •( jotu latter btr*' 
 
 riM* name sad iiailal uamhar bM* 
 
 |.«,u.^£;^iE;«^K»«,- tf^?=^. 
 
 
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244 APPENDIX 
 
 A LETTER FEOM PRISON 
 
 David Karsneb, E. V. Debs, 
 
 2 Beekman Place, Serial No. 2253. 
 
 New York, N. Y. 
 
 Moundsville, W. Va., May 29, 1919. 
 
 Beloved Comrade Dave: 
 
 You are the very dearest, sweetest, finest of comrades, 
 and you have proved it time without number since first 
 you came, as if by special providence, into my life. 
 I find myself so often under the necessity of thanking 
 you for some fresh kindness that I have come to realize 
 how little of what sings in the heart and sighs for ex- 
 pression can be transferred to the written page. Please 
 give the ''youngster" in the office my love for his kind- 
 ness in helping you to furnish me with the Call files and 
 clippings as requested, a service on the part of you both 
 that I gratefully appreciate. 
 
 Dear, beautiful, wonderful Horace! Put your arms 
 around him and kiss him for me until I can do so myself. 
 The Almighty never made but one of him. Tell him for 
 me to cling to the willows and live — he cannot other- 
 wise, for he 's immortal. The Whitman Fellowship ban- 
 quet of the gods will revive, restore and re-inspire him. 
 How I 'd love to be with you and put my arms about you 
 all. I'm busy here every minute. All's well within my 
 walls — if only the same were true without! Warden 
 Terrell has inquired about you. He thinks very kindly 
 of you as you do of him. 
 
 My love to our dear Horace, Anne Mowtgomerie, your 
 sweet Rose, and the comrades at the Call! 
 
 Yours until the last sunset, Gene. 
 
3)3 
 
f 
 
 Dewec 
 
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