DEB'S LIFE-THE STORY OF THE GREATEST MODERN AMERICAN
COLEMAN, McALISTER
Debs' Life-The Story of the Gretest Modern American This apb, with* pari at a forthcoming book am America* Pioneer* far Freed** which MeAlitttr Coleman is now writing By McAlistcr...
...Although officially not.A citizen,' because of his prison term, no objection was entered lb his registering for the election...
...a time of life when a-^ftau' who baa" been as active as he arts...
...tee, .who could eee no good coming oat of the entire situation...
...The American Railway Union, of which - he was p the leading spirit, had done much quiet organization work among the employees of the road, and had built up a strong following...
...T aa not a labor leaden 1 do not waat yoe to follow me or any on* sis...
...Honrs before he went to court, he received friends who.had earns from far distance*, and assured them all: "This U but another iniie-post along tb* pathway of progress...
...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 Socialistic utterances —and I thank him and all who helped me out of the darkness into light...
...He responded to all of them but bis early conviction that tbe organisation by craft alone was not enough was steadily strengthened...
...The house was not well furnished with anything except books Of these there seems to have been a plenty...
...He insisted, however, that be must go oa- to a bigger work...
...In his first campaign Debs polled some 96,000 votes...
...Ha bad asked bar to sdlraaa tb* omb and at tost iacMeut b* Says that g* and a few friends met Mias Anthony at tb* railroad station aad walked with Her to a bo tel...
...On one aid* was th* group led by Samuel Gompers, president of the Americah Federation of Labor, who supported tbo- Wa* -with all Ma heart and so*** Oa th*cotb*r-aidA war* Debs and the mora radical amomg the Labor...
...quickly elected secretary of the local...
...In Karsner'a book Debs tells of those early days aa follows: "My first step waa thus taken in organised labor and a new Influence fired my ambition and changed tbe whole current of my career...
...The following campaign this vote waa slightly enlarged and the Party became more radical By 1898 there was decided, dissatisfaction with the tactics of the old Socialist Labor .Party, which split, A new organization was formed* in 1900 which called itself simply the Socialist Party...
...Day and night I worked for the brotherhood...
...He worked at night, at...
...Wlthhj a short time Dabs and some of bee serai comrade* bad SslSff XM lodgea aad Wiped out Use eJiy a-*^att!LS!La*t^a*^**r '^Hhfr* 'jifrtfogaised as aa ap and eeaaiasT *¦***> of labor...
...He found Socialism...
...The original party formed then was called the Socialist Labor Party...
...They then held a rousing mass meeting in a Chicago armory, into which all who could, had Jammed their way...
...ttaeb^'maiTi mama*UM b***t*at the tlmaf^Tbey bad fQsassd tha Occidental Literary club and they tavttod tB* leadtng rlbarais sad radicals of tb* day U> come and sgeak to them...
...To attend tbs •masting* waa my supreme Joy, sad foe tea years e waa not once absent a ban tbe afltbral assembled...
...war, and hi* spirit waa flaming with indignation...
...There's a real man," he said...
...Now it was awakening again...
...And wnal jaencbless seal and coneumin* vanttyJ all the firemen ororywhao sad they wars ail the wort*-were straining: -To eatoh gas beat Crt my traaopfatg fee*.' ' "M3r grip was always packed and ] ras darting la all dlrectioos...
...Divided, the various SnJoai would fall...
...The eharactet of Jean Val Jean came alive for him from Hugo's pen and the struggle of man with his fellow man sad with his surroundings, as depicted in that book, save Eugene Deba a viewpoint on Ufa and a sympathy with suffering that la unique...
...He went everywhere up and down tbe land, helping to organize Socialist locals, speaking before large and small gatherings, and In general devoting all his great talents to th* cause that 'bad won bu heart...
...It was] easy for...
...This, characteristtcaBy enough, be declined to accept, 8e this long, gaunt, young pioneer left hia $4,000 a year Job to start on a gallant attempt to draw all tb* railroad men into one organisation to...
...Little by little the public, when they realised that most of the force and violence and anarchy of the time waa being deliberately practiced by agents of tb...
...At all svenu...
...Is 1912, Mr...
...But it was evident throughout tb* trial that tbe minds of tb* Jurymen bad become so filled with propaganda for tbe war that Deba would be convicted...
...feelingly ongi eased for that ¦nngaal cent woman...
...Among hie dearest friends was James Whitcomb Riley, whoee poem on Debs has been already quoted...
...Debs saw that while there were a number- ot •trong organisations among the railroad workers, these so-called "craft organisations" had tbe great weakness »f being scattered and sometimes SO*-j tile to one another's interests...
...Tbe new party declared: The supreme issue in America today ufttne contest of the working class and the capitalist class for the possession of the powers of government," At each election since 1900 tbe party has gene to the polls with candidates and a platform, stressing two things: First, what are called th* "lmmedlatt demands" tor public ownership, industrial democracy, etc., and secondly, urging a change In tb* entire system of private profits and ownership...
...I was filled with enthusiasm and my blood fairly leaped] in my veins...
...an this tun* there bad- been constant agitatioa oa tb* part of the Socialists for Debs' release...
...It wag thus that Debs came to asset Susan B. Anthony...
...Even my friends were daSgUStsd with roe for piloting such aa •undesirable citisea' Into the community...
...It waa with great foreboding that his mother used to stand on the stoop of their home in the Terre Haute aide street and watch the youngster trudging off to work with his railroad lantern swinging at hia side...
...Here was Debs' opportunity...
...Jean Debs had a well-equipped library of French history and the classics, and little Gene used to apend hours poring over Victor Hugo's "Lee Mlserabies," which hi remembers as having made a tremendous Impression on his youthful mind...
...As the young Debs grew in mental stature, so his opportunities for service to tbe labor movement grew...
...It nominated its first candidates in 1892, declaring for government ownership of railroads and communications, municipal ownership of public utilities, progressive income and inheritance taxes, free school books, universal suffrage, the recall and referendum...
...The Socialists bad' a saying of him at that time, Though' Jailed, be speaks," aid It did seem sg though tb* spirit of tbo man behind bar* in a Southern prison was reaching out through every channel of radical thought, Hia devoted brother, Theodore, was kept busy for all that tan* answering th* great piles of cor*' spondence that Deft* was not allowed to receive in prison...
...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...
...the powerful railroad eer*| potations to.eat one group against a*H other...
...Aa a matter of fact, during tb* last two years of the American Railway Union's existence he took no salary at all...
...used to sell socks there...
...Finally, in 1*21,' President Harting, an essentially kind although weak man, sent for Debs...
...Debs' answer to all hints of this nature is contained in his talk with Karaner...
...He went before the convention of hia brotherhood in 1SS...
...He had com* tate touch with sack other pioneers as Wendell Phillips, Robert O. laaarsoil sad etaaaa B. Anthony, one of the most courageous flshters far woeaaa'a eaflrsae in the country: Of Phillips...
...nominated aba far tb* State L**uslaturs oi Indiana aa tb* Democratic ticket aod he was slssts* la ISM...
...Debs and three other officers of the Union were indicted and arrested on July 17 for contempt of court, the charge against them being that they had Ignored a restraining injunction...
...He appealed the case and wag freed on bail, but on March 10, 1919, tbe Supreme Court of th* United States upheld his conviction...
...He said that he had made a thorough investigation of living conditions and wages in the so-called "model" town of Pullman and was satisfied that the men had justice on their side...
...In the coarse of bis busy Iff* Debs won the friendship of, some of the most, outstanding figure* in tb* literary as wall' as in the liberal field...
...To me Terre Haute meant but one thins—that It was the home of Eocene Victor Debs, one of tbe area test of all the American pioneers of ftaadssa as I asked him: "Did yon ever meet Debs thereT" He pondered for s moment over the name, and Anally said: "Deba...
...He praised th* Bolshevist oi Russia, asserted his right to say what he thought about the war and concluded, "And now for all of us to do our duty...
...All hail to the workers of America and the world...
...Dab** salary was to be ft a month...
...Dabs stuck to his guns, denying that he had advocated fores or violence, and Insisting on his right to express sympathy for hia fellow-Socialists who were in jail He denounced the Espionage Law, and said that if he had hia way be would wipe militarism from the whole world...
...The call is ringing in your ear*.' Do not worry over'tna charge ot treason to yours^nalstersi bayt be concerned about tia.treaspn that ino»te^ wtjtto boat against Deba...
...On tbe day that he started to Jail, Gene made a statement, saying, "I stand by every word of the Canton speech...
...On 'Jan* If, 1*18, in Canton, Ohio, before the Ohio Stat* Socialist Convention, Gene made a speech on tbe war which resulted In hi* being tried and sentenced to Jail for violation of the Espionage Law, a'war-time measure believed by many liberals to have violated every vestige of freedom, as guaranteed by the Constitution...
...It may have been St this time that he came upon the idea ot bringing all the railroad workers together in one big union...
...Riley summed up hia Impression of Dabs in oa* Una when be wrote: ,. "God was...
...To few aunt ot our tunes have corns such touching tributes from those ia an walks ot life...
...Especially was he stirred by the revolutionary history of the United States and France...
...Ia mi be mad* bis flret political spas ah aad was tendered the nomI iiat...
...Four day* attar the egeech appeared, a Federal Grand Jury indicted Debs oa September 9, 1*18...
...The Supreme Court, to the contrary notwithstanding, tbe Espionage Law is perfeely infamous and a disgrace, aa well, to the capitajlft despotism at- whose behest it waa enacted......I despise tb* Espionage Law with every drop, of blood In my veins, and I defy the Supreme Court and all its power* of capitalism to do their worst...
...Pullman mysteriously disappeared...
...as it is now tbi capitalists use your beads aad yom bands ' Busied aa he was with his duties ai organiser, ' Debs "nevertheless found Urn* to tatoret himself ta tb* political aural...
...Debs sad bis labor friends, organised tb* American Rail, way Union st Chicago...
...enai...
...His father came to this country on a sailing ship which arrived at New York In 184...
...He addressed tbo Jury for the better part of two hours, giving his entire viewpoint on life, and at the end he waa deluged...
...however, rector* Gem's citizenship rights...
...Coxey and one or two of his lieutenants were arrested by the Washington police for walking on the grass in the park and the army drifted away...
...This new venture came at a time when over the entire labor movement in America there hung...
...Haute, IncUana.'Theaalegman tilted his cigar and looked oat over the Weak line of frame and brick house* marching away from the railroad yard...
...The second A. R. U. strike was widespread and it attracted attention- in all parts of the country...
...Debs wss rslsassd from JaS* on November 22, 1895...
...To aes its watch - ores glow and observe the increase of tU sturdy memoes* wees the etmeblns and shower of my lit...
...Hf stood trial in the city or Cleveland before Jadg* D. C Wostenhaver...
...Tbe result waa seriously to destroy much of tbe effectiveness of Socialist propaganda...
...It was tearing at the vitals of America...
...By thia tiaM his harlsesis ha* immsnssjy wit...
...M* said that he waited to give all bis tint* and.anaepf...
...u* te* a saat in Congress by tbe Dgssseisttfe Pasty of Indiana...
...In June, ma...
...He denounced militarism of all aorta, Prussian aa -well, as native...
...However much they max has* disagreed with his principles, man «f heart and intelligence ware invariably drawn to him...
...Debs' Life-The Story of the Gretest Modern American This apb, with* pari at a forthcoming book am America* Pioneer* far Freed** which MeAlitttr Coleman is now writing By McAlistcr Coleman IWAS riding ia a Pullman irate one day with a travelling salesman when a. porter put his bead through the curtains to the smoking compartment and shouted: "Terre...
...Soon the '^General'" found himself at the head of a remarkable assortment cf humanity...
...hia biographer, that it waa Thomas Paine who waa his special hero...
...These despairing men were roaming up and down the country in little groups, seeking work in vain...
...It most not be forgotten that next t* agitating against injustices to tbs* workers, agitating on behalf of voter for woman was in those early days- * very dangerous occupation...
...In the story of the life of John P. Altgeld, who was then Governor of Illinois, you can read how, against Altgeld's protests, President Grdver Cleveland poured Federal troops into Chicago, with the result that' the men were driven back to work...
...In the face of much opposition from such bodies ss th* American Legion and other group* who wanted to keep up the war spirit, Harding commuted Debs* sentence just before Christmas Day, 1*21...
...desolation and hopelessness...
...He did not...
...feeling mighty good whoa h* made Gen* Deb*, sad he didn't have anything also to do- all day...
...At the head of a number of unemployed workers...
...He liked to get away in his room1 and recite Patrick Henry's revolutionary speech and in a boyish voice shout out, Robert Emmet's famous oration...
...Tb* convention unanimously refused to accept bis resignation and he was Brassed to stay with tbe brotherhood...
...Ha took a train to Chicago where he was mot by a great crowd of cheering workers who carried him on their shoulders through the streets...
...When Deba was in prison during the war I spoke about him to a hardboiled sergeant in ay regiment who had been a bricklayer in peace times, but who was not a Socialist and who had never seen Debs...
...Of a sudden, they found a leader...
...For these there waa no thought of da* processes of law...
...Tb* word* love aaC brotherhood aad th* nam* Deb* bar* come to be linked together in tb* Blinds of,all Who appreciate th* true greatness ot th* man., However loosely tb* word "groat" may be used, it to certainly on* adjective that cab be applied with Justice to "our" Gene Dabs...
...He was aware of the defects of his schooling and from hia earnings he bought ah encyclopedia on the instalment plan, a volume a month, and began to read and study history and biography, and to Improve his grammar and English composition...
...But Just how to put down in cold black and white tbe warmth of affection that this man has kindled in tbe breasts of millions who have never even seen him face to face remains a problem...
...He was one of ten children born to Jean Daniel Debs and Marguerite Bettrlch Debs, both native* of the French part of Alsace...
...first, receiving a dollar a day...
...There Debs made an impassioned speech In defense of tbe workers' cause...
...For lightean hours at a stretch I was glued to my desk, rearing est the answers to tar many mrracpandsula Day sad Bight were one...
...There had been a great financial panic in 1893, and thousands of workers were thrown odt of employment by the closing of factories and wholesale bankruptcies...
...Why, be-fur* Z would don th* sackcloth and geg down tot* the ashes before the Attend nay General or any man oa earth fejfe having a principle I aiilMp gkiillj watfb to the gallows or tk^Jp|g{*-* Although Debs waif ¦ I ***** old...
...a train, sometlmee passenger, more often freight, while attempting to deadhead over the division, were all in (he program and served to whet tbe appetite to conquer...
...I don't believe I ever ran bate him...
...It was while he found himself In Jail with the press of the nation railing against him, that Debs also found the Ideals that were to be big for the rest of his life...
...He determined to make real his dream ot one big railroad union...
...The lit* history of Debs now becomes almost entirely bound up wltt tbe Socialist cause...
...It was because oi her insistence, perhaps, that he accepted a position aa clerk in a grocery firm...
...Bat Jar...
...A* we walked along the street I waa painfully aware that Miss Anthony waa an object of derision aad...
...And nowadays sentiment la supposed to be old-fashioned...
...Coal miners in West Virginia, fishermen "out of Gloucester," cow-punchers in Wyoming, steel riveters on New York skyscrapers, men and women everywhere who have la them tbe least bit of human sentiment, have time and again echoed the lines of James Whitcomb Riley, the Hoosler post, who wrote: Most Loved Mob Today "Oo, search the earth from end to end...
...People were frightened from expressing their opinion...
...The writings of Bellamy and Blatchf ord early appealed to me...
...Debs had just returned from a visit to some of bis comrades who...
...And ao It was, for after a day of deliberation the Jury reached tbe verdict that Gene waa guilty as charged in the indictment...
...The attention . of...
...The modern type of Socialism was introduced into this country, in the late 40's and 50's when German Socialists, escaping from the persecution of their Prussian Government, brought with them the theories of Karl Marx...
...1 Bo...
...He berped organise the Switchmen's Mutual Aid Aaaooiatton...
...In th* meantime, he had been addressing countless Socialist meetings at every one of which he said practically the same about the war aa be had aald at Canton...
...with congratulations from his host of friends...
...Time and again there cams rumors that if be snaH withdraw hia Canton remarks, Gent might obtain a pardon...
...bad been in Jail for their opposition to the...
...This is the party that four times running selected Eugene Victor Deba aa their candidate for President...
...the youth sew that hia ptsc* area not clerking in a •tore, but serving the organises labor movement to flu eery best of hia ability...
...Shiploads of deported, men and women, in many instances torn ruthlessly from their families, were sent abroad- There were wholesale raids upon the headquarters of" Socialists and Communists...
...b> the building up of an organise taw that would include all tb* railroad 'Workers...
...He entered court surrounded by a group of fellow-Socialists and -watched with the keenest interest all the proceedings leading op to what was to be th* dim* of his long career...
...Bat the politician* recognising in bau « true leader of man...
...One night In midwinter at Elmlro, N. Y., a conductor on the Erie kindly dropped me off in a snowbank, and as f clambered to the top I ran Into the arms of a policeman, who heard my story and on Ob* spot became my friend...
...There ia an illuminating sidelight oa tb* sort of opposition that tb* early suffragists bad constantly to endure...
...vl rod* oa tbe engines over mountain and plain, slept fe\ the cabooses and bunks, and was -fed from .their pails by the swarthy stokers, who still nestle dose'to my heart, and will until it la cold and etiU...
...Ha was so 111 during this election campaign of 1*2* that it waa necessary to carry him on a stretcher to th* polling place in order that he might register...
...Instantly, the Labor movement here was split into two opposing camps...
...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 delivered the first impassioned message of Socialism I had ever beard—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, inscribed with the compliments of Victor L. Berger, which I cherish as a token of priceless value...
...Oh, what days...
...a ragttiv* aesrro aaflj ^eu...
...By this" time the Pullman managers were thoroughly aroused and resolved 'to break up the A. R. U. with every weapon that they had...
...t wouM nol lead you lata this piamfaed tend If 1 could, because If I •could toad you fan some one else would lead yon out...
...I wish I had him for a friend...
...During the trial an attempt waa made to bring George court...
...From all sides requests poured In on him to organize new groups of workers...
...Debs came to the front, as America's most courageous and dllligent^exponent of Socialist philosophy...
...Never did an organisation have a more devoted servant, Deba ia proud of the fact and pun it into hia biography in "The American Labor's Who's Who" that "in spite or other business, he never missed a meeting of the local in ten years...
...Government and others, returned to a more tolerant viewpoint...
...The climax waa tame enough...
...The first Socialist candidate polled about 21,000 votes...
...In the meantime, there had been much quiet organization work by those prominent in the A. R. U., and although Debs himself was averse to having a strike called, "the workers of the Pullman Palace Car Company at South Chicago, Illinois,' were insistent that the new union lead them out on strike...
...I was ready, to do...
...to band in bis resignation...
...w*a think - of retirement, his stay liifcfsiii was as1' full of activity for the Boetaisrt case* as any other period...
...He was nominated in 1900, 1904, 1908 and 1912...
...He writes of those thrilling days while) be was locked up for standing by his principles, that: "Books and pamphlets and letters from Socialists came by every mall and I began to read and think and dissect tbe anatomy of the system in which workingmen, however organized, could be shattered and battered and splintered at a single stroke...
...He took time that should have been devoted to sleep to reading everything that came to hand...
...In that city hs met and married Deba' mother...
...In Pullman strike by Federal Courts, the regular troops and 8,600 deputy marshals...
...It is difficult to write about Kugene V. Debs without nllow/fng a bit ot sentiment to gat between the lines...
...Although he knew that tbe ball was filled, with agent* from the Department of Justice, who bad .been sent there for tbe purpose of taking down everything he said, hs spoke bis mind out bluntly and with Jus usual high courage...
...the entire world became focused on the lean, kindly figure of Gene when the war broke out in Europe...
...The newpapers, of course, saw in Coxey's army another of their perennial "revolutions" and there was the wildest excitement as Coxey's men converged upon Washington...
...The American .Railway Union was defeated but not conquered—overwhelmed but not destroyed...
...He spent five years clerking, but always in the back of hia mind was the thought of his railroad days and the contacts that he made' as a fireman...
...Debs said: rbsy wast avbje *» m^jj|j5| ¦Mfca**.: saUsttnjf...
...He wrote: Growing- in Mutual Stature T can atm nee tbe aversion so aa...
...Even'then.he was concerned with the • conditions of labor ori the railroads...
...Foremost among those who were giving it new life and go was the energetic young Debs...
...From that time on...
...It ia this side that he shows when he strikes out against oppression, against the...
...This was one Jacob Coxey, a man with little economic training or background, but with an ability to gather up the threads of the growing discontent...
...Sudden tears same Into his eyes...
...crime of war, against the enslavement ot man by man...
...Between his mother and himself there waa a deep 1 and abiding love that was to make tender his relations with all humanity...
...To tram* * rough a railroad yard in tae ram, *g£f«Mm% biBtti ay* or tin daykaB^BUa-«aa|aaEBSJL stAB-we, ^"baU^BB, B«BBa^BBaBBBBBBBBBB»aV»aUaa !??T33Tw3»e!^Ti^^^^^^^ pot or...
...There waa poverty in the Deba home, where there were so many children to ."support and, at the age of 14, it waa necessary for Eugene to look for work...
...The . Debs family lived In a little frame house in Terre Haute In a working class district...
...contempt, aad in my heart I resented it and later I had often to defend my position, which, of course...
...With alt the airs of youth I entered open tbe eruaade, which as ems a to fairly glitter with possibilities...
...Spies from tha Department ef Justice and volunteer snoopers from all aorta of so-called patriotic organizations were everywhere looking for "plots against tbe Government," Of course, these tactics brought reaction against them...
...The court then sentenced Debs to serve ten years In the West Virginia State Penitentiary at Moundsville...
...Through the trial...
...Later on, aa a fireman, he was paid on a mileage basis...
...He waa on' the editorial stall of several ot the Socialist papers, and he has written countless leaflets ana pamphlets on the subject...
...b* called the American Railway Union...
...and as I bad now become known aa an organban*, the calls came from all sides, and there are but tew trades I have not helped to organise, and less stilt ™ am*** strikes I have not st some time Ms, a hand...
...Nice little town," he remarked...
...Gene returned to bis beloved Tecr* Haute, broken ia health though never in spirit...
...What Has does he sell 7" For seventy crowded years Dabs has been selling a line for which there Is no money equivalent, a line that might be branded, "Love and Liberty,- for these are tbe two -words that come Instantly Into the mind of any man who baa ever had contact with that great spirit...
...He 1 w*ai tbout among bis former friends fa OH «atfg*ad yards, sad on the ssusnBE oi reajrnary^lT, irnL^k*^«rsa>^tae prta*f< local Terre Haute Lodge of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen...
...The year after Coxey marched on Washington, the Great Northern Railroad announced a fresh cut in the wages of its men...
...Ton must as* your beads aa wail a* yam hands and get yourselves oat of youj peasant) condition...
...But Debs newer liked th« term, "labor leader.- A few years age he said to a group of workers...
...Debs thought that if they were united they would stand...
...His ability was Instantly recognised and he was...
...General" Coxey, as his followers soon learned to call him, started a march on Washington as a protest to the national government against conditions in the labor market All up and down the "jungles," as the camps where the employed gather are called, word spread of the march of Coxey's army on the Capitol...
...a love, no doubt, that translated into larger terms, Is reflected in Gene Debs.' tremendous sensitiveness to suffering and unusual capacity for sympathy...
...And Where's a, better all-around friend Than Eugene Deb* ?—a man that stands . And Jest bolds out in bis two .bands As warm a heart as ever beat Betwixt here and the Mercy Seati...
...Tbe full detail* of the meeting between the two in th* White House have never been disclosed, although there were reports Unit Harding broke down and wept when he saw what manner ot man waa before him...
...Beloved as no other man,is the American Labor Movement, with the beautiful gift for making and keeping loyal friends, there is a aids to Bugone Victor Debs that glows as fiercely as any hearth, furnace and flashes as a cutting sword...
...This be rtoqUned...
...Cat the witness stand...
...Much of the time sine* than be has beam an invalid in a sanitarium...
...A veritable reign of terror set in...
...Tbe case waa never brought to trial again...
...In his biographical note in "American Labor Who's Who," Debs has written: "Defeated...
...the Brother - heed of Railway Bra semen, now the Brstbarhood of Railway Trainmen;, tb* Brotherhood ot Railway Carmen sat tbe Order of Railway Telegraphera...
...Sonant* Repent for stand* nig rnre a man...
...He has told David Karen er...
...He found it la the shops of the railroads that come into Terre Haute, and finally became locomotive fireman on the Terre Haute and Indianapolis Railway Company', now a part of the Pennsylvania Railroad...
...not the firemen merely, but tbe braxemen, switch - men, telegraphers, ah op men, track bands—all of them, in fact...
...She knew that he was going Into the face oi danger and she hated to think of her 'Gene riding across the prairies through the night...
...Gene testified that he had urged the workers to commit no violence of any sort...
...Debs polled the large total oi 901,000 votes, but since that.tun* tbe vote of th* party has decreased...
...Deba was brilliantly defended by the ever-dependable Clarence Darrow...
...And because ot his fierce refusal to eay "yea" to any of these injustices, all bis life long Debs has been hated and reviled by that little group of greedy men and their hangers-on, who are the real rulers ot America, He was born on November C, 1858, In Terre Haute...
...Neither President Debs nor his three colleagues would consent to have ball furnished for them and they were sent to Cook County Jail, denied Jury trial at first and finally brought to trial in a case that was to become famous...
...There were young workers out of a Job and looking for adventure, more substantial middle-aged men driven to desperation, by their long search for employment, hoboes, plain tramps and all the hangers-on that such a picturesque crusade would naturally gather...
...Organizing The A. R. U. Coxey's army had, to be sure, its humorius aspects, but it was indication of a serious unrest...
...None of bin secretaries could gat In touch with him and suddenly the whole court pro) aedJngs came to an end wheat ft was announced that one of the Jurors waa sick...
...Tb* day of emaaclag-j tlon ia dawning...
...After the Haymarket affair, the labor movement had Iain stunned and dormant...
...The war was drawing to a close, but nevertheless pubUc opinion waa still kept Inflamed against any who had dared to denounce It...
...Tb* convention reluctantly . t**k bun at Ms word and accepted his resignation, voting to give him, aa a mark ot appreciation, $2,000 for a trip to Europe...
...His outstanding ability ia evidsnesfl by the fact that wfaea Deba task -charge ot -tb* affairs af tae Brotherhood ot Locomotive Firemen tae Order bad only <* lodges sad « It.*** debt...
...And so I was spurred on in the work of orgs wising...
...1*oa* of thorn bo.aaid: '¦Repent...
...with head held high and aahdj "firm as granite," Eugene Victor Deba KaruaSrV bto tlocUOk^iogTaphar...
...For having a su*»iai Una about a public question and stand* lag by it and for the cause...
...At that time he waa receiving »4,ooo a year...
...If yet are looking for a Moses to toad you ssrt of/ the capitalist wildi mis* yen wfD stay right where you are...
...Mo sooner bad the Armistice been signed than, under tb* leadership of tha notorious Attarnay General A. Mitchell Palmer, a concerted governmental attack waa made on any who were diujpugad to have "radical viewpoints...
...Bleep was Uaaa wasted...
Vol. 3 • October 1926 • No. 41
