Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Victor Debs Travels to Denver, Confers with Governor Ammons on the Colorado Coalfield Strike

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Quote EVD, Law ag Working Class, AtR p1, Apr 29, 1911—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 24, 1913
Denver, Colorado – Eugene Debs Confers with Governor Ammons

From the Denver United Labor Bulletin of November 22, 1913:

EVD to Colorado, Meets w Gov, ULB p1, Nov 22, 1913

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Victor Debs Travels to Denver, Confers with Governor Ammons on the Colorado Coalfield Strike”

Hellraisers Journal: From The Comrade: “How I Became a Socialist” by May Wood Simons, Eighth of Ongoing Series

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Women of the World, Unite.
You have double chains to lose
and you have the world to gain.
-May Wood Simons
—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday November 9, 1902
“How I Became a Socialist” by May Wood Simons

From The Comrade of November 1902:

How I Became a Socialist.

VIII.
By MAY WOOD SIMONS

May Wood Simons, Comrade p32, Nov 1902

“Day’s Wages for Day’s Work.” Over and over again I had read the rugged lines of Carlyle’s “Past and Present” in my university days. It all came back to me one summer vacation when I returned to our Wisconsin town to find it excited over the trial of a favorite professor at the State University.

“Socialism” was then a new word to me and had little or no meaning, but my curiosity led me to at once procure and read the book that was arousing the commotion-R. T. Ely’s “Socialism and Social Reform.” I read it several times and then fell to studying his “French and German Socialism” I was far more impressed by his statement of Socialism than by his objection to it. The latter seemed to me very weak.

In the fall when I returned to Northwestern University I began the reading of Ruskin on the one hand and the study of Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill’s “Principles of Political Economy” on the other. Fortunately I was not so fascinated by Mill’s wonderful logic and beautiful style that I lost my spirit of criticism. Hence I did not acquiesce blindly in his conclusions as did the majority of my fellow students. The “Wage Fund” theory, so universally accepted in the economics department, was to me a stumbling block. Long  before reading Marx I came upon the Labor Value theory in Mills and Ricardo, and as I turn over my old note-books, I find them filled with quotations from Mill, that set forth the Class Struggle as plainly as any Socialist ever stated it. These contradictions I could not explain. There was no one to tell me of Mill’s change of mind, and not until I became interested in his personality, and took up his autobiography, did I find that before he died he called himself a Socialist.

My economic studies continued through the other classical writers to the Austrian, German and later American economists, and at each step I felt that I must get out of this mass of dead hair-splitting and mental calisthenics, and find something alive in the way of economics. Their a priori statements and apparent disregard of actual conditions and tendencies was evident to me.

At a bookstore I one day came upon Arnold Toynbee’s “Industrial Revolution.” As I read it I felt that here was something that gave me more of economics than the theoreticians possibly could. My next book was Marx’s “Capital.” I had heard of it before as “The Bible of the Working Classes.” I studied it carefully. The first thing that impressed me was his great scholarship and his masterly chapters on industrial history. The labor value theory was again brought to my attention, and for the first time, surplus value. Here, said I, is the secret of capitalism. When I had obtained the “Manifesto” and Engels’ little book on “Socialism, Utopian and Scientific,” and read them, I was a convert to Socialism.

Quite accidentally I had come into contact with settlement work, at Hull House and the Northwestern University Settlement. I frequently went on “slumming” trips, and having been brought up in a country town, where poverty shows few of its horrible features, I was suddenly made aware that a worse than the Inferno of Dante existed on earth. In the strike of 1894 I took the greatest interest, and my only regret was that I could not be a man on the field of action.

I had originally planned that on finishing my university work I would take a theological course preparatory to entering the ministry, in which work I had already engaged to some extent. I found, however, that my university studies had unfitted me for this, and I turned to the profession of teaching for the next few years. Here I continued my economic and sociological studies and began to fully grasp the idea of Socialism as a philosophy of society. For the first time I felt the inadequacy of our school methods and the existence of class education, and I saw that education too must pass through a revolution.

The years from 1897-99 were spent in or near the Chicago University Settlement. At this time I became a member of a branch of the Socialist Labor party. I knew little or nothing of politics, less of Socialist party matters, or of the international movement. During these two years I spent four hours a day in the office of the Bureau of Charities. Night after night that stream of haggard faces kept me company in dreams. There were three distinct stages in my attitude of mind toward this problem of poverty. The sentiment of sympathy dominated during the first stage. Then the whole thing became mechanical. This in turn gave way to a fierce rebellion against the conditions that made people come begging for a pittance. Two years spent in this settlement and charity work forced both my husband and myself to leave it and give our whole time to the Socialist cause. 

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Comrade: “How I Became a Socialist” by May Wood Simons, Eighth of Ongoing Series”

Hellraisers Journal: Great Anthracite Strike Ended; Miners Agree to Accept Judgement of Roosevelt’s Commission, Part II

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Quote Mother Jones, Coming of the Lord, Cnc Pst p6, July 23, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday October 25, 1902
Pennsylvania Anthracite Strikers Ordered to Resume Work, Part II

From the Scranton Tribune of October 22, 1902:

HdLn re Great Anthracite Strike, Miners to Resume Work, Scranton Tb p1, Oct 22, 1902

[Part II of II]

REJOICING AT SHENANDOAH.
———-
Eighteenth Regiment Band Leads
the Parade of Miners.

By Exclusive Wire from The Associated Press.

John Mitchell, The Columbian, Bloomsburg PA p2, Oct 23, 1902

Shenandoah, Pa., Oct. 21.-News that the convention declared the strike off reached Shenandoah at 12 o’clock, and almost simultaneously every bell in the town was ringing and the whistles of every factory and breaker pealed joyous notes. There was a spontaneous outpouring of people and ten minutes after the good news reached town the streets were crowded.

At Mahanoy City and elsewhere in the anthracite field the news of the strike settlement was received with wild enthusiasm. There was blowing of whistles and ringing of bells, and almost the entire population of the towns assembled in the streets. In some localities there were impromptu parades, in which the fire departments and other organizations joined in some instances.

Pathetic scenes were enacted as the men, who have been idle and under great strain for nearly six months, rushed off to prepare for work.

Colonel Rutledge sent the Eighteenth Regiment band into town this afternoon to take part in the strike settlement celebration. The band marched through the streets at the head of a mine workers’ parade and was wildly cheered all along the line. Nearly every building in the town is decorated with flags, and the people in general appear almost insanely happy. Besides the soldiers’ band, two other bands took part in the demonstration.

—————

PRESIDENT ACTS PROMPTLY.
———-
He Summons the Members of Commission
to Meet on Friday.

By Exclusive Wire from The Associated Press.

Washington, Oct. 21.-Shortly before 3 o’clock this afternoon, President Roosevelt received a telegram from Wilkes-Barre, Pa., informing him that the convention of miners had declared off the anthracite coal strike. The telegram was signed by John Mitchell, chairman, and W. B. Wilson, secretary of the convention, and was identical with that made public at Wilkes-Barre before noon today.

Immediately on receipt of this Information, the following telegram was sent to Mr. Mitchell:

White House, Washington, Oct, 21, 1902

Mr. John Mitchell, Chairman of Convention, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.:

Upon receipt of your telegram of this date, the president summoned the commission to meet here on Friday next, the 24th instant, at 10 a. m.

George B. Cortelyou, Secretary.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Great Anthracite Strike Ended; Miners Agree to Accept Judgement of Roosevelt’s Commission, Part II”

Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: “Christmas in Prison” by Fellow Worker and Comrade Eugene Debs, Part II

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Quote EVD No Bitterness on Release fr Prison Deb Mag Jan 1922 p3—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday August 15, 1922
Christmas Eve 1920: Eugene Debs Is Guest of Honor at Prison Banquet 

From the Appeal to Reason of August 12, 1922:

Christmas in Prison

By EUGENE V. DEBS

[Part II of II]

EVD Leaves Prison crp Dec 25, Waves Hat, Stt Str p1, Dec 31, 1921
Eugene Debs Leaving
Atlanta Penitentiary
Christmas Day 1921

Some weeks before Christmas [of 1920] a case containing 500 copies of a book, entitled “Debs and the Poets” was shipped to the prison. It was an anthology of verse and comment collected by Ruth Le Prade and published by Upton Sinclair at Pasadena, Cal.

It was the desire of the author and publisher that I autograph the books to be sold by them in the interest of a fund being raised to continue the agitation for general amnesty for political prisoners.

When the books arrived, a copy was scrutinized by Warden Zerbst, who decided that the introduction supplied by Upton Sinclair was not particularly complimentary to the prison idea, nor was some of the poetry. So a copy was sent to Attorney General Palmer, who ruled there was nothing objectionable in it, and that I might be permitted to autograph the copies.

Some friends outside the prison asked the warden if I might be permitted to inscribe the books Christmas Eve night. The request was granted and the hour to begin was fixed at seven o’clock. I went to the clerk’s office, where I found my friends.

The books were piled on either side of me at the clerk’s desk and the work of autographing them commenced.

Ginger Ale Suspected.

In the corridor outside a dozen or more prisoners were assembling the last of the Christmas packages for the convicts and there was an atmosphere of fellowship that pervaded the entire scene.

From time to time prisoners slipped in and out of the room where I was at work to drop a kindly word, and my friends from the outside world remarked upon the amiable manner in which every convict conducted himself.

Later that evening it was suggested by one of my visitors that maybe the prisoners assorting Christmas boxes would like to have a soft drink, so the matter was put up to the chief clerk, who was superintending the work, and he agreed to it. Thereupon my friends went out of the prison and down to a little store outside the gates, where they purchased two dozen bottles of ginger ale.

It happened that when they asked to be readmitted to the penitentiary Deputy Warden Gregory was in the main corridor and he came to the gate to inquire what was in the box they carried.

He was told of its contents and that permit had been secured to bring it in the prison for the men who were at work over the Christmas gifts. The deputy warden felt that he should have first been consulted about the matter and he refused to allow the refreshment to be given to the convicts.

This is but one indication of how senseless and needlessly harsh are prison rules.

Later the deputy attempted to explain in a somewhat apologetic manner to one of my friends that: “Who knows but that those bottles might contain ‘dope’ and ‘files’!”

This, in spite of the fact that he could have reassured himself on that score in a moment by observing that every bottle was sealed.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: “Christmas in Prison” by Fellow Worker and Comrade Eugene Debs, Part II”

Hellraisers Journal: From The Comrade: How the Woodstock Jail Turned a Union Leader into a Socialist by Eugene Debs

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Quote EVD Brush the Dust, Saginaw Eve Ns p6, Feb 6, 1899—————-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday April 10, 1902
How Six Months in the Woodstock Jail Made a Socialist of Eugene Debs

From The Comrade of April 1902:

HdLn Debs Socialist, Comrade p146, Apr 1902

As I have some doubt about the readers of “The Comrade” having any curiosity as to “how I became a Socialist” it may be in order to say that the subject is the editor’s, not my own; and that what is here offered is at his bidding—my only concern being that he shall not have cause to wish that I had remained what I was instead of becoming a Socialist.

On the evening of February 27, 1875, the local lodge of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen was organized at Terre Haute, Ind., by Joshua A. Leach, then grand master, and I was admitted as a charter member and at once chosen secretary. “Old Josh Leach,” as he was affectionately called, a typical locomotive fireman of his day, was the founder of the brotherhood, and I was instantly attracted by his rugged honesty, simple manner and homely speech. How well I remember feeling 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.”

Twenty-seven years, to a day, 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; and as I think of him now:

“Remembrance wakes, with all her busy train,
Swells at my breast and turns the past to pain.”

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 watch-fires 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.

At the convention held in Buffalo in 1878 I was chosen associate editor of the magazine, and in 1880 I became grand secretary and treasurer. 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 and often when, all oblivious of her presence in the still small hours my mother’s hand turned off the light, I went to bed under protest. Oh, what days! And what quenchless zeal and consuming vanity! 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, to be ordered out of the roundhouse for being an “agitator,” 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 appetite to conquer. One night in midwinter at Elmira, N. Y., a conductor on the Erie kindly dropped me off in a snowbank, and as I clambered to the top I ran into the arms of a policeman, who heard my story and on the spot became my friend.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Comrade: How the Woodstock Jail Turned a Union Leader into a Socialist by Eugene Debs”

Hellraisers Journal: Terre Haute Toiler: John Peter Altgeld, Liberator of Class-War Prisoners, -by Eugene V. Debs

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Justice Guiding Light, Oratory p49, 1901—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 22, 1902
From Terre Haute, Indiana, Eugene Debs Pays Tribute to John Peter Altgeld

From The Toiler of March 21, 1902:

Altgeld, the Liberator

-by Eugene V. Debs

John Peter Altgeld, wiki
John Peter Altgeld

John Peter Altgeld has joined Abraham Lincoln in the realm of the immortals [March 12, 1902]. His career was tempestuous and heroic, and the end tragic and sublime. The gods must have set the stage for the last earthly act of the intrepid warrior and most nobly did he fill the leading role. When the last word of his impassioned plea for liberty died upon his eloquent lips the climax came and the curtain fell upon another martyr in the great drama of humanity.

John Altgeld was born in the throes of revolt [December 30, 1847]. A thousand years of feudal tyranny were culminating. The fateful year of 1848 had a violent temper. It rocked the cradle of the babe that was destined to become the tribune of the people.

The leader, now fallen, never took a backward step, never subordinated principle to policy, never sacrificed conviction to attain his end. He was fearless, he was determined, and he was incorruptible.

John P. Altgeld was in the highest sense a statesman, he was a daring leader and a fiery and intense orator whose eloquent and lofty appeals inspired the multitude.

His noblest and therefore greatest official act was the opening of dungeon doors to liberate innocent victims of corporate tyranny [Chicago’s Eight-Hour Class-War Prisoners]. If the gods have to do with politics they ordained the election of John P. Altgeld for this incomparable service to humanity.

Through the rain of fire he walked with steady step to the hideous bastille’s doors, nor faltered once until the captives walked forth men; his official robes turned to ashes in the ordeal, but lo! the flame of calumny to which our hero bared his head is even now become the aureole of his fame.

The robbers of the people, the stranglers of liberty, the foes of humanity feared and hated him; the fawning sycophants of wealth, the time serving mercenaries of power slandered him; this was the measure of his greatness.

The few honest men who knew John P. Altgeld loved him. He was genuine; he was true; he could look God and man straight in the eye.

In the railroad strikes in 1894 he expanded to his true proportions.There he proved to be the fearless champion of the people. He stood upon the boundary line of Illinois and protested against the military usurpation of the President, and though overwhelmed, he proudly vindicated his high honor, and he, more than any other man, retired Grover Cleveland and his pirate crew from American politics.

Altgeld was too great to become President; he will be remembered long after most Presidents are forgotten.

How glorious the final scene! See him summon all his wasted strength. Note the transfiguration in the last superhuman effort—the light of liberty in his eye, the flush of dawn upon his brow as he defiantly exclaimed:

Again to the battle, Achaians!
Our hearts bid the tyrants defiance!
Our land, the first garden of Liberty’s tree,
It has been, and shall yet be, the land of the free.

Workingmen and workingwomen never had a truer friend; he yearned to see them happy, and consecrated all he had to make them free.

He paid the penalty of all the earth’s redeemers. Socrates was poisoned, Christ crucified, John Brown strangled, Lincoln assassinated, and Altgeld stabbed by a million venomous tongues.

The grandchildren of his slayers will seek his works for knowledge and inspiration, and to the coming generations he will speak forever.

—————

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Terre Haute Toiler: John Peter Altgeld, Liberator of Class-War Prisoners, -by Eugene V. Debs”

Hellraisers Journal: From the Social Democratic Herald: Eugene Debs Recalls Labor’s Battles in the “War for Freedom”

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SDH p2, Jan 11, 1902———————-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 12, 1902
Eugene Victor Debs Recalls Bloody Scenes of Battle in Class War

From the Social Democratic Herald of January 11, 1902:

The War for Freedom.

By Eugene V. Debs.

EVD crpd Nw Orln Tx Dem p3, Jan 26, 1900

The country we inhabit is generally supposed to have been in a state of peace since the close of the Civil War, excepting the brief period required to push the Spaniards off the western continent. And yet during this reign of so-called peace more than a score of bloody battles have been fought on American soil, in every one of which the working class were beaten to the earth, notwithstanding they outnumber their conquerors and despoilers at least ten to one, and notwithstanding in each case they asked but a modest concession that represented but a tithe of what they were justly entitled to.

To recall the bloody scenes in the Tennessee mountains, the horrors of Idaho, the tragedies of Virden, Pana, Buffalo, Chicago, Homestead, Lattimer, Leadville, and many others, is quite enough to chill the heart of a man who has such an organ, and yet above the cloud and smoke of battle there shines forever the bow of promise, and however fierce the struggle and gloomy the outlook, it is never obscured to the brave, self-reliant soul who knows that victory at last must crown the cause of labor.

Thousands have fallen before the fire of the enemy and thousands more are doubtless doomed to share the same fate, but

“Freedom’s battle once begun,
Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son,
Though baffled oft, Is ever won.”

The struggle in this and other lands by the children of toil is a struggle between classes which in some form or other has been waged since primitive man first captured and enslaved his weaker fellow-being. Through the long, dark night of history the man who toiled has been in fetters, and though today they are invisible, yet they bind him as securely in wage slavery as if they were forged of steel.

How the millions toil and produce! How they suffer and are despised! Is the earth forever to be a dungeon to them? Are their offspring always to be food for misery? These are questions that confront the workingmen of our day and a few of them at least understand the nature of the struggle, are conscious of their class interests, and are striving with all their energy to close up the ranks and conquer their freedom by the solidarity of labor.

In this war for freedom the organized men in the Western states have borne a conspicuous and honorable part. They have, in fact, maintained better conditions on the whole than generally prevail, and this they have done under fire that would have reduced less courageous and determined men. But, notwithstanding their organized resistance, they must perceive that in common with all others who work for wages they are losing ground before the march of capitalism.

It requires no specially sensitive nature to feel the tightening of the coils, nor prophetic vision to see the doom of labor if the government is suffered to continue in control of the capitalist class. In every crisis the shotted guns of the government are aimed at the working class. They point in but one direction. In no other way could the capitalists maintain their class supremacy. Court injunctions paralyze but one class. In fact, the government of the ruling class today has but one vital function, and that is to keep the exploited class in subjection.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Social Democratic Herald: Eugene Debs Recalls Labor’s Battles in the “War for Freedom””

Hellraisers Journal: Judge Woods Is Dead, Sent Eugene Debs to Prison for Six Months in Connection with Pullman Strike of 1894

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Quote EVD Brush the Dust, Saginaw Eve Ns p6, Feb 6, 1899—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday July 25, 1901
Pullman’s Injunction Judge, William Woods, Is Dead

From the Social Democratic Herald of July 20, 1901:

Debs and Judge Woods

EVD ARU Officers Sent to Woodstock Jail 1894 Pullman Strike, photo ab 1895

The death of Judge Wm. A. Woods of the United States circuit court naturally brings up a chain of thought which may be useful and instructive at this time. Woods was the judge who prostituted his high and exalted office to serve the railways and crush the laboring men who were struggling for enough of the products of their labor to keep their families from starving. He it was who sent Eugene Debs to prison [at Woodstock, Illinois] for six months [in 1895] without trial for “contempt” of his most contemptible court, simply because Debs opposed with manly firmness the usurpations of this judicial scoundrel. It was this same judge Woods who set free “Blocks of Five” Dudley and the other bribers and ballot-box stuffers at Indianapolis in 1880, and was promoted from the district to the circuit court by the republican administration for his rascality. In his charge to the jury Judge Woods said that “advising or counseling bribery is not punishable unless briery is committed.”

In the coming time when the co-operative commonwealth shall have been established, when each man shall receive the product of his toil and have time and leisure to think upon the various steps and acts which have led up to industrial emancipation, then these two men, Debs and Woods, will each be held in proper estimation by the world. Posterity alone can properly write epitaphs. The memory of Debs will then be revered as one willing to suffer for his fellow men, while Woods will rank with Judas Iscariot, Grover Cleveland and Benedict Arnold.

[…..]

All the robber elements of this country will pronounce encomiums upon Judge Woods, while they have and will continue to cast odium upon Debs. But posterity will pass just judgment upon these two men, and memory of Debs will be enshrined in glory, while that of Woods will be shrouded in eternal infamy.-Equality, Deadwood, S. D.

EVD Notice ARU Offices to Terre Haute, Officers Sentenced, Rw Tx, Jan 1, 1895

—————

[Photographs and emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Judge Woods Is Dead, Sent Eugene Debs to Prison for Six Months in Connection with Pullman Strike of 1894”

Hellraisers Journal: From Appeal to Reason: Eugene Debs Interviewed by Norman Hapgood at Atlanta Prison

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

Hellraisers Journal – Monday October 25, 1920
Atlanta Federal Penitentiary – Norman Hapgood Interviews Eugene Debs

From the Appeal to Reason of October 23, 1920:

EVD Interviewed in Prison by N Hapgood, AtR p1, Oct 23, 1920

Did you ever enter the strong gates of a prison? Has your mind ever pictured the sinking heart of a man who hears those heavy iron doors clank behind him? Wife and child, perhaps, are shut from him in the outer world. And inside? The lost are there, the despairing, the destroyed. Leave hope behind, ye who enter. And yet it is not as bad as it was, some centuries ago. The harmonious and austere building at Atlanta is infinitely superior, in what happens inside of it, to the prisons of Lincoln’s day. God knows it is bad enough.

Partly, it is bad because we in truth do not know what to do with certain types of dangerous depravity. Give us time, a century or two, and we may learn the alphabet of treating such aberration. Granted we are ignorant about crime — what about prisoner 9653? Why is he in this place?

To see prisoner 9653 we go only so far as a reception room, and Eugene V. Debs, four times nominee of a great party for the Presidency, now No. 9653, steps forth eagerly to meet me. How warm his grasp! How pure and sunny his smile! How his face carries the record of his 40 years of service, of forbearance, of hope of a great belief.

Debs’ Warm Cordiality.

We sit down on opposite sides of a long table. Debs’ lawyer is there and so is the prison attendant. Neve mind; Debs doesn’t mind. He leans across, his face alight, his speaking and delicate hands at play. He will not let me get in my question. His warm cordiality prevents. He knows I am not a Socialist and that I am not going to vote for him. He knows all about it. But what is that to him? I am a human being, which is enough. But there is more. I have recently chosen the unpopular course on a great subject — Russia — and Debs knows all about that also, and pours out an overgenerous appreciation until, afraid of that man at the end of the table, who is responsible for the allotment of time, I see a chance to turn the switch and I suddenly ask the most dangerous question I know.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From Appeal to Reason: Eugene Debs Interviewed by Norman Hapgood at Atlanta Prison”