Eugene Debs and the Cost of Dissent

[Hawk1981]

Eugene Debs was opposed to war and especially to America's involvement in World War I. Regarding war, Debs said that “The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and all to lose — especially their lives.”

Following a speech at Canton, Ohio, Eugene Debs was arrested and charged with multiple counts of sedition under the Espionage Act passed the previous year. At his trial Debs' defense called no witnesses but the court allowed him to deliver an eloquent and impassioned statement that included these lines: "Your honor, I ask no mercy, I plead for no immunity. I realize that finally the right must prevail. I never more fully 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."

 

[Hawk1981]

The First World War had ended when Debs was sentenced to 10 years in prison. In 1920 he was nominated as a candidate for President for the fifth time by the Socialist Party. Almost 920,000 voters cast their ballots for Debs, which was nearly 4% of the total.

Though Debs was very ill and visibly aging while in prison, President Wilson resisted appeals for clemency, calling him a "traitor to his country". It was left to President Warren Harding to commute Debs' sentence to time served in December 1921. He visited Harding at the White House on his way home to Terre Haute, Indiana, where he was greeted by 50,000 of his friends and neighbors.

 

[Votto]

The First World War had ended when Debs was sentenced to 10 years in prison. In 1920 he was nominated as a candidate for President for the fifth time by the Socialist Party. Almost 920,000 voters cast their ballots for Debs, which was nearly 4% of the total.

Though Debs was very ill and visibly aging while in prison, President Wilson resisted appeals for clemency, calling him a "traitor to his country". It was left to President Warren Harding to commute Debs' sentence to time served in December 1921. He visited Harding at the White House on his way home to Terre Haute, Indiana, where he was greeted by 50,000 of his friends and neighbors.

So President Wilson, and democrat, who oversaw the Federal Income tax, the creation of the Fed, and subsequent change to the constitution to have Senator directly elected by the people instead of states appointing them to maintain their power in Washington, was a right winger?

LMAO!

I will agree that Wilson was by far the worst US President in US history. Notice all the Presidents during major wars have monuments after them.................except........................Wilson and LBJ. All the rest are glorified.

Also note that Wilson planted the seeds for WW2 with their handling of the terms with Germany and the League of Nations.

And lastly, it was discovered later with dives that the sinking of the Lusitania was justified as it was found to have loads of war material along with the civilian passengers Wilson allowed civilians to go on the journey so their deaths could later be used as propaganda to motivate a country to go to war.

 

[Votto]

Eugene Debs was opposed to war and especially to America's involvement in World War I. Regarding war, Debs said that “The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and all to lose — especially their lives.”

Following a speech at Canton, Ohio, Eugene Debs was arrested and charged with multiple counts of sedition under the Espionage Act passed the previous year. At his trial Debs' defense called no witnesses but the court allowed him to deliver an eloquent and impassioned statement that included these lines: "Your honor, I ask no mercy, I plead for no immunity. I realize that finally the right must prevail. I never more fully 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."

View attachment 325733

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."

-Debs

This quote shows the naivety of Leftists. They really believe that human nature is fundamentally good/intelligent, even though the people they say are "oppressing" they are also human beings. Moreover, they really believe that to tap into this "goodness", one must gravitate towards 100% democracy naturally.

I feel sorry for Leftists like youself. It reminds me of how Bernie Sanders lavished praise on Castro with his literacy program. In reality, it was a program to educate people using Leftists propaganda. That was the only real interest to the program.

Here is reality

 

[Tom Paine 1949]

I think there are lessons to be learned from HISTORY. It is not necessary or even possible always to make direct connections to modern politics. The OP is correct in pointing out that Debs was respected precisely because his opposition to WWI was deeply felt and principled.

Debs did not start out as a socialist, but his experiences as a Midwest railroad man and ultimately as organizer of the greatest strike of his era, as also his exposure to populist and progressive agrarian movements in opposition to Gilded Age monopoly capitalists & railroad barrons, all led him to adopt his idealistic and very American vision of socialism.

Debs lived in an era when industrial unions were mostly illegal, Jim Crow and the KKK were strong, an American President showed the racist film The Birth of a Nation in the Whitehouse, the great American humorist and anti-racist novelist Mark Twain was a leader of the “American Anti-Imperialist League,“ and many “progressives” like Teddy Roosevelt were jingoistic warriors for a new American overseas empire.

Debs was not a perfect man, and his dream may have proven only a dream, but he is worth remembering ... with respect.

 

[Hawk1981]

The violent repression of the American Railway Union (ARU) strike in 1894, and Debs' reflections upon it while serving a six months jail sentence, marked the final turn in his evolution from industrial cooperationist to revolutionary socialist.

Debs supported William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic and People's Party candidate for president in 1896, but after Bryan's defeat, Debs helped organize a new "Social Democratic Party," modeled on similar organizations in Europe. Running for president himself in 1900, Debs received 96,000 votes and in 1901 merged his party with supporters of the reformist wing of the Socialist Labor Party to form the Socialist Party of America. Debs ran again for president in 1904, polling 400,000 votes.

In 1908, Debs ran for president a third time, doing no better than in 1904. In the 1910 and 1912 elections, however, scores of Socialists were victorious in state and local contests, and in 1912 Debs polled nearly 1 million votes for president achieving his greatest success as a presidential candidate.