Eugene V. Debs Internet Archive

Announcement: The Eugene V. Debs Internet Archive in conjunction with Tim Davenport will be publishing a 6 volume collection of Eugene V. Debs writings. Haymarket Books will be the publishers of the 6 volumes. For weekly updates on this valuable historical project, please click here.

The Marxists Internet Archive is proudly mirroring the Eugene V. Debs Internet Archive, started by Socialist Party member John Metz in July of 2001. This year is also the 100th anniversary of the the Socialist Party of America, the party founded by Debs. We’ve reformated the text to meet Marxists Internet Archive standards, but all other attributes have been left the same. Debs wrote for many of the hundreds of socialist newspapers journals and magazines that existed during his life. The collection of all these writings is a life time project, a labor of love for America’s greatest Marxist. We are in debt to John Metz and the Chicago Socialist Party for allowing us to help build the Eugene V. Debs Internet Archive. Beginning in 2006, Robert Bills, the National Secretary of the Socialist Labor Party of the US, started contributing rare texts by Debs from the extensive SLP Archives. We thank Robert for his comradely contributions. Lastly, we have been linking to various E.V. Debs documents that have been placed on the Marxists Internet Archive Early American Marxism archive where many Deb’s documents reside and are in PDF format. The MIA’s EAM is a mirror of Tim Davenport’s Marxist History Archive.

EUGENE VICTOR DEBS (1855-1926) was one of the greatest and most articulate advocates of workers’ power to have ever lived. During the early years of the labor movement in the United States, Debs was far ahead of his times, leading the formation of the American Railway Union (ARU) and the American Socialist Party.

Debs was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, on November 5, 1855. He left home at 14 to work on the railroad and soon became interested in union activity. As president of the American Railway Union, he led a successful strike against the Great Northern Railroad in 1894. Two months later he was jailed for his role in a strike against the Chicago Pullman Palace Car Company. While in jail, Socialist and future Congressman Victor Berger talked with Debs and introduced him to the ideas of Marx and socialism. When he was released from prison, he announced that he was a Socialist.

He soon formed the Social Democratic Party, which eventually became the Socialist Party in 1901. He became their perennial presidential candidate. He ran on the Socialist ticket in 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920 when he received his highest popular vote—about 915,000 (3.4%)—from within a prison cell. He had been arrested once again, this time for “sedition”; because he opposed World War I. Many Socialists were imprisoned during this time because they felt that the war was being fought for the profits of the rich, but with the blood of the poor. Debs was fortunately released in 1921.

Debs died in Elmhurst, Illinois, on October 20, 1926, but he is remembered to this day by countless labor activists from all over the political spectrum. The Eugene V. Debs Foundation works to continue his legacy into the 21st century...

To learn more about Debs and his life, read Stephen Marion Reynolds’ Biography of Eugene V. Debs for a full accounting of his life and times.

A full collection of Biographies, Critiques, and Memiors of Eugine V. Debs is located here: Biographies and Critiques of E.V. Debs

Table of Contents

Special Section on the American Railway Union (ARU)

(Includes some documents not written by E.V.D.)

1877—1879

Letter to the Editor of Locomotive Firemen’s Monthly Magazine in Dayton, Ohio, from Eugene V. Debs in Terre Haute, Indiana



Our Brotherhood



To the Friend of My Bosom



Further Suggestions on Insurance



Grand Lodge Address to the 4th Convention of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, Indianapolis — Sept. 11, 1877



Address to the 4th Convention of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, Indianapolis — Sept. 12, 1877





1878

Closing Address to the 5th Annual Convention of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen: Buffalo, NY — Sept. 14, 1878





1879

Benevolence



Sobriety



Industry



The Labor Problem



Temperance





1880—1884

The Coming Convention



Our Convention



Letter to the 7th Convention of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen



Organize!





1881

The Power of Persistent Effort



A Gentleman



United Again





1882

The Square Man



Benefit of the BLF



Lost Time



United Efforts



Beginning Life



Personal Honor



Masterful Men



Do Things Well



Editorial on the B of LF



Strong Drink



Sand



Labor’s Reward



Editorial Message to the 9th Annual Convention of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen



The Last Ride





1883

Labor, Genius of Civilization



Mans Power and God's Power



Honesty



The Rights of Labor



Self-respect



Old Time Prejudice



Back Biting Calamity



Railway Officials



Our Magazine





1884

Two Railway Officials



True Benevolence



Intoxication



Mission of Our Brotherhood



Truth



Charity versus Malice



Railroad Managers and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen



Employer and Employed



What is Success?



Labor and Law



Enthusiasm





1885—1887

Speech to the Indiana Legislature Nominating Daniel W. Voorhees for the United States Senate, Jan. 20, 1885



A Day and Its Duties



Standing Armies



Capital and Labor



Lessons of the Elections



Progress and Poverty



Attempted Blacklist



War Clouds



When a Hundred Years Are Gone



Speech to the 12th Annual Convention of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen [excerpt] Philadelphia — Sept. 21, 1885



Dynamite and Legitimate Warfare



Railroad Kings





1886

William H. Vanderbilt



Employees the Wards of Employers



Overproduction



Reformations



Current Disagreements Between Employers and Employees



T.V. Powderly and the Knights of Labor



Boycotting



The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and The Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen



More Soldiers by Eugene



My Jennie [December 1886]





1887

Legislation, Law, and Free Transportation on Railroads



The Situation in Europe



Labor and Station in Life



Opposites



The Chicago Anarchists



Politics



Pullman



Abolitionists



Will Labor Organizations Federate?



Land, Labor, and Liberty



The Contemplated Treaty with Russia



Child Labor



Cooperation and Arbitration





1888

Joining Labor Organizations



Federation, the Lesson of the Great Strike



The Policy of the Order of Railway Conductors



The Scab



The Great Strike



The Record of the CB&Q Strike



Federation of Labor Organizations for Mutual Protection



Invincible Men



The Common Laborer



The Situation



Home Rule in Ireland



The CB&Q and Pinkerton Conspiracy



The Pinkertons



Equality of Conditions



Federation



Life of Eugene V. Debs, Grand Secretary and Treasurer



Speech to the 5th Annual Convention of the Brotherhood of Railroad Brakemen: Columbus, OH — Oct. 16, 1888



General Benjamin Harrison — Relentless Foe of Labor: A Democratic Campaign Speech in Terre Haute, IN — Oct. 27, 1888



The Aristocracy of Labor



B of LF Convention Endorses Federation



The CB&Q



Fatal Fallacies



Speech to the Brotherhood of Railroad Brakemen: Columbus, OH — Oct. 16, 1888





1889

The Knights of Labor



The Progress of Federation



The Brotherhood of Railway Conductors



The Future of the Order of Railway Conductors



The Strength of All for the Good of All



The Termination of the Burlington Strike



Allegiance to Principle



Labor as a “Commodity”



The Labor Movement



Meeting to Perfect Federation



Prize Fighting



Nationalism



The Church and the Workingman



Unmasking Hypocrisy



Labor Organizations



Political Control of Railways



Truth and Fiction



The Labor Press



Federation Inaugurated



Supreme Council Formed



The Reading



“The So-Called Dignity of Labor”



The Sunday Question



Time is Money



Jay Gould



Pin and Principle



The Johnstown Horror



Strikes



Workingmen in Politics



Railroad Federation: The Question Considered by the Firemen’s General Secretary



Labor Day, 1889



The Triumph of Federation



Land



The Tyranny of Austin Corbin



Important Lessons



An Open Letter to P.M. Arthur of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engeneers, Dec. 20, 1889





1890

Austin Corbin — Russianizer



Andrew Carnegie on “Best Fields for Philanthropy”



Looking Backward, 2000—1887



Do We Want Industrial Peace?



Knights of Labor to Shape Own Destiny



The Common Laborer



What Can We Do for Working People?



What Can We Do For Working People?



The Brotherhood of Railway Conductors and the Supreme Council of Federation



The Eight-Hour Movement by Eugene V. Debs



Mrs. Leonora M. Barry: General Instructor and Director of Woman’s Work, Knights of Labor 1



The Buddhists of Burma



Debs Estimates Membership of United Order of Railway



Letter to the Editor of Locomotive Firemen’s Magazine from T.P. O’Rourke in Pocatello, Idaho and a Reply



The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Federation



The Improvement of Railway Management



ORC Overwhelmingly Endorses Protection



Eight-Hour Day A Righteous Demand



The Higher Education of Women vs. Marriage



Is a Wrong Done to One the Concern of All?



Supreme Council Declines Aid to NY Central Strike



Agitation and Agitators



Labor Day



The Debate in the Council: Some of the Members in Favor of a General Tie-Up



Power vs. Power



Agitation and Agitators



Strike



Promiscuous Striking



The Strike on the New York Central



The Reason Why



Powderly and Gompers



Parties



The Knights of Labor and the New York Central Railroad



Locomotive Engineers and Federation



William P. Daniels, the ORC, and Locomotive Engineers



William D. Robinson



Pictures



Plan of Federation





1891

A.M. 5894 — A.D. 1891



The Seventy Millionaires



To The Brotherhood [Regarding Future Resignation]



Protection



Edward Bellamy Launches The New Nation



The Canadian Pacific Railway and the Supreme Council



“Hero Worship”



Labor Organizations and the Labor Press



The Farmers’ Alliance



Dishonest Bankers



Mankind in a Bad Way



The Almighty Dollar



Labor Leaders



Message to the Federated Orders of Railway Employees



An American Aristocracy



Remedies for Wrongs



The Expulsion of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen



Facts About Federation



The Union Man, the Non-Union Man, and the Scab



A Bankrupt World



The Editor is Responsible [A Disclaimer]



Living Issues



The Policy of the Magazine [A Polemic]



A Question of Veracity



Free Speech



Foreign Pauper Immigration



The ORC and the B of RC



The New Republic



Cause and Effect



Conditions



A Plutocratic Government



The Tramp



Carnegie as a Squeezing Philanthropist



The People’s Party



The Unity of Labor



From Americans to Slavs and from Independence to Slavery



Persecution Because of Religious Opinions in Labor Organizations



The Lessons Taught by Labor Day



Caste



An Odious Comparison



Revolution and Rebellion vs. Stagnation



Something to Think About



A Crime Against Humanity





1892

Liberating Convicts



Letter to E.E. Clark, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, from Eugene V. Debs, in Terre Haute, Indiana, Jan. 13, 1892



Knowledge is Power! Books for All Railroad Men Advert in the Switchmen's Journal for "Debs Publishing Co."



Anti-Conspiracy Speech



Is Legislation Needed? How Shall It Be Obtained?



Russia



Why Not?



Is It Possible?



Strikes



Arbitration



William Lloyd Garrison



Labor In Politics



May Day In Europe



Confederation Essential to Labor’s Prosperity



Labor Representatives in Legislative Bodies



The Battle of Homestead



The Pinkertons at Homestead



Crimes of Christless Capitalists



H.C. Frick



Final Annual Meeting of the Supreme Council



Public Opinion



Public Opinion H.C. Frick and Alexander Berkman



The Homestead Horrors



The Switchmen’s Strike



Homestead and Treason



Editor and Manager’s Report to the 16th Convention of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, Sept. 12, 1892



My Retirement is Certain: Speech to the 16th Convention of the B of LF, Cincinnati, Ohio (September 19, 1892)



Homestead and Treason



The End of the Homestead Strike



Profit Sharing



The Grand Secretary and Treasurer of the B of LF



The End of the Switchmen’s Strike



Profit Sharing





1893

Evolution



The Labor View of the Election



Evolution



Robert Ingersoll



Call It the American Railway Union: The New Organization Will Endeavor to Abandon Strike Methods



Jay Gould



Why Great Cities?



Industrial Peace



The Interstate Commerce Commission



Standing Armies



A Workingman’s Congress



Carnegie



Coming Events



Congress, Pinkertons, and Organized Labor



The Hawaiian, or Sandwich Islands



Law, Lawmakers, and Politics



A Workingman’s Congress



All Railway Men National Federation Will Embrace Every Branch: Unions to ConsolidateAmerican Railway Union Elects Officers



American Railway Union Elects Officers



Self Made Men



American Railway Union: Its President Defeats the Attempt to Expel Him from the Brotherhood of Firemen



Labor Deliberation



Labor Deliberation



American Railway Union: An Outline of the Proposed Plan of Organization



Anti-Poverty



Anti-Poverty



Labor and Legislation



Declaration of Principles of the American Railway Union [Adopted June 6, 1893]



“A Railway Party in Politics”



Russianizing the United States



The Organization of Workingmen: Speech to the Chicago World’s Fair Labor Congress (August 30, 1893)



The Chicago Anarchists



The Pulpit and Socialism



The Money Question



The Pulpit and Socialism



Defenseless Wage Earners



Business Depression and Legislation



Labor and Capital and the Distribution of Property



The Teaching of Christ



Who Pays Taxes?



European Military, Money, and Misery



“The Commercial and Political Considerations Involved in Sympathetic Railroad Strikes”



About the Union





1894

A Grand Beginning: Speech at the Formation of the ARU Local at Terre Haute, Jan. 10, 1894



Debate between J.C. Nolan and Eugene V. Debs, Century Hall, Minneapolis, Jan. 21, 1894



“There Should Be No Aristocracy in Labor’s Ranks” : Speech to Railway Employees at Knights of Labor Hall, Ft. Wayne, Indiana (January 23, 1894) [excerpt]



T.V. Powderly and the Knights of Labor



Arbitration



A Free Press



The American Protective Association



The Despotism of Judge Dundy



The Equality of Men and Women



Liberty and the Courts



The Northern Pacific



Furious Fanatics



Labor Legislation



Letter to Gov. Knute Nelson in St. Paul, MN from Eugene V. Debs in St. Paul, MN, April 23, 1894.



ARU Purposes and Procedures: Introducing the American Railway Union to Transportation Magazine [May 1894]



Government Control of Railroads and Employees



Objectionable Bosses



The Labor Problem



Mr. Debs’ Reception: Speech by Eugene V. Debs at Terre Haute, Indiana, May 3, 1894



Judge Caldwell and the Union Pacific Employees



The Right Sort of Talk



The Outlook of Labor



The Union Pacific and the United States



President’s Keynote Address to the 1st National Convention of the American Railway Union, Ulrich’s Hall, Chicago — June 12, 1894



The Coal Miners’ Strike



Conditions



Interview with the Chicago Daily News, July 6, 1894.



Open Letter to the General Managers’ Association of Chicago from the Board of Directors of the American Railway Union, July 12, 1894



Brothers and Friends: The ARU Asks the Helping Hand



Labor Strikes and Their Lessons [Late July 1894]



A Military Era



Carnot



Legislation



Probabilities and Possibilities



The ARU Strike



Populist Advice



Testimony to the United States Strike Commission of Eugene V. Debs, Chicago — Aug. 20 & 25, 1894



The Limit of Endurance



The Fourth of July



An Appeal to Labor



Report on the Chicago Strike



Altgeld and Pullman



A Larger Standing Army



Letter to the Salt Lake Herald from Eugene V. Debs in Terre Haute, May 31, 1894



Resolution on the Knights of Labor by the American Railway Union: Adopted by the 1st Quadrennial Convention of the ARU, Chicago — June 14, 1894



Oakland Tribune: Talking of a Boycott



The Color Line



Cable to Locals of the American Railway Union from Eugene V. Debs, President of the ARU, June 26, 1894



Cable to Heads of Labor Organizations from Eugene V. Debs, President of the ARU, June 26, 1894



Statement to the Press, Evening of June 27, 1894



President Debs’ Appeal to Railway Employees



Telegram to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers from Eugene V. Debs, President of the American Railway Union, June 26, 1894



How Long Will He Stand? Cartoon



Statement to the Public from Eugene V. Debs, President of the American Railway Union, July 5, 1894



The Army Encampment



Letter to President of the United States Grover Cleveland in Washington from Eugene V. Debs, President of the American Railway Union, and J.R. Sovereign, Grand Master Workman of the Order of the Knights of Labor in Chicago, July 7, 1894



Proposition to the Railway Managers’ Association from the Board of Directors of the American Railway Union [July 12, 1894]



Correspondence between P.M. Arthur, Chief Engineer of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers in Cleveland and Eugene V. Debs, President of the American Railway Union in Chicago, July 14, 1894



Appendix The Law’s Majesty Falls with Heavy Hand on ARU: The Arrest of Debs, Howard, Rogers, and Keliher — Hair Trigger Grand Jury



Statement to the Press Awaiting Commitment to Jail, Chicago — July 17, 1894



Statement to the American Public from the Jailed Leaders of the American Railway Union, July 22, 1894



The Situation



Separate Organizations Will Never Succeed: Speech to the 17th Convention of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, Harrisburg, PA — Sept. 13, 1894



Statement Upon Judge Wood’s Rendering of Decision





1895

The Solidarity of Labor



Law of Contempt: Under the Modern Application Every Federal Judge is a Tsar



Political Lessons of the Pullman Strike



Lecture Delivered at the Fargo Opera House, Fargo, ND



Manifesto to the American People Issued from Woodstock Jail [Jan. 8, 1895]



Proclamation to American Railway Union



Proclamation to American Railway Union: Issued Upon His Sentence Being Affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States



Proclamation to Members of the ARU and to All Labor Organizations Respecting the Duties of the Hour



Circular Letter to Local Units of the American Railway Union (circa June 2, 1895) [excerpt]



Cooperation not Competition: An Interview with Eugene V. Debs, Woodstock Jail — June 26, 1895







Our First Great Need: A Letter from Woodstock Jail, January 16, 1895



Interview with Eugene V. Debs at Woodstock Jail, January 19, 1895 by Nellie Bly



To the People [March 1, 1895]



Statement on the Supreme Court’s Verdict Upholding the Injunction [May 27, 1895]



Proclamation to Members of the ARU and to All Labor Organizations Respecting the Duties of the Hour



Cooperation not Competition: An Interview with Eugene V. Debs, Woodstock Jail — June 26, 1895



Debs’ Busy Life in Jail: Imprisoned Labor Leader Devotes His Time to Study: Economic Questions Debated By His Associates in Turn Published in Chicago Chronicle, June 19, 1895.



Liberty’s Anniversary



Liberty’s Anniversary, July 4, 1895



Success and Failure



pen Letter to William C. Endicott, Jr. in Washington, DC from Eugene V. Debs at Woodstock, Illinois, July 27, 1895



Open Letter to the State Convention of the People’s Party of Texas from Eugene V. Debs in Woodstock Jail, July 17, 1895



Slaves and Cowards



The Coming Workingman



Labor Omnia Vincit (Labor Conquers Everything)



Term Half Over: An Interview of Eugene V. Debs at Woodstock Jail, Aug. 22, 1895



ARU Proclamation from Woodstock Jail [excerpt, circa August 1895]



Open Letter to the Evansville [IN] Tribune from Eugene V. Debs in Woodstock Jail, Aug. 8, 1895



The Situation Facing the People’s Party in 1896



Open Letter to Jacob S. Coxey: Excerpts Read at Fountain Grove, Lake View, IL — Aug. 25, 1895



The Pullman Strike After One Year



The Outlook for 1896: A political interview with the St. Louis Chronicle, Sept. 13, 1895



Cultural Changes: Bicycles, Bloomers, and the New Woman



"“In Unity There Is Strength”: Open Letter to the Chicago Evening Press (September 23, 1895)



Let Labor Be Organized



Letter to the Editor of Quincy Labor News from Eugene V. Debs in Woodstock Jail, Oct. 5, 1895.



The Mind’s Workshop



The Aristocracy of Wealth



Statement to the Associated Press on the Great Northern Situation [Nov. 4, 1895]



Official Letter to Directors of the American Railway Union, Dictated from Woodstock Jail, Oct. 29, 1895







Liberty: Speech at Battery D, Chicago, On Release from Woodstock Jail, November 22, 1895.



Homecoming Speech in Terre Haute, Indiana, Nov. 23, 1895



Shall the Standing Army of the United States Be Increased? Statement in Reply to General Nelson A. Miles



Labor Omnia Vincits



Russian Methods: Letter from Woodstock Jail



The Ways of Justice



“A Day With Debs in Jail at Woodstock: How the Imprisoned Labor Leader and His Associates Lived in Confinement,” by A.C. Cantley [July 6, 1895] Cantley, a correspondent of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, visits jailed American Railway Union leader Eugene V. Debs and his associates at Woodstock Jail and finds a very liberal jail regime under the supervision of the county sheriff, a former grocery. Debs and his associates constituted themselves as the “Cooperative Colony of Liberty Jail,” Cantley reports, and engaged in a regular self-directed program of military drill, economics study, exercise, journalism, and debate. The 7 jailed trade unionists were allowed to take meals inside the sheriff’s private quarters — unlike the other 5 prisoners sitting at the same time at the McHenry County Jail. Despite the structured, studious, communitarian regime, Debs indicates intense displeasure with the situation of he and his associates during a two-hour interview: “We feel that a cruel wrong has been perpetuated upon us in that we have been denied a trial by jury in flagrant disregard of the Constitution.... We committed no crime, we violated no law, we have not been tried, and yet we are sentenced to a term in jail, and the Supreme Court of the United States gives its negative affirmation to this outrageous proceeding by declaring that the court below had final jurisdiction and that its monstrous perversion of justice can not, therefore, be reversed. Every Federal Judge now constitutes a Tsar.” Debs expresses a belief that the ongoing development of machine industry would press increasing numbers out of work, thereby shaking economic foundations. “The competitive system is nearing its close — the death gurgle is in its throat,” Debs declares. “It is dying hard, but it has got to go, for the Eternal Truth is pledged to destroy every system not founded upon its immutable laws.–

1896

Address to the Christian Labor Union, Sherman Street Methodist Episcopal Church, Milwaukee



"“Better to Buy Books than Beer”: Speech at Music Hall, Buffalo, NY



Centralization and the Role of the Courts: Speech at Germania Hall, Cleveland, Ohio — Jan. 18, 1896



Interview with the Cleveland Leader, Jan. 18, 1896



Ready for Another Fight: From an Interview with the Associated Press, April 10, 1896



Statement on the Coming Presidential Campaign, Birmingham, AL — May 24, 1896



Gold, Silver, and National Banks: Interview with the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, June 18, 1896



Open Letter to Alfred S. Edwards in Tennessee City, TN, from Eugene V. Debs in Terre Haute, IN, June 8, 1896



Consolidation



Centralization and the Role of the Courts: Speech at Germania Hall, Cleveland, Ohio — Jan. 18, 1896



The American University and the Labor Problem



Interview with the Atlanta Constitution, Feb. 12, 1896



Speech at the Columbia Theater, Atlanta, GA — Feb. 13, 1896



What Can the Church Do to Benefit the Condition of the Laboring Man? Speech at the First Baptist Church of Terre Haute — March 22, 1896



Letter to George P. Garrison in Chadron, Nebraska from Eugene V. Debs in Terre Haute, Indiana, Aug. 6, 1896



“Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death”



Speech to the 13th Convention of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen Minneapolis — Sept. 18, 1896 [quoted excerpt]



Speech in Houston, Texas September 25, 1896



The Coming Election: An Address to Railway Employees by Eugene V. Debs & the Board of Directors of the ARU



An Uprising of the People: Campaign Speech for William Jennings Bryan, Duluth, MN — Oct. 21, 1896



For Bryan: Campaign Speech on Behalf of William Jennings Bryan, Cleveland — Oct. 27, 1896 [excerpts



Debs Hails Socialism: Thinks It Is the Only Cure [Dec. 31, 1896]



Present Conditions and Future Duties: An Open Letter (Written December 31, 1896, published January 1, 1897)





1897

The Individual vs. Socialism (January 6, 1897)



Questions and Answers: Speech to Striking Miners in Leadville, Colorado [excerpt]



The World is Not Right: Speech in Butte, Montana (February 8, 1897)



Special Convention Forthcoming: From ARU Circular Letter No. 3 (1897) [excerpt]



Strike Lessons: A Dispassionate Review of the Great Leadville Struggle (April 5, 1897)



Harmony and Unity and Its Limits



The New Commonwealth: Letter to the Editor of the New York Journal (April 16, 1897)



Solidarity of Western Miners Essential



The Coronado Mine Attack (April 27, 1897)



The Degradation of Mine Labor



Mine Managers Culpable in Leadville Strike (May 10, 1897)



“The Constitution Says People May Bear Arms”: Statement to the Press in Salt Lake City



Labor’s New Eden: Interview with the Chicago Chronicle (June 14, 1897)



Plan to Redeem Toil: Eugene V. Debs and Others Look Toward Establishing a Colony in the West that Finally Will Enfold All Labor



The Coming Republic



Lesson of the Great Leadville Strike



The Great Leadville Strike: Its Lessons for Labor



The Cooperative Commonwealth (June 1, 1897)



Address of Eugene V. Debs at the Opening of the Special Convention of the American Railway Union: Handel Hall, Chicago — June 15, 1897



“A Happy, Bright Spot in Civilization” : Interview with the Chicago Chronicle



Letter to the Editor of the New York World



Opening Address at the Special Convention of the American Railway Union in Chicago (June 15, 1897)



Opening Address at the Special Convention of the American Railway Union in Chicago (June 15, 1897)



Perhaps a Change of Name: Statement to the Chicago Inter Ocean (June 16, 1897)



Interview with James Creelman of the New York Journal



“Farmers Will Form the Vanguard” : Statement to the Chicago Chronicle



Open Letter to John D. Rockefeller



Closing Speech at the Founding Convention of the Social Democracy of America [excerpt]



Statement on the Colonization of Washington (June 21, 1897)



Letter to the Editor of the Chicago Tribune



Constitution of the Social Democracy of America: Adopted in Chicago on June 21, 1897 [partial]



Milwaukee Enthused: Debs Speaks to Tremendous Meetings in the Cream City



A Political Movement: Statement to the Milwaukee Daily News



Milwaukee Enthused: Debs Speaks to Tremendous Meetings in the Cream City



The Coal Miners’ Strike (July 15, 1897)



Plea for a New Order: Speech at Ferris Wheel Park, Chicago (July 17, 1897)



The Coronado Mine Attack



Women in the Movement: Interview with Dorothy Richardson in the Milwaukee Sentinel (circa July 8, 1897)



The Miners’ Strike



The Power of Money Rules the Country: Speech at Ferris Wheel Park, Chicago



“No Hope But Through the Back Door of Suicide”: Speech on the Coal Mining Strike at Wheeling, West Virginia



Open Letter and Call for Miners’ Day



“It is Something More Than a Strike” : Speech in Chicago at Kuhn’s Park



The Social Democracy



“Reduced to a Walking Hunger Pang” : Speech at the Duquesne Wharf [excerpt]



“The Hour Has Struck to Call a Halt” : Call for the St. Louis Convention of Coal Miners



Proclamation Needed to End Coal Strike



Labor Day is Near at Hand



Press Release on the Forthcoming St. Louis Convention of Labor Leaders



To the Hosts of the Social Democracy



A Call to the People



Proclamation Needed to End Coal Strike



To the Hosts of the Social Democracy of America



“I Plead Guilty to the Charge of Being Radical” : Speech at the St. Louis Conference of Labor Leaders



To the Hosts of the Social Democracy: A Message for Labor Day



“I Plead Guilty to the Charge of Being Radical” : Speech to the St. Louis Labor Conference



St. Louis Convention Rejects Government by Injunction



The Lattimer Massacre



The Lattimer Massacre



“We Cannot Hope to Succeed by Violence” : Speech at the Meeting of Branch 1 SDA, Chicago [excerpt]



Statement to the Press Regarding the Suspension of Chicago Local Branch No. 2 (September 19, 1897)



Now for Action! (September 23, 1897)



Keynote Speech to the Chicago Conference of Labor Leaders



The Duty of the Hour



The Approaching Elections



Workingmen and the Social Democracy



Telegram to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer



The Indiana Coal Miners (circa November 30, 1897)



Introduction to Robert Blatchford’s Book, Merrie England





1898

Speech in Atlanta



Statement to the Press about Judge Peter S. Grosscup



The American Movement



Labor’s Martyred Heroes



Social Democracy



Speech at the Third Anniversary Celebration of Myron Reed’s Broadway Temple, Denver



“I Love Humanity Better Than I Do Gold” : Speech at Coliseum Hall, Denver [excerpt]



Against Fusion: Debs Reiterates his Declaration for the Benefit of Doubters: He Urges the Importance of the Convention, Where a National Platform Will Be Adoptedt



Against Fusion



Letter to Victor L. Berger about the Forthcoming Convention of the SDA (May 27, 1898)



Edward Bellamy was a Friend of Mine



The Coming Nation: Speech at the Grand Opera House, Terre Haute



Comments on the War at the Opening of the First National Convention of the Social Democracy



Declination of Office in the Social Democracy of America at the First National Convention



Speech to the First Annual Convention of the Social Democracy of America, June 9, 1898 - excerpt



To Members of the Social Democracy of America



Debs Goes Out: Social Democracy is Split into Two Factions



Well Done! The Social Democratic Party of America Organized at Last Week’s Convention by G.A. Hoehn



Manifesto of the Social Democracy of America to the American People



A Plain Statement by James Hogan Chairman, Social Democracy of America



The Withdrawal of Debs and What It Means by Joseph R. Buchanan



“The More I Think of the Outcome”: Excerpt from a Letter to G.A. Hoehn



The Future



The Social Democratic Party and Labor Day



To Our Comrades!



Social Democracy



“The Dollar Counts for Everything” : Speech in Springfield, Massachusetts



“In the West Discontent is Widespread”: Interview with the Manchester Daily Mirror



An End to War — A Start to Militarism



“Until We Have Swept the Country”: An Open Letter to Local Branches of the SDP



“Morally I Mean to Pay Them” : Interview with the Omaha World-Herald



Territorial Expansion





1899

The Knights of Labor



Triumph Through Federation



Prison Labor



The March of Socialism



Labor and Liberty: Speech in Saginaw, Michigan



Socialism or Capitalism? Open Letter to R.S. Thompson, Chairman of the Union Reform Party



Prison Labor — Its Effects on Industry and Trade: Address to the Nineteenth Century Club in New York City



Texas is Coming



A Year of Growth Presages Success



Correspondence between Lazarus Abelson, Organizer, Section New York, SLP, and Morris Hillquit



Correspondence between Lazarus Abelson, Organizer, Section New York, SLP, and Morris Hillquit



Latter Day History: Important Events and Recent Occurrences in the Socialist Labor Organization of New York City



Slobodin on the NEC desposed



Aims and Objects of the Social Democratic Party



More Than a Municipal Campaign: Speech in Haverhill, Massachusetts



Prospects of the SDP: Interview with the Haverhill Social Democrat



Tribute to Robert G. Ingersoll



Latter Day History: Important Events and Recent Occurrences in the Socialist Labor Organization of New York City



National Executive Committee Deposed: Statement of the National Executive to the Members of the Socialist Labor Party by Henry Slobodin



The National Convention



The Workers and the Trusts



Scattered Topics (September 2, 1899)



Current Events, Part 1: False Glory, Repression, and the Future



Signs of Social Revolution



The Future is Bright



Eugene V. Debs: Lecture Season of 1899-1900



The National Labor Party Interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch



Labor’s Inning



New York Fusion Movement a Mistake



Trusts an Ultimate Blessing



Aims and Objects of the Social Democratic Party



“They Fear Its Growing Power” : Interview with the Chicago Chronicle



“I Will Not Be a Candidate for President” : Interview in LaPorte, Indiana



Statement about Reestablishing the American Railway Union



More Than a Municipal Campaign: Speech in Haverhill, Massachusetts



Prospects of the SDP: Interview with the Haverhill Social Democrat

1900

Martin Irons, Martyr



Outlook for Socialism in the United States



Speech at Canton, Ohio,



The Vital Issue



The Social Democracy



The Hour for Unity Has Not Yet Arrived: Letter to the Editor of the Social Democratic Herald



The Social Democratic Party: Revolutionary Not Reform



Declination of Nomination for President of the United States at the Convention of the SDP



Speech of Acceptance of Nomination for President of the United States



Eugene V. Debs Accepts



Unity Achieved at the Social Democratic Convention The Union Conference: Minutes and Commentary by Margaret Haile



Trade Unions and Politics



The Issues of Unity



Protest of the Chicago SDP Unity Committee Majority Against the Manifesto of the NEB



Speech at the Second Joint Unity Conference



Socialists Unite! Committees of the SLP and SDP Hold a Second Conference and Adopt Plans to Further Union



Social Democrats, Stand Pat!



No Organic Union Has Been Effected



Letter of Acceptance of the Nomination for President of the United States



Socialists Are At War: Control of Campaign Funds Causes Split in Debs’ Followers



Letter to Frederic Heath in Milwaukee



Declination of Nomination for the National Executive Board of the SDP



Wilhelm Liebknecht, the People’s Tribune



The Social Democratic Party



Eugene V. Debs at Home in Terre Haute: An Interview with the St. Louis Chronicle



Outlook for Socialism in the United States



The Essence of Social Democracy



Working Together in Unison: An Open Letter to J.B. Smiley of Chicago (September 17, 1900)



Warning Notice



The Downfall of Capitalism



The Democratic Party Will Not Deceive and Destroy the Social Democratic Party: An Open Letter to L.A. Russell of Cleveland



Competition vs. Cooperation: Speech at Central Music Hall, Chicago



Competition vs. Cooperation: Speech delivered at Central Music Hall, Chicago, IL — Sept. 29, 1900 This speech launched the 1900 candidacy of Eugene Debs for President of the United States under the banner of the Social Democratic Party of America. Debs takes aim at the Republican and Democratic parties, calling the former the party of big capital and the latter the party of petty capital and asserting no fundamental difference between the two, both being for continuation of the wage system of capitalism even if they disagreed on the question of imperialism. To this was opposed the new Socialist organization, representing the working class and “declaring in favor of collective ownership of the means of production” as the only possible solution to unemployment and chronic economic stagnation. Debs holds up radical abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, and Elijah Lovejoy as role models, noting that in their time they were subjected to severe criticism and physical attack, only to be acknowledged as heroes by a later generation. Debs appeals for support in the voting booth, declaring that “It is infinitely better to vote for freedom and fail than to vote for slavery and succeed.” He sees “wage slavery” as a comparable modern evil to the chattel slavery defeated by the abolition movement and argues that only socialism provides an escape, professing “absolute confidence” in achieving a socialist future.



Three Classes, Three Parties: Campaign Speech in Cincinnati, Ohio



“You Are Doomed to be a Sorely Disappointed Man”: Open Letter to Samuel M. Jones



A Final Word



Progress of the Social Revolution



Special Convention: Official Call



A Word About the “Independent”



Martin Irons, Martyr



Letter to Theodore Debs, National Secretary of the Social Democratic Party in Chicago from William Butscher, National Secretary of the Socialist Democratic Party in Springfield





1901

The Approaching Convention



Report of the National Executive Board to the Special Convention of the Social Democratic Party with Headquarters in Chicago



Convention Statement on Proposed Unity with the Springfield SDP



Convention Notes by A.S. Edwards



The Approaching Convention



The January 1901 Special National Convention of the Social Democratic Party of America by A.S. Edwards



As to “Hissing Snakes”: Letter to the Editor of The People



Fraud and Imposture at Modern Funerals



Schwab’s Silly Advice



Crimes of Carnegie



Socialists Who Would Emasculate Socialism



The Climax of Capitalism



Socialists Who Would Emasculate Socialism



The July Convention



Socialists Who Would Emasculate Socialism



The July Convention



The Mission of Socialism is as Big as the World: Speech to a Socialist Picnic, Hoerdt’s Park, Chicago



The Task of the Convention by Morris Hillquit



Telegrams to the Joint Unity Convention Founding the Socialist Party of America



“They May Shelve Me If They Like”: Statement to the Philadelphia Times



The July Convention



A United, Harmonious, and Enthusiastic Party: Letter to the Editor of The Worker



The Indianapolis Convention



The Political Solidarity of Labor



Statement to the Press on the Shooting of President William McKinley



Twilight and Dawn



The War for Freedom





1902

The Western Labor Movement



Mission of the Socialist Party



“We Must Gain Possession of the Tools of Trade”



How I Became a Socialist



Stopped the Blacklist



The Western Labor Movement



What’s the Matter with Chicago?



Peace, Peace, There Is No Peace!



Battle Cry of Superstition



Altgeld, the Liberator



Prince and Proletaire



“I Am with You in This”: Speech to the Joint Convention of the Western Federation of Miners and Western Labor Union



Go Into Politics the Right Way



Across the Line



Progressive Trade Unionism



What’s the Matter With Chicago?



A Year of Trial for the Western Federation of Miners



The Socialistic Movement in America 1



No Compromise With Slavery: Speech in St. Louis



The Pennsylvania Coal Strike is On



“No Masters, No Slaves”: Keynote Speech to the Joint Convention of the Western Federation of Miners and Western Labor Union 1



Socialism on Every Tongue: Open Letter to the Social Democratic Herald (



Capitalism Has Nearly Reached Its Climax: Speech in Denver Following the Joint Convention of the WFM and the WLU (



A Great Western Movement is Coming: Letter to the Social Democratic Herald



The Inevitable War of the Classes



The Western Labor Movement



Politics — Democratic and Republican: Interview with the Spokane Spokesman-Review



The National Platform Explained



A Narrow Escape: Letter to the Social Democratic Herald



A Narrow Escape: A Letter to Julius Wayland in Girard, Kansas



Progressive Trade Unionism



How He Stopped the Blacklist



Jesse Cox: An Appreciation



The ABC of Socialism



The Barons at the White House



The Western Labor Movement

1903

The Social Crusaders



Graft vs. The Same Thing



Auguries for the New Year



The Arbitration Farce



Socialism’s Steady Progress



Frederic O. MacCartney Belongs to the Living



Labor and the Color Question



Class-Conscious Courts



Labor and the Color Question



Labor and the Color Question



“You Work Only at the Pleasure of Your Masters” : Speech to the Second Annual Monster Picnic, Milwaukee, Wisconsin



Capital and Labor: Parasites and Hosts



Wayland and the Appeal to Reason: From Obscurity to Fame



Labor in Politics: Address Delivered at the Socialist Picnic at Gross’s Park, St. Louis



Crimes of Capitalism



Teddy’s Stab at Unionism



It is an Endless Campaign



A Word to the Young



The Negro in the Class Struggle



Reminiscences of Myron W. Reed



Fixed Conventions and Costly Courts



As to True Brotherhood: An Open Letter to the United Brotherhood of Railway Employees



The Great Game of Politics: Speech at Chicago Coliseum



How Long Will You Stand It? Speech at Chicago Coliseum



Auguries for the New Year: Notes from the 1902 Lecture Circuit



On the Color Question



On the Color Question



Socialism the Trend of the Times



Socialism and Civilization: Speech at Rochester, New York



Society Must Reap What It Sows: Interview with the Terre Haute Gazette



The Growth of Unionism in America



The Negro and the Class Struggle



The Negro In The Class Struggle



Auguries for the New Year: E.V. Debs Writes of His Late Tour

1904

Mayor Jones and “All the People”



The Negro and His Nemesis



Why Peabodyism Exists



The Coal Strike Surrender



Darrow, Hearst, and the Democrats



Crimes of Capitalism in Colorado



The Spectacle of Transformation



An Ideal Labor Press



Speech Accepting the 1904 Nomination of the Socialist Party



Our First National Campaign: Interview with the Terre Haute Sunday Tribune



An Era of Bloodhoundism



The Overmastering Passion for Profit



Stray Leaves from the Notebook of an Agitator



The Anniversary of Class War in Colorado



The Independence Depot Bombing: A Case of Capitalist Infernalism



To the Seattle Socialist and Its Readers



The Class Struggle and Its Impediments



The American Movement



Moving Toward Socialism



Face to Face



The Socialist Party and the Working Class: Opening Campaign Speech in Indianapolis



The Pressing Need



Use Your Brains!l



The Tragedy of Toil



Socialists Making Unprecedented Gains: Telegram to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch



The Socialist Party’s Appeal for 1904



It Ought Not Be Difficult to Decide: Campaign Speech at Chicago Auditorium



Advice to First Voters



Principle Shall Prevail: Campaign Speech in Milwaukee



The Swing of Victory



The Lessons of the 1904 Election: Statement to the Press



“The Democratic Party Has Been Practically Eliminated”: Telegram to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch



Known by Its Fruits



Invitation to a Secret Conference to Plan a New Industrial Labor Union



The Socialist Party & the Working Class



The Federal Government and the Pullman Strike: Eugene V. Debs’ Reply to Grover Cleveland’s Magazine Article,



Letter to S.S. McClure in New York from Eugene V. Debs in Terre Haute, July 22, 1904



Labor Day Greeting



The Federal Government and the Chicago Strike: A Reply to Grover Cleveland’s Magazine Article



To the Seattle Socialist and its Readers by Eugene



To The Socialist and Its Readers



Apostrophe to Liberty



Letter to Clarence Smith Explaining His Forthcoming Absence from the Meeting to Plan the Founding of the Industrial Workers of the World



Unionism and Socialism

1905

Amsterdam Congress the Year’s Great Achievement



Industrial Union Manifesto



Political Evolution and the Socialist Mission



Women: To Get What is Due You Must Take It



The Socialist Party and Woman’s Freedom



The Earth for All



The Russian Uprising





The Coming Union



The Russian Uprising



Childhood



Revolutionary Unionism



I Can Imagine Nothing To Change My Mind: Letter to Victor L. Berger



Revolt Against the AF of L is Bound to Come: Letter to Frederic Heath



Splits Are Not Always Bad: Letter to Frederic Heath



Class Unionism



Berger and His Opponents



Industrial Unionism



Industrial Unionism



Growth of the Injunction



Municipal Ownership, Capitalist vs. Socialist: A Statement to the Press



Speech to the IWW Founding Convention



Speech to the IWW Founding Convention



Berger and His Opponents



New Industrial Union to Be Organized



The New Union



The Chautauqua Platform and Its Opportunities



The Misrepresentation and Lies of the Capitalist Press



I Would Share the Prison Cell With You: Letter to Moses Harman



Now for Action



The Industrial Workers of the World: The Convention and Its Work



The Industrial Workers: The Convention and Its Work



Growth of the Injunction



The Industrial Convention



The New Working Class Union [excerpt]



Labor is the Great Power: Speech in Dixon, Illinois [excerpt]



You Have a Higher Mission: Labor Day Speech in Knoxville, Tennessee



Working Class Unity: A Labor Day Message



I Would Consider the Nomination a Command: Interview with the Cherryvale Daily Republican



The Growth of Socialism



Discourse on Liberty: Excerpt from a Speech at Leavenworth, Kansas



The Coming Labor Union



Craft Unionism



Revolutionary Unionism: Speech Delivered at Chicago



Winning a World



Winning a World



Graft Unionism and the Progressive Alternative: A Letter to the Chicago Socialist

1906

Industrial Revolutionists



The 1905 Mayoral Election in New York City



Is Man Immortal? Contribution to a Symposium



Socialist Papers and the Labor Unions: Letter to the Chicago Socialist



I Instinctively Want to Pull the Bell Rope: Interview with the Indianapolis Morning Star



Prepare for Action!



In Full Swing: Excerpt from a Speech in Waterloo, Iowa



Arouse, ye slaves!



You Have One Prerogative — To Think: Speech in Davenport, Iowa



Open Letter to President Roosevelt



You Railway Men



On Farm Workers and Small Farmers: Letter to J.E. Snyder



Resolution for Postponement of the IWW National Convention, by Terre Haute Local Union No. 9



Evolution of the Anthracite Miner



Railway Employees and the Class Struggle



Railway Employees and the Class Struggle



Arrest of Moyer and Haywood a Diabolical Plot



A Glimpse into the Future



Political Action



Labor’s Awakening



A Few Words, Mr. President: An Open Letter to Theodore Roosevelt



To The Rescue!



Where Daisy Sleeps



Moses Harman’s Mission



The Congressional Campaign



The Socialist Party and the Trade Unions: Contribution to a Symposium in The Worker



Idaho Election Should Prove Historic



Duties of the Hour



1906/Collapse of the Conspiracy



The Socialist Party and the Trade Unions



Man and Mule



Strike for Your Life!



Crumbling Capitalism



Organization for Emancipation



A Square Deal in a Round Place: Election Speech at Brand’s Park, Chicago



The Labor Question and Humanity

1907

A Personal Word



Show Your Hand



The Center of the Fight: Letter to the Appeal to Reason



My Case is Obstinate: Letter to Fred Warren of the Appeal to Reason



We Must Fight!



I Have Come to Girard: Open Letter in the Appeal to Reason



First Anniversary of the Kidnapping of Moyer, Haywood, and Pettibone in the Capitalist Conspiracy to Russianize the United States



John Brown: Americ’s Greatest Hero



Mother Jones



The Kidnapping Case in Congress



The Accused Miners



Worker Solidarity and Mouth Revolutionists



Roosevelt’s Labor Letters



Roosevelt and His Regime



The Date Fixed!



Haywood at the Bar



Calumny and Mendacity: Telegraphic Letter to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch



Roosevelt and His Regime



Roosevelt and His Regime



Revolution



Looking Backward



December 2, 1859



The Red Flag



Thomas McGrady



A Short History of the Appeal to Reason



The Crimson Standard



Revolution: Written for May Day 1907



I Shall Soon Be Off for Idaho: Letter to Stephen M. Reynolds in Terre Haute



“Bat” Masterson a Fiction Writer: Letter to the Editor of the New York Telegraph



Who Are the Wolves?



Monstrous Falsification: Letter to the Editor of the New York Times



Roosevelt’s Labor Letters



The Coming Climax



The Coming Climax



The Demonstration Was a Great One: Letter to Morris Hillquit



Letter to the Walt Whitman Fellowship



The Trial and Its Meaning



The Drift of Our Times: Lecture to the Fox River Chautauqua, Appleton, Wisconsin



Statement to the Press on the Haywood Verdict



Statement to the Appeal to Reason on the Haywood Verdict



Sweep of the Social Revolution



Industrial Unionism Defined



John Brown, History’s Greatest Hero



Thomas McGrady: Eulogy to an Honest Man



Childhood



Panic Philosophy

1908

Railroad Employees and Socialism





For Joint Action in 1908: Letter to Frank Bohn, National Secretary, Socialist Labor Party of America



Samuel Gompers in Politics



Progress by Prohibition [excerpt]



Shall Warren Be Railroaded?



The Federal Court and Union Labor: The Buck’s Stove and Range Case



Property and Public Welfare



I Had Hoped That My Name Would Not Be Mentioned: Telegram to Seymour Stedman



A Short Speech Amongst Friends: Girard, Kansas



An Evening in Girard: An Informal Speech Among Friends Following the 1908 Socialist Convention



Unity and Victory



The Issue



The Socialist Party’s Appeal



Letter to Frank Bohn, National Secretary, Socialist Labor Party



We Will Have 5,000 Open Air Speakers: Statement to the Press



The Socialist Conflagration



Vigorous War on the Socialist Press Forthcoming



No Prospects for Hearst’s Independence Party



The Greatest Optimists in the World



Fear Fire on “Red Special”: Underwriters Refuse to Permit Socialist Train to be Decorated in City



Fear Fire on “Red Special”: Underwriters Refuse to Permit Socialist Train to be Decorated in City



Notes of a Labor Agitator



Progress by Prohibition



Labor’s Fight for Freedom



Independence and Liberty



Mastery of the Machine: Campaign Speech in Oklahoma City



Great Achievements



Telegram Accepting the 1908 Nomination for President of the United States



The Issue: Speech at Courthouse Park, Girard, Kansas



Open Letter to the Members of the Socialist Party, May 17, 1908



No Negro Question Outside the Class Question: An Open Letter to J. Milton Waldron, President of the National Negro American Political League



What the Matter Is In America and What to Do About It: An Interview with Debs by Lincoln Steffens



Women Needed in Campaign



The Democratic Injunction Plank



Organized Labor’s New Turn to Politics



Unity and Victory: Speech to the Kansas State Convention of the American Federation of Labor, Pittsburg, Kansas



Unity and Victory: Speech to the Kansas State Convention of the American Federation of Labor, Pittsburg, Kansas



"“Equality of Reward”: Theodore Roosevelt and the Socialist Movement [excerpt]



What A Million Votes For the Socialist Party Will Mean



Campaign Speech in Kansas City, Missouri, September 2, 1908 [extract]



Statement in Reply to Samuel Gompers: Press Release Distributed September 4, 1908



Open Letter to Readers of the Appeal to Reason, September 5, 1908



Statement to the Watsonville Pajaronian, September 11, 1908



Campaign Speech at Spokane, Washington, September 16, 1908



A Million Votes or More: Statement to the Press in Missoula, Montana



Said By Debs: Quotations from Speeches Made on the 1908 Campaign Trail



Said By Debs: Quotations from Speeches Made on the 1908 Campaign Trail



Statement to the New Ulm Review, Sept. 20, 1908



Remarks to Children in Trenton, Ohio, Sept. 29, 1908



Railroad Employees and Socialism



The New Emancipation: Campaign Speech at the Hippodrome, New York City



Diaz’s Plot to Murder Our Mexican Comrades Must Be Foiled



The Socialist Party’s Appeal for 1908



Throwing Away Their Votes



Socialist Ideals



To Our Comrades: Greetings



The End of a Magnificent Campaign



Big Interests Are the Power That Rules: Letter to the Editor of the Terre Haute Star



Socialist Ideals Socialist Party leader Gene Debs completely conflates philosophical and economic materialism in this article for B.O. Flower’s liberal monthly magazine The Arena. As Socialism "pays chief attention to the bread-and-butter problem, [it] has been called materialistic," says Debs. Rather: "it is really the most idealistic movement of the centuries. So idealistic is it in its aims that, while having no specific religious tendency or purpose, it partakes somewhat of the nature of a religious movement and awakens something of a religious enthusiasm among its adherents." Debs calls Socialism "an extension of the ideal of democracy into the economic field" and remarks that unlike the founders of the democratic movement of 1776, "we do not need, like them, to resort to arms, but may use the democracy they bestowed on us as a means for obtaining further democracy." In Debs’ vision, a simple change of ownership of productive machinery from private to public hands would result in productive labor for all wanting it at any time, a banishing of want from the earth, and education, homes, and income for all. Moreover, Debs promises that under Socialism the mind and soul will flourish, as will literature and art, fear of war will vanish, a new divinity will emerge in religion, and domestic bliss will reign triumphant.

“This Plot Must Be Foiled: Conspiracy to Murder Mexican Comrades Now Imprisoned in This Country by Order of Diaz,” by Eugene V. Debs [Oct. 17, 1908] American Socialist icon Gene Debs looks beyond American borders to rise to the defense of Mexican revolutionaries imprisoned by the country’s military strongman, Porfirio Díaz. Debs alleges the existence of a “satanic international conspiracy” between the Roosevelt and Díaz governments to capture and execute Mexican revolutionaries-in-exile Juan Sarabia, Ricardo Flores Magón, Antonio I. Villarreal, Librado Rivera, and L. Gutierrez de Lara. He explicitly likens the situation faced by the Mexican radicals to that recently faced by Big Bill Haywood, Charles Moyer, and George Pettibone of the Western Federation of Miners. “These comrades have been engaged in a peaceful agitation in behalf of their wretched and suffering countrymen. Forced into exile by the ruling class, they came to the United States, but they soon found that their dream of security was a delusion and a snare,” declares Debs. Debs calls upon the American working class to “arouse” to stop this “dastardly international conspiracy of capitalists to murder labor leaders who can not be silenced in any other way.”

1909

Susan B. Anthony: A Reminiscence



The Gompers Contempt of Court Sentence



Gompers and Capitalism



The Gompers Jail Sentence



Arise, Ye Hosts of Liberty!







Secret Agents at Work



Epigrams of Merit



War is Murder in Uniform



Roosevelt’s Stale and Silly Objections: An Answer to the Articles in The Outlook



Fred Warren Convicted by a Packed Jury



Principle Features of the Fred D. Warren Trial



The Socialist Press



Industrial Unionism



Fred Warren Convicted by a Packed Jury



Trial and Conviction of Fred D. Warren: Summary of the Celebrated Case—Liberty of the Press the Issue—Two Years in the Federal Courts and the Motive Behind It



You Are of One Class: Speech to Pressed Steel Car Company Strikers, McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania [excerpt]



Statement to the Press on the McKees Rocks Strike



Flag of Freedom



Statement of Protest Over the Jailing of Lázaro Gutiérrez de Lara



Women — Comrade and Equal

1910

A Working Man Has No Chance in Federal Court: Speech at Orchestra Hall, Chicago [excerpt]



The Fred D. Warren Case: Speech at Orchestra Hall — Chicago, IL, Jan. 14, 1910, by Eugene V. Debs [excerpt] In this 1600 word excerpt from a speech delivered in support of jailed Appeal to Reason editor Fred Warren, Socialist Party leader Gene Debs takes aim at the judiciary, declaring the jurist in the case, John C. Pollock, to be “infamous and corrupt.” Debs recounts the story of his own jailing in 1895 and the way in which the judge in the case abruptly terminated the case upon discovery that the association of railroad general managers had met with officials of the Pullman Corporation in order to “crush the employees in the Pullman service and to destroy the American Railway Union.” The whole of the 131 member federal bench and the 9 members of the Supreme Court owe their positions to corporate service, Debs contends. Citing the poverty and misery produced by capitalism, Debs calls for his listeners to unite behind the principles of industrial unionism in the shop and joint political action at the ballot box.



On Ben Hanford’s Death: Telegram to the New York Call



The More I Think of It, The Hotter My Blood Becomes: Letter to Fred D. Warren in Girard, Kansas



My First Speaking Tour of 1910



Fight to the Last! Speech at Philadelphia Labor Lyceum



Prostitution of Religion



Industrial Unionism and the Philadelphia Streetcar Strike [excerpt]



Open Letter on the Immigration Question1



Building the Industrial Union: Open Letter to Tom Mann



Unionism is the Flower of the Past Century: A Labor Day Message



Roosevelt and Prizefighting



Industrial Unionism: A Letter to Tom Mann PDF version



A Letter from Debs on Immigration PDF version



The Little Lords of Love



Working Class Politics: Extracts of a Campaign Speech for Local Cook Co. SPA at Riverview Park, Chicago, Sept. 18, 1910



Working Class Politics: Speech at Riverfront Park, Chicago



Capitalist Class Rule: Executive, Legislative, Judicial



The Los Angeles Times Bombing — Who Committed That Crime?



Gould Turns Democrat



Berger Victory Heralds New Political Era



A Word About Mexico, Mr. President



A Personal Note



Military Murderers



Woodrow Wilson

1911

The Secret of Efficient Expression



The Children of the Poor



Help! Help!! Help!!!



Danger Ahead PDF version



Labor’s Struggle For Supremacy



The Eight Hour Work Day



Mexico



The Crime Of Craft Unionism



Crime of Craft Unionism



Woman’s Day is Dawning



Lincoln’s Birthday Speech



Another Kidnapping Plot!



Spring to the Rescue



The Secret of Efficient Expression



The Uninitiated May Become Discouraged: Interview with Elias Tobekin



The Failure of Weak and Compromising Tactics in Chicago



Why We Have Outgrown the United States Constitution



The Chicago Movement [excerpt]



Old Party Political Predictions: Interview with the Terre Haute Star



Despotism, Democracy, and the Trusts



They Are Democrats and Catholics: Statement to the Indianapolis News



Mean and Narrow Fanaticism

1912

The McNamara Case and the Labor Movement



This is Our Year: But Two Parties And But One Issue



The Socialist Party’s Appeal



Political Appeal to American Workers



Capitalism and Socialism



A Message to the Children



A Contrast Presented by Presidential Candidates of the Socialist Labor Party and the Socialist Party



The Fight for Freedom



Civilization of the Whipping Post: Delaware’s Imperishable Infamy

The Supreme Tragedy

Capitalism in its Dotage

My Personal Finances

The Socialist Labor Party

Capitalism and Crime

Joseph J. Ettor and Arturo Giovannitti

Telegram Accepting the 1912 Nomination for President of the United States

When the Hickory Nuts are Falling [poem]

Dare to Think

But Two Parties and But One Issue: Speech at Riverfront Park, Chicago

“A Mistake and An Injustice”: Letter to J. Mahlon Barnes

“The Load Will Be Shifted”: Three Letters to Fred D. Warren About the Barnes Affair

Statement of Presidential Candidate on J. Mahlon Barnes as Campaign Manager

We Are Ready for the Battle

“Officialdom is Solidly Pitted Against Me”: Letter to Fred D. Warren

“I Favor a Thorough Housecleaning”: Letter to Representative Victor L. Berger

“It Will Necessitate Our Parting Company”: Letter to Fred D. Warren

“A Good Excuse to Drive a Center Shot at Him”: Letter to Fred D. Warren

The Progressive Party Convention: Letter to the New York Times

Capitalism is the Real Issue

“The Socialist Party’s Appeal”



Nothing Between You and Complete Emancipation: Campaign Speech at Everett, Washington



Telegram Read at the Funeral of Julius Augustus Wayland: Girard, Kansas—Nov. 13, 1912



Pioneer Women in America



The Results of the 1912 Election: A Statement

1913—1914

The Rights of Working Women Socialist Party publicist Eugene Debs takes aim at Cardinal James Gibbons and other members of the conservative Catholic hierarchy for an address in opposition to woman suffrage. Gibbons and his peers are deemed by Debs to be “pious agents of the master class who admonish their subjects to obey their masters and be content with their lot.” Moreover, “Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop Ireland, and other high priests have not only declared against the right of women to vote but they have announced their opposition to the initiative and referendum, the recall, and every other measure that has to do with democracy and self-government,” Debs declares. “These gentlemen in gowns speak for Wall Street, for the plutocracy, the ruling class. They traffic in the ignorant reverence of the masses. At heart they hold the common people in contempt. They pretend to be chosen of God and to be his representatives on earth, a pious invention that has served in every age to keep the ignorant masses at their mercy.” Blind obedience “is not religious duty but debasing slavery,” says Debs, and he urges working women to end their passivity and submission and to insist upon their rights. “The day of awakening is at hand,” Debs pronounces. “The workers of all the world are breaking away from kingcraft and priestcraft and swelling the conquering hosts of the international army of emancipation.”



“An Unqualified and Malicious Falsehood”: Statement to the Press



The Old Umbrella Mender



The Old Umbrella Mender



The Early Days of Unionism in Terre Haute



Ostracized Sisters of the Streets Reflect Our Guilt

1914

The Coppock Brothers: Heroes of Harper’s Ferry



Jesus, the Supreme Leader



On the Death of Daniel De Leon



American Socialist Forerunner of Powerful Revolutionary Press



The Gunmen and the Miners

The Butte Affair Reviewed Eugene Debs rushes to the defense of Charles Moyer and the Western Federation of Miners in the wake of the bombing of the Butte Miners’ Union hall in Butte, Montana, ostensibly by dissidents in the union. Debs castigates the bombers as attempted assassins who had participated in a “treasonable, cowardly, and disgraceful plot” in the service of the mine owners who intended to rupture the organized labor movement. Debs notes that the WFM is the most fully democratic of unions and if Moyer was the head of a “self-perpetuating machine,” as some had charged, then “the rank and file have themselves to blame and they but add crime to stupidity when they blow up the union with dynamite to destroy the alleged machine.” To charges that the bombers were associated with the IWW, Debs notes that “it should not be forgotten that the workers at Lawrence and at Akron were most basely betrayed, sold out, and treacherously delivered to their enemies by IWW Judases, who while passing as industrial unionists were at the same time on the payrolls of the detective agencies in the service of the corporations.” Debs predicts a return of the Butte Miners’ Union as a united, militant, progressive union in the aftermath of the bombing and disruption.

1915

Industrial and Social Democracy



Louis Tikas: Ludlow’s Hero and Martyr



Peace on Earth





Socialist Sunday School



The Social Spirit





My Ideal, [April 3 1915] Short piece of Socialist enthusiasm by Indiana SPA publicist Gene Debs. Not a particularly important piece on the face of it, this is most interesting for its opening line ("My ideal is a thinker in overalls.") and for a bit of unconscious reflection on the price paid in his own life for his activism. Debs writes: “Whittier, the Quaker poet, once said that any great cause is bitterly opposed in its incipient stages. This has always been an established fact. It is easy for a person to be a nobody and drift along with the flow of the tide. But it takes a bit of courage to step out and join the despised minority.” Debs notes that “united force” of the working class is “absolutely essential” for its triumph, calls the wage system “the final form of servitude,” and professes a belief in the imminence of the fall of “capitalism and wage slavery.”





Open Letter on Poverty, [Aug. 7, 1915] The flame of moral indignation burns white and hot in the breast of Terre Haute, Indiana ’s most famous Socialist, four time Presidential candidate Eugene Debs, as he fumes in this letter to his local newspaper. Local ministers, it seems, had advised their parishoners against providing money or sustinance to the so-called “unworthy” poor — a position which Debs found to be hypocritical, morally repugnant, callous, and brutal. Debs asks such “Christian gentlemen” whether “the great Teacher they profess to follow ever made any discrimination between the ‘worthy ’ poor and the ‘unworthy ’ poor.” Rather, Debs declars, Jesus Christ sprang from the poor himself, lived his life with the poor and moreover “when he made any distinction among them it was wholly in favor of the ‘unworthy ’ poor, by forgiving them much because they had suffered much. He did not condemn them to starvation and suicide upon the hypocritical pretext that they were ‘unworthy, ’ but he did apply the lash of scorpions without mercy to those self-righteous and “eminently respectable” gentlemen who robbed the poor and then despised them for their poverty; who made long prayers, where they could be see of men, while they devoured widows’ houses and bound burdens upon the backs of their victims that crushed them to the earth.” Debs declares that if he himself were consigned to misery as were so many “I, too, would probably get drunk as often as I had the chance.” He insists that the poor should no more be blamed for their situation “than if he were the victim of cancer or epilepsy.” In Debs ’ vision, Socialism would bring about a new democracy in which “men will be brothers, war will cease, poverty will be a hideous nightmare of the past, and the sun of a new civilization will light the world.”





War and Hell or Peace and Starvation, [Aug. 14, 1915] Socialist publicist Gene Debs argues that the options facing the working class under the rule of capitalism are not war and death vs. peace and prosperity — but rather war and death vs. unemployment and starvation. He quotes an AP press report dealing with the dire situation faced by families in Southern Ohio mining country owing to the closure of the mines. Debs bitterly observes that in large measure the suffering miners have nobody but themselves to blame, as the “overwhelming majority” of them have helped perpetuate the broken economic system with their own votes — “belong[ing] to the same capitalist party their masters do and cast[ing] their votes with scrupulous fidelity to perpetuate the boss ownership of the mine in which they work and their own exclusion and starvation at their master’s will.” Debs waxes sarcastic: “Blessed be the private ownership of the mines, for without it the miners and their wives would lose their individuality, their homes would be broken up, their morality destroyed, their religion wiped out, and they would be denied forever the comfort and solace of poverty and starvation!” Workers ’ power is needed to change the situation, in Debs ’ view: “When the miners themselves control the mines, once they have learned how to control themselves, they will not lock themselves out and starve themselves and their loved ones to death.... The bosses lose their power and along with it their jobs when the workers find theirs.”





My Political Faith, [Aug. 28, 1915] Debs revisits and expands a piece published in 1913 called “Labor, the Life of the Race” to expound his millennial political philosophy.] “The emancipation of labor is essential to the freedom of humanity,” Debs declares. For centuries across many societies, those who have toiled have been exploited and abused by parasitical masters. “There can be no morals in any society based upon the exploitation and consequent misery of the class whose labor supports society,” Debs pronounces, “There can be no freedom while workers are in fetters.” Competition has “engendered the spirit of selfishness, jealousy, and hate,” while the cooperative future will lead to the practice of “mutual kindness and mutual aid,” Debs indicates — poverty, ignorance, disease, and crime will disappear in the new society of universal prosperity. The rulers are few and the workers many, Debs observes: “When the workers realize the power that is inherent in themselves, when they cut loose from capitalist parties and build up their own, when they vote together against the capitalist instead of voting for the capitalist, there will be a change.” He urges the “brawny-armed millions” of workers to “get together in the union of your class and in the party of your class for emancipation!”



The School for the Masses: The People’s College of Fort Scott, Kansas,



Sinking of Lusitania a Monstrous Massacre



International Patriotism



Expulsion of Half-Educated Socialists a Trap: Letter to the California Social Democrat



So-Called “Preparedness” Invites War: Telegram to the New York Sun



Real Religion and the Hypocrites

1916

On Liquor and Prohibition, by Eugene V. Debs [Feb. 2, 1916] Citing personal experiences gained during his seven years of frequent residency in the dry state of Kansas, Gene Debs offers a pragmatic view of prohibition and the liquor question. This article, originally written for his hometown newspaper, was part of an ongoing debate over the liquor question between Debs and a local Methodist minister. Debs argues forcefully that prohibition leads to the closure of otherwise healthy businesses and the consequent decrease of tax revenues, while at the same time boosting costs of government operation. Moreover, prohibition only leads to an illegal economy, Debs indicates: “There are 19 prohibition states in the country and every one of them swarming with bootleggers; not one of them in which you cannot buy all the whiskey you want if you have the money to pay for it. There is not an actually dry county in all these states and there never will be.” As for the social gains of prohibition, Debs states these are non-existent, there being “not a particle of difference between so-called wet and dry states so far as the workers are concerned.” Debs argues that only the elimination of profit from the liquor trade and its operation by the state would eliminate the ill effects associated with the industry, citing the late temperance leader Frances Willard’s belief that the economic system which causes exploitation and poverty was the root cause of drunkenness and Socialism the solution.

Preparedness Will Crush You, by Eugene V. Debs [April 8, 1916] Accusing steel magnates Charles Schwab and Andrew Carnegie of being the vocal nucleus of the so-called “preparedness” movement, Socialist leader Gene Debs warns his readers of the future effects of militarism in their daily lives. For the industrialists “the more preparedness the more profit,” declares Debs, adding that “If war follows preparedness, as intended, all the better.” But for the working class preparedness was, in Debs’ view, “a fraud and a sham in so far as it means an army and navy controlled by the capitalist state,” which “will respond to the commands of the ruling class and the workers need expect nothing from it except to be crushed by it when they revolt against starvation.” Debs instead calls for an alternative “working class preparedness” based upon education and organization — “preparing the working class, in every way that may be necessary for the class struggle, however it may be fought, and the overthrow, by whatever means, of the capitalistic system that now enslaves and robs them.”

On the Proposed National Platform, by Eugene V. Debs [Aug. 4, 1916] With the Presidential nomination already to be made by referendum vote, in an effort to conserve scarce party funds the 1916 national convention of the Socialist Party was canceled. The job of writing a new party platform was delegated to the staid party veterans of the National Executive Committee. The document which these moderates returned raised a firestorm of protest by the Socialist Party’s center and left, including this impassioned letter to the rank and file from iconic party leader Gene Debs. Debs lists three deficiencies in the platform: a failure to clearly stand for the class struggle, a failure to clearly stand for “the revolutionary industrial union as against the reactionary craft union,” and two passages which indicated the legitimacy of a war of self-defense. “This is putting the party back upon the same ground it occupied in Europe when on that very account it was swept into the hell of slaughter in which our comrades by the millions are now perishing,” Debs observes, adding “Every nation in Europe, taking its own word for it, is fighting a war of defense and resisting invasion.” Debs views this a “deadly peril” for the Socialist Party and urges the planks’ defeat. “If the Socialist Party is true to itself and the working class it will take its stand staunchly in favor of the class war, the only war that can put an end to all war, and quite as staunchly against every war waged by the ruling class to rob and kill and enslave the working class,” Debs insists.

Russell and His War Views: Letter to the Editor of The American Socialist



Politicians and Preachers



Social Reform



Peace



James Connolly’s Foul Murder



The Birth of a Nation Inspires Race Prejudice



Ministers and Civic Morals



Prohibition Will Never End the Liquor Trade



Forward to Victory! Open Letter to Seceding West Virginia Miners



What Did the Old Parties Do? Congressional Campaign Speech at Terre Haute

1917—1918

The Majority Report



Recollections of Ingersoll



Wendell Phillips: Orator and Abolitionist (Image scan with cover)



Wendell Phillips: Orator and Abolitionist



‘Men Shall Marvel That This Could Be’



Susan B. Anthony: Pioneer of Freedom





1918

The IWW Bogey



Face to Face with Facts





Towards the Rising Sun



Views on the Double Attack on Russia



Indicted, Unashamed and Unafraid



Marx and Young People



The Canton, Ohio Anti-War Speech



The Campaign This Year



The Strike That Should Have Won



“Marx and Young People”



Karl Marx the Man: An Appreciation



Statement to the Court Upon Being Convicted of Violating the Sedition Act



A Convention to Restate, Not Apologize

1919—1920

Verbal Authorization of David Karsner’s Book



The Day of the People



The Situation in Ohio



Letter to Arthur E. Elmgreen in Chicago from Eugene V. Debs in Terre Haute, Jan. 11, 1919.





1920

The Wall Street Explosion



Why Are We Not Stronger?



The Power of the Press, Eugene V. Debs [Feb. 20, 1920] This short and fluffy article by Socialist leader Gene Debs makes for useful blurb material for radical publishers of any ages. The ruling class are “keenly alive to the power of the press in molding public sentiment and in shaping affairs in accordance with their interests” and thus their press is adequately funded, Debs states. The working class press, on the other hand, is underfunded and its newspapers and periodicals quick to starve and die. Particularly in times of labor strife is felt the unbalance between the ruling class and working class press, Debs indicates: “If the working people had a press the slugging methods of corporations in a strike and the activities of their murderous gunmen would not only be impossible but unthinkable.” “The working class can expect nothing from the press of the capitalist class but misrepresentation and injustice in the struggle for its rights,” Debs writes, and he deems the development of a vital working class press essential to the liberation of the proletariat from wage slavery.



PDF of Deb's last call to vote in the 1920 elections



Full issue of Deb’s Freedom Monthly on PDF format. One article by Debs.





1922

Debs Appeals for Prisoners:Leader Requests that All Trade Unions and Societies Work for Release of War Prisoners



Review and Personal Statement



Debs Calls the Jury of the People to Try Indiana Governor



An Appeal for Russian Famine Relief



The United Front:Shall We Have Solidarity Or Be Slaughtered?



Sacco-Vanzetti:Socialist Leader Makes Stirring Plea for Two Italian Labor Men



The New Age Anniversary: The Socialist Leader Says Support Labor Press that Opposed the War



God’s Masterpiece: Woman



From Atlanta Prison: A Letter from a Prisoner with a Warning



Railroad Unions General Strike:Debs Says Concerted Action of Rail Unions Can Bring Victory to All Strikers



1922 May Day Salutation, by Eugene V. Debs [April 29, 1922] Routine May Day greeting sent out to the labor press by recently freed Federal prisoner and Socialist Party icon Gene Debs. Debs acknowledges that the Socialist movement’s “ranks were shaken” by World War I, but was in the aftermath “readjusting itself” to the new conditions. “Capitalism is bankrupt and in ruins and socialism is mounting to power to rebuild the shattered social fabric and save civilization,” Debs hopefully offers. He additionally indicates that “bitter antagonisms engendered during that tempestuous period are subsiding” and that “before another year we shall have a more thoroughly unified, aggressive, and uncompromisingly revolutionary international than we ever had before.”



Review and Personal Statement



Embattled Liberators

1923

A Sheriff I Loved



Getting Together



Michigan in the Muck



A Sheriff I Loved

1924—1927

Socialist Party Due to Make Greatest Gains in its Entire History, Eugene Debs Declares: National Chairman of the Socialist Party Outlines Political Situation





1925

As to the Labor Defense Council March



The American Labor Party



Allen Cook: A Tribute: A Pioneer of Socialism in Ohio Passes Away — The Spirit of a Spartan



The American Labor Party



Speech at 1925 Conference for Progressive Political Action



As to the Labor Defense Council





1926

Black Persecution





Unknown dates of publication

Flea and Donkey



Eye to Eye



Prince and Proletaire