It is not his craft or creed,
It is not the winged word
That springs from his soul to his lips, at need,
And, flying, is felt and heard;
But something down in us all
That makes us respect the man
Who says unto great and small:
“You’ve a right to do what you can;
You’ve a right to preserve and keep
Such things as the gods gave you;
You’ve a right to your hours of sleep
And the worth of the things you do;
You’ve a right to the million or dime
That your brain or your brawn has won;
But not in the length of time;
In the light of the moon or sun,
Have you a right to a thing
That you steal or wring
From me or from any one.”
* * * * *
In 1904 he made such a campaign as no other man ever endured. He began
at Indianapolis September 1, and from that date traveled to New York,
and thence to California, thence to Portland, Maine, thence to his home,
Terre Haute, closing his campaign in his home city before an audience of
several thousands, and at least 2,000 could not gain entrance. During
this time he did not miss an appointment by even one minute. He spoke
every day and some days two, three and even four times. The crowds were
so great in the large cities it seemed impossible for him to enter or go
from the building at the close of the meetings. On several occasions it
became necessary to stop and speak a few minutes to the waiting
thousands on the streets. He had gone alone during all this time except
from October 17 to November 8, when from Chicago to Portland and thence
to Terre Haute, Comrade Reynolds, of Terre Haute, was with him,
assisting in all possible ways to lighten the heavy work.
Owing to the lack of funds of the working class party Mr. Debs had been
attending to baggage, hotels, time tables, and the vast correspondence
necessarily following him. The old parties had the noise, brass bands,
Pullman trains, luxuries of every sort, torch-lights and plenty of
money. The Debs meetings were held in the largest obtainable audience
rooms in the larger cities and were paid for by tickets of admission,
and these meetings in every case netted to the campaign fund of the
Socialist party considerable sums of money, from which Mr. Debs received
only the expenses of travel, which were not very heavy.
In spite of the facts stated, most of the great capitalist papers either
ignored these meetings or belittled them, or flatly misrepresented them,
but the people are quick nowadays to get the truth about these things
and there will be more wonderful meetings in the campaign of 1908 than
ever before known by a rising militant minor political party. Those who
heard him, heard the polished American orator; those who agreed with him
were strengthened and confirmed in their beliefs; those who came seeking
Truth were moved by his oratory and convinced by his array of facts and
unerring logic, in making conclusions from them, while those who
disagreed were disarmed of prejudice and commended him as a sincere,
earnest man.
In 1880 he persuaded Susan B. Anthony to speak in Terre Haute in a
series of meetings advocating Woman’s Suffrage, and with her he walked
and stood the odium that ignorance and prejudice poured out upon that
great human question, at that time not so popular as it now is, when
100,000 women may surround the Parliament of England and demand that the
voices of women be counted in the rules of life that concern them and
their children as it does men and their children.
Mr. Debs has always stood for equality of rights, equality of
opportunity for men and women everywhere without distinction of race,
religion, color, or sex, and no Socialist platform fails to clearly
state its attitude upon these great vital questions. Search the old
party platforms and you may find terms of evasion but not of real
affirmation of these fundamental demands.
Mr. Debs was nominated by the Socialist party for President in 1900,
receiving 97,000 votes; again in 1904, receiving 409,000 votes; again in
1908.
Debs has said these immortal words to the working people:
“I am not a Labor Leader; I do not want you to follow me or anyone else;
if you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of this capitalist
wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into
this promised land if I could, because if I could lead you in, someone
else would lead you out. YOU MUST use your heads as well as your hands,
and get yourselves out of your present condition; as it is now the
capitalists use your heads and your hands.”
To teach, to serve is his mental and moral mission. He seeks no place of
power or profit,—did not want to be nominated either time for the
presidency, but when the rank and file lead and order, he has never
hesitated to obey, and he believes, with unquestioning faith and love
for the people, that when they are educated and understand, they will
peacefully and intelligently set government about its proper
business,—the government of the forces of production and the same
arrangements of distributing the things the people need, and must have,
if they are ever to rise to complete physical, mental and spiritual
freedom.
In closing this necessarily brief and meager biographical sketch of this
true, living, loving and lovable man, true neighbor, really “desirable
citizen,” and unimpeached and unimpeachable representative and servant
of the working class, I cannot tell in any better way of “Debs at Home”
than in the little pamphlet I wrote in 1904. It needs no change. He has
only grown every day in intellectual and spiritual stature, more wise,
more patient, more uncompromising and unconquerably aggressive and more
loving and lovable and, therefore, able more safely to teach the workers
and more to be feared by the exponents of the rapidly-dying system of
capitalism tottering to its inevitable grave, dying because it has
served its period of usefulness, because it now hurts, degrades and
humiliates all of the human family.