Eugene V. Debs is an agitator with the heart of a poet. The combination
is rare, and Socialism in America is to be congratulated on having a
leader of his caliber. I think of Debs as preëminently the voice of the
working class. The proletarian spirit has found in him its loyalest and
bravest exponent. But he is much more than that. He is a dreamer as well
as a fighter. He leads men because he _loves_ them. If Walt Whitman
could return, he would surely recognize in Debs a man who believes with
all the intensity of his nature in “the dear love of comrades.”