Classes have come and classes have gone down through the pages of
history. Whenever the position of a ruling class has been threatened,
the ruling class has crucified the truth-tellers.
Compared with the necessity of protecting ruling class privileges and
prerogatives, the right of a man to express his mind goes for nothing.
That is the lesson of history and that is what we are witnessing today.
Men who have stirred up the people; men who have raised their voices in
protest; men who thought straight; men who have loved their fellow men
too much; men who have had conviction and courage and purpose; men who
were willing to stick by their ideals--such men have suffered in every
age.
Eugene V. Debs has stirred up the people all his life. Since he was a
boy firing a locomotive engine, he has been an agitator. He has always
stood for justice, for liberty and brotherhood. He has loved his fellow
men; he has been gentle and sincere; he has been devoted to what he
regards as the greatest cause in the world. On this war he has stood
like granite, unwavering and unflinching, voicing the protest of the
masses who had no voice with which to speak. He has uttered what they
believed.
The preachers who deserted their flocks; the teachers who betrayed their
trust; the editors who took their 30 pieces of silver in these last few
years--they are free; they are honored; they are respected. But this man
who thought straight; who loved his fellows, who spoke his convictions;
who was true to his ideals--this man is permitted to go to jail by the
Supreme Court of the United States.
I have seen the Supreme Court and I have seen Eugene V. Debs. From the
Supreme Court I got neither love nor inspiration; from Debs I got both.
In his generation in the United States, there is not a greater man than
Eugene V. Debs--not because of what he has done, but because of what he
is, and when the history of this generation is written, that fact will
be recorded.
The masters in all ages have put men like Debs in jail because it is the
truth-teller that the masters fear most. They fear the Truth; they fear
the Light; they fear Justice; and the man who turns on the Light and
speaks the Truth and cries out for Justice--is their greatest enemy. So
they have always tried this process of putting ideas into jail.