"The Real Fatherland," by Mary Marcy [Sept. 1914] Anti-patriotic editorial from the pages of The International Socialist Review written in response to the eruption of the European war in August 1914. Editor Mary Marcy addresses herself to the workers of the entire world, combatant nations and Americans alike, arguing that "Patriotism means the love of the land in which you were born - that and nothing more. And why should you love that land any more than any other?" The various nations of the world have done nothing whatsoever for the working class, she states -- neither protecting its children nor assuring food and shelter or employment or taking care of its sick and aged. Instead, all the national governments of the world exist to protect the wealth of their individual ruling classes. "If you are rich, 'your' country will open her arms to you and spread out her army, her laws, her police to protect your riches. If you are penniless, she will just as readily drive you from her furthermost provinces or send you to here vilest prisons," Marcy states. Therefore, "You have no country!" she declares, adding that "Every national flag in the world today means protection for the employing class, who appropriate the things produced by the workers. It has no message for those who toil. There is only one flag worth fighting for and that is the red flag, which means universal brotherhood of the workers of the world in their fight to abolish the profit system." The real fatherland of the working class is international Socialism, she concludes.

 

"The Gunmen and the Miners," by Eugene V. Debs [Sept. 1914] Probably the most militant article that Socialist leader Gene Debs ever wrote, published in the pages of Charles Kerr's International Socialist Review. Citing recurring violence by company-employed "mine guards" in strikes at Paint Creek, Calumet, and Ludlow, Debs demands that the United Mine Workers and Western Federation of Miners systematically arm their members to meet force with force in the class war. "Under government by gunmen you are literally shorn of the last vestige of liberty and you have absolutely no protection under the law. When you go out on strike, your master has his court issue the injunction that strips you of your power to resist his injustice, and then has his private army of gunmen invade your camp, open fire on your habitations, and harass you and your families until the strike is broken and you are starved back into the pits on your master's terms." Debs characterizes such private armies as "lawless aggregations" of "murderers at large" and states that "you have the same right to kill them when they attack you that you have to kill the burglar who breaks into your house at midnight or the highwayman who holds you up at the point of his pistol." Debs notes that "we stand for peace, and that we are unalterably opposed to violence and bloodshed if by any possible means, short of absolute degradation and self-abasement, these can be prevented. We believe in law, the law that applies equally to all and is impartially administered, and we prefer reason infinitely to brute force. But when the law fails, and in fact, becomes the bulwark of crime and oppression, then an appeal to force is not only morally justified, but becomes a patriotic duty." Therefore, he urges, "Let the unions...arm their members against the gunmen of the corporations, the gangs of criminals, cutthroats, woman-ravishers, and baby-burners that have absolutely no lawful right to existence!"

 

"Debs Trial Opens Monday [Sept. 9]; Defendant Makes Speeches As Lawyers Prepare Case: Seymour Stedman, Attorney for Defense, Says No Attempt Will Be Made to Excuse or Apologize for Any Statement by Veteran Socialist -- Recognizes Trial as Attack on Socialism," by J. Louis Engdahl [Sept. 9, 1918] With war hysteria at a fever pitch the Wilson administration pushed forward its agenda of stomping out left wing dissent by the exertion of crude state power. Four time Socialist Party Presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs was hauled before the bar on September 9, 1918, to answer for spoken words he uttered to the Ohio Socialist Party convention at Canton in June. This pre-trial report by J. Louis Engdahl quotes lead lawyer Seymour Stedman as saying that "No attempt will be made to excuse or apologize for any statement made by Debs in his Canton speech. Debs and those associated with him recognized this case as an attack on Socialism and the freedom of discussion." As for the defendant, Debs is quoted as saying "I amount to nothing in this. Tens of thousands have gone to prison; thousands have been executed; who am I that I should do less for the cause that means so much to the working class? I propose to keep my self-respect, and I can not retract anything that I have said and do so. I would rather go to prison with the consciousness of being true to myself than to escape through any subtleties of the law." Engdahl makes clear the jury venire is stacked against Debs and lists previous repressive action in the venue, including the sentencing of Socialist school board member A.L. Hitchcock to 15 years in federal prison for his words; of Ohio party leaders C.E. Ruthenberg, Alfred Wagenknecht, and Charles Baker to 1 year in the Toledo workhouse for their words; of Ukrainian Socialist editors Paul Ladan and Charles Switenko to 3 months in jail for failing to file a translation of their stories with the post office and the subsequent seizure (without warrant) of printing equipment owned by the Robitnyk Printing & Pub. Co. by the Federal government; as well as the collaboration of Democrats and Republicans to expel two elected Socialist members of the Cleveland city council without cause (nearly 2 years before the same sort of anti-democratic power politics was practiced by New York state Assembly).

 

"Seven Socialists at Debs Trial Held for Applause After Stedman's Speech: Outburst Follows Attorney's Acceptance of Challenge by Prosecution -- Jury Made up Mostly of Farmers Accepted -- Average Age of Jurors 70. Prosecution Omits Parts of Canton Speech," by J. Louis Engdahl [Sept. 10, 1918] Report of the first day of the Debs trial for violation of the so-called Espionage Act, as reported in the pages of the Milwaukee Leader. The first day of the trial [Sept. 9, 1918] was dedicated in large measure to jury selection, with a group of 12 men ultimately selected, ranging in age from 52 to 73 and including a large percentage of retired or current farmers, real estate men, or businessmen. The opening statement for the defense by lead attorney Seymour Stedman was met with applause in the court, which caused Judge Westenhaver to round up 7 Socialists (including Marguerite Prevey and Rose Pastor Stokes) for this "riotous" conduct -- fines of from $10 to $25 were dispensed the next day [Sept. 10].

 

"C.E. Ruthenberg Hurried from Canton Workhouse to Testify in Debs' Free Speech Trial: Prosecution Introduces St. Louis Program Over Objections by Stedman -- Government Trusts Boy Office Stenographer with Taking Down Address on which Indictment is Based," by J. Louis Engdahl [Sept. 11, 1918] Report of the second day of the Debs trial for violation of the so-called Espionage Act, as reported in the pages of the Milwaukee Leader. The day featured the surprise calling of C.E. Ruthenberg as a witness by the prosecution in an attempt to tie Debs with the 1917 St. Louis anti-war manifesto which Ruthenberg had co-authored with Morris Hillquit and Algernon Lee. Ruthenberg's appearance on the stand, "gaunt and emaciated" from his imprisonment, was for dramatic effect, with the testimony actually linking Debs with the St. Louis resolution actually coming from a journalist employed by The Cleveland Plain Dealer. Testimony also revealed that the Wilson administration's Department of Justice had entered into an active collaboration with Hearst's Chicago Herald Examiner, with reporters of that paper acting as government informants on "anything that happened at Socialist meetings that they thought would be of interest" to the federal agents. Appearing for the defense was a stenographer employed by the Socialist Party who read the complete transcript of the Debs Canton speech -- between 25 to 30% of which was said to have been missed by the DoJ's 20 year old rookie stenographer. Both the prosecution and the defense rested their cases, with the forthcoming closing statements to the jury limited to 2 hours and 15 minutes by the court.

 

"Jury in Eugene Debs' Trial on Free Speech Gets Its Instructions: Former Candidate for President Makes Address in Own Defense, Refusing to Retract Anything Uttered in his Canton Talk -- Case Will Be Appealed if Jury Returns Verdict of Guilty," by J. Louis Engdahl [Sept. 12, 1918] Report of the third day of the Debs trial for violation of the so-called Espionage Act, as reported in the pages of the Milwaukee Leader. Having rested its case without presenting a single witness in Debs' behalf, the defense let defendant Debs address the jury at length to make his case that the Canton, Ohio speech for which he was being tried was protected free speech under the constitution. "I am not guilty of the charges in the indictment. What I have said I felt that I was justified in saying under the law of the land," Debs declared, noting that this was the first time in his life that he had appeared before a jury charged with a crime. "I wish to admit the truth of what has been testified to in the proceedings here. I have no disposition to deny anything that is true. I would not retract a word I have uttered, that I believe to be true, to save myself from going to the penitentiary for the remainder of my days," Debs told the 12 assembled jurors. "There isn't a word in that speech to warrant the charges in the indictment against me. In what I had to say there, my purpose was to educate the people to understand something about the social system in which we live, and to prepare them to change this system by perfectly orderly means into what I conceive to be a real democracy," Debs declared, adding that contrary to the assertions of the prosecution, "I have never advocated force or violence in any form." Debs announced his sympathy with other Socialists convicted exercising their right to free speech before him, including specifically C.E. Ruthenberg, Alfred Wagenknecht, Charles Baker, Kate O'Hare, and Rose Pastor Stokes. He defended the Bolshevik revolution for having "written a chapter of glorious history that will stand to their credit forever," and noted that minorities rather than majorities had generally been correct at the turning points of history that Washington had been called a "disloyalist," Samuel Adams an "incendiary," and Patrick Henry a "traitor." Moreover, Abraham Lincoln, Charles Sumner, Daniel Webster, and Henry Clay had characterized the Mexican-American war as a crime against humanity in their day and none of these figures had been prosecuted during wartime for sedition. Reporter Engdahl records that Debs had read the section of the constitution dealing with free assemblage to the jury, declaring its English so plain that a child could understand it, and that the revolutionary fathers had mean just what they said when they adopted it. "That is the right I exercised at Canton," declared Debs. "For exercising that right I am here."

 

"Debs Held Guilty on Three Counts, Will File Appeal: Veteran Socialist Received Verdict Which May Mean 20 Years in Prison with Same Congenial Smile that has Endeared Him to Millions. Declares He has No Fault to Find with Decision. Sentence May be Passed Saturday [Sept. 14]," by J. Louis Engdahl [Sept. 13, 1918] Report of the jury verdict, coming after the 3 day trial in Cleveland of Eugene Debs for alleged violation of the so-called Espionage Act. After six full hours of deliberation, the jury returned a verdict of Guilty on 3 of 4 counts against Debs, with a Not Guilty verdict returned on the 4th charge of opposition to the cause of the United States in the war. An appeal was planned, with sentencing expected to follow the next day. Debs remained free on the $10,000 bail put up for him by Marguerite Prevey of Akron.

 

"Debs Sentenced to 10 Years Jail on Three Counts: Socialist is Allowed Bail Pending Hearing on Appeal Only on Condition He Return to Home in Terre Haute, Ind., and Remain There Until Case is Passed On: To Serve Time in Moundsville, W.Va.," by J. Louis Engdahl [Sept. 14, 1918] Final report of J. Louis Engdahl to the readers of the Milwaukee Leader on the 4 day Debs free speech trial of Sept. 1918. On Saturday, Sept. 14, Debs was sentenced to 10 year concurrent sentences for each of the three counts under the so-called Espionage Law of which he was convicted. Bail was continued throughout the appeals process, conditional upon Debs' return home to Terre Haute, Indiana and his removal from political speaking. Engdahl states that Debs spent a day in "peace and quiet" at the home of his bondsman Marguerite Prevey in Akron on Sept. 13, and that he remained in fine spirits, holding a very friendly meeting there with his legal defense team to consider appeals strategy. A request for a new trial was to be made on the grounds of incompetent evidence and a faulty indictment, Engdahl reports, although expressing doubts as to whether this request would be granted. Engdahl recalled Debs' words to the jury that "If it be a crime punishable under the laws of the United States for me to exercise my constitutional right of free speech in time of war as well as in peace, then I am willing to be clothed in the stripes of a convict and spend the rest of my days in a cell."

 

"The Fourth Liberty Loan," by Victor L. Berger [Sept. 28, 1918] Excerpt from an Victor Berger "Current Topics" column in which he urges Socialist Party members and readers of The Milwaukee Leader to actively purchase bonds from the 4th Liberty Loan, "not because the Socialists or the readers of The Leader endorse this war, or any other war -- but because the government has the power to tax the citizens of this country for manpower and money. And I consider the various Liberty loans a tax put upon the people which they must pay." Berger states that "it would be foolish and contrary to Socialist tactics to try and resist them in any other way than through the ballot" -- and he urges his readers to turn out on Nov. 5 to vote a Socialist ticket, as the Socialist Party "represents the only party today that is against all wars, except revolutionary wars, wars of emancipation, and wars to repel actual invasion."

 

"Punishment of Political Offenders in Germany and America," by Victor L. Berger [Oct. 10, 1918] An Victor Berger "Current Topics" column in which he ironically describes the forthcoming amnesty of political prisoners in "autocratic" Germany with the draconian punishment meted out to political objectors for exercising their free speech rights in what Berger called "the American 'democracy,' so called." While German Socialist leaders Karl Liebknecht and Wilhelm Dittmann had received sentences of 30 months and 5 years, respectively (to be amnestied) for comparatively major crimes against the state, in the United States such Socialists as Eugene Debs and Rose Pastor Stokes had received 10 years in prison for the comparatively innocuous statement that the European war was capitalistic in nature, and 20 religious pacifist Mennonites in Kansas had received sentences of 20 and 25 years for adhering to the tenets of their religion. Moreover, in Germany the Socialist press was in full swing, with only the occasional repressed issue, whereas in the United States post office regulations had terminated the great majority of the Socialist press. The contrast alluded to by Berger was stark.

 

1921 Woodstock, New York Joint Unity Convention

One interesting discovery this past week was the name of the hotel at which the delegates to the May 1921 Joint Unity Convention stayed -- the Overlook Mountain House, near Woodstock, NY. To get to the site, one takes a right turn at Woodstock's Main Street and takes a 45 minute hike up a trail -- the actual structure having burned down in 1923. Sessions of the convention were actually held nearby, out of doors, but this now seems positively to have been the location at which the convention participants stayed in May 1921. (thanks to Rob Yasinsac of www.hudsonvalleyruins.org for use of the circa 1907 images here).

 

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