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The Bending Cross: A Biography of Eugene V. Debs PDF

532 Pages·2007·18.26 MB·English
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• - THE BENDING CROSS A BIOGRAPHY OF EUGENE VICTOR DEBS RAY GINGER INTRODUCTION BY MIKE DAVIS Haymarket Books Chicago, illinois Originally published in 1947 by Rutgers University Press © 1947 Ray Ginger Introduction © 2007 Mike Davis This edition published in 2007 by Haymarket Books P.O. Box 180165, Chicago, IL 60618 773-583-7884 www.haymarketbooks.org Thade distribution: In the U.S. through Consortium Book Sales, www.cbsd.com fu the UK, Turnaround Publisher Services, www.~lcom In Australia, Palgrave MacMillan. www.palgravemacmillan.com.au Cover design by Josh On Cover image of Eugene Debs, 1908. Caption in an unknown publication reads "Eugene V. Debs presenting the Socialist point of view to the voters of Waterbury, Connecticut, in the course of his speech-making tour through the East on "The Red Special' which may be seen in the bar:kground." Courtesy of the Debs Collection, Cunningham Memorial Library, Indiana State University. Haymarket Books wishes to extend its gratitude to Victoria Branden for her willingness to help us republish this important book. This book was published with the generous support of the Wallace Global Fund. Printed in Canada by union labor on recycled paper containing 50 percent post-consumer waste in accordance with the guidelines of the Green Press Initiative, www.greenpressinitiative.org Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available 2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1 CONTENTS Introduction Let the. "Red Special" Shine Its Light on Me by Mike Davis XL Part I The Railway Brotherhoods 1 Part II The American Railway Union 85 Part III American Socialism 185 Part IV ~orld Socialism 315 Selected Chapter Sources 460 Bibliography 489 Index 503 For the late Peter Fagan, W1w could have told this story far better than I have done ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author owes his sincere thanks to the following publiBhers and individuals for permission to reprint material in this book: Johnson Baur, Robert F. Baur, Mrs. Annette Baur Calder, Mrs. Ray mond P. Harris, and Mrs. Cecelia Baur Marti.n for numerous selec tions from the letters of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene V. Debs. Bobbs-Merrill Company: for selections from The Letters of Ja1TU!:1 Whit- 00'TTIb Riley, edited by William Lyon Phelps, ·copyright 1980. University of Chicago Press: for a selection from Ralph Chaplin, Wobbly, copyright 1948. Mrs. Marguerite Debs Cooper and Mrs. Theodore Debs for selections from the letters of Theodore Debs. Crown Publishers: for selections from Clyde R. Miller, The Proceas of PerlfU(J,8i,un, copyright 1946. Mrs. Clarence Darrow: for portions of a letter from Clarence Darrow to Mrs. Kate Debs, November 5, 19!16. Dodd, Mead & Company: for selections from Al1an Nevins, Grove, Olet1eland, copyright 198~. Doubleday & Company: for a selection from Joseph P. Tumulty, Woodrow Wilaun As I Know Him, copyright 19~1 .. E. P. Dutton & Company: for selections from Samuel Gompers, Sel1enty Years of Life and Labor, copyright 1~. Greenberg, Publisher: for selections from McAlister Coleman, Eugene V. Deb", copyright 1980. . . Harcourt, Brace & Company: for selections from Heywood Broun, It Seems to Me, 1925-1935, copyright 1985; from Carl Sandburg, The American Sungbag, copyright 19~7; from Lincoln Steffens, Autobiography, copyright 1981; from The Letters of Lincoln Steffens, edited by Ella Wmter and Granville Hicks, copyright 1988. Harvard University Press: for a selection from The Holmes-Pdlock Letters, edited by Mark DeWolfe Howe, copyright 1941. Henry Holt & Company: for selections from Oscar Ameringer, If Yau Dun't Wealeen, copyright 1940. Houghton Mi:ffiin Company: for selections from Henry James, Richard Olney & His Public Service, copyright 19~. vii viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Indiana University: for selections from Floy Ruth Painter, That Man Deb8 and HUt Life Work, 1929. International Publishers: for selections from Ella Reeve Blool, We Are Many, copyright 1940; from William D. Haywood, Bin Hay 'lJJfXXfs Book, copyright 1929. Charles H. Kerr & Company: for selections from william H. Car wardine, The PuUman Strike. copyright 1894; from Arthur Morrow Lewis, The Art of Lecturing, copyright 1908. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.: for a selection from Emma Goldman. Linng My Life, copyright 1981. Dr. Robert L. Leslie: for selections from Art Young: HUt Life and Ti1M8, copyright 1989. Sinclair Lewis: for a selection from his letter to Mrs. Kate Debs. April 80,1927. . Liveright Publishing Company: for a selection from Art Young, On My Way, copyright 1928. Macmillan Company: for selections from John R. Commons, Myself, copyright 1984; from Granville Hicks, John Reed, copyright 1986; from Morris Hillquit,Loose Leaves from a Busy Life, copyright 1984; from Ernest Poole, The Bridge, copyright 1940; from William Allen White, The Editor and His People, copyright 19~. Princeton University Press: for a selection from Grover Cleveland, The GO'08rnmen/, in the Chicago Strike qf 1894, copyright 1918. G. P. Putnam's Sons: for selections from Caro Lloyd, Henry Demarest Lloyd, copyright 1912. Rinehart & Company: for a selection from Floyd Dell, HomecQ'TT/ing, copyright 1988. Carl Sandburg: for a selection from his letter to Eugene V. Debs. November 26, 19~2. Charles Scribner's Sons: for selections from Clarence Darrow, The Story oj My Life, copyright 1982. Scores of persons have contributed their memories and manu script material to this story. Some of them gave much, others considerably less, but they all showed a cooperation and kind ness which heightened my understanding of the Debs' traditions as they have been preserved in our own time. Without their help this book could never have attained its present form: Louis Austin Frank Bohn Roger Baldwin William E. Bohn Oscar Baur Alfred Bosch Robert F. Bam Louis B. Boudin ACKNOWLEDGME'NTS George D. Brewer Scott Nearing Earl Browder Sam Nesin Mrs. Annette Baur Calder Martin E. O'Connell William H. Chetham Winifred O'Connell , August Claessens Frank P. O'Hare McAlister Coleman James Oneal Mrs. Marguerite Debs Cooper' John Panzner Florence Crawford Lesley Payne Solon DeLeon Frank Pfister ChesterMcA. Destler John C. Prechtel Mrs. Carabelle G.'Dickey Howard H. Quint Mrs. Edith Love Drake Helen Ross Delbert Earley Mrs. Clarence Royse Mrs. Max Ehrmann Lena Schuhardt Charles W. Ervin Oswald Schuhardt Lee Walker Evans Will S\!huhardt Ed Evinger Mr. a.nd Mrs. Shubert Sebree Mr. and Mrs. Peter Fagan David A. Shannon S. Feinstein Mr. and Mrs. John R. Shannon Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Harry Sheer Philip S. Foner Upton Sinclair H. O. Fuhrberg Alvin G. Slemons Adolph Germer Mrs. Seymour Stedman Carl Haessler Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Sugar Covington Hall Norman Thomas Mr. and Mrs. Powers Hapgood Laurence Todd Mrs. Raymond P. Ha.rris Alexander Trachtenberg Mr. and Mrs. Frederic Heath Mary Heaton Vorse Fred Heinl Allred Wagenknecht G. A. Hoehn Mrs. Frank Casper Wagner John Haynes Holmes Phil Wagner Mrs. Frank Anstead Hughes Mrs. Sherman D. Wakefield John Keracher James Peter Warbasse Sol Klapma.n Harry F. Ward Mrs. Yetta Land Fred D. Warren Louis Lazarus William Weinstone Algernon Lee Noble C. Wilson Lena Morrow Lewis Peter Witt A. R. Markle Morris H. Wolf Mrs. Cecelia Baur Martin John M. Work Mr. and Mrs. Robert Minor Rose Wortis Dr. M. L. Nearing Dr. ,and Mrs. J. Rudolph Yung x' ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In addition to the persons listed above as actnal contributors to this volume, I applied for information from an even larger group who either refused or neglected to comply. This is not meant to imply criticism of these persons, but is merely men tioned by way of saying that I have not knowingly neglected any potential source of facts. Miss Agnes Inglis of the Joseph A. Labadie Collection at the University of Michigan rendered invaluable assistance for more than a year; the Rand School of Social Science for two months; Mrs. Hazel Hopper, Mr. Howard H. Peckham, and their col leagues at the Indiana State Library for several weeks. I have also used material from the following depositories: University of Chicago Library, Chicago Historical Society, John Crerar Library of Chicago, Library of Congress, Fairbanks Library of Terre Haute, lllinois Historical Society, New York City Public Library, Wisconsin Historical Society,and the Yale University Library. In each case the institution's staff has shown extreme skill and consideration in making, data available for my use. Portions of the manuscript have been read, always with in· cisiveness and compassion, by Dr. Arno L. Bader and Dr. L. G. VanderVelde of the University of Michigan, Prof. Joseph H. Friend of Cleveland College, David A. Shannon of the Carnegie Institute of Technology, Harry Barnard, Mary B. Land and Louis H. Pollak. Without doubt they have reservations about the result, and any faults rest with the author rather than with his critics. . Finally, at the risk of seeming impertinent or ungenerous, I want to record that I am hugely beholden to my wife, Ann Fagan Ginger, who has served as bulwark and helpmeet through hill - Ray Ginger CLEVELAND, omo NOVEMBER, 1948

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Let the people take heart and hope everywhere, for the cross is bending, the midnight is passing, and joy cometh with the morning.—Eugene Debs in 1918 Orator, organizer, self-taught scholar, presidential candidate, and prisoner, Eugene Debs’ lifelong commitment to the fight for a better world is
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