The Bending Cross: A Biography of Eugene V. Debs

532 Pages·2007·18.26 MB·English

by  Ray Ginger

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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