Eugene V Debs - Another man jailed for sedition who stood for what he believed.
“Every solitary one of these aristocratic
conspirators and would-be murderers claims to be an arch-patriot; every one of
them insists that the war is being waged to make the world safe for democracy.
What humbug! What rot! What false pretence! These autocrats, these tyrants,
these red-handed robbers and murderers, the 'patriots,' while the men who have
the courage to stand face to face with them, speak the truth and fight for
their exploited victims — they are the disloyalists and traitors. If this be
true, I want to take my place side by side with the traitors in this
fight. Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder.
In the Middle Ages when the feudal lords who inhabited the castles whose towers
may still be seen along the Rhine concluded to enlarge their domains, to
increase their power, their prestige and their wealth they declared war upon
one another. But they themselves did not go to war any more than the modern
feudal lords, the barons of Wall Street, go to war. The feudal barons of the
Middle Ages, the economic predecessors of the capitalists of our day, declared
all wars. And their miserable serfs fought all the battles. The poor, ignorant
serfs had been taught to revere their masters; to believe that when their
masters declared war upon one another, it was their patriotic duty to fall upon
one another and to cut one another's throats for the profit and glory of the
lords and barons who held them in contempt. And that is war in a nutshell. The
master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought
the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while
the subject class has had nothing to gain and all to lose — especially their
lives.
They have always taught and trained you to believe it to be your patriotic duty to go to war and to have yourselves slaughtered at their command. But in all the history of the world, you — the people — have never had a voice in declaring war. And strange as it certainly appears, no war by any nation in any age has ever been declared by the people.
And here let me emphasize the fact—and it cannot be repeated too often—that the working class who fight all the battles, the working class who make the supreme sacrifices, the working class who freely shed their blood and furnish their corpses, have never yet had a voice in either declaring war or making peace. It is the ruling class that invariably does both.
They alone declare war, and they alone make peace.
Yours not to reason why; yours but to do and die!
That is their motto, and we object on the part of the awakening workers of this nation. If war is right let it be declared by the people. You who have your lives to lose, you certainly above all others have the right to decide the momentous issue of war or peace."
They have always taught and trained you to believe it to be your patriotic duty to go to war and to have yourselves slaughtered at their command. But in all the history of the world, you — the people — have never had a voice in declaring war. And strange as it certainly appears, no war by any nation in any age has ever been declared by the people.
And here let me emphasize the fact—and it cannot be repeated too often—that the working class who fight all the battles, the working class who make the supreme sacrifices, the working class who freely shed their blood and furnish their corpses, have never yet had a voice in either declaring war or making peace. It is the ruling class that invariably does both.
They alone declare war, and they alone make peace.
Yours not to reason why; yours but to do and die!
That is their motto, and we object on the part of the awakening workers of this nation. If war is right let it be declared by the people. You who have your lives to lose, you certainly above all others have the right to decide the momentous issue of war or peace."
His words were later used to sentence him to prison
for 10 years. It was from there that he received nearly 1 million votes for
president in 1920, running as simply Convict No. 9653. "I have no
country to fight for; my country is the earth; I am a citizen of the
world." — "When I Shall Fight," Appeal to Reason, Sept. 1915.
"I am opposing a social order in which
it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass
a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women
who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched
existence." — Statement to the Court upon Being Convicted of Violating the
Sedition Act, Sept. 1918
Debs'
health deteriorated in the horrid prison conditions of the time, and
eventually, his sentence was commuted when cooler heads prevailed in our
country. He later died in a sanatorium, a kind of hospital for those with
long-term illnesses.
.jpg)
Posts
