People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 August 1894 — DEBS MAKES A SPEECH. [ARTICLE]

DEBS MAKES A SPEECH.

Rynopeis of in Addrea* Delivered 1* Hi* Native Town. Terre Haute, Ind., July 31.—There were 1.800 persons in the opera house Sunday night to hear Eugene V. Debs, and 1,000 more could not get in. When the familiar figure of the American Railwaj’ union president appeared on i the stage there was loud and long-con-tinued applause. A synopsis of his remarks follows: Mr. Debs began bls speech by saving that m a general proposition he Is opposed to ■trikes but there are times when not to ■trike Is to accept degradation. "We are a striking government,” he added. "Every star In the flag represents a strike.” The revolutionary fathers struck against tyranny and for liberty. If all employes had been treated fairly there would have been no labor organizations. He said he had done all he could to prevent the Pullman strike. Then followed a narrative of the effort* of committees to secure arbitration. Mr. Debs followed with the story of the American Railway union national convention and its efforts to secure redress for the Pullman employes, but the company would make no concession and the convention by a unanimous vote decided to haul no more Pullman cars. The charge that he had ordered the strike, he said, was absolutely false. In all of his connection with organized labor he had not advised a man to leave his employment. The railway managers met and decided to support the Pullman company in the fight it was making on its employes. "The managers also decided to destroy the American Railway union." said he, “but that is a contract they would like to sublet now.” The American Railway onion, he said, simply followed the example of the managers by combining for mutual protection Mr. Debs said it had been printed that he was a foreigner and an anarchist. He was proud of the fact that he had been born and reared in Terre Haute. He had no patience with violence in any form. He said it could be proved that at the time of the Buffalo switchmen’s strike the companies caused cars to be burned so they could have the militia called out. "When the truth is know* it will be founp that the American Railway union was in nowise responsible for arson or any lawless acts. With the aid of soldiers the managers finally succeeded in operating their roads in a manner.” Workingmen would no longer be supplicants. They would take what was their right, not in an unlawful manner, but they were the people and this was a people's government. He spoke of the failure to enforce the interstate commerce law against the corporations, which called up the same law against workingmen. He denied that he was to be branded as an anarchist because corporations defied the laws. He urged his hearers to bear in mind that they must use the power of the ballot. He hoped there would never be another strike. He had about made up his mind never again to be connected with a strike. He would I do his striking at the ballot box. He did not I have much faith in public opinion, but when it ! gets right the A. R. U. strike' would be over- | whelmingly vindicated, and he was content to I wait for that time. Whatever action might be taken at the com--1 Ing A. R. U. convention, the strike on Pullman I would go on. There was no ending to that Pullman must be whipped. He admitted that when a strike was ordered it invited lawlessness, hut as there never was a strike without a cause why should not the corporations take their share of the responsibility of rioting? When section men were cut to 6714 cents a day, as they were on the Louisville & Nashville, the railway managers who made that cut were the real anarchists. He said no word as to the future of the strike, but in his story of it he spoke of it in terms indicating that he thought of it as a thing of the past. He *aid in closing that if a penalty attached to his actions he would accept his fate like a man. , He would not shirk he responslb ility for his acts.