EUGENE V. DEBS

(Eugene Victor Debs)


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Eugene V. Debs

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.
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Eugene V. Debs

I would not be a Moses to lead you into the Promised Land, because if I could lead you into it, someone else could lead you out of it.
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Eugene V. Debs

I would rather a thousand times be a free soul in jail than to be a sycophant and coward in the streets. If it had not been for the men and women who, in the past, have had the moral courage to go to jail, we would still be in the jungles.
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Eugene V. Debs

I'd rather vote for something I want and not get it than vote for something I don't want, and get it.
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Eugene V. Debs

… the bankers are for bullets—for the fool patriots that enlist at paupers' wages to stop the bullets, while the bankers clip coupons, boost food prices, increase dividends, and pile up millions and billions for themselves
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This statement during the First World War so frightened the Woodrow Wilson administration that they jailed Debs for saying it and other similar statements like {640245}. The statement was generally suppressed with few newspapers carrying it. The problem for the administration was that enlistments might decrease and force them to draft the wealthy and their sons which was, with very few exceptions, not acceptable to the “upper classes”.

Eugene V. Debs

In the Middle Ages when the feudal lords ... 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 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.
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This was one of the statements that he was jailed for during WWI.

Eugene V. Debs

When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong. The minority are right.
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He was convicted and served three years in Federal prision.

Eugene V. Debs

Foolish and vain indeed is the workingman who makes the color of his skin the stepping-stone to his imaginary superiority.
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Eugene V. Debs

Some say politics means destruction to labor organizations, but the reverse is the fact.
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Eugene V. Debs

The Republican and Democratic parties, or, to be more exact, the Republican-Democratic party, represent the capitalist class in the class struggle. They are the political wings of the capitalist system and such differences as arise between them relate to spoils and not to principles.
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Eugene V. Debs
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Eugene V. Debs
  • Born: November 5, 1855
  • Died: October 20, 1926
  • Nationality: American
  • Profession: Politician
Biography

Eugene Victor "Gene" Debs was an American socialist, political activist, trade unionist, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) ("Wobblies") and five times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States. Through his presidential candidacies as well as his work with labor movements, Debs eventually became one of the best-known socialists living in the United States.

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