Eugene V. Debs Quotes
In the Middle Ages when the feudal lords … to enlarge their domains, to increase their power, their prestige and their wealth … 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.
Debs was jailed for sedition for this speech.
Eugene V. Debs, 1855-1926, Socialist Party Candidate for President, Founder, American Railway Union, Speech, Canton, Ohio, June 16, 1918
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Debbs had been jailed for speaking out against the First World War. The Espionage Act forbade anyone from criticizing the war effort. (See {585905}). Later it was to be declared unconstitutional. However, Debbs had gotten more than 5 percent of the vote in 1912, competing against Wilson, Taft and Teddy Rosevelt. (There were 2 “third party candidates” in that election.) So Debs ran again in 1920. However, he was in jail. So he used the fact as a slogan. Amazingly, he actually obtained over 3 percent of the vote without ever leaving his jail cell. Later, President Warren G. Harding not only pardoned Debbs, but entertained him at the White House the next day.
This was one of the statements that he was jailed for during WWI.
Just before the outbreak of hostilities of WWI. The German Social Democratic Party was a minority party in Germany and the majority was very anxious to go to war.
Note the importance placed on stability even in ancient China. This value even in the 21st Century preoccupied the Chinese government. Next to independence, it is probably the most important Chinese objective because China has seen so many periods of instability some of which killed more Chinese than the Germans did in WWII.
Classic socialism thought that war was the greatest danger of capitalism. However in the 21st century the consensus was that the great capitalistic danger was failure and collapse of the ley capitalistic institutions like banks in a globalized world such as the 2008 Great Recession.
- Born: November 5, 1855
- Died: October 20, 1926
- Nationality: American
- Profession: Politician
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.
