Six months ago, I had never heard the name Eugene Debs. Today, I believe he is one of the greatest orators in history, ranking alongside Napoleon, Robespierre, Lincoln, and Cicero. More importantly, he was a genuine hero, a man to believe in and follow into the fires of hell. His legacy has been unrightly ignored by the same powers that imprisoned and harassed him over his life. He should be an icon, but is unremembered, for reasons he himself goes into. However, there is one key difference between Debs and these other orators: every one of the others fought for empire, or glory, or democracy – but Debs fought for the working man’s right to a decent existence.
A railroad man from 15, he founded then turned against the unions as they became tools of the owners, and won 3% of the presidential vote in 1920 despite being a) the Socialist candidate and b) in prison for sedition. The two major speeches missing from this volume can be found in the prior collection, being “You Railroad Men”, whose content is covered in other speeches herein, and “Statement to the Court”, which is summarised in part 4 of Scott Nearing’s analysis.
