The San Francisco call., 1895-08-03
DEBS NOT A CANDIDATE
On Record as industrious of
Any Kind of Political Pre-
ferment.
OPINION OF AN INTIMATE.
The A. r. u. Leader Not an Avail
able Man for President or Vice.
President.

In one shape or another there has re-
Gently, with other campaign gossip, been
considerable talk, particularly among
those political leaders identified with the
labor interests, of the availability OF
Eugene V. Debs, president OF the Ameri-
can Railway Union, as a candidate for
President or Yice-President, on some
National ticket. No man in this City, or
probe bly, on the coast, is to-day closer to
Debs than Harry A. Knox, who is and has
always been one of the most strenuous and
conscientious workers in the cause OF
labor In an interview on Debs' possible
candidacy he said:
When Debs was here he was one evening
making an address TO the union and asked
him whether he would accept the nomination
for any offiee-President or Nlce-Presldent OF
the United States-and he told me he would
not accept the nomination for any office from
Constable to President.
The reason he gave was that he would lose
his usefulness in the labor field, in educating
the lgboring classes to @ proper realization OF
their power and their rights.
Nv individual views are that he would not
make a strong candidate for President OF the
United States at this time, for the simple
reason that the great mass OF the working
people would think he was seeking once Tor
his own gain and would vote against him Jor
that reason.
I have talked with great many men belong
ing to labor unions and they are in favor OF
him for President or Vice President but think
the same as l do that the mass OF working
people would vote against him. But they all
seem to think that II he waits four years more
his chances of becoming the Chief Executive
of the country will be greatly improved.
l believe that as the laboring men are to-day
TOO many petty jealousies still exist among
them 10 allow them 10 unite on any man.
Judging from the past, ! have come 10 the
conclusion that within the next four years the
working classes viii be forced TO unite on
some man who is peculiarly one of them. In
the next four years the working people will be
so crushed down by capital that they viii be
only too glad TO unite on some man who has
the labor interests at heart instead of allowing
their strength to be divided and so wasted by
men who seek to improve their financial con-
dition at the expense of those they had pledged
themselves TO protect.
My knowledge of Debs is such that l feel
confident that he would be the man for the
workingmen to place in the Presidential chair.
] have always found him honest to the very
letter. If he were man who could be pur-
chased by capital he would not be serving a
term in Woodstock Jail to-day. [ have made
strict inquiries from parties who ac-
quainted with Debs and find that all the prop
erty he possesses is q house ana lot in Terre
Haute and that there is a mortgage on that.
So I have come to the conclusion that he must
certainly be an honest man, for the man that
held the position that he did during the Pull
man strike could be worth many tens of thou
sands of dollars al least If he could have been
purchased.
So far as his qualifications for such an ex-
alted office GO l believe he is fit for the posi-
ton in every way. From his conversation and
from my correspondence with him and that of
others I judge that he is certainly endowed
with the requisite intelligence and education.
He is something after the sort OF Abraham Lin
coin. He is self-educated. His people are
but poorly off in this worlds goods. The edu-
cation he has acquired he had to get by his
own perseverance and industry. He has q
mind OF broad grasp; he is conservative and
never takes g step unless he knows he is in the
right and reasonably confident of success.
Some people may doubt the sincerity of his
proteStations against being nominated for
Office, but I have not the least doubt of the
heartfelt meaning of every word he has said on
this subject