The record-union., 1895-04-03
AGITA7OR DEBS.
Denounced as the Worst Enemy Of
Labor.
Dabsfsm Infinitely More Calling and
Oppressive Than Any other
Form of Industrial Bondage.
From the Los Angeles Times.l


system. Debs is the pustule which indi-
Gates the disease.
We NAV not cure the disease by treating
the excrementitious matter which oozes
from the pustule; but we can, with proper
permicides, render this bacteroidal virus
non-infectious.
Debs insists, with all the emphasis Oh
which he is capable, that he IS not an an
archist. And then he sets about the
unnecessary task of proving that he Is
one.
Debs doth protest too much.
By his fruits he must be known, and by
that test he is known.
Debs is charlatan, a mountebank, an
imposter, a dodger and coward.
He is a charlatan (Which is another
name for demagogue), because he pre-
tends to virtues which he has not, and is
morally dishonest in dealing with the
men who are so short-sighted as to repose
confidence in him.
Debs is mountebank because he
roams about the country peddling his
economic nostrums to whomsoever will
buy, and invariably swindling the buyer.
Debs is an impostor because he pre-
tends to be friend to the laboring man,
Wnen, In 1acts ne Is LDe laDOrlng HAL
most deadly foe.
Debs is a coward because he attempts
to stink away from the responsibility for
his crimes (moral If not statutory against
the laboring men of the nation, against
the Constitution of his country, against
the peace and good order of society, and
against civil liberty. Furthermore, he is
a coward, because he seeks to shift upon
the shoulders of other men the RESPONSE
bility for his crimes, which he alone
should bear.
Debs is, moreover, an ass, because he
stands upon his hind legs and brays.
Debs denounces as judicial sandbag-
gers and highwaymen" all judges who
refuse to render decisions in accordance
with his ideas. In this category he places
such incorruptible magistrates as Judge
Woods, Judge Kicks and Judge Erskine
NJ. Ross. He dotfs his hat to Judges
who Will decide in accordance with his
ideas. In other words, Debs conceiyes
that in him is EN- bodied and conCen-
trated all judicial wisdom, and that
whose disagrees with him is "saudbag-
ger and highwaymen." Debs' vulgar at
tack upon Ju0ge Ross is an insult TO
every true citizen of Los Angeles and of
Southern California. But even a rattle
snake can hiss its venom and drag its
Shiny coils about the feet of the statue of
Liberty
DeDs, with great and bomb bastic vehe-
mence, denounces trusts" and "com-
binations." Yet he is engaged in an et-
fort 10 organize the most gigantic trust
the world has ever known. He would
bring every laboring man in the Union
under one vast organization, with power
to stop all labor at will, and to compel
every employer of labor to do the bid
ding OF his employees. over this great
trust, or combine, Debs would expect to
rule supreme. Could his scheme be car
risd ouL-wh hich, of course, it cannot-the
result would be industrial chaos. Wreck
and ruin would be everywhere; work
men would be in perpetual strike, the
fabric OF civil government would go
down in ruin, and civilization would
vanish from the earth. Fortunately, no
such calamity will happen because Debs-
ism and Debs will be suppressed.
Debs talks OF 'the prevailing discon-
tent" For such discomfort as exists he
and creatures of his ilk are chiefly re-
sponsible. They create the discomfort
upon which they fatten by deceiving un-
thinking men into the false belief that
workingmen are in some way being
wronged. The thoughtless, the thrittless
and the shlftless form the principal cli-
enteie of Debs ct al. 1t is easy for sleek
tongued rogues to convince such men
that the evils which they suffer, whether
real or Imaginary, are the fault of some
one else rather than the result of their
own weaknesses, mistakes or follies.
Debs talks volubly about industrial
slavery" There is no industrial slavery,
as system, in this republic as between
employer and employe. There can be
none where the liberty of working or re-
fusing to work, of employing or refusing
to employ, exists. There may be isolated
cases of injustice, demanding specific
rather than general remedies. But there
Is one form OF industrial slavery which is
nf harNE 1TnlC
1t is between the employed and the labor
boss TO whom he resigns his liberty his
Independence, his manhood. There is no
form OF Industrial tyranny so oppressive
as this. Its CALLING yoke is borne by tens
and hundreds of thousands of unwilling
men, who dare not break away from the
bondage IN which they are held. Debs
aspires to draw the chains of bondage
still closer about such uuthinking men as
he can persuade to renounce their man
hood in his favor. Debs, the dictator.
would become Debs, the slave-drIver.
He demands the abdication OF individ-
ual sovereignty. The industrial
slavery" of Debsism is infinitely more
calling and oppressive than any other
form Of industrial bondage. 1t is a bond
age Of the soul as well as Of the body.
On the subject OF going to the gallows,
Debs wakes pathetic, ana says he will 90
like man, If go he must. He does not
he had his just deserts. But he saws that
many men ten thousand times better
than L have been hanged" On this point
there is not doubt, and it is really quite
strong reason why he should be hanged.
But very few worse men than Debs have
been hanged.
Deps insists upon his own unimpeach-
able honor and virtue, but is quite silent
on the subject OF Kelley cures and things
of that kind. He modestly compares
himself to John Brown and George
Washington. Why he omits 10 compare
himself to the Almighty is something
which no fellow can find out.
Debs persists in the declaration that he
had nothing to do with the railroad strjk q
and boycott, nor with the strike at Pull
man, which came to him as "a terrible
surprise" With his accustomed cow
ardlce he attempts to place upon other
shoulders the blame for the rioting and
murder which We're the outgrowth of the
strike. But the effort is in vain, for the
world knows that upon Debs ra.ls the
chief moral responsibility for tns muir
ders, the arsons and the riotings OF those
turbulent days in July, 1894. Aud Debs
himself knows it, He knew before the
strike began that it would precipitate all
the crimes which followed in its wake.
de must have known, if he had the in
telligence of tadpole, that the strike was
predestined to failure. He knew. as