The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-03-20
EGAN AND DEBS AT WAR
They Roast ElCh 0.her 10 a Turn In
Seattle.
A RUFFlAN AND A THIEF
That is What Mr.. Debs Says the
President of the General Mana
gers Association .s-SOme
Bitter Talk.
RUFFlAN AND A THIEF

SEATTLE, Wash, March 19.-The stimuli
taneous appearance in this city of L. V.
Debs and John NJ. Egan has resulted in
their becoming involved in a worIy W ar.
While Debs spoke quite kindly of Egan in
an interview on Monday, Egan said of
Debs: "Its unnecessary for me to dis
cuss Debs In newspapers. He has already
been discussed. Ipity poor devils who go
and spend 80 cents to hear him. The only
advice they will get is to organize and
strike again and the last great tIe-up for
which Debs was responsible, plainly shows
what a success he made of it. The
American Railway union will never flour
lsh again, and the only men who talk
OF having another strike are those
who figured in the last one, lost their
positions and are now anxious that an
other shall occur in order they will be
able TO secure positions of those who
would be foolish enough to go out.
There are hundreds of men in the country
to-day, some of whom have been in rail-
road business for from 10 to 20 years.
They had worked along and received good
wages until Debs told them that they were
slaves and that if they would only strike
the companies would be compelled to
raise wages. They took his advice and
the result they we'll know. Many of them
will go hungry but not so Debs. Debs
never went to bed hungry. He has drawn
nice salary and is now travelling about
the country at the expense OF the work
ingmen. l don't care to discuss the
matter except to say Debs never won a
strike and don't believe he ever will"
After reading this interview. Debs az
dressed a mass meeting this morning az
which he said: mr. L gan is a dishonest
man and a rufiian; he is a thief and he
knows that he is and he knows that
know that he is. He could not hold po-
si'ion as flag man on any road running out
of Chicago and he knows that know
why. He has been connected with many
railroads and he robbed every road and
every corporation that he has ever had
anything to do with. He is a corrupt, low, e,
dishonest man and cannot conceive of
any man having sufficient manhood to
push aside bribes and remain true to his
convictions. He does not like me because
he could not corrupt me, and he has no
use for any man he cannot corrupt. /
could have been in tina cal clover to-day
if / had cared to bee ONE a traitor to the
interests of the laboringmen and the
American Railway union. / have suf-
Il u
man to his face and that is moro than
Egan can say. He would not tell me to
my face what he had to say in that inter-
view which was published in the paper
this morning. He will never meet me in
private or in public and discuss who are
the conspirators for he knows who they are
and what would be the result. Four hundred
yoke of oxen could not pull HIM on the
same platform with me. | have friends
enough to raise 81 900 cash to any chari-
table organization IN the land and l want
here to make public challenge. l will
agree to give $1,000 to any charitable or
ganizatIon in the land if he will meet me
on the public platform and discuss the
history and causes of the late strike, both
to speak from the record. The record
will tell and no one knows it better than
Egan. 1t was at the instance of the Gem
eral Managers association that the trial
came to such a sudden termination in
Chicago a few days ago. They don't want
1t tried; they don't want the truth to be
known and the trial was continued
until May /, and when that
date comes around they will want it con-
tinued again and so on until the matter
is dropped. But we, the accused, are en-
deavoring to compel the accusers to try
us and if found guilty we want to be pun
ished and if innocent we want the world
to know il -