Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-10-18
nation and conscience certainly cabs
for some permanent recognition
DEBs AND THE woRKINGMA

ny Cuo ISc6iotCI uPcA enO As~P.-
organs attack upon Mr.. Eugene v.
Debs, and through him upon working
men In general, and in the course OF
long and labored article, half apollo
getic and half renewal of insult and
abuse, made this remark:
"The Intelligeneer addressed itself
to the intelligent workingman who was
being misled and deceived by him
through his specious and sophistical
arguments"
This brings us to the essence of the
workingman's case. The Intelligencer
cautions the wage-earner against be-
ing "misled and deceived" by fellow
workingman, whose life, labors, efforts
and future are tied up in the hope OF
the betterment of the condition of the
workman, but says nothing of the
political and corporate influence which
is daily and hourly used to "mislead
and deceive the workingman, not for
his own good, but for the good of a
small element OF the population which
cares no more for the condition OF the
man who works for wages than for
last years birds nest. The working
man has been deceived in the past, but
not by Mr. Debs or labor leaders who
are with him in his fight for the better
ment of the laborer and artisan. The
deception has come from the men who
employ labor, and who agree to pay
only such wages as organizations OF
workmen may demand, and on top OF
Mr.. Debs and other advocates of or
ganization stand for short hours and
decent wages. They push their point
at every opportunity, and when labor
secures an advantage, either through
an increase in compensation, or from
shorter hours, it comes from the per-
sistent efforts of the leaders of labor
and the power OF the organizations
they represent. 1t doesn't come volun-
tarily from the employer once in fifty
times. 1t follows, logically, that an
attack upon a labor leader like Mr..
Debs, is, in its effect, an attack upon
all labor leaders, and through them
upon all labor organizations, and thus
upon all labor.
The Register does not approve of
Mr. Debs' candidacy for the Presiden-
cy. His cause, as things stand, is a
hopeless one. Mr.. Bryan represents
the essential things which Mr.. Debs
stands for, and through Democratic
success the workingman can only OBJ
tain the reliefs and reforms he seeks
and to which he is fairly entitled. But
believing thus, we maintain and insist
that Mr.. Debs, his fellow leaders in the
cause of labor and the cause of labor
itself does not merit or deserve the foul
imputations of anarchy" and "lawless-
ness INDUCED in by the Intelligencer,
and in behalf Of labor we take it upon
ourselves to resent such calumnies.
The people who have "misled," Gin
suited" outraged" and attempted to
degrade" labor are not such men as
Mr.. Debs, but the trusts, combines
and monopolies, the Mark Hannas and
the Roosevelts, the Republican party at
large, and the policies and interests
dear to the heart of William Mckinley
And we say Roosevelt, particularly and
advisedly, for it was Theodore Roose-
welt, Republican Governor of New York,
and those who placed him in his pres
ent Office and who hope to have him
step up higher, who persistently and
consistently turned a deaf ear to the
appeals Of the workingmen of Typo
graphical Union No. 6, of New York,
and who persist in supporting the New
York Sun in its warfare upon union
labor. And Senator Stephen B. Elkins,
of West Virginia, comes within this
category, for in an interview published
in the New York Sun OF April %, 1897,
in reply to the question: rs the black
labor settled in the mines?'' responded
as follows:
Firmly. 1t is not as effective as
white labor, but 1t does not form labor
unions, does not combine and conspire,
and the negro spends all he makes"
In the same interview, the Senator
from West Virginia declared. Wages
inevitably must go down, as everything
else has gone down. Wage earners do
not wish to see it or believe it, but it
is SO. Wages in America stand against
any revival of business"
The attack of the Wheeling Inteli-
gencer Upon Eugene Debs is an on
slaught simply because he is a labor
leader, and is off the same piece of cloth
with the remarks of Mr.. Elkins, the
support of the New York. Sun by Re-
publican rnagnates and officials, and all
the rest of the effort to keep labor
down.
Two hundred miles OFF the coast of
Florida. the other day, two American