New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1919-04-23
ANOTHER CRUCIFIXION.

State HeQlCenUldTy dI NlOulluSFlle. 1lllS
is where the best loved man of America
today is spending his days. j..
This thing happened on the night of
Palm Sunday, with Easter only one week
distant and as an admirer Of Debs
said on his departure from Terre Haute,
Indiana, his home, last Saturday, eve
are ready for another crucifxion.
"It will never happen. They will
never do it. They won't put Debs in
prison.
This is what the millions over the
land have said for these many months
since his indictment, and even since his
conviction and sentence. But tonight
we said Good Night to him thru the
bars that constitute the door of his
dark hole in this human hive they call
tiers of cells.
Debs tonight took his place-a con-
among thousand other convicts,
criminals of all grades, and shades and
brands, and the words that he uttered
in the court room at Cleveland, Ohio,
during his trial, came back to us, we who
were with him.
CAS- long as there is a criminal class,
I am of it. AS long as there is slave
class, I am in it. AS long as there is a
soul in prison, am not free
Only few moments before, az they
first took him away from us, and con-
Quoted him thru the turn-table cage door,
the latest prison ingenuity to bar the
INSIDE from the "outside". Arthur
Baur, Genes brother-in-law, brother
of Mrs. Debs, who had come with Gene
all the way from Terre Haute, uttered
the anguish of an outraged working-class
when he exclaimed: -
"My God, how can they do it, why do
they do it."
Yet Debs' last message to the workers
Of the nation, perhaps best answered
why they did it. This message was:
''Tell my comrades that entered the
prison doors flaming revolutionist,
lily uedlC SltCV, lily op11 IL o1ioe'iiASu "@tAN
my soul unconquerable."
1t was on the trip here, at East Liver
pool, Ohio, that he remarked that today
was April 18th, the anniversary Of the
Battle of Lexington, the beginning OF
the American Revolutionary War in
1776, that it is also the anniversary OF
the Ludlow massacre during the great
Colorado coal strike.
For a half century the world has
known of Gene Debs of Terre Haute,
Ind Now, if this world would reach
him thru the mails, itmust address him:
''Gene Debs, :. r..
81S Jefferson Ave,
Moundsville, w. Va.
which is the address of the penitentiary
of this state.
There are no high walls around this
prison. But guards sit in turrets at
intervals with loaded rifles in their
hands ready to Illustrate with deadly
bullet any attempt on the part OF an
inmate to win the open. The grass
grows fresh and green and free upon the
wide lawn, but the heavy gratings are
upon every window.
Don't think that I hold anything
against you for your part in bringing
me here" Debs, was exclaiming to the
United States Marshall as he assembled
the steps and entered this place to
which a federal judge has sentenced
'"Our Gene to spend the next ten years
of his life because he made speech at
Canton, Ohio, in June 1918, and so Debs
spent his last few moments in "the out
side' forgiving everybody, with malice
toward none, as Abraham Lincoln put it.
"Mr. Debs, come with me" said
Warden Terrell, and in another moment
the threshold that leads from liberty
to the tombs of living men had been
crossed.
"You're quite tall man, Mr.. Debs''
said the warden as the electrically man
ipulated turntable cage door moved
noiselessly, transferring it's opening from
the s'outside world" to this inside
world"
eyes, sixfeet" answered Debs, pleasant
ly, and that was all we heard as they
passed on. We went back into the
warden's office and waited. Soon the
warden returned and we began asking
questions about Debs, and the treat
ment he would receive.
"He will be allowed to write all the
letters he pleases,' said Warden Terrell
Subject Of course to the prison censor
Ship He may receive visitors twice a
month, but the understanding seemed
to be that visitors coming from some