Channels, Spring 2017

Channels • 2017 • Volume 1 • Number 2 Page 55 industrialists, such as at Ludlow, Colorado in 1914, which Debs described as “a massacre.” 19 Therefore, they were unwilling to accept reform as a goal and sought the overthrow of capitalism, even if violence was necessary. Ideologically, Debs stood somewhere between these two extremes of reform or revolution. A quote that demonstrates his position comes from a 1912 speech: “For the first time in the world’s history, a subject class has within its own power to accomplish its emancipation without an appeal to brute force.” 20 Thus, Debs firmly believed that capitalism made workers a subject class, that this was wrong, and that it required a remedy beyond simple reform. Nevertheless, he saw no need for violence to accomplish this liberation due to his unmatched confidence in the ability of workers to resolve their problems through the democratic process. If the mass of oppressed workers simply came together and asserted the weight of numbers, then the fundamental freedom and equality meant for America could be realized. In a speech the day his sentence at Woodstock Jail ended after the Pullman strike, Debs said of the ballot, “There is nothing in our government it cannot remove or amend.” 21 These beliefs and ideas are part of what made Debs so appealing to the masses. He gave his audiences confidence in themselves, and appealed both to something old, Americans’ Constitutional freedoms and liberating heritage, and something new, an even greater future utopia. This made Debs a perfect candidate to unify the Socialist factions, but unfortunately, he once more abdicated his opportunity to lead. In November 1900, Debs wrote “if there is any attempt to harmonize or placate count me out . We must go forward in our own lines & those who don’t choose to fall in need not do so.” 22 This unwillingness to compromise and bring the two wings of the Party into harmony with his own ideology led to continuing internal tension as the 1904 election approached. Despite the friction resulting from the different Socialist factions coming together, with the merged organization renamed the Socialist Party of America in 1901, the existence of a single, coordinated organization had already reaped benefits between 1900 and 1904. In the congressional elections of 1902, the combined Socialist vote reached almost 227,000, well over twice as much as Debs received in 1900, with strongholds developing in Colorado, New York, and the Midwest in general. 23 This expansion was paralleled by a vast increase in Socialist literature; over 25 Socialist newspapers in English sprung up alongside 19 Eugene V. Debs, “Homestead and Ludlow,” in Eugene V. Debs Speaks , ed. Jean Tussey (New York: Pathfinder Press, 1970), 219. 20 Morgan, H. Wayne. 1962. Eugene V. Debs; socialist for President . n.p.: Syracuse, University Press, 1962., 135. 21 Salvatore, Nick. 1982. Eugene V. Debs : citizen and socialist . n.p.: Urbana : University of Illinois Press, ©1982., 154. 22 Salvatore, Nick. 1982. Eugene V. Debs : citizen and socialist . n.p.: Urbana : University of Illinois Press, ©1982., 188. 23 Morgan, H. Wayne. 1962. Eugene V. Debs; socialist for President . n.p.: Syracuse, University Press, 1962., 62.