You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Sunday December 13, 1903
From The Labor World: "Debs Says All A. R. U. Debts Are Settled"
King Debs
Terra Haute, Ind., Dec. 10-Did the A. R. U. [American Railroad Union] pay all its debts before disbanding? Some serious charges have lately been made by enemies of Eugene V. Debs in connection with the liabilities of the organization. It is well known that Mr. Debs not only gave up everything he had in the world to ascertain the power of courts in contempt cases, but he also contributed his entire earnings on the lecture platform for several years until the last bill was paid. When asked about the matter this week he said in his usual very terse manner:
"The story is being circulated-for that reason may be surmised-that the American Railway Union and its president never paid a dollar of the court costs against them during their trials and that they also left their attorneys' fees and other claims unpaid. The story is an absolute falsehood. The A. R. U. and its president paid every court claim and every lawyer fee in full and owes neither the one nor the other a farthing.
In this connection it may be said that it cost a fortune to reach the supreme court of the United States to be told there that the lower court had final say. The writer was opposed to making the effort but was overruled, the plea being made especially by the lawyers, that the decision would be of incalculable value as a precedent to the working class. The litigation cost many thousands of dollars- all the money we had in the treasury of the A. R. U. all we had personally, all we could beg, borrow or raise in any way went to satisfy the lawyers and courts-this was the price of our conviction." ...
SOURCE
The Labor World
(Duluth, Minnesota)
-of Dec 12, 1903
Photo: King Debs
http://publications.newberry.org/...
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Saturday December 13, 1913
Cedar Hill, Colorado - Lt Linderfelt Recruits Hard-Core Veterans and Mine Guards
Lt Linderfelt has been recruiting new soldiers to fill the ranks of Company B of the Second Battalion. This company is camped at Cedar Hills, near to the Ludlow Tent Colony at the entrance of Berwind Canyon. Word has it that he has turned to the veterans with whom he served in the Philippines and Mexico. More and more mine guards are also being recruited to fill the ranks of Company B. Linderfelt dislikes the part-timers now serving in Company B. He is only too happy to replace them as they seek to return to their civilian lives. Linderfelt prefers to approach the job of keeping the peace in the strike zone through the use of company gunthugs and battle-hardened soldiers. Company B has frequent run-ins with the colonist at Ludlow. They go heavily armed into the camp, unlike the soldiers of the other companies who often visit the Ludlow camp in small groups and without arms.
SOURCE
Blood Passion
The Ludlow Massacre and Class War
in the American West
-by Scott Martelle
Rutgers U Press, 2008
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Friday December 13, 2013
More on the debts of the A. R. U. and payment of same by Eugene Debs:
MacLean, Isabel 1913-10-01
Abstract; Letter from Theodore Debs, 10/1/1913. Informs MacLean that the American Railway Union's debt was composed of office rent, printing bills, lawyers' fees, and money borrowed to keep the American Railway Union afloat when its leaders were in prison. Says that Eugene V. Debs personally assumed responsibility for the American Railway Union's debt and made sure that it was paid off. Writes that Eugene V. Debs paid the debt by speaking on the Chautaqua circuit and Lyceum platform. Mentions that his schedule almost ruined his health.
Letter from Theodore Debs to Isabel MacLean, Oct 1, 1913
http://visions.indstate.edu:8888/...
Note: This letter suggest that Debs was still paying off the debts of the A. R. U. in 1913, even though he was not obligated to do so.
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Eugene V Debs
I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence.
This order of things cannot always endure.
I have registered my protest against it.
-Eugene Debs