Source: The Militant, Vol. 12 No. 39, 27 September 1948, p. 2.
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On Sept. 14, 1917, Eugene V. Debs, four-time candidate of the Socialist Party for U.S. President, was sentenced in Cleveland, Ohio, to ten years in prison for opposing imperialist war and advocating socialism as the only road to enduring peace.
Thirty years later, almost to the week, W.K. Kelsey, well-known columnist of the
A few days later, Kelsey felt obliged to publish a correction in his column. His attention had been called to a new party in the 1948 Presidential election— the Socialist Workers Party, whose candidates for President and Vice-President, Farrell Dobbs and Grace Carlson, proclaim the principles Debs stood for and continue his fighting tradition.
The persecution of Debs for his stand against World War I found its historic repetition in the persecution of Farrell Dobbs, Grace Carlson and 16 other Trotskyists for their stand against World War II.
On June 16, 1918, Debs opposed Wall Street and its war aims in a speech at Canton, Ohio, that resounded throughout the country.
The Woodrow Wilson Administration considered such utterances to be “treason” and placed the 63-year-old Socialist crusader on trial. But this battler did not recant. In court he told the jury: “I would not retract a word that I have uttered, that I believe to he true to save myself from going to the penitentiary for the rest of my days ...”
Condemned to the federal penitentiary, Debs continued his battle. From behind prison bars, he ran for President in 1920 for the fifth time, polling almost a million votes.
In World War II, the Roosevelt Administration charged 18 leaders and members of the Socialist Workers Party with virtually the same “crime” alleged against Debs. The real “crime” of which these Trotskyists were “guilty,” like Debs, was advocacy of socialism and opposition to imperialist war.
Just as Debs had defended his principles in court, so did the Trotskyists. On the witness stand, James P. Cannon, National Secretary of the Socialist Workers Party and one of the defendants, explained the position of the party:
“Modern wars, in the opinion of our Party, are caused by the conflict of imperialist nations for markets, colonies, source of raw Material, fields for investment and spheres of influence ... Fundamentally wars are caused by the efforts of all the capitalist powers to expand into other fields ... We believe that the necessary social transition from the present system of capitalism to the far more efficient order of socialism, can only be brought under a leadership of the workers.”
James P. Cannon, Farrell Dobbs, Grace Carlson and the other defendants were given sentences ranging from a year-and-a-day to 16 months. As in the case of Debs, imprisonment did not lead them to change their views. Both Farr ell Dobbs and Grace Carlson are today running for office on the same program they advocated before they were jailed.
Since Debs historic opposition to imperialist war, Big Business has plunged America into a Second World War and is now preparing for a third slaughter.
The growing strength of the Socialist Workers Party, however, and its appearance in this Presidential election is a helpful sign that America can be saved from the disaster of a Third World War. The great goal Debs fought for inspires the ranks of the Socialist Workers Party, his principles live in its program. The fighting campaign of Dobbs and Carlson is proof that revolutionary socialism is once again on the march in America.
Last updated on: 18 October 2022