Debs tells of the Socialist Party local of 36 inmates in the Fort Smith, Arkansas federal prison formed by Fred W. Holt, militant mine leader.

‘Socialism Behind Bars’ (1915) by Eugene V. Debs from The Toiler. No. December 24, 1919.

Socialism grows anywhere, everywhere. Everybody and everything helps it to grow. Its worst enemies are its best friends. Strange, but watch it, and you will find it works out that way every time.

The reason is that Socialism is truth applied to society, and truth finally wins out because everything has to square with it in the end. The most thriving, well-attended and enthusiastic Socialist local is the one in the Federal jail at Fort Smith, Ark. It numbers 36 members. It meets every day and every night in the week; is, in fact, in continuous session. There is never an absence at roll call. The Federal government pays the rent and furnishes the members with light, heat and sleeping quarters. These are not of the best, it is true, but there is no complaint on the part of these choice and cheerful Comrades.

The story of this local is interesting and dramatic enough to put on the stage.

Fred W. Holt is the hero of the story. Holt, district secretary, and 10 of his fellow miners in the United Mine Workers were sentenced to jail and fined heavily for fighting bravely for the striking miners in Arkansas. The judge, a corporation hireling, was determined to strike Socialism its death blow, Holt having been the Socialist party candidate for Governor of Oklahoma in the last election and having polled some 50,000 votes, enough to throw an awful scare in into the mine owners and other exploiters who rule that section..

When Holt and his Comrades, 11 in all, began serving their six months’ sentence in the jail at Fort Smith they found 25 other Federal prisoners there serving jail sentences for various minor offenses for which the poor are sent to jail under capitalism. There was not a Socialist among these when Holt and his bunch of revolutionists entered there. They were all Republicans and Democrats.

Now there is not a Republican or Democrat in the lot. The whole 25 have been converted and have joined the local in jail, consisting now of 36 members, and probably the only one of its kind in the world.

The Comrades on the outside have kept Holt well supplied with literature, and he has made good use of it. The converts are all enthusiastic. They now know why the poor are sent to jail and the rich to the Senate. Here are two sets of prisoners, victims of capitalism, distinctly separate, and yet with a peculiar affinity for one another.

Holt and his 10 Comrades are in jail for fighting the brutal system that sent their 25 poor, jobless fellow prisoners to jail. The whole of them are of the working class. It is an interesting study and a unique and powerful object lesson.

Fred Holt is a typical industrial unionist and Socialist. He stood and fought for the miners without wavering through the fiercest of their battles. The operators feared and hated him, and when their tool on the bench sent him to prison they heaved a sigh of relief.

But, alas! Fred Holt, in prison, has multiplied himself. Socialism grows everywhere, and when the jail sentence expires Holt and his host will march forth, thanks to the operators and their hireling judge, trained and equipped revolutionists and full to their toe tips of the fighting spirit which is crowned with victory or death.

-Sunday Call, April 5, 1915.

The Toiler was a significant regional, later national, newspaper of the early Communist movement published weekly between 1919 and 1921. It grew out of the Socialist Party’s ‘The Ohio Socialist’, leading paper of the Party’s left wing and northern Ohio’s militant IWW base and became the national voice of the forces that would become The Communist Labor Party. The Toiler was first published in Cleveland, Ohio, its volume number continuing on from The Ohio Socialist, in the fall of 1919 as the paper of the Communist Labor Party of Ohio. The Toiler moved to New York City in early 1920 and with its union focus served as the labor paper of the CLP and the legal Workers Party of America. Editors included Elmer Allison and James P Cannon. The original English language and/or US publication of key texts of the international revolutionary movement are prominent features of the Toiler. In January 1922, The Toiler merged with The Workers Council to form The Worker, becoming the Communist Party’s main paper continuing as The Daily Worker in January, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/thetoiler/099-dec-24-1919-toiler.pdf