Huge crowds greet Debs in Buffalo on a 1912 campaign stop.

‘9,000 Throng to Arsenal in Drizzling Rain to Hear Debs’ from Buffalo Socialist. Vol. 1 No. 21. October 26, 1912.

Largest Political Gathering in the History of Buffalo, Does Honor to Standard Bearer of Socialist Party–Enthusiasm Runs Riot and Meeting is a Splendid Success.

Rain Kept Down Crowd.

Were it not for the drizzling rain, there is no doubt but that 20,000 people would have stormed the Arsenal.

As it was, approximately 9,000 crowded into the building. About 12,000 tickets were sold, but many with tickets stayed at home, on account of the rain.

Comrade Gustav Strebel of Syracuse, candidate for lieutenant-governor, was the first to be introduced by Chairman Mahoney. He discussed state issues chiefly, and described the National Progressive Party as an “animal with the head of a Bull Moose, the forelegs of the elephant, the hind-legs of the jackass, and the tail of the tiger.”

At the entrance of Debs, the enthusiasm of the throng knew no hounds. Rising to their feet, they screamed, whistled, hurrahed and yelled their greetings for fully ten minutes.

Chairman Mahoney introduced him as the man who said, “I would not lead you out of the land of bondage if I could; for, if I could lead you out, some one else could lead you back.”

When the cheering had subsided, Debs began one of those earnest, kindly, heart-to-heart talks, which, while containing none of the drivel and none of the cunning device of the spellbinder to win applause, are still marvels of eloquence, and have made him the best loved man in American public life.

All Old Parties Alike.

“The three capitalist parties, including the Republican, Democrat and Bull Moose parties, are merely subdivisions of the capitalist political power,” he said. They are organized by the capitalists, controlled by the capitalists and owned by the capitalists in the interest of the capitalists. A workingman is as much out of place in a capitalist party as J.P. Morgan would be out of place in the Socialist party. The Socialist party is the party of the working class, recruited from the ranks of labor, supported by the working class and controlled by the working class. It is the only party which has a right to appeal to workingmen for their support because it represents their class and their class alone.

“The capitalist parties consider the working class as only fit to march in the mud behind the chariots of capitalist leaders and furnish the votes for them on election day.”

Laughter, mingled with shouts and applause, continued long, when he described Taft, Wilson and Roosevelt in the following phrases: They are the incarnation of the spirit of the capitalist class, which they represent. Not one of them has ever done a day’s work for wages; not one of them has ever been out of a job; not one of them knows how it feels to hear the whistle of the factory or the bell of the shop when he is sick; not one has ever been blacklisted; not one has ever been on strike; not one has ever been locked out; not one has had an injunction issued against him; not one has ever been in jail. All of this is proof that they are members of the ruling class.

“Patriots” in Politics.

“Taft has the backing of such eminent patriots as Rockefeller, Carnegie and Morgan; Wilson the backing of such as that eminent humanitarian, Thomas Fortune Ryan; Roosevelt, the backing of such as Perkins, Munsey and the like. It is right that they should have their support, because the Republican, Democrat and Bull Moose parties represent them.”‘

Referring briefly to the shooting of Roosevelt, reported recently in the newspapers, Debs pointed out the cow-party, by trying to make it appear that to saddle this crime upon the Socialist party, by trying to mask it appear that Schrank was a Socialist. After expressing regret at the shooting, he went on to assert that every one of the New York gambler gang of murderers were either Republicans or Democrats, but that the papers do not mention a criminal’s politics unless they have a hope of charging crime against one of the 800,00 Socialist voters.

Socialists Oppose Violence.

“This attempt, which I deprecate, could not have happened under a Socialist regime, because Socialists are opposed to violence. The capitalist system is based upon violence, and that is one reason why we are opposed to capitalism.”

The captain of police, with a squad of officers, was a bit worried over the safety of Debs, and as soon as the speech was over, Debs was rushed out of a side door into a waiting carriage. It was feared that the enthusiastic crowd, in trying to shake his hand, would have injured him in the crush.

Happily, his enemies are not of the class which might assassinate him physically, but, rather, of the class which, like the capitalist editors and the pussy-footed Jesuit priests, prefer to stab in the back and assassinate reputations, so there was no fear of murder.

Swarming into Buffalo from all parts of Western New York, a wildly enthusiastic multitude greeted the standard-bearer of the working-class political party at the Broadway Arsenal Tuesday night. The meeting was unquestionably the greatest demonstration of the present political campaign.

Wilson drew about 3,000 to the Arsenal on Labor Day; Straus spoke to ap proximately 6,000 last week, and about half that number attended the Democratic rally on Monday night. These meetings, were, of course, free, and to a great extent, those who attended consisted largely of the political henchmen of the capitalist parties, with such others of the particular political faith rep resented as are willing to put in an evening in listening to the good old story of what sovereign patriots and what horny-handed sons of toil they are.

The Arsenal was none too big for the thousands who jammed Broadway Tuesday night, and every available inch of room was occupied by enthusiastic humanity. The building shook with the thunderous applause of the multitude, when Debs reached the dramatic climaxes of his magnificent eloquence; while in the periods where he sought to appeal to the tenderer emotions and sympathies of the great throng, hundreds were in tears and not a few sobbed aloud.

The Supreme Orator.

At all times, the orator with the greatest message to which humanity has ever listened, held his audience in the hollow of his hand. Fortunate, indeed, is it that in him the workers have a leader who cannot be bought with, capitalist gold, who cannot be swayed by capitalist cunning; who would rather languish in jail in the cause of the workers than loll at ease in a palace of the exploiters of humanity.

A product of the working class himself, Debs understands to the full the meaning of the class struggle, and his voice, raised on behalf of the oppressed working class contains no tremor of fear, no halt of hesitancy, no note of discouragement. His clarion call to the workers of Buffalo to unite, to cast from them the chains which bind them to the wheels of the capitalist chariot, to close up the ranks and join with the workers of the world in the tremendous onward rush of the Socialist movement, must always remain in the memory of those who were privileged to hear him, enshrined as the noblest classic of oratory ever uttered in the City of Buffalo. Even without the irresistible logic of the Socialist position, and even though he were a capitalist speaker, trying to convince the working class of the sophistries which form the stock in trade of the old parties, Debs would be recognized as the foremost master of oratory in America today. But when you combine with his mastery of poetic rhetoric the tremendous enthusiasm which goes with absolute certainty of the logic of philosophy, and the longing to give this message to the world, it is not surprising that Debs should tower, head and shoulders, above the best that the capitalist parties can produce.

The collection amounted to $257. In addition to that, 1,000 red carnations and 500 copies of the International Socialist Review were sold. About 500 subscriptions to the Buffalo Socialist were taken.

The Buffalo Socialist was a weekly published in Buffalo New York by the Buffalo Socialist Publishing Company from 1911-1915 and aligned with the Socialist Party of America. Edited by Max Sherover, the company also produced a weekly women’s newspaper, New Age, from 1915.

For PDF of issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/buffalo-socialist/v1n21-oct-26-1912-Buf-Soc.pdf