Debs Comes to Seattle, Fresh From Jail, and Tells the Crowd How He Got Six Months

Eugene V. Debs, president of the American Railway Union, accompanied by Roy M. Goodwin, one of the directors of the union, arrived in the city yesterday morning from Everett on the steamer Greyhound, and in the evening addressed a fine audience at the Seattle theater. Inasmuch as a good many workingmen are in such straits financially that they are unable to raise money to pay their admission fee, Mr. Debs has arranged to give a free talk this morning at 10 o'clock and has engaged the Armory for this purpose.

The arrival of Mr. Debs was the occasion of great enthusiasm, and several thousand people greeted him at the boat landing — workingmen, merchants and other business men mingling generally in the throng in an endeavor to see the man about whom there has been so much talk, and who was so recently sentenced to nine months in jail for contempt of court in leading the great Pullman strike. The local American Railway Union, the Western Central Labor Union, the Sailors' Union, the Co-operative Industrial Association and other allied labor organizations were out in force, the sailors being in full uniform and marching in a body.

At the Northern hotel the great labor leader made a short speech, in which he thanked the people for their enthusiasm and modestly said that he believed the reception was not due so much to his personality as it was to the principle and cause he represents. In the hour following he met some of the leading people of the city, among them S. S. Carlisle, ex-minister to Bolivia; Dr. H. E. Merkle, B. K. Bennett, A. F. Haas, Rev. D. C. Garrett, Dr. J. Eugene Jordan, Richard Winsor, Samuel Rosenberg and Gov. James Sheakley of Alaska, who happened to be a guest at the Northern. The governor and Mr. Debs had a short but very cordial interview, which proved a source of gratification to both.

In the afternoon he was waited on by several well-known labor leaders, among them W. P. C. Adams, who was the Populist candidate for congress at the last election; W. G. Armstrong, representing the W. C. L. U., and W. H. Middleton, secretary of that body, and A. R. U. representatives. At 2 o'clock a small party took advantage of the hospitality of Mr. Haas, of the Yesler avenue line, who had provided a special car, and, accompanied by Mr. Debs, went to Lake Washington. There they boarded the steamer City of Benton and enjoyed a brief excursion on the lake, returning to the city at 4:30 o'clock.

In the evening Mr. Debs was interviewed, but he did not have a great deal to say. He is a large, fine-looking man and has such a thoroughly good face, with kindly black eyes, that it becomes no mystery how men should have chosen him for a leader in whom they could place the highest confidence. He was informed of the presence in the city of Mr. Egan, of the Railway Managers' Association, and appeared surprised, and remarked: "He must have come in this evening. It's funny that we should both arrive at the same time in the same city so far from home. Perhaps he may attend the lecture this evening."

"What do you think of Mr. Egan?" was asked of Mr. Debs. The labor leader ceased his reverie and replied quickly: "Why, personally I never had any dealings with Mr. Egan, but he must be a capable, intelligent man or he would not occupy the position he does. Personally I never had any misunderstanding or difficulty with him, and he is undoubtedly a very worthy gentleman. But you see, during the trouble he represented the railroads on the one side, I the employes on the other, and, of course, we held our different views, and whatever I had to say was not directed to Mr. Egan personally, but merely to the policy and workings of the corporations by whom he was employed. Yes, it is quite a coincidence that we should both be out here together, arriving the same day and on entirely different missions."

Mr. Debs' lecture, "Who Are the Conspirators?" at the Seattle theater in the evening, was splendidly delivered and elicited frequent and repeated applause. He proved himself a polished speaker, and for two hours and a half the interest never flagged. In his argument he was conclusive and convincing, his earnestness was profound, and in rhetoric, metaphor and figures of speech he was at all times happy, pathetic and enthusiastic. He demonstrated that he has been a student of human nature as well as of good books; Shakespeare, Ruskin, Carlisle, Macaulay and Burns seeming to be his favorite authors.

Those who expected that he would pose as a martyr, as a result of his six months' imprisonment in the county jail at Chicago for the part he played as leader of the strike, were disappointed. He only referred to the incident of his imprisonment two or three times, and then in a dry, humorous way that provoked continued laughter instead of indignation. In describing the incidents leading up to his residence in the jail, he said: "When I was served with the injunction from Judge Jenkins' court restraining me from holding high communion with myself, from writing letters or telegrams, and from talking with my fellow men, I went to two of the best lawyers in Chicago and asked them what I should do, and they told me I had violated no law and could continue as I had been doing." Here Mr. Debs stopped for a moment, and there was profound silence. Then he added, in a dry, matter-of-fact way: "I took their advice and got six months." For a period of five minutes pandemonium reigned, there being alternate laughter and applause.

Mr. Debs declared the newspapers had given but one side of the story of the recent unpleasantness, and said that the members of the Railway Managers' Association in Chicago were really the conspirators, and not the employes or the officials of the American Railway Union. He pathetically described the misery and poverty of the little town of Pullman, and told of the greed of the Pullman Company, and said that at a time when the earnings of the company were $30,000,000 a year, they reduced salaries $3,000,000 a year, rendering it impossible for the workmen to support their families and keep their heads above water. He denied that the railway men fired the cars in the Illinois Central yards, and declared it was the work of the United States marshals sworn in at the instance of the General Managers' Association. He said the 3,000 special deputy United States marshals sworn in were chosen from the sewers and the slums and were men of no character.

Mr. Debs explained privately that his tour is being made for the purpose of raising money to pay the costs of the suit and to carry the case on appeal. He expects that the United States supreme court, in full bench assembled, will hand down its decision, which will be final and will let Mr. Debs and the railway employes know just where they stand.