Debs on Violating the Sedition Act: Wealth Quotes
How we cite our quotes: (Sentence)
Quote #1
I could have been in Congress long ago. I have preferred to go to prison. (9).
Debs is either being a braggart here or he is making a Socialist point. Whatever, this definitely relates to the opening section, where he also talks about prison.
Quote #2
I am thinking of the women who for a paltry wage are compelled to work out their barren lives; of the little children who in this system are robbed of their childhood and seized in the remorseless grasp of Mammon. (11)
American industries in this time period were particularly exploitative of female and child labor and could do this because of the unending supply of immigrant laborers who were compelled to work for very low wages.
Quote #3
[…] in this high noon of Christian civilization money is still so much more important than the flesh and blood of childhood. (12)
There is bitter irony here in Debs' analysis of America's economic success.
Quote #4
[…] there are still vast numbers of our people who are the victims of poverty and whose lives are an unceasing struggle all the way from youth to old age […] (14)
When Debs talks about "our" people his audience knows that he's speaking to them as one whose biography connects directly to this idea.
Quote #5
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 […] (17)
Debs often used John D. Rockefeller as his example of the crazy-rich guy. Capitalist proponents would view the Rockefeller type as being very useful indeed, however.