anks today may well rejoice that these grand
women and others who shared in their bitter persecution blazed the way
through the dense wilderness of ignorance, prejudice and hatred for what
is now a world movement, with millions proudly bearing its banner,
inscribed with the conquering shibboleth: Equal Freedom and Equal
Opportunities for All Mankind.

SPEECHES

UNITY AND VICTORY.

Speech Before State Convention of American Federation of Labor,
Pittsburg, Kansas, August 12, 1908.

* * * * *

Introduction by Chairman Cable.

Gentlemen of the Convention: I assure you it is a great privilege on my
part to present to you at this time a gentleman who needs no
introduction at my hands; a gentleman who is known to you and who is
known to the workingmen throughout the length and breadth of this
country as a true and tried trade unionist and the candidate of the
Socialist party for President of the United States. I, therefore, take
great pleasure in presenting to you Brother Eugene V. Debs.

Mr. Chairman, Delegates and Fellow Workers: It is with pleasure, I
assure you, that I embrace this opportunity to exchange greetings with
you in the councils of labor. I have prepared no formal address, nor is
any necessary at this time. You have met here as the representatives of
organized labor and if I can do anything to assist you in the work you
have been delegated to do I shall render that assistance with great
pleasure.

To serve the working class is to me always a duty of love. Thirty-three
years ago I first became a member of a trade union. I can remember quite
well under what difficulties meetings were held and with what contempt
organized labor was treated at that time. There has been a decided
change. The small and insignificant trade union has expanded to the
proportions of a great national organization. The few hundreds now
number millions and organized labor has become a recognized factor in
the economics and politics of the nation.

There has been a great evolution during that time and while the power of
the organized workers has increased there has been an industrial
development which makes that power more necessary than ever before in
all the history of the working class movement.

This is an age of organization. The small employer of a quarter of a
century ago has practically disappeared. The workingman of today is
confronted by the great corporation which has its iron