prehended than
now the great struggle between the powers of greed on the one hand and
upon the other the rising hosts of freedom.

"I can see the dawn of a better day of humanity. The people are
awakening. In due course of time they will come to their own.

"When the mariner, sailing over tropic seas, looks for relief from his
weary watch, he turns his eyes toward the southern cross, burning
luridly above the tempest-vexed ocean. As the midnight approaches, the
southern cross begins to bend, and the whirling worlds change their
places, and with starry fingerpoints the Almighty marks the passage of
time upon the dial of the universe, and though no bell may beat the glad
tidings, the look-out knows that the midnight is passing--that relief
and rest are close at hand.

"Let the people take heart and hope everywhere, for the cross is
bending, the midnight is passing, and joy cometh with the morning....

"Your Honor, I thank you, and I thank all of this court for their
courtesy, for their kindness, which I shall remember always.

"I am prepared to receive your sentence."

Whereupon the judge sentenced Eugene Debs to ten years in the West
Virginia Penitentiary--the penitentiary at Atlanta being too crowded to
receive him.

6. THE APPEAL

An appeal was taken to the Supreme Court of the United States and was
argued on the ground that the Espionage Act was unconstitutional. No act
was charged against Debs, except the Canton speech. In that speech he
had simply stated what he had said a thousand times before, but the
Court held that under the Espionage Act a man who made a speech, the
probable result of which was to create mutiny or to hinder recruiting
and enlistment--was guilty, providing that he did it knowingly and
wilfully. The jury had to decide, first, that he had done something the
probable result of which was to create mutiny or to hinder recruiting
and enlistment, and then if he had done it, that it was done with
intent, knowingly and wilfully. The jury had found Debs guilty under
these circumstances.

Debs was an American, and as an American he relied upon a certain
guarantee contained in the First Amendment to the Constitution:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of
speech or of the press, or the right of the people peacefully to
assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
Debs, a