hat he
regards as the greatest cause in the world. On this war he has stood
like granite, unwavering and unflinching, voicing the protest of the
masses who had no voice with which to speak. He has uttered what they
believed.

The preachers who deserted their flocks; the teachers who betrayed their
trust; the editors who took their 30 pieces of silver in these last few
years--they are free; they are honored; they are respected. But this man
who thought straight; who loved his fellows, who spoke his convictions;
who was true to his ideals--this man is permitted to go to jail by the
Supreme Court of the United States.

I have seen the Supreme Court and I have seen Eugene V. Debs. From the
Supreme Court I got neither love nor inspiration; from Debs I got both.

In his generation in the United States, there is not a greater man than
Eugene V. Debs--not because of what he has done, but because of what he
is, and when the history of this generation is written, that fact will
be recorded.

The masters in all ages have put men like Debs in jail because it is the
truth-teller that the masters fear most. They fear the Truth; they fear
the Light; they fear Justice; and the man who turns on the Light and
speaks the Truth and cries out for Justice--is their greatest enemy. So
they have always tried this process of putting ideas into jail.

9. PUTTING IDEAS IN JAIL

Years ago, when the Mexican War was being fought, an American named
Henry D. Thoreau refused to pay his war tax. He did not believe in the
war and he refused to support the Government that prosecuted the war. So
they put Thoreau in jail. Later he wrote about his experience:

"As I stood considering the walls of solid stone, two or three feet
thick, and the door of wood and iron, a foot thick, and the iron grating
which strained the light, I could not help being struck with the
foolishness of that institution which treated me as if I were mere flesh
and blood and bones, to be locked up....

"I felt as if I alone of all my townsmen had paid my tax....

"I could not but smile to see how industriously they locked the door on
my meditations, which followed them out again without let or hindrance,
and they were really all that was dangerous. As they could not reach me,
they had resolved to punish my body; just as boys, if they cannot come
at some person against whom they have a spite, will abuse his dog.

"I saw that the State was half-witted, that it was timid as a