Mr.Debs' Heart

Mr. Debs' Heart

Eugene V. Debs, arch-Socialist, went to San Francisco and addressed a meeting of the Socialist Party at the Exposition Auditorium. Before leaving the city, he went to San Quentin prison to visit Tom Mooney.*

Said Mr. Debs to Mr. Mooney: "There is no such thing as a degenerate human being. The most hardened are, under the skin, the tenderest. They melt when they are handled with kindness. Every bit you are paying now, Tom, will come back to you with usury. I'd give you the shirt off my back, Tom, or the last crumb in my cupboard. I've given you my heart--you know that."

As they parted Mr. Debs gave Mr. Mooney (according to the Socialist New York Leader) a " big hug " and a " long kiss on the cheek."

* Mooney--an obscure anarchist at the time -- was jailed as result of his connection with a bomb-throwing that killed ten, wounded five, in a San Francisco preparedness parade in 1916.