From Woodstock to Boise
Walter Hurt in Appeal to Reason, November 23, 1907
Capitalism made its first great mistake when it put Eugene V. Debs in jail. It made its second great mistake when it put William D. Haywood in jail. And it adds to its mistakes every time it wrongfully imprisons any member of the working class.
Woodstock was plutocracy’s Waterloo and Boise was its Bull Run.
Debs entered jail a labor agitator and emerged therefrom a Social Revolutionist.
Haywood went to prison defeated and left it victorious.
In each case it was a transformation and a triumph.
It should be understood that the word “defeat” is here used merely as a term of convenience. No man is truly defeated unless he is conquered, and Debs and Haywood are unconquerable.
Moreover, whatever its reverses, there can be no defeat for a righteous cause, for in the eternal equipoise of social conservation—
“Ever will right come uppermost