Eugene V. Debs: Antiwar Speech

Glossary

• bore a German name, and that was his crime reference to the widespread paranoia of the time regarding Germans and eastern Europeans, seen by many to be terrorists and spies
• class-conscious aware of one’s role in what Debs saw as the historic struggle between the workers and the capitalists
• comrades a term used at the time by a wide spectrum on the far left to indicate brotherhood in the international workers’ movement
• industrial democracy a system of government whereby the workers act as a single union and thereby effectively control the government
• proletarians industrial workers
• sycophant someone who plays up to the rich and powerful