尤金‧維克托‧德布斯 (EUGENE V1CTOR DEBS)

對法庭的聲明 Statement to the Court

   只要有一個人關在獄中，我就不是自由人。

       尤金‧維克托‧德布斯(1855－1926)是個工運組織者，社會黨創始人，六次被提名為社會黨總統候選人。德布斯出生於印第安那州的台熱霍特，十四歲便在鐵路上做工，最後成為一名機車司爐工。到二十歲時他參加了機車司爐工兄弟會的組織工作。1893年德布斯當選為新美國鐵路工會主席。翌年，他領導了反對普爾門豪華車公司的大罷工，結果聯邦軍隊進駐芝加哥，德布斯因蔑視法庭被監禁六個月。在獄中德布斯廣泛閱讀社會主義的文獻。1898年他協助創立以後稱為美國社會黨的組織，並於1900年成為該 黨總統候選人。

       德布斯和其他社會黨人反對美國1917年捲入世界大戰。由於他嚴厲批評威爾遜政府，於1918年6月以違犯1917年間諜法被捕。在德布斯發表了以下這篇講話後，法官判他十年徒刑。哈定總統1921年給予他減刑。1920年德布斯雖然仍在獄中，但作為總統候選人卻贏得了他歷次競選中的最高選票數 (九十一萬五千票)。

    閣下，若干年以前我自認與一切生物有親屬關係，並判定我比世界上最卑賤者好不了一分一毫。當時我說過，現在仍這麼說：只要有一個下層社會，我便是其中一員；只要有一個犯罪成分，我就是由它組成；只要有一個人關在獄中，我就不是自由人。

    我在這法庭上聽了所有支援這一起訴和為之辯護的言詞，但我的想法依然如故。我把間諜法看成是與民主原則和自由制度的精神公然對抗的專橫的法令。……

    閣下，在法庭上我已說過，我反對我們置身於其中的社會制度；我相信有必要作一番根本的改變──盡可能採用和平的、循序漸進的手段。

    今天上午站在這裏，我回憶起自己的童年。我14歲便在一鐵路工廠幹活；16歲在一輛貨運機車上當司爐。對早年的艱苦和貧困我記憶猶新；從那時起直到現在，我的心始終和工人階級在一起。我早就可能進入國會了，但我寧可進監獄。

    此時此地我想到工廠裏的男工，想到礦山和鐵路上的男工。我想到為微薄的工資被迫出賣勞力的婦女；想到那些在這個制度下被剝奪了童年，小小年紀便落入貪婪之神殘酷魔掌的孩子們，他們被驅入工業牢籠成為機器怪獸的食物，心靈和肉體受盡折磨。我看見他們發育不良，疾病纏身，幼小的生命慘遭蹂躪，因為在這20世紀上半期，基督教文明的金錢仍比兒童的血肉重要得多。事實上，金子仍是當今的上帝，以無情的權勢執掌著人類的事務。

    我們這個國家得天獨厚：我們有最富饒肥沃的遼闊土地、取之不盡用之不竭的原料資源、世界上生產能力最強的機器設備，有千百萬樂意為每個公民、每個兒童的福祉使用這些機器努力製造出大量產品的工人。而如果我國仍有為數眾多的人民淪為貧窮的犧牲品，一輩子苦苦掙扎，直到死亡給予他們解脫，讓他們的心不再痛苦，把這些不幸的受害者們誘入無夢的長眠，那罪責不在上帝：不能歸咎 於自然，而完全應歸咎於我們置身其中的畸形社會制度，這種社會制度應該消滅，這不僅是為了勞動大眾的利益，也為所有人類的最高利益。 

    閣下，我同其他社會黨人一樣都認為，這個國家應當擁有並控制它自己的工業。我與其他社會黨人都認為，一切為人們共同需要和使用的東西應歸人們共同所有──作為社會生活基礎的工業不應成為少數人的私有財產，為他們發財致富而運作，工業應成為全體人民的共同財產，應當為全體人民的利益對其施行民主化的管理。

    我反對一種社會秩序，它可以讓一個對社會毫無貢獻的人積累起億萬美元的財富，而讓千百萬一生辛勞的男人和女人掙扎在貧困線上。

    這種秩序不可能持久。我已表達了我對它的抗議。我承認自己的努力微不足道，但幸運的是我並非孤軍作戰。千千萬萬人跟我一樣意識到，我們必須把社會組織在共同與合作的基礎上才能真正享受文明生活的幸福；為此目標我們已組織起一個席捲全球的偉大的經濟政治運動。

    如今已有超過六百萬社會黨人，他們不分國籍、種族、宗教、膚色、性別，都對這一事業忠貞不渝。他們正投身共同的事業。他們不知疲倦地廣泛宣傳新的社會秩序。他們在等待，在觀察，滿懷著希望夜以繼日地工作。他們仍是少數派，但他們知道該如何耐心地等待時機。他們感覺到──他們確實明白──儘管阻力重重，遭受迫害，這樣的一天正在到來；解放的福音將傳遍各國人民；這一少數派將成為勝利的多數派，掌握政權，開始歷史上最偉大的社會和經濟變革。 

    到那時我們將實現世界聯邦──國與國之間攜手並肩，融洽合作。… 

Your honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

      I listened to all that was said in this court in support and justification of this prosecution, but my mind remains unchanged. I look upon the Espionage Law as a despotic enactment in flagrant conflict with democratic principles and with the spirit of free institutions. . . .

      Your Honor, I have stated in this court that I am opposed to the social system in which we live; that I believe in a fundamental change－ but if possible by peaceable and orderly means....

      Standing here this morning, I recall my boyhood. At fourteen I went to work in a railroad shop; at sixteen I was firing a freight engine on a railroad. I remember all the hardships and privations of that earlier day, and from that time until now my heart has been with the working class. I could have been in Congress long ago. I have preferred to go to prison. . . .

      I am thinking this morning of the men in the mills and factories; of the men in the mines and on the railroads. I am thinking of the women who for a paltry wage are compelled to work out their barren lives; of the little children who in this system are robbed of their childhood and in their tender years are seized in the remorseless grasp of Mammon and forced into the industrial dungeons, there to feed the monster machines while they themselves are being starved and stunted, body and soul. I see them dwarfed and diseased and their little lives broken and blasted because in this high noon of our twentieth-century Christian civilization money is still so much more important than the flesh and blood of childhood. In very truth gold is god today and rules with pitiless sway in the affairs of men.

      In this country, the most favored beneath the bending skies－ we have vast areas of the richest and most fertile soil, material resources in inexhaustible abundance, the most marvelous productive machinery on earth, and millions of eager workers ready to apply their labor to that machinery to produce an abundance for every man, woman, and child－ and if there are still vast numbers of our people who are the victims of poverty and whose lives are an unceasing struggle all the way from youth to old age, until at last death comes to their rescue and stills their aching hearts and lulls these hapless victims to dreamless sleep, it is not the fault of the Almighty: it cannot be charged to nature, but it is due entirely to the outgrown social system in which we live, that ought to be abolished not only in the interest of the toiling masses but in the higher interest of all humanity. . . .

      I believe, Your Honor, in common with all Socialists, that this nation ought to own and control its own industries. I believe, as all Socialists do, that all things that are jointly needed and used ought to be jointly owned－ that industry, the basis of our social life, instead of being the private property of the few and operated for their enrichment, ought to be the common property of all, democratically administered in the interest of all. . . .

      I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence.

      This order of things cannot always endure. I have registered my protest against it. I recognize the feebleness of my effort, but fortunately I am not alone. There are multiplied thousands of others who, like myself, have come to realize that before we may truly enjoy the blessings of civilized life, we must reorganize society upon a mutual and co-operative basis; and to this end we have organized a great economic and political movement that spreads over the face of all the earth.

      There are today upwards of sixty millions of Socialists, loyal, devoted adherents to this cause, regardless of nationality, race, creed, color, or sex. They are all making common cause. They are spreading with tireless energy the propaganda of the new social order. They are waiting, watching, and working hopefully through all the hours of the day and the night. They are still in a minority. But they have learned how to be patient and to bide their time. They feel－ they know, indeed－ that the time is coming, in spite of all opposition, all persecution, when this emancipating gospel will spread among all the peoples, and when this minority will become the triumphant majority and, sweeping into power, inaugurate the greatest social and economic change in history.

      In that day we shall have the universal commonwealth－ the harmonious co-operation of every nation with every other nation on earth....