"As I am about to enter the prison doors, I wish to send to the Socialists of New York who have loyally stood by me since my first arrest, this little message of love and cheer. These are pregnant and promising days. We are all on the threshold of tremendous changes. The workers of the world are awakening and bestirring themselves as never before. All the forces that are playing upon the modern world are making for the overthrow of despotism in all its forms and for the emancipation of the masses of mankind. I shall be in prison in the days to come, but my revolutionary spirit will be abroad, and I shall not be inactive. Let us all, in the supreme hour, measure up to our full stature and work together as one for the great cause that means emancipation for us all. Love to all my Comrades, and all hail to the Revolution.--Eugene Victor Debs."
From the same issue of "The Call" we learn that Debs, on leaving Wheeling, West Virginia, for the Moundsville prison, gave the following statement to David Karsner, staff correspondent: "I enter the prison doors a flaming revolutionist--my head erect, my spirit untamed, and my soul unconquered."
A press despatch from Toledo, Ohio, March 31, 1919, describes the serious socialist riot which took place that afternoon as a protest against the then impending imprisonment of Debs, the self-styled "flaming revolutionist":