ook.yo bow our vwers we are n getng into your area "democracy's prisoners, eugene v. ebs. in 1917, congress pasd a law out the speech about the wa >> it lled

eugene v. debs." christmas day 1921 president harding pardoned a prisoner. wind him he felt his strength ebbing, his speeches seem almost pathetic, his pen has lost its throb, a month ago he went to a sanitarium where he died age 71. what were his final years like after prison and how important a voice was he? >> he spent the rest of his life trying to rebuild the socialist party that had been so badly discipline derred by the war. without success. and that was -- that was both a self-insplikted wound because the socialist party had a bitter split over communism. the communists were trying to convince him to join them, to be -- he was the country's most famous, most high-profile and beloved radical, and the communists wanted very much to have him on board. and debs had been very enthusiastic about the bow sha vehicle revolution. but he refused ultimately to sign on with the communists, objecting to the idea of a dictatorship of the prola tair accurate and objecting to some of the methods of the bolsheviks. much of the energy had gone into the communist party at this point, meanwhile the party h