"If you go to the city of Washington, you will find that almost all of those corporation lawyers and cowardly politicians, members of congress, and mis-representatives of the masses claim, in glowing terms, that they have risen from the ranks to places of eminence and distinction. I am very glad that I cannot make that claim for myself. I would be ashamed to admit that I had risen from the ranks. When I rise it will be with the ranks, and not from the ranks."

Source : Eugene V. Debs' anti-war speech in Canton, Ohio (June 16, 1918), as quoted in The Call Magazine, www.marxists.org. 1918.

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