Page "Eugene V. Debs" Paragraph 44

When Debs was released from the Atlanta Penitentiary, the other prisoners sent him off with " a roar of cheers " and a crowd of 50, 000 greeted his return to Terre Haute to the accompaniment of band music.

En route home, Debs was warmly received at the White House by Harding, who greeted him by saying: " Well, I've heard so damned much about you, Mr. Debs, that I am now glad to meet you personally.

" In 1924, Debs was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the Finnish Socialist Karl H. Wiik on the grounds that " Debs started to work actively for peace during World War I, mainly because he considered the war to be in the interest of capitalism.

" In the fall of 1926, Debs was admitted to Lindlahr Sanitarium in Elmhurst, Illinois.

He died there of heart failure on October 20, 1926, at the age of 70.

His body was cremated and buried in Highland Lawn Cemetery.