Labor leader's words might live on

TERRE HAUTE -- Though most historians believe no authentic recordings exist of the voice of Socialist labor leader Eugene V. Debs, at least one Web site is making claims to the contrary.\nIbis Communications offers a 39-second clip of a Debs speech on its Web site -- a fiery and powerful argument for socialism and justice for the working class. It dates the recording during the 1904 presidential election, one of four times the Terre Haute native ran for the presidency.\nJonathan Davis, president of Ibis, which produces interactive multimedia educational materials, said the recording was listed at the U.S. National Archives & Records Administration.\nDebs Foundation spokeswoman Karen Brown said, however, there is no evidence that the recording was actually made by Debs.\n"I have no doubt that they, in good faith, think that it is authentic. They're not trying to fool anyone," Brown said. "Apparently, it was even catalogued as being authentic."\nOn another Web site, developed by the American Social History Project of the City University of New York and George Mason University, researchers have put together "Dubbing Debs: An Actor Records a Speech by Eugene Debs."\nThe site includes a 6-minute, 37-second reading of the speech and credits it to actor Leonard Spencer, who was known for his recorded versions of comic and dramatic monologues.\n"Although Debs apparently never entered a sound studio, a recording of a Debs' speech was widely circulated in the first decade of the 20th century," according to the site. "For many years, the speech was believed to have been in Debs' voice, and it was catalogued as such in libraries and record collections."\nJan McKee, reference librarian in the Recorded Sound Reference Center at the Library of Congress, said such an early 1900s recording likely would not be authentic if there were no notes of it in Debs' journals or others' writings on Debs.\n"It was still a big enough deal that people would make note of it in their diaries and journals," McKee said.