The whole final paragraph of the "Statement," where Debs talks about the mariners who guide their ships by the Southern Cross, is an allegory, a story with surface and symbolic meanings.

Sailors in the Southern Hemisphere did actually use the Southern Cross constellation to navigate…and said constellation is visible just before dawn. But when Debs talks about the cross bending to indicate rest and relief he is also talking about the people wakening to the bright dawn of Socialism.

Obviously, the cross is also a symbol of Christianity; Debs was both a Socialist and a Christian.