"Debs, Eugene Victor The situation worked well enough in good economic times, but when wages dropped and hours lengthened, while rents remained the same, families suffered tremendous hardships. "It recognizes the equality in men.". Edited by James Andrews and David Zarefsky. Edited by Eugene Debs and Bruce Rogers. Nominated for a fifth time as the Socialist Party's presidential candidate in 1920, Debs campaigned from his jail cell and garnered over a million votes. The GMA took several well-planned actions, including urging the federal government to attach mail cars to trains carrying Pullman cars. Encyclopedia of World Biography. A year later President Warren G. Harding commuted his sentence and Debs spent his last years in relative obscurity until his death on October 20, 1926. A weak federation was achieved in 1889, but it soon collapsed due to internal rivalries. . ." ." Married since the late 1940s, he was the father of eight children. Follow the gripping story of the race against time to save San Francisco and the nation from an outbreak of bubonic plague in 1900. Eugene Victor Debs was born in in Terre Haute, Indiana, on 5th November, 1855. Although he advocated radical change, he rejected revolutionary violence and chose to bring his case to the public through political means. Against Debs's advice the new union participated in the Pullman Strike of 1894 in sympathy with Pullman Palace Car workers. 52 Copy quote. He made contact with prominent socialist spokesmen and joined the Populist political movement, backing the presidential campaign of William Jennings Bryan in 1896. An economic downturn occurred that same year, which was triggered by the failure of some prominent East Coast banks. The reason given for such a drastic measure was that the U.S. mail was being delayed, and the federal government could legally step in when that was the case. . Two years later he was appointed editor of the magazine and secretary-treasurer of the brotherhood. A week later, Debs was out, too, having been released on bail, and began to prepare for his trial. In 1920, from his prison cell in Atlanta, Georgia, Debs ran for the presidency again gaining about 3.5 percent of the vote. Eugene V. Debs: Citizen and Socialist. 39 Copy quote. He was convicted on the second charge and spent six months in jail. . He was charged with sedition, or participating in an illegal action that could provoke resistance to the lawful authority, and one in which the disruption or overthrow of the government was possible. This often made Debs as many enemies as friends within the Socialist Party itself, and for most of his career Debs sought to remain aloof from the fierce factional infighting of the American Left. Debs advocated abolition of child labor, the right of women to vote, unemployment compensation, and a graduated income tax. ." Nick Salvatore , Eugene V. Debs: Citizen and Socialist, 1982. gender The Selected Works of Eugene V. Debs, known colloquially as The Red And Black Book, is a book that collects essays, speeches and abridged versions of longer works, that were written by the American socialist activist Eugene V. Debs.It is typically of pocket-size, and bound with leather (or leather-equivalent substitutes). However, the date of retrieval is often important. The extreme poverty of the city's working class made a strong impression on him and was one of the factors that led him to become an advocate for the rights of the nation's laborers. "Debs, Eugene Victor Though he was no longer a fireman, he was able to join the city's Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen. Encyclopedia.com. American Eras. He ran for the last time as the Socialist presidential candidate while in prison, receiving nearly a million votes, more actual votes (but a smaller percentage of the total) than in 1912. Opposing United States entry into World War I, Debs was sentenced to 10 years in prison for sedition in 1918. Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History. "Statement to the Court" (September 18, 1918). Through his work with the Firemens Brotherhood, Debs came to believe that unions organized exclusively around craft inhibited the ability of workers to join together in defense of common interests and allowed management to neutralize or crush union strength through divide-and-conquer strategies. When troops marched into ARU headquarters in Chicago on July 4, rioting began. In 1965, when grape-pickers from another labor group went on strike, Chvez and his NFWA locals joined in. Between the Civil War and World War I, the United States experienced great economic changes, ultimately emerging as an industrial power. He had learned that most political actions were achieved by buying or trading favors and making deals with one's opponents. ." By Clyde E. Willis Other articles in Reformers Labor leader and socialist Eugene V. Debs fought for associational and organized labor rights under First Amendment. Jean had received an excellent education as a young man, even studying in Paris, France, for a time, and passed on his love of literature to Eugene and his younger brother Theodore. 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. He became a railroad fireman in 1870 and . SoJust.net: A Document History of Social Justice. United States Party Politics War and Imperialism The Canton Speech By Eugene Debs Today in 1918, Eugene V. Debs delivered the speech that landed him in jail. "[W]hile the overwhelming majority of the people here are opposed to the social and economic theories of Mr. Debs," wrote the mayor of Terre Haute, Debs hometown, in 1907, "there is not perhaps a single man in this city who enjoys to a greater degree than Mr. Debs the affection, love, and profound respect of the entire community.". Then, on July 8, 1894, Baker observed an angry mob trying to turn over a Pullman car in Indiana. A year later, his group reorganized and renamed itself the Socialist Party of America. Eugene V. Debs: Citizen and Socialist. He was held in the Cook County jail. Debs was sentenced to six months in prison for his part in the strike. In 1870 Debs became a fireman (the person who feeds the coal into the fire to fuel the engine) for the railroad. (Photo by International News Photos via the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Collection, public domain) He campaigned on a pacifist platform of American neutrality in the First World War. But the unions fortunes fell just as quickly, after Debs staked them on support for workers in the Pullman Strike (1894), coordinating a national boycott of trains pulling Pullman cars. Coxey's Army left Massillon, Ohio, on March 25, 1894, hoping to attract one hundred thousand supporters on the way to Washington. Debs was inspired to return to politics. The Young Eugene V. Debs An interview with Tim Davenport A pair of leftist historians has undertaken a massive project: compiling a six-volume collection of Eugene Debs's writings and speeches. 25 Jul. Debs attracted huge crowds during his energetic campaigns throughout the country; he was an exceptionally effective public speaker, winning wide support through his personal warmth, integrity, and sincerity. Even people who disagreed with his ideas often enjoyed listening to him. Ira Kipnis, The American Socialist Movement, 1897-1912 (1952), and David A. Shannon, The Socialist Party of America (1955), are invaluable sources on the Socialist party. On the other hand, those who bothered to learn the reasons behind the strikers' protests, notably the Chicago newspapers, farmers in the West, and workers' organizations worldwide, often sided with the Pullman laborers. In a previously unpublished eulogy to John Brown from 1908, Eugene Debs proclaimed Brown the "greatest liberator this country has known" and declared that "the Socialist Party is carrying on the work begun by John Brown.". At the time Debs found that both Wilson and Roosevelt were advocating many of the ideas he had introduced in earlier campaigns. "Yes, I am my brother's keeper," he wrote. In 1875, some years after becoming a locomotive fireman for the railroad, Debs helped to organize a lodge of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen. This allowed President Grover Cleveland (18371908; served 189397) to call out the U.S. Army by arguing that the strike was interfering with the federal mail system. Official Site of the Eugene Debs Foundation. In 1951 he joined the staff of the Community Services Organization (CSO), a social-services agency that served the Hispanic American community, and eventually became its director in 1958. . In the aftermath Debs, who was indicted and jailed for his role in the strike, became both famous and infamous as a national labor hero. This time, they feared, the workers might rise up against the owners. Subsequently, Debs joined the Socialist Party of America and was their presidential candidate in 1900, 1904, 1908, and in 1912 when he received about 6 percent of Such an action had not previously been a crime, but in 1917 Congress passed the Espionage Act, which made it illegal to make false reports that might aid an enemy, to incite rebellion within the armed forces, or to obstruct military recruitment. He wrote philosophical essays under the pen name of David Grayson that were collected in nine popular books. "For many years the system, LABOR His case became a rallying point for those who believed he should be freed as a matter of freedom of speech. Debs became regretful that he left school so early, so he enrolled in classes at a local business college. 2023 . When major labor strikes turned violent, union leaders could even face murder charges if anyone was killed on the picket line. Daniel's parents were wealthy mill owners in Alsace, and when Daniel announced his intention to marry Marguerite, one of the workers in the family mills, his parents refused to give him any financial support. McAlister Coleman, Eugene V. Debs: A Man Unafraid (1930), is the best of the older biographies. 2023 . Often they earned just a dollar a day and were forced to live in camps or in their cars. We reprint the message here in full. Baker also spent fourteen years researching and writing a biography of President Woodrow Wilson (18561924; served 191321). Eugene V. Debs headed the American Socialist Party for more than thirty years. Carey, Charles W., Jr. Eugene V. Debs: Outspoken Labor Leader and Socialist. Zinn, Howard. The Cesar E. Chavez Foundation. The labor movement was just beginning to emerge as a significant force during the 1880s, and Debs was shocked at how quickly company management moved to fire, blacklist, or even physically harm workers who demanded fair wages and a reduction in hours to an eight-hour day. "Eugene V. Debs and the Idea of Socialism." The current president, Democrat Woodrow Wilson (18561924; served 191321), won the White House again that year. ." Smithsonian (October 2005): p. 29. The union did not yet have sufficient financial reserves to fund a long conflict. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990. A die-hard socialist, he stood five times as the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States. "Eugene Debs and the Idea of Socialism." Two years later, as the war memories faded and another president took office, Debs was released by order of President Warren G. Harding (18651923; served 192123). World Encyclopedia. After announcing his conversion to socialism in 1897, he led the establishment of the Socialist Party of America and was its candidate for U.S. president five times . Debs's writings and speeches spread his ideas far beyond the confines of a relatively minor political party. His union took a militant stance, however, refusing to move Pullman Debs had welcomed the Revolution; yet he became very critical of the dictatorial aspects of the Soviet regime, refusing to ally himself with the American Communist party. Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez. In 1918, after Debs made a speech in Canton, Ohio urging people to resist the World War I draft, he was charged with sedition and sentenced to ten years in prison.

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