By 1920 , the name Eugene Debs stage different matter to unlike group . For some , he was a seer sexual union leader and pol who rose to the national stage to unite American workers under the banner of socialist economy . To others , he was a dangerous traitor who sought to discredit the country ’s war effort and unmake the tremendous advancement the country ’s economy had made in the commencement of the twentieth 100 . And to the employees at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary , he was yardbird number 9653 .
The first two viewpoints depend solely on a someone ’s political leanings , but the third was an indisputable fact . Debs was indeed an imprisoned man — who also happened to be running for President of the United States from his cell .
Who was Eugene Debs?
Eugene Victor Debs was deport on November 5 , 1855 , in Terre Haute , Indiana , to Marguerite Bettrich and Jean Daniel Debs , two immigrant from Alsace , France . They came to the U.S. in1849and worked in the grocery stage business . At age 14 , Eugenetook a jobas a paint scraper at Vandalia Railroad , where he realize just $ .50 a day . He before long moved up to become a railroad fireman , shoveling piles of ember into the locomotive ’s firebox for more than $ 1 each dark [ PDF ] . This was at a clock time when worker toil for16 hoursa day , six days a calendar week .
In 1875 , Debs was elected secretary of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and wasan editorfor the organization ’s monthly cartridge holder . see the dangers fire fighter faced firsthand , Debs said his brotherhood would fight to “ provide for the widow woman and orphans who are day by day forget penniless and at the mercifulness of public charity by the death of a chum . ” His growing pursuit in social and economical government issue also led to atwo - full term stintas Terre Haute City Clerk from 1879 to 1883 , and a term serve as a Democrat in the Indiana General Assembly in 1884 .
On June 20 , 1893 , Debs ’s ambitions grew when he founded theAmerican Railway Union(ARU ) to protect all prole throughout the railway industry , not just reliever . The conglutination was shortly one of the rural area ’s large , with125 local chaptersnationwide ; at one percentage point , enrollments hit 2000 a day .
The Pullman Strikes: Eugene Debs’s First Arrest
In May 1894 , after suffering a serial publication of earnings cuts , doer at thePullman Palace Car Companywalked off the job . In reply , Debs and the ARU organized a massive sympathy boycott of any trains and railroads using Pullman car , and by June , 125,000 ARU proletarian had joined the reason . A nation that thrived on grouchy - country train commerce was now being stopped in its tracks .
The workers’defiance presently turn to anger . After Debs made a speech to worker on June 29 in Blue Island , Illinois , some in the crew broke off and begin a debauchery . By Clarence Shepard Day Jr. ’s goal , buildings had been burned to the earth and a locomotive witha mail trainattached to it put down top over .
With the U.S. mail scheme affect by the strike , and vital railing service crippled , PresidentGrover Clevelandnow weigh the unruliness to be a Union matter . In other July , Attorney General Richard Olney issued an enjoining against Debs and other ARU leaders that forestall them from communicating with their union members . The press at the time turned on Debs , too , claiming the strike he engineer around the Pullman site was a superpower snap . One political cartoon in theChicago Tribuneportrayed “ Dictator Debs ” as a cigar - chomping would - be king who like to reside his foot on the U.S. Constitution [ PDF ] .
President Cleveland deployed troops to Chicago to squelch the ongoing demonstrations , but on July 7 , the conflicts turn violent . Members of the National Guard pour down anywhere from four to 30 strikers in the clash . Debs , who was no longer legallyallowed to pass on with his members , could do nothing to calm tensions .
That same calendar month , Debs was arrested and charged with disdain of court and conspiracy to interpose with U.S. mail , and spentsix monthsbehind bars . The ARU crumbled presently after , and while many Pullman workers were finally rehired , they had to agree in piece of writing to never mold a union .
The four-time presidential candidate
Behind bar , Debs readKarl Marx’sDas Kapitalandconvertedto socialism . In 1897 , two long time after leaving prison , he established the Social Democratic Party of America .
Under this standard , Debs made his first run for president in 1900 on a political platform revolving around actor ’ par and better wages . William McKinleywon the race with a total of 7,207,923 votes , while Debs garner just86,935 . Still , it was a commencement .
Debs ran again in 1904 , this prison term as a member of the next political political party he helped give : the Socialist Party of America . His total start to around402,000 ballot ; in 1908 , he returned with420,000 ballot , losing toTheodore RooseveltandWilliam Howard Taft , respectively .
Debs ’s peak came in the election of 1912 — one of the bang-up wild cards in U.S. history . It featured the incumbent , Taft , track down against DemocratWoodrow Wilson ; former presidentRoosevelt , who was run as a member of the Progressive Party ; and Debs , running again as a Socialist on a platform that put an accent on workers , women ’s right to vote , and ending child labor .
Debs fell brusk once again , but his total ballooned to more than900,000 votes—6 per centum of the popular vote . It ’s still the highest portion of the balloting a socialistic candidate has ever received in a presidential election , and it’smore than doublethe amount he earned in 1908 . It would be another eight eld before his fifth and final presidential drive — arguably one of the unknown the nation has seen .
The Espionage and Sedition Acts: Eugene Debs’s Second Arrest
By 1914 , Debs was expressing hisardent oppositionto America ’s seemingly inevitable involvement in World War I in a series of anti - war editorials in theNational Rip - Saw , where he puzzle to one master content : “ capitalistic nation not only overwork their workers , but ruthlessly overrun , plunder , and ravage one another . The lucre system is responsible for it all . ”
Written language gave way to public rallies . Debs jaunt across the Northeast to talk to his theme of frustrated workers seem for a unifying voice against war . During one memorable stop in Boston , he askeda tamp crowd of workers : “ Must we send the doer of one country against those of another because a citizen has been torpedo on the high seas , while we do nothing about the 600,000 workingman that are crushed each twelvemonth needlessly under our industrial machinery ? ”
Socialist opposition to the military action mechanism had little real effect . On April 6 , 1917 , the United Statesofficially announce waragainst Germany . Just a few months subsequently , Congress give-up the ghost theEspionage Act , which targeted “ disloyal ” citizens who attempted to interpose with military progress during the warfare . This was followed by the complementary Sedition Act of 1918 , giving federal authorities the powerto punishanyone using “ unpatriotic , profane , scurrilous , or abusive language ” toward the Constitution , the military , or the country .
Debs jazz the risks he was taking with his anti - war crusade , but he continue throughout the Midwest , culminating ina speechat a Socialist Party assemblage in Canton , Ohio , on June 16 , 1918 . For two hours , the perfervid orator made his event , criticizing everything from the war to the Sedition Act to the military bill of exchange .
“ The master key class has always declared the warfare , ” the 62 - yr - oldtold the crowd . “ The capable class has always fight the battle . The master class has had all to pull ahead and nothing to miss , while the subject family has had nothing to gain and all to lose — especially their lives . ”
Days by and by , Debs was get while heading to another party event in Cleveland . The jury find him guilty onthree countsof violating the Espionage and Sedition pretend . On September 18 , 1918 , he was doom to 10 years in prison .
A convicted man’s campaign
Even prison house could n’t quiet Debs . In fact , by 1920 , he was again nominated to be the Socialist Party ’s candidate for president , his 5th run overall . While he was accustomed to push by train and speak in front of thousands , in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary , Debs was allow [ PDF ] to give one political statement every workweek , which was then handed over to word wires . supporter did the political campaign for him on the ground , make card featuring the slogan “ From Atlanta Prison to the White House , 1920 ” andcampaign buttonsthat depict Debs in a prison jumpsuit with the run-in “ For President : Convict No . 9653 ” splash across them . It was n’t so much a hunting expedition as it wasa protestagainst what many thought was Debs ’s unconstitutional imprisonment .
Amazingly , Debs still captured3.4 percentof the pop suffrage , meaning more than 910,000 masses prefer a socialist in prison house overWarren G. Hardingor his opponent , James M. Cox .
By December 1921 , with the war over , President Harding pardon Debs and ask for him to the White House . “ I have hear so damned much about you , Mr. Debs , that I am now very beaming to forgather you personally,”Harding saidupon meeting him . Indeed , Debs had left prison almost as a mythical flesh to his followers—50,000 of whom describe up to view his train pull out in upon his return toTerra Haute .
Though the meeting with Harding was as close as he ever capture to the White House , Debs proved he did n’t need to win an election to make his voice get word .
