We like to celebrate heroes of conscience, like Thoreau, Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Unless they might be a “Socialist troublemaker” –like Eugene V. Debs, born this date in 1855.
The epithet “Socialist” seems to be one of the worst things a politician can be called these days. In the early 20th century, Eugene V. Debs staked a proud claim to it. And in 1920, running for President from a federal penitentiary, he won nearly one million votes as an American Socialist.
Born in Terre Haute, Indiana on November 5, 1855, Eugene V. Debs is a name left out of many schoolbooks. That’s too bad. If you are looking for a profile in American courage, you might want to know his name. He was a fearless defender of the rights of workers and the poor and a champion of free speech.
A high school dropout, Debs went to business school at night while he worked days. He became a labor organizer and eventually helped found some of the first labor organizations in America, including the International Workers of the World (or “Wobblies”).
In 1894, Debs initially opposed a strike against the Pullman Car Company, then one of America’s largest and most powerful companies. He later helped lead the strike. After President Grover Cleveland sent in troops to break the Pullman strike, killing thirteen workers, Debs was arrested for his failure to obey an injunction against the strike and was sent to federal prison. His case eventually went to the Supreme Court and Debs was represented by noted attorney Clarence Darrow, who had left his position as a railroad lawyer to defend Debs. The court upheld the right of the federal government to issue the injunction. While in jail, Debs read the works of Karl Marx and became a Socialist. He ran for President as the Socialist candidate five times –winning about 6% of the vote in 1912.
His final candidacy came in 1920, while he was once more in jail. During World War I, Debs became a passionate and vocal opponent of the war and urged resistance to the draft, earning the wrath of President Woodrow Wilson. He was convicted of sedition and sentenced to ten years in prison. The Supreme Court again ruled on his case, once more confirming his sentence. While in jail, Debs received more than 900,000 write-in votes for President (about 3 % of the popular vote).
Among his supporters was Helen Keller. She wrote a letter to Eugene V. Debs, whom she addressed as “Dear Comrade” (March 11, 1919) while he was in prison. She wrote:
I write because I want you to now that I should be proud if the Supreme Court convicted me of abhorring war, and doing all in my power to oppose it. When I think of the millions who have suffered in all the wicked wars of the past, I am shaken with the anguish of a great impatience. I want to fling myself against all brute powers that destroy the life, and break the spirit of man.
. . . We were driven onto war for liberty, democracy and humanity. Behold what is happening all over the world today! Oh where is the swift vengeance of Jehovah that it does not fall upon the hosts of those who are marshalling machine-guns against hungry-stricken peoples? It is the complacency of madness to call such acts “preserving law and order.” What oceans of blood and tears are shed in their name! I have come to loathe traditions and institutions that take away the rights of the poor and protect the wicked against judgment.
Following the election of 1920, President Harding commuted Debs’ sentence to time served on Christmas 1921. After making a visit to Harding at the White House, Debs returned to cheering crowds in Indiana. In poor health attributed to his imprisonment, Debs died five years later on October 20, 1926 at age 70.
A somewhat reluctant leader, he once said:
Too long have the workers of the world waited for some Moses to lead them out of bondage. I would not lead you out if I could; for if you could be led out, you could be led back again. I would have you make up your minds there is nothing that you cannot do for yourselves. (From an address on Industrial Unionism delivered in New York City, Dec. 18,1905)
A good overview of Debs’ life and times can be found at the Eugene V. Debs Foundation
You can read more about Eugene V. Debs and the early labor movement in 
