Eugene V. Debs
1
Eugene V. Debs
Eugene V. Debs
Debs in 1897
Member of the Indiana Senate
from the 8th district
In office
1885–1889
Personal details
Born
Eugene Victor Debs
November 5, 1855
Terre Haute, Indiana, U.S.
Died
October 20, 1926
(aged 70)
Elmhurst, Illinois, U.S.
Political party
Socialist
Other political
affiliations
Social Democratic
Democratic
Spouse(s)
Kate Metzel (m. 1885)
Eugene Victor "Gene" Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) was an American union leader, one of the
founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or the Wobblies), and several times the candidate
of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States.[1] Through his presidential candidacies, as well
as his work with labor movements, Debs eventually became one of the best-known socialists living in the United
States.
In the early part of his political career, Debs was a member of the Democratic Party. He was elected as a Democrat
to the Indiana General Assembly in 1884. After working with several smaller unions, including the Brotherhood of
Locomotive Firemen, Debs was instrumental in the founding of the American Railway Union (ARU), the nation's
first industrial union. After workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company organized a wildcat strike over pay cuts in
the summer of 1894, Debs signed many into the ARU. He called a boycott of the ARU against handling trains with
Pullman cars, in what became the nationwide Pullman Strike, affecting most lines west of Detroit, and more than
Eugene V. Debs
250,000 workers in 27 states. To keep the mail running, President Grover Cleveland used the United States Army to
break the strike. As a leader of the ARU, Debs was convicted of federal charges for defying a court injunction
against the strike and served six months in prison.
Debs read the works of Karl Marx and learned about socialism in prison, emerging to launch his career as the
nation's most prominent Socialist in the first decades of the 20th century. He ran as the Socialist Party's candidate for
the presidency in 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920, the last time from a prison cell.
Debs was noted for his oratory, and his speech denouncing American participation in World War I led to his second
arrest in 1918. He was convicted under the Espionage Act of 1917 and sentenced to a term of 10 years. President
Warren G. Harding commuted his sentence in December 1921. Debs died in 1926, not long after being admitted to a
sanatorium.
Biography
Early life
Eugene Debs was born on November 5, 1855, in Terre Haute, Indiana, to Jean Daniel and Marguerite Mari Bettrich
Debs, who both immigrated to the United States from Colmar, Alsace, France. His father, who came from a
prosperous family in France, owned a textile mill and meat market. Eugene Victor Debs was named after the French
authors Eugene Sue and Victor Hugo.[2]
Debs attended public school, dropping out of high school at age 14.[3] He took a job in the Vandalia railroad car
shops, first working as a painter and a car cleaner.[3] In December 1871 he left the railroad yards for work on the
railways as a locomotive fireman for the same company.[3]
In July 1875, he left to work at a wholesale grocery house, where he remained for the next four years,[3] attending a
local business school at night.[4]
Debs had joined the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen (BLF) in February 1875 and became active in this fraternal
benefit organization; in 1877 he served as a delegate of the Terre Haute lodge to the organization's national
convention.[3] Debs was elected associate editor of the BLF's monthly organ, Firemen's Magazine, in 1878. Two
years later, he was appointed Grand Secretary and Treasurer of the BLF and editor of the magazine in July 1880.[3]
He worked as a BLF functionary until January 1893 and as the magazine's editor until September 1894.[3]
At the same time, he became a prominent figure in the community. He served two terms as Terre Haute's city clerk
from September 1879 to September 1883.[3] In the fall of 1884, he was elected to the Indiana General Assembly as a
Democrat, serving for one term.[4]
Marriage and family
Eugene Debs married Kate Metzel on June 9, 1885. The couple had no children.[4] Their home still stands in Terre
Haute, preserved within the campus of Indiana State University.
Labor activism
The railroad brotherhoods were comparatively conservative organizations, focused on providing fellowship and
services rather than on collective bargaining. Debs gradually became convinced of the need for a more unified and
confrontational approach as railroads were powerful companies in the economy.
After stepping down as Brotherhood Grand Secretary in 1893, Debs organized one of the first industrial unions in the
United States, the American Railway Union (ARU), for unskilled workers. The Union successfully struck the Great
Northern Railway in April 1894, winning most of its demands.
2
Eugene V. Debs
Pullman Strike
In 1894 Debs became involved in the Pullman Strike,
which grew out of a compensation dispute started by
the workers who constructed the train cars made by the
Pullman Palace Car Company. The Pullman Company,
citing falling revenue after the economic Panic of 1893,
had cut the wages of its employees by 28%. The
workers, many of whom were already members of the
American Railway Union, appealed for support to the
union at its convention in Chicago, Illinois.[1] Debs
tried to persuade the Union members who worked on
the railways that the boycott was too risky, given the
hostility of both the railways and the federal
Striking American Railway Union members confront Illinois
government, the weakness of the Union, and the
National Guard troops in Chicago, Illinois, during Debs' Rebellion in
possibility that other unions would break the strike. The
1894.
membership ignored his warnings and refused to
handle Pullman cars or any other railroad cars attached
to them, including cars containing U.S. Mail.[5] After A.R.U. Board Director Martin J. Elliot extended the strike to
St. Louis, doubling its size to 80,000 workers, Debs relented and decided to take part in the strike, which was now
endorsed by almost all members of the ARU in the immediate area of Chicago.[6] On July 9, 1894, a New York Times
editorial called Debs "a lawbreaker at large, an enemy of the human race."[7][8] Strikers fought by establishing
boycotts of Pullman train cars, and with Debs' eventual leadership, the strike came to be known as "Debs'
Rebellion".[2]
The U.S. federal government intervened, obtaining an injunction against the strike on the theory that the strikers had
obstructed the U.S. Mail, carried on Pullman cars, by refusing to show up for work. President Grover Cleveland sent
the United States Army to enforce the injunction. The entrance of the Army was enough to break the strike; 13
strikers were killed, and thousands were blacklisted.[2] An estimated $80-million worth of property was damaged,
and Debs was found guilty of contempt of court for violating the injunction and sent to federal prison.[2]
Debs was represented by Clarence Darrow, hitherto a corporate lawyer for the railroad company, who "switched
sides" to represent Debs. Darrow, a leading American lawyer and civil libertarian, had resigned his corporate
position in order to represent Debs, making a substantial financial sacrifice in order to do so. A Supreme Court case
decision, In re Debs, later upheld the right of the federal government to issue the injunction.
3
Eugene V. Debs
Socialist leader
At the time of his arrest for mail
obstruction, Debs was not yet a
socialist. While serving his six month
term in the jail at Woodstock, Illinois,
Debs and his ARU comrades received
a steady stream of letters, books, and
pamphlets in the mail from socialists
around the country.[9]
Debs recalled several years later:
"...I began to read and
think and dissect the
anatomy of the system in
which
workingmen,
however organized, could
be shattered and battered
and splintered at a single
stroke. The writings of
Rogers, Elliott, Keliher, Hogan, Burns, Goodwin, and Debs – the seven ARU officers
Bellamy and Blatchford
jailed following the loss of the 1894 Pullman strike.
early appealed to me. The
Cooperative Commonwealth of Gronlund also impressed me, but the writings of Kautsky were so clear
and conclusive that I readily grasped, not merely his argument, but also caught the spirit of his socialist
utterance – and I thank him and all who helped me out of darkness into light."[9]
Additionally, Debs was visited in jail by Milwaukee socialist newspaper editor Victor L. Berger, who, in Debs'
words, "came to Woodstock, as if a providential instrument, and delivered the first impassioned message of
Socialism I had ever heard."[9] In his 1926 obituary in Time, it was said that Berger left him a copy of Das Kapital
and "prisoner Debs read it slowly, eagerly, ravenously."[10] Debs emerged from jail at the end of his sentence a
changed man. He would spend the final three decades of his life proselytizing for the socialist cause.
After Debs' release from prison in 1895, he started his Socialist political career. Debs persuaded the American
Railway Union membership to join with the Brotherhood of the Cooperative Commonwealth to found the Social
Democracy of America. Debs, along with Elliott, were the first federal office candidates for the fledgling Socialist
party, running (unsuccessfully) for US president and Congress in 1900.[11] Along with his running mate Job
Harriman, Debs received 87,945 votes – 0.6% of the popular vote – and no electoral votes.[12]
Debs' wife Kate was opposed to Debs' socialism.[13] The "tempestuous relationship with a wife who rejects the very
values he holds most dear" was the basis of Irving Stone's biographical novel Adversary in the House.[14]
4
Eugene V. Debs
5
Split to found the Social Democratic Party
One year later this group split and Debs
went with the majority faction to found the
Social Democratic Party of the United
States, also called the Social Democratic
Party. Debs was elected chairman of the
Executive Board of the National Council,
the board which governed the party.
Although the party did not have a sole figure
that governed its actions, Debs' position as
chairman and his notoriety gave him the
status of party figurehead.[15] He was the
Socialist Party of America candidate for
president in 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920 (the
final time from prison).
Campaign poster from his 1912 Presidential campaign, featuring Debs and Vice
In his showing in the 1904 election, Debs
Presidential candidate Emil Seidel
received 402,810 votes, which was 2.98% of
the popular vote. Debs received no electoral
votes, and, with vice presidential candidate Benjamin Hanford, ultimately finished third overall.[16] In the 1908
election, Debs again ran on the same ticket as Benjamin Hanford. While receiving a slightly higher number of votes
in the popular vote, 420,852, he received 2.83% of the popular vote. Again Debs received no electoral votes.[17]
Debs received 5.99% of the popular vote (a total of 901,551 votes) in 1912, while his total of 913,693 votes in the
1920 campaign remains the all-time high for a Socialist Party candidate.[18] Running alongside Emil Seidel, Debs
again received no electoral votes.[19]
Although he received some success as a third-party candidate, Debs was largely dismissive of the electoral process;
he distrusted the political bargains that Victor Berger and other "Sewer Socialists" had made in winning local offices.
He put much more value on organizing workers into unions, favoring unions that brought together all workers in a
given industry over those organized by the craft skills workers practiced.
Founding the IWW
After his work with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and the American Railway Union, Debs' next major
work in organizing a labor union came during the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). On June
27, 1905, in Chicago, Illinois, Debs and other influential union leaders including Big Bill Haywood, leader of the
Western Federation of Miners, and Daniel De León, leader of the Socialist Labor Party, held what Haywood called
the "Continental Congress of the working class". Haywood stated: "We are here to confederate the workers of this
country into a working class movement that shall have for its purpose the emancipation of the working class...",[20]
and for Debs: "We are here to perform a task so great that it appeals to our best thought, our united energies, and will
enlist our most loyal support; a task in the presence of which weak men might falter and despair, but from which it is
impossible to shrink without betraying the working class."[21]
Eugene V. Debs
Socialists split with the IWW
Although the IWW was built on the basis of uniting workers of industry, a rift began between the union and the
Socialist Party. It started when the electoral wing of the Socialist Party, led by Victor Berger and Morris Hillquit,
became irritated with speeches by Haywood.[22] In December 1911, Haywood told a Lower East Side audience at
New York's Cooper Union that parliamentary Socialists were "step-at-a-time people whose every step is just a little
shorter than the preceding step." It was better, Haywood said, to "elect the superintendent of some branch of
industry, than to elect some congressman to the United States Congress."[23] In response, Hillquit attacked the IWW
as "purely anarchistic..."[24]
The Cooper Union speech was the beginning of a split between Bill Haywood and the Socialist Party, leading to the
split between the factions of the IWW, one faction loyal to the Socialist Party, and the other to Haywood.[24] The rift
presented a problem for Debs, who was influential in both the IWW and the Socialist Party. The final straw between
Haywood and the Socialist Party came during the Lawrence textile strike when, disgusted with the decision of the
elected officials in Lawrence, Massachusetts, to send police who subsequently used their clubs on children,
Haywood publicly declared that "I will not vote again" until such a circumstance was rectified.[25] Haywood was
purged from the National Executive Committee by passage of an amendment that focused on the direct action and
sabotage tactics advocated by the IWW.[26] Debs was probably the only person who could have saved Haywood's
seat.[27]
In 1906, when Haywood had been on trial for his life in Idaho, Debs had described him as "the Lincoln of Labor"
and called for Haywood to run against Theodore Roosevelt for president of the United States.,[28] but times had
changed and Debs, facing a split in the Party, chose to echo Hillquit's words, accusing the IWW of representing
anarchy.[29] Debs thereafter stated that he had opposed the amendment, but that once it was adopted it should be
obeyed.[27] Debs remained friendly to Haywood and the IWW after the expulsion, despite their perceived differences
over IWW tactics.[29]
Prior to Haywood's dismissal, the Socialist Party membership had
reached an all-time high of 135,000. One year later, four months after
Haywood was recalled, the membership dropped to 80,000. The
reformists in the Socialist Party attributed the decline to the departure
of the "Haywood element", and predicted that the party would recover.
It did not; in the election of 1912 many of the Socialists who had been
elected to public office lost their seats.[27]
Leadership style
Debs was noted by many to be a charismatic speaker who sometimes
Debs delivering a speech in Chicago in 1912.
called on the vocabulary of Christianity and much of the oratorical
style of evangelism – even though he was generally disdainful of organized religion.[30] As Heywood Broun noted in
his eulogy for Debs, quoting a fellow Socialist: "That old man with the burning eyes actually believes that there can
be such a thing as the brotherhood of man. And that's not the funniest part of it. As long as he's around I believe it
myself."[31]
Although sometimes called "King Debs",[32] Debs himself was not wholly comfortable with his standing as a leader.
As he told an audience in Detroit in 1906:[33]
I am not a Labor Leader; I do not want you to follow me or anyone else; if you are looking for a Moses to lead
you out of this capitalist wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into the promised
land if I could, because if I led you in, some one else would lead you out. You must use your heads as well as
your hands, and get yourself out of your present condition.[34]
6
Eugene V. Debs
Arrest and imprisonment
Debs' speeches against the Wilson administration and the
war earned the enmity of President Woodrow Wilson, who
later called Debs a "traitor to his country."[35] On June 16,
1918, Debs made a speech in Canton, Ohio, urging
resistance to the military draft of World War I. He was
arrested on June 30 and charged with ten counts of sedition.
His trial defense called no witnesses, asking that Debs be
allowed to address the court in his defense. That unusual
request was granted, and Debs spoke for two hours. He was
found guilty on September 12. At his sentencing hearing on
September 14, he again addressed the court, and his speech
has become a classic. Heywood Broun, a liberal journalist
and not a Debs partisan, said it was "one of the most
Eugene V. Debs with Max Eastman and Rose Pastor Stokes in
1918
beautiful and moving passages in the English language. He
was for that one afternoon touched with inspiration. If
anyone told me that tongues of fire danced upon his shoulders as he spoke, I would believe it."[36]
Debs said in part:[37]
Your honor, I have stated in this court that I am opposed to the form of our present government; that I am
opposed to the social system in which we live; that I believe in the change of both but by perfectly peaceable
and orderly means....
I am thinking this morning of the men in the mills and factories; I am thinking of the women who, for a paltry
wage, are compelled to work out their lives; of the little children who, in this system, are robbed of their
childhood, and in their early, tender years, are seized in the remorseless grasp of Mammon, and forced into the
industrial dungeons, there to feed the machines while they themselves are being starved body and soul....
Your honor, I ask no mercy, I plead for no immunity. I realize that finally the right must prevail. I never more
fully comprehended than now the great struggle between the powers of greed on the one hand and upon the
other the rising hosts of freedom. I can see the dawn of a better day of humanity. The people are awakening. In
due course of time they will come into their own.
When the mariner, sailing over tropic seas, looks for relief from his weary watch, he turns his eyes toward the
Southern Cross, burning luridly above the tempest-vexed ocean. As the midnight approaches the Southern
Cross begins to bend, and the whirling worlds change their places, and with starry finger-points the Almighty
marks the passage of Time upon the dial of the universe; and though no bell may beat the glad tidings, the
look-out knows that the midnight is passing – that relief and rest are close at hand.
Let the people take heart and hope everywhere, for the cross is bending, midnight is passing, and joy cometh
with the morning.
Debs was sentenced on November 18, 1918, to ten years in prison. He was also disfranchised for life.[1] Debs
presented what has been called his best-remembered statement at his sentencing hearing:[38]
Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not
one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it,
and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.
Debs appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court. In its ruling on Debs v. United States, the court examined
several statements Debs had made regarding World War I and socialism. While Debs had carefully worded his
speeches in an attempt to comply with the Espionage Act, the Court found he had the intention and effect of
7
Eugene V. Debs
8
obstructing the draft and military recruitment. Among other things, the Court cited Debs' praise for those imprisoned
for obstructing the draft. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. stated in his opinion that little attention was needed
since Debs' case was essentially the same as that of Schenck v. United States, in which the Court had upheld a similar
conviction.[39]
Debs went to prison on April 13, 1919.[4] In protest of his
jailing, Charles Ruthenberg led a parade of unionists,
socialists, anarchists and communists to march on May 1
(May Day) 1919, in Cleveland, Ohio. The event quickly
broke into the violent May Day Riots of 1919.
Debs ran for president in the 1920 election while in prison
in Atlanta, Georgia, at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. He
received 913,664 write-in votes (3.4%),[40] slightly less than
he had won in 1912, when he received 6%, the highest
number of votes for a Socialist Party presidential candidate
in the U.S.[4][41] During his time in prison, Debs wrote a
series of columns deeply critical of the prison system. They
appeared in sanitized form in the Bell Syndicate and were
published in his only book, Walls and Bars, with several
added chapters. It was published posthumously.[1]
Clifford Berryman's cartoon depiction of Debs' 1920
presidential run from prison
In March 1919, President Wilson asked Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer for his opinion on clemency, offering
his own: "I doubt the wisdom and public effect of such an action." Palmer generally favored releasing people
convicted under the wartime security acts, but when he consulted with Debs' prosecutors – even those with records
as defenders of civil liberties – they assured him that Debs' conviction was correct and his sentence appropriate.[42]
The President and his Attorney General both believed that public opinion opposed clemency and that releasing Debs
could strengthen Wilson's opponents in the debate over the ratification of the peace treaty. Palmer proposed
clemency in August and October 1920 without success.[43]
At one point, Wilson wrote:
"While the flower of American youth was pouring out its blood to vindicate the cause of civilization,
this man, Debs, stood behind the lines sniping, attacking, and denouncing them....This man was a traitor
to his country and he will never be pardoned during my administration."[44]
In January 1921, Palmer, citing Debs' deteriorating health, proposed to Wilson that Debs receive a presidential
pardon freeing him on February 12, Lincoln's birthday. Wilson returned the paperwork after writing "Denied" across
it.[45]
On December 23, 1921, President Harding commuted Debs' sentence to time served, effective Christmas Day. He
did not issue a pardon. A White House statement summarized the administration's view of Debs' case:
"There is no question of his guilt....He was by no means as rabid and outspoken in his expressions as
many others, and but for his prominence and the resulting far-reaching effect of his words, very
probably might not have received the sentence he did. He is an old man, not strong physically. He is a
man of much personal charm and impressive personality, which qualifications make him a dangerous
man calculated to mislead the unthinking and affording excuse for those with criminal intent."[46]
Eugene V. Debs
Last years
When Debs was released from the Atlanta Penitentiary, the other
prisoners sent him off with "a roar of cheers" and a crowd of 50,000
greeted his return to Terre Haute to the accompaniment of band
music.[47] En route home, Debs was warmly received at the White
House by Harding, who greeted him by saying: "Well, I've heard so
damned much about you, Mr. Debs, that I am now glad to meet you
personally."[48]
In 1924, Debs was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the Finnish
Socialist Karl H. Wiik on the grounds that "Debs started to work
actively for peace during World War I, mainly because he considered
Debs leaving the White House, the day after
[49]
being released from prison in 1921.
the war to be in the interest of capitalism."
In the fall of 1926, Debs
[1]
was admitted to Lindlahr Sanitarium in Elmhurst, Illinois. He died
there of heart failure on October 20, 1926, at the age of 70.[47] His body was cremated and buried in Highland Lawn
Cemetery.[50]
Legacy
Eugene Debs helped motivate the American Left as a measure of political opposition to corporations and World War
I. American socialists, communists, and anarchists honor his compassion for the labor movement and motivation to
have the average working man build socialism without large state involvement.[51] Several books have been written
about his life as an inspirational American socialist.
On May 22, 1962, Debs' home was purchased by the Eugene V. Debs Foundation for $9,500, which worked to
preserve it as a Debs memorial was begun. In 1965 it was designated as an official historic site of the state of
Indiana, and in 1966 it was designated as a National Historic Landmark of the United States. The preservation of the
museum is monitored by the National Park Service. In 1990, the U.S. Department of Labor named Debs a member of
its Labor Hall of Fame.[52]
The former New York radio station WEVD (now ESPN radio) was named in his honor.[53]
While Debs did not leave a collection of papers to a university library, the pamphlet collection which he and his
brother amassed is held by Indiana State University in Terre Haute. The scholar Bernard Brommel, author of a 1978
biography of Debs, has donated his biographical research materials to the Newberry Library in Chicago, where they
are open to researchers.[54] The original manuscript of Debs' book Walls and Bars, with handwritten amendments,
presumably by Debs, is held in the Thomas J. Morgan Papers in the Special Collections department of the University
of Chicago Library.[55]
Representation in other media
• John Dos Passos included Eugene Debs as a historical figure in his U.S.A Trilogy. Debs is featured among other
figures in the 42nd Parallel (1930). His affiliation with the IWW prompted actions by such fictional characters in
the novel as "Mac".[56]
• Fifty Years Before Your Eyes (1950) is a documentary including historic footage of Debs, among others, directed
by Robert Youngson.[57]
9
Eugene V. Debs
Footnotes
[1] "Eugene V. Debs" (http:/ / www. time. com/ time/ magazine/ article/ 0,9171,722648,00. html). TIME. November 1, 1926. . Retrieved
2007-08-21. "As it must to all men, Death came last week to Eugene Victor Debs, Socialist"
[2] Bill Roberts. "The Socialist Worker" (http:/ / www. socialistworker. org/ 2007-2/ 638/ 638_12_Debs. shtml). . Retrieved 2007-07-19.
[3] "Biographical: Eugene V. Debs," Railway Times [Chicago], vol. 2, no. 17 (Sept. 2, 1895), p. 2.
[4] "Eugene Victor Debs 1855–1926" (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20080505031225/ http:/ / www. eugenevdebs. com/ pages/ history. html).
Archived from the original (http:/ / www. eugenevdebs. com/ pages/ history. html) on May 5, 2008. . Retrieved 2008-07-22.
[5] Latham, Charles. "Eugene V. Debs Papers, 1881–1940" (http:/ / www. indianahistory. org/ library/ manuscripts/ collection_guides/ SC0493.
html). Indiana Historical Society. . Retrieved 2010-10-18.
[6] "EMBRACING MORE RAILROADS; PULLMAN BOYCOTT EXTENDING, THE MEN BEING DETERMINED. Big Lines West of
Chicago Crippled by the Action of the Strikers, Who Will Endeavor to Bring in All Labor Organizations – Estimated that 40,000 of the
Workers Are Out – May Change Headquarters to St. Louis – The Managers Stand Firm" (http:/ / query. nytimes. com/ gst/ abstract.
html?res=F50B1FFE3E5515738DDDA00A94DE405B8485F0D3). The New York Times. June 29, 1894. .
[7] The New York Times, July 9, 1894, pg. 4: "Organized labor" makes a miserable showing in its attempts to give aid and comfort to the
Anarchists at Chicago....The truth is that every labor union man in the City of New-York knows that he becomes a criminal the moment he
puts himself on the side of Debs or attempts to sustain Debs or attempts to sustain Debs by quitting work to show sympathy for the strikes and
the riots Debs has provoked. When he sent his dispatch to the railway laborers in Buffalo Debs became a misdemeanant under the Penal Code
of this State....He is a lawbreaker at large, an enemy of the human race. There has been quite enough talk about warrants against him and
about arresting him. It is time to cease mouthings and begin. Debs should be jailed, if there are jails in his neighborhood, and the disorder his
bad teaching has engendered must be squelched.
[8] Lindsey, Almont (1964) The Pullman strike: the story of a unique experiment and of a great labor (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=oaWamk_kwfQC) p.312
[9] Eugene V. Debs, "How I Became a Socialist." (http:/ / www. marxists. org/ archive/ debs/ works/ 1902/ howi. htm) The Comrade, April 1902.
[10] "Eugene V. Debs." Obituary. Time. November 1926. Vol. 8. Issue 18. p. 14. http:/ / www. time. com/ time/ magazine/ article/
0,9171,722648,00. html
[11] The Tribune almanac and political register edited by Horace Greeley, John Fitch Cleveland, F. J. Ottarson, Edward McPherson, Alexander
Jacob Schem, Henry Eckford Rhoades (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=7Wn7neVbyPMC& lpg=PA338& ots=t1K5ulffIP& dq=martin J
elliott montana 1900 legislature& pg=PA338#v=onepage& q=martin J elliott montana 1900 legislature& f=false)
[12] "1900 Presidential General Election Results" (http:/ / uselectionatlas. org/ RESULTS/ national. php?year=1900). . Retrieved 2008-07-22.
[13] Kate Debs seemed to have been so hostile to Debs's socialist activities – it threatened her sense of middle-class respectability – that novelist
Irving Stone was led to call her, in the title of his fictional portrayal of the life of Debs, the Adversary in the House. (Daniel Bell, Marxian
Socialism in the United States, footnote on page 88)
[14] Adversary in the House (http:/ / education. boisestate. edu/ bdavies/ adversay_in_the_house. htm)
[15] The Social Democracy of America Party History (http:/ / www. marxisthistory. org/ subject/ usa/ eam/ socialistparty. html) Marxist History.
Retrieved July 29, 2008.
[16] 1904 Presidential General Election Results (http:/ / uselectionatlas. org/ RESULTS/ national. php?year=1904). Retrieved July 21, 2008.
[17] 1908 Presidential General Election Results (http:/ / uselectionatlas. org/ RESULTS/ national. php?year=1908). Retrieved July 22, 2008.
[18] Chace, James (2005). 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft and Debs – The Election that Changed the Country. Simon & Schuster.
ISBN 0-7432-7355-9.
[19] 1912 Presidential General Election Results (http:/ / uselectionatlas. org/ RESULTS/ national. php?year=1912). Retrieved July 22, 2008.
[20] The Autobiography of Big Bill Haywood, 1929, by William D. Haywood, pp. 181.
[21] Eugene V. Debs Speech at the Founding of the IWW (http:/ / www. vlib. us/ amdocs/ texts/ debs1905. html) Documents for the Study of
American History. Retrieved July 29, 2008.
[22] Peter Carlson, Roughneck: The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood. New York: W.W. Norton, 1983; pg. 156.
[23] Carlson, Roughneck, pg. 157.
[24] Carlson, Roughneck, pg. 159.
[25] Carlson, Roughneck, pg. 183.
[26] Carlson, Roughneck, 200
[27] Carlson, Roughneck, pg. 199.
[28] Carlson, Roughneck, pg. 109.
[29] William D. Haywood, The Autobiography of Big Bill Haywood. New York: International Publishers, 1929; pg. 279.
[30] Salvatore, Nick (1982). Eugene V. Debs:Citizen and Socialist. Illini Books.
[31] Jesus and Eugene Debs (http:/ / www. jimmcguiggan. com/ reflections3. asp?status=Jesus& id=933) Jim McGuiggan. Retrieved July 21,
2008.
[32] ""King" Debs" (http:/ / www. catskillarchive. com/ rrextra/ sk94debs. Html). Harper's Weekly. July 14, 1894. . Retrieved 2006-04-21.
[33] Learn About Eugene Debs (http:/ / www. labordallas. org/ hist/ hist1916. htm) Texas Labor. Retrieved July 21, 2008.
[34] Ginger, R. The Bending Cross: A biography of Eugene Victor Debs. Chicago (IL): Haymarket Books, 2007, page 244
[35] Loewen, James W., Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, Touchstone Books (1995), p. 29
10
Eugene V. Debs
[36] David Pietrusza, 1920: The Year of Six Presidents. New York: Carroll and Graf, 2007; pp. 267–269.
[37] Pietrusza, 1920, pp. 269–270
[38] Statement to the Court Upon Being Convicted of Violating the Sedition Act (http:/ / www. marxists. org/ archive/ debs/ works/ 1918/ court.
htm) Marxists. Retrieved July 21, 2008.
[39] Eugene V. Debs and the Idea of Socialism (http:/ / www. thirdworldtraveler. com/ Heroes/ EugeneDebsSocialism. html) The Progressive.
Retrieved July 21, 2008.
[40] "Election of 1920" (http:/ / www. u-s-history. com/ pages/ h890. html). Travel and History. . Retrieved 2009-09-19.
[41] "Election of 1912" (http:/ / www. u-s-history. com/ pages/ h887. html). Travel and History. . Retrieved 2009-09-19.
[42] Stanley Coben, A. Mitchell Palmer: Politician (NY: Columbia University Press, 1963), 200–3
[43] Coben, 202
[44] Burl Noggle, Into the Twenties: The United States form Armistice to Normalcy (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1974), 113
[45] Ginger, Bending Cross, 405
[46] "Harding Frees Debs and 23 Others Held for War Violations" (http:/ / query. nytimes. com/ gst/ abstract.
html?res=9B0DE2D71539E133A25757C2A9649D946095D6CF). New York Times. December 24, 1921. . Retrieved 2010-03-03.
[47] "Eugene V. Debs Dies After Long Illness" (http:/ / select. nytimes. com/ gst/ abstract.
html?res=F40812F7345E1B7A93C3AB178BD95F428285F9). New York Times. October 21, 1926. . Retrieved 2008-05-17.
[48] John Wesley Dean, Warren G. Harding (NY: Henry Holt, 2004) 128
[49] Nobel Foundation. "The Nomination Database for the Nobel Prize in Peace, 1901–1955" (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20070929133041/
http:/ / nobelprize. org/ peace/ nomination/ nomination. php?action=show& showid=1347). Archived from the original (http:/ / nobelprize.
org/ peace/ nomination/ nomination. php?action=show& showid=1347) on September 29, 2007. . Retrieved 2006-04-21.
[50] "Debs Foundation" (http:/ / debsfoundation. org/ personalhistory. html). . Retrieved 2011-04-23.
[51] "Eugene V. Debs hero" (http:/ / www. thirdworldtraveler. com/ Heroes/ EugeneDebsSocialism. html). Thirdworldtraveler.com. . Retrieved
2010-03-08.
[52] "U.S. Department of Labor – Labor Hall of Fame – Eugene V. Debs" (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20110606053811/ http:/ / www. dol.
gov/ oasam/ programs/ laborhall/ 1990_debs. htm). United States Department of Labor. . Retrieved 2010-04-06.
[53] Louise M. Benjamin, Freedom of the Air and the Public Interest: First Amendment Rights in Broadcasting to 1935 (Southern Illinois
University, 2001), 182
[54] Alison Hinderliter, "Inventory of the Bernard J. Brommel-Eugene V. Debs Papers, 1886–2003," (http:/ / www. newberry. org/ collections/
FindingAids/ brommeldebs/ BrommelDebs. html) Newberry Library, Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections, Chicago,
Illinois, 2004.
[55] Gerald Friedberg, "Sources for the Study of Socialism in America, 1901–1919," Labor History, vol. 6, no. 2 (Spring 1965), p. 161.
[56] Dos Passos, John. U.S.A. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, 1996
[57] Fifty Years before Your Eyes (http:/ / www. imdb. com/ title/ tt0210040/ ), IMDB
Works
• Labor and Freedom. St. Louis: Phil Wagner, 1916
• Walls and Bars: Prisons and Prison Life In The "Land Of The Free." Chicago: Socialist Party, 1927
Further reading
• Bernard J. Brommel, "Debs's Cooperative Commonwealth Plan for Workers," Labor History, vol. 12, no. 4 (Fall
1971), pp. 560–569.
• Bernard J. Brommel, Eugene V. Debs: Spokesman for Labor and Socialism. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr Publishing
Co., 1978.
• Dave Burns, "The Soul of Socialism: Christianity, Civilization, and Citizenship in the Thought of Eugene Debs"
in Labor, vol. 5, no. 2 (2008), pp. 83–116.
• Peter Carlson, Roughneck, The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood. New York: W.W. Norton, 1983.
• McAlister Coleman, Eugene V. Debs: A Man Unafraid. New York: Greenberg, 1930.
• J. Robert Constantine (ed.), Gentle Rebel: Letters of Eugene V. Debs. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995.
• J. Robert Constantine (ed.), Letters of Eugene V. Debs. In Three Volumes. Urbana: University of Illinois Press,
1990.
• J. Robert Constantine and Gail Malmgreen (eds.) The Papers of Eugene V. Debs, 1834–1945: A Guide to the
Microfilm Edition. Microfilming Corporation of America, 1983.
• Eugene V. Debs, Debs: His Life, Writings and Speeches. Girard, KS: Appeal to Reason, 1908.
11
Eugene V. Debs
•
•
•
•
Ray Ginger, The Bending Cross: A Biography of Eugene Victor Debs. Rutgers University Press: 1949.
Ronald Radosh (ed.), Great Lives Observed: Debs. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1971.
Nick Salvatore, Eugene V. Debs: Citizen and Socialist. Reprinted by University of Illinois Press, 1984.
Irving Stone. Adversary in the House. Doubleday: 1947.
External links
• Eugene V. Debs Foundation (http://www.eugenevdebs.com/) Museum and memorial in Deb's home from 1890
till death in 1926
• Eugene V. Debs Internet Archive (http://marxists.org/archive/debs/), Marxists Internet Archive,
www.marxists.org/ – Includes extensive collection of Debs' writings.
• Eugene Debs Page (http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/sinners/DebsEugene.htm) from the Antiauthoritarian
Encyclopedia
• Debs Tendency (http://www.debsiantendency.org/) at American Socialist Party.
• Eugene V. Debs (http://www.dmoz.org/Society/History/By_Region/North_America/United_States/People/
Debs,_Eugene_V.//) at the Open Directory Project
• Eugene Debs on the IWW Memorial Page (http://www.iww.org/culture/biography/EugeneDebs1.shtml)
• Other photos of Debs (http://library.indstate.edu/about/units/rbsc/debs/photos_f.html)
• Justice Holmes and the 'Splendid Prisoner' (http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22800) Anthony Lewis on Debs
from The New York Review of Books
• "Eugene Debs, Presidential Contender" (http://thecontenders.c-span.org/Contender/5/Eugene-Debs.aspx)
from C-SPAN's The Contenders
• Historic film footage of Eugene Debs departing Atlanta penitentiary after presidential pardon, and exiting White
House after visiting Harding (http://www.criticalpast.com/video/
65675052631_Eugene-Debs_Penitentiary_Presidential-Pardon)
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Article Sources and Contributors
Article Sources and Contributors
Eugene V. Debs Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=520843253 Contributors: .mdk., Adashiel, Aivazovsky, Al E., Alansohn, AlexPlank, Ali'i, AmericanBang, Annabelle,
Antandrus, Antonio Lopez, Apol0gies, Appraiser, Arch dude, Arwel Parry, Atallcostsky, AxelBoldt, BD2412, Bbsrock, Bearcat, Bedford, Belinrahs, Bellerophon5685, Ben76266, Bettymnz4,
Bhuck, Bigturtle, Biruitorul, Bjdehut, Bkwillwm, Bmclaughlin9, Bobbysags, Bobo192, Bookandcoffee, BoomerAB, Borbely, Bradeos Graphon, Brain, Bronks, Burningdwarf, Cadriel, Calmer
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Everything Else Is Taken, Fat&Happy, Fearlessunit, Fetchcomms, Fishman2764, Flcelloguy, Freedomwarrior, Funandtrvl, GB fan, Geekattack10, Gobbleswoggler, Goldsztajn, Good Olfactory,
GraeMatterz, Graham87, Grenavitar, Greyengine5, Grossdomestic, Ground Zero, Guitarplaya23, Gyashinero, Hadal, Hank chapot, Haus, Hellknowz, Hemmingsen, HenryLarsen, Henrygb,
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Pbobsquarepants, Petiatil, Pgan002, Philip Cross, Philip Williamson, PhilipC, Philly jawn, Phl, Plumber, Possem06, Ppatel43026, Qbmessiah, Quadell, RAN1, RCS, RUL3R, Radicalsubversiv,
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Ydorb, Yeanold Viskersenn, Zazaban, Zc Abc, Zimbardo Cookie Experiment, Шизомби, Ὁ οἶστρος, 662 anonymous edits
Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors
file:Eugene V. Debs, bw photo portrait, 1897.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Eugene_V._Debs,_bw_photo_portrait,_1897.jpg License: Public Domain
Contributors: Frank C. Müller, Infrogmation, Tim1965, Tom
Image:Pullman strikers outside Arcade Building.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Pullman_strikers_outside_Arcade_Building.jpg License: Public Domain
Contributors: Caseyjonz, Evadb, Infrogmation, Slowking4, 2 anonymous edits
Image:Eugene Debs Martin Elliott 300.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Eugene_Debs_Martin_Elliott_300.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike
3.0 Contributors: Carrite, Cems1, Cems2, 1 anonymous edits
Image:debs campaign.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Debs_campaign.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Infrogmation, 1 anonymous edits
Image:Debs Canton 1918.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Debs_Canton_1918.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Bkwillwm, Infrogmation, Tim1965, 1
anonymous edits
Image:Debs, Eastman, Rose Pastor Strokes.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Debs,_Eastman,_Rose_Pastor_Strokes.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors:
Bronks
Image:EugeneDebs.gif Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:EugeneDebs.gif License: Public Domain Contributors: Infrogmation, NameIsRon, Nbarth
Image:Eugenedebs1921.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Eugenedebs1921.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Goldsztajn
License
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