biography
| name: |
Debs, Eugene V(ictor)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1855–1926)
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| biography:
| Labour leader and political activist, born in Terre Haute, Indiana, USA. At age 15 he went to work on the railroads. After serving as secretary of his local branch of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen (1875–80), he became the union's national secretary and editor of its magazine (1880–92). He served in the Indiana legislature (1886–8). Championing the cause of industrial unionism, he organized the American Railway Union (1892) and led the boycott of all Pullman cars during the great strike of 1894. For defying the government's injunction he was jailed for six months. Converting to socialism while in jail, he helped found the Social Democratic Party (1897) which merged in 1901 with another group to form the Socialist Party (SP). In 1905 he helped found the Industrial Workers of the World, which he eventually disavowed because of its use of violence. He ran for the US presidency four times (1900, 1904, 1908, 1912) as the SP's candidate, winning over 900 000 votes, 6% of the total cast, in the 1912 election. During these years he supported himself by lecturing and writing. In 1918 he spoke out against the trials being conducted under the 1917 Espionage Act, in which individuals opposed to America participating in the World War were being charged with sedition. He was then tried for sedition himself and sentenced to 10 years in jail, from where he again ran for president on the Socialist ticket (1920), receiving his largest vote ever. Public protest persuaded President Harding to release him in 1921, but Debs never ceased working for the cause of Socialism. |
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