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  Debs, Eugene V.
CANDIDATE DETAILS
AffiliationSocialist  
  1912-01-01  
 
NameEugene V. Debs
Address451 N. 8th St
Terre Haute, Indiana , United States
EmailNone
Website [Link]
Born November 05, 1855
DiedOctober 20, 1926 (70 years)
ContributorBob
Last ModifedJuan Croniqueur
Jun 20, 2023 08:58pm
Tags French - Imprisoned - Industrial Workers of the World - Union Member - Christian - Straight -
InfoEugene Debs held memberships and official positions in two late 19th century labor unions: the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen (BLF) and the American Railway Union (ARU). Later, he joined a group of labor radicals to found the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Debs promoted workers? right to organize unions and to strike in order to protect their interests, for shorter hours, and for restrictions on child labor.

Debs was a charter member and first secretary of the Terre Haute chapter of the BLF. Joshua Leach came to Terre Haute from St. Louis to form Vigo Lodge #16, and although Debs by this time had left railroad work and was employed as a clerk in the Hulman grocery business, Debs was allowed to join. Seeing Debs energy and enthusiasm, soon afterwards Leach is alleged to have said: ?I put a tow-headed boy in the brotherhood at Terre Haute not long ago, and some day he will be at the head of it.? An accurate prophesy, for Debs established himself as one of the nation?s most successful union leaders and organizers whose reputation spread far beyond the BLF membership.

Debs was appointed editor of the BLF Magazine, where the power of his journalism became evident and caused the readership of the Magazine to spread well beyond the brotherhood?s membership, making it a foremost labor voice at a time when the printed word had no competition from such media as radio and television. In 1880, Debs was named Grand Secretary- Treasurer of BLF, a post he held until he stepped down in 1891, but was prevailed upon to continue editorship of the Magazine.

Debs left the BLF because of frustration over the ineffectiveness of the brotherhoods. Being organized along craft lines in the railroad industry, with separate brotherhoods for brakemen, firemen, telegraphers, switchmen and so on, the owners easily could break a strike or job action of one brotherhood by hiring replacement workers. Debs saw the need for an industry-wide union organization which would unite all the workers on the railroads. So, in 1893, in Chicago, Debs founded the American Railway Union (ARU). Due largely to Debs? established reputation and widespread recognition among workers, to say nothing of his tireless efforts and boundless enthusiasm, the ARU achieved phenomenal organizing success and membership expanded rapidly at a time when other labor unions were struggling just to stay alive.

In 1893, the ARU called a strike against the Great Northern Railroad, which was an extremely important railroad carrying freight and passengers west from Milwaukee to the Pacific Northwest. The strike was settled after 18 days and a contract signed which met virtually all union demands.

Perhaps this success gave the ARU membership an excessive sense of optimism and power, which would prove to be the union?s undoing. When the ARU met in May, 1894, at its annual convention in Chicago, a delegation of desperate employees and their families from Pullman City came with an appeal for support in their struggle with the Pullman Company

The so-called ?Pullman Boycott? grew out of the ARU?s sympathy for the plight of laid off workers and reduced wages, but with no reduction in rent or prices for groceries at the company store where they were required to shop. Debs advocated caution and urged efforts at mediation before the ARU took on the Pullman company. After all, these workers produced sleeping cars; they were not railroad workers.

Debs? words of caution went unheeded, besides, the Pullman executives refused all efforts at mediation, so Deb had no choice but to lead the ARU in the boycott. The Pullman Company did not have to go it alone against the ARU as had the Great Northern. The full force of support from all the railroad company owners plus the Federal government, including the legal system and the national guard, not to mention solid support form the press, were all marshalled in a solid front aimed at breaking the strike and destroying the up-start union. The ARU got virtually no support from other unions or the Gompers led American Federation of Labor. The result was total disaster for the ARU. The strike was broken. Debs and other ARU officials were sentenced to a year in jail for having violated injunction
against the strike. (The same judge who had issued the injunction passed judgment and sentence on the ARU officials.) Robbed of its leadership, its members blacklisted everywhere making it impossible to find work on the railroads, the ARU never recovered.

Debs served time in prison twice during his life: once in 1895, served in Woodstock jail, Illinois for his actions as union leader, and again after World
War I, in Atlanta Federal Prison, for violating the Espionage Act by speaking out against our involvement in the war.

This ended Debs? career as a union leader. He had come to see that changes would have to be made in our political and legal institutions before unions could succeed in protecting workers rights, so the rest of his life was spent in the political arena. But Debs had succeeded in demonstrating what role the industrial type of union could play in a society where workers? rights could be protected. So the ARU remained as an example of the superior type of union organization which united workers by industry rather than by interests of craft or skill.

That Debs was no longer a union leader did not mean that his continued interest in workers? rights would be expressed only in political activities. Wherever and whenever workers were in confrontation with owners, Debs was likely to show up to offer support and encouragement. In many a coal field action, for example, Debs would be there to work with and encourage the striking men, and legendary Mother Jones would focus on working with the strikers? wives and families. Debs was there to show support in the infamous Ludlow, Colorado disaster, where the Rockefellow owned mining company hired gunmen to shoot up and burn the tent city in which the miners and their wives and children were living. Some 25 women and children perished, a public relations nightmare for Rockefellow.
In summary, half of Debs? adult life was spend as union leader, and the remaining half was spent attempting to advance workers? rights through the political arena, advocating the right to organize and to strike, restrictions on child labor, and job security. Also, at one brief point in the ?political half? of his career, Debs joined with Bill Haywood and Mother Jones, in 1905, to found the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). The IWW was seriously divided by every shade of radical opinion, including Haywoods syndicalism, Mother Jones trade unionism, and Lucy Parsons? anarchism, and Debs? disagreement with the leadership over numerous issues, including Debs? insistence on nonviolence, led him to drop out of that organization after a few years

Vote totals for elections in which was nominated for the Hall of Fame for Great Americans (1900-1965): 1955-0, 1960-0, 1965-1.


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NEWS
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DISCUSSION
Importance? 8.85710 Average

FAMILY
Wife Katherine "Kate" Metzel Debs Jun 09, 1885-Oct 20, 1926

INFORMATION LINKS
Marxists Internet Archive  Discuss
Statement to the Court - Eugene V. Debs  Discuss
The Issue - Eugene V. Debs  Discuss
RACES
  03/04/2008 VT US President - LBU Primary Lost 0.25% (-44.36%)
  06/26/2004 US President - G Convention Lost 0.09% (-36.11%)
  10/10/1924 Nobel Peace Prize Lost 0.00% (-100.00%)
  05/06/1924 CA US President - Soc Primary Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  01/00/1922 Soc Party Chairman Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  01/10/1921 US President Lost 0.00% (-76.08%)
  11/02/1920 US President National Vote Lost 3.43% (-56.90%)
  07/15/1920 US President - F-L Convention Lost 14.29% (-26.26%)
  05/14/1920 US President - Socialist Convention Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  04/13/1920 US President - S Primaries Won 99.93% (+99.85%)
  04/13/1920 IL US President - Soc Primary Won 96.23% (+92.45%)
  04/05/1920 MI US President - Soc Primary Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  11/07/1916 IN District 5 Lost 17.17% (-23.45%)
  05/16/1916 US President - SOC Primaries Lost 0.56% (-80.66%)
  04/11/1916 IL US President - Soc Primary Lost 9.27% (-76.40%)
  04/10/1916 IA US President - Soc Primary Lost 6.21% (-84.75%)
  01/13/1913 US President Lost 0.00% (-81.92%)
  11/05/1912 US President National Vote Lost 5.99% (-35.85%)
  05/17/1912 US President - SOC Convention Won 60.00% (+39.64%)
  04/09/1912 IL US President - Soc Primary Lost 43.10% (-13.81%)
  01/11/1909 US President Lost 0.00% (-66.46%)
  11/03/1908 US President National Vote Lost 2.82% (-48.75%)
  05/14/1908 US President - SOC Convention Won 80.30% (+72.22%)
  01/09/1905 US President Lost 0.00% (-70.59%)
  11/08/1904 MS US President Lost 0.79% (-90.29%)
  11/08/1904 NC US President Lost 0.06% (-59.65%)
  11/08/1904 TX US President Lost 1.19% (-70.26%)
  11/08/1904 CT US President Lost 2.38% (-55.74%)
  11/08/1904 KS US President Lost 4.82% (-60.05%)
  11/08/1904 MO US President Lost 2.02% (-47.90%)
  11/08/1904 ND US President Lost 2.87% (-72.25%)
  11/08/1904 UT US President Lost 5.67% (-55.75%)
  11/08/1904 DE US President Lost 0.33% (-53.72%)
  11/08/1904 KY US President Lost 0.83% (-48.99%)
  11/08/1904 MT US President Lost 8.93% (-44.55%)
  11/08/1904 OH US President Lost 3.61% (-56.14%)
  11/08/1904 VT US President Lost 1.66% (-76.32%)
  11/08/1904 FL US President Lost 5.95% (-62.87%)
  11/08/1904 LA US President Lost 1.85% (-86.65%)
  11/08/1904 ME US President Lost 2.17% (-65.27%)
  11/08/1904 NE US President Lost 3.28% (-58.10%)
  11/08/1904 OR US President Lost 8.34% (-58.93%)
  11/08/1904 VA US President Lost 0.15% (-61.69%)
  11/08/1904 GA US President Lost 0.15% (-63.57%)
  11/08/1904 MD US President Lost 1.00% (-47.83%)
  11/08/1904 NV US President Lost 7.64% (-49.02%)
  11/08/1904 PA US President Lost 1.77% (-66.23%)
  11/08/1904 WA US President Lost 6.91% (-63.05%)
  11/08/1904 ID US President Lost 6.82% (-59.02%)
  11/08/1904 MA US President Lost 3.06% (-54.87%)
  11/08/1904 NH US President Lost 1.21% (-58.86%)
  11/08/1904 RI US President Lost 1.39% (-59.21%)
  11/08/1904 WV US President Lost 0.66% (-54.61%)
  11/08/1904 AR US President Lost 1.56% (-53.83%)
  11/08/1904 IL US President Lost 6.43% (-52.34%)
  11/08/1904 MI US President Lost 1.72% (-67.79%)
  11/08/1904 NJ US President Lost 2.22% (-54.50%)
  11/08/1904 SD US President Lost 3.09% (-68.00%)
  11/08/1904 WI US President Lost 6.37% (-56.85%)
  11/08/1904 CA US President Lost 8.90% (-52.96%)
  11/08/1904 IN US President Lost 1.76% (-52.23%)
  11/08/1904 MN US President Lost 3.99% (-69.99%)
  11/08/1904 NY US President Lost 2.28% (-50.85%)
  11/08/1904 TN US President Lost 0.56% (-53.68%)
  11/08/1904 WY US President Lost 3.49% (-63.23%)
  11/08/1904 CO US President Lost 1.77% (-53.50%)
  11/08/1904 IA US President Lost 3.06% (-60.34%)
  11/08/1904 US President National Vote Lost 2.98% (-53.44%)
  11/08/1904 AL US President Lost 0.78% (-72.58%)
  05/06/1904 US President - S National Convention Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  01/14/1901 US President Lost 0.00% (-65.32%)
  11/06/1900 US President National Vote Lost 0.62% (-51.04%)
  09/03/1900 US President - UnRf National Convention Lost 0.21% (-83.49%)
  03/07/1900 US President - Social Democratic Party National Convention Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
ENDORSEMENTS
US President National Vote - Nov 04, 1924 R Robert M. La Follette
Moline, IL Mayor - Apr 15, 1919 S Lewis K. England
US President National Vote - Nov 03, 1896 D William Jennings Bryan
US President National Vote - Nov 08, 1892 D Grover Cleveland
US President National Vote - Nov 06, 1888 D Grover Cleveland
US President National Vote - Nov 04, 1884 D Grover Cleveland