Who Was Eugene V. Debs?
Eugene Debs made his debut as a presidential candidate in the election of 1900 running on the Social Democratic ticket. Debs, from Terre Haute, Indiana, was a railroad worker from age 14 who rose in prominence as a labor organizer and Indiana state legislator. He became president of the American Railway Union in 1893 and led the massive railroad strike against the Pullman Company in 1894. For his part in the strike, he served six months in jail. Debs saw American politics as a class struggle between labor and capitalists. He was popular with many native-born workers, immigrants, and farmers who felt dispossessed by rising corporate power in America. Debs subsequently became a socialist and ran for president on the Socialist Party ticket in 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920. The last time he ran for president was from his cell in a federal prison, having been sentenced to ten years for sedition, for protesting United States involvement in World War I.
