Source: https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/debs_eugene_v
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 00:45:21+00:00

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As a socialist, Eugene Debs unsuccessfully ran for president four times. He served two prison sentences: the first due to his role in the Pullman Strike in 1894, and the second after being indicted under the Espionage Act as result of his criticism of America’s participation in World War I.
Born in Terre Haute, Indiana, Eugene Victor Debs (1855-1926) was one of the most prominent native-born American radicals. After dropping out of school at the age of fourteen to take a position as a laborer for the Terre Haute and Indianapolis Railway Company, Debs rose to become the president of the American Railway Union. After the Panic of 1893, Debs led a boycott of Pullman railroad cars after George Pullman (1831-1897) announced a wage decrease without reciprocal rent reductions in Pullman’s company town. For his role in this event, he was arrested on charges of conspiracy and ultimately served six months in the Woodstock, Illinois jail for contempt of court. Following his prison sentence, Debs announced his conversion to socialism in 1897, and earned the nomination as the Socialist Party candidate for president in every election from 1904-1920, although he declined the nomination in 1916.
During World War I, Debs emerged as one of the most vocal opponents of America’s participation in the war. As a result, the federal government charged Eugene Debs with violating the Espionage Act. After a jury convicted him, a judge sentenced him to ten years in prison, of which he served only three years.
In the early years of World War I, Debs was often bedridden due to frequent occurrences with exhaustion and sickness. Due to his weakened physical state, which also kept him from running for president in the election of 1916, the Socialist Party of the United States suffered from a lack of leadership. American socialists became increasingly divided on the issue of whether the Party should support patriotic preparedness campaigns, favored by Milwaukee socialists including Representative Victor Berger (1860-1929) and Mayor of Milwaukee, Daniel Hoan (1881-1961), or condemn the war effort. Ultimately, the Socialist Party, under the direction of Morris Hillquit (1869-1933), tried to unify itself by presenting an official stance opposing both the war and military conscription.
By 1918, the U.S. government began to imprison socialist dissidents who voiced their war opposition. In Canton, Ohio on 16 June 1918, Debs delivered his most famous anti-war speech. The Canton speech did not differ much from earlier speeches he had given on the topic, but on this day, the district attorney for Northern Ohio, Edwin S. Wertz (1875-1943?), had stenographers carefully record the precise words of Debs’ speech.
The Canton speech not only stands as an act of explicit defiance to federal law, but it also represents Debs’ convictions understanding that it could potentially lead to a conviction. Ultimately, the speech landed Debs in prison.
After deliberating for six hours, the jury pronounced Debs guilty on three counts, and ruled that he had tried to incite refusal of military service in opposition to United States law. The judge sentenced him to ten years at the Moundsville State Penitentiary in West Virginia.
After being transferred from Moundsville to the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, Debs’ supporters crafted a “jail to the White House” campaign. His campaign had a minimal chance of success, as partisanship had split socialists from communists in America, although both factions joined together to cast their ballots for Debs. While the president pardoned some radicals convicted under the Espionage Age (such as Kate Richards O’Hare), President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) refused to grant amnesty to Debs prior to the election. Debs promoted his campaign as a vote for “Convict 9653,” and tallied over 913,000 votes, which was the largest number of popular votes earned by a Socialist candidate, even though it was only 3.4 percent of the total votes cast. In 1921, President Warren G. Harding (1865-1923) commuted Debs’ sentence to time served.
↑ Tussey, Jean Y. (ed.): Eugene V. Debs Speaks, New York 1970, pp. 251, 260-61.
↑ Foner, Eric: The Story of American Freedom, New York 1998.
↑ Brommel, Bernard J.: Eugene V. Debs: Spokesman for Labor and Socialism, Chicago 1978, p. 206.
Brommel, Bernard J.: Eugene V. Debs. Spokesman for labor and socialism, Chicago 1978: Charles H. Kerr.
Foner, Eric: The story of American freedom, New York 1998: W. W. Norton.
Freeberg, Ernest: Democracy's prisoner. Eugene V. Debs, the Great War, and the right to dissent, Cambridge; London 2010: Harvard University Press.
Ginger, Ray: The bending cross. A biography of Eugene Victor Debs, New Brunswick 1949: Rutgers University Press.
Salvatore, Nick: Eugene V. Debs. Citizen and socialist, Urbana 1982: University of Illinois Press.
Tussey, Jean Y. (ed.): Eugene V. Debs speaks, New York 1970: Pathfinder Press.
Anthony, Kyle: Debs, Eugene V. , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, ed. by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer, and Bill Nasson, issued by Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin 2014-10-08. DOI: 10.15463/ie1418.10082.

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