Debs - Hero
of Railway Unions
Usually, union leaders and political radicals
end up on the dust heap of time. Eugene Victor Debs, a locomotive
fireman, born in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1855, was one who
escaped such treatment. He was elected to the Indiana legislature
in 1884 and began a life of service to the less fortunate.
His skills as an orator and debator were well-known in his
home state long before he became a national figure.
 Although
he had been elected an official of the Brotherhood of Locomotive
Firemen, his fame as an organizer spread with the formation
of the American Railway Union, an effort to bring all railway
employees into one union. Debs was founder and president from
1893 - 1897, and led the Pullman strike in 1894, which was
broken by President Grover Cleveland. Debs was sent to jail
for contempt of court and pleaded that he was innocent of
any crime. Incidentally, Cleveland was repudiated by his own
party (Democratic) and was not considered for re-election.
In 1897, Debs began his activities in the
Socialist Party and served as its presidential candidate in
1900, 1904, 1908, 1912 and 1920. In 1915 he was elected chancellor
of the People's College, a working class institution in Fort
Scott, Kansas and guided its correspondence courses program.
In 1918, he was sentanced to 10 years in prison for violation
of the Espionage Act (he had pleaded for peace at a rally),
serving from April, 1918 to December 25, 1921 when he was
pardoned. He conducted his presidential campaign in 1920 from
him cell in prison and received nearly a million votes.
Debs died on October 20, 1926 and his body
rests in Terre Haute, Indiana.
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