Eugene V. Debs

Eugene Victor Debs (1855-1926) was the American leader of the Socialist party. He was Socialist Party of America candidate for the presidency of the in 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912 and 1920, running best in 1912. He briefly belonged to the IWW, which called for a violent overthrow of capitalism, but drew back from such an extreme position.

1912

In 1912 the more conservative "gas and water" socialists (who did not want to destroy capitalism) adopted a platform calling for cooperative organization of prisons, a national bureau of health, abolition of the Senate and the presidential veto, and a long list of progressive reforms. They nominated Debs, who saw his mission as keeping the disparate units together in the hope that someday a common goal would be found for all socialists.

There was little money--his campaign cost only $66,000, mostly for 3.5 million leaflets and travel to rallies organized by local groups. Debs criss-crossed the country, His biggest event was a speech to 15,000 in New York City. The crowd sang the "Marseillaise," and "International" as Emil Seidel, the vice-presidential candidate, boasted, "Only a year ago workingmen were throwing decayed vegetables and rotten eggs at us but now all is changed....Eggs are too high. There is a great giant growing up in this country that will someday take over the affairs of this nation. He is a little giant now but he is growing fast. The name of this little giant is socialism." Debs said that only the socialists represented labor; he condemned "Injunction Bill Taft"; ridiculed Roosevelt as "a charlatan, mountebank, and fraud, and his Progressive promises and pledges as the mouthings of a low and utterly unprincipled self seeker and demagogue." Debs insisted that the Democrats, Progressives and Republicans alike were financed by the trusts. Party newspapers spread the word.

World War I

Debs, like a majority of socialists, opposed American entry into World War I. A powerful oratorm he gave speeches during the war to discourge youth from enlisting or acceping the draft. He was convicted of sedition in federal court; the Supreme Court upheld the conviction and he campaigned in 1920 from his prison cell in Atlanta. In 1921 he was pardoned by president Warren Harding.

See also

• Socialist Party of America

Bibliography

• Chace, James. 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft and Debs--The Election that Changed the Country (2005), popular history excerts and text search
• Ginger, Ray. The Bending Cross: A Biography of Eugene Victor Debs. (1949)
• Salvatore, Nick. Eugene V. Debs: Citizen and Socialist. (1984), the standard scholarly biography

Primary sources

• Debs, Eugene. Debs: His Life, Writings and Speeches. 544 pages. (1908) complete text online
• Debs, Eugene. Gentle Rebel: Letters of Eugene V. Debs. Edited by J. Robert Constantine. (1995) 312 pages.