Debs, Eugene Victor (1855-1926)

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Member of (1)
Participated in (1)
Mentioned in (12)
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Socialist Party of America

United States Presidential Election (1912)

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Birth Date

1855-11-05

Death Date

1926-10-20

Birthplace

Terre Haute, IN

Biographical Text

Eugene Victor Debs was a labor leader and Socialist politician. He dropped out of high school to work for a railroad and wholesale grocery store. He became a leader in the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, and from there was elected city clerk and then to the Indiana General Assembly. Debs remained active in the labor movement, and when in 1894 the American Railway Union called a strike against the Pullman Palace Car Company, Debs was one of the leaders arrested and jailed after the Army put down the strike. While in prison, Debs became a socialist. Debs was the Socialist Party of America's candidate for president from 1904-1912 and 1920. Debs was among the founders of the Industrial Workers of the World, a union which aimed to unite all factory workers. Debs opposed United States participation in World War I and the military draft, and was arrested and convicted in 1918 of violating the sedition act. After losing his appeals, he was imprisoned in 1919; in 1921 his sentence was commuted by President Harding due to his ill health. Debs died in 1926.

Eugene Debs married Kate Metzel in 1885. They had no children.

Occupation

Social reform activist

Source

Photograph from Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs division (cph.3a25146).

Collection

People

Map

Edited By

DeLora, Renee

Szydlik, Margaret

Hajo, Cathy Moran

Rights

Public domain

Gender

Male

First appears

1912

Bibliography and Links

"Debs Biography." Debs Foundation. 2015. Accessed September 19, 2016.

"Eugene Debs 1855-1926." PBS.org. 2001. Accessed September 19, 2016.

"Eugene V. Debs." Encylopedia Brittanica. October 1, 2014. Accessed September 19, 2016.

SNAC

Wikipedia

Citation

“Debs, Eugene Victor (1855-1926),” Jane Addams Digital Edition, accessed October 5, 2024, http://mail.digital.janeaddams.ramapo.edu/items/show/5653.

Debs, Eugene Victor (1855-1926)

Item Relations

Socialist Party of America

United States Presidential Election (1912)

Politics and Persons, ca. November 1912

Theodore Roosevelt to Amos Pinchot, December 5, 1912

Amos Pinchot to Theodore Roosevelt, December 23, 1912

Liberty Defense Union List, March 7, 1918

Anna Marcet Julius-Haldeman to Jane Addams, October 7-9, 1919 (fragments)

The Greatest Free Speech Trial of the War, February 1921

Statement on Abraham Lincoln, February 12, 1922 (excerpt)

Graham Romeyn Taylor to Julia C. Lathrop, June 12, 1922

Thousands of Political Prisoners Abroad Need Help, October 1925

The Spider Web, ca. January 1927

Refutation of charges against Jane Addams made by the Daughters of the American Revolution, March 31, 1927

Study of Public Record of Miss Jane Addams, May 17, 1927

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