What was debs politics

An inspiring speaker, he drew thousands of fervent supporters to rallies in major cities, while inspiring equally fervent denunciations by mainstream politicians and newspapers. He shocked the political system by winning , votes, or 6 percent of the vote, in the presidential election, more than Ralph Nader in or Gary Johnson and Jill Stein in Although many Americans agreed with Debs on the merits, fewer aligned with his socialist critique of entering the war.

It was a battle between the ruling classes of the warring nations, he argued — and in fact, an economic critique of the war, which notes that the U. In March , as news of the Zimmermann Telegram pushed the U.

Empowered by the Espionage Act, passed by Congress in June , the government blocked the mailing of anti-war newspapers and arrested 2, protesters on charges of inspiring resistance to military recruitment. States passed sedition laws and arrested dissenters. The American Protective League, a national group of , volunteers acting with the blessing of U.

The same statements Eugene Debs has been making his whole life are now not just on the left of the political spectrum. Debs protested censorship in his opinion columns in socialist newspapers such as Social Revolution , but as the war continued, the government shut down many papers that printed his writing. In May , Congress passed the Sedition Act, further tightening restrictions on dissent. Enraged, Debs set out in June on a new speaking tour of the Midwest.

He knew he was courting prosecution, and maybe even welcomed it. He resigned from the Brotherhood in to form the American Railroad Union, which sought to organize all railroad workers into a single union regardless of craft or skill. When workers at the Pullman Sleeping Car Company went on strike in to protest wage cuts in the middle of a severe depression, Debs led an ARU sympathy strike to support Pullman workers and to publicize the idea of a single unified railroad union.

ARU unionists refused to handle trains carrying Pullman sleeping cars; national railroad traffic ground to a halt. President Cleveland, on the advice of Attorney General and former railroad attorney Richard Olney, called in federal troops to break the strike; dozens died in the ensuing violence. For his role in the strike, Debs was prosecuted for obstructing the mails and contempt of court. He was convicted on the second charge and spent six months in jail.

Debs spoke from the train to enthusiastic crowds dozens of times a day as he toured the country. Political campaigns before television generated interesting and sometimes novel memorabilia. The measure of Debs and the Socialist Party is not in vote counts alone. It is highly doubtful if the Republicans and Democratics would have been giving at least lip service to such progressive ideas as early as had not the Socialists been popularizing these ideas since In the cartoon just mentioned, Debs is shown skinny dipping, and sees Teddy Roosevelt making off with his cloths.

In recorded history and in popular imagination Debs is portrayed in extremes either positive or negative. The positive image shows a highly effective union leader of turn-of-the-century America, a kind, big hearted and deeply loved man, respected even by prominent Terre Haute business men who chose to overlook his radical leanings. Eugene Debs [electronic resource].

Other articles in Reformers. Want to support the Free Speech Center? Donate Now. Schenck v. Boston: Twayne Publishers, Lepore, Jill. Debs and the Endurance of Socialism.

The Eugene V. Debs Foundation.