Eugene V. Debs

Eugene Victor Debs (1855– 1926) was an American union leader, one of the founding members of the International Labour Union and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), as well as candidate for President of the United States as a member of the Social Democratic Party in 1900, and later as a member of the Socialist Party of America in 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920. Through his presidential candidacies as well as his work with labour movements, Debs would eventually become one of the best-known Socialists in the United States. However, he remained the leader of a marginalised party which - unlike its European counterparts - never managed to gain a mass support or break into a political scene completely dominated by the Democratic and Republican parties. Debs' presidential campaigns were occasions of spreading propaganda and getting public attention for his principled positions, but neither himself nor anyone else considered him to have any chance of actually winning and becoming President, nor did he or anyone else of his party posses a chance to get even a single seat in Congress.

Debs became especially known for his principled, outspoken and uncompromising opposition to American participation in the First World War, an opposition which he sustained even at the cost of undergoing a years-long imprisonment. His last Presidential campaign, in 1920, was run from behind bars. Debs' principled position and personal sacrifice won him the respect even of people far from his views, such as President Harding who pardoned him in 1921.

Eugene V. Debs in Southern Victory
Eugene V. Debs was a United States Senator from the state of Indiana, the first Socialist ever elected to the Senate. He joined the Socialists shortly after the Second Mexican War. His popularity was such that he was first elected to the Senate in the 1890s, and remained there right until after the Great War. He was a three-time Socialist presidential nominee, running in 1908, 1912, and 1916. In the latter two runs, Debs was handily defeated by Democrat Theodore Roosevelt.

Usually a radical, and an opponent of the US nationalistic ideology of Remembrance, Debs was in 1914 constrained to seriously compromise his principles and vote to support President Theodore Roosevelt's wartime budget when the Great War began. He was the leader of a mass party, the country's main opposition, with a substantial representation in Congress and realistic aspirations to eventually win power. As such, Debs - whatever his private reservations - could not ignore the widespread support for war among the party's electorate. This was especially due to the fact that many of the working-class Socialist strongholds were close to either a Confederate border or a Canadian one, making the party's supporters apprehensive of an enemy invasion and tending to support an aggressive US war to pre-empt such threats. Debs' conduct in 1914 was similar to that of Socialist leaders in other countries such as Britain, France and Germany - all of whom shifted from an earlier anti-war position to supporting the war when it became inevitable.

In 1916, Debs ran on an anti-war platform, and his record for supporting the war budget embarrassed him and other Socialists who ran on his ticket. However sound the reasons for his shifting position, his image as a principled and uncompromising political leader was irrevocably damaged. Though he gained a substantial number of votes, the Presidency eluded him. In 1920, the Socialist convention proved to be deadlocked. Debs, sensing Roosevelt's vulnerability, and realizing that he stood no chance against Roosevelt, who was running a third time, agreed to step aside, allowing Indiana's votes to go to Upton Sinclair, who won the nomination and then the presidency.