Eugen Victor Debs was born in Terre Haute, Indiana on November 5th 1855. He was named after Eugene Sue (who amongst other socialist works, participated in the French Revolution of 1848) and Victor Hugo (author of Les Miserables). He worked several odd jobs, such as a grocer, before becoming a locomotive firemen, which stoke the fires in the locomotive instead of putting them out. He joined the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen (BLF) in 1875, which was his start in organized labor.

He developed his views throughout his life and did not self-identify as a socialist until after the Pullman Strike. His first activism within the railroad brotherhoods were rather conservative, with the railroad brotherhoods using the slogan "Benevolence, Sobriety, and Industry". In this phase of his life, he believed that Labor and Capital could find an agreement to find prosperity together. The railroad brotherhood, sharing this view, never authorized a strike until the 1888 Railroad Strike. This was the first nudge Debs got towards a more hostile stance towards capital. There were other railroad strikes, but Debs career was a slow rising in prominence and increase in radicalism with various strikes, causing him to be a founding member of the American Railroad Union (ARU). He was outvoted by the union to remain a white only union, despite Debs instance on an integrated union. One of the major turning points and highlights of his activism was the Pullman Railroad Strike.

The Pullman Strikes was a series of two strikes in 1894. The Pullman Railroad Company made railroad passenger cars, focusing on high end luxury cars. The proximate cause of the strike was conditions within the company town of Pullman workers. During an economic downturn the Pullman company cut wages, but kept the rents the same, creating a cost of living crisis for the railcar workers. The American Railroad Union (ARU) called to boycott the Pullman cars in response. The members of the union would refuse to work on trains pulling Pullman cars. Following a peaceful meeting, members of the union were reported to have derailed a train and set a building on fire. This was used as justification for increasing anti-striker repression, with the national guard and the army eventually being sent in to put down the strike by Cleveland Administration. Over the course of the strike 30 strikers were killed and 57 wounded. Afterwards, Eugene Debs was thrown in jail. The experience radicalized him further and while in jail he read Marx's Capital amongst other socialist literature and afterwards became explicitly socialist. He was a founding member of three socialist parties (due to internal splits), beginning with the Social Democracy of America, Social Democracy Party of America, and the Socialist Party of America after deciding that progress could not be made working with the Democratic Party, from witnessing the cooptation of the Populists.

While continuing to work with unions and union action, starting in 1900 he ran for president 5 times (1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920), recieving the largest proportion of the vote in 1912. In 1912, he recieved 6% of the popular vote with popular running mate Emil Seidel, the well known Milwaukee Mayor and "Sewer Socialist". On April 6th 1917, the U.S. enters World War I. While there was dissent within the party, the Socialist Party of America voted to uphold the Second International position and oppose the war. This led to an escalation of U.S. government suppression and increased attacks on the Socialist Party. After continuing to speak out against the war in his public speeches, he was tried and convicted for violating the Sedition Act. He was convicted of sedition on September 18th, 1918 and during his sentencing hearing he said his best-remembered statement:

"Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."

Eugene was convicted and sentanced to a 10 year prison sentence. His 1920 presidential campaign was conducted while Debs was in prison, with campaign buttons bore the campaign's main slogan "Vote for Prisoner 9653". President Warren Harding commuted his sentance in 1921, and Debs died of heart failure on October 20th, 1926.

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