Eugene V. Debs, A True Believer Quiz

Answer: Terre Haute, Indiana

The Debs were both French immigrants. He was named for two French writers, Eugene Sue and Victor Hugo. His father owned a small grocery store. Debs quit school at fourteen and worked as a railroad yard painter, a boiler man, and as a grocery clerk for Hulman Wholesale before entering union activities.

Answer: Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen

Debs began as an assistant and eventually became editor of the house magazine. He became Secretary to the Union but resigned in 1893 because he felt that the Union was too social and conservative and needed to be more confrontational in negotiating with management. The men were often intimidated by management into not unionizing.

Answer: City Clerk, Terre Haute, IN

Debs from his reputation as a union leader and efficiency at the city clerk of Terre Haute, IN was encouraged to run for representative to the Indiana legislature in 1884 Debs. Elected to the Indiana General Assembly, he learned much about the process of government and found distasteful the compromises he had to make.

He resigned his Assembly seat and returned to Terre Haute after seeing one of his bills destroyed by amendments. His decision troubled his upwardly mobile wife who saw her chances of being a first lady to a senator evaporate.

Although he later was to run for public office, these were the only successful campaigns. During This portion of his life he was a Democrat.

Answer: American Railway Union

The purpose of the American Railway Union was to amalgamate the diverse organizations within railroad employees so they could speak with one voice, not just firemen, brakemen, or engineers. The union was successful in the strike against the Great Northern Railroad in 1894.

Answer: Would be unpatriotic to strike during the Spanish/American War

It was the overwhelming sentiment of the union to boycott Pullman, the major supplier of railroad cars and services. Debs tried to dissuade them from hasty judgment but yielded to become a leader of the strike earning the title "Debs' Revolution". When Debs saw the conditions of the 'company houses' and the deplorable living conditions, he was struck.

It was not a strike for his union but a sympathy strike for the Pullman workers.

Answer: Acquiesce of Pullman to union demands

The government's argument was that the union was violating the law by obstructing the delivery of mail as Pullman cars were used to transport mail. The strikers were alleged to have cause upward to eighty million dollars of damage. The army killed thirteen of the strikers in confrontations. Renown attorney Clarence Darrow represented him at his trial but he was convicted.

Answer: Karl Marx

This was turning point in Debs' life. Following his prison sentence, he became what was called at the time Social Democrats Party and later just Socialist Party. If his commitment was not to communism, it was certainly to the further socialization of American society.

As he said many times that the best solution is to work through the system. He eventually began to believe that there had to be a change in society to achieve dignity for working men. Whether it was one book or many, it was more like a transition than a sudden decision.

Answer: None

Debs was on the ballot for the 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920. He did not win any states therefore had no electoral votes. His best showing was in 1912 when he received 913,693 votes, about six per cent of the total votes cast. Ironically, Debs was serving his second prison sentence during the 1920 election.

Answer: None, but Debs was allowed to address the court.

Debs' speech to the court lasted two hours. Here is a brief quote from what he had to say:

"I am thinking this morning of the men in the mills and factories; I am thinking of the women who, for a paltry wage, are compelled to work out their lives; of the little children who, in this system, are robbed of their childhood, and in their early, tender years, are seized in the remorseless grasp of Mammon, and forced into the industrial dungeons, there to feed the machines while they themselves are being starved body and soul....

Your honor, I ask no mercy, I plead for no immunity. I realize that finally the right must prevail. I never more fully comprehended than now the great struggle between the powers of greed on the one hand and upon the other the rising hosts of freedom. I can see the dawn of a better day of humanity. The people are awakening. In due course of time they will come into their own."

Wilson considered commuting his sentence but was persuaded not to on advice from his staff. Warren Harding commuted his sentence but did not pardon him.

Answer: Debs' wife Kate

Debs married Kate Metzer in 1885. They had no children. Kate was brought up in the middle-class values of the late Victorian period. By instinct and behavior she was appalled by Debs turning to Socialism in such a manner. She had upwardly aspirations to be a part of society hence she felt aloof to Debs' family.

She regarded 'socialist' as 'bomb-throwers' and hated her husband's name attached to these movements.