Eugene V. Debs was born in 1855 and grew up in Terre Haute, Indiana, where his parents settled after emigrating from Alsace. He left school at age fifteen to work for the Terre Haute and Indianapolis Railroad. In 1875, some years after becoming a locomotive fireman for the railroad, Debs helped to organize a lodge of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen. He was appointed secretary, beginning a rise through the various offices of the brotherhood that Debs combined with several local and state government positions as well as a job clerking for a wholesale grocery house.

Union.

Debs's significance as a labor organizer stands in sharp contrast to his contemporary Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). While Gompers worked with skilled trade workers, Debs advocated united efforts by the skilled and unskilled and tied unionizing efforts to a comprehensive political agenda. In...