1855-1926
Labor Organizer and Socialist Presidential Candidate

A Political Life.

Eugene Debs grew up in the small midwestern city of Terre Haute, Indiana, where his parents, Alsatian emigrants, operated a
grocery store. In 1875 he was elected secretary of the Terre Haute lodge of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen. His intelligence and commitment attracted the attention of the brotherhood leaders. By 1881 he was national secretary of the brotherhood, increasingly its spokesman on labor issues, and its most tireless organizer. Debs entered politics as a Democratic candidate for city clerk in 1879. In 1885 he was elected to the Indiana State Assembly.

Union Stand.

Debs's evolving views on labor disputes led to his involvement in the strike of the American Railway Union (ARU) in 1894 against the Pullman Company of Chicago. By working intimately with federal authorities, railroad management was able to break the strike. Federal troops occupied Chicago; federal...