A Prominent Hoosier

Probably the most famous Hoosier was Eugene V. Debs. He ran for President five times [1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, 1920] as candidate for the Socialist Party, in some of the most dynamic campaigning ever seen in the United States. His greatest showing was the campaign of 1908 which featured the RED SPECIAL train which went all over the country.

Eugene Victor Debs was born in Terre Haute, Indiana in 1855. He found work as a railroad fireman in 1870 and eventually became active in the trade union movement. Debs worked as editor of the Locomotive Firemens Magazine, before being elected national secretary of Brotherhood of Locomotive Fireman in 1880. Debs, a member of the Democratic Party, was elected to the Indiana Legislature in 1884.

In 1893 Debs was elected the first president of the American Railway Union (ARU). During the Pullman Strike in 1894, Debs was arrested and charged with contempt of court. Despite being defended by Clarence Darrow, he was found guilty and sentenced to six months in prison.

Debs now became a socialist and believed that capitalism should be replaced by a new cooperative system. Although he advocated radical reform, Debs was opposed to the revolutionary violence supported by the Communist Party.

In 1897 Debs joined with Victor Berger and Ella Reeve Bloor to form the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Debs was the partys presidential candidate in 1900 but received only 97,000 votes. The following year some members of the SDP left the party and established the Socialist Party of America.

In 1904 Debs was the new party's presidential candidate and got 400,000 votes. He was also the party's candidate in 1908, and 1912, when with his running-mate, Emil Seidel, he won 897,011 votes.

Debs believed that the First World War had been caused by the imperialist competitive system. Between 1914 and 1917 Debs made several speeches explaining why he believed the United States should not join the war. After the USA declared war on the Central Powers in 1917, several Socialist Party members were arrested for violating the Espionage Act. After making a speech in Canton, Ohio, on 16th June, 1918, criticizing the Espionage Act, Debs was arrested and sentenced to ten years in Atlanta Penitentiary. He was still in prison when as the presidential candidate of the Socialist Party, he received 919,799 votes in 1920.

His program included proposals for improved labour conditions, housing and welfare legislation and an increase in the number of people who could vote in elections. President Warren G. Harding pardoned Debs in December, 1921. Debs died in 1926: his house in Terre Haute is preserved as a museum.

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