Entrails Konfetti
18th November 2005, 02:17
Eugene Victor Debs’ upbringing.
Eugene Debs was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, 1855. He came from a middle-class background, his parents were immigrants from Colmar, France, an Alsace province.
His child-hood was comfortable, no economic struggles or internal feuds.
At the age of 14 he left home and dropped out of school to work on the railroads for fifty cents a day, as a painter. Later he became a locomotive fireman. In his spare time he went to night classes at a local business college.
Because of his dangerous job as a locomotive fire man, his parents were concerned about their sons safety, and he abided by their wishes by becoming a grocery store clerk.
In 1879,he left his job at the grocery store because he was elected in the office of City Clerk of Terre Haute under the Democratic Party. He served in the office for two terms. Then in 1885 he was elected to the office of state representative to the Indiana General Assembly as a Democrat representing Terre Haute and Vigo County; this was also the year he married Kate Metzel, though he loved and cherished her till her death, they had no children together. During his service in the General Assembly, Debs supported or drafted bills for women's suffrage, the abolishment of racial distinctions, and compensation for railroad workers; all met with defeat.
Also in 1885, he and others founded a new lodge of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, he quickly became editor of the magazine, and left the magazine as Grand Secretary. His duties in the BLF consumed most of his time, so he did not run for any political office until later in life.
This union was more concerned with fellowship and services than collective bargaining, Debs however thought there needed to be a union with a more unified brotherhood and confrontational approach: The BLF was organized along craft lines; had separate brotherhoods and the owners could easily break jobs actions or strikes by easily playing off one brotherhood against another.
Frustrated from the ineffectiveness of the brotherhoods Debs tried to resign from office at the Cincinnati convention in 1892, which was unanimously refused, and instead he was re-elected as his previous offices, also the union insisted on giving him a paid vacation to Europe. Debs declined the vacation offer, and still insisted on tendering his offices. Finally, after relentlessly insisting his resignation, the offices withdrew Debs membership from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen an he formed the American Railway Union.
Debs and the American Railway Union.
The first Industrial Union in the United State was the American Railway Union, founded on June, 20, 1893 in Chicago, Illinois. The union was under the Presidency of Debs. The ARU unlike trade unions, unionized all railway workers regardless of craft or skill, this was to counter-act the squabbling of different unions which are organized under different crafts, which results in conflicts because of a union trying to implement their interests that may be contrary to another union. Because of the way the ARU was organized, it sought to include the interests of all craftsmen of the railway, and take a more organized approach when it came to disputes with capital.
Due to Debs wide recognition to workers nationwide and his tireless enthusiasm, within a year, the ARU had hundreds of affiliated local chapters and over 140,000 members and 125 locals nationwide. Whole lodges established with craft unions voted to affiliate with the ARU.
The Great Northern Railway Strike.
In the first year in operation the ARU engaged in a successful strike against the
Great Northern Railway. This railway was an important railroad carrying freight and passengers west from Milwaukee to the Pacific Northwest.
It all began on April 13,1893, with a letter that was distributed circularly to the members of the A.R.U containing the amount of wages being paid on the Great Northern Railway, which showed that the GNR paid lower wages than of other Pacific grand and continental lines.
Strikers were at first being removed by the rail road and replaced with “scabs”.
So the ARU called for the employees, or scabs to quit on very short notice, and they sent out a letter from their Butte city headquarters in Montana calling for the support of the workers.
The strike was called official by the ARU on April 16th, and demanded wages and work schedules to that of other railways.
The general manager, Mr. Hill, on receiving information of the walk-out of his employees, issued a notice expressing the wish for his employees not to go on strike, and made so-called promises of promotion. The A. R. U. held revival meetings at all points on the line of the Great Northern and membership increased by the thousands.
On April 22nd, the ARU called a conference with the management of the GNR management to discuss to the issues, then on May 3rd the strike was settled after 18 days and a contract signed which met virtually all union demands.
The Pullman Strike.
On May 11th 1894, the union became involved in a sympathy strike in support of employees of the George Pullman company, maker of Pullman railroad cars.
George Pullman, considered to be a “well-fare” capitalist, had his workers housed in a town named after himself. The main problem was that the Pullman company wasn’t paying high enough wages, nor scheduling enough hours for their own workers to live within his town. The Pullman company owned all the stores, utility companies; gas, water, and so on, and rented out housing to the workers. The workers hadn’t a choice to live anywhere else.
Within days, 50,000 rail workers complied, halting all railroad traffic in and out of Chicago, except trains carrying U.S. mail.
The Pullman Palace Car workers were among them. The Pullman shop workers went on a strike of their own (also against wage cuts) in May of 1894. After hearing a stirring address by Jennie Curtis, the leader of the women workers in the Pullman Shops, a convention of the American Railway Union voted to support the Pullman workers by refusing to work any trains that included Pullman cars.
Though the strike lead to a lock-out and an effective shutting down of production. The Railroad Managers thought up an idea to halt the strike and crush the ARU: Their strategy was to order Pullman cars hooked to U.S. Mail trains. At the same time, Attorney General Richard Olney, a former railroad lawyer, got a court injunction to prohibit blocking trains.
The ARU members refused to work the mail train, resulting in inter-action with the federal government, President Cleveland ordered 12,000 Army troops to cease the strike and to run the railways, the presence of the troops turned a peaceful strike into a violent reaction. About $80,000,000 worth of property was damaged, 24 strikers were killed, seven-hundred people were arrested,
and President Cleveland suspended the right to assembly in seven states.
The Arrest of Eugene Debs.
Though the railroad corporations demanded they be prosecuted for conspiracy, treason, and murder; Debs and seven other union officials, dubbed the “Woodstock Eight”, were convicted to six months in Woodstock, Illinois, for:
Obstructing the flow of United States mail, for violating the injunction by Olney, and for contempt of court (even though they were represented by Clarence Darrow).
While in prison the ARU dissolved, and the experience radicalized Debs, when he was in prison he became introduced to socialism by Victor Berger. He read many socialist works including works by Karl Marx, such as Das Kapital.
He also wrote to Socialist magazines, a letter of his published in “The Coming Nation”, Debs advocated the establishment of the co-operative commonwealth by the exercise of the ballot. He claimed that all crooked politicians can be swept away with votes from the American Public. Though he was well behaved in prison he refused special privileges and fought for prisoners rights.
When Debs was released from prison, the warden disobeyed the regulations, he opened up the cell-block so that Debs’s fellow inmates could gather in front of the main jail-building, and say farewell to him. A warm roar rose from the crowd when he turned, and he greeted them with open arms.
Upon notice of his departure for prison, railway corporations hired private detectives to keep surveillance on him for two years, and whenever he organized the workers they were discharged.
The Socialist Party.
On March, 22, 1899, in New York, Debs declared to congress of radicals ( who were assembled to discuss activism, and to form a grass-roots organization) that he was for a socialist alternative for the United states of America. Not all the members were interested in socialism; these members would rather compromise instead of fighting for the common-ownership of property, and take baby steps to abolish wage-slavery. Debs and some other members though the opposing idea was ineffective, so they decided to work with the Social-Democratic Party.
Though Debs campaigned under the Social-Democrat banner in 1900, he and others thought the party strategy was ineffective, and inept because it focused too much on electoral politics: with the idea that it could radically change the American government by having candidates voted into office. So he and other SDP members split from the party to form the Socialist Party in 1901.
The platform of the Socialist Party focused more on gaining and maintaining the rights of workers to organize; work place democracy; workplace safety; setting up measures to implement common-ownership of property; universal suffrage; minority rights; the abolishment of child-labor laws; and fair pay for all workers. Though they knew their platform couldn’t be entirely implemented by reforms, the plan was to agitate by campaigning, political demonstrations, and dispensing literature, so the working-class would organize grassroots elements, and take direct action to abolish wage-slavery, social classes . The agenda was similar to the Bolsheviks of Russia, however SPUSA didn’t have a strict dogmatic party line, nor did they subordinate workers-councils to the party.
Presidential Campaign 1900.
The main issues in the campaign of this year were whether the United States
should give independence to the territories it received after the war with Spain.
In 1900 in Indianapolis, the Social Democrat Party held its first national convention and nominated Debs to run as its candidate for president with running mate Job Harriman. Their platform argued that the two main parties weren’t interested in the issues that were important to the working-class.
William McKinley with running mate Theodore Roosevelt, ran on the Republican ticket, the Republicans sought to civilize the territories it gained, and advocated the gold-standard of currency. They used the war victorious war record of the country under McKinley, and a slogan of “Four more years of the full dinner pail”.
William Jennings Bryan with running mate Adlai Stevenson, were on the Democratic ticket, the Democrats on the other hand wanted to give the Latin countries their independence, and argued that the Republicans were being too imperialistic. In response to the gold standard, they advocated a nearly-defunct silver standard.
The Republicans won the election with 51.6% of the popular vote, and 292 electoral votes. The Democrats got 45.5% of the popular vote, and 155 electoral votes. Of the other 2.9% popular vote, the Social-Democrats received 0.6% of the popular vote, and came in fourth out of sixth place.
Presidential Campaign 1904.
The election was held on November 8th, this time Eugene Debs with running mate Benjamin Hanford ran under the Socialist Party, and advocated their party’s platform. Their goal wasn’t to win the election; it was just to politically agitate and gain a base.
The Republican party nominated former Vice President Theodore Roosevelt, with running-mate Charles Fairbanks.
The Democrat Party nominated Alton Barker, with running mate Henry Davis. There weren’t any significant issues this year, so the Democrat Party tried to adopt part of the Republican platform by advocating the gold standard.
The Republicans won the election with 56.4% popular votes and 336 electoral votes. The Democrat Party received 37.6% popular votes and 140 electoral votes. The Socialist Party came in third with 6% of the popular vote.
Presidential Campaign 1908.
The major issue between the two main parties in this campaign was who could best carry out the vastly popular policies of Roosevelt.
The Republicans hand picked Taft as Roosevelt’s successor, and ran with James Sherman.
The Democrats nominated Bryan, because he claimed he was the best man to continue Roosevelt’s policies, and he ran with John Kern. Their strategy was to woo over Socialist Party, and Socialist Labor party voters by calling for a socialization of the railroads.
Because there was little favorable coverage on third parties, the Socialist Party running with the same candidates, chose a different approach to campaigning.
They chose to speak directly to the people, Debs and Hanford rode across country on a train called the “Red Special Train”, and talked to voters from the platform of the train.
The Republicans won the election with 51.6% popular votes, and 321 electoral votes, where as the Democrat Party won the election with 43% popular votes, and 162 electoral votes. The Socialist Party came in third again with 2.8% popular votes.
Presidential Campaign 1912.
The Democrat Party with Woodrow Wilson and Thomas Marshall won the election, because of the divide of the Republican Party. Taft of the Republican party, had more conservative ideas, argued that the days without deregulated unbridled capitalism were over. Former President Theodore Roosevelt, disgusted with the Republicans for nominating Taft, formed the Progressive Party, and ran with Hiram Johnson. This Party sought for conservation and consumer protection, and was willing to work with organized labor. The voters thought the Republican Party was instable, so they voted in Wilson.
Eugene Debs still on the bill for the Socialist ticket, but with a new running mate; Emil Seidel. Though there seemed to be a more progressive leaning ethos in America, Debs argued that the three parties wouldn’t act in the interests of the working people, because they have their own political-career agenda.
The election results were: Democrat Party 41.8% popular, 435 electoral;
Progressive Party 27.4% popular, 88 electoral; Republican 23.2% popular, 8 electoral; and Socialist Party 3% popular vote.
Red Scare.
The first era of Red Scare within the United States was from 1917-1920.
During this time, suspicion of widespread infiltration by Socialists, Communists, and Anarchists was feared that it would influence the United States society.
To counteract these fears, President Wilson and the U.S. government made many attempts to suppress dissent against World War I by encouraging pro-war attitudes through the Committee on Public Information, which was complemented by the Bureau of Investigation. This Bureau would disrupt the work of German-Americans and leftists; raid headquarters of leftist organization; send agent provocateurs to entrap anti-war activists; and find evidence to prosecute suspects.
During this time the Espionage Act was approved in the U.S government, with the Sedition Act amended to it. The Espionage Act and the Sedition Act made it a federal offence to speak out against the U.S. Government and the War.
Section Four of the Sedition act empowered Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson to slow or confiscate all Socialist material in the mail.
The fears and actions were a result of the Russian Revolution in 1917, it was feared that a revolution would occur in America, because the Bolsheviks were advocating a world-wide revolution of the workers.
Return to Prison.
The Socialist Party of the United states of America strongly opposed the war on pacifist , and revolutionary grounds. On June 16, 1918 Debs made an anti-war speech in Canton, Ohio protesting World War I. At this time in the United States of America, he stated that the war was being fought for the profits of the rich, but with the blood of the poor, and condemned all the governments involved in the war.
Because the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act were in effect, it was made it illegal to speak out against the U.S government. Though Debs had carefully guarded his speeches in an attempt to comply with the Espionage Act, the Court found he still had the intention and effect of obstructing the draft and recruitment for the war. Among other things, the Court cited Debs's praise for those imprisoned for obstructing the draft. Debs went to court and was found guilty according to the sedition act and was sent to prison in Atlanta, Georgia for 10 years and he had to give-up his citizenship.
Upon receiving his sentence Debs replied, “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.”
A May Day parade in Cleveland on 1919, Ohio, protested the imprisonment of Eugene Debs erupted into the violent May Day Riots. Charles Ruthenberg, a prominent Socialist leader who organized the march, was arrested for "assault with intent to kill".
Presidential Campaign 1920.
The campaign was focused mainly on the issues involving World War I, diplomats and politicians were arguing over peace treaties and the question of America's entry into the League of Nations. Overseas there were wars and revolutions; at home there were strikes, riots, and a growing fear of radicals and terrorists. Disillusionment was in the air. The presidential election of 1920 continued the debate between the nationalistic activism of Roosevelt's presidency and the global idealism of Wilson's administration.
The Republican Party nominated Warren Harding, and running mate Calvin Coolidge .The Republicans supported prohibition, and whether they supported Wilson’s referendum on the League of Nations. They came in first in the election with 60.3% popular vote, and 404 electoral vote.
The Democratic Party nominated James Cox with running mate Franklin Roosevelt. They opposed prohibition, and advocated Wilson’s referendum on the League of Nations. Cox tried some of the campaigning strategies of Debs, such as campaigning from a train, and giving porch-front speeches. They came in second in the election with 34.1% popular votes, and 127 electoral votes.
Although, in Prison Debs ran for president and received 913,664 (3.4%) votes, the most ever for a Socialist Party presidential candidate in the U.S. and slightly more than he had won in 1912, when he obtained six percent of the vote.
The slogans for Debs include “For president, convict No.9653”,and “From prison to the Whitehouse”. The platform of SPUSA promised to the American people a treaty which would assure to the world a reign of international right and true democracy. They called upon all the U.S. workers to free the country from the oppressive misrule of the old political parties.
While in prison, Debs was inspired to write a column deeply critical of the prison system, which appeared in a bowdlerized form in the Bell Syndicate and was collected into his only book, Walls and Bars, with several added chapters (published after his death).
On December 25, 1921 President Warren G. Harding released Debs from prison, commuting his sentence to time served.
Debs, however, never recovered his health from that time in prison and died on October. 20,1926, in Lindlahr Sanitarium, Elmhurst, Illinois. He was buried in Terre Haute, Indiana.
In 1976 Debs' citizenship was restored posthumously.
How Debs relates to today’s political world.
Many of Debs's "radical" reforms--an eight-hour workday, pensions, workman's compensation, sick leave, child- labor laws, and social security--are commonplace in today's workplace. An Equal Opportunity Commission was created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to end discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in all conditions of employment.
Also, since the civil rights movement, America has sought to end racial barriers starting with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Women were granted Suffrage in 1920 by the 19th amendment.
Despite many of these victories, the reconciliation between labor and capital hasn‘t been reached. Many activists , politicians, and citizens views have become more moderate towards the issue, either because of a un-united leftist organizations, or because many believe socialism results in Stalinism, and a bureaucratic caste living off the workers.
Though the Wagner Act of 1935 and the Norris-LaGuardia Anti-injunction Act of 1932 were hailed as victories for labor: Employers complained about the number of work stoppages ,due to jurisdictional disputes , and demanded that a new balance should be struck. Thus the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, was written. It outlawed closed shop under union membership is required before hiring, but permitted the union shop under which union member ship was required after hiring; it permitted an 80-day injunction to stop strikes; it required union official to sign non-Communist affidavits, and to open their financial records for public scrutiny; it provided for a 60-day notice for the intention to strike; it gave employers access to federal courts to sue union for sympathy strikes; and it made it illegal for union to make political contributions.
The Taft-Hartley Act reared its head again in 1980, when the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization went on strike seeking better working conditions, better pay, and a 32-hour workweek. President Ronald Reagan ordered the strikers back to work under the terms of the act, an he fired 11,359 union members, replaced them with nonparticipating controllers, supervisors, staff personnel, some non-rated personnel, and in some cases by controllers transferred temporarily from other facilities.
The Taft-Hartley act is still in-effect today: unions are losing membership, AFL-CIO is in the process of dividing, and union-busters have an easier time of pitting one union against another.
Since legislature such as the Smith Act, was found unconstitutional in some areas, and prosecutions under the act have ceased (although still on the books): Politically Eugene Debs views, and strategies still circulate in America today.
The Debs tendency of the Socialist Party is trying to gain a base a reunite the factions within the party under Debs’ unique revolutionary ideas. Also the Socialist Party still runs in presidential elections to gain a base, and present ideas.
As for strategies, Leonard Peltier of the Peace and Freedom Party run for presidential elections within his prison-cell to raise consciousness of political issues regarding Native Americans.
Eugene Debs is remembered as symbol by radical-leftists, for his compassion, enthusiasm, and seeking for the brotherhood of all mankind. His kiosk stands in the Labor Hall of Fame, Department of Labor, Washington, DC as a tribute to his contributions to American labor. Labor Unions are among the most active supporters of the Eugene V. Debs Foundation and union members from across Indiana and the Midwest are in regular attendance each fall when an annual award banquet is held in Terre Haute.
sources:
http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/sinners/DebsEugene.htm
http://recollectionbooks.com/siml/library/PullmanStrike.htm
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Heroes/E...sSocialism.html (http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Heroes/EugeneDebsSocialism.html)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Debs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Railway_Union
http://www.eugenevdebs.com/pages/histry.html
http://www.eugenevdebs.com/pages/uleadr.html
http://www.eugenevdebs.com/pages/polit.html
http://www.eugenevdebs.com/pages/social.htm
http://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/bio/bio.htm
http://sp-usa.org/handbook/history.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Party_of_America
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._presiden...lection%2C_1900 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._presidential_election%2C_1900)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._presiden...lection%2C_1904 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._presidential_election%2C_1904)
http://www.multied.com/elections/1908.html
http://www.multied.com/elections/1912.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._presiden...lection%2C_1912 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._presidential_election%2C_1912)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_scare
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espionage_Act_of_1917
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedition_Act_of_1918
http://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1918/canton.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._presiden...lection%2C_1920 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._presidential_election%2C_1920)
http://www.multied.com/elections/1920.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteenth_Am...es_Constitution (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitu tion)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_...rs_Organization (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Air_Traffic_Controllers_Organization)
http://www.debstendency.org/
http://www.sp-usa.org/
http://www.freepeltier.org/peltier_faq.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Act
Social Civics: Our Government in Action by Munro, Kennelly, McCarthy pg. 212-220
Funk and Wagnal Encyclopedia -Judg--Long ,pg. 5,461
Democracy Under Pressure by Cummings and Wise, pg.163,165,489-490
I know that I didn't cover the IWW
Eugene Debs was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, 1855. He came from a middle-class background, his parents were immigrants from Colmar, France, an Alsace province.
His child-hood was comfortable, no economic struggles or internal feuds.
At the age of 14 he left home and dropped out of school to work on the railroads for fifty cents a day, as a painter. Later he became a locomotive fireman. In his spare time he went to night classes at a local business college.
Because of his dangerous job as a locomotive fire man, his parents were concerned about their sons safety, and he abided by their wishes by becoming a grocery store clerk.
In 1879,he left his job at the grocery store because he was elected in the office of City Clerk of Terre Haute under the Democratic Party. He served in the office for two terms. Then in 1885 he was elected to the office of state representative to the Indiana General Assembly as a Democrat representing Terre Haute and Vigo County; this was also the year he married Kate Metzel, though he loved and cherished her till her death, they had no children together. During his service in the General Assembly, Debs supported or drafted bills for women's suffrage, the abolishment of racial distinctions, and compensation for railroad workers; all met with defeat.
Also in 1885, he and others founded a new lodge of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, he quickly became editor of the magazine, and left the magazine as Grand Secretary. His duties in the BLF consumed most of his time, so he did not run for any political office until later in life.
This union was more concerned with fellowship and services than collective bargaining, Debs however thought there needed to be a union with a more unified brotherhood and confrontational approach: The BLF was organized along craft lines; had separate brotherhoods and the owners could easily break jobs actions or strikes by easily playing off one brotherhood against another.
Frustrated from the ineffectiveness of the brotherhoods Debs tried to resign from office at the Cincinnati convention in 1892, which was unanimously refused, and instead he was re-elected as his previous offices, also the union insisted on giving him a paid vacation to Europe. Debs declined the vacation offer, and still insisted on tendering his offices. Finally, after relentlessly insisting his resignation, the offices withdrew Debs membership from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen an he formed the American Railway Union.
Debs and the American Railway Union.
The first Industrial Union in the United State was the American Railway Union, founded on June, 20, 1893 in Chicago, Illinois. The union was under the Presidency of Debs. The ARU unlike trade unions, unionized all railway workers regardless of craft or skill, this was to counter-act the squabbling of different unions which are organized under different crafts, which results in conflicts because of a union trying to implement their interests that may be contrary to another union. Because of the way the ARU was organized, it sought to include the interests of all craftsmen of the railway, and take a more organized approach when it came to disputes with capital.
Due to Debs wide recognition to workers nationwide and his tireless enthusiasm, within a year, the ARU had hundreds of affiliated local chapters and over 140,000 members and 125 locals nationwide. Whole lodges established with craft unions voted to affiliate with the ARU.
The Great Northern Railway Strike.
In the first year in operation the ARU engaged in a successful strike against the
Great Northern Railway. This railway was an important railroad carrying freight and passengers west from Milwaukee to the Pacific Northwest.
It all began on April 13,1893, with a letter that was distributed circularly to the members of the A.R.U containing the amount of wages being paid on the Great Northern Railway, which showed that the GNR paid lower wages than of other Pacific grand and continental lines.
Strikers were at first being removed by the rail road and replaced with “scabs”.
So the ARU called for the employees, or scabs to quit on very short notice, and they sent out a letter from their Butte city headquarters in Montana calling for the support of the workers.
The strike was called official by the ARU on April 16th, and demanded wages and work schedules to that of other railways.
The general manager, Mr. Hill, on receiving information of the walk-out of his employees, issued a notice expressing the wish for his employees not to go on strike, and made so-called promises of promotion. The A. R. U. held revival meetings at all points on the line of the Great Northern and membership increased by the thousands.
On April 22nd, the ARU called a conference with the management of the GNR management to discuss to the issues, then on May 3rd the strike was settled after 18 days and a contract signed which met virtually all union demands.
The Pullman Strike.
On May 11th 1894, the union became involved in a sympathy strike in support of employees of the George Pullman company, maker of Pullman railroad cars.
George Pullman, considered to be a “well-fare” capitalist, had his workers housed in a town named after himself. The main problem was that the Pullman company wasn’t paying high enough wages, nor scheduling enough hours for their own workers to live within his town. The Pullman company owned all the stores, utility companies; gas, water, and so on, and rented out housing to the workers. The workers hadn’t a choice to live anywhere else.
Within days, 50,000 rail workers complied, halting all railroad traffic in and out of Chicago, except trains carrying U.S. mail.
The Pullman Palace Car workers were among them. The Pullman shop workers went on a strike of their own (also against wage cuts) in May of 1894. After hearing a stirring address by Jennie Curtis, the leader of the women workers in the Pullman Shops, a convention of the American Railway Union voted to support the Pullman workers by refusing to work any trains that included Pullman cars.
Though the strike lead to a lock-out and an effective shutting down of production. The Railroad Managers thought up an idea to halt the strike and crush the ARU: Their strategy was to order Pullman cars hooked to U.S. Mail trains. At the same time, Attorney General Richard Olney, a former railroad lawyer, got a court injunction to prohibit blocking trains.
The ARU members refused to work the mail train, resulting in inter-action with the federal government, President Cleveland ordered 12,000 Army troops to cease the strike and to run the railways, the presence of the troops turned a peaceful strike into a violent reaction. About $80,000,000 worth of property was damaged, 24 strikers were killed, seven-hundred people were arrested,
and President Cleveland suspended the right to assembly in seven states.
The Arrest of Eugene Debs.
Though the railroad corporations demanded they be prosecuted for conspiracy, treason, and murder; Debs and seven other union officials, dubbed the “Woodstock Eight”, were convicted to six months in Woodstock, Illinois, for:
Obstructing the flow of United States mail, for violating the injunction by Olney, and for contempt of court (even though they were represented by Clarence Darrow).
While in prison the ARU dissolved, and the experience radicalized Debs, when he was in prison he became introduced to socialism by Victor Berger. He read many socialist works including works by Karl Marx, such as Das Kapital.
He also wrote to Socialist magazines, a letter of his published in “The Coming Nation”, Debs advocated the establishment of the co-operative commonwealth by the exercise of the ballot. He claimed that all crooked politicians can be swept away with votes from the American Public. Though he was well behaved in prison he refused special privileges and fought for prisoners rights.
When Debs was released from prison, the warden disobeyed the regulations, he opened up the cell-block so that Debs’s fellow inmates could gather in front of the main jail-building, and say farewell to him. A warm roar rose from the crowd when he turned, and he greeted them with open arms.
Upon notice of his departure for prison, railway corporations hired private detectives to keep surveillance on him for two years, and whenever he organized the workers they were discharged.
The Socialist Party.
On March, 22, 1899, in New York, Debs declared to congress of radicals ( who were assembled to discuss activism, and to form a grass-roots organization) that he was for a socialist alternative for the United states of America. Not all the members were interested in socialism; these members would rather compromise instead of fighting for the common-ownership of property, and take baby steps to abolish wage-slavery. Debs and some other members though the opposing idea was ineffective, so they decided to work with the Social-Democratic Party.
Though Debs campaigned under the Social-Democrat banner in 1900, he and others thought the party strategy was ineffective, and inept because it focused too much on electoral politics: with the idea that it could radically change the American government by having candidates voted into office. So he and other SDP members split from the party to form the Socialist Party in 1901.
The platform of the Socialist Party focused more on gaining and maintaining the rights of workers to organize; work place democracy; workplace safety; setting up measures to implement common-ownership of property; universal suffrage; minority rights; the abolishment of child-labor laws; and fair pay for all workers. Though they knew their platform couldn’t be entirely implemented by reforms, the plan was to agitate by campaigning, political demonstrations, and dispensing literature, so the working-class would organize grassroots elements, and take direct action to abolish wage-slavery, social classes . The agenda was similar to the Bolsheviks of Russia, however SPUSA didn’t have a strict dogmatic party line, nor did they subordinate workers-councils to the party.
Presidential Campaign 1900.
The main issues in the campaign of this year were whether the United States
should give independence to the territories it received after the war with Spain.
In 1900 in Indianapolis, the Social Democrat Party held its first national convention and nominated Debs to run as its candidate for president with running mate Job Harriman. Their platform argued that the two main parties weren’t interested in the issues that were important to the working-class.
William McKinley with running mate Theodore Roosevelt, ran on the Republican ticket, the Republicans sought to civilize the territories it gained, and advocated the gold-standard of currency. They used the war victorious war record of the country under McKinley, and a slogan of “Four more years of the full dinner pail”.
William Jennings Bryan with running mate Adlai Stevenson, were on the Democratic ticket, the Democrats on the other hand wanted to give the Latin countries their independence, and argued that the Republicans were being too imperialistic. In response to the gold standard, they advocated a nearly-defunct silver standard.
The Republicans won the election with 51.6% of the popular vote, and 292 electoral votes. The Democrats got 45.5% of the popular vote, and 155 electoral votes. Of the other 2.9% popular vote, the Social-Democrats received 0.6% of the popular vote, and came in fourth out of sixth place.
Presidential Campaign 1904.
The election was held on November 8th, this time Eugene Debs with running mate Benjamin Hanford ran under the Socialist Party, and advocated their party’s platform. Their goal wasn’t to win the election; it was just to politically agitate and gain a base.
The Republican party nominated former Vice President Theodore Roosevelt, with running-mate Charles Fairbanks.
The Democrat Party nominated Alton Barker, with running mate Henry Davis. There weren’t any significant issues this year, so the Democrat Party tried to adopt part of the Republican platform by advocating the gold standard.
The Republicans won the election with 56.4% popular votes and 336 electoral votes. The Democrat Party received 37.6% popular votes and 140 electoral votes. The Socialist Party came in third with 6% of the popular vote.
Presidential Campaign 1908.
The major issue between the two main parties in this campaign was who could best carry out the vastly popular policies of Roosevelt.
The Republicans hand picked Taft as Roosevelt’s successor, and ran with James Sherman.
The Democrats nominated Bryan, because he claimed he was the best man to continue Roosevelt’s policies, and he ran with John Kern. Their strategy was to woo over Socialist Party, and Socialist Labor party voters by calling for a socialization of the railroads.
Because there was little favorable coverage on third parties, the Socialist Party running with the same candidates, chose a different approach to campaigning.
They chose to speak directly to the people, Debs and Hanford rode across country on a train called the “Red Special Train”, and talked to voters from the platform of the train.
The Republicans won the election with 51.6% popular votes, and 321 electoral votes, where as the Democrat Party won the election with 43% popular votes, and 162 electoral votes. The Socialist Party came in third again with 2.8% popular votes.
Presidential Campaign 1912.
The Democrat Party with Woodrow Wilson and Thomas Marshall won the election, because of the divide of the Republican Party. Taft of the Republican party, had more conservative ideas, argued that the days without deregulated unbridled capitalism were over. Former President Theodore Roosevelt, disgusted with the Republicans for nominating Taft, formed the Progressive Party, and ran with Hiram Johnson. This Party sought for conservation and consumer protection, and was willing to work with organized labor. The voters thought the Republican Party was instable, so they voted in Wilson.
Eugene Debs still on the bill for the Socialist ticket, but with a new running mate; Emil Seidel. Though there seemed to be a more progressive leaning ethos in America, Debs argued that the three parties wouldn’t act in the interests of the working people, because they have their own political-career agenda.
The election results were: Democrat Party 41.8% popular, 435 electoral;
Progressive Party 27.4% popular, 88 electoral; Republican 23.2% popular, 8 electoral; and Socialist Party 3% popular vote.
Red Scare.
The first era of Red Scare within the United States was from 1917-1920.
During this time, suspicion of widespread infiltration by Socialists, Communists, and Anarchists was feared that it would influence the United States society.
To counteract these fears, President Wilson and the U.S. government made many attempts to suppress dissent against World War I by encouraging pro-war attitudes through the Committee on Public Information, which was complemented by the Bureau of Investigation. This Bureau would disrupt the work of German-Americans and leftists; raid headquarters of leftist organization; send agent provocateurs to entrap anti-war activists; and find evidence to prosecute suspects.
During this time the Espionage Act was approved in the U.S government, with the Sedition Act amended to it. The Espionage Act and the Sedition Act made it a federal offence to speak out against the U.S. Government and the War.
Section Four of the Sedition act empowered Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson to slow or confiscate all Socialist material in the mail.
The fears and actions were a result of the Russian Revolution in 1917, it was feared that a revolution would occur in America, because the Bolsheviks were advocating a world-wide revolution of the workers.
Return to Prison.
The Socialist Party of the United states of America strongly opposed the war on pacifist , and revolutionary grounds. On June 16, 1918 Debs made an anti-war speech in Canton, Ohio protesting World War I. At this time in the United States of America, he stated that the war was being fought for the profits of the rich, but with the blood of the poor, and condemned all the governments involved in the war.
Because the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act were in effect, it was made it illegal to speak out against the U.S government. Though Debs had carefully guarded his speeches in an attempt to comply with the Espionage Act, the Court found he still had the intention and effect of obstructing the draft and recruitment for the war. Among other things, the Court cited Debs's praise for those imprisoned for obstructing the draft. Debs went to court and was found guilty according to the sedition act and was sent to prison in Atlanta, Georgia for 10 years and he had to give-up his citizenship.
Upon receiving his sentence Debs replied, “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.”
A May Day parade in Cleveland on 1919, Ohio, protested the imprisonment of Eugene Debs erupted into the violent May Day Riots. Charles Ruthenberg, a prominent Socialist leader who organized the march, was arrested for "assault with intent to kill".
Presidential Campaign 1920.
The campaign was focused mainly on the issues involving World War I, diplomats and politicians were arguing over peace treaties and the question of America's entry into the League of Nations. Overseas there were wars and revolutions; at home there were strikes, riots, and a growing fear of radicals and terrorists. Disillusionment was in the air. The presidential election of 1920 continued the debate between the nationalistic activism of Roosevelt's presidency and the global idealism of Wilson's administration.
The Republican Party nominated Warren Harding, and running mate Calvin Coolidge .The Republicans supported prohibition, and whether they supported Wilson’s referendum on the League of Nations. They came in first in the election with 60.3% popular vote, and 404 electoral vote.
The Democratic Party nominated James Cox with running mate Franklin Roosevelt. They opposed prohibition, and advocated Wilson’s referendum on the League of Nations. Cox tried some of the campaigning strategies of Debs, such as campaigning from a train, and giving porch-front speeches. They came in second in the election with 34.1% popular votes, and 127 electoral votes.
Although, in Prison Debs ran for president and received 913,664 (3.4%) votes, the most ever for a Socialist Party presidential candidate in the U.S. and slightly more than he had won in 1912, when he obtained six percent of the vote.
The slogans for Debs include “For president, convict No.9653”,and “From prison to the Whitehouse”. The platform of SPUSA promised to the American people a treaty which would assure to the world a reign of international right and true democracy. They called upon all the U.S. workers to free the country from the oppressive misrule of the old political parties.
While in prison, Debs was inspired to write a column deeply critical of the prison system, which appeared in a bowdlerized form in the Bell Syndicate and was collected into his only book, Walls and Bars, with several added chapters (published after his death).
On December 25, 1921 President Warren G. Harding released Debs from prison, commuting his sentence to time served.
Debs, however, never recovered his health from that time in prison and died on October. 20,1926, in Lindlahr Sanitarium, Elmhurst, Illinois. He was buried in Terre Haute, Indiana.
In 1976 Debs' citizenship was restored posthumously.
How Debs relates to today’s political world.
Many of Debs's "radical" reforms--an eight-hour workday, pensions, workman's compensation, sick leave, child- labor laws, and social security--are commonplace in today's workplace. An Equal Opportunity Commission was created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to end discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in all conditions of employment.
Also, since the civil rights movement, America has sought to end racial barriers starting with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Women were granted Suffrage in 1920 by the 19th amendment.
Despite many of these victories, the reconciliation between labor and capital hasn‘t been reached. Many activists , politicians, and citizens views have become more moderate towards the issue, either because of a un-united leftist organizations, or because many believe socialism results in Stalinism, and a bureaucratic caste living off the workers.
Though the Wagner Act of 1935 and the Norris-LaGuardia Anti-injunction Act of 1932 were hailed as victories for labor: Employers complained about the number of work stoppages ,due to jurisdictional disputes , and demanded that a new balance should be struck. Thus the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, was written. It outlawed closed shop under union membership is required before hiring, but permitted the union shop under which union member ship was required after hiring; it permitted an 80-day injunction to stop strikes; it required union official to sign non-Communist affidavits, and to open their financial records for public scrutiny; it provided for a 60-day notice for the intention to strike; it gave employers access to federal courts to sue union for sympathy strikes; and it made it illegal for union to make political contributions.
The Taft-Hartley Act reared its head again in 1980, when the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization went on strike seeking better working conditions, better pay, and a 32-hour workweek. President Ronald Reagan ordered the strikers back to work under the terms of the act, an he fired 11,359 union members, replaced them with nonparticipating controllers, supervisors, staff personnel, some non-rated personnel, and in some cases by controllers transferred temporarily from other facilities.
The Taft-Hartley act is still in-effect today: unions are losing membership, AFL-CIO is in the process of dividing, and union-busters have an easier time of pitting one union against another.
Since legislature such as the Smith Act, was found unconstitutional in some areas, and prosecutions under the act have ceased (although still on the books): Politically Eugene Debs views, and strategies still circulate in America today.
The Debs tendency of the Socialist Party is trying to gain a base a reunite the factions within the party under Debs’ unique revolutionary ideas. Also the Socialist Party still runs in presidential elections to gain a base, and present ideas.
As for strategies, Leonard Peltier of the Peace and Freedom Party run for presidential elections within his prison-cell to raise consciousness of political issues regarding Native Americans.
Eugene Debs is remembered as symbol by radical-leftists, for his compassion, enthusiasm, and seeking for the brotherhood of all mankind. His kiosk stands in the Labor Hall of Fame, Department of Labor, Washington, DC as a tribute to his contributions to American labor. Labor Unions are among the most active supporters of the Eugene V. Debs Foundation and union members from across Indiana and the Midwest are in regular attendance each fall when an annual award banquet is held in Terre Haute.
sources:
http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/sinners/DebsEugene.htm
http://recollectionbooks.com/siml/library/PullmanStrike.htm
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Social Civics: Our Government in Action by Munro, Kennelly, McCarthy pg. 212-220
Funk and Wagnal Encyclopedia -Judg--Long ,pg. 5,461
Democracy Under Pressure by Cummings and Wise, pg.163,165,489-490
I know that I didn't cover the IWW