DEBS, EUGENE VICTOR (1855-1926), American Social ist leader, was born at Terre Haute, Ind., on Nov. 5, 1855. On leaving the public schools he became in 1871 a locomotive fireman. In 1879 he was elected city clerk of Terre Haute and in 1881 was re-elected. During 1885 he was a member of the Indiana legisla ture. Previous to this, in 188o, he was elected secretary and treasurer of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and was appointed editor of The Locomotive Firemen's Magazine. In 1893 he organized the American Railway Union and was elected presi dent of the union, serving four years. In 1894 he led the strike which, beginning in the Pullman-car plants, soon involved the railways leading into Chicago.
Debs was arrested on a charge of conspiracy to kill, and ac quitted, but was later convicted of contempt of court for violating an injunction, and sent to gaol for six months (May–Nov. 1895). In 1897 he joined the Socialist movement. He was Socialist can didate for the Presidency of the United States in 19oo, 1904, 19o8, 1912 but declined the nomination in 1916. In 1907 he was on the editorial staff of the Appea/ to Reason, and in 1914 became editor in-chief of the National Rip-Saw, a Socialist paper published at St. Louis. He was an advocate of industrial unionism, though he eventually dissociated himself from the I.W.W. (q.v.), and was one of the chief opponents of Samuel Gompers (q.v.).
He was a pacifist and in Sept. 1918 was convicted of violating the Espionage Act and sentenced to ten years in the penitentiary. In 1920, while in prison, he was again nominated presidential can didate by the Socialists and received 915,3o2 votes. His sentence was commuted by President Harding in Dec. 1921. He died at Elmhurst, Ill., Oct. 19, 1926. He was one of the foremost figures in American Socialism.
He was the author of Liberty (1895); Unionism and Socialism, a Plea for Both (1904) ; The American Movement (19o4); Indus trial Unionism (1905); The Growth of Socialism (i9to); The Children of the Poor (t9it); and Walls and Bars (1927). Also see Stephen Marion Reynolds, Life of Eugene V . Debs o) ; Max Eastman, The Trial of Eugene V. Debs (1919); Walter Hurt, Eugene V. Debs: an Introduction 0919); David Karsner, Debs: His Authorized Life and Letters (1919); and Scott Nearing, The Debs' Decision (1919). Consult also Debs' Magazine.