ipl-logo

Eugene V. Debs: Leader Of The Labor Movement

524 Words3 Pages

Eugene V. Debs, leader of the labor movement and, later, an outspoken founding socialist, mobilized the working class toward fighting for greater wages, safe conditions, and the 8-hour-day. Initially, entering the workforce as a railroad laborer, he rose to prominence by organizing the American Railway Union, the Socialist Party, and the International Industrial Workers of the World. Debs was born in Terre Haute, Indiana to French-German immigrants, and dropping high school, he ended up stoking fires for the railroad. There, he rose to prominence as editor for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen’s magazine from 1880 to 1894. As editor, he actually pursued a conservative, friendly relationship between laborers and owners, even condemning the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. However, he soon decided that all laborers ought to band together against big business, who he viewed as suppressing the people. Looking …show more content…

Despairing over the futility of union action, he found his answer to labor’s problems in socialist ideology, announcing his adoption of it after leaving. He founded the Socialist Party and established himself as the leader. For president under the Socialist banner he ran in 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920—then from prison for violating the WWI Espionage Act, garnering almost a million votes in 1920. His platform demanded sweeping reform for working conditions, establishing social welfare, and expanding the electorate. Under the Socialist Party he founded the International Workers of the World, a union beyond representing just a craft, but for all laborers. The long-established American Federation of Laborers condemned it as radical, and Debs himself resigned later, also citing its transition to radicalism. When his sentence was commuted by President Harding after the War, he continued to lead the Socialists, weakened by the Red Scare in 1919, until his death in

Show More
Related
100 Words | 1 Pages

He ensured a fair rate for the consumer and fair pay for the workers and believed the role of the government was to protect the workers from greedy business owners.

Read More
725 Words | 3 Pages

John L. Lewis - President of the United Mine Workers of America in 1919. He called his union members out on strike in protest of low wages and long workdays. 3. Samuel Gompers -The president of the American Federalization of Labor (AFL). He appealed to Coolidge on behalf of the fired men, which had saved the nation from communism.

Read More
826 Words | 4 Pages

In later years, he buried two young men who died because they couldn’t afford medical care, which only strengthened his belief that he could do more as a politician than from the pulpit. These incidents, his relief camps along with his experience of the great depression led him to conclude that political action was necessary in order to alleviate the suffering he saw around him. In 1932 he joined the new Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) political party marking his first step towards

Read More
781 Words | 4 Pages

This first published series was a accumulation of city portraits unlike any America had ever seen. Ray Stannard Baker,“ the Right to WorK” for McClure's Magazine. He detailed how coal workers and scabs ( non-striking

Read More
1812 Words | 8 Pages

He was looking to rise up against those that were oppressing him—an issue that involved merchants but certainly was not limited to

Read More
744 Words | 3 Pages

The Fire That Changed America is a historical monograph discusses the rise of labor reforms along with the Progressive Movement throughout the state of New York during the early 1900’s, and pushes forward the argument that the fire which decimated the Triangle Waist Company was vital to the entrance of laws advocated by unions that protect the safety of workers. Drehle himself is a journalist, a former editor of Time Magazine, and a frequent visitor of American History in most of his works. The fire at Triangle was a devastating tragedy, but its sheer scale caused incredibly welcoming effects on the common workplace. Before the fire, labor unions that belonged to the progressive movement were only able to secure “a pay raise, [and] a fifty-two hour work week” for a pitifully limited number of workers, as the

Read More
1093 Words | 5 Pages

He became very influential and involved with this party. He was the founder of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society which is now the League for Industrial Democracy. He was a Socialist candidate for congress in New Jersey in 1906. Then in 1917 he left the party for a short time to support President Wilson, but then returned to the party after Wilson stated his support for Allied intervention in the Soviet Union. He then moved to Pasadena, California in 1915.

Read More
1505 Words | 7 Pages

The year 1894 was only the official holiday for the entire nation, but labor days and craftsmen parades had already been established nationally years before. Labor Day, by becoming nationally approved, helped to sate union movements that were crying out for public recognition of the wage-earners and the importance of their labor, and how it helped to release pressure of work in the new capitalist industrial society (capitalist industry is better?). This holiday, though state approved, was not state sponsored, depending on the labor union leaders to organize and pay for these parades and events that were to commemorate the usefulness of wage-earners in this new society. It was a problem from labor leaders due to their smaller unions, since each labor day parade was just a local celebration with no aid from other unions or leagues from around Canada, unemployment, strikes, and fleeting number of members by the twentieth century. (3) Though it was difficult, many cities were able to have parades and athletic events to celebrate Labor during the nineteenth century.

Read More
602 Words | 3 Pages

Debs’ kind and compassionate heart for others encouraged him to stand up for those without a voice. Since he was so compelled to help those around him, Debs fought for better working conditions for laborers (Source 2). However, many of his efforts to assist those in need did not always work out for the best. Debs was imprisoned

Read More
408 Words | 2 Pages

The feeling, shown in Nast's illustration after the railroad strike of 1877, that amalgamations simply lead to more " communistic values" and general uniformity made it very arduous to genuinely get anything done. Samuel Gompers, progenitor of the American Federation of Labor, argued that the right to strike was absolutely obligatory if any reforms were going to be made and not even this right had been officially granted to the people by regime (Document I). Gompers made it very pellucid that not even the very substratum of organized labor had been established and so up until this point the advances that had been made, were virtually frivolous. In conclusion, from 1875-1900 very few advances were made through organized labor in achieving better working conditions for workers.

Read More
736 Words | 3 Pages

Debs was especially keen on this Idea due to the fact that he started feeling that capitalism would not be able to help the poor and lower class. The lower class were slowly starting to descend into greater and greater poverty Especially due to the beginnings of a depression preparing to rear its head at the country known as America. Immediately after settling on this idea and after being released from jail, Debs started his road onto the political stage through running for president. He lead the establishment of the socialist party of America and became their candidate. On his first entrance onto the presidential stage, Debs only got a measly 96,000 votes.

Read More
655 Words | 3 Pages

Reaction toward the propagandas and the aggressive campaigns was serious, not all the dissenters ceased their "fire". Eugene Debs, a socialist leader, was put to prison for ten years by criticizing the war.

Read More
1988 Words | 8 Pages

Carnegie’s involvement in this event was questioned since he was a supporter of labor unions and workers’ rights (Encyclopedia Britannica 242). Carnegie contradicted

Read More
1624 Words | 7 Pages

Classical Liberalism makes two important promises; to create a state that is free from oppression and give its citizens freedom. The United State has tried to keep true to these principles till this day, but has failed to address the detrimental effects of capitalism in our society. Many argue that classical liberalism is exactly what the founding fathers intended for America. They wanted its citizens to have civil rights, freedom, and protection, rather than a controlling monarchist system, and at first it was functionally a dream come true.

Read More
417 Words | 2 Pages

History of Rockets The history of rockets come from an American rocketry pioneer Robert H. Goddard and his first liquid-fueled rocket, March 16, 1926. He is considered the father of modern rocket propulsion. Many cultures used rockets but the first to use a rocket was a Greek man named Archytas (a Roman) who lived in the city of Tarentum (now a part of southern Italy). The writings of Aulus Gellius, one of the first devices to successfully employ the principles essential to rocket flight was a wooden bird.

Read More

More about Eugene V. Debs: Leader Of The Labor Movement

Related Topics

Open Document