In case anyone wanted to know a bit more. He was the founder of the American Railway Union, one of America’s first industrial unions. As leader, he organized a stike against the Pullman factory that resulted in its own factory workers, who were not ARU members, to strike. The strike was because factory workers had their wages reduced but their rents (which they paid to the company they worked for) were not. Engineers and conductors for the company continued to work, so Debs had the striking factory workers block railways. That caused the government to send in the army to break up the union and jail Debs along with other union and strike leaders.
While in jail, Debs read socialist political literature and founded several socialist political parties on his release. Debs gave many political speeches that upset the government, but one where he urged listeners to dodge the WWI military draft, because the proletariat shouldn’t fight the battles of the rulling class, caused him to be jailed once again for sedition. It was this time in jail that he ran for office.
“I know of no reason why the workers should fight for what the capitalists own,” Debs wrote to novelist Upton Sinclair, “or slaughter one another for countries that belong to their masters.”
Illness slowed Debs for several months after war was declared; he mostly stayed home in Terre Haute, resting under doctor’s orders, sick with back pain, digestion problems, and a weak heart. But in December, his friend Kate O’Hare, the nation’s most prominent female socialist, was convicted under the Espionage Act for a July 1917 anti-war speech and sentenced to five years in prison. “I shall feel guilty to be at large,” Debs wrote her in solidarity. In May 1918, Congress passed the Sedition Act, further tightening restrictions on dissent.
Enraged, Debs set out in June on a new speaking tour of the Midwest. He knew he was courting prosecution, and maybe even welcomed it. “I’ll take about two jumps and they’ll nail me, but that’s all right,” he told a friend.
Two weeks later, Debs was walking into a Socialist picnic in Cleveland when U.S. marshals arrested him.
“I have been accused of having obstructed the war,” Debs told the jury. “I admit it. I abhor war. I would oppose the war if I stood alone.” He defended socialism as a moral movement, like the abolition of slavery decades before. “I believe in free speech, in war as well as in peace,” Debs declared. “If the Espionage Law stands, then the Constitution of the United States is dead.”
The jury found Debs guilty on three counts, and the judge sentenced him to ten years in prison.
The Wilson administration, unmoved, rejected a recommendation to commute Debs’ sentence in February 1921. “While the flower of American youth was pouring out its blood to vindicate the cause of civilization, this man, Debs, stood behind the lines, sniping, attacking, and denouncing them,” Wilson complained to his secretary. “This man was a traitor to his country."
In December 1921, Harding commuted Debs’ sentence, set his release for Christmas Day, and invited Debs to the White House. “I have heard so damned much about you, Mr. Debs, that I am now very glad to meet you personally,” Harding greeted him on Dec. 26. Leaving the meeting, Debs called Harding “a kind gentleman” with “humane impulses,” but declared that he’d told the president he would continue the fight for his “principles, conviction, and ideals.” He took the train to home to Terre Haute and his wife, Kate, the next day.
Debs died in 1926 at age 70.
Pretty much the same thing as raw-dogging a porn star just after your wife gave birth and then committing felony business fraud and campaign finance violations to cover it up, I guess.
In case anyone wanted to know a bit more. He was the founder of the American Railway Union, one of America’s first industrial unions. As leader, he organized a stike against the Pullman factory that resulted in its own factory workers, who were not ARU members, to strike. The strike was because factory workers had their wages reduced but their rents (which they paid to the company they worked for) were not. Engineers and conductors for the company continued to work, so Debs had the striking factory workers block railways. That caused the government to send in the army to break up the union and jail Debs along with other union and strike leaders.
While in jail, Debs read socialist political literature and founded several socialist political parties on his release. Debs gave many political speeches that upset the government, but one where he urged listeners to dodge the WWI military draft, because the proletariat shouldn’t fight the battles of the rulling class, caused him to be jailed once again for sedition. It was this time in jail that he ran for office.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_V._Debs
And more about him being in prison for speaking out against the war.
Pretty much the same thing as raw-dogging a porn star just after your wife gave birth and then committing felony business fraud and campaign finance violations to cover it up, I guess.