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79-741: The North Dakota Industrial Commission, a product of the Nonpartisan League (NPL), was established by the Legislature in 1919 to oversee the utilities, industries, enterprises, and business projects owned and operated by the state. Since its inception, the Industrial Commission has been composed of the Attorney General , Agriculture Commissioner , and the Governor , serving as chair. The Bank of North Dakota

158-553: A Lower East Side audience at New York City's Cooper Union that parliamentary Socialists were "step-at-a-time people whose every step is just a little shorter than the preceding step". It was better, Haywood said, to "elect the superintendent of some branch of industry, than to elect some congressman to the United States Congress". In response, Hillquit attacked the IWW as "purely anarchistic". The Cooper Union speech

237-465: A corporate lawyer for the railroad company. Although it is commonly thought that Darrow "switched sides" to represent Debs, a myth repeated by Irving Stone's biography, Clarence Darrow for the Defense , he had in fact resigned from the railroad earlier, after the death of his mentor William Goudy. A Supreme Court case decision, In re Debs , later upheld the right of the federal government to issue

316-615: A European-style socialist political party with a view to capture of the government apparatus through the ballot box. The June 1898 convention would be the group's last, with the minority political action wing quitting the organization to establish a new organization, the Social Democratic Party of America (SDP), also called the Social Democratic Party of the United States . Debs was elected to

395-545: A Society of Equity meeting in Bismarck that a state representative named Treadwell Twichell had told a group of farmers to "go home and slop the hogs." Twichell later said that his statement was misinterpreted. He had been instrumental in previous legislative reforms to rescue the state from boss rule by McKenzie and the Northern Pacific Railroad around the start of the 20th century. Proposing that

474-527: A boycott by the ARU against handling trains with Pullman cars in what became the nationwide Pullman Strike , affecting most lines west of Detroit and more than 250,000 workers in 27 states. Purportedly to keep the mail running, President Grover Cleveland used the United States Army to break the strike. As a leader of the ARU, Debs was convicted of federal charges for defying a court injunction against

553-468: A day. He later became a painter and car cleaner in the railroad shops. In December 1871, when a drunken locomotive fireman failed to report for work, Debs was pressed into service as a night fireman. He decided to remain a fireman on the run between Terre Haute and Indianapolis, earning more than a dollar a night for the next three and half years. In July 1875, Debs left to work at a wholesale grocery house, where he remained for four years while attending

632-549: A defeat for labor that convinced Debs of "the need to reorganize across craft lines", according to Joanne Reitano. After stepping down as Brotherhood Grand Secretary in 1893, Debs organized one of the first industrial unions in the United States, the American Railway Union (ARU), for unskilled workers. He was elected president of the ARU upon its founding, with fellow railway labor organizer George W. Howard as first vice president. The union successfully struck

711-446: A federal prisoner in jail for sedition, though he promised to pardon himself if elected. Although he received some success as a third-party candidate, Debs was largely dismissive of the electoral process as he distrusted the political bargains that Victor Berger and other " sewer socialists " had made in winning local offices. He put much more value on organizing workers into unions, favoring unions that brought together all workers in

790-573: A friend, Frank B. Wood, drew up a radical political platform that addressed many of the farmers' concerns, and created the Farmers Non-Party League Organization, which later evolved into the Nonpartisan League. Soon, Townley was traveling the state in a borrowed Ford Model T , signing up members for a payment of $ 6 in dues. Farmers were receptive to Townley's ideas and joined in droves. However, Townley

869-647: A given industry over those organized by the craft skills workers practiced. After his work with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and the American Railway Union , Debs's next major work in organizing a labor union came during the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). On June 27, 1905, in Chicago, Illinois, Debs and other influential union leaders including Bill Haywood , leader of

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948-687: A large antiwar rally at Garrison in 1915. By 1912, there were 175 Socialist politicians in the state. Rugby and Hillsboro elected Socialist mayors. The party had also established a weekly newspaper, the Iconoclast , in Minot. In 1914, Arthur C. Townley , a flax farmer from Beach, North Dakota , and organizer for the Socialist Party of America , attended a meeting of the American Society of Equity . Afterwards, Townley and

1027-576: A local business school at night. Debs joined the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen (BLF) in February 1875 and became active in the organization. In 1877 he served as a delegate of the Terre Haute lodge to the organization's national convention. Debs was elected associate editor of the BLF's monthly organ, Firemen's Magazine , in 1878. Two years later, he was appointed Grand Secretary and Treasurer of

1106-404: A means of settling differences. The brotherhood had never authorized a strike from its founding in 1873 to 1887, a record which Debs was proud of. Railroad companies cultivated the brotherhood and granted them perks like free transportation to their conventions for the delegates. Debs also invited railroad president Henry C. Lord to write for the magazine. Summarizing Debs's thought in this period,

1185-532: A running mate and received 901,551 votes, which was 6.0 percent of the popular vote, which remains the all-time highest percentage of the vote for a Socialist Party candidate in a U.S. presidential election. Though Debs won no state's electoral votes, in Florida, he came in second behind Wilson and ahead of President William Howard Taft and former President Teddy Roosevelt . Finally, in 1920, running with Seymour Stedman , Debs won 914,191 votes (3.4%), which remains

1264-437: A single stroke. The writings of [Edward] Bellamy and [Robert] Blatchford early appealed to me. The Cooperative Commonwealth of [Laurence] Gronlund also impressed me, but the writings of [Karl] Kautsky were so clear and conclusive that I readily grasped, not merely his argument, but also caught the spirit of his socialist utterance – and I thank him and all who helped me out of darkness into light. Additionally, Debs

1343-507: A state hail insurance fund, and established a workmen's compensation fund that assessed employers. The NPL also set up a Home Building Association, to aid people in financing and building houses. During World War I , Townley demanded the "conscription of wealth", blaming "big-bellied, red-necked plutocrats " for the war. He and fellow party leader William Lemke received support for the League from isolationist German-Americans . However,

1422-522: A task in the presence of which weak men might falter and despair, but from which it is impossible to shrink without betraying the working class". Although the IWW was built on the basis of uniting workers of industry, a rift began between the union and the Socialist Party. It started when the electoral wing of the Socialist Party, led by Victor Berger and Morris Hillquit , became irritated with speeches by Haywood. In December 1911, Haywood told

1501-538: A wife who rejects the very values he holds most dear" was the basis of Irving Stone 's biographical novel Adversary in the House . The Social Democracy of America (SDA), founded in June 1897 by Eugene V. Debs from the remnants of his American Railway Union, was deeply divided between those who favored a tactic of launching a series of colonies to build socialism by practical example and others who favored establishment of

1580-619: Is a soul in prison, I am not free. Debs appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court. In its ruling on Debs v. United States , the court examined several statements Debs had made regarding World War I and socialism. While Debs had carefully worded his speeches in an attempt to comply with the Espionage Act of 1917 , the Court found he had the intention and effect of obstructing the draft and military recruitment. Among other things,

1659-611: Is a state-owned-run financial institution. The president of the Bank reports to the Industrial Commission, who oversee the bank alongside a separate advisory board appointed by the governor. The North Dakota Building Authority finances and manages the real estate used by the State of North Dakota. By statute, the Industrial Commission also acts as the Building Authority. The North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources houses both

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1738-561: Is administered by the Industrial Commission, under advisement from the Lignite Research Council, a group of public and private sector experts appointed by the Governor. The North Dakota Mill and Elevator Association is a company owned by the State of North Dakota and overseen by the Industrial Commission that owns the largest flour mill in the United States. By statute, all capital and operating expenses are paid for by

1817-538: The Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen , Debs led his union in a major ten-month strike against the CB&;Q Railroad in 1888 . Debs was instrumental in the founding of the American Railway Union (ARU), one of the nation's first industrial unions . After workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company organized a wildcat strike over pay cuts in the summer of 1894, Debs signed many into the ARU. He led

1896-644: The Great Northern Railway in April 1894, winning most of its demands. In 1894, Debs became involved in the Pullman Strike , which grew out of a compensation dispute started by the workers who constructed the rail cars made by the Pullman Palace Car Company . The Pullman Company, citing falling revenue after the economic Panic of 1893 , had cut the wages of its employees by twenty-eight percent. The workers, many of whom were already members of

1975-501: The Indiana General Assembly . He served for one term in 1885. Debs married Katherine "Kate" Metzel on June 9, 1885, at St. Stephen's Episcopal church. Their home still stands in Terre Haute, preserved on the campus of Indiana State University . The railroad brotherhoods were comparatively conservative organizations, focused on providing fellowship and services rather than on collective bargaining. Their motto

2054-568: The Socialist Labor Party in 1899 unified forces at a Socialist Unity Convention held in Indianapolis in mid-1901 – a meeting which established the Socialist Party of America (SPA). Debs was the Socialist Party of America candidate for president in 1904 , 1908 , 1912 , and 1920 (the final time from prison). Though he received increasing numbers of popular votes in each subsequent election, he never won any votes in

2133-564: The Western Federation of Miners ; and Daniel De Leon , leader of the Socialist Labor Party , held what Haywood called the "Continental Congress of the working class". Haywood stated: "We are here to confederate the workers of this country into a working-class movement that shall have for its purpose the emancipation of the working class". Debs stated: "We are here to perform a task so great that it appeals to our best thought, our united energies, and will enlist our most loyal support;

2212-587: The 1930s. The NPL's William "Wild Bill" Langer was elected to the governorship in 1932 and 1936 . Langer was later elected to the U.S. Senate, serving from 1940 until his death in 1959. By 1950, two factions divided the traditionally left-wing NPL; on one side were the Insurgents, and on the other were the Old Guard. The Insurgents aligned liberally with pro-farmers' union, organized labor , and Democratic Party groups. The Insurgents wanted to merge

2291-477: The ARU, appealed for support to the union at its convention in Chicago, Illinois. Debs tried to persuade union members, who worked on the railways, that the boycott was too risky given the hostility of the railways and the federal government, the weakness of the union, and the possibility that other unions would break the strike. The membership ignored his warnings and refused to handle Pullman cars or any other railroad cars attached to them, including cars containing

2370-477: The Almighty marks the passage of Time upon the dial of the universe; and though no bell may beat the glad tidings, the look-out knows that the midnight is passing – that relief and rest are close at hand. Let the people take heart and hope everywhere, for the cross is bending, midnight is passing, and joy cometh with the morning. Debs was sentenced on September 18, 1918, to ten years in prison and

2449-457: The BLF and editor of the magazine in July 1880. He worked as a BLF functionary until January 1893 and as the magazine's editor until September 1894. At the same time, he became a prominent figure in the community. He served two terms as Terre Haute's city clerk from September 1879 to September 1883. In the fall of 1884, he was elected as a Democrat to represent Terre Haute and Vigo County in

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2528-483: The Electoral College. In both 1904 and 1908, Debs ran with running-mate Ben Hanford . They received 402,810 votes in 1904, for 3.0 percent of the popular vote and an overall third-place finish. In the 1908 election, they received a slightly higher number of votes (420,852) than in their previous run, but at 2.8 percent, a smaller percentage of the total votes cast. In 1912, Debs ran with Emil Seidel as

2607-517: The Industrial Commission acts as this body. Official website Nonpartisan League The Nonpartisan League ( NPL ) was a left-wing political party founded in 1915 in North Dakota by Arthur C. Townley , a former organizer for the Socialist Party of America . On behalf of small farmers and merchants, the Nonpartisan League advocated state control of mills, grain elevators, banks, and other farm-related industries in order to reduce

2686-616: The League's base joined the North Dakota Republican Party . The Democratic-Nonpartisan League Party introduced a unified slate of candidates for statewide offices and adopted a liberal platform that included the repeal of the Taft–Hartley Act , creation of a minimum wage of $ 1.25 an hour, and a graduated land tax on property worth $ 20,000 or more. In May 1956, the Democratic Convention accepted

2765-660: The NPL with the North Dakota Democratic Party . In 1952 , the Insurgents formed the Volunteers for Stevenson Committee, to help elect Adlai Stevenson II , the governor of Illinois and Democratic nominee for president . The Old Guard, also known as the Capitol Crowd , were more conservative , anti-farmers' union, anti-labor, and pro-Republican segment of the league, these members wanted to keep

2844-529: The NPL won full control of both houses of the state legislature , the League enacted a significant portion of its platform. It established state-run agricultural enterprises such as the North Dakota Mill and Elevator , the Bank of North Dakota , and a state-owned railroad. The legislature also passed a statewide graduated income tax , which distinguished between earned and unearned income , authorized

2923-489: The NPL's initial success was short-lived, as a drop in commodity prices at the close of the war, together with a drought, caused an agricultural depression. As a result of the depression, the new state-owned industries ran into financial trouble, and the private banking industry, smarting from the loss of its influence in Bismarck, rebuffed the NPL when it tried to raise money through state-issued bonds. The industry said that

3002-548: The National Executive Board, the five-member committee which governed the party, and his brother, Theodore Debs , was selected as its paid executive secretary, handling day-to-day affairs of the organization. Although by no means the sole decision-maker in the organization, Debs's status as prominent public figure in the aftermath of the Pullman strike provided cachet and made him the recognized spokesman for

3081-582: The Nonpartisan League aligned with the Republican Party; they supported General Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1952 presidential race. Over the following four years, legislative polarization grew and the Nonpartisan League eventually split in two. In 1956, the Nonpartisan League formally merged with the state Democratic Party, creating the North Dakota Democratic-Nonpartisan League Party , while much of

3160-528: The Nonpartisan League's candidates and adopted its platform, fully unifying the two parties into one. Although the Democrats were still in the minority in the state government, the number of Democrats in the state legislature increased greatly. Before the league moved into the Democratic Party, there were only five Democrats among the 162 members of both houses of the legislature in 1955. By 1957,

3239-604: The North Dakota Geological Survey, which provides geological and geographical information to the legislature, other state agencies, and to the general public, and the Oil and Gas Division, which regulates the extraction of those resources within the state. The Industrial Commission oversees the department, whose director is appointed by the Governor. The North Dakota Housing Finance Agency provides financial assistance and economic incentives to homebuyers within

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3318-586: The Oil and Gas Research Council. The Council has eight members—seven industry representatives and one commissioner from an oil producing county—all of whom are appointed by the governor. The director of Department of Mineral Resources Oil and Gas Division and the State Geologist both advise the board as ex-officio nonvoting members. The Pipeline Authority was created in 2007 to facilitate the development of oil and gas pipelines in North Dakota. By law,

3397-497: The U.S. mail. After ARU Board Director Martin J. Elliott extended the strike to St. Louis, doubling its size to eighty thousand workers, Debs relented and decided to take part in the strike, which was now endorsed by almost all members of the ARU in the immediate area of Chicago. On July 9, 1894, a New York Times editorial called Debs "a lawbreaker at large, an enemy of the human race". Strikers fought by establishing boycotts of Pullman train cars and with Debs's eventual leadership

3476-502: The United States five times: 1900 (earning 0.6 percent of the popular vote), 1904 (3.0 percent), 1908 (2.8 percent), 1912 (6.0 percent), and 1920 (3.4 percent), the last time from a prison cell. He was also a candidate for United States Congress from his native state Indiana in 1916. Debs was noted for his oratorical skills, and his speech denouncing American participation in World War I led to his second arrest in 1918. He

3555-524: The United States from Colmar , Alsace, France. His father, who came from a prosperous Protestant family, owned a textile mill and meat market. Debs was named after the French authors Eugène Sue and Victor Hugo . Debs attended public school, dropping out of high school at age 14. He took a job with the Vandalia Railroad cleaning grease from the trucks of freight engines for fifty cents

3634-538: The Wilson administration and the war earned the enmity of President Woodrow Wilson , who later called Debs a "traitor to his country". On June 16, 1918, Debs made a speech in Canton, Ohio , urging resistance to the military draft. He was arrested on June 30 and charged with ten counts of sedition . His trial defense called no witnesses, asking that Debs be allowed to address the court in his defense. That unusual request

3713-547: The World (IWW), and five-time candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States. Through his presidential candidacies as well as his work with labor movements, Debs eventually became one of the best-known socialists living in the United States. Early in his political career, Debs was a member of the Democratic Party . He was elected as a Democrat to the Indiana General Assembly in 1884. After working with several smaller unions, including

3792-475: The all-time high number of votes for a Socialist Party candidate in a U.S. presidential election. Notably, the Nineteenth Amendment passed in 1920, granting women the federal right to vote across the country, and with the expanded voting pool, his vote total accounted for only 3.4 percent of the total number of votes cast. The size of the vote is nevertheless remarkable since Debs was at the time

3871-429: The amendment, but that once it was adopted it should be obeyed. Debs remained friendly to Haywood and the IWW after the expulsion despite their perceived differences over IWW tactics. Prior to Haywood's dismissal, the Socialist Party membership had reached an all-time high of 135,000. One year later, four months after Haywood was recalled, the membership dropped to 80,000. The reformists in the Socialist Party attributed

3950-439: The army was enough to break the strike. Overall, thirty strikers were killed in the strike, thirteen of them in Chicago, and thousands were blacklisted. An estimated $ 80 million worth of property was damaged and Debs was found guilty of contempt of court for violating the injunction and sent to federal prison. Debs was represented by Clarence Darrow , later a leading American lawyer and civil libertarian, who had previously been

4029-406: The association's revenues, after which 75% of all net profits are added to the state's general fund. The Oil and Gas Research Program is a public fund that exists to promote the interests of the energy industry in North Dakota. The North Dakota Legislative Assembly appropriates money for the Oil and Gas Research Fund, which is administered by the Industrial Commission based on recommendations made by

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4108-559: The dawn of a better day of humanity. The people are awakening. In due course of time they will come into their own. When the mariner, sailing over tropic seas, looks for relief from his weary watch, he turns his eyes toward the Southern Cross , burning luridly above the tempest-vexed ocean. As the midnight approaches the Southern Cross begins to bend, and the whirling worlds change their places, and with starry finger-points

4187-529: The decline to the departure of the "Haywood element" and predicted that the party would recover, but it did not. In the election of 1912, many of the Socialists who had been elected to public office lost their seats. Debs was noted by many to be a charismatic speaker who sometimes called on the vocabulary of Christianity and much of the oratorical style of evangelism, even though he was generally disdainful of organized religion. Howard Zinn opined that "Debs

4266-548: The elected officials in Lawrence , Massachusetts, to send police, who subsequently used their clubs on children, disgusted Haywood, who publicly declared that "I will not vote again" until such a circumstance was rectified. Haywood was purged from the National Executive Committee by passage of an amendment that focused on the direct action and sabotage tactics advocated by the IWW. Debs was probably

4345-676: The election, a disappointed Debs decided for certain that the future for socialist policies lay outside the Democratic Party. In June 1897, the ARU membership finally joined with the Brotherhood of the Cooperative Commonwealth to form the Social Democracy of America . Debs's wife Kate was opposed to socialism and was "hostile" to Debs's socialist revolutionary activism as "it threatened her sense of middle-class respectability". The "tempestuous relationship with

4424-544: The end of his sentence a changed man. He spent the final three decades of his life proselytizing for the socialist cause. After Debs and Martin Elliott were released from prison in 1895, Debs started his socialist political career. Debs started agitating for the ARU membership to form a Social Democratic organization. In 1896, Debs supported Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan in the presidential election following Bryan's Cross of Gold speech . After Bryan's loss in

4503-465: The form of our present government; that I am opposed to the social system in which we live; that I believe in the change of both but by perfectly peaceable and orderly means. ... I am thinking this morning of the men in the mills and factories; I am thinking of the women who, for a paltry wage, are compelled to work out their lives; of the little children who, in this system, are robbed of their childhood, and in their early, tender years, are seized in

4582-507: The historian David A. Shannon wrote: "Debs's desideratum was one of peace and co-operation between labor and capital, but he expected management to treat labor with respect, honor and social equality". Debs gradually became convinced of the need for a more unified and confrontational approach as railroads were powerful forces in the economy. One influence was his involvement in the Burlington Railroad Strike of 1888 ,

4661-491: The injunction. At the time of his arrest for mail obstruction, Debs was not yet a socialist . While serving his six-month term in the jail at Woodstock , Illinois, Debs and his ARU comrades received a steady stream of letters, books and pamphlets in the mail from socialists around the country. Debs recalled several years later: I began to read and think and dissect the anatomy of the system in which workingmen, however organized, could be shattered and battered and splintered at

4740-406: The number grew to 28, and in 1959 the numbers continued to grow, reaching 67. Eugene V. Debs Progressive Era Repression and persecution Anti-war and civil rights movements Contemporary Eugene Victor Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) was an American socialist , political activist, trade unionist, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of

4819-528: The only person who could have saved Haywood's seat. In 1906, when Haywood had been on trial for his life in Idaho, Debs had described him as "the Lincoln of Labor" and called for Haywood to run against Theodore Roosevelt for president, but times had changed and Debs, facing a split in the party, chose to echo Hillquit's words, accusing the IWW of representing anarchy. Debs thereafter stated that he had opposed

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4898-429: The party in the newspapers. Along with Elliott, who ran for Congress in 1900, Debs was the first federal office candidate for the fledgling socialist party, running unsuccessfully for president the same year. Debs and his running mate Job Harriman received 87,945 votes (0.6 percent of the popular vote) and no electoral votes. Following the 1900 Election , the Social Democratic Party and dissidents who had split from

4977-515: The power of corporate and political interests from Minneapolis and Chicago . The League adopted the goat as a mascot; it was known as "The Goat that Can't be Got". Progressive Era Repression and persecution Anti-war and civil rights movements Contemporary By the 1910s, the growth of left-wing sympathies was on the rise in North Dakota. The Socialist Party of North Dakota had considerable success. They brought in many outside speakers, including Eugene V. Debs , who spoke at

5056-513: The recall election by a margin of 1.8%, becoming the first U.S. state governor to be recalled. However, a year later he was elected in the 1922 United States Senate election in North Dakota , serving until 1940. The 1920s were economically difficult for farmers, and the NPL's popularity receded. However, the populist undercurrent that fueled its meteoric growth revived with the coming of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl conditions of

5135-430: The remorseless grasp of Mammon , and forced into the industrial dungeons, there to feed the machines while they themselves are being starved body and soul. ... Your honor, I ask no mercy, I plead for no immunity. I realize that finally the right must prevail. I never more fully comprehended than now the great struggle between the powers of greed on the one hand and upon the other the rising hosts of freedom. I can see

5214-591: The state bank and elevator were "theoretical experiments" that might easily fail. Moreover, the NPL's lack of governing experience led to perceived infighting and corruption. Newspapers and business groups portrayed the NPL as inept and disastrous for the state's future. In 1918, opponents of the NPL formed the Independent Voters Association . In 1921, the IVA organized a recall election which successfully recalled Frazier as governor. Frazier lost

5293-482: The state of North Dakota create its own bank, warehouses, and factories, the League, supported by a populist groundswell, ran its slate as Republican Party candidates in the 1916 elections. In the gubernatorial election , farmer Lynn Frazier won with 79% of the vote. In 1917, John Miller Baer won a special election for the United States House of Representatives . After the 1918 elections, in which

5372-420: The state, including special assistance to low-income and first-time homebuyers. It also oversees United States Department of Housing and Urban Development programs within the state. The Industrial Commission oversees this agency. The North Dakota Lignite Research, Development, and Marketing Program is a fund that provides for the research, development, and marketing of North Dakota's lignite coal resources. It

5451-412: The strike and served six months in prison. In prison, Debs read various works of socialist theory and emerged six months later as a committed adherent of the international socialist movement. Debs was a founding member of the Social Democracy of America (1897), the Social Democratic Party of America (1898) and the Socialist Party of America (1901). Debs ran as a Socialist candidate for President of

5530-427: The strike came to be known as "Debs' Rebellion". The federal government intervened, obtaining an injunction against the strike on the grounds that the strikers had obstructed the U.S. mail, carried on Pullman cars, by refusing to show up for work. President Grover Cleveland , whom Debs had supported in all three of his presidential campaigns, sent the United States Army to enforce the injunction. The presence of

5609-411: Was "Benevolence, Sobriety, and Industry". As editor of the official journal of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, Debs initially concentrated on improving the brotherhood's death and disability insurance programs. During the early 1880s, Debs's writing stressed themes of self-uplift: temperance , hard work, and honesty. Debs also held the view that "labor and capital are friends" and opposed strikes as

5688-422: Was also disenfranchised for life. Debs presented what has been called his best-remembered statement at his sentencing hearing: 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

5767-619: Was convicted under the Sedition Act of 1918 and sentenced to a 10-year term. President Warren G. Harding commuted his sentence in December 1921. Debs died in 1926, not long after being admitted to a sanatorium due to cardiovascular problems that developed during his time in prison. Eugene Victor "Gene" Debs was born on November 5, 1855, in Terre Haute , Indiana, to Jean Daniel and Marguerite Mari Bettrich Debs, who immigrated to

5846-628: Was granted, and Debs spoke for two hours. He was found guilty on September 12. At his sentencing hearing on September 14, he again addressed the court and his speech has become a classic. Heywood Broun , a liberal journalist and not a Debs partisan, said it was "one of the most beautiful and moving passages in the English language. He was for that one afternoon touched with inspiration. If anyone told me that tongues of fire danced upon his shoulders as he spoke, I would believe it." Debs said in part: Your honor, I have stated in this court that I am opposed to

5925-579: Was not wholly comfortable with his standing as a leader. As he told an audience in Detroit in 1906: I am not a Labor Leader; I do not want you to follow me or anyone else; if you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of this capitalist wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into the promised land if I could, because if I led you in, some one else would lead you out. You must use your heads as well as your hands, and get yourself out of your present condition. Debs's speeches against

6004-549: Was soon expelled from the Socialist Party due to this method of rogue operating. The League began to grow in 1915, at a time when small farmers in North Dakota felt exploited by out-of-state companies. One author later described the wheat-growing state as "a tributary province of Minneapolis-St. Paul ." Minnesota banks made its loans, Minnesota millers handled its grain, and Alexander McKenzie , North Dakota's political boss , lived in Saint Paul, Minnesota . Rumors spread at

6083-481: Was the beginning of a split between Haywood and the Socialist Party, leading to the split between the factions of the IWW, one faction loyal to the Socialist Party and the other to Haywood. The rift presented a problem for Debs, who was influential in both the IWW and the Socialist Party. The final straw between Haywood and the Socialist Party came during the Lawrence Textile Strike . The decision of

6162-563: Was visited in jail by the Milwaukee socialist newspaper editor Victor L. Berger , who in Debs's words "came to Woodstock, as if a providential instrument, and delivered the first impassioned message of Socialism I had ever heard". In his 1926 obituary in Time , it was said that Berger left him a copy of Capital and "prisoner Debs read it slowly, eagerly, ravenously". Debs emerged from jail at

6241-465: Was what every socialist or anarchist or radical should be: fierce in his convictions, kind and compassionate in his personal relations." Heywood Broun noted in his eulogy for Debs, quoting a fellow Socialist: "That old man with the burning eyes actually believes that there can be such a thing as the brotherhood of man. And that's not the funniest part of it. As long as he's around I believe it myself". Although sometimes called "King Debs", Debs himself

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