Biography
Eugene Debs, The foremost American socialist of his era — locomotive fireman, founder of the American Railway Union (1893), leader of the 1894 Pullman Strike, IWW co-founder (1905), five-time Socialist presidential candidate. On June 16, 1918 he delivered an anti-war speech in Canton, Ohio condemning U.S. involvement in WWI; convicted under the Espionage Act on Sept 12, 1918 and sentenced to 10 years. Served at Moundsville (WV) and Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, where in 1920 he received nearly 920, 000 votes for president as "Convict No. 9653." Harding commuted his sentence to time served on Dec 23, 1921; he walked out of Atlanta on Christmas Day. Died Oct 20, 1926 of cardiovascular disease aggravated by imprisonment. Eugene Victor Debs was the most prominent socialist in U.S. history — five-time Socialist Party of America presidential candidate, founder of the American Railway Union (which led the 1894 Pullman Strike, for which Debs served six months at the Woodstock IL jail), and co-founder of the Industrial Workers of the World in 1905. On June 16, 1918, in Canton, Ohio, Debs delivered a public speech denouncing U.S. participation in World War I and the prosecution of socialist anti-war organizers. He was arrested two weeks later under the Espionage Act of 1917, convicted September 12, 1918 in federal court in Cleveland, and sentenced to ten years in federal prison. He began serving in April 1919 at the West Virginia State Penitentiary in Moundsville, then was transferred to the United States Penitentiary in Atlanta. From his cell as Federal Prisoner #9653, Debs ran for president of the United States in 1920 on the Socialist Party ticket and received 919, 799 votes — nearly one million Americans voting for a presidential candidate then in federal prison. President Warren G. Harding commuted Debs's sentence to time served on Christmas Day 1921; Debs was released December 25, 1921 after serving roughly two and a half years. Eugene Debs was a leading figure in the American labor movement
