*Includes pictures
*Includes contemporary accounts
*Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading
"When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong." - Eugene V. Debs
History is full of tales of men who were in the right place at the right time and thereby rose to greatness, but rarely is the story told of a man who was in the right place at the wrong time. The life of Eugene V. Debs is such a tale.
Debs was born in Middle America just before the outbreak of the Civil War, and had he been born a century later, or in a large city on one of the coasts, his story might have been much different. As he grew, he had the restlessness that often indicates greatness, but he lacked the crisis that might have allowed him to hone and use his leadership skills. He saw the needs of those less fortunate around him, and at first, like so many others, he thought that he could work within the system to correct them. However, when he ultimately concluded that he could best serve others through firebrand speeches and increasingly controversial actions, he was unable to convince enough people to follow him to make the massive changes he desired. Instead, he found himself thwarted time and again by those with more power and more established views.
Of course, this is not to discount the profound impact Debs had on the country; after all, he was one of the most famous men in America during the late 19th and early 20th century. Indeed, he was able to give to the nation a new understanding of the values and power of industrial workers, helping organize them into some of the first industrial unions in the country. He also taught the men themselves to think as a unit, and to act with a united front that allowed them to make their voices heard and to earn for themselves and their families a living wage and benefits commiserate with their work's value. As one early 20th century socialist put it, "Something was in Debs, seemingly, that did not come out unless you saw him. I'm told that even those speeches of his which seem to any reader indifferent stuff, took on vitality from his presence. A hard-bitten socialist told me once, "Gene Debs is the only one who can get away with the sentimental flummery that's been tied onto Socialism in this country. Pretty nearly always it gives me a swift pain to go around to meetings and have people call me 'comrade.' That's a lot of bunk. But the