Editing Eugene V. Debs (section)

==Labor activism==
The railroad brotherhoods were comparatively conservative organizations, focused on providing fellowship and services rather than on collective bargaining. Their motto 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 (virtue)|temperance]], hard work, and honesty. Debs also held the view that "labor and capital are friends" and opposed strikes as 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, 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".{{sfn|Shannon|1951}}

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|Burlington Railroad Strike of 1888]], a defeat for labor that convinced Debs of "the need to reorganize across craft lines", according to Joanne Reitano.{{sfn|Reitano|2003}} After stepping down as Brotherhood Grand Secretary in 1893, Debs organized one of the first [[Industrial unionism|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.<ref>{{cite news |date=April 18, 1893 |title=American Railway Union Officers |newspaper=Salt Lake Herald |volume=47 |issue=273 |page=2 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/17234298/american_railway_union_officers/ |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=February 7, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180208004641/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/17234298/american_railway_union_officers/ |archive-date=February 8, 2018 |url-status=live}}<!-- Note: the url is to the bulk of the article at the top of column 6; the headline and the first line of the article is at the bottom of column 5 on the same newspaper page --></ref> The union successfully struck the [[Great Northern Railway (U.S.)|Great Northern Railway]] in April 1894, winning most of its demands.

===Pullman Strike===
[[File:Pullman strikers outside Arcade Building.jpg|thumb|left|Striking [[American Railway Union]] (ARU) members confront [[Illinois Army National Guard|Illinois National Guard]] troops in Chicago during Debs's rebellion in 1894]]

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 Company|Pullman Palace Car Company]]. The Pullman Company, citing falling revenue after the economic [[Panic of 1893]], had cut the wages of its factory employees by twenty-eight percent. The workers, many of whom were already members of the ARU, appealed for support to the union at its convention in Chicago, Illinois.<ref name=time/> 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 the U.S. mail.<ref>{{cite web|date=February 2013|url=http://www.indianahistory.org/our-collections/collection-guides/eugene-v-debs-papers-1881-1940.pdf|title=Eugene V. Debs Papers, 1881–1940|access-date=2013-06-09|last=Latham|first=Charles|location=Indianapolis, Indiana|publisher=Indiana Historical Society|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130609001533/http://www.indianahistory.org/our-collections/collection-guides/eugene-v-debs-papers-1881-1940.pdf|archive-date=2013-06-09}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news |date=June 29, 1894 |title=Embracing More Railroads: Pullman Boycott Extending, the Men Being Determined |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1894/06/29/archives/embracing-more-railroads-pullman-boycott-extending-the-men-being.html |url-access=subscription |work=The New York Times |page=1 |access-date=February 7, 2017}}</ref> On July 9, 1894, a ''[[The New York Times|New York Times]]'' editorial called Debs "a lawbreaker at large, an enemy of the human race".<ref name="NYT09071894enemy">{{cite news |date=July 9, 1894 |title=Editorial |work=The New York Times |page=4}}<!-- "'Organized labor' makes a miserable showing in its attempts to give aid and comfort to the Anarchists at Chicago.&nbsp;... The truth is that every labor union man in the City of New-York knows that he becomes a criminal the moment he puts himself on the side of Debs or attempts to sustain Debs by quitting work to show sympathy for the strikes and the riots Debs has provoked. When he sent his dispatch to the railway laborers in Buffalo Debs became a misdemeanant under the Penal Code of this State.&nbsp;... He is a lawbreaker at large, an enemy of the human race. There has been quite enough talk about warrants against him and about arresting him. It is time to cease mouthings and begin. Debs should be jailed, if there are jails in his neighborhood, and the disorder his bad teaching has engendered must be squelched. --></ref>{{sfn|Lindsey|1964|p=312}} Strikers fought by establishing boycotts of Pullman train cars and with Debs's eventual leadership the strike came to be known as "Debs' Rebellion".<ref name="socialistworker" />

[[File:Debs in Woodstock jail.png|thumb|left|Debs while in prison in [[Woodstock, Illinois]], in 1895.]]

The [[Federal government of the United States|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.{{sfn|Chace|2004|pp=78, 80}} The presence of 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.<ref name= socialistworker />{{sfn|Ginger|1949|p=154}} 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.<ref name=socialistworker />

Debs was represented by [[Clarence Darrow]], later a leading American lawyer and civil libertarian, who had previously been 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.{{sfn|Farrell|2011}} A [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] case decision, ''[[In re Debs]]'', later upheld the right of the federal government to issue the injunction.