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'''Eugene Victor Debs''' (1855-1926) was the American leader of the Socialist party. He was [[Socialist Party of America]] candidate for the presidency of the in 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912 and 1920, running best in 1912. He briefly belonged to the [[IWW]], which called for a violent overthrow of capitalism, but drew back from such an extreme position.
'''Eugene Victor Debs''' (1855-1926) was the American leader of the Socialist party. He was [[Socialist Party of America]] candidate for the presidency of the in 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912 and 1920, running best in 1912. He briefly belonged to the [[IWW]], which called for a violent overthrow of capitalism, but drew back from such an extreme position.
==1912==
In 1912 the more conservative "gas and water" socialists (who did not want to destroy capitalism) adopted a platform calling for cooperative organization of prisons, a national bureau of health, abolition of the Senate and the presidential veto, and a long list of progressive reforms. They nominated Debs, who saw his mission as keeping the disparate units together in the hope that someday a common goal would be found for all socialists.
There was little money--his campaign cost only $66,000, mostly for 3.5 million leaflets and travel to rallies organized by local groups. Debs criss-crossed the country, His biggest event was a speech to 15,000 in New York City. The crowd sang the "Marseillaise," and "International" as Emil Seidel, the vice-presidential candidate, boasted, "Only a year ago workingmen were throwing decayed vegetables and rotten eggs at us but now all is changed....Eggs are too high. There is a great giant growing up in this country that will someday take over the affairs of this nation. He is a little giant now but he is growing fast. The name of this little giant is socialism." Debs said that only the socialists represented labor; he condemned "Injunction Bill Taft"; ridiculed Roosevelt as "a charlatan, mountebank, and fraud, and his Progressive promises and pledges as the mouthings of a low and utterly unprincipled self seeker and demagogue." Debs insisted that the Democrats, Progressives and Republicans alike were financed by the trusts. Party newspapers spread the word.<ref> Chace (2005)</ref>
==World War I==
Debs, like a majority of socialists, opposed American entry into [[World War I]]. A powerful oratorm he gave speeches during the war to discourge youth from enlisting or acceping the draft. He was convicted of sedition in federal court; the Supreme Court upheld the conviction and he campaigned in 1920 from his prison cell in Atlanta. In 1921 he was pardoned by president [[Warren Harding]].
Debs, like a majority of socialists, opposed American entry into [[World War I]]. A powerful oratorm he gave speeches during the war to discourge youth from enlisting or acceping the draft. He was convicted of sedition in federal court; the Supreme Court upheld the conviction and he campaigned in 1920 from his prison cell in Atlanta. In 1921 he was pardoned by president [[Warren Harding]].