Eugene V. Debs, the Pres. Candidate Charged With Sedition (1918)

Started by Shiranu, September 18, 2021, 09:21:41 PM

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Shiranu




On September 18th, 1918 Presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs, the Socialist candidate from Indiana, would be sentenced to 10 years in prison for a speech given to his supporters a month before. In it, he had the audacity to call for the men of America to commit an act of civil disobedience and to disobey the draft; to Wilson and the Supreme Court this was an act of sedition, to Eugene it was an act of solidarity with all the working class of the world and a rejection of imperialism and greed.


This was not his first time in prison; in 1894 he had been a major leader of the Pullman Strike, which ground to a stop essentially all railways west of Chicago as the Pullman Company had drastically cut wages but kept rent the same level at their company towns, and lead to the government execution of over 70 protestors and Eugene being sentenced to 6 months in jail once again by the Supreme Court.


104 years later, and his speech rings just as true and relevant as it did then. Though he only spent 3 years in prison, he would be institutionalized and later die from heart complications developed there at the age of 70.










"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur