ABSTRACT
On November 5, 1855, Debs was born to immigrant parents of modest means in Terre Haute, Indiana. Angered by the bitter strike, Pullman's victory, and his politically motivated imprisonment, in 1897 Debs joined the Socialist Party, seeing it as a way to unite labor reform with political action. Debs's Socialist Party was about populism, or social welfare politics, even if his enemies said his membership indicated Debs's support for violent social revolution. Eugene Debs's influential amalgam of democracy, collective unity, and labor rights pushed forward the cause of labor reform and made him more effective than any other American labor leader before or since. In addition, Debs tried to unify all workers by bridging the vast racial, ethnic, and religious divides of late nineteenth century America, even if most workers were culturally unprepared for such unity. Debs's formulation ensured, for the most part, a stable work environment in exchange for economic prosperity.
