Eugene V. Debs

Eugene Victor Debs was born in Terre Haute, Indiana. The need for employment ended his schooling at age 14, when he became a fireman on a local railroad. Later he took night classes at the local business college in his spare time. Giving up his job as railroad fireman in 1874, he took up another job as a billing clerk in the wholesale grocery firm of Hulman & Cox.

June 16, 1918—Debs made his famous anti-war speech in Canton, Ohio, protesting World War I which was raging in Europe. For this speech he was arrested and convicted in federal court in Cleveland, Ohio under the war-time espionage law. He was his own attorney and his appeal to the jury and his statement to the court before sentencing, are regarded as two of the great classic statements ever made in a court of law. He was sentenced to serve 10 years in prison.


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