{"id":1195,"date":"2017-07-11T03:02:19","date_gmt":"2017-07-11T03:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/ushistory2os\/chapter\/primary-source-eugene-debs-how-i-became-a-socialist-april-1902\/"},"modified":"2017-07-11T03:02:19","modified_gmt":"2017-07-11T03:02:19","slug":"primary-source-eugene-debs-how-i-became-a-socialist-april-1902","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/rangercollege-ushistory2os\/chapter\/primary-source-eugene-debs-how-i-became-a-socialist-april-1902\/","title":{"raw":"Primary Source: Eugene Debs, \u201cHow I Became a Socialist\u201d (April, 1902)","rendered":"Primary Source: Eugene Debs, \u201cHow I Became a Socialist\u201d (April, 1902)"},"content":{"raw":"A native of Terre Haute, Indiana, Eugene V. Debs began working as a locomotive fireman (tending the fires of a train\u2019s steam engine) as a youth in the 1870s. His experience in the American labor movement later led him to socialism. In the early-twentieth century, as the Socialist Party of America\u2019s candidate, he ran for the presidency five times and twice earned nearly one-million votes. He was America\u2019s most prominent socialist. In 1902, a New York paper asked Debs how he became a socialist. This is his answer.<\/em>\n\nI rode on the engines over mountain and plain, slept in the cabooses and bunks, and was fed from their pails by the swarthy stokers who still nestle close to my heart, and will until it is cold and still.\n\nThrough all these years I was nourished at Fountain Proletaire. I drank deeply of its waters and every particle of my tissue became saturated with the spirit of the working class. I had fired an engine and been stung by the exposure and hardship of the rail. I was with the boys in their weary watches, at the broken engine\u2019s side and often helped to bear their bruised and bleeding bodies back to wife and child again. How could I but feel the burden of their wrongs? How the seed of agitation fail to take deep root in my heart?\n\n\u2026\n\nIn 1894 the American Railway Union was organized and a braver body of men never fought the battle of the working class.\n\nUp to this time I had heard but little of Socialism, knew practically nothing about the movement, and what little I did know was not calculated to impress me in its favor. I was bent on thorough and complete organization of the railroad men and ultimately the whole working class, and all my time and energy were given to that end. My supreme conviction was that if they were only organized in every branch of the service and all acted together in concert they could redress their wrongs and regulate the conditions of their employment. The stockholders of the corporation acted as one, why not the men? It was such a plain proposition\u2014simply to follow the example set before their eyes by their masters\u2014surely they could not fail to see it, act as one, and solve the problem.\n\nIt is useless to say that I had yet to learn the workings of the capitalist system, the resources of its masters and the weakness of its slaves. Indeed, no shadow of a \u201csystem\u2019 fell athwart my pathway; no thought of ending wage-misery marred my plans. I was too deeply absorbed in perfecting wage-servitude and making it a \u201cthing of beauty and a joy forever.\u2019\n\nIt all seems very strange to me now, taking a backward look, that my vision was so focalized on a single objective point that I utterly failed to see what now appears as clear as the noonday sun\u2014so clear that I marvel that any workingman, however dull, uncomprehending, can resist it.\n\nBut perhaps it was better so. I was to be baptized in Socialism in the roar of conflict and I thank the gods for reserving to this fitful occasion the fiat, \u201cLet there be light!\u2019\u2014the light that streams in steady radiance upon the broadway to the Socialist republic.\n\nThe skirmish lines of the A. R. U. were well advanced. A series of small battles were fought and won without the loss of a man. A number of concessions were made by the corporations rather than risk an encounter. Then came the fight on the Great Northern, short sharp, and decisive. The victory was complete\u2014the only railroad strike of magnitude ever won by an organization in America.\n\nNext followed the final shock\u2014the Pullman strike\u2014and the American Railway Union again won, clear and complete. The combined corporations were paralyzed and helpless. At this juncture there were delivered, from wholly unexpected quarters, a swift succession of blows that blinded me for an instant and then opened wide my eyes\u2014and in the gleam of every bayonet and the flash of every rifle the class struggle was revealed<\/em>. This was my first practical lesson in Socialism, though wholly unaware that it was called by that name.\n\nAn army of detectives, thugs and murderers were equipped with badge and beer and bludgeon and turned loose; old hulks of cars were fired; the alarm bells tolled; the people were terrified; the most startling rumors were set afloat; the press volleyed and thundered, and over all the wires sped the news that Chicago\u2019s white throat was in the clutch of a red mod; injunctions flew thick and fast, arrests followed, and our office and headquarters, the heart of the strike, was sacked, torn out and nailed up by the \u201clawful\u2019 authorities of the federal government; and when in company with my loyal comrades I found myself in Cook county jail at Chicago with the whole press screaming conspiracy, treason and murder\u2026.\n\n\u2026\n\nThe Chicago jail sentences were followed by six months at Woodstock and it was here that Socialism gradually laid hold of me in its own irresistible fashion. Books and pamphlets and letters from socialists came by every mail and I began to read and think and dissect the anatomy of the system in which workingmen, however organized, could be shattered and battered and splintered at a single stroke. The writings of Bellamy and Blanchford early appealed to me. The \u201cCooperative Commonwealth\u2019 of Gronlund also impressed me, but the writings of Kautsky were so clear and conclusive that I readily grasped, not merely his argument, but also caught the spirit of his socialist utterance\u2014and I thank him and all who helped me out of darkness into light.\n\n[Source: Eugene V. Debs, \u201cHow I Became a Socialist.\u201d The Comrade<\/em>,\u00a0April 1902.]","rendered":"

A native of Terre Haute, Indiana, Eugene V. Debs began working as a locomotive fireman (tending the fires of a train\u2019s steam engine) as a youth in the 1870s. His experience in the American labor movement later led him to socialism. In the early-twentieth century, as the Socialist Party of America\u2019s candidate, he ran for the presidency five times and twice earned nearly one-million votes. He was America\u2019s most prominent socialist. In 1902, a New York paper asked Debs how he became a socialist. This is his answer.<\/em><\/p>\n

I rode on the engines over mountain and plain, slept in the cabooses and bunks, and was fed from their pails by the swarthy stokers who still nestle close to my heart, and will until it is cold and still.<\/p>\n

Through all these years I was nourished at Fountain Proletaire. I drank deeply of its waters and every particle of my tissue became saturated with the spirit of the working class. I had fired an engine and been stung by the exposure and hardship of the rail. I was with the boys in their weary watches, at the broken engine\u2019s side and often helped to bear their bruised and bleeding bodies back to wife and child again. How could I but feel the burden of their wrongs? How the seed of agitation fail to take deep root in my heart?<\/p>\n

\u2026<\/p>\n

In 1894 the American Railway Union was organized and a braver body of men never fought the battle of the working class.<\/p>\n

Up to this time I had heard but little of Socialism, knew practically nothing about the movement, and what little I did know was not calculated to impress me in its favor. I was bent on thorough and complete organization of the railroad men and ultimately the whole working class, and all my time and energy were given to that end. My supreme conviction was that if they were only organized in every branch of the service and all acted together in concert they could redress their wrongs and regulate the conditions of their employment. The stockholders of the corporation acted as one, why not the men? It was such a plain proposition\u2014simply to follow the example set before their eyes by their masters\u2014surely they could not fail to see it, act as one, and solve the problem.<\/p>\n

It is useless to say that I had yet to learn the workings of the capitalist system, the resources of its masters and the weakness of its slaves. Indeed, no shadow of a \u201csystem\u2019 fell athwart my pathway; no thought of ending wage-misery marred my plans. I was too deeply absorbed in perfecting wage-servitude and making it a \u201cthing of beauty and a joy forever.\u2019<\/p>\n

It all seems very strange to me now, taking a backward look, that my vision was so focalized on a single objective point that I utterly failed to see what now appears as clear as the noonday sun\u2014so clear that I marvel that any workingman, however dull, uncomprehending, can resist it.<\/p>\n

But perhaps it was better so. I was to be baptized in Socialism in the roar of conflict and I thank the gods for reserving to this fitful occasion the fiat, \u201cLet there be light!\u2019\u2014the light that streams in steady radiance upon the broadway to the Socialist republic.<\/p>\n

The skirmish lines of the A. R. U. were well advanced. A series of small battles were fought and won without the loss of a man. A number of concessions were made by the corporations rather than risk an encounter. Then came the fight on the Great Northern, short sharp, and decisive. The victory was complete\u2014the only railroad strike of magnitude ever won by an organization in America.<\/p>\n

Next followed the final shock\u2014the Pullman strike\u2014and the American Railway Union again won, clear and complete. The combined corporations were paralyzed and helpless. At this juncture there were delivered, from wholly unexpected quarters, a swift succession of blows that blinded me for an instant and then opened wide my eyes\u2014and in the gleam of every bayonet and the flash of every rifle the class struggle was revealed<\/em>. This was my first practical lesson in Socialism, though wholly unaware that it was called by that name.<\/p>\n

An army of detectives, thugs and murderers were equipped with badge and beer and bludgeon and turned loose; old hulks of cars were fired; the alarm bells tolled; the people were terrified; the most startling rumors were set afloat; the press volleyed and thundered, and over all the wires sped the news that Chicago\u2019s white throat was in the clutch of a red mod; injunctions flew thick and fast, arrests followed, and our office and headquarters, the heart of the strike, was sacked, torn out and nailed up by the \u201clawful\u2019 authorities of the federal government; and when in company with my loyal comrades I found myself in Cook county jail at Chicago with the whole press screaming conspiracy, treason and murder\u2026.<\/p>\n

\u2026<\/p>\n

The Chicago jail sentences were followed by six months at Woodstock and it was here that Socialism gradually laid hold of me in its own irresistible fashion. Books and pamphlets and letters from socialists came by every mail and I began to read and think and dissect the anatomy of the system in which workingmen, however organized, could be shattered and battered and splintered at a single stroke. The writings of Bellamy and Blanchford early appealed to me. The \u201cCooperative Commonwealth\u2019 of Gronlund also impressed me, but the writings of Kautsky were so clear and conclusive that I readily grasped, not merely his argument, but also caught the spirit of his socialist utterance\u2014and I thank him and all who helped me out of darkness into light.<\/p>\n

[Source: Eugene V. Debs, \u201cHow I Became a Socialist.\u201d The Comrade<\/em>,\u00a0April 1902.]<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t

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Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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