1855-1926. US labour leader and socialist, 
who organized the Social Democratic Party 
1897. He was the founder and first president 
of the American Railway Union in 1893, and 
was imprisoned for six months in 1894 for 
defying a federal injunction to end the 
Pullman strike in Chicago. He was socialist 
candidate for the presidency in every 
election from 1900 to 1920, except that of 
1916. Debs was born in Terre Haute, Indiana. 
He opposed US intervention in World War I and 
was imprisoned 1918-21 for allegedly 
advocating
resistance to conscription, but was pardoned
by President Harding 1921. In 1920 he polled
nearly one million votes, the highest
socialist vote ever in US presidential
elections, despite having to conduct the
campaign from a federal penitentiary in
Atlanta, Georgia. His powerful oratory and
his evocation of homespun American ideals
were the source of his appeal rather than any
doctinaire adherence to socialist theory.