Channels, Spring 2017

Channels • 2017 • Volume 1 • Number 2 Page 45 Inspiration or Distraction? Eugene Debs at the Head of American Socialism: 1895-1921 Stanley Schwartz History and Government — Cedarville University Background n the 1912 American presidential election, four men ran for the office. The Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson won the election with 42 percent of the popular vote. Former President Theodore Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party platform brought him 27 percent of the popular vote, leaving incumbent President William Howard Taft with only 23 percent as the rump of the Republican Party resulting from their split. The fourth candidate, who before 1912 had run for the office of president more times than the other three put together, was Eugene V. Debs. While Debs’ 6 percent of the popular vote may seem insignificant, it was an important moment in American politics. In fact, his achievement remains the high-water mark of the influence of the Socialist Party of America as a legitimate political entity in the United States. Though Debs would return to run for president in 1920 and would achieve numerically more votes, his percentage of the total had fallen to less than 4 percent. Furthermore, his failed bid occurred while he was in prison for speeches against World War I that were considered seditious. After Debs’ health failed, Norman Thomas emerged to keep the party together for a time. Ultimately, schism and decline led to the collapse of the Socialist Party of America as an independent political unit, replaced by a Communist Party directed and financed by Moscow. Indeed, the nature of the Cold War and the later Communist Party makes the accomplishments of the Socialist Party of America in the early decades of the 20 th century seem quite impressive. Despite the presence of two former presidents and a leading liberal on the 1912 ballot, almost one million Americans cast their vote for a Socialist with a jail record who had never held public office. The Socialist Party of America and its influence on the political process and everyday people in the United States in the early 20 th century thus presents an interesting and valuable historical topic. During this period, Eugene V. Debs was the ideological heart and public face of the party, if not its most cunning and powerful apparatchik. Yet, opinions on Debs were divided in his own time and remain so to this day. Was he a unique figure whose great influence, ability, and character galvanized the disparate socialist elements in I