The decline of socialism in Washington : 1910-1925

Abstract

In the fall of 1894, Eugene V. Debs, founder of the American Railway Union, began serving a sentence of six months in Jail for leading the great strike at the sleeping car works in the company town of Pullman, Illinois. Debs’ role in the strike and his imprisonment in the Woodstock jail in Illinois made him a national figure. He and his fellow inmates quickly renamed the prison the Woodstock Co-operative Colony of Liberty Jail and from around the country radicals made pilgrimages to meet the great man. Victor Berger, the well known socialist, visited Debs, leaving a volume of Capital for Debs to read. Like most of the labor leaders of the time, Debs found Marx dull, but he did enjoy the works of Karl Kautsky, a popular German socialist. Berger was followed by Kier Hardie, the fiery Scottish socialist and trade union leader, as well as by Thomas J. Morgan, a Chicago socialist. 'The three men spent hours talking about the need for an international organization which would promote friendship and solidarity among workers. They brought Debs to the edge of conversion.