The Words of
Eugene Victor Debs
Former Secretary-Treasurer of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen (BLF)
And
Founder of the American Railway Union (ARU)
Debs spoke and wrote prolifically for more than half a century on labor and social issues. A number of quotes from his writings and speeches as a union and political activist appear below. *
"There is a distinct trend toward industrial unionism in the ranks of the railroad employees and some interesting developments may be expected along that line in the near future. The unions representing the various branches in the train service are seething with discontent and ripening rapidly for revolt against craft union policy and craft union reaction. They have played the game to the limit and the rank and file are beginning to realize that there is nothing in it for them, even when they win."
--Eugene V. Debs: "Revolt of the Railroad Workers", International Socialist Review, June 1914
"... The men are being taxed to death for protection which they do not get, and they are beginning to ripen for revolt. Were it not for their insurance features, disintegration would have set in long ago. That is what mainly holds these unions together today."
-- Eugene V. Debs: "Revolt of the Railroad Workers", International Socialist Review, June 1914
"I could yet be the ‘grand' officer of a railway brotherhood and have a comfortable office, a large salary, plenty of friends, including railway and public officials, and read my praises as an ‘ideal labor leader' in capitalist newspapers, but my convictions would not allow it, and so I had to resign,, and having no choice about it, I am entitled to no credit for quitting a ‘good' position and plunging recklessly into a ‘career of folly, failure and disgrace.'"
-- Eugene V. Debs: "You Railroad Men", Appeal to Reason, February 1906
" I had been with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen almost from its birth; had organized the Brotherhood of Railroad Brakemen, now the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen; had helped to organize the Switchmen's Mutual Aid Association, the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen, the Order of Railway Telegraphers, and other labor unions, and was to organize, with half a dozen others, the American Railway Union, to embrace all railway workers, so that the engine wiper and section man might come in for their share of consideration as well as the engineer and the conductor. There is where I broke with the railway officials. They were perfectly willing that we should have a firemen's union, but they were not willing for us to have a union that would unite all employees in the service in the equal interest of all."
-- Eugene V. Debs: "You Railroad Men", Appeal to Reason, February 1906
"If working men are betrayed and defeated and made to suffer, it makes little difference if their misfortunes are due to dishonest, or ignorant and incompetent leadership. The question is not: Are these leaders honest? Let that be conceded. The question is: Are they true to the working class? If their official attitude does not square with the working class as a whole, then they are not in line with the true interests of their own union and are not in fact the friends, but the enemies, of labor; not serving but betraying those who trust and follow them."
-- Eugene V. Debs: "You Railroad Men", Appeal to Reason, February 3, 1906
"In all the history of organized labor, from the earliest times to the present day, no body of union workingmen ever served in a more humiliating and debasing role than that in which the railway unions appear at this very hour before the American people and the world."
-- Eugene V. Debs: "You Railroad Men", Appeal to Reason, February 3, 1906
"You have got to unite in the same labor union, and in the same political party and strike and vote together, and the hour you do that, the world is yours. The railroads will oppose this; they want to keep you divided and at their mercy. Your grand officers will oppose it; they want to keep you divided and continue to draw their salaries."
-- Eugene V. Debs: "You Railroad Men", Appeal to Reason, February 3, 1906
"It thus becomes apparent that the railroad organizations are not trade unions in any true sense of the term. Their so-called "protective" features are a huge farce, productive of absolutely no benefit to the members who pay the freight, and useful only to furnish inspiring themes of oratory for the leaders at convention time. Working conditions and wages are in the last analysis always determined by the will of the railroad managers, who are adept at playing one organization against another, and who "recognize" the right of their employees to organize their own protection only when it suits them to do so...."
-- Eugene V. Debs: "Railroad Employees and Socialism", International Socialist Review, October 1908
"One glance proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that these unions (railroad craft unions) are exceedingly useful to the corporations; and to the extent that they serve the economic and political purposes of the corporations, they are the foes - and not the friends - of the working class."
-- Eugene V. Debs: "Craft Unionism", speech in Chicago, November 23, 1905
"Speaking of myself, I was made to realize long ago that the old trade union was utterly incompetent to deal successfully with the exploiting corporations in this struggle. I was made to see that in craft unionism the capitalist class have it within their power to keep the workers divided, to use one part of them to conquer and crush another part of them. Indeed, I was made to see that the old form of unionism separates the workers and keeps them helpless at the mercy of their masters."
-- Eugene V. Debs: "Craft Unionism", speech in Chicago, November 23, 1905
"Why should the railroad employees be parceled out among a score of different organizations? They are all employed in the same service. Their interests are mutual. They ought to be able to act together as one. But they divide according to craft and calling, and if you were to propose today to unite them that they might actually do something to advance their collective and individual interests as workers, you would be opposed by every grand officer of these organizations."
-- Eugene V. Debs: "Craft Unionism", speech in Chicago, November 23, 1905
"The simple fact is that industrial conditions have undergone such a complete change that now the trade union, instead of uniting the workers, divides them, incites craft jealousy, breeds dissention and promotes strife - the very thing capitalists desire. For so long as the working class is divided, the capitalists will be secure in their dominion of the earth and the seas, and the millions of toilers will remain in subjection."
-- Eugene V. Debs: "Craft Unionism", speech in Chicago, November 23, 1905
"In the railroad service there are various organizations of employees. Some of the departments are pretty thoroughly organized. They have repeatedly tried to federate these organizations, so as to bring them into harmonious alliance with each other, but every such attempt has failed. The selfish spirit of craft autonomy, that is, the jealousy of each particular branch to organize itself, establish its own petty supremacy and look out for itself, has made it impossible to federate these organizations. The members of these brotherhoods have increasing grievances and try to have them adjusted in the old way. The railroad corporations are always shrewd enough to enter into contractual relations with unions representing two or three or four departments, so that in every emergency they can always control these departments, while refusing increases, making reductions or discharging without cause employees in other departments of the service."
-- Eugene V. Debs: "Craft Unionism", speech in Chicago, November 23, 1905
"As long as this great army of workers is scattered among so many craft unions, it will be impossible for them to unite and act in harmony together. Craft unionism is the negation of solidarity. The more unions you have, the less unity."
-- Eugene V. Debs: "Class Unionism", speech in South Chicago, November 24, 1905
"I belonged to a craft union from the time I was nineteen years of age. I can remember the very evening I first joined the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen. I can recall with what zeal I went to work to organize my craft, and it was the pride of my life to see that union expand. I did what I could to build it up. In time I was made to realize that the union was not sufficient unto itself. I next did what I could to organize other branches of the service and then establish a federation of the various unions of Railroad employees, and finally succeeded; but soon after the federation was formed - on account of craft jealousies - it was disrupted. I then, along with a number of others who had the same experience ... undertook to organize the railway men within one organization, known as the American Railway Union. The railroad corporations were the deadly enemies of that organization. They knew that the unity of the working class meant their end, and so they set their faces like flint against the ARU. And while they were using all their power to crush and to stamp out the ARU, they were bestowing all their favors upon the several craft brotherhoods, the engineers and the firemen, the conductors and the brakemen. They knew that so long as these craft unions existed there could be no unification of the men employed in the railway service."
-- Eugene V. Debs: "Class Unionism", speech in Chicago, November 25, 1905
"While we are on this subject, let us consult industrial history for a moment. We will begin with the craft union railroad strike of 1888. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen on the CB&Q system went out on strike. Some 2,000 engineers and firemen vacated their posts and went out on one of the most bitterly contested railroad strikes in the history of the country. When they went out, the rest of the employees, especially the conductors, who were organized in craft unionism of their own, remained at their posts, and the union conductors piloted the scab engineers over the line. I know whereof I speak. I was there. I took and active part in that strike. I saw craft union pitted against craft union and I saw the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen wiped from the CB&Q system. And now you find these men, seventeen years later, scattered all over the United States. They had to pay the penalty of their ignorance in organizing a craft instead of organizing as a whole."
-- Eugene V. Debs: "Revolutionary Unionism", speech in Chicago, November 25, 1905
"I can remember that it was not a very easy matter for me to give up the union in which I had spent my boyhood and all the years of my young manhood. I remember that I felt that there was something in it in the nature of a sacrifice, and yet I had to make it in the interest of the larger duty that I owed myself and the working class. Let me say to you, if you are a craft unionist, that infinitely greater than your loyalty to your craft is your loyalty to the working class as a whole. No craft union can fight this great battle successfully alone. The craft is a part, a part only, of the great body of the working class. And the time has come for this class, numerically overwhelmingly in the majority, to follow in one respect at least the example of its capitalist masters and unite as a whole."
-- Eugene V. Debs: "Revolutionary Unionism", speech in Chicago, November 25, 1905
"For thirty years I have been connected with the organized labor movement. I have long since been made to realize that the pure and simple union can do nothing for the working class: I have some experience and know whereof I speak. The craft union seeks to establish its own petty supremacy. Craft division is fatal to class unity. To organize along craft lines means to divide the working class and make it prey to the capitalist class. The working class can only be unionized efficiently along class lines...The working class has had considerable experience during the past few years. In almost every conflict between labor and capital, labor has been defeated. Take the leading strikes in their order, and you find that, without a single exception, the organized workers have been defeated, and thousands upon thousands of them have lost their jobs, and many of them have become "scabs". Is there not something wrong with a unionism in which the workers are always worsted? Let me review hurriedly some of the history of the past few years.
I have seen the conductors on the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad, organized in a craft union, take the place of the striking union locomotive engineers on the same system.
I have seen the employees of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway, organized in their several craft unions, stand by the corporation as a unit, totally wiping out the union telegraphers, thirteen hundred of them losing their jobs.
I have seen these same craft unions, just a little while ago on the Northern Pacific and Great Northern systems - I have seen them unite with the corporation to crush out the telegraphers' union, and defeat the strikers, their own co-unionists and fellow employees.
Just a few weeks ago, in the city of Chicago, the switchmen on the Grand Trunk went out on strike. All their fellow unionists remained at work and faithfully served the corporation until the switchmen were defeated, and now those union switchmen are scattered about looking for jobs."
-- Eugene V. Debs: "Industrial Unionism", address at Grand Central Palace, New York City, December 10, 1905
"The term Industrial Unionism is used to express a modern form of labor organization whose jurisdiction is not confined to any particular trade or craft, but is co-extensive with the industrial development, and embraces the entire working class. Industrial unionism is the outgrowth of trade unionism and expresses the highest form of industrial organization the working class has yet attained As its name implies, this form of unionism contemplates the organization of industries in their entirety, uniting all employees within the same economic body, subdivided into a number of departments equal to and corresponding with the several trades or general occupations in which they are engaged.
In organizing the workers along the lines of their general industrial interests rather than their particular craft interests, it is claimed that the friction due to overlapping craft jurisdictions is obviated, and that a higher degree of solidarity and efficiency is thus secured in the interest of all.
The industrial union in its present form came but recently into existence, the trade union having preceded it, the latter dating back to a time near the beginning of industrial life in Great Britain about the middle of the 18th century."
-- Eugene V. Debs: "Industrial Unionism", International Socialist Review, December 1909.
"It is far wiser, as our experience has demonstrated, to devote our time, means and energy to advocating the principles of industrial unionism, building up our organization and vitalizing our propaganda by an appeal to the intelligence and integrity of the workers bearing with them patiently and perseveringly, while at the same time aiding and encouraging them in a all their struggles for better conditions, than to waste time in denouncing, or seeking to destroy, these reactionary old unions and their leaders. Industrial unionism, as organized and applied, to find favor with the workers, must give proof of its sympathy with them in all their struggles, rejoice with them when they win, and when they lose cheer them up and point the way to victory. It matters not what union it is that happens to be engaged in fight with the master class, or what its attitude may be toward industrial unionism, the invariable policy of the industrial union should be to back up the contestants and to help them win their struggle by all the means at its command. This policy will do more, infinitely more, to inspire the faith of the workers in industrial unionism and draw them to its standard than any possible amount of denunciation or attempted destruction of the old unions."
Eugene V. Debs: "Industrial Unionism: A letter to Tom Mann, International Socialist Review, August 1910.
Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.
Eugene V. Debs: Statement to the judge upon his sentencing to the Atlanta Penitentiary for 10 years. April 19, 1919
I am not a Labor Leader; I do not want you to follow me or anyone else; if you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of this capitalist wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into the promised land if I could, because if I led you in, some one else would lead you out. You must use your heads as well as your hands, and get yourself out of your present condition.
Eugene V. Debs: Speech in Utah, 1910
* Source: Writings and Speeches of Eugene V. Debs, Hermitage Press, Inc. New York, 1948