On this day Labor History the year was 1895.
Labor organizer Eugene V. Debs began a six month prison sentence in Woodstock, Illinois.
Debs was the leader of the American Railway Union that had led a nationwide boycott and strike against the Pullman Palace Car Company in 1894.
Federal troops had brutally crushed the strike. But bullets and bayonets were not the only federal weapon.
On July 2, 1894 a federal circuit court in Illinois issued an injunction against Debs and other labor leaders.
The stated basis of the injunction was that the boycott interfered with the delivery of the US Mail.
The injunction prohibited Debs from doing anything to encourage participation in the boycott.
The New York Times recognized that the broadness of the injunction made it a “Gatling gun on paper.”
It was aimed to cut down the power of the worker’s union.
Injunctions would remain a powerful anti-union tool for the next four decades, until laws were passed to limit their power.
Debs was found to be in contempt of court for violating the order.
He appealed the decision and the case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Among Debs defense team was a young lawyer Clarence Darrow.
Darrow would go on to become a legal champion for working people.
The Supreme Court upheld the legality of the injunction and Eugene Debs reported to prison.
While serving his sentence he spent much of his time reading.
It began his political transformation. And caused Debs to begin to question the capitalist system that seemed rigged against working people who dared to try to stand up in solidarity.
Soon after prison he became a Socialist, running for President four times.
In November, Debs finished his sentence and returned to Chicago to a crowd of thousands of cheering workers.
Listen to our clips atwww.LaborHistoryin2.com
Labor History in 2:00 brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and The Rick Smith Show