Eugene Debs

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how the United States government had very few regulatory controllers on corporate greed, which ultimately resulted in the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. Debs' opposition to the First World War is valid, since America was quickly imploding due to the massive unemployment and labor disputes that were tearing the country apart. The paper further discusses how socialism offers a balanced government that would help stave off corporate greed through regulation, much as President Roosevelt was forced to do through the New Deal in later times.

From the Paper:

"Eugene Debs was a socialist political activist in the Socialist Party of America during the first quarter of the twentieth century. Debs ran for president on the Socialist Party ticket, which had been caused by corporate monopoly and war profiteering witnessed in the before and after the First World War. The cause for labor rights and other socialist themes were part of his personality, as he sought to find governmental regulation against corporations and private enterprise. This was brought about by unfair wages, governmental support of private corporate monopoly, and the social upheaval cause by excessive greed. Eugene Debs often wrote speeches that characterize his approach to socialist issued in America. In his "Canton, Ohio Speech of 1918", one can see the post war attitude toward corporations that Debs chose to fight against."

More papers on Eugene Debs :

• Essay # 26329 : "WWI Speeches: President Woodrow Wilson and Eugene Debs"
• Essay # 137908 : "Unionism and Socialism"
• Argumentative Essay # 69786 : "War Overseas"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: