American Railway Union

Debs founded the American Railway Union in 1893. Debs founded ARU with the goal of uniting all railway workers into a powerful organization that would better the working conditions of railway workers. Jill Lepore for The New Yorker writes, "Samuel Gompers wanted those men to join his far less radical trade union, the American Federation of Labor, which he'd founded three years earlier, but in 1893 Debs pulled them into the American Railway Union. Soon it had nearly a hundred and fifty thousand members, with Debs, at its head, as their Moses." ¹Because of the large group of laborers, Debs was able to galvanize the ARU had a much larger platform to debate with their employers. Debs was able to successfully unite workers across the railway field, creating the first industrial union in the US. This industrial union played an integral role in the socialist and labor makeup of the country. Deb's union was able to withhold a successful strike that gained higher wages for those working for the Great Nothern Railway.

This political cartoon depicts Debs wearing a crown stating, "DEB'S AMERICAN RAILWAY UNION." He is seated in a body of water blocking trade across the US. This cartoon appeared in Harpers Weekly and was published during the Pullman Strike. However, this cartoon does not cast Debs in a positive light. It highlights the public perception of Debs at the time. The crown and the blocking of trade depict Debs as a power-hungry leader and not the populist he believed he was. 

Debs was influential in his work with the ARU because he was able to create politically active union workers that helped advance their own rights. 

¹Lepore, Jill. "Eugene V. Debs and the Endurance of Socialism." The New Yorker