(chorus) Eugene Debs the socialist Did you ever hear his name? “Eugene Debs for President” Was the Working-class Refrain (verses) From Terre Haute, Indiana he walked into the world He worked upon the railroad in the days when coal was hurled The wages were too low, the hours were too long And the American Railway Union, Eugene Debs he formed. (chorus) He fought the baron Pullman and the trains then ceased to roll They broke the strike with troops and put Gene Debs in a cell He read a book in prison, it opened up his mind And now he understood why the workers always cried. (chorus) He had a gift for speaking and making things so clear His big Socialist Party made victory seem near He campaigned around the country and got a lot of votes The Village really liked him and he gave the workers hope. (chorus) His life was very saintly, he wasn’t an office-seeker He was a man of principle who loved all the workers He wrote in “Appeal To Reason” and sided with the unskilled He opposed World War I and so they put him in jail. (chorus) Remember Eugene Debs, if you walk into their booth Remember Eugene Debs, if you fear a big defeat He saw it made no sense to vote for what you don’t want When pounding in your heart is the beat of a socialist. (chorus) The Eugene Debs biographical protest folk song was written in Brooklyn during the late 1970s.
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