United States
Eugene V. Debs
1855–1926 Socialist leader, imprisoned under the Espionage Act
A railroad worker who became America's best-known Socialist, Debs founded the American Railway Union, went to jail for the Pullman Strike of 1894, and ran for president five times, winning almost a million votes in 1912. A pacifist, he opposed American entry into the war. After a speech in Canton, Ohio on 16 June 1918 in which he praised antiwar prisoners, he was convicted under the Espionage Act and sentenced to ten years. At his sentencing in September he told the judge that while there was a lower class, he was in it. The Supreme Court upheld the conviction in 1919. From Atlanta Federal Penitentiary he ran for president in 1920 as Convict No. 9653 and won more than 900,000 votes. President Harding released him on Christmas Day 1921.