The Common Laborer

Eugene Victor Debs (1855 - 1926) was a political activist, trade unionist, and five times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for president of the United States. This essay appeared in the Terre Haute Locomotive Firemen’s Magazine, April 1890. Debs expresses concern for the vast number of workingmen without trades, who are often termed “unskilled” laborers. He argues that their importance in carrying forward the great industrial enterprises of the world has not been recognized in the past, and was not appreciated at the time. He also mentions that the term “skill” is often used in a sense which does great injustice to men who do not wear the badge of some particular trade, and hence, the term “skilled laborer” is never applied to men who are known as “common laborers.” He states that “the American idea is to obtain such wages for work as will make the American home comfortable, where there shall be an abundance of food, decent clothing, apartments for rest and recreation...