"While there is a lower class I am in it; While there is a criminal class I am of it; While there is a soul in prison I am not free." ( Eugene V. Debs) This collection of essays charts the thought and character of Eugene V. Debs. Debs was an influential early American labor leader, a founding member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and a Presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. In these essays, Debs employs his characteristically fiery rhetoric in a spirited defense of worker's rights, organized labor, women's suffrage, class solidarity, and the principles of economic socialism.

"The Short Line War is a story that will appeal more particularly to the sterner sex, and we take it that the hyphenated name, Merwin-Webster, stands for two healthy-minded young men who have put their heads together and who have mapped out this story of a railroad war, in which politics form a considerable part. Jim Weeks is the central figure in the fight, and we like him so much better for knowing of the romance in his early life. He was a man 'without much instinct or imagination; he took everything seriously and literally, he could not understand a whim'--therefore a very foolish little woman came into his life only to leave it desolate...