Debs, a union leader from Terre Haute, Ind., first went to prison for his role as an organizer of the 1894 Pullman Strike, a violent walkout that paralyzed the nation's railroads. He and his union had answered a call for help from employees of Chicago sleeping-car magnate George Pullman, who had cut workers' pay but demanded in full the rent money they owed him. In 1920, Debs was serving time for advocating resistance to the military draft of World War I. Debs essentially asked to be put behind bars, telling a judge: "While there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."