22. United We Stand                       

Source:  Southern Mercury (Dallas, TX), December 24, 1891

Eugene V. Debs and Terence Powderly were the best known labor leaders to affiliate with the People's Party (Powderly eventually defected to the GOP).  The People's Party appeared to gain ground in the more heavily ethnic Midwest and Northeast when John McBride, the Populist president of the United Mine Workers, defeated Samuel Gompers (who opposed Populism) for president of the American Federation of Labor in December, 1894.  Gompers, however,  narrowly defeated McBride for reelection a year later.  This was the only defeat that Gompers suffered between the founding of the AFL in 1886 and his death in 1924.

For More on Populism and Labor, see:

Grob, Gerald. "The Knights of Labor, Politics, and Populism." Mid-America 40(1):3-21. 1958.

Pierce, Michael. "The Populist President of the American Federation of Labor: The Career of John McBride, 1880-1895." Labor History 41(1): 5-24. 2000.

Salvatore, Nick. Eugene V. Debs: Citizen and Socialist. Urbana and Chicago: U of Illinois P, 1982.

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