Before Eugene Debs became the most popular socialist in American history, he was an innovative and courageous labor leader. As leader of the American Railway Union (ARU), founded in 1893, he attempted to gather all the crafts in what was then the nation's most essential industry into a single organization that could force employers to raise the wages and improve the working conditions of millions of wage-earners. © Foundation for the Study of Independent Social Ideas, Inc. (FSISI).