The American trade union leader, orator, and Socialist Party activist Eugene Debs was a master at making what might look today like radical political ideas seem as American as apple pie. A student of history as well as politics, Debs regularly invoked the memory of the Founding Fathers to make his policy suggestions seem more acceptable. Motivated by an unyielding sense of justice, he often tried to shame authorities to do what he thought was right. In 1918, upset about the passage of the Espionage and Sedition Acts, he began a speaking tour in opposition to the acts. As part of his standard speech on this tour, Debs associated military warfare with class warfare.