Jacob Coxey and Eugene Debs were both social reformist who worked mainly in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century's. They were socialist which means they believed that the Government should own all the means of production and distribute the income equally among the people, this idea allows for expanded control of Government and makes people much more reliant on it. During the Industrial Revolution business was booming and some American's were experiencing more wealth than they ever imagined. However for the lower and middle class' times were tough, they began to work ungodly hours in unsafe factories for well below enough money to support a family. While the factory owners became extremely wealthy the workers were forced to rely on the company for everything rendering them powerless. (Alan Brinkley) This is where socialism comes into the scene, some believed that it was not right the factory owners were becoming rich off the labor of the lower classes who were suffering in return. For the first time a lot of these American's had to work for someone other than themselves, they had appointed hours they must work, and appointed breaks they could take. These rules and dependency on the company led them to not have any control over their working lives. Socialism sprang up out of this and said that workers should have their own lives and that these big business' that were dominating the industry should be owned by the Government. They believed that the Government would then distribute the income equally so that everyone had the chance to be socially and financially mobile. (T.S. Ashton) This appealed to those working long hours for almost no money much more than it did to those who owned the factory and were becoming very wealthy off the work of others.