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Coxey's Army

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Coxey's Army
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Group of unemployed men who marched to Washington, D.C., in the depression year of 1894. Jacob S. Coxey (1854 – 1951), a businessman, led the group, which hoped to persuade Congress to authorize public-works programs to provide jobs. It left Ohio on March 25 and reached Washington on May 1 with about 500 men, the only one of several groups to reach its destination. It attracted much attention but failed to bring about any legislation.

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US Government Guide: Coxey's army
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The 1st Amendment amendment to the Constitution states that Congress shall not abridge the “right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Whenever demonstrators have protested at the Capitol, Congress has had to balance the right of peaceful assembly against the need to maintain public safety. During the severe depression of 1893–94, Ohio businessman Jacob Coxey proposed that Congress enact a “good roads bill” to put people back to work building roads and other public works. When Congress failed to act, Coxey organized an “army” of unemployed men to march on Washington. “We'll send a petition to Washington with boots on,” he declared. Coxey's army attracted much newspaper publicity, and eventually some 500 marchers reached Washington. Doubting the peaceable nature of the approaching mob, a fearful Congress called out the police and federal troops to stop the marchers before they reached the Capitol building. Jacob Coxey slipped through police lines and raced toward the Capitol steps, where he tried to speak. He was arrested, fined, and imprisoned for walking on the grass. Although unsuccessful, Coxey's army revealed the depth of unrest among the unemployed and their frustration with an unresponsive government.

See also Protest

Sources

  • Carlos Schwantes, Coxey's Army: An American Odyssey (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1985)
US History Encyclopedia: Coxey's Army
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During the depression following the panic of 1893, businessman and reformer Jacob Coxey of Massillon, Ohio, and his California associate Carl Browne designed a publicity march on Washington to support bills that would create new jobs. Coxeyled a march of the unemployed, followed by reporters, from Ohio to the capitol, demanding large issues of legal-tender currency and money for roads and public improvements. Coxey left Massillon on Easter Sunday, 1894, with about five hundred men and arrived in Washington in time for a great demonstration on May Day. His parade was cheered by an enormous crowd, but when he tried to speak from the Capitol steps he was arrested, fined, and sent to jail for carrying banners and walking on the grass on the Capitol grounds.

Other "industrial armies" formed By the unemployed on the Pacific coast and elsewhere decided to join Coxey in Washington. When the railroads refused to give them free rides on freight trains, they hijacked the trains. When local authorities were unable or unwilling to suppress them, federal judges filed injunctions against them. These were enforced by U.S. marshals or the army, setting precedents for the government's action against the Pullman strikers in July. About twelve hundred from Coxey's Army encamped in Washington until the District of Columbia finally paid their way home.

The Coxeyites, also known as Commonwealers or Industrials, demanded measures that were mainly Populist, and they were generally supported By the Populists and organized Labor. Although they failed in their objectives, they were significant as symptoms of the economic unrest of the period and as an unusual type of Populist propaganda.

Bibliography

McMurry, Donald Le Crone. Coxey's Army: A Study of the Industrial Army Movement of 1894. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1968. The original edition was published Boston: Little, Brown, 1929.

Schwantes, Carlos A. Coxey's Army: An American Odyssey. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1985.

Vincent, Henry. The Story of the Commonweal. New York: Arno Press, 1969.

—Donald L. McMurry/H. S.

Wikipedia: Coxey's Army
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Marchers leaving their camp

Coxey's Army was a protest march by unemployed workers from the United States, led by the populist Jacob Coxey. They marched on Washington D.C. in 1894, the second year of a four-year economic depression that was the worst in United States history to that time. Officially named the Commonweal in Christ, its nickname came from its leader and was more enduring. It was the first significant popular protest march on Washington and the expression "Enough food to feed Coxey's Army" originates from this march.

Contents

The March 1894

The purpose of the march was to protest the unemployment caused by the Panic of 1893 and to lobby for the government to create jobs which would involve building roads and other public works improvements. The march originated with 100 men in Massillon, Ohio on March 25, 1894,[1] passing through Pittsburgh, Becks Run and Homestead, Pennsylvania in April.[2]

The Army's western section received the nickname Kelly's Army. Although larger at its beginning, few members of Kelly's Army made it past the Ohio River. Various groups from around the country gathered to join the march, and its number had grown to 500 with more on the way from further west when it reached Washington on April 30, 1894. The 260 acre Shreve farm site at current day Colmar Manor, Maryland was used by the 6,000 jobless men as a camp site.[3] Coxey and other leaders of the movement were arrested the next day for walking on the grass of the United States Capitol. Interest in the march and protest rapidly dwindled.[4]

Some of the most militant Coxeyites were those who formed their own "armies" in Pacific Northwest centers such as Butte, Tacoma, Spokane, and Portland. Many of these protesters were unemployed railroad workers who blamed railroad companies, President Cleveland's monetary policies, and excessive freight rates for their plight. The climax of this movement was perhaps on April 21, 1894 when William Hogan and approximately 500 followers commandeered a Northern Pacific Railway train for their trek to Washington, D.C. They enjoyed support along the way, which enabled them to fight off the federal marshals attempting to stop them. Federal troops finally apprehended the Hoganites near Forsyth, Montana. While the protesters never made it to the capital, the military intervention they provoked proved to be a rehearsal for the federal force that broke the Pullman Strike that year.[5]

Second March 1914

A second march was organized in 1914.[6] A portion of the march reached Monessen, Pennsylvania on April 30. [7] Another contingent from New York City merged with the march. [8] When the march reached Washington DC, Coxey addressed a crowd of supporters from the steps of the United States Capitol.

Subsequent marches

Coxey's army in culture

Among the people observing the march was L. Frank Baum, before he gained fame. There are political interpretations of his book, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which have often been related to Coxey's Army. In the novel, Dorothy, the Scarecrow (the American farmer), Tin Woodman (the industrial worker), and Cowardly Lion (political leader), march on the yellow brick road to Oz, the Capitol (or Washington DC), demanding relief from the Wizard, who is interpreted to be the President. Dorothy's shoes are interpreted to symbolize using free silver instead of the gold standard (the road of yellow brick) because the shortage of gold precipitated the Panic of 1893. In the film adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, the silver shoes were turned into ruby for the cinematic effect of color, as Technicolor was still in its early years when The Wizard of Oz was produced.[9]

For many years, the low value Pinochle meld of four Jacks was called Coxey's Army.

The phrase Coxey's army has also come to refer to a ragtag band, possibly due to an incident during the second march in 1914. [10]

Coxey's army also plays a prominent role in Garet Garrett's The Driver where the main character is a journalist following the march.

See also

References

  1. ^ "In Dreams He Sees An Army". New York Times (March 25). 1894. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C02EEDF1630E033A25756C2A9659C94659ED7CF. Retrieved 2008-11-12. 
  2. ^ "Coxey has a new commissary". New York Times (April 6). 1894. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9E01E3DE1630E033A25755C0A9629C94659ED7CF. Retrieved 2008-11-12. 
  3. ^ "R.A. Shreve, Of Old Md. Family, Dies," The Washington Post May 8, 1951, pg. B2.
  4. ^ "Coxey's Army Dwindling Away". New York Times (May 11). 1894. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9F0CE4DB1630E033A25752C1A9639C94659ED7CF. Retrieved 2008-11-12. 
  5. ^ White, W. Thomas (July 1985). "Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Railroad Work Force: The Case of the Far Northwest, 1883-1918". The Western Historical Quarterly 16 (3): 269–271. doi:10.2307/969128. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0043-3810%28198507%2916%3A3%3C265%3AREAGIT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-P&size=LARGE&origin=JSTOR-enlargePage. 
  6. ^ "Gen. Coxey to Lead Unemployed Army". New York Times (February 26). 1914. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9D07EEDD1E39E633A25751C2A9649C946596D6CF. Retrieved 2008-11-12. 
  7. ^ "Chronology of Monessen 1907-1920". http://ww3.telerama.com/~cass/Monessen1907-1920.html. Retrieved 2008-12-06. 
  8. ^ "Tramps to March on May 1; J. Eads Howe's Contingent Plans to Join Coxey's Army". New York Times (April 13). 1914. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9D07E4DE153DE733A25750C1A9629C946596D6CF. Retrieved 2008-12-06. 
  9. ^ Jahangir, Rumeana (2009-03-17). "Secrets of the Wizard of Oz". BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7933175.stm. Retrieved 18 March 2009. 
  10. ^ "Trade Fifes for Beer. Coxey's Army Bandsmen Then Go To Jail For Intoxication". New York Times (April 19). 1914. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9503E7DB113FE633A2575AC1A9629C946596D6CF&oref=slogin. Retrieved 2008-11-13. 

Bibliography

External links

  • Daily Bleed Calendar: March 25, 1894
  • "Recollections of a contingent of Coxey's Army passing through Straughn, Indiana, in April of 1894," poem by Jared Carter.
  • The Cause and the Cure pamphlet by Jacob Coxey, containing his ideas, and his statement before the Sub-Committee of Ways and Means Committee of Congress, Washington, D.C., Tuesday, Jan. 8, 1895.

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
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Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Coxey's Army".  Read more