On this day in Labor History the year was 1894.
A group of 400-500 unemployed men marched down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the US Capitol.
In a buggy at the front of the march rode Jacob Coxey.
The march had been Coxey’s idea. He was the owner of sand-quarry in Massillon, Ohio. Although he himself was wealthy, he had become incensed at the government’s failure to address the nation’s growing unemployment crisis.
The Panic of 1893 had sent unemployment skyrocketing to 18 percent. \
Coxey called for a national march of unemployed workers to demand public works projects.
He declared it the “Army of the Commonwealth of Christ.”
Across the country men took up the call.
It is estimated that 20,000 set out for Washington. But not everyone made it that far.
Workers from Portland, Oregon were arrested and sent home when they commandeered a train for the journey.
It took the marchers from Ohio five weeks to arrive.
But just as they approached the Capitol, a line of more than 1,000 police officers and military soldiers stood between them and their destination.
As the soldiers drew closer, Coxey leapt from his buggy, and jumped over a fence onto the Capitol grounds to begin his speech.
Before he finished he was arrested for walking on the grass.
He served twenty days in jail.
With his arrest, the movement disbanded.
Although the government refused to listen to Coxey’s message, it was covered widely by the press.
The march brought attention to plight of the unemployed.
Fifty years to the day when he was arrested, a 90 year old Coxey returned to the Capitol.
He finally had the opportunity to deliver the full speech he had prepared in his fight for working people.
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Labor History in 2:00 brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and The Rick Smith Show