The strike, which was pressed almost wholly by foreigners, was not confined to Chicago. A strong antipathy is felt toward railroads in California, owing to what some believe have been the wrongful means employed by such corporations on the Pacific coast.
There were ugly outbreaks in Los Angeles, Oakland, and Sacramento, the difficulty being intensified by the refusal of the militia to act against the strikers. A force of regular soldiers, while hurrying over the railroad to the scene of the disturbance, was ditched by the strikers and several killed and badly hurt. The incensed soldiers were eager for a chance to reach the strikers, but they were under fine discipline and their officers showed great self-restraint.
END OF THE STRIKE.
The course of all violent strikes is short. The savage acts repel whatever sympathy may have been felt for the workingmen at first. Few of the real sufferers took part in the turbulent acts. It was the foreigners and the desperate men who used the grievances as a pretext for their outlawry, in which they were afraid to indulge at other times. Then, too, the stern, repressive measures of President Cleveland had a salutary effect. Many labor organizations when called upon to strike replied with expressions of sympathy, but decided to keep at work. President Debs, Vice-President Howard, and other prominent members of the American Railway Union were arrested, July 10th, on the charge of obstructing the United States mails and interfering with the execution of the laws of the United States. A number—forty-three in all—was indicted by the Federal grand jury, July 19th, and the bonds were fixed at $10,000 each. Bail was offered, but they declined to accept it and went to jail. On December 14th, Debs was sentenced to six months' imprisonment for contempt, the terms of the others being fixed at three months.
On August 5th, the general committee of strikers officially declared the strike at an end in Chicago, and their action was speedily imitated elsewhere.
COXEY'S COMMONWEAL ARMY.
One of the most remarkable appeals made directly to the law-making powers by the unemployed was that of Coxey's "Commonweal Army." Despite some of its grotesque features, it was deserving of more sympathy than it received, for it represented a pitiful phase of human poverty and suffering.
The scheme was that of J.S. Coxey, of Massillon, Ohio, who left that town on the 25th of March, 1894, with some seventy-five men. They carried no weapons, and believed they would gather enough recruits on the road to number 100,000 by the time they reached Washington, where their demands made directly upon Congress would be so imposing that that body would not dare refuse them. They intended to ask for the passage of two acts: the first to provide for the issue of $500,000,000 in legal-tender notes, to be expended under the direction of the secretary of war at the rate of $20,000,000 monthly, in the construction of roads in different parts of the country; the second to authorize any State, city, or village to deposit in the United States treasury non-interest-bearing bonds, not exceeding in amount one-half the assessed valuation of its property, on which the secretary of the treasury should issue legal-tender notes.
This unique enterprise caused some misgiving, for it was feared that such an immense aggregation of the unemployed would result in turbulence and serious acts of violence. Few could restrain sympathy for the object of the "army," while condemning the means adopted to make its purpose effective.
The result, however, was a dismal fiasco. The trampers committed no depredations, and when they approached a town and camped near it the authorities and citizens were quite willing to supply their immediate wants in order to get rid of them. But, while a good many recruits were added, fully as many deserted. At no time did Coxey's army number more than 500 men, and when it reached Washington on the 1st of May it included precisely 336 persons, who paraded through the streets. Upon attempting to enter the Capitol grounds they were excluded by the police. Coxey and two of his friends disregarded the commands, and were arrested and fined five dollars apiece and sentenced to twenty days' imprisonment for violating the statute against carrying a banner on the grounds and in not "keeping off the grass." The army quickly dissolved and was heard of no more.