The Northwest’s Industrial Army Takes Shape in Seattle
Seventy-two unemployed men gather at a storefront on South Second Street to march on Washington D.C., demanding economic relief during the Great Depression of the 1890s.
The story, cleaned up
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The movement for the organization of unemployed workmen into an industrial army which should march to Washington, D.C., and demand measures of relief from the president and congress, which was begun by Gen. Coxey in Ohio, has at last spread to Seattle. It took definite shape yesterday in the formation of the 'Northwestern Industrial Army,' with seventy-two enrolled members. The leader of this effort is Henry Shepard, an unemployed surveyor, who secured two empty stores from the Northern Pacific Railroad Company at the southwest corner of Weller and South Second streets. About 200 men attended the meeting, where they adopted resolutions pledging to uphold the U.S. Constitution, assist officers in the lawful discharge of duty, and repudiate all connection with 'drunkards, thieves and convicts.' The men discussed the necessity of discipline and the peril of their journey to the national capital. They are currently organizing to provide for the army's needs, hoping to establish a headquarters where they might cook beans and house those who cannot find meals elsewhere.
“The strength of their present movement lay in dignified behavior, disciplined demands and an insistence on the sense of the true American spirit.”
This 1894 mobilization reflects the deep-seated tension between labor and capital in Seattle’s history, echoing the recurring cycles of economic precarity that define the city's growth. Just as these men sought visibility and relief in the 1890s, modern organizing in Seattle continues to grapple with the city's high cost of living and the search for collective power.
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