Seattle's Mayor Skeptical of Coxey's Army Arrival
As unemployed men march toward Washington D.C. to demand government action, Seattle's mayor offers little hope for public assistance to the local contingent.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The officers of the Industrial Army held a meeting with the citizens of the city yesterday morning in the council chamber, Gen. Shepard desiring to ascertain what steps the city would take to help the army on its way to Washington City. Mayor Phelps was present by invitation. Gen. Shepard stated that the army wanted to go to Washington City and suggested that the citizens of Seattle make what donations they could to assist in hiring cars. In responding, Mayor Phelps said he could only speak as an individual, and if they wanted to know what action the city would take they could apply to the council. The Industrial Army was a new phase and he did not know why they wanted to send a large body of unemployed men to Washington City and he did not understand what they could accomplish by going. Even if he had the power delegated to him by the city he did not know how to help them. He thought the principal cause of all the troubles was that the people had departed from frugal ways of living, but as the condition existed he thought the proper thing to do was for every man to work out his own salvation. He gave the army credit for conducting itself well and said that there could be nothing gained by members of the army conducting themselves otherwise than peaceably.
“I did not know why they wanted to send a large body of unemployed men to Washington City and he did not understand what they could accomplish by going.”
Coxey's Army was a response to the devastating Panic of 1893, representing one of the first times Americans marched on Washington to demand jobs programs. The tension between municipal leadership and transient, unemployed activists remains a defining friction point in Seattle's civic discourse today.
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