The Commonweal Army Vacates Puyallup
After weeks of encampment, the 'army' of unemployed men departs the city for Washington D.C., leaving the streets quiet.
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The beautiful little city of Puyallup is quiet and peaceful. The Commonweal army is gone, whisked away to silence, and only the ashes of the campfires and the footprints of many feet are left to tell the tale. Late last night the men quietly shouldered their blankets and trudged out of town and took the trains in squads of twenty or thirty, and are now on the way to Washington City. The report that the men here suffered for food is not only false, but unjust to the citizens of Puyallup, as they have borne up bravely under the burden which they were ill able to bear, and not one in either division has gone to bed hungry in this city.
“The Commonweal army is gone, whisked away to silence, and only the ashes of the campfires and the footprints of many feet are left to tell the tale.”
This event was part of Coxey's Army, a historic protest march of unemployed workers in 1894. Similar to modern-day labor movements, these men were marching on the capital to demand economic relief during a time of severe national recession.
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