The Industrial Army Crosses the Cascades
Unemployed men, part of the Coxeyite movement, use cunning, boxcars, and mountain trails to make their way toward Washington D.C.
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.
Commonwealers are making their way east across the mountains, despite the best efforts of Northern Pacific deputies to block them. At Easton, they disabled a freight train to force a ride; at the Stampede tunnel, they simply climbed over the snowcapped Cascades to bypass the blockade. In Ellensburg, a contingent of 200 arrived and were fed by local sympathizers, including the proprietors of a Chinese restaurant who turned their shop over to the men. General Jeffries, leading the Seattle division, claims his men are making better time than their Tacoma counterparts, using local freights and ferry crossings to skirt authorities. While officials try to starve them out or arrest them, the 'Industrial Army' continues to drift toward Spokane, often with the quiet support of local railroad crews.
“Jumbo shipped some supplies from Puyallup last week and his admirers say he juggled with the box cars until he succeeded in shipping Commonwealers as commissary supplies.”
This 1894 movement, known as Coxey’s Army, reflected the deep economic despair following the Panic of 1893. Like today’s labor movements, these men were using public protest and civil disobedience to demand that the federal government recognize the needs of the unemployed, rather than leaving them to survive on local charity or 'bum' their way across the country.
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