The March of the 'Industrial Army'
Impoverished marchers, known as Coxeyites, are forced to continue their trek to Spokane on foot after local resistance and railway crackdowns.
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.
Ellensburg citizens and the Industrials met this afternoon, where the army officers announced their desire to leave the city on foot. They requested provisions for the march to Spokane, and the city council held an extra session to appropriate $75 for flour, pork, beans, and coffee. The army will move in a body 150 strong. This will clear Ellensburg of all the Industrials, who have been camping in town for nine days. North Yakima is quiet, and the marchers there also plan to head to Spokane on foot, as they will no longer attempt to steal rides on trains. Meanwhile, in Sprague, Northern Pacific has ordered that freight trains no longer side-track for the marchers. One industrial was reported to have struck a brakeman with a rock, but the tension continues as the marchers find their path increasingly difficult.
“The people are disgusted and tired of them, and any more that may come in will probably be treated as vags and not allowed to feast at the expense of the citizens.”
This reflects the 1894 'Industrial Army' movement, part of a national wave of unemployed workers marching on Washington. Today's Seattle struggles with poverty and the movement of unhoused populations are a direct lineage of the same class-based disputes over public space and resources that gripped the state in the 1890s.
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