Chapter 28

LABOR AND THE RAILWAYS

In March, 1894, bands of the unemployed in various parts of the West, styling themselves "Commonweal," or "Industrial Armies," started for Washington to demand government relief for "labor." "General" Coxey, of Ohio, led the van. "General" Kelly followed from Trans-Mississippi with a force at one time numbering 1,250. Smaller itinerant groups joined the above as they marched. For supplies the tattered pilgrims taxed the sympathies or the fears of people along their routes. Most of them were well-meaning, but their destitution prompted some small thefts. Even violence occasionally occurred, as in California, where a town marshal killed a Commonweal "general," and in the State of Washington, where two deputy marshals were wounded. The Commonwealers captured a few freight trains and forced them into service.