The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-04-23
THE INDUSTRIAL" ARMY.

The New England contingent of the
industrial Army, although Leader
Swift insists that his delegation is not
part OF the Coxey movement, started
from Boston yesterday. Thousands
witnessed, or rather attempted to wit
ness, its departure from the Common,
but the Army" seeing that the crowd
was becoming too large for comfort,
quietly slipped out the back way and
formed at Roxbury crossing, To the
credit of Massachusetts be it said that
less than forty men left in the original
army, and probably not fifty will cross
the line into this State.
The movement, so far as industrial
New England is concerned, appears to be
a fiat failure, but in the West it is daily
becoming more aud more a movement
of danger. The Kelley contingent espec-
tally is the one which threatens disturb
ance of a serious character. Already
trains have been captured. the laws
violated, public peace disturbed, and
while the leader refused temporarily
to profit by the illegal acts of
those who sympathize with him, yet
he is rapidly yielding to the craze and
excitement of the affair, and is talking
of revolution and bloodshed as glibly as
though he We're discussing preparations
for his next meal.
He made an address Saturday night at
Council Bluffs that does not tend to re-
lieve apprehension in the public mind,
in which he charged the Democratic
party with being directly responsible
for the general deplorable plight
of the laboring clauses aud then
branched off into wild harangue in re-
gard to bloodshed. In concluding his
remarks he said, according to the re-
ports. My comrades, we may have
trouble before we reach Washington.
Some OF us may never return. 1t
may be you and it may be me, and / |
have no doubt it will be some of u.s."
Here he paused moment. The 1000 |
men who surrounded him became still |
as death. Then he continued: "All |
revolutions have received baptism of |
blood, and don't expect this one will
be an exception to the rule" Then
turning to a number of citizens who had |
come out to bid him adieu, he said
Friends, you who have been so gener.
Gus both by word and deed, farewell"
IL is this kind of talk that makes the
movement dangerous. 1t is a direct
appeal to the more brutal instincts in
his followers, and the cheers that
greeted his remarks showed that his
followers were prepared to follow where
he might lead.
This kind Of talk added 10 the
insane rawlings Of Coxey and Browne.
with their blasphemous doctrine
of incarnation, increases the feeling of
among conservative men
who see in the movement dangerous
uprising among "A class hard to control
and who would fanatically endure
"martyrdom' at the command of men
who properly belong inside the walls of
insane asylums.
Brought into collision with the au-
thorities blood would undoubtedly flow
How II the movement is allowed 10
at Washington The proper
time TO stop it is before the variousbodies
reach the nations capital All this talk
about the armies" having perfect
right to travel through the country is
absolute rot. States, towns and counties
have plenty Of laws 10 prevent
men with no visible means of support
from entering their borders, or, having