The Daily Texarkanian., 1894-05-21
THE C0XEY MOVEMENT.
Discussed in All of Its Different
Phases, and Thoroughly Sifted
Down.

CoXey Army movement, IN all OF its
bearings, present and future, treats
the matter thus.
The episode inaugurated and CON
sumated by Commander" Coxey is
now practically at an end. The
petition in boots has been presented
to Congress, and yet the world con-
tinues to revolve in the same old
way. Many alarmists have seen, or
affected to see, in the movement
the first step in that much dreaded
and long predicted armed revolution
of labor against the tyrannical OPP
preston of capital; but it will prob
ably have no more far reaching
effect than to augment considerably
the distress of those few ill-advised
men who have gone intoit honestly.
Nor is it any more probable that
the much heralded revolution will
ever materialize. The discomfort
of labor is but an incident to So
cial period of transition. 1t is pure
ly temporary, and will be passed out
of peaceably in spite of all hysteri-
cal predictions of riding up to our
brides in blood
The sympathy of the wage-earn-
ers for the industrials" has been
inspired by the feeling that the
armies are marching for the en-
forcement of doctrines they them
selves maintain, They are discon-
tented with their lot Maudlin hui
manitarians have for generations
dinned into their ears the idea that
labor is oppressed and must be rails
ed; the doctrine of equality has
been preached to them until they
it BADLY and without qualif-
cation and in a sense that it was
never intended to have They COM
pare their psesent condition with
the present condition Of the rich,
and not with the condition of their
own class a generation ago. And
from their wrong point of view the
progress of civilization appears as
naught They think the rich are
growing richer and the poor poorer,
because the gap between the two,
irrevocably fixed by nature, has not
been closed If they could but see
that the advance Of mankind is an
elevation Of the whole and not a
of the mass; that the de-
gree of progress is to be measured
from without and not from Within
the whole question would be clear
to them. They will see this in time
for they are advancing in mental
grasp as well as in material comfort.
But they cannot see it yet, and in
their discomfort they turn with SUI
blime confidence to the Government
to Danish all their ills. Coxey's de-
mand that the government shall re-
lieve the distress of the unemploy
ed only reflects their own firm con-
viction that the government is some
sort of fairy god-mother who can,
with a touch of her wand, turn pa
per to gold and set at naught the di-
vine decree that a man shall live by
the sweat of his brow.
Suppose Coxey's demand were
complied with and these ragged
and famished 'industrials" given
work by the government. The
first result would be a demand for
employment by a new industrial
army" ten times as numerous as the
first. The ball once set in motion
would not stop until all the wage
earners were working for the gov
ernment or until Congress forcibly
stopped it. But this would be a
minor result. The important fact
that they entirely overlook is that
the money to pay them would be
drawn by the government from the
people who have money. So much
the better, say the "industrials;"
the money would be distributed and
prosperity would become general.
1t is just here that they are most
wrong. The money paid by the tax
payers would be withdrawn from
production. Production would be
curtailed, and, at the end of the
year, the country would be poorer
to Just this extent.
AS has been said all this is but
incidental to a transition period.
The lower levels Of mankind have
been raised to the point where they
may see a glimmering Of economic
truths, but their mental vision is as
yet hazy and uncertain. They have
half knowledge that fills them
with a resentful sense of injustice.
But, as they advance, educated in
the hard field of experience, they
will see that the security of capital
l. ALo oceao4;,1 condition &c 4 hair