Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-04-26
THE POINT OF VIEW.
Different Opinions About COxey and
the COxey Movement.


The views taken of Coxey and the Coxey
movement generally are varied. The Star
has already given space to many communi-
cations touching different phases of the
question. One writer. a woman, referring
to suggestion made by a correspondent in
last nights Star, says:
zone very brave paleface suggests that
the great men of the nation should initiate
the heather Arab, who silently folds his
tent and quietly steals away; that after the
necessary appropriations are passed there
Is no further use for them until a new Con-
gress is ushered in. Thirteen months have
passed, the great American assembly has
come together day after day, the roll has
been called, the ayes and noes have been
counted, and the illustrious mace bearing
the American eagle stalks from his hiding
place to seek out the sloth and drone Why
90 ye stand idle when the bravest band OF
land? Unrest and dire calamities are on
every hand, and already the horizon is
black with the muttering of communistic
riots and war. May i ask what has Con-
gress done for the worthy poor? What is
the administration without the laboring
mans vote? After he has cast all that he
has to give. then he is to be forced at the
point of bayonet and club outside the city
limits, guarded and watched like the veriest
criminal and wretch. Greet them like hon.
orable men and brothers; extend to them
the kindness due to strangers in strange
land. From men brave enough to march
from the east, west, north and the south to
present their petitions to Congress asking
for that which will keep wives and babes
from the pangs of hunger We may have
nothing to fear"
Dangerous Elements.
Another writer says:
"A great deal is said of the pure and
docile character of the Coxey party. The
schemes are cunning enough. of course.
to select for an entering wedge their more
respectable element and soft-headed SYM
pathizers are deluded into thinking that all
who set out on penniless trip Of 1900
miles are equally pure and peaceaole. But
they will soon begin to realize their error
and find them undesirable class as
ever set out to overturn government ard
help themselves.
ANY one who, like the writer has So
journed in the far west knows that in the
best of times every town has its quota
OF idlers, always grumbling that they want
work, but whom no man can hire and re-
tain at any reasonable rate of wages. This
class is now Joined with others who are
soured by losing their former steady en-
poyment.
During good times those men received
very high wages but, with gambling
houses open all day and night and the poor
est liquor selling at % cents drink they
could save nothing. The hard times find
but fondness for dissipation and a deter
mination not to work cheap. A large share
of that class went from the east and are
now eager to return. They hail the Coxey
lunacy with joy and throw themselves on
the public with him as worthy meniicants
They will bring little to Washington ex-
cept thirst for stimulants and hunger for
unearned food. If the gray-haired infants,
with soft spot still remaining in the top
of their skulls, undertake to feed them
they must also furnish pocket money to
spend at the bars of the city. If the brute
force of 800 tramps in the west can seize
and run a freight train, why cannot 1000
take a train of coaches and sleepers and
come in better style? Their avowed pur-
pose is to terrify Congress into Passing
laws to support them, but with half as
much brazen assurance they might take
possession of the street cars loot the Cen
ter Market, wreck trains and paralyze bust
ness and commerce.
Whatever mild pretenses the cunning ras-
Gals of the vanguard may put forth, the real
nature of the hungry horde they have set in
motion is of a far different sort. In the
mining states the feeling of the people
against the government is intense Not
merely the idle workers, but the average
population hates the President with a blind
and ignorant hatred. the intentional
cause of their troubles. The writer hereof
heard this daily expressed for two months
last season.
The feeling in the silver states is more in
tense today than il last year; and
those desperate communities now send out
thousands of the homeless, lawless tramp
element, which forms so large a percent of
the population to swarm to Washington by
force and fraud for a lawless and desperate
purpose. The soft heads of Washington
who offer them food clothing and encour-
agement will see them attacking peaceable
gangs of laborers, and demanding their
work and their wages. From the hour of
their arrival they will see them defying the
time honored laws of Congress as to the
The mild captain of the vanguard has de-
clared in advance against regarding the law
and the proclamation of the District gov
eminent. What. then, may not the indie
pendent bands from the west aspire to do?
Every one should remember the fate of the
cool and judicious early leaders in the
French revolution. They sowed the wind
and the whrlwind sprang up and dashed
them to the earth. Strong as they were.
they were soon grasped by stronger leaders
and more ferocious mobs than they sought
to create, and persisted by the hand of
those whom they had schooled to murder
Coxey will be found too tame for the pur-
poses of the anarchists he is educating
And amid all this the voice of the wise ex-
FOUNDER of state rights is heard in the land
as 1t was in 1861, insisting that the govern
ment has no business to do this and cannot
possibly do that; and that il is wholly I'M
constitutional to foresee anything or live in
the present age in any particular. The
man without a country is as certain as
ever that this is not much of nation any
how; and that If this disturbance does not
greatly affect his own all-important state
the affair may settle itself without his aid
If Congressman could lay aside their
schemes for the next election long enough
to consider the subject, they might find it
wise to define the crime of piracy so IL will
include mutiny on a railroad train, as well
as on an oyster scow. and include also the
wrecking, robbing and stealing of trains or
engines. Such a law would be but an act
of simple justice to their own free passes
and, incidentally, to the people they repre-
sent.
Bibles for All of Them.
Another correspondent writes as follows
| under the heading "a Bible for Coxey:"
THE above is the caption of a readable
article in Mondays Star. A very good thing
| 1t is for Mr.. Coxey to have a Bible. he
| needs one. and we are glad the book is
| awaiting him at the Y NJ c. A He ought
to have had one years ago; however, better
late than never, and we trust he will read
1t, not to get his moneys worth for il
didn't cost him anything, but to let the
sacred volume make a man of him, as il
will do for any one tof the male gender)
who will use it properly. All the Coxeyites
ought to have Bibles; these are our weapons
of warfare, and IL the Washington City
Bible Society would send its agent among
them when they strike camp on our border
and distribute several thousands of Bibles
| and Testaments among the motley horde,
who knows but what Ii may prove the
bread of life to some? They ask for bread
| let us give them the true bread"
| Protection for the Suburbs.
A correspondent who lives in the county
says:
Would it not be well for the residents of