The Portland daily press., 1894-04-28
THIS COxEY BUSINESS.

THIS COXEY BUSINESS.
1t is bad enough that hundreds of men
can be found in this country so foolish as
to march to Washington with the idea
that Congress can furnish them with
money or work. 1t is a great deal worse
that many thousands of men, of fair
education. think this is a perfectly
proper proceeding and are willing to
help it along by supplying these weak,
minded men or these bummers-which-
ever they may be-with the wherewithal
to continue their pilgrimage. 1t is still
worse that there should be in the SEN
ate of the United States two men repre-
senting States, and supposed to be states
men, willing to rise in their seats and
propose special recognition of these
tramps or lunatics by the highest legis-
lative body of the land. 1t is not so
much what the Coxey armies are, as the
revelation they have brought Of the ex-
tent to which communistic sentiments
have possessed the people of the country
that makes the movement disquieting.
So far as the armies themselves are con-
cerned hundred regulars could doubt
less put them all to flight and small
body of policemen, we'll disciplined.
could probably take care of them with
out much trouble. But the sympathy
they are getting from many people is
disquieting. The purpose underlying
the movement is one that really deserves
the sternest condemnation. 1t gets it
from the great majority of the people.
But there is minority who are treating
it as an uprising of the industrial masses
to demand rights of which they have
wrongfdlly been deprived, and are aid
ing and abetting it in various ways, and
this minority is big enough and power
full enough to secure champions in the
United States Senate, who take the
ground that these tramps Fastening to
Washington on stolen trains or begging
their way from town to town bear
mandate from the people to which Con-
gress ought to give respectful attention.
1t is easy to see what would be the re-
suit if they secure what their
champions in the United States Senate
think they ought to get. Whenever
there was unrest in the country numer-
GUS pocessions of Coxeyites would start
from all sectiona of the country for
Washington to compel Congress TO redress
their grievances, which might pe that
they did not have all the money they
wanted, or that somebody else had more,
or that the wages paid them were unsat-
isfactory, or that the price they had to
pay for articles was too high, or that
sufficient credit was not extended to them.
These professions would always hoist the
banner of the people and claim to rep
resent the industrial masses, just as the
present Coxeyites are doing. They would
demand free trains and free lunches
and free lodgings in the name of the
people just as Coxey's armies do, and
when they reached the capital:they would
insist that they were the people and
that their demands must be acceded to
Just as they were in the case OF the origi-
nal Coxeyites. This system of compell-
ing legislation by milling crowds
would soon extend to the States, and
State Legislatures would experience it's
effects The constitution of the country
has given ample means for the safeguard
ing Of the rights OF every individual,
whether he be rich or poor, whether he
belongs to the industrial or capitalistic
classes. The ballot box is open to all
on equal terms. There is the place to
redress grievances, to mould the govern
ment into the form that is desired. But
to surround the halls of national or
State legislation with crowds of clamor-
GUS men is species of intimidation and
duress which cannot be permitted without
grave consequences. Whoever sympa-
thizes with it or extenuates it, whoever
treats it otherwise than menace to our
form of government makes himself part
ly responsible for it, and for the mis-
chief that it will produce. Diseases that
are easily remedied when they first make
their appearance, if allowed to contin 1e
gain SO strong hold that it is almost
impossible to eradicate them. Coxeyism
can be easily cured now by making it
clear that the Coxey way of influencing
legislation is not success.