Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1940-04-27
Br JOEL OvERHOLsER

"C0xey got arrested TOT waking
on the grass" Most OF the older
people Of the country win remem-
Der that simple epitaph which
spelled the end Of the C0xey COM
m0nweaIth movement which for
time I'm the tr0ubIOus times of the
1895 brought fear Of revolution 10
the weIl-fed. The ragged hOrdes
who acclaimed COxey seemed dan
gerous radicals at the time, but as
the movement fiZzled out and the
cause Of free silver faded into
limbo, the country drew carefree
breath ence more and faced the
future and the prosperity tO-cOme
of McKinley's administration.
To Montana towns and cities along
the Northern Pacific the Coxeyites
represented not only an economic
problem to the United States as
whole in the year 1894, but an In
creasingly acute economic thrust at
their personal and municipal pocket
books. Especially was this true when
Helena found itself quartering 800 to
$50 men so determined to get to Wash
ngton that they had stolen N. P.
trains and fallen afoul Of the law.
way, and thereby wrote an odd and
interesting chapter in the varied his
tory of Fort Benton.
The depression of the early ninetieS
still threw a black shadow across the
hand, and when Coxey of Ohio IN 1894
renewed his plea for half billion
dollar issue of greenbackS to improve
the collntrys roads and set men TO
work, and for the free and unlimited
coinage of silver at Is to 1, he seemed
to the men out Of jobs to have Just
the idea to get them back to work. |
When he followed this with a call
for 100000 jobleSs men to be in Wash
ington by May LIST to petition congress,
men began gathering in all corners OF /
the land for the great march on wash
ington. With the other armies born OF !
the hardships of one Of the worst de- |
preSsions America ever experienced,
their hardshipS, dangers and final dis
persals this does not deal.
Men from the Pacific coast, however,
hit the rails for rides through Mon
tana. and vivid headlines regarding
Some came by way of the Great North
ern through Kalispen and Havre, but
these were few. The main path OF mi
gBation was to the southwark.
COxeyites Steal N. p. Train
In Butte Judge Knowles of that city
issued q restraining order for a group
Of Coxeyites there to quit interfering
with Northern Pacific trains. Three
hundred and fifty. of them, stranded,
going eastward. Stealing march on
Butte authorities, likewise stealing an
n. P. train, the men set out eastward.
Near Livingston q tunnel cave-in
stopped the train, but the Coxeys, liv-
ng I'D TO their claims that they want
ID, really, to work, dug like Trojans
vt the cave-in and cleared it out, pull {
ng into Livingston eventually. {
At that point they took over another
sngine and the expedition chLgged on {
% Billings. There rs United States
deputies sought to check such lawless
methods and called on them to sur {
ender. A fight which followed resulted +
n several men being hurt, and the t
COxeyiteS WreSted the guns n
rom the deputies and continued on
heir way. !,
That made it a Job for the United {
states troops, and soldiers from Forts
Seogh and Custer answered the call,
nd headed off the rowing rebels at :
'orsyth. Surprised and surrounded IN y
heir nightly camp, and awed by the :,
isplay of force evoked by the author =
ties, the CoxeyiteS surrendered after 9
heir futile 300-mile hejira, and under !,
scort of United States soldiers were y
AIKEN to Fort Keogh, then back TO =
lutte. Y
Montana Was Sympathetic =
1t seems evident that the people OF
he state, or most of them, regarded
be unfortunate men as worthy and
hen impossible to find, for the rs a.
apless deputies who first attacked the Il
len Of the commonwealth placed o.
len1seIveS under police protection *
gainst the people of Billings when "a
ley returned to that town. pl
Guarded by the 22d United States IL
lfantry, the $50 men who comprised m
lie surrendered group represented a Pr
roblem to Butte, then to Helena,
here they were to be tried for train it
ealing. AS one newspaper dispatch w
the time stated, there was mo w
,Om In the penitentiary for 800 or &C
10 men, and while waiting trial it sf
cans fresh air and government grub
n these men," ca
Within a short time other sections tn
the commonWealtherS western army tn
ere working their way across Idaho bl
Id Montana, and for q time 1t seemed ex
lat Montana and Idaho were trying
take up a collection Of these men. ar
The Muscular Of May 18th report ali
|: THE western Coxeyttes are COM lie,
& into the city a little more rapidly blj
Iring the past "A hours. Last night M
I'd this morning 81 of the common m,
gathers reached this city in various OH
AVS Just where they are going Ia
a difficult matter to ascertain, but r-iy
insist that they are determined to
arch into Washington and demand of -,
ing Grover president Cleveland) and a -:
s law constructors that silver be at h ~,
ice placed on a parity with gold and M ny;
at other provisions for the relief of ~.
e oppressed be made without delay" ~ ~,
On May 18th dispatch from Boise, ~, crr
aho, related some more troubles with -