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VOL. 9. No. 19.
LINCOLN, NEB., SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 1894.
PRICE FIVE CENTS.
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Disturbed social conditions in this
country have produced a menacing
tendency to disorder and anarchy,
idleness and the vagaries of popu
list politics have banded together
tramps, cranks, scoundrels and a few
honest but misguided persons; and
Coxey's armies are moving on to Washington led by adventurers and
deluded by the populist idea that government is only another word
for asylum for persons in indigent circumstances.
Coxey's army is an organized wail of distress, a fatuous scheme to
induce the government to scatter greenbacks over the country, a
wild and impracticable exploit of a few crack-brained or knavish
leaders, aided by the foolishness of a class of men who are always
willing to embark in any undertaking, no matter how visionary or
unreasonable; the legitimate outcome of the dissemination of the
fallacies of the populists.
There is much variableness in the army, or armies. It is beset by
many difficulties, and every day there is a rise or fall in the impor
tance of the movement. Within the last two weeks when the vari
ous divisions seemed to be making great headway in their course
toward the capitol, there have been times when it seemed impossible
to estimate the importance of this most peculiar demonstration,
when it seemed that the great question of the hour in this country
was, What shall be done with Coxey's army whf n it finally reaches
Washington? Sometimes it has looked as though four or five
thousand or even a greater number of these marching fanatics
would succeed in reaching their destination, and it requires no argu
ment to demonstrate that an army of paupers of anything like this
magnitude in the comparatively small city of Washington would
mean that tho national authorities would have a momentous and
extremely difficult issue to deal with. At other times when rain
and obdurate railway officials and unsympathetic communities de
pressed the enthusiasm of the "soldiers'' and stopped the progress
of the army, the importance of tho movement has appeared to
dwindle and it has seemed to be a matter of small consequence
whether tho men reached Washington, or what should be done with
them when they get there.
But this phenomenon is in reality a most formidable expression of
the disquietude that obtains in all sections of the country, and a
serious consideration of the movement will convince anyone that if
the army ever sets foot in Washington, and it seems altogether prob
able that it will, the authorities will find themselves face to face
with a problem mest difficult to solve. Unfortunately Coxey's army
is a condition and not a theory, and it has got to be met' in a practi-
cal manner. ," "
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Suppose the government were to set the men to work with pay.
Such a course would immediately draw to Washington thousands of
new recruits. The soldiers aro most unquestionably paupers, but it
isn't an easy matter to arrest several thousand men, and once ar
rested they would have to bo fed. They can't very well be driven out
of town at the point of the bayonet, particularly if they maintain a
peaceable demeanor. When they get to Washington, no matterhow
or where it comes from, they must have food. Will the government
contribute it, or will it be donated by private citizens, or will the
soldiers be compelled to steal it? If Coxey gots to Washington is
almost as big a question as Christ's coming to Chicago.
It is possible that tho best plan would be for the authorities to
prepare to meet every emergency, and then do nothing; receive the
army and give it a respectful hearing and then, with the statement
that no immediate official relief could be granted, advise it to dis
perse. It is probable that the army would not long remain if
left dependent on such assistance as private individuals chose to
render. The soldiers, finding no grand government free lunch, would
drift away to places where they would have a clearer field. A few
arrests would undoubtedly have to be made; but if the prisoners
were treated as prisoners and not as guests, arrest would not be in
vited. The railroad companies are, to a considerable extent, responsible
for the growth of the Coxey movement. Had the divisions been
left to trudge along on foot, like the main brigade, enthusiasm
would quickly have subsided. Free transportation invited recruits.
The pretense of the railroad companies that their trains were seized,
or that they were forced to carry tho Coxeyites is palpably trans
parent. The power of the military of the different states was at
their disposal, and they could havo prevented the seizure of the
trains if they had so desired. If the railroads are so helpless as re
cent developments would indicate, all that is necessary, when free
transportation is wanted, is to organize a company of a hundred or
so and capture a train. Excursion parties could beat their way from
one end of the country to the other.
That remarkable publication, the Nebraska City Press, using as a
text one of the Call's recent hysterical expressions anent a most dis
gustingly scandalous divorce case in this city, intimates that this
case is only one of a "series of disgraceful escapades that have quite
upset Lincoln society.in recent years." The Press may be accurate
enough in chronicling the stirring events of the wild life that obtains
in Nebraska City; but it has on several occasions displayed a con
ception of affairs in this city that is almost as unique as the editor's
peculiar use of. the English language, which is a source of amuse
ment wherever that paper is read. It would certainly require a
great deal of stretching of the lines that mark off the limits of "Lin
coln society," to make them take in the persons who have figured so
conspicuously in the recent "disgraceful escapade.'
.Newspaper reporters have fallen into the habit of making nearly
