May 1, 1894: Coxey's Army, the 1st March On Washington

May 1, 1894: The worst economic depression America had yet seen leads to the first march on Washington, the nation's capital.

The Panic of 1893, a stock market crash, sent the economy, already shaky since the passage of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890, down the drain. The economy had allowed Grover Cleveland to become the 1st (and still the only) former President ever to regain the office in 1892. But the Panic came just 3 months into his term, and he never had a chance.

By the Spring of 1894, people were desperate. Unemployment was way up. Bank runs paralyzed local financial systems. Credit dried up. Deflation sent wages tumbling.

Enter Jacob S. Coxey. A Pennsylvania native who ran an iron mill in Massillon, Ohio, Coxey had run for the State Senate in 1885, and lost. He had been a member of the Greenback Party and the People's Party, both of which had challenged America's two-party system from the left.

How did those challenges go? Greenback candidate Benjamin Franklin Butler, a Civil War General and former Governor of Massachusetts, won 1.3 percent of the popular vote for President in 1884. In 1892, Populist candidate James B. Weaver, a former Congressman from Iowa, won 8.5 percent, and carried the States of Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Nevada and North Dakota for 22 Electoral Votes.

Coxey believed that a program of public works, especially road improvement, would save the economy. It would not only provide something the country really needed, but it would put people back to work, put money back in people's pockets, and remove the need for so much credit.

On March 30, 1894, Coxey left Massillon with 100 men, and set out on a 350-mile march to Washington. "Coxey's Army," as it became known in the newspapers, grew to 6,000 people by the time it camped out on the Shreve farm at Colmar Manor, Maryland on April 30. The month in between included Coxey's 40th birthday.

The next day, May 1, May Day, already known as International Workers' Day, Coxey and the leaders of his Army walked onto the grounds of the U.S. Capitol Building. Unfortunately for them, specifically, they walked onto its grass. They were arrested for this. Fortunately, the arrests were handled peacefully, and nobody got hurt.

With this, one of the great anti-climaxes of American history, the movement quickly fell apart. Coxey went down in the American imagination, at least in the short term, as a crank.

Jacob Coxey wasn't wrong. He was just significantly premature. In 1901, following the assassination of President William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt became President, and began to put together what he called "the Square Deal," launching America's "Progressive Era." In 1912, Woodrow Wilson was elected President, and his "New Freedom" expanded on TR's work. (This in spite of the two men personally despising each other.)

In 1926, President Calvin Coolidge (in college at the time of Coxey's Army) signed the federal highway program into law. This included U.S. Route 30, over the path of Coxey's march from Massillon to Pittsburgh.

In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt (only 12 years old in 1894) was elected President, saying, evoking memories of his cousin's Square Deal, "I pledge myself to a New Deal for the American people. This is more than a political campaign, it is a call to arms." In 1935, he created the Works Project Administration, which built so many things that created jobs, from post offices to dams to stadiums (including the original Rutgers Stadium in 1938).

In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower (3 years old in 1894) signed the Interstate Highway Act into law. Coxey's route from Pittsburgh to Breezewood, Pennsylvania is now part of Interstate 76 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike. His route from Breezewood to Frederick, Maryland is now part of Interstate 70. And his route from Frederick to Washington is now part of Interstate 270.

Coxey lived to see much of this, despite being a perennial candidate. The People's Party nominated him for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1894, and for Governor in 1895 and 1897. The Socialist Party nominated him for the U.S. Senate in 1916 and 1928; and for the House in 1922, 1924, 1926, 1928, 1930, 1932 and 1934. The Union Party nominated him for the Senate in 1936, and for the House in 1938 and 1942. He lost all of these races. He won one election in his life, for Mayor of Massillon in 1931, but lost in his 1st bid for re-election.

Jacob Coxey, May 1, 1944.

The "crank" was a prophet, all along.

On May 1, 1944, 50 years to the day after he made the 1st march on Washington, Coxey was invited to read his original petition from the Capitol Steps. He did. It was terribly delayed, but it was vindication, something rarely obtained in Washington, especially in one's own lifetime, and rarer still to one's own face. He died in 1951, at the age of 97.

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May 1, 1894 was a Tuesday. Baseball was the only sport in America that dared to be openly professional. These games were played in the National League that day:

* The New York Giants beat the Baltimore Orioles, 7-4 at the Polo Grounds. This version of the Polo Grounds would burn down in 1911, and be replaced by the most familiar version. This version of the Orioles would go out of business after the 1899 season.

* The Boston Beaneaters beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-3 at the Huntingdon Avenue Grounds. Later in the year, this ballpark would burn down, and be replaced on the site by Baker Bowl. The Beaneaters eventually became the Braves.

* The Washington Senators beat the Brooklyn Bridegrooms, 2-1 at Boundary Field in Washington. Coxey's Army had no effect on this game. These Senators also went out of business after 1899. They should not be confused with the American League's version of the Senators, who became the Minnesota Twins. So named because of multiple marriages for players on their roster in 1887, the Bridegrooms eventually became the Dodgers.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds, 7-6 at League Park in Cincinnati. Crosley Field would be built on the site in 1912.

* The Cleveland Spiders beat the St. Louis Browns, 7-0 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The Spiders also went out of business after 1899, while the Browns became the Cardinals. They should not be confused with the American League's version of the Browns, who became the Baltimore Orioles. And this version of Sportsman's Park would be replaced on the same site in 1909.

* And the Chicago Colts, forerunners of the Cubs, and the Louisville Colonels, another team that went out of business after the 1899 season, appear not to have been scheduled to play on May 1, 1894.