Coxey’s army and Trump
More than a century before Donald Trump began promoting his own infrastructure program, another populist businessman offered an even grander solution. In the spring of 1894, Jacob Coxey led his “industrial army” on a 400-mile march from his hometown Massillon, Ohio, to Washington, D.C., demanding the government invest in a $500 million “Good Roads” program.
Trump’s trillion-dollar plan equates to a fourth of today’s federal budget. However, it pales next to Coxey’s, which then amounted to more than the entire federal budget.
Like Trump, Coxey was a rich businessman who took up the cause of the unemployed. A tireless self-promoter, he sent pamphlets detailing his grand plan to fellow populists along the route. They responded by turning out sympathizers who helped feed and shelter “Coxey’s Army.” Coxey also self-financed his march, and like the early Trump campaign, Coxey’s was a low-budget operation. Every night, Coxey would hold his own rally to stir the crowds.
Coxey’s arrival in Washington would not be as triumphant as Trump’s. Coxey was arrested on the charge of trespassing on the Capitol grounds. However, Coxey humanized the unemployed, just as Trump’s campaign breathed life into the narrative of those Americans the global economy left behind.
Coxey marched in the midst of the worst depression in the nation’s history. It was estimated that one in four Americans was unemployed. If corporate globalization and automation are cited as today’s job takers, in the late 19th century populists also were concerned about the power the new corporations wielded over the common laborer.
These 19th century populists decried the tycoons whose lobbyists rigged the game in their own interest. Like Trump, Coxey came to drain this swamp. In the speech he intended to give he wrote, “We stand here on behalf of the millions of toilers whose petitions have been buried, and whose opportunities for honest, remunerative, and productive labor have been taken from them by unjust legislation which protects idlers, speculators, and gamblers.”
But as many similarities exist between Trump and Coxey, a fundamental difference separates them. Coxey reached out to all Americans.
At a time when the nation was experiencing a rash of lynching black Americans, Coxey welcomed them into his march. At a time when America grew more segregated, Coxey’s march was fully integrated. Blacks and whites slept in the same shelters and ate at the same tables. The flag bearer leaving Massillon and parading down Pennsylvania Avenue was black, and the black newspaper in Washington for weeks heralded to its readers “Coxey is Coming!” The turnout in D.C. as Coxey arrived was largely comprised of the city’s growing black population. His very idea of staging a march to Washington became an important part of later campaigns for women’s suffrage and civil rights.
In the short term, Coxey’s grand plan did not result in building new roads. However, as we approach the inauguration of the nation’s 45th president, we are reminded that with his inclusive march, Coxey called to his follower’s better angels and their best instincts. He often spoke of his march as “the Commonweal.”
Today, his legacy is as much one of building bridges as building roads. As the inauguration approaches, our diversity is a treasured national infrastructure that needs continuous celebration. Hopefully, this inauguration, President Trump will find new words that embrace this infrastructure in need of its own repair.