December 14th, Debs was sentenced to six months'
imprisonment for contempt, the terms of the others being fixed at three
months.

On August 5th, the general committee of strikers officially declared the
strike at an end in Chicago, and their action was speedily imitated
elsewhere.

COXEY'S COMMONWEAL ARMY.

One of the most remarkable appeals made directly to the law-making
powers by the unemployed was that of Coxey's "Commonweal Army." Despite
some of its grotesque features, it was deserving of more sympathy than
it received, for it represented a pitiful phase of human poverty and
suffering.

The scheme was that of J.S. Coxey, of Massillon, Ohio, who left that
town on the 25th of March, 1894, with some seventy-five men. They
carried no weapons, and believed they would gather enough recruits on
the road to number 100,000 by the time they reached Washington, where
their demands made directly upon Congress would be so imposing that that
body would not dare refuse them. They intended to ask for the passage of
two acts: the first to provide for the issue of $500,000,000 in
legal-tender notes, to be expended under the direction of the secretary
of war at the rate of $20,000,000 monthly, in the construction of roads
in different parts of the country; the second to authorize any State,
city, or village to deposit in the United States treasury
non-interest-bearing bonds, not exceeding in amount one-half the
assessed valuation of its property, on which the secretary of the
treasury should issue legal-tender notes.

This unique enterprise caused some misgiving, for it was feared that
such an immense aggregation of the unemployed would result in turbulence
and serious acts of violence. Few could restrain sympathy for the object
of the "army," while condemning the means adopted to make its purpose
effective.

The result, however, was a dismal fiasco. The trampers committed no
depredations, and when they approached a town and camped near it the
authorities and citizens were quite willing to supply their immediate
wants in order to get rid of them. But, while a good many recruits were
added, fully as many deserted. At no time did Coxey's army number more
than 500 men, and when it reached Washington on the 1st of May it
included precisely 336 persons, who paraded through the streets. Upon
attempting to enter the Capitol grounds they were excluded by the
police. Coxey and two of his friends disregarded the commands, and were