People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 May 1894 — COXEY IS HEARD. [ARTICLE]

COXEY IS HEARD.

Presents Ill* Petition to the Hooge Labor Committee. Washington, May IL— Gen. Coxey appeared Wednesday before the house •ommittee to speak on Representative MeGann’s resolution for the appointment of a joint senate and house com mittee to investigate the prevailing industrial depression. Coxey supplemented the reading of his petition with a brief statement and then answered questions put to him by members of the committee There are, he said, billions of dollars’ worth of improvements throughout the country to be made, and,there are millions of men to make them. There is but one thing standing in the way and that is lqoney. The passage of bis two bills would solve the industrial depression and set all men at work. He asked for 99 per cent of the people the same privileges as are enjoyed by 1 per cent —the national banking class, who alone are represented in congress. Mr. Ryan (dem., N. Y.) pressed Mr. Coxey for proof of this assertion. “Have you any showing to make, any proofs to offer that you represent 99 per cent of the people?” asked Mr. Ryan. “No,” said Coxey, after thinking a moment; “I don’t claim that” I. E. Dean, a member of the executive committee of the Farmers’ Alliance, followed with a recital of the depressed condition of labor. Representative Dunn (N. J.) asked Mr. Dean: “Do you believe that the American people have reached a stage where they want threats and coercion used against their legislators by these moving bodies?” “No,” said Mr. Dean, “threats are not intended.” “Then,” said Mr. Dunn, “what can be accomplished by these steps, equivalent to coercion.” “You have a habit m congress,” said Mr. Dean, “of consigning petitions to pigeon holes and waste baskets. The object of Coxey was to present to you a petition that would be insured a hearing.” The committee, by a vote of 8 to 2, adopted the McGann resolution, which Mr. McGann will offer in the house. Messrs. Dunn (N. J.) and Apsley (Mass.) voted nay.