On this date in 1894, one hundred unemployed men assembled in Massillon, Ohio and set off for Washington D.C. to pester the government for jobs building roads or digging holes and filling them back up again or something similarly useful and stimulus-like.
By the time they reached the capital city, additional leeches, whiners, and handout hounds had swelled their ranks to some five hundred strong.
As they massed in front of the Capitol, Jacob Coxey and the other ringleaders were arrested for not keeping off the grass, and the march fizzled.
What happened to finding a need and filling it? Find something that needs doing, don't ask the government to find it for you.
ReplyDeleteI'm reminded of the time (now famous in my family) when my cousin unwisely told our grandmother that he was bored. She grabbed him by the chin and said "Bored?! Don't you tell me you're bored!" I think we need more chin-grabbing and less "Here, let me find you some board games" if we want our economy to get back on track.
Kind of like the million man march in 1995 and the million mom march back in 2000.
ReplyDeleteAll pretty much a joke. One thing about lunatics, history does tend to repeat itself more often when nutjobs are involved.
Joe
On the one hand, in the original plan for DC there was no Capitol Mall. The C&O canal extended to the Capitol steps, so Ohioans could visit their displeasures upon their delegation without leaving their flatboats.
ReplyDeleteOther hand, it didn't fizzle at all, since Congress in the 1890's voted pensions and low-level sinecures left and right to avoid future embarrassments. And they have not: marching on Washington has been the redress of first resort for generations, and if you quash one you're Douglas effin MacArthur all over again.
They beat back the Prairie Fire three times, and he still ended up Secretary of State.
My Dad talks about being a teen in the depression and the WPA, created by the government to make jobs for the infrastructure.
ReplyDeleteAfter working, not with them, but in businesses that interfaced with them, he came to call it:
WPA - whistle, piss, argue, because he said that's about all most of them were good for.
See what happens when you subsidize the useless? They multiply, like cockroaches.
ReplyDeleteAnd their vote counts just as much as yours.