Today’s Labor Quote: Jacob S. Coxey

From a speech he attempted to give at the U.S. Capitol. Coxey led a protest march by unemployed workers from across the United States, which reached Washington on this date in 1894. Police arrested him for walking on the grass, but fifty years later, in 1944, Coxey finally delivered the speech from the steps of the U.S. Congress.

“We stand here to-day in behalf of millions of toilers whose petitions have been buried in committee rooms, whose prayers have been unresponded to, and whose opportunities for honest, remunerative, productive labor have been taken from them by unjust legislation, which protects idlers, speculators, and gamblers..."

---