The Depression of 1893
In its impact on industry and employment, the depression of the 1890s was on a par with the Great Depression of the 1930s. In some places it began before 1890, in a deep agricultural crisis that hit Southern cotton-growing regions and the Great Plains in the late 1880s. The shock hit Wall Street and urban areas in 1893, as part of a massive worldwide economic crisis. A quarter of the nation's railroads went bankrupt; in some cities, unemployment among industrial workers exceeded 20 or even 25 percent.
Americans of different incomes experienced the depression in markedly different ways. In the bitter winter months, some poor families starved and others became wanderers. Unemployed "tramps" crisscrossed the countryside, walking or hiding on freight trains. Many appeared at the back doors of middle-class houses, pleading for work or food.
Despite the obvious structural crisis, many Americans blamed those who could not find work, accusing them of laziness or begging. Some among the unemployed blamed themselves, and stories of despair and suicide ran almost daily in many newspapers.
Many in the comfortable classes feared violence and anarchy. A series of bitter labor conflicts--such as the Homestead strike at the Carnegie Steel Works, and the Pullman strike in Chicago--captured the nation's attention before and during the depression itself. In such situations, many respectable Americans blamed violence on the strikers, though others sympathized with the plight of the underpaid and unemployed.
In 1894, Ohio businessman Jacob Coxey organized an "Industrial Army" to protest the federal government's inaction in the face of economic crisis. Coxey proposed many programs that would later win acceptance during the New Deal, but which were considered extremely radical in the 1890s. Most notably he advocated the creation of government jobs, through which unemployed men could improve the nation's roads and build public works, while also supporting their families. This project, he argued, could be financed through the issue of government bonds.
Coxey's Army picked up many allies and sympathizers on its march to Washington, but it also stirred panic among those who feared an insurrection of the unemployed. When the members of the Army reached Washington they were driven from the Capitol lawn. Coxey, who tried to read a prepared statement on the Capitol steps, was jailed for trespassing, though allies later read his speech into the Congressional Record. Coxey, who founded the newspaper Sound Money, went on to run for U.S. Representative from Ohio in 1894 (he lost to a Republican) and to serve as a delegate to the 1896 Populist convention. Because of his high profile in the party, many commentators associated Populism with "Coxeyism."
The depression remained severe in 1896, making economic conditions a crucial issue of the campaign. The sitting Democratic president, Grover Cleveland, was wildly unpopular because of the depression--a fact that helped foster a deep rift in the Democratic party, and also made Bryan's campaign an uphill battle from the start. During the first two years of McKinley's presidency the nation returned to prosperity, bringing new issues to the fore in 1898 and beyond.
'The spectacle of men fighting for work...' My God! This is terrible! Battling for the privilege of working all day for enough to eat--and the next day go at it again; and so on until the earth rattles on their pine boxes.
Cannot the good God do something to relieve his wretched children? Or is this thing to go on forever? Why not give some good-hearted, honest man supreme power for four years, and let him improve God's world or blow it up. He could not make it much worse than it is, for the great mass of mankind.
A judicious hanging bee in Wall Street would be a good measure with which to begin the reformation.
-- I.D. [Ignatius Donnelly] in The Representative, 29 August 1894
Cartoons on this Site Mentioning the Depression
(see also broader manifestations of economic concerns, such as appeals to workingmen, the currency question, and the tariff.)
29 September, L.A. Times
13 October, New York Journal
22 October, Sound Money
Jacob Coxey's Address on Behalf of the Industrial Army
© 2000, Rebecca Edwards, Vassar College