Coxey, without his army, passes through Chariton

Chariton's newspapers did a good job in their heyday of reporting the passage through town of people of prominence --- even when those worthy personages didn't stop. That was the case back in 1932 when The Leader of August 9 noted that Jacob S. Coxey (above) had driven through on U.S. Highway 34 en route to Omaha (he'd filled the gas tank in Albia).

Coxey was an Ohio-based politician best known for "Coxey's Army," unemployed men he had led to Washington, D.C., on two occasions --- during 1894 and 1914 --- to present to Congress "petitions in boots" unsuccessfully demanding jobs creation legislation during times of economic distress.

Having lost the Republican nomination for U.S. representative in his home district, Coxey had decided to run for president during 1932 as a third-party candidate and had hitched his star to the Farmer-Labor party. Here's how The Leader reported his drive-through:

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Chariton was host to a presidential candidate last week although scarcely anyone was aware that he was in the city. The candidate was the colorful General Jacob S. Coxey, Farmer-Labor candidate and famous in history for the march of Coxey's army to Washington.

Coxey, now mayor of the city of Massillon, Ohio, his home city, passed through Chariton Thursday. Because of the fact that he had stopped for gasoline in Albia, he did not halt here but drove through to Omaha where he addressed a group of workers at a factory.

Chief note of Coxey's address was his statement to the laborers to "ignore booze because any man can get all the liquor he wants."

From Omaha, Coxey plans to go to York, Nebraska, where a state convention of the Farmer-Labor party will be held August 12 and 13. Ten thousand members of the party are expected to attend the convention.

An effort which is being made in Nebraska to get 750 signatures to a petition which will cause the party ticket to be printed on the ballot will probably be duplicated in Iowa, it was indicated. Current reports say that Smith W. Brookhart, defeated candidate for the republican nomination as United States senator, will put his name on the ticket.

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Coxey, who originally held the Farmer-Labor vice-presidential nomination, ended up leading a splintered party into the 1932 election after Frank Webb, the party's original presidential nominee, was cast out as a "tool of Herbert Hoover." 

Franklin D. Roosevelt, of course, emerged victorious during November of 1932 and the rest, as they say, is history. Curiously enough, the New Deal Social Security Act of 1935 created, among other things, unemployment insurance --- a version of Coxey's 1894 and 1914 agendas.

Coxey continued to battle against the odds politically in his Ohio base through 1942, then retired from the field. He died at 97 during 1951 attributing his long life, among other reasons, to "not resisting temptation."