[Item #17329] Portrait with Autograph Sentiment, ca 1914. ORGANIZED LABOR, Jacob S. COXEY.

Portrait with Autograph Sentiment, ca 1914

N.p. Printed portrait on thin, coated paper, 19cm x 12cm. Tipped in to folding card portrait case. Inscribed beneath image: "Study Art 1, Sec 8, Clause 5 of the Constitution of the U.S. and help to abolish interest / Yours truly / Jacob S. Coxey Sr.," undated but likely dating from the period of Coxey's unsuccessful 1932 Presidential run as the candidate of the Farmer-Labor Party.

Jacob S. Coxey, Sr. (1854-1951; aka "General" Coxey) was among the most colorful agitators of the early labor movement. He gained the sobriquet "General" when in 1894 he led a group of 400 unemployed laborers, popularly known as "Coxey's Army" from Massillon, Ohio to Washington, DC. to demand unemployment benefits for all laid-off workers. The march did little to alter public policy, but gained Coxey nationwide celebrity, propelling him into a long series of highly public but unsuccessful political candidacies over the next 50 years (though he did succeed in getting elected to the post of Mayor of Massillon, Ohio in 1931).

Price: $175.00

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