S.E. 33rd and Belmont looking east. In July, representatives of a number of labor unions met to consider consolidating their strength by forming a central worker's organization, but for many people who suddenly found themselves jobless, a more pressing concern was basic survival for themselves and their families. There was little rise in crime during this period, according to local historian Joseph Gaston, because of the "well organized methods" of Portland's private relief organizations. What eventually mobilized many of the city's unemployed was Coxey's Army. "General" Jacob Coxey, an Ohio resident, proposed a national march of jobless people on Washington to impress the president and the Congress with the need for unemployment relief. Coxey Army units were formed in many places around the country, including Portland, and in the spring of 1894 hundreds of men marched east from the city carrying their blankets and a few days' rations. They soon seized a passenger train but were halted by U.S. soldiers. Then they made an agreement with a railroad company to obtain a train of box cars, and proceeded as far as Wyoming, where they disbanded when it was 32 learned that jobs were available in the coal mines there. The Coxey soldiers from other locations who did complete the march to Washington were unable to convince the national lawmakers to act on their behalf, but at least the Portland contingent was able to achieve its most immediate goal: as one marcher said before the group started out, "most of us are willing to work hard for what we get, and have a right to refuse to be dependent upon public charity." Neighborhoods In addition to operating volunteer fire companies, Portland citizens organized to meet other neighborhood needs. They petitioned the city for street improvements and the street railway companies for better mass transit service. Sunnyside residents met in September, 1893, and decided to withhold payment of their water bills to the city on the grounds that an inadequate supply of water was being provided. Apparently the water pressure increased dramatically during the next few days, since the residents soon met again to express their satisfaction and call off the strike. Some neighborhoods established their own free libraries and reading rooms. In 1893 the Library Association of Portland (later to become the Multnomah County Library) was still a privately run organization, operating on a fee subscription basis. Judge Matthew Deady, who served as president of the Library Association for many years before his death in 1893, once explained why he did not believe it desirable to operate a library as a free service: I admit, that in a certain large and wide sense, those who are ahead in this world ought to take care of those who are behind; but as a general rule, this is best done by furnishing the latter with aids and opportunities to help themselves, for all experience teaches that what costs people nothing does them but little good. Everyone should .. . contribute something, however small, towards the means of his own improvement and advancements. Clearly not everyone in Portland agreed with Deady's definition of self- help or with his concept of how people f
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