The Washington Times

ANTICIPATING HIS ARRIVAL

District Officials Preparing to Receive Coxey's Army.

THE MILITIA STANDING READY

A Report States That the Industrial Leader Will Be a Candidate for the Presidency.

He Hires Canal Boats to Float Away from Cumberland—The Other Armies.

Washington authorities, civil and military, are beginning to take an active interest in the arrival of Coxey's army. As the commonweal approaches and the stories of detachments from various cities begin to be authenticated the outlook for a rather troublesome problem for District authorities to solve becomes bright.

The question is, What will be done with the Coxeyites after they disband? The individual members of the army will be without means to get out of the city, and Gen. Coxey has disclaimed all intention of leading away the men he brings in. It begins to look as though the men might encamp in the District and practically say to the authorities: "Here we are, and what do you propose to do with us?"

The District Commissioners had prepared yesterday a list of the statutes under which Coxey and his men could be arrested and dealt with. There is no lack of law; laws against vagrancy; against bringing paupers into the District; against assemblages on the Capitol grounds, or processions without a permit.

Commissioner Ross, the president of the board, to-day said that the authorities do not think they will have trouble in dealing with the Coxey army, and that he considered the invasion chiefly dangerous because of the precedent it would establish. If disgruntled factions were to form the habit of marching upon the capital in force to voice their demands he thought it would be disturbing legislation and decidedly uncomfortable for the residents of the city.

There are 450 men on the local police force but of course only a fraction of the body would be available to handle the Coxeyites, and the probabilities are that it would be necessary to call upon the militia for assistance.

There are 1,600 troops so well drilled that they could be massed in marching order on two hours' notice from Gen. Albert Ordway, their commander. The District militia is under the direction of the President. They can be called upon in case of riot, insurrection, or menaces of riot or insurrection.

If Coxey's men are dealt with by the police court there would be no opportunity for labor organizations to appeal their case to a higher court with the hope of establishing a precedent. By a curious defect in the organization of the District courts the authority of the police court is absolute. There is no appeal from its sentences, and this arrangement may prove a dampener upon the ardor of the people who may be disposed to make martyrs of Coxey's men.

A plan under discussion by the militia officers is to corral the Coxey army on the edge of the city line, herd it into camp, and confine it there until the local authorities or Congress shall decide what course to take. If Coxey's army was met at the edge of the District by the police or militia and forbidden to enter, the men probably would skirt around in small detachments and enter the city by night, inaugurating a reign of terror among women and children, unless the militia were kept patrolling the border. Unattached tramps or workingmen out of jobs are entering the city in unusually large numbers every day. Nearly every freight train brings them in, and the undesired traffic of one line has increased so greatly that the trainmen have all been armed with revolvers.