Central to the conflict of The Cold Millions is the dispute between the police and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). However, the police are merely representatives of a third party, executing the wishes of Spokane’s rich citizenry. This is made evident in the novel’s opening chapters when Acting Police Chief John Sullivan directs his men to protect an affluent neighborhood by catching a burglar, fearing that police work may soon fall to private detective agencies. When the police officer Alfred Waterbury is murdered, immediate retaliation falls upon the unhoused populations of Spokane. Hence, the dispute that sets off the action of the novel concerns whose interests are protected: Spokane’s ruling upper class or the marginalized working class struggling to survive.

The main inciting incident of the novel, the IWW’s free speech protest, also illustrates the ways that the gap between rich and poor is reinforced by state violence. Gig Dolan is inspired to join the IWW after he and his brother Rye are exploited by employment agencies and their partner corporations. After giving up a day’s wage of one dollar, they are placed into manual labor jobs with excessive work hours. To accommodate the high demand for work and the profit flow it entails, Gig, Rye, and thousands of others are quickly thrown out of their jobs, “so no man could get a foothold” (17).