“I had no examination except that I was brought before the Coroner’s jury on the evening of May 5th. I did not state to Officer James Bonfield or anybody else, after my arrest at the station, or at any other time or place, that I escaped through Crane’s alley on the night of May 4th.”
On cross-examination Fielden said:
“I worked in a cotton-mill in England at eight years of age, and continued to work in the same mill until I came to the United States. I worked my way up until I became a weaver, and when I left the mill I was what is called a binder; that is, binding the warps on the beams. I joined the International Working People’s Association in July, 1884, by joining the American group. I suppose I was an Anarchist soon after, as soon as I began to study it. I suppose that I have been a revolutionist, in the sense of evolutionary revolution, for some years. I don’t know that I have ever been positively of the belief that the existing order of things should be overthrown by force. I have always been of the belief, and am yet, that the existing order of things will have to be overthrown, either peaceably or by force. When I had the books of the American group it had about 175 members—that was last November. I don’t know how many have been added since. There were probably fifteen or twenty ladies among the members. It was called the American group because the English language was used in it. It was not confined to born Americans.
“We tried to found an English-speaking group a year ago last winter, on West Indiana Street. I think we had only two meetings and then abandoned it. I have been making speeches for the last two or three years. They were labor speeches—not always Socialistic and not always Anarchistic; that is, sometimes I have touched on Socialism and Anarchy; sometimes they were delivered from an ordinary trades-union standpoint. I have made a great many speeches on the lake front, some on Market Square, some at West Twelfth Street Turner Hall, some at 106 Randolph Street, some at 54 West Lake. The meetings on the lake front were on Sunday afternoons.”
“Did you make a speech on the night of the opening of the new Board of Trade?”
“I did. I have two dollars’ worth of stock in the Alarm. I was part of the committee to see what should be done about the Alarm when it began to get in deep water, and my name was proposed to be put on the paper as the recipient of communications as to its management.
“There were possibly twelve or fifteen members of the American group present at the meeting at 107 Fifth Avenue on May 4th. There were Mr. and Mrs. Parsons, Mr. and Mrs. Timmons, Mrs. Holmes, Snyder, Brown and some others. I am not positive whether Walters and Ducy were there. I think we staid there until nearly nine o’clock. Balthasar Rau came over from the Haymarket and said Spies was there and a large meeting, and no one else to speak. Some four or five of us went over together. I know that Rau, Parsons, myself and Snyder went about together. Schwab left the Zeitung office before us. I had promised, on Sunday night at Greif’s Hall, a man who had been to my house before, to speak at a labor meeting at either 368 or 378 West Twelfth Street that Tuesday night. Of those that were on the speakers’ wagon, I only remember Parsons, Spies and Snyder. There were some others there who were strangers to me. A boy about sixteen years of age came up on the wagon and rather crowded me to one side, and I told him he might as well stand down. I spoke because Mr. Spies requested me to make a short speech. Mr. Parsons had spoken longer than I thought he would, and I thought it was late enough to close. I don’t now remember whether or not I used this language: ‘There are premonitions of danger. All know it. The press say the Anarchists will sneak away. We are not going to.’ I have no desire to deny that I did use that language. If I used it—and I don’t know whether I did—if I had any idea in my mind at any time which would be expressed in that language, I know for what reasons I would have that idea. I used substantially all that language which Mr. English, the reporter, who was on the stand here, testified as having been used by me in my speech at the Haymarket meeting. I did not say that John Brown, Jefferson, Washington, Patrick Henry and Hopkins said to the people: ‘The law is your enemy.’ If I used the language, ‘We are rebels against it,’—and I possibly did,—I referred to the present social system. I don’t remember that I said: ‘It had no mercy; so ought you.’ There is not much sense in it, and I will not father it. The report of my speech, as given by Mr. English, has been garbled, and it does not give the connection. I don’t accept that as my speech at all. I think I used the language, but you haven’t got the sense of it at all, in quoting it in that way.
“After I left the Haymarket meeting, my first intention was to go home. I cannot tell now why I changed my mind about that. Impressions sometimes come on a person’s mind which he cannot explain why they come there. I rode on the car in passing the Arbeiter-Zeitung office, instead of walking, and I avoided the crowd on Lake Street, in which I thought there would be lots of detectives, because I certainly didn’t wish to be arrested that night. Of course, I thought I would be arrested after the trouble; it was only natural to suppose I would. I did not think there was anything inflammatory or incendiary in my speech. I did not incite anybody to do any overt act to anybody or anything. I spoke generally, from a general standpoint. I meant to say they should resist the present social system, which degraded them and turned them out of employment, and gave them no opportunity to get a living. Somebody threw a bomb. I did not know and do not know now who it was, or anything about it. Still I know, from reading of criminal proceedings, that in cases of that kind they arrest everybody in order to find out who is responsible. I supposed that I, being one of the participants of the meeting, would be arrested—for some time, at least. Knowing my innocence, I made a statement before the Coroner’s jury, expecting that when they examined into the truth of my statement I should be released.”
On re-direct examination Fielden said:
“If I did make the remark about premonitions of danger in my Haymarket speech, I must have meant that there were so many men striking just then for the eight-hour movement that some trouble might possibly originate between the strikers and their employers, as had been the case in former strikes, and, knowing that all men are not very cool, and some men become aggravated—their condition may have a good deal to do with it—they sometimes commit acts which the officers of the law, in their capacity as such, are compelled to interfere with. I was speaking of the general labor question and the issue that was up for settlement during the eight-hour movement. I had no reference to the presence of dynamite at the meeting. I did not say that John Brown, Jefferson, etc., said that the law was their enemy. What I said in regard to them was, that we occupied, in relation to the present social system, which no longer provided security for the masses, just about the position that John Brown, Jefferson, Hopkins, Patrick Henry occupied in relation to the government and dictation of Great Britain over the Colonies; that they repeatedly appealed to Great Britain to peaceably settle the differences in regard to the port duties, the stamp act, etc., but when it could not be peaceably settled, they could not submit to it any longer, and were compelled to do something else; and it was always the element of tyranny which incited strife, and as it was in that case, so it would be in this. As to the use of the expressions about killing, stabbing, throttling the law, I used them just as a Republican orator, in denouncing the Democratic party, might say, ‘We will kill it,’ or ‘We will throttle it,’ or ‘defeat it,’ or as one might speak of a candidate for office—‘We will knife him.’ I used those adjectives, as any speaker would, in rushing along, throw in adjectives without thinking much of what their full import might be. My remarks that night were intended to call upon the people to resist the present social system—not by force, I had no such idea in my mind that night—so that they would be enabled to live; to call their attention to the fact that by the introduction of labor-saving machinery and the subdivision of labor less men were continually needed, more productions produced, and their chance to work decreased, and that by their organizing together they might become partakers in the benefits of civilization, more advantageous and quicker productions.”