Anarchy and Anarchists / A History of the Red Terror and the Social Revolution in America and Europe; Communism, Socialism, and Nihilism in Doctrine and in Deed; The Chicago Haymarket Conspiracy and the Detection and Trial of the Conspirators

by Michael J. Schaack

“McCormick had some laboring men—it is the high privilege, the great and high privilege of the defendants in this case to call them ‘scabs.’ We will call them ‘scabs.’ They were working at McCormick’s for their honest daily bread. They had no fight with the world. They were seeking their subsistence by daily toil. They had rights which every man should respect; they had the right to peaceful employment, of coming and going to their labor as they saw fit. They came out of that great factory, only a moment before teeming with the busy throb of life, to be set upon, attacked and murdered by the strikers whom defendant Spies was speaking to. Who there was entitled to protection, gentlemen? Was it the duty of the police to protect the ‘scabs,’ or the six thousand, part of whom began the riot? The time that the attack occurred, gentlemen, there were only two policemen on the ground. Those two policemen that came out of McCormick’s factory nearly lost their lives; one of them was stoned nearly to death; secured himself in a patrol box, which was afterwards pulled down, and all for what? Because a few ‘scabs’ coming out of McCormick’s on their way to their homes and their families had been attacked by the mob which Spies was addressing and instigating. The two policemen called a patrol wagon in order, as was their right and duty, to protect the property of McCormick, the lives of the ‘scabs’ who swam the river, and the lives of the two officers who were there then. He calls such protection of a few ‘scabs’ against this army of strikers which he sought to inflame—and did not entirely succeed—calls that transaction the bloodhounds of the police wickedly shooting down your friends. It was a lie. The police were there in honored duty, protecting life and property, and the mob began the fight, and not the police. Not only has Spies declared in that circular that men were killed who were not, but that men were injured who were not hurt; not only that, but, pervading it, the whole of it, is a lie, and the purpose of that lie was to inflame the laboring men. He rushed down to his office and wrote that circular, as he says, ‘with his blood boiling against the outrages of the police.’ Poor bloodhounds of the police, who had undertaken to protect the lives of a few people, and McCormick, who is unfortunate enough to own more property than perhaps any of us—to protect his property from being stoned, and his premises pillaged, and his men murdered. He writes the ‘Revenge’ circular and prepares for war.

“They had prepared, before the McCormick meeting, for this difficulty. At Emma Street, on Sunday, was a conspiracy meeting of these infamous scoundrels, and among them was Fischer, seeking our lives—seeking the destruction of the law. They agreed upon the plan—they agreed upon ‘Ruhe’—they agreed that the meeting of the armed men should be called for Tuesday night. It is in the history of this conspiracy that the first meeting on that Sunday contemplated the difficulties at McCormick’s. Where is this Thielen? Where is this German friend—this comrade? He was down there with Comrade Spies, on the top of that car, and their intention was to do that which was done—to excite that mob. That was the preliminary step in this conspiracy to the open infraction of law. The general conspiracy had been going along for weeks, perhaps for months; it may be for years. But the details of the conspiracy were arranged at the Emma Street meeting. Then comes the McCormick meeting, the inflaming of the workingmen, and then what? The production of the ‘Revenge’ circular, to still more incite them. The armed men meet at that Emma Street place, where the Northwest Side group meet—the group that the worst Anarchists in the city belong to—at that Emma Street meeting it was discussed, talked about and suggested, and at that meeting it was arranged and talked about as to where and how the fighting should be done when the contest came. How was it to be done? One man suggested that they should go into the crowd themselves, and begin killing then and there. Another says: ‘That won’t do; we may come in contact with the policemen or a detective and our lives’—yes, their precious lives—‘might be at stake.’ That plan was rejected—that part of it. And another thing you will remember: that it was settled that the meeting should not be on the Market Square, down here on the South Side, because ‘it was a mouse trap,’ because the power of the police, the militia and everything of that character was such that it was impossible to get out of the way, at Market Square, if the contest came. Courageous men!

“After Spies had written that circular, after he had had it printed, where does it appear? He has it sent over to the printer by a boy; and that circular, printed by him, ordered by him, is distributed broadcast through the city, by whose order? By Spies’. It is another significant fact, gentlemen, that it appears at every meeting almost simultaneously with the conspiracy meeting; as I remember, brought there either by Fischer or Balthasar Rau—that I would not be sure of; but it appears almost like the wind in all parts of the city, distributed from horseback, and it never could have been distributed if it had not been done at the order of the arch-conspirator of all, August Spies. That circular was intended to inflame; it did inflame. It inflamed people throughout the city who read it; it was a lie. They could not know that. The police had not committed the outrages, but the mob had. There had not been that number killed nor wounded. They could not know that. Their apostle, the individual who has been their leader, had said, ‘To arms!’ Some answer, ‘We will.’ That is Anarchy. Gentlemen, it is unnecessary for me to go over step by step that conspiracy. It is established here so that it never can be moved. Mr. Ingham and Mr. Walker went over the ground thoroughly and completely. The defense has seen fit to let it alone. The conspiracy was established, and all the defendants show themselves as coming into it. Isn’t it significant that on Tuesday, on Tuesday morning, between nine and ten, as I understand, Parsons appeared from Cincinnati? What does he do? He rushes straight to the Daily News office before eleven o’clock, and inserts a notice for the American group to meet at the Arbeiter-Zeitung office, where it never had met before. For what purpose? For the purpose of ‘important business.’ If that had been an honest desire to have the important business for the purpose of arranging the sewing girls and their employment, or making a union among the sewing girls, as they now claim, why didn’t he say so? Before eleven o’clock Parsons appears and has this article inserted. Why? So that the main head centers of the conspiracy could be readily reached when the contest came ‘to its highest intensity’ at the Haymarket. Not another day in the whole history of this organization has the American group ever met at Fifth Avenue. Why didn’t it meet over at the other place, at Greif’s Hall, where it always met? That would not do, because there were meetings there, conspiracy meetings and everything else. Whom else do we find here at this Arbeiter-Zeitung office? Schwab. What for? He was not a member of the American group? What was he there for? He was there, too, for that purpose. He had been talking and writing, as has been read to you, about Anarchy and bloodshed and dynamite and rifles, and he appears at the Arbeiter-Zeitung office for the first time, when the American group meets; never was there with them before, so far as this proof shows.

“Fischer seeks to obtain this circular printed; that is his part of the programme; he goes out—there is no dispute about these facts—he goes out of the meeting and finds the printing-office closed. He waits until the next morning. Now, this man is a printer; he is the friend of Spies; he went from Spies when the circular was printed; he was in the meeting at which the circular was distributed; he knows, as a matter of fact, that Spies wrote that circular, ‘Workingmen, to arms.’ Spies is his general, his boss and chief, and the arch-conspirator. He says, ‘Workingmen, to arms!’ What does Fischer say? Why, he says: ‘Workingmen, to arms,’ in his circular, and adds: ‘Come in full force,’ and it appears the next morning.

“Now the circular was circulated. Who was invited to speak, gentlemen? No one. Why? Because they knew that if twenty-five thousand laboring men appeared at that meeting that night in the inflamed condition of this town with the results following the McCormick meeting—they knew that it was the bounden duty of the police to tell those men to go home. It is in proof in this case that they expected twenty-five thousand laboring men there. They would not need a speaker. If there was no speaker, then there would be tumult and crowding and jostling. Fights might occur, difficulties be precipitated, and the police inevitably would have to come. How do I know that no speakers were invited? Spies said that Fischer invited him. From brother Foster’s remarks I conclude that he has been on the stump a good many years out in Iowa. I venture to say he never went to a public meeting in his life, where he addressed it, where great crowds were assembled, where talking was to be indulged in, without asking his invitor who else was going to speak. It don’t appear in proof here that Fischer was ever asked that question. Spies was to speak in German, and that is the reason he didn’t hurry to the meeting. Fischer, Spies says, invited him to speak. Well, he was invited to speak, and nobody else—and he has never said anything about anybody else having been invited—not a syllable, not a name given. In fact, every other individual that could be invited had gone elsewhere, had prepared his alibi, had arranged for the meeting at the Arbeiter-Zeitung office, at the American group; every other speaker was there, but Spies alone was invited to speak, he says, and yet he waits, he waits after getting to that meeting. He does that which the design showed clearly was the intention to do, to precipitate a difficulty at the Haymarket meeting, and to gain results by armed men and dynamite early in the evening, and then would destruction and chaos come.

“The first words of Spies’ opening speech demonstrate a significant thing. Why should Spies open the meeting? Why didn’t Fischer open it? Why didn’t the executive committee open it? Spies opened it. After idling around there some time in regard to the matter, Spies opened the meeting. Had anybody asked him to open the meeting? Why, no. He was only an ordinary invited speaker at a meeting at which no other speaker had been invited, and he appears there, and the first words he says, as I will show you by English’s testimony, are: ‘Mr. Parsons and Mr. Fielden will be here in a very short time to address you.’ How did he know where they were? He had not seen them. There is no indication that he had seen Parsons that day. How did he know that Parsons was not in Cincinnati? ‘Parsons and Fielden will be here in a few moments.’ How do you know, Mr. Spies? Why, they are over at the Alarm office, or at the Arbeiter-Zeitung office, and Balthasar Rau is sent over there to get them.

“And now, Belthasar Rau went from this meeting over to the Alarm office, the Arbeiter-Zeitung office, and invited those two people to come over there, that Spies wanted some help. Why did he want help? Well, the meeting was not big enough. It was going to dissolve; it looked as though it was going to pieces; the thing was a fiasco; he had got to keep it—try and see if he could not do something. And he continued, holding the audience till help came, and said: ‘I will say, however, first, that this meeting was called for the purpose of discussing the general situation of the eight-hour strike, and the events which have taken place during the last forty-eight hours. It seems to have been the opinion of the authorities that this meeting had been called for the purpose of raising a little row and disturbance.’

“Now, how did Spies know that the authorities knew anything about it? Had Spies told them that there was going to be a row? Oh, no; he said nothing of that kind; but he said deliberately in that meeting that the authorities are supposed to believe or know that a riot is going to take place right there. Had the ‘Revenge’ circular been circulated? Yes. Had the other circular been circulated? Yes. What was their purpose? To make a row. Spies knew it, and he hedges in his inflammatory utterances which you read between the lines. It is a Mark Antony style of oratory—inflames most when there is least said. He was lying about the Gatling guns and the police, all for inflaming purposes, discussing that McCormick matter, about which he had in the inception begun to lie, for the same purpose. That was a very significant opening. It shows that he knew the purposes and object of that meeting. Gentlemen, it was the duty of the police to have disturbed and broken up that meeting in its inception. Why? The whole town was aflame. You remember it. Riot had occurred the day before, and the calling of a meeting upon so public a place as that was ill-advised and ought not to have been done. And the police, if they had walked down there thus early in the evening and dispersed it, would have done what was right. But the police did not walk down there and disturb the meeting; they walked down there and asked the meeting to disperse. There is no use of talking about proof, gentlemen. Their belts were on, their clubs in their sockets, their pistols in their pockets. That is the fact. They marched down that street, not with the precipitation which they would have you believe. They marched down that street perhaps fast, but not with precipitation, not with haste. They marched down that street to disperse a meeting that had talked ‘To arms;’ that had said: ‘Throttle the law,’ and that had said enough to have caused bloodshed then and there, and the only reason that more lives were not lost is because they failed to come earlier. The arrangement of that meeting was that it should be called, and that they should come early, and that it should be precipitated, and blood would flow. Engel was there in the evening; he knew about it. Fischer walked up with Waller, and Waller was armed. ‘Workingmen, come armed.’ A word, gentlemen, only a word, about the breaking-up of that meeting. They have played Harrison in and out of this case, for the purpose of saving the defendants. Harrison, you remember, went there for the purpose of ascertaining if that meeting was organized to attack the freight-house of the Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad, about which you remember there was some difficulty, or McCormick’s, or if it was called to attack any particular place. He found, from the speeches, that, although inflammatory—and he said so—from the speeches themselves he found that no particular place was pointed out for an attack.

“It was the same old speeches—riot, bloodshed, the black flag, the red flag, dynamite, war, to arms. And counsel upon the other side say that that ‘To arms! To arms!’ didn’t mean anything. It was Pickwickian, and used to round a sentence. They went down to that meeting, and Harrison was there and saw that meeting and heard those speeches, and reported back to Bonfield what had been the result, namely, that they had ceased to become inflammatory since they had seen his face.

“Thinking that the meeting was organized for plunder at the freight-house, hearing the speeches, seeing them become more moderate, Harrison left, and after he is gone, then come the reports, the incendiary character still increased, and when they come, they come in such shape that if Bonfield had not gone down there, then and there, he would have failed to perform his duty.