“I believe that Schnaubelt threw the bomb. You may believe that it is an unknown person threw it; it is immaterial.
“Back and Mitlacher. Back, if I remember, is the man that appeared at the Arbeiter-Zeitung office that Tuesday night, at the time of the meeting of the American group. Now, what was he there for? He was a member of some other group. At all events he was there, and a German; he was not an American; he had not been here long enough, to start with, and he didn’t look as if he ever wanted to be one of our kind.
“Now, where did these two men stand? They stood on the platform, next to the plumber’s shop, on the south side of the alley, and at least thirty-five or forty feet from where that wagon was; yet those men, one of them, the tall man, says that he distinctly remembers seeing Henry Spies. Why, it was a dark night, and the man couldn’t see from there. And the other fellow saw Henry Spies’ hat. They stood there all the evening, nearly; walked up and down once in a while; stood there all the evening. That is another ridiculous suggestion.
“This alibi business and this suggestion of these pairs, couples, constitute what Black calls proof. That is right. It is negative, and a very poor negative at that. He says that that is all you could prove. Didn’t see anything, of course.
“My attention is brought to another fact. Captain Black made a mistake. I put it that way. He read Thompson’s testimony to you. Your (i. e., Captain Black’s) shorthand writer has either made a mistake, or your typewriter has. Thompson did not change, in his answers, from Spies to Schwab.
“In regard to the testimony of Thompson, gentlemen, it was a remarkable feature of the case that he stood that searching cross-examination with such splendid equanimity, and no disturbance of what he said. And, gentlemen, that same can be said of Gilmer. Let any of you go onto that witness-stand, and let the sagacious, clear-headed Foster hammer away at you two hours and a half, over some little fact, and you would see where you would be. I could not stand it. There is not one man in a thousand that could. And it is nothing against a man’s character in the city of Chicago that those that know well of him do not know where he lives. I do not believe that one of you gentlemen knows where I live, or where Foster lives, or where Black lives. It is nothing against a man that his employer sometimes speaks well of him.
“I have my attention brought—I had almost forgotten it—to a peculiar circumstance about this case, and the most significant of anything that I have seen in it. When Spies was arrested he left the traces of his crime in his office. Free speech had become so common to him—free speech, as they call it in this case, had become so remarkably liberal that he feared nothing. Bonfield came in and arrested him. He goes over to Ebersold. Ebersold, in his indignation, characterizes the crowd as you heard it here, and Spies says, upon the witness-stand, that he unsuspectingly went over there. If he had had his senses about him, he would have destroyed ‘Ruhe,’ the manuscript, and everything of that character, and no traces—autonomous traces—would be left.
“In speaking of ‘Ruhe,’ I want to speak of another thing. Spies said that he received a communication that he was to put in prominent letters in the Letter-box. Now, the bare fact of putting it in the Letter-box is as prominent as it could be. It is separate and distinct. Let us see how he puts it. He puts it in the Letter-box, marks a double line under it, which means big letters, puts in an exclamation point at the other end, and inserts it. That makes it prominent, sure. Now, what does he say about it? He unsuspectingly leaves the traces of his crime; and there never was a criminal, great or small, in the world, but that somewhere, at some time, committed a mistake. It is the little mistakes, the plain, noticeable mistakes that they make, which serve for detection. ‘Ruhe’ appears, and he says he supposed that it was some labor organization. The idea! Why, his labor organizations are all distinct and plain. It says: ‘This organization meets so-and-so. That organization meets so and so.’ The paper speaks for itself. Talk about a labor organization putting in such a word as that ‘Ruhe,’ whose significance is peace, quiet and rest, but which meant war and bloodshed!
“The police did not wait any too long. It has been done enough in this town. It is time that we American citizens awoke to a full realization of the importance of liberty and freedom of speech, and that freedom of speech does not mean license to preach murder, to preach assassination, to preach crime and the perpetration of it. That is not free speech. A man who does that is answerable for it, and for the result of his preaching, the result of his words. If it results in crime, he is responsible himself. Gentlemen, that is the law. I have gone over this case perhaps more in extenso than I intended; more perhaps than you desire to listen to; I am through. Your duty is about to begin. I felt relieved when you were selected. Some of the great responsibility that has rested upon my shoulders I felt I could place upon yours. It has been placed there. Gentlemen, the responsibility is great. You have to answer yourselves, under your oaths, to the people of the State, not to me. My duty is performed, and yours begins, and in this connection, gentlemen, let me suggest to you another reason why it is important that you should be careful. You can acquit them all, one, or none; you can distribute the penalties as you please. To some you can administer the extreme penalty of the law; to others less than that, if you desire. To some you can give life, administer punishment if you desire; to some, years of punishment.
“I have a word to say in this connection about Neebe. The testimony has been analyzed, the testimony in regard to his connection with the Arbeiter-Zeitung office; his connection with these people from time to time, the evidence that when he saw the dynamite in the Arbeiter-Zeitung office on that morning when it was discovered there, which these men so infamously suggest was put there by the police—but I have not argued that question; it looks so insulting to a man’s intelligence. If that had been so, if it was not there and did not belong there, they could have brought Lizius here. His name is on the back of the indictment. They could have brought all the employés of the office here. What did Neebe say about the dynamite? Why, he said it was stuff to clean type with, he guessed; and he circulated, not two circulars, but a lot of them. Gentlemen, I am not here to ask you to take the life of Oscar Neebe on this proof. I shall ask you to do nothing in this case that I feel I would not do myself were I seated in your chairs.