The Eight-hour Movement—Anarchist Activity—The Lock-out at
McCormick’s—Distorting the Facts—A Socialist Lie—The True Facts
about McCormick’s—Who Shall Run the Shops?—Abusing the “Scabs”—High
Wages for Cheap Work—The Union Loses $3,000 a Day—Preparing for
Trouble—Arming the Anarchists—Ammunition Depots—Pistols and
Dynamite—Threatening the Police—The Conspirators Show the White
Feather—Capt. O’Donnell’s Magnificent Police Work—The Revolution
Blocked—A Foreign Reservation—An Attempt to Mob the Police—The
History of the First Secret Meeting—Lingg’s First Appearance in the
Conspiracy—The Captured Documents—Bloodshed at McCormick’s—“The
Battle Was Lost”—Officer Casey’s Narrow Escape.
THE events immediately preceding the inauguration of the eight-hour
strike were remarkable in the opportunities they afforded Anarchists
for arousing workingmen against capital and stirring up their worst
passions. The leaders had already intensified the clamor for reduced
working-time, and only the occasion was needed to fully arouse the true
ruffianism behind the Socialistic rabble. This occasion was presented
in the troubles that grew out of the “lock-out” at McCormick’s
Harvester Works, and, as the facts in connection therewith are
necessary to a clear and comprehensive understanding of the situation,
I shall briefly review them. Before doing so, however, it may be well
to premise by saying that the real state of affairs in that trouble
was greatly exaggerated, and that, instead of dividing responsibility,
the Socialistic orators sought to throw the sole burden upon the
owners and managers of that establishment, charging them, in the heat
and excitement of the times, with gross violation of pledged faith
to the men employed, and instigating even violent resistance to the
installation of new men, or “scabs,” as they were opprobriously termed,
into the vacated places.
This so-called “lock-out” occurred on February 16, 1886, and through it
some twelve hundred men became idle. The Anarchists proceeded at once
to distort every fact in connection with it. The view they presented of
the affair may be best shown by the following extract from a history of
the Chicago Anarchists published by the Socialistic Publishing Society:
The employés of that establishment had been for some time perfecting
their organization, and at last had presented a petition for the
redress of certain grievances and a general advance of wages. The
dispute arose over an additional demand that a guarantee be given
that no man in the factory should be discharged for having acted as
a representative of his comrades. This was absolutely refused. A
strike in the factory in the preceding April had been adjusted on the
basis that none of the men who served on committees, etc., and made
themselves conspicuous in behalf of their fellow workmen, would be
discharged for so doing. This agreement has been wantonly violated,
and every man who had incurred the displeasure of Mr. McCormick was
not only discharged, but black-listed, in many cases being unable to
obtain employment in other shops.
It thus appears that the Socialist leaders not only hoped to utilize
the strike to precipitate their revolution, but, by purposely
misstating the grievances of McCormick’s men, to engender a bitter and
violent feeling against that establishment. Now, what were the true
facts in the case? Along in February the employés in the works asked
for a uniformity of wages, the re-employment, as occasion demanded,
of all old hands, who had been out of work since the strike in April
preceding, and the discharge of five non-union men employed in the
foundry. Mr. Cyrus McCormick generously conceded the first two demands,
but firmly declined to discharge the non-union men, as he regarded
this as an interference with the company’s right of employing whom
they pleased. Thereupon the employés held a meeting and formulated an
_ultimatum_, in which they insisted upon the discharge as requested,
“not because,” as they said, “they wanted to abridge the privilege of
hiring and discharging, but because Foreman Ward threatened to pursue
old hands with such vindictiveness that he would drive them over the
‘Black Road,’ or else they would have to walk in their nakedness,”
and in justice to the old employés the non-union workmen ought to be
“thrown out.” Mr. McCormick took the position that this was an attempt
to dictate that only union men should be employed in the works, and he
finally declared that the company had always decided and always would
decide who were best suited to do its work, and whom or how many men
it would employ or discharge. If the concessions already made were not
satisfactory, he would close the works.
During the strike of the preceding spring, McCormick had done just what
other manufacturers had done in similar cases—introduced new machinery
to perform work hitherto done by hand. He had put in new molding
apparatus and had found that the new machines in the hands of ordinary
laborers, as soon as they learned to handle them, turned out daily far
more molds and more reliable ones than the old hand process. On the
outbreak of the trouble in February there were fifteen men employed in
the foundry,—ten old hands and five non-union men. The services of all
of them might thus have been dispensed with, since skilled labor was
not necessary, and, with the addition of more machines and a few raw
hands, just as much and just as good work, he claimed, might have been
produced. But the owners desired to favor the employés, and, having
granted a uniformity of wages even to the extent of advancing the pay
of ordinary labor to $1.50 per day, a sum greater than that paid by
similar industries elsewhere, and having promised to give preference to
old employés when additional hands were needed, they resolved not to be
dictated to by outside malcontents nor to discharge men who had done
efficient work for the company.
[Illustration: A STRIKE. THE WALKING DELEGATE SOWING THE SEED OF
DISCONTENT.]
The grant of such a request would, they held, be virtually placing the
management of the concern in the hands of outsiders. When, therefore,
the employés, instigated by the Anarchists, resolved to strike for
their demand, McCormick took time by the forelock and ordered the works
closed on and after nine o’clock on the morning of February 16, to
remain closed until the strikers decided to return.
[Illustration: GREIF’S HALL.]
By this “lock-out” the employés were deprived of $3,000 a day in the
shape of wages, that amount representing the daily payroll of the
concern. Meanwhile, pending the lock-out, the company canvassed the
possibility of an early resumption of business and quietly perfected
arrangements for that step, which they concluded to take on March 1.
Of course, this contemplated move enraged all the groups in the city.
The strikers in the vicinity of the factory were especially excited.
Ever since the establishment had closed its doors the neighborhood had
been infested with idlers and vicious-looking men. They had all felt
confident that the firm would be finally forced to submit, but when it
gradually dawned upon their minds that arrangements had actually been
made for a resumption of work without reference to the wishes of the
“outs,” they determined to prevent it by force. They were the first to
decide on violent measures, and they presented their purpose to the
members of Carpenters’ Union No. 1. The result was that two secret
meetings of the armed men of both unions were held between February 27
and March 3 at Greif’s Hall. The first meeting called out nearly all
the “armed men” of the Metal-workers’ Union and about one hundred and
forty men belonging to International Carpenters’ Union No. 1, some with
rifles, revolvers and dynamite bombs. They then and there formulated
a plan to prevent the “scabs” from going to work. The plan was that
the metal-workers should gather in the vicinity of the factory at
about five o’clock on the morning the works were to be reopened, well
equipped with bombs, rifles and revolvers. Those who did not possess
rifles were to secure revolvers and bombs, which could be obtained,
they were told, on Blue Island Avenue, between Twenty-second Street
and McCormick’s. At that place, on giving the pass-word and number
of the place, every member would be supplied. In the event of their
running short of ammunition, they were to repair to that place, and
they would find some one there always to wait on them. It was given out
that the place was run by the metal-workers, who would see to it that
all necessary bombs were on hand. Members having friends living in the
vicinity of the factory were to stay with them over night so as to be
up bright and early in the morning, and those living at a distance were
to make it a point to get up early enough to be on hand at the time
indicated. A point of _rendezvous_ was designated, and, when all had
arrived, they were to surround the factory and permit no one to enter
except on peril of being shot. This situation of affairs, they said,
would necessarily bring out the police, but the moment these should
arrive the “armed men” were to open fire. The first volley was to be
over the heads of the “blue-coats,” and if that did not put them to
flight, they were to be shot down without mercy. When they began to
throw bombs the “reds” were all to be in line, so that none of their
own number would be hurt by the explosions, and wherever the police
formed a company a solid front was to be presented and a rattling fire
maintained. They would also form different lines along the “Black
Road,” and when patrol wagons came to the rescue of the officers, they
were to hurl bombs at them.
It was to be a fight to the death. Every one agreed, as I was told, “to
die game, give no quarter, and see to it that the green grass around
McCormick’s factory was nourished with human blood.” In accordance
with the plan, the members of the Carpenters’ Union were to assemble
with rifles and ammunition at Greif’s Hall at an hour not later than
six o’clock in the morning, and to remain there until orders for
their services were sent. The carpenters carried out their part of
the programme, and at the appointed hour there were no less than two
hundred of them at the hall, fully armed and apparently ready for
any emergency. They scattered throughout the hall building so as not
to attract attention, and impatiently awaited orders or information
indicating the progress of affairs at the factory. But no orders were
received. They heard nothing for some time, but when they did they
were a happier lot of men. The clamor and excitement of the hour
had stimulated them with a false courage, but each had nevertheless
entertained a secret hope that there would be no call for a display of
their valor. And there was none.
It appears that, on the morning they were to have created such dire
destruction, the brave metal-workers overslept themselves! “There was
snow on the ground,” and probably they did not care to defile it with
the blood of their enemies. None of them appeared at the _rendezvous_
on time, and when they straggled around at a later hour they were
full of excuses, the one on which they principally relied being that
their faithful spouses had neglected to wake them in time. No one
for a moment charged the others with cowardice, and yet that was the
whole secret of their failure. Each had expected others to be at the
appointed place ready for the fray, but the unanimity with which all
had prolonged their slumbers prevented what all had expected to see—a
brilliant victory with themselves beyond all danger.
But about the time these braves should have been around according to
programme, another party occupied the field. It was the brave and
fearless Capt. Simon O’Donnell, of the Second Precinct, with two
lieutenants and three companies of well disciplined officers. They took
charge of the “Black Road” and the vicinity of McCormick’s factory
as early as six o’clock, and the so-called “scabs” passed into the
works, “with none to molest them or make them afraid.” When those who
had overslept sneaked around, one after another, they were perfectly
amazed. Where they had hoped to see the ground strewn with the dead
bodies of policemen, they found order and serenity.
In the expectation of seeing some disturbance, the vicinity became
crowded during the forenoon with idlers and curious people drawn from
all parts of the city. Seeing this throng and relying on the presence
of many Anarchists, the daring metal-workers revived their spirits and
hoped yet to precipitate a conflict by egging it on at a safe distance
in the rear. They accordingly began to utter loud threats and urge the
excited rabble to an attack on the “blanked bloodhounds,” the police.
There were in the crowd a lot of half-drunken Polanders and Bohemians
who, living in the neighborhood, claimed that the presence of the
police was a menace to their personal rights and privileges. The police
were on what these misguided people considered their own reservation,
and, with a view to driving them away, some began throwing stones and
clubs at the officers in the patrol wagons. Others picked out officers
apart from their companions and made them the targets for their
missiles. Captain O’Donnell learned, while this disconcerted attack was
going on, that many of the crowd had revolvers and dynamite in their
pockets. He speedily resolved on a plan for arresting and disarming
such men and gave orders to his lieutenants to surround the crowd
and search all suspected persons. The result was that the following
were found to have arms, and they were placed under arrest: Stephen
Reiski, Adolph Heuman, Charles Kosh, Henry Clasen, John Hermann, George
Hermann, Ernest Haker, Otto Sievert, Emil Kernser, Frank Trokinski and
Stanifon Geiner. Detectives from the Central Station assisted in the
search, and the offenders were taken to the Police Court, where they
were fined $10 each.
It was thought that this procedure would quiet the mob, but later in
the day the Anarchists again gathered around McCormick’s. The crowd
was again surrounded, and the following were arrested for carrying
concealed weapons: Louis Hartman, William Brecker, Julius Vimert, Peter
Pech, William Holden, Louis Lingg, Carl Jagush, Samuel Barn, William
Meyer, Rudolph Miller, John Hoben and John Otto. These were also fined.
[Illustration: A “ROUND-UP.”]
During this trouble at the factory a gang of Anarchists had gathered at
the Workingmen’s Hall on West Twelfth Street, and they had just formed
a procession to march out in a body to McCormick’s, when they were
surrounded and searched. In this “round-up” the great “Little August”
Krueger was arrested with a full uniform of the Lehr und Wehr Verein
under an overcoat, and a number of his comrades were taken in charge at
the same time. Many of them had dynamite bombs, and some one shouted
that “all brothers who had ‘stuff’ should get away and the others
should assist them.”
But the police were not to be trifled with, and some of the most daring
officers rushed into the thickest of the crowd, and succeeded in
gathering in several bombs. There were a number of women in the mob,
and some of these hid bombs under their petticoats. The officers were
of course too gallant to molest them. But the search and arrests served
to break up the procession and prevent further outbreaks at the factory
that day.
Such were the results of the plots of the first secret meeting. The
second secret gathering, a few days later, was held, as the former
had been, at Greif’s Hall. It was called by the metal-workers and
carpenters jointly. They were more demonstrative than ever. Gustav
Belz was accorded the distinction of presiding over the turbulent
members of the Carpenters’ Union. All of the carpenters belonging
to the Lehr und Wehr Verein, numbering one hundred and eighty men,
were present with their rifles, and they were loud for war. At the
same time the metal-workers had a gathering by themselves, and when a
delegation from them called on the carpenters and announced that they
were prepared to engage in battle that day, the carpenters’ assemblage
became delirious with excitement. They shouted and jumped about in
such a lively manner that some of the more conservative members were
obliged to warn them to quiet down or they would attract the attention
of the police. The hot-heads, enraged at this caution, retorted by
accusing the conservatives of cowardice. They refused to be quieted,
and, like Comanche Indians about to take to the war-path, they examined
their revolvers and brandished their guns. They even inspected the
fuse on their bombs, and insisted that they would be ready the moment
the command was given. In anticipation of blood, they screwed up their
courage by frequent libations; and the more they drank the happier they
grew over the prospect of speedy acquisition of wealth when once their
revolution was started.
It was an uncomfortable place meanwhile for the conservative members,
and these had frequent occasion during the stormy proceedings to regret
that they had uttered a word of remonstrance. But there was one who
did not allow his feelings to get the better of his judgment. It was
Balthasar Rau. He took the floor and said that, however much he desired
to fight and sweep McCormick and all other capitalists from the face of
the earth, yet he could plainly see that the time had not yet arrived
for commencing the revolution. It would be folly, he insisted, to go
out on the streets with rifles in hand while all the surroundings were
against them and while they were not generally prepared to cope with
the police and militia. To commence a general upheaval now would be to
destroy their prospects in the immediate future.
“Before you make war,” said Rau, “you must have something to fall back
on; but now we have nothing. We ought to have a treasury well filled.
If we inaugurate a fight we must expect that some of us will be killed,
others wounded, and others again arrested. Where is the money to help
those in distress? What will your families do if you are killed? You
must take all these things into consideration. It is very easy for us
to go out, shoot and kill somebody, but what can we expect to gain by
all that? We must be ready and prepared and protected.”
This speech had a soothing effect upon some, but Belz wanted blood,
and that immediately. He despised the capitalists, and the sooner
their blood was spilled the better it would suit him. The majority of
the meeting expressed a concurrence in Rau’s ideas, and one member
emphasized Rau’s remarks by saying that it would be like a man going
out on the streets, pounding another and then running away—nothing was
gained.
Belz, seeing the drift of sentiment, grew very angry, and he suggested
that some one move an adjournment to some other day, when they might
hope to get together a braver lot of men. Such a motion was made, and
the gathering separated, those that were not too drunk posting off at
once for home.
[Illustration:
HYNEK DJENEK. ANTON SEVESKI.
SPECIMEN RIOTERS—I. From Photographs taken by the Police Department.]
Belz grew quite demonstrative over the lack of results at this meeting,
and avowed that he would have nothing more to do with such a crowd of
cowards. A few days thereafter, however, another meeting was held;
but, in view of the many arrests Captain O’Donnell had made among
their members, they were unable to decide upon any business. Some of
the hot-heads threw all the blame on Rau and some of his friends for
having prevented decisive action when they might have hoped to come
out victorious. But all this sort of talk was simply braggadocio, and
had any of these loud-mouthed fellows been actually tried, they would
have been found skulking in the rear of an attacking party. Prior and
subsequent events proved them all trembling cowards when their own
personal safety was at stake.
Perhaps the most dangerous, because the most secret, figure in the
cabal at this time was Louis Lingg. He seems to have been chosen
especially to direct the revolutionary design in the southwest part of
the city, and his counsels permeated every Socialistic circle in that
section. In his trunk, after his arrest, the following letter was found
in his own handwriting, evidently a copy or the original of one sent:
_Dear Brother Union_: On the occasion of the last general meeting in
Zepf’s Hall the International Carpenters’ Union passed a resolution
asking the Furniture Makers’ Union if they were satisfied with
the doings of their delegates, especially with Mr. Hausch and Mr.
Mende, who had agreed to take the leadership of the revolution....
It is natural that the governing class would take these—their
means—as soon as the workingmen would try to take their rights. In
consequence of these facts we feel it our duty to call the attention
of indifferent workingmen to these facts and suggest the adoption of
force, power against power, and urge all to arm yourselves. Therefore,
stand with all your energy against the system of profit without regard
to the way they prepare themselves. We request our brother union
to acquaint us with their point of view, so we can form our plans
accordingly.
With greeting and the shaking of the hand.
INTERNATIONAL CARPENTERS’ UNION NO. 1.
Lingg likewise issued a personal address, a copy of which was also
found in the trunk, urging the laborers of the Southwest Side to
practice in the handling of arms. Among other things found written over
his signature, is the following:
Our authorized demands are replied to with clubs, powder and lead.
In consequence of these experiences it is no more than right that
we adopt force and arm ourselves. The opportunity to arm yourselves
cheaply can be ascertained from all well-known comrades, as well as
armed organization, where you can find good places to drill. Don’t let
this opportunity pass. The medicine dynamite, in leaden bomb, is more
powerful than the rifle. Don’t forget the opportunity.
Lingg also sent another circular to his comrades in that section, of
which the following is a copy:
[Illustration:
JOHN POTOTSKI. FRANK NOVAK.
SPECIMEN RIOTERS.—II. From Photographs taken by the Police Department.]
_Brothers_: As you have noticed for a long time past that the police
are more than ready to break your heads with their murderous clubs
and do not care whether they make you cripples for the balance of
your miserable days, and do not care whether your wives and children
have to go begging for you after you become useless; neither do
they care for the loving young son that supports his old parents,
whether they kill him or not: therefore, taking all these things into
consideration,—that these policemen are ready, under the instruction
of the capitalists, to commit murder on the working people,—I say
we must resist these monsters, and the way we must do this is to
get ready and be all like one man. We must fight them with as good
weapons, even better than they possess, and, therefore, I call you
all to arms! As we are no capitalists, we can make arrangements in
a gun-factory outside of this State. Have this matter treated very
confidentially. Have only a committee of three members to buy arms
as cheaply as possible, and see if there can be anything secured on
half credit, so that you can also give time to the buyer. In this way
you can get all new and good arms and better than the police have.
Then I call your attention again and impress on your minds that it
is not alone enough that you have the arms; you must also understand
how to use them so that you can be equally well drilled with them
as your opponents. Then you can give them successful resistance.
And now, to make this matter very easy and a success for all, the
workingmen of this city, with the third company of the Lehr und Wehr
Verein and some members of the International Carpenters’ Union, held
a meeting yesterday, and they all agreed to give lessons in drill
to any one that wanted to learn how to use arms. All the people so
desiring should call every Thursday evening at 8 o’clock at Turner
Hall “Vorwaerts,” on West Twelfth Street, and there they will receive
instructions free of charge.
[Illustration:
VACLAV DJENEK. ANTON STIMAK.
SPECIMEN RIOTERS—III. From Photographs taken by the Police
Department.]
I want you Southwest Side people to be as useful with arms as the
people on the North and Northwest sides. We have everything about as
complete as we wish it to be. On the North Side we have Neff’s or
Thuringia Hall, No. 58 Clybourn Avenue, and you can come and visit us
there and see the boys drill. We have a man named Hermann, and he is
a soldier from the old home and a first-class drillmaster, and always
pleased to see new recruits. Now, workingmen of the Southwest Side, I
beg of you to make use of this opportunity. Do not let this go by like
a dream. Remember, we are all one. It does not matter whether you are
on the South, North or West Side; we must all fight for a purpose. Do
not stay at home and let your brothers be killed when you can help
them and make your cause a victory. Come in large masses, come often,
come promptly. If you do this, everything will be an easy matter for
us to undertake. Our labor will be rewarded.... The first of May is
coming near. We will have to kill the monster. We must be ready to
meet him. This is our only chance now. Probably we will not have this
opportunity to meet the monster so that we can fight him with our
weapons. You must kill the pirates. You must kill the bloodsuckers;
and for the first time in ages the poor workingmen will be made happy.
Our work is short; we do not want a thirty years’ war. Be determined.
Do not let your near relation, if he is an enemy, stand in your way.
Doing all this, then, the victory is ours.
LOUIS LINGG.
In the work of stirring up bad blood, Lingg seems to have neglected
no point likely to count with the dissatisfied laborers. He knew that
among the strikers were a great many German Knights of Labor, and, with
an ingenuity worthy of a better cause, he took occasion particularly
to point out an article published in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ of April
22, 1886, giving Governor Oglesby’s views on boycotting. This paper was
afterwards found in his trunk, somewhat soiled from frequent usage,
and the article in question, for convenience of reference, had been
heavily marked with a lead-pencil. Lingg no doubt figured that those
who believed in the boycott would thereafter array themselves solidly
on the side of those who favored force. A translation of the Governor’s
remarks, as given in the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_, is as follows:
The system of boycotting is the most damnable proposal which was ever
fabricated. It repudiates the Constitution, the law and everything.
It is the devil’s invention. Yes (speaking to John V. Farwell), when
it has so far progressed that the militia is obliged to interfere,
you will find that these d—d boycotters will come to them (the
merchants and business men) and say, “You must prohibit your employés
joining the militia, and those who persist in belonging must be
discharged from employment, or you will be boycotted.” This is a fine
arrangement. It is true that, meeting with opposition all over, it
will die out, but I tell you it is the most damnable transgression
which was ever concocted.
[Illustration:
IGNATZ URBAN. JOSEPH SUGAR.
SPECIMEN RIOTERS—IV. From Photographs taken by the Police Department.]
Parsons and Schwab also took a hand in the McCormick “lock-out,” but
they used the platform to arouse the people to force. On the 2d of
March a mass-meeting of Anarchists and hot-headed strikers was held
at the West Twelfth Street Turner Hall. Parsons and Schwab were the
chief speakers. They were particularly abusive of the owners and the
superintendent of the works, and advised the use of violence against
the police. So incendiary were the speeches that E. E. Sanderson, a
member of the strikers’ standing committee, took occasion to denounce
the proceedings.
“Such speakers,” he declared, “cause every spark of sympathy to
disappear and bring us into disrepute.” If he had had the power, he
said, he would have stopped the gathering. He belonged to the true
laboring class, and to properly voice its sentiments he hired another
hall for the next day.
The continued presence of the police at the works finally restored
order in the vicinity, and it seemed as if the Anarchists had abandoned
any further intention of violence. But they were secretly at work,
biding their time and watching their opportunity. It came on the
afternoon of May 3. At this time between 40,000 and 50,000 men in
Chicago were out of employment by reason of the eight-hour strike.
Excitement ran high throughout the city. The reaper works were now
almost in full operation, and, led by the Anarchists, some of the
hot-headed strikers, grown impatient over the apparent failure of
their plan, made an assault upon the “scabs” at work in the shops.
The instigators of this attack and the principal assailants were
Anarchists, who exerted themselves to the utmost to bring on a deadly
conflict between the police and the unemployed.
For the day in question a meeting of the Lumber-shovers’ Union had
been called in the vicinity to receive the report of a committee
who had waited on their employers with reference to the eight-hour
question. The Socialists, learning of this, determined to make use of
the opportunity. The union was composed of over six thousand lumber
workingmen, three thousand Bohemians and over three thousand Germans,
and had no connection with the McCormick strike, but it occurred to the
Central Labor Union that, inasmuch as many of them were adherents of
Socialism, it would be no difficult matter to incite them to riotous
demonstrations. On the day preceding, Spies had been delegated by his
union to address the gathering. The president of the Lumber Union,
Frank Haraster, had become cognizant of the Anarchists’ intentions,
and had taken occasion to warn the men against either listening
to Socialistic orators or participating in a riot. But there were
mutterings of discontent, and the crowd was in a revengeful mood. There
were no less than 8,000 people at the gathering—some estimated the
number as high as 15,000. Some were intent on revolution, and others
had been drawn to the scene through idle curiosity.
It only needed a spark to create a tremendous conflagration. Anarchists
were busy among the various groups that had collected. For several
days they had labored early and late in the locality to stimulate
revolutionary action. Their plans had been carefully concocted, and
their network of conspiracy extended in every direction. They had
opened channels of subterranean communication, and so arranged their
mines of Socialistic powder that at the appointed time they hoped to
produce an explosion that would reverberate throughout the globe. That
appointed time, they figured, had arrived with the inauguration of
the eight-hour movement, and in the lock-out at McCormick’s the first
opportunity was presented for a general upheaval. This was their hope
and the burden of their care.
When, therefore, a coterie of trained Anarchists appeared on the
scene of trouble,—evidently by a preconcerted arrangement,—with
the Nation’s flag reversed and trailing in mud and muck, the wildest
excitement was aroused, and only a leader was necessary to connect
the electric currents of suppressed hostility to start an outburst of
violent deeds.
The occasion brought forth that leader in the person of the impulsive
and impetuous Spies. He, with some trusted lieutenants, mounted a
box-car in the vicinity of the meeting of the lumber-shovers and the
McCormick works. He gathered about him an immense crowd, and, speaking
in German, called the attention of his auditors to the “brutalities of
capital, its selfishness and its grinding oppression” of wage-workers,
rendering their condition worse than that of slaves. With fiery
invective he wrought up the feelings of the mob to a pitch of reckless
frenzy. In the climaxes of his envenomed utterances, he held the
multitude with a charmed spell, and he evoked their highest plaudits
when he counseled violence as a means to redress their grievances.
Before the termination of this lurid speech, many hitherto apparently
apathetic had caught the infection, and when some of the non-union
men emerged from the gate at the McCormick foundry, on the conclusion
of their day’s labor,—the hour being three o’clock,—many of the
mob rushed to the establishment, bent on wreaking vengeance. They
had hardly begun to move when some one on the box-car shouted: “Go
up and kill the d——d scabs!” The identity of this person has never
been disclosed, but it is no rash conclusion to suppose that it was
a confidant of Spies, as well as of Lingg, who had secret charge of
fomenting disturbances in that district. Lingg was present at this
gathering, and, as he subsequently claimed that he had been clubbed by
the police in the riot that followed, he may possibly have raised the
cry himself.
The mob reached the works in short order, hurling stones and firing
shots into the windows of the guard-house, which they finally
demolished. The non-union men, seeing the approaching mob, took to
flight, some seeking shelter in the works and others scampering across
the prairie beyond reach. There were at this time only two policemen
on duty. One of them, J. A. West, endeavored to pacify the crowd, but
received in response bricks and mud. The other for awhile, as well as
he could, held the mob at bay at the gate. West finally worked his
way through the crowd to a patrol box, and turned in an alarm for
reinforcements. Meanwhile the mob disported itself in throwing stones
and firing revolvers, and finally forced an entrance through the gate
to the yards.
Presently a patrol wagon loaded with officers plowed through the
turbulent mass, and, securing the ground between the mob and the
buildings, began driving out and dispersing the rioters. This only
served to infuriate the Anarchists, who fired in the direction of the
police and hurled a shower of stones. The officers remonstrated in
vain, warning the mob to keep back, and finally made a rush upon the
rioters with revolvers drawn, shooting right and left.
[Illustration: CHARGING THE MOB.]
The crowd swayed to and fro, retreated slightly, then rallied again,
and, diverging to either side in a jumbled but compact body, seemed
bent on holding their ground and fighting for every inch of it. But the
dashing and aggressive movements of the police, backed by courage and
discipline, soon demonstrated to the howling rabble the hopelessness
of the struggle. The very air seemed charged with bullets, clubs
and missiles. Revolvers clicked furiously, the exigencies of the
moment necessitating their use on the part of the police, and several
revolutionists bit the dust, maimed and wounded. What seems strange is
that none were killed in this furious onslaught.
The mob, which numbered fully 8,000, was soon put to precipitate
flight. Some of the most vicious leaders, however, kept up a rattling
fire of guns, revolvers, brickbats and sticks so long as their retreat
was measurably covered by the fleeing mob surrounding them. Several
of these leaders, with their weapons still smoking, were subsequently
overtaken, disarmed and locked up.
During all this short affray, Spies was nowhere to be seen, but, the
moment all danger seemed past, he emerged from his seclusion, breathing
courage and vengeance. He bounded into the field like one ready to
sacrifice himself for his cause, but cautiously kept himself where no
stray bullets might reach him. Another singular feature in connection
with the part he played in the affair was his attempt to parade his own
heroic virtues, by implication, in the denunciations and upbraidings
he heaped upon his comrades in the account published of the riot on
the very afternoon after its occurrence. This is what he said in the
_Arbeiter-Zeitung_:
[Illustration: OFFICER CASEY’S PERIL.]
The writer of this hastened to the factory as soon as the first shots
were fired, and a comrade urged the assembly to hasten to the rescue
of their brothers, who were being murdered, but none stirred.... The
writer ran back. He implored the people to come along,—those who had
revolvers in their pockets,—but it was in vain. With an exasperating
indifference they put their hands in their pockets and marched home,
babbling as if the whole affair did not concern them in the least. The
revolvers were still cracking, and fresh detachments of police, here
and there bombarded with stones, were hastening to the battle-ground.
The battle was lost!
A riot on a smaller scale occurred shortly after this in another
locality, instigated by the Anarchists who had been so severely
repulsed in the afternoon. After the McCormick outbreak one of the
wounded strikers was taken in a patrol wagon to the Twelfth Street
Station, and thence to his home on Seventeenth Street. Officer Casey
was one of the men in charge of the wagon, and remained behind at the
house to take a report of the man’s name, his residence and the nature
of his injuries. When the officer came out of the wounded man’s home,
he was set upon by a mob, shouting:
“Hang him! Hang the blue-coat!”
A Bohemian, named Vaclav Djenek, cried out:
“Help me; help me to hang the _canaille_!”
Two or three came to his side and endeavored to execute the threat.
Casey by a great effort managed to get away, and started on a run.
Pistol shots were fired after him by the mob, but fortunately he
escaped without injury.
[Illustration: FRANZ MIKOLANDA, A POLISH CONSPIRATOR.
From a Photograph.]
A patrol wagon from the West Chicago Avenue Station had meanwhile been
telephoned for by some peace-loving citizens, and it rapidly dashed
up to the scene of disturbance. The officers saw the whole situation,
dispersed the mob, and set about arresting the parties who had so
nearly succeeded in hanging the officer. They found that it had been a
very close call for Casey, that the rope was ready, and that, had it
not been for his own Herculean efforts, he would have dangled from a
lamp-post in a very few seconds.
Djenek, who was afterwards recognized as the principal actor in
this episode, was run down and placed under arrest. He was tried
and sentenced to one year in the penitentiary. During the trial two
officers of the West Chicago Avenue Station happened to be in the
State’s Attorney’s office when a lot of Bohemian literature and
Anarchist utensils were being exhibited. Among other things, they
noticed a photograph of Franz Mikolanda, and they at once exclaimed:
“This is the other man who helped Djenek to hang Casey!”
Mikolanda appeared at the trial for the purpose of swearing to an
alibi for Djenek, and was promptly recognized. He had no sooner left
the witness-stand than he was arrested on a warrant and subsequently
prosecuted. He was found guilty and sentenced to six months in the
Bridewell.