THE HAYMARKET MONUMENT.
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The statue which stands in the Haymarket, the broad square on Randolph
Street extending from Desplaines to Halsted, commemorates an event only
second in importance in Chicago’s history to the great fire of 1871. It
stands as a mark of that awful night, May 4, 1886, when the mouthings
of the anarchists culminated in the hurling of a bomb--the only bomb
ever thrown in America--into a squad of police, of whom seven were
killed and sixty-six laid low with awful wounds.
While looking at this monument, the figure of a policeman in heroic
size, the visitor may if he chooses, try to imagine that scene, when
Desplaines Street bore the appearance of a battlefield, and the station
house near by, whither the dead and wounded were carried, that of a
hospital. Think over it all, as you gaze at the monument, and try to
realize the importance of the bloody epoch which it typifies.
May day of that year had been fixed upon as the proper time to
inaugurate the eight hour movement. Prior to that date the anarchists
had become thoroughly organized. They held meetings every Sunday
afternoon on the Lake Front, when their leaders made fiery speeches,
advocating the murder of capitalists and the destruction of property.
On the first of May, strike after strike occurred in quick succession.
Within two days there were thousands of unemployed workmen in the
streets; the anarchist leaders did all they could to foster a spirit of
mischief and incite the strikers to deeds of violence. The Haymarket
riot itself originated in the great strike at the McCormick Reaper
works, which transpired February 11, the strikers’ places being filled
by non-union men. Police were put on guard at the works, and such
anarchist leaders as August Spies, Albert Parsons, Henry Fielden, and
Michael Schwab improved the opportunity to further excite disturbance
and disorder and to increase the hatred of the mob for the police. On
the evening of April 28, 1885, the new Board of Trade building was
opened and a swarm of anarchists, both men and women, marched to the
building, waving red flags and breathing death and destruction to the
“aristocrats” as they called them. It was a strange scene. Inside the
glittering building there were fair women, in dazzling toilets and
decked with gems, who shuddered as they gazed through the windows at
the menacing populace without--the same class of misguided beings who
turned Paris into a Hell during the revolution. The police drove the
mob away. The raving hordes dispersed, uttering curses and threats
as they went. This incident is related merely to show the spirit
which prevailed among the anarchists prior to the deadly deed of the
following year.
It was Monday, May 3, when the riot at McCormick’s occurred. As the
workmen left the building they were attacked by a great army of men
and women. The police were called and a battle, or rather a series of
battles, resulted, in which knives, sticks, stones and pistols were
used. The police were fired upon repeatedly by the mob and promptly
returned the fusillade. In all, six rioters were killed or injured,
and several police officers were wounded. One officer narrowly escaped
being lynched, and succeeded in breaking away from his captors as
they were about to string him up to a lamp-post, to which a rope had
already been attached. Immediately after this bloody affair the famous
“Revenge” circular was distributed--an incendiary document written by
August Spies, and supposed to have been the principal cause of the
bomb-throwing. As a historical document it is worth quoting:
“Revenge! Workingmen, to arms! Your masters sent out their
bloodhounds, the police. They killed six of your brothers at
McCormick’s this afternoon; they killed the poor wretches because
they had the courage to disobey the supreme will of your bosses;
they killed them because they dared to ask for the shortening of
the hours of toil; they killed them to show you, free American
citizens, that you must be satisfied and contented with whatever
your bosses condescend to allow you or you will get killed. You
have for years suffered unmeasurable iniquities; you have worked
yourselves to death; you have endured the pangs of want and hunger;
your children have been sacrificed to the factory lords--in short,
you have been miserable and obedient slaves all these years. Why?
To satisfy the insatiable greed, to fill the coffers of your lazy,
thieving masters. When you ask them now to lessen the burden they
send their bloodhounds out to shoot you--kill you. If you are men,
if you are the sons of your grandsires, who have shed their blood
to free you, then you will rise in your might, Herculean, and
destroy the hideous monster that seeks to destroy you! To arms! We
call you to arms!
YOUR BROTHERS.”
Events followed fast upon the issue of this circular. A number of minor
conflicts occurred, and then the _Arbeiter Zeitung_, of which Spies was
editor, called the Haymarket meeting in the following notice:
“ATTENTION, WORKINGMEN! Great mass meeting tonight, at 7:30
o’clock, at the Haymarket, Randolph street, between Desplaines
and Halsted. Good speakers will be present to denounce the latest
atrocious acts of the police--the shooting of your fellow workmen
yesterday afternoon.
THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.”
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The hour came. The Haymarket Square and Desplaines Street were crowded.
From the top of a wagon, Parsons, Schwab and Spies made inflammatory
speeches. Fielden was in the midst of his, when a platoon of police,
over a hundred in number appeared, headed by Captain Ward and Inspector
Bonfield. Ward commanded the people to disperse, and at that instant
the bomb was thrown. It sputtered through the air like a comet and fell
with an awful roar in the ranks of the police, exploding with deadly
effect. Without wavering an instant, the surviving officers poured a
volley of pistol shots into the mob. For several minutes the battle
raged. When it was over the ground was littered with the dead and
dying. The wounded were taken to the Desplaines Street station.
The ringleaders were arrested the following day. Schnaubelt, the man
who threw the bomb was arrested but released by some mistake and
disappeared as completely as if the earth had swallowed him.
Spies, Engel, Parson, Fielden, Fischer, Schwab, Lingg and Neebe were
tried for conspiracy to murder. The trial was the most sensational
in Chicago’s history, and lasted thirty-six days. Neebe was sent to
the penitentiary; all the others were sentenced to death. All the
men made long speeches in court, protesting against the sentence,
but its justice was affirmed by the Supreme Courts of Illinois and
of the United States. The execution was fixed for November 11, 1887.
A petition asking for clemency was sent to Richard J. Oglesby,
then Governor of the State. The sentences of Fielden and Schwab
were commuted to life-imprisonment. The day before that set for
the execution, Lingg, who was the most ferocious anarchist of all,
committed suicide in a horrible manner. He placed a fulminating
cartridge in his mouth, cigar-fashion, lighted the fuse and calmly
waited until the thing exploded and blew off his head. The four others,
Spies, Parson, Engel and Fischer, were executed a few minutes before
noon the following day.
The writer of these lines saw these men die, being seated just below
the scaffold, with a complete view of the proceeding. The assertion
may be ventured, that every witness of that awful event was impressed
by the bravery with which the doomed four met their fate. They had
lived misguided lives and died ignominious deaths, but there was not a
coward among them. When they perished the anarchists of Chicago ceased
to exist as a political power. Their party, which suffered a staggering
blow by reason of the event of the proceeding year, was obliterated,
effaced by the tragedy on the scaffold which vindicated the righteous
power of law and order. The anarchists of Europe no longer look to this
country as a pleasant or profitable ground for the dissemination of
their doctrines.
When you gaze upon the Haymarket monument you may ponder on these
things. That simple figure typifies the rise and fall of anarchism in
Chicago--one of the most thrilling periods in all its history.
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