ANARCHISTS. 



13 



dressed from a wagon by August Spies, editor 

 of the " Arbeiter-Zeitung," and by the Anarch- 

 ist, A. B. Parsons. These speeches were rath- 

 er mild; but Fielden, an Englishman, mounted 

 the wagon aud made an extremely violent 

 speech of twenty minutes' duration. Mean- 

 while 200 police, under Captains Bonfield and 

 Ward, were in readiness at the station in Des 

 Plaines Street, less than 300 feet south of the 

 wagon. When the tenor of Fielden's speech 

 was known at the station, it was decided by 

 the two captains that, in order to avoid a seri- 

 ous riot, it would be best to disperse the crowd. 

 Accordingly 170 men drawn up in line were 

 marched up Des Plaines Street, and when the 

 police were within a few steps of the wagon, 

 Captain Ward ordered the crowd to disperse. 

 Fielden got down from the wagon, saying, 

 '' We are peaceable." At this moment a bomb 

 with a lighted fuse attached was thrown from 

 a crowd of men standing in an alley directly 

 opposite the wagon. It struck the ground 

 among the police, exploded, and worked ter- 

 rible destruction among them. Numbers of 

 them were wounded, officer Deegan dying al- 

 most immediately. The crowd then opened a 

 destructive fire upon the police, sixty of whom 

 were wounded by the bomb and the shooting, 

 of whom seven died. The officers then charged 

 the mob, firing their revolvers among them 

 and killing and wounding a large number. 



The trial of the persons charged with con- 

 spiring to throw the bomb began on the 15th 

 of July, twenty-one days having been con- 

 sumed in getting a jury. Spies, Parsons, 

 Fischer, Fielden, Engel, Schwab, Lingg, and 

 Neebe were the persons arraigned. Early in 

 the trial Judge Gary gave a decision that 

 greatly facilitated the conviction of the prison- 

 ers. His decision was this, that it is not neces- 

 sary that the members of a conspiracy should 

 have agreed to commit a murder at any par- 

 ticular time to constitute them accessories be- 

 fore the fact ; that if murder has been agreed 

 upon, and the time or manner of the crime 

 has not been settled, the conspirators are 

 nevertheless, when the killing has been done, 

 guilty of murder. The evidence against the 

 prisoners produced at the trial was mostly 

 supplied by Anarchist informers, by detectives, 

 the police, and the reporters. One of the in- 

 formers, Waller, a Swiss, had been a member 

 of the Lehr und Wehr Verein. This organi- 

 zation, as its name indicates, is a society for 

 exercise and instruction in arms. It was in- 

 corporated under the laws of the State in 1875 

 by thirty German and Bohemian Socialists, 

 and now includes 300 or 400 members, most 

 of whom have seen service in foreign armies. 

 They have been practicing military exercises 

 to prepare themselves for conflicts with the 

 authorities. Waller testified that he presided 

 at a meeting of the society at Griefs saloon, 

 the usual place of meeting, on Monday night, 

 the 3d. He had seen in the " Arbeiter-Zei- 

 tung" the letter "T," and "Come on Mon- 



day," which was the signal that there was to 

 be a meeting. Fischer and Engel were present 

 at this meeting. Circulars headed " Revenge ! " 

 were issued. The shooting of men at McCor- 

 mick's was discussed. Engel introduced a 

 resolution regarding what should be done in 

 case there should be a conflict between the 

 strikers and the police. In this case it was 

 resolved that there should be meetings to aid 

 the strikers. The word ' ; Ruhe " (rest) was to 

 be the signal for such meetings. The manner 

 of fighting was also talked over. Engel sug- 

 gested that a bomb should be thrown into the 

 police-stations; and it was agreed that the 

 mob should use bombs, fire-arms, or any other 

 means of destruction, if they were attacked 

 by the police. The society was to be repre- 

 sented by a committee at the Haymarket 

 meeting. The question upon these measures 

 was put to the meeting by Engel. Waller said 

 that he had himself attended the Haymarket 

 meeting, armed with a dynamite bomb. 



Early in 1885 several of the largest prop- 

 erty-owners in Chicago had employed Pinker- 

 ton's agency to make an investigation as to 

 the real purposes of the Anarchists. One of 

 Pinkerton's men, A. C. Jansen, testified that 

 he was a member of the American branch of 

 the International Workingmen's Association, 

 and belonged to the armed section of that 

 force. He had joined the organization with a 

 view of finding out its objects. He attended 

 all the meetings from February, 1885, till Jan- 

 uary, 1886, and was present at two meetings 

 of the armed section. At one of these, Spies 

 advised the shooting of a police-officer who 

 had been accused of a serious charge, but had 

 been acquitted on the testimony of his brother 

 officers. Fielden referred to the dedication of 

 the new Board of Trade, with this suggestion: 

 u What a splendid opportunity there would be 

 for some bold fellow, next Tuesday evening, 

 to make the capitalists tremble by blowing up 

 the building and all there is in it ! " At one of 

 the meetings, a man armed with a long sword, 

 dressed in a blue blouse and wearing a slouched! 

 hat, requested all present to fall in line. The 

 detective and two others stepped forward. On 

 the drill- master's demanding that he should 

 be vouched for, the detective was at a loss 

 what to do; but, to his great relief, Parsons 

 volunteered to be his sponsor. The drill-mas- 

 ter invited those present to inspect two tin 

 boxes containing some improved dynamite 

 bombs. At one of the meetings Parsons was 

 elected lieutenant and proposed an attack on 

 the First Regiment armory. In case of a con- 

 flict with the authorities, the International 

 Rifles were to act with the Lehr und Wehr 

 Verein. It will be seen that this evidence 

 convicted Spies, Parsons, Fielden, and Engel 

 of conspiracy. The same witnesses, and others, 

 gave more evidence of a similar character. 



It was further proved that dynamite bombs 

 were in the possession of several of the accused. 

 Dynamite was found in Spies's desk at the 



