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 ConspiratorsSchaack, Michael J.
History
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
The worst of these ignorant fools never did realize why the
saloon-keepers shouted so lustily for Anarchy until they came home to
find their wives and little ones crying for bread. Then, perhaps, it
faintly dawned upon their minds that the saloon-keepers were after
their nickels. These liquor-sellers were Anarchists for revenue only,
and they sought in every way to keep on the right side of the rank
and file of the party. They always looked to it, the first thing in
the morning, that plenty of Anarchist literature and a dozen or so
copies of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ were duly on the tables of their
places, and in some saloons beer-bloated bums, who could manage to read
fairly, were engaged to read aloud such articles as were particularly
calculated to stir up the passions of the benighted patrons. Robber and
hypocrite are terms too weak to apply to these saloon-keepers. Some of
them had “walking delegates” by their side, and if an Anarchist seemed
to them to be “going wrong” by seeking work, the delegate and assistant
robber would tell him to go back to his headquarters and wait, assuring
him that they would have all things right in a few days.
And this is the way these poor fools and their families were kept in
continual misery. Many of the dupes have had their eyes opened and have
quit frequenting these places and the underground caves. What is the
result? Their families are better looked after, and the difference in
their comfort is very apparent. They used to call the Chicago Avenue
Station “Schaack’s Bastile,” but let me say that those saloon-keepers
with their low and contemptible resorts were the real bastile-keepers.
Hundreds and hundreds of men, heads and fathers of families, have been
kept in squalid want by spending their very last cent in these holes,
and their dependents have been left without food, proper clothing or
fuel. I believe in unions for proper objects, but even these should not
be continued for the benefit of such saloon-keepers.
All these men were great heroes so long as they could hope to enrich
themselves, but when the chief conspirators were locked up in jail, and
liberal contributions were demanded for the defense, their enthusiasm
in the holy cause of Anarchy was considerably cooled.
While Chicago is regarded as the head center of Anarchy in America,
people of other cities and States should not imagine that the vicious
reds are all in this city. There are plenty of them scattered
throughout the country, and this fact was made quite manifest at the
time the Anarchists were being arrested. Friends of the imprisoned
men came to Chicago from all over the United States, and financial
assistance poured in on all sides. Those who came here were open in
their declarations of sympathy and never attempted to conceal their
actions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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