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
There were hundreds of tramps in the throng addressed, and naturally
all allusions to capitalists as robbers, and all suggestions to
plunder, were greeted with applause. A procession was formed, with
Oscar W. Neebe, Parsons and Fielden at the head, and with two women
following next carrying the red and black flags. They marched down
to the Board of Trade, but, arriving at the street leading to the
building, a company of police headed them off. Thus balked, they had
to content themselves with marching through the streets back to their
starting-point, where they separated without further exhibition of
violence than subsequently hurling a stone through the window of a
carriage occupied by a prominent West Side resident and his wife,
whom they took to be a millionaire on his way to the Board of Trade
reception. A tougher-looking lot of men than those who composed the
procession it would be difficult to find, and, once started in the
direction of violence at the building, there is no telling the extent
of damage they might have inflicted. The toleration of such a parade
by the municipal authorities was severely criticised by the community,
for, had it not been for the action of the late Col. Welter, then
Inspector of Police, in intercepting the procession, a serious riot
would have occurred.
Parsons, when asked subsequently why they had not blown up the Board
of Trade building, replied that they had not looked for police
interference and were not prepared. “The next time,” he said, “we will
be prepared to meet them with bombs and dynamite.” Fielden reiterated
the same sentiments and expressed the opinion that in the course of a
year they might be ready for the police.
* * * * *
NOW WHAT is the Socialism or Anarchy they seek to establish? In his
speech before Judge Gary in the Criminal Court, when asked why sentence
of death should not be imposed upon him, Anarchist Parsons, among other
things, thus described the condition of affairs when Socialism should
obtain sway:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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