The Rise and Fall of Anarchy in America: From its Incipient Stage to the First Bomb Thrown in ChicagoMcLean, George N.
History
The Rise and Fall of Anarchy in America: From its Incipient Stage to the First Bomb Thrown in Chicago
McLean, George N.
Anarchists -- United States; Haymarket Square Riot, Chicago, Ill., 1886
"Look at the copy of the _Alarm_ of June 27, 1885, 'Dynamite;
Instructions Regarding Its Use and Operation,' and signed 'A. S.' Say
whether you ever saw it."--"I don't know that I have."
"Was there any reason why you did not walk when you started home that
night?"--"Yes. I did not wish to be arrested that night."
"You expected that you would be arrested?"--"Well, after that trouble I
expected to be arrested."
"You were speaking when the police came up, and were making no
inflammatory speech?"--"I did not incite anybody to do anything, to
do any overt act. I told the people in general to resist the present
socialistic system that oppressed them, and gave them no chance to earn
a living."
"And yet you expected to be arrested?"--"I had read something of
criminal proceedings, and I knew that the police would arrest
everybody connected with that meeting in order to find the one who was
responsible. I made an explanation before the Coroner's jury because I
had a different idea of the police at that time. I thought if I made
that statement and they inquired into the truth and were convinced of
my innocence they would let me go. But I now see that I was mistaken."
"Did the police indict you?"--"I don't know who indicted me."
Redirect--"You have heard what has been said about your expression
of throttling the law, of killing it, of stabbing it. Just state
the explanation which you said you desired to make in regard to
that."--"Well, it was just the explanation that a public orator would
make when he was denouncing a political party. When he said he wanted
to get rid of the Democratic party, for instance, he would kill it,
stab it, or make way with it. The words would rush away with a public
speaker, and in the hurry he could not add a lengthy explanation."
"You also read the reporter's notes in regard to snails and worms and
said there was no connection there. What were your words in reference
to snails and worms, and the idea that you now remember?"--"Well,
the idea that I intended to convey at that time was that when men
were thrown out of work through no fault of their own, and it being
a fact that has been proven and asserted on the floor of the House
of Representatives that over a million of men are out of employment
through no fault of their own--these men being driven about, become
degraded and loathsome, and people look upon them with contempt, and
yet it is no fault of their own; they have no part in producing the
condition of things that throws them out of employment, and leads them
to their abject condition."
"You did not know of the presence of a dynamite bomb or anything of
that kind in the crowd?"--"No, sir; I did not even know of the presence
of an unusual number of police at the station. I did not know that till
after the meeting."
Henry Schultz, an elderly German, testified that "from 9 o'clock until
the fight was over I was on the Haymarket; I stood in the middle of the
street, a little north of the wagon."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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