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What Led to the Deaths of Five
Meredith Bruegge It was May 1, 1886, a Saturday, a day one would expect to see men and women leaving their homes, kissing their children good-bye, savoring every moment, knowing little when he or she might return. On this day, many Americans across the nation, who heard the word of the American Federation of Labor, decided to strike in protest for shorter work hours; they stopped at nothing to get it. The event centered in Chicago, Illinois, where eighty-thousand confident men, women, and children held hands and paraded down Michigan Avenue. Among them was Albert Parsons, a socialist and popular labor organizer. Just as the parade was about to begin, August Spies, another socialist and friend of Parsons, came running with the latest copy of the Chicago Mail. It read in part: "Parsons and Spies . . . have no love for the labor movement . . . They are looking for riot and plunder . . . Mark them for today. Keep them in view. Hold them personally responsible for any trouble that does occur." Policing the events were Pinkerton detectives, the Chicago city police, and the state militia. The National Guard, too, was armed and ready. Although little was accomplished the first day, a quarter of a million workers benefited from the event. They were granted shorter hours, but only to prevent any further trouble. By day three, events began to get out of hand. Strikers picketing outside the McCormick Harvester Plant began throwing stones at the people hired to replace them. Police tried taming the mob with clubs and fire arms, resulting in the deaths of four people. The cause of their deaths was regarded as police brutality. This produced a negative sentiment between labor unions and the police. May 4 was the date set for a meeting to protest the deadly acts of the police. The meeting place was one of Chicago's largest outdoor public spaces: Haymarket Square. Who would be invited to speak at such a meeting? The two socialists who led the May 1 parade were included. These were August Spies and Albert Parsons. With only a small wagon as a pedestal, the two men began speaking harshly against the police and the Pinkerton men. Parsons asked, "Do you know that the military are under arms, and a Gatling gun is ready to mow you down? . . . The militia, the Deputy Sheriff, the Pinkerton men are all called out and you are shot and clubbed and murdered in the streets ... Americans, in the interest of your liberty and your independence, to arm, to arm yourselves!" Next, another invited socialist, Samuel Fielden, began speaking. After he had been speaking for about ten minutes, rain began falling and largely dispersed a crowd of two-thousand leaving only a few hundred. As Fielden was about to conclude, 180 police officers marched through the crowd.
The officer in charge declared, "In the name of the people of the state of Illinois, I command this meeting immediately and peaceably disperse." Silence fell. Fielden responded, "We are peaceable," and he climbed down from the wagon. Out of nowhere, a bomb came barreling out of the sky. The police, horrified and without thinking, began shooting. Bystanders ran for their lives. When all was calm once again, one police officer lay dead. Six police were fatally wounded. Seventy members of the public were injured. Not only was Chicago overwhelmed, but the whole country was in a state of shock. It is still a mystery as to who threw the bomb. But Parsons, Spies, Fielden and five other well-known anarchists and socialists were charged and arrested. Strangely, the individual accused of throwing the bomb, Rudolph Schnaubelt, was never even brought to trial. Regarded as martyrs of the labor movement, Spies, Parsons, and two other socialists were hanged on November 11,1887. Just as the trap was about to be sprung. Spies exclaimed from under his noose, 'There will come a time when our silence will be stronger than the voices you strangle today!" What happened to the four other men? One committed suicide in his cell, and in 1893 Governor John Peter Altgeld pardoned the three remaining men. It was said by many that his actions had helped him commit political suicide. Today though, it is thought to be a matter of simple justice.—[From Allan Carpenter, Illinois, Land of Lincoln; Joseph L. Gardner, Labor on the March; Milton Metzer, Bread And Roses.}
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