The reason for the season. We would not be celebrating May Day today if the effect of events 140 years ago were not so profoundly felt by millions here and around the world. The trials and executions of the Haymarket martyrs on November 11, 1887, for events that transpired around the previous May 1st eight-hour strike, were intensely followed by the entire nation, indeed well beyond, with the experience leaving an indelible mark on a generation. Below is a record reflecting the power of that day from a main competitor to the Chicago activists, the then Lassallean Socialist Labor Party who Parsons and others had split from to form the International Working Peoples Association a few years before. None of the animosity of that is on display, only impressed admiration for their principled and dignified stand of the now immortal names Albert Parsons, Louis Lingg, George Engel, Albert Spies, and Adolph Fischer.

‘Brave Men Die Bravely for Labor’s Cause’ from Workmen’s Advocate (New Haven). Vol. 3 No. 47. November 19, 1887.

FOULEST MURDER.

The Lying Public Press Adds Insult to Injury–One Wrong Begets Another–Loathsome Hypocrisy of Modern Society Not Ended

Aside from the reprehensibility of “lawful” murder–capital punishment–the execution of the so-called anarchists was a crime of the kind that brings its perpetrators and abettors into the category of the most dangerous criminals and enemies of the masses the working people. It matters not that these masses are too befogged by their surroundings and their false education to appreciate the sacrifices of their advocates or the cunning hypocrisy of their rulers and teachers a crime has been committed against them in the murder of August Spies, editor; Alfred R. Parsons, compositor; George Engel, editor; Adolph Fischer, printer, and Louis Lingg, carpenter; and in the imprisonment for life of Michael Schwab, bookbinder, and Samuel Fielden, carpenter. That the enginery of the law was used in this case does not detract from its criminality any more than it did in the case of Socrates or Jesus Christ; nor will the continuation in power of the class that judged them and murdered them have any other than the natural result–destruction. When a nation is criminal it is also suicidal. The fact that such a crime as that against the victims of capitalism could be committed by the State is of itself an evidence of decay. The fear of the preaching of any doctrine is a confession of weakness in the face of logic presented.

It must not be supposed that the men of Chicago had for their object the destruction of society. This has been stated over and over again by the lying capitalist press. None but lunatics could advocate such insanity, and their advocacy could not possibly frighten people who had done no wrong. Their object was not murder and rapine–quite the contrary. They opposed murder and rapine, and they had murderers and thieves opposed to them. They denounced a system of society which permits the cold-blooded robbery of laborers–men, women and children; a system that drives young girls to prostitution and young men to vice. Spies had at one time exposed a murderous plot of so-called detectives to incite striking coal miners to violent deeds in order to be able to shoot them down like dogs. And why should detectives desire to do this? Not for mere bloodthirstiness; no; but in order that they might be hired by the frightened capitalists to protect “their” property. And so Spies was a special mark for vengeance. And what does this prove? Does it not prove that the system which drives men to such extremities to get a living is rotten to the core?

When the workingmen gathered at the Haymarket to denounce the wanton butchery of some of their fellows by the police the day before, they naturally offended someone. When they denounced a system that would entail such wrongs, they offended. Whom could the denunciations of the workingmen offend? Why should anyone be offended at the condemnation of robbery and murder? The class of robbers and murderers were the ones offended, and they were angry because their crimes were openly denounced. Having no standard of morality they did not hesitate to commit another crime, and that crime was the armed attack upon the Haymarket meeting, threatening a few hundred men, women and children with death. Some one threw a bomb and killed a few of the attacking party. Who did it, no one knows. It was done, it is reasonable to suppose, in self-defence. The person who did it probably had the muzzle of one or more revolvers pointed at him. If so, he was justified in killing his would-be murderers.

One wrong begets another.

Not knowing who threw the bomb, the police were not slow to find victims for their revenge They did know who was denouncing them and their masters. The capitalists, fearful of the result of the criticism of their means of robbing labor of its products, fearful of the growing intelligence among the people, flocked to the assistance of their hirelings, and money was lavished upon all who would assist in the assassination of labor’s champions. But the hypocrites must not overstep the law, so the law is bent to their will–it is “construed,” and Justice is prostituted. Even the preachers of Christ (save the mark) are used as a power to influence the superstitious and ignorant. The men who dared openly take sides with the disinherited–the robbed and despised and gulled working people–are traduced and pictured as very fiends! A venal press, under control of the frightened bourgeoisie, and published and edited by venal and mendacious hirelings, or, to be charitable, ignorant and arrant cowards, takes up the cry of the blasphemous pulpit, and multitudes who were falsely and ignorantly reared to place implicit confidence in “their betters” turn on their true friends and vie with their false teachers in the cry which is synonymous with that of “Crucify him! To the cross with him!” applied to the “God” which these very hypocrites pretend to worship.

And so they were doomed to be hanged, while the modern Pilates, the Supreme judges and the Governor of Illinois, washed their hands in a basin of technicality.

HOW THEY DIED.

While we would impress our readers with the fact that the capitalist class perpetrated a most horrible crime, and while we would have the working people ever remember the brutality of their enemies and foster an eternal hatred for the acts committed and for the system which permits such horrors, we have not the heart to publish in detail the story of capitalistic brutality. It is sufficient to say that our brave advocates died like brave men, never flinching before the gaze of the brutes in human form who watched with fiendish intensity for a sign of fear. The undignified and frightened behavior of the judge while passing sentence was repeated by the hirelings who carried it into effect. The martyrs, on the other hand, were firm, dignified and scornful of their brutal executioners and the mob of cowardly politicians, pimps and heelers who gazed upon them totally unable to comprehend the fearlessness of the four men guarded so carefully as victims for the gallows. Louis Lingg had eluded them–he chose his own method of death the day before. No superstitious horror disturbed their calm awaiting of eternal sleep. And so it happened that Rev. Dr. Bolton found his vocation superfluous when he called to offer “religious consolation.”

So craven were the lawful murderers that they dared not permit their victims to make final speeches from the scaffold, so that each of them uttered but a sentence. August Spies said, prophetically: “The time will come when our silence in the grave will be mightier than our speech.”

George Engel shouted, lustily: “Long live anarchy!”

Adolph Fischer said: “This is the happiest moment of my life.”

Alfred R. Parsons: “Shall I be allowed to speak? Oh, women and men of beloved America” [an interruption by a movement of the sheriff, which Parsons evidently noticed though he had the cap drawn over his face as the rest had] “Let me speak, Sheriff Matson. Let the voice of the people be heard”—

It was the last–the cowardly murder was committed.

The lives of four brave labor advocates were ended.

Honor to their memories.

In order to justify their crime, the authorities have been inventing all sorts of stories of alleged threats and riotous intentions on the part of the friends of the condemned, and the capitalist press published there broadcast through the land. Many people have no other knowledge of the real circumstances connected with the tragedy from the time of the murderous attack of the police under command of Inspector Bonfield upon the Haymarket meeting to the final murder of the four brave, men than that furnished them by the corrupt dress. The editors of the thousands of country papers being as ignorant of the facts as their readers; they published what was sent them by the servants of the great and corrupt news agencies, or copied their reports from the metropolitan papers who form the links of the Associated Press chain. “Truth travels with leaden heels,” but Truth will conquer at last; and then, woe to the corruptionists.

The studied brutality and cruelty of the press towards the relatives and friends of the victims of class hatred was simply fiendish, and is calculated to implant in the breasts of those who know them an everlasting feeling of loathing for the miserable commercialists to whom nothing is too sacred for traffic.

“Society is saved”–for what? The laborers continue their toil, while their masters take the substance. The daily treadmill of the wage-slave never ceases its clatter, while the owners of the toilers complacently pocket the spoils and revel in the wealth their hands are not soiled to create. But there will be no rest. The agitation for justice to Labor will continue, and will grow from year to year till the people who now toil in patient ignorance will feel the chafing of their chains. The greatest enemy of Labor, ignorance, must be vanquished, and will be; and the murder of these men, and of others who will follow them, will only serve to arouse the public conscience. Force is a weak argument against Reason, though it may slay the reasoners. The people have heard the voice of the slayer; they have seen the blood of his victims. Let them remember!

THOUSANDS MOURNING.

Colossal Demonstration at the Funeral of the Martyrs–The Dead Speak Louder Than The Living–150,000 Workmen in Line

The capitalists and their thugs were undeceived last Sunday. They imagined they had cowed the working people by murdering five of their number and imprisoning three more. But never in the history of Chicago was there such a great gathering of people as ascended to pay the last honors to their martyred dead. The committees having the details in charge expected about 30,000, but they had not estimated the people at their proper worth, for at least 150,000 participated in the last sad rites and mingled their tears with those of the wronged families robbed of their noblest ones.

AT THE HOME OF SPIES.

Before the casket containing the mortal remains of August Spies was closed, and after the friends had gazed for the last time upon the dead hero, Captain Black, the faithful counsel, made a memorial speech. With deep feeling he spoke of the self-sacrifice and deep convictions of the deceased.

“The man whose lifeless body lies before us,” said he, “gave his life for humanity. Can we give him greater praise–does he need more honor? The man who died courageously for those whom he had never seen nor knew, simply because he was convinced that his death would help to better their condition–his name cannot be exalted too much among all the martyrs for mankind. By his death Augast Spies has earned the gratitude of the world, and the time is not far distant when it will be accorded. This thought, this conviction, should suffice to sustain and comfort his sorrowing ones.”

It was noon before the funeral procession started. The good mother and faithful wife, hand in hand, followed the pall bearers from the house, and then entered a coach. The homes of Fischer, Parsons and Engel were also the scenes of demonstrations of grief and vast multitudes were assembled at each of those places to attest their sympathy. Louis Lingg’s body was at the Engel home. The caskets in the hearses were buried beneath floral offerings indeed, there was not room for them all. The mighty procession slowly wended its way towards the railroad depot, whence as many as could took the cars for the Waldheim cemetery.

The people wore crimson insignia, and the caskets were draped with red flags. The trades unions alone occupied an hour in passing a given point. Three hundred young girls wearing red sashes were among the mourners. The Marseillaise was played, and as the hearse containing the remains of Parsons drew near, at the forming of the procession, the plaintive strains of “Annie Laurie,” Parsons’ last song, deeply affected the people.

To detail all of the memorable event is impossible in the limited space of the ADVOCATE, Let it suffice to say that the brave men were honored in death as no man ever before in Chicago.

The remains were placed in a vault st Waldheim to await final burial in some appropriate spot.

BOSTON.

Solemn Tribute to the Martyred Heroes of Chicago.

The men of Boston were prompt to express their opinion on the judicial murder perpetrated in Chicago. On the evening of Black Friday New Era Hall was crowded with working men and women of all shades of political faith. The hall was appropriately draped in mourning, with mottoes and inscriptions upon the walls. The chairman, J.W. Badger, could hardly control his emotion as he opened the meeting, but regaining his composure he paid an eloquent tribute to the martyrs. Dr. James Waldock, Carl Friede, Geo. E. McNeil and others, made speeches. Space unfortunately forbids their reproduction, but we cannot omit at least a synopsis of one or two of them. Dr. Waldock said:

MEN, BRETHREN, SISTERS–I am of two minds as I stand before you to-day. When I think of the cruel, infamous wrong done to those seven men of Chicago and to us who believe them to have been unjustly, illegally condemned, and to our country for which they have given their lives, I am ready to wish that there might come upon the miscreants who did the hateful deed, and upon their instigators and abettors, all the horrors of that hell which they seek to bring upon our country.

But when I think again of poor, weak, erring man, out of what long perverted blood and brain he is made up, I say to myself; what is the use; who art thou that thou shouldest judge thy fellows? They could not, perchance, do otherwise; they were born so. Shall we denounce them for their evil inheritance? We must, rather, pity the evil-doers, even if we despise and hate their deeds. “Aye, verily, not the men who are gone to death upon the scaffold or to the living tomb of the dungeon are to be pitied, but they who have been able, out of the mongrel meanness of their ill-bred blood, to do and to consent to the hellish work of sending men to death, illegally, for fidelity to their conviction of right.

“Hear, then, what I say–curse or cure of their ill-doing, as they will have it: “May the remembrance of their evil deed never leave them while they live. May it pierce deeper and yet deeper into the hateful substance of their policy, passion, fear swayed hearts till they repent in sackcloth and ashes before the law they have perverted, the right they profaned with perjured hands–or perish from off the face of the earth they and their noxious, venomous blood, down to an extinguished generation. And deep and more deep as the iron is driven, base slaves, may the whet of their agony be; to think, as the damned, haply, to  think of the heaven they had once in their reach, that they might have been free.

“Dear friends, who mourn with me to-day the death of the five faithful ones of whom the world was not worthy, what shall I say of them? Alas, that they were so far away from me. I would that I could have put my arms about them once before they died and comforted them with my love.

“Alas! for that beautiful-souled boy. Louis Lingg: driven from his own country by despair of right, seeking to realize it in this boasted land of the free, dying in despair of it at the hands of its enemies. Would to God that he had been my son, that I might have stayed his too eager hasting feet and saved him from his despair and kept him for the world, to bless it with a life devoted to the welfare of mankind.

“Noble, even if erring youth, of whom his jailer testified with tears of tender regret that he was loving, gentle, pure and true. Hail and farewell.

Alas! for that faithful one, Parsons–our countryman–also gentle and true, of noble blood, impatient of wrong and that endured it not; manly in his refusal to ask mercy for what he felt to be right-doing; doomed to an illegal death for his manliness: high, holy, faithful soul. Hail and farewell.

“Dear friends, as I look about me and abroad through this wide land, I see a sight that makes me shudder. I see the workers struggling for their right. I see them meeting in legal assemblage to remonstrate against wrong and violence at the hands of their oppressors. I see a police mob, unauthorized, rush with murderous hands of illegal violence to disperse them.

“I see a destructive weapon of defence thrown by some frenzied hand into the midst of that ruthless mob. I see them stagger, then turn again, rush upon the unresisting crowd and empty their revolvers among them, pursuing with relentless fury as long as one remaining defenceless citizen could be found on whom to wreak their vengeance. I see the leaders of that unresisting assemblage arrested by the remnants of the same police mob that had attacked it, brought to a mockery of trial, and condemned to death by Judge, Attorney and Jury Lynch for the crime of the mob-leader Bonfield. I see the judiciary, the highest tribunals of the land, in their cups, their lusts, their livery, trifling with truth, playing at “toss up” with justice, making a jest, a solemn mockery of constitutional law, betraying, wantonly, constitutional freedom.

“I see a Christian church that calls Jesus the Faithful One, its Lord and master; that professes to follow Him and practice His teachings. I see this church of Christian heathen priests crying once again, as it has done so many times before, for the life of the innocent, for the blood of those seven martyrs to fidelity to their sense of right, shouting damnably, as of old, in the ears of the powers that be: “Away with them! Crucify them! Crucify them!”

“I see a multitude of men under enslavement of lust for lucre, of mad thirst for ill got wealth, traders in human life, liberty and happiness plunging in mad fright and fury upon self-destruction. Aye, in the blind fierceness of their mistaken frenzy putting privily to death the noblest, purest most unselfish of their fellows.

“Alas, they have crucified the faithful one afresh, and put our country-beloved, fought for, looked to for refuge one time by the oppressed of every land to open shame before the world. Oh, liberty! how many crimes have men committed, aye, do they still commit in thy dear name!”

Carl Friede made a strong speech, and his words were appreciated by the people. He said:

“FELLOW CITIZENS–The press of this country calls these men foreign criminals. (Hisses.) When these men were used as tools by the American capitalists to cut under the wages of American labor they were not foreign criminals. (Great applause.) I have not wept before to-day since the revolution of the commune in France. Since that time I have thought it unmanly to weep, but I say that in this country of the free we have put to shame Russian despotism to-day. (Tremendous applause and cheers) Our government has been everlastingly disgraced. (Applause.) Our government has been prostituted to capitalism. (Great applause.) It is this that now causes the tears to flow down my cheeks.

“Our forefathers said that every man should have the right to bear arms. (Cheers.) Why should we carry arms? So that if in any way a gang of criminals and cut-throats should arise and obtain possession of our government and try to take away their rights and oppress the mass of working people we might rise and crush them. (Tremendous applause and cheers.) If these men had been dressed in the garb of a Powderly they never would have been within the shadow of the gallows. (Cheers and hisses.)

“You never will achieve your rights by the ballot. Since this crime has been committed on American labor it shows that the ballot has no power. (Cheers.) If these working people allow themselves to be outraged those outrages will become more and more frequent. If you can not get the rights the Constitution gives you, then arm and defend your selves. (Cries of “Good” and cheers.) I say to you, commemorate the memory of our brothers by making this a black Friday. If Christianity can afford to commemorate the death of Him they call Christ for nearly 2,000 years, by keeping a black Friday, why should not we have a black Friday in commemoration of the death of these five Christs? (Tremendous and prolonged applause.)”

A telegram of sympathy was drawn up and ordered sent to Mrs. Lucy Parsons, saying that the meeting sent sympathy for the martyrs and would stand by their families to the end. A large amount of money was dropped in a box on a table near the door as the audience passed out.

NEW YORK.

Workmen’s Societies and the S.L.P. Honor the Memory of Martyrs.

At a meeting of the benefit society, “Werra,” Nov. 11, the president, Mr. Ebel, delivered an address upon the crime enacted that day, and feelingly eulogized the victims. The society closed its meeting by singing the funeral hymn, “Peace.”

The Twenty-first Ward League of the Labor Party attested their sympathy by rising with uncovered heads, in honor of the heroes.

At the various branch meetings of the Socialistic Labor Party Sunday evening similar honors were rendered and eulogies spoken. At the American section’s meeting Miss Anna Johnson spoke in memory of the brave men. Several other speakers followed, acknowledging the service rendered the labor movement by the murdered agitators. The Progressive-International Cigarmakers’ Union (packers) adopted appropriate resolutions last Wednesday evening, condemning the act of judicial murder and vowing to do their part to prevent the repetition of such acts.

Many other labor organizations have done likewise.

PROVIDENCE, R.I.

The Organized Workmen Condemn the Murder.

The judicial committee of the Rhode Island Central Labor Union called an indignation meeting last. Sunday in view of the Chicago crime. When the people came to the hall that was engaged, the proprietor told them a mistake had been made, the “State of Rhode Island” had hired the hall for the Emmet Guards. This poor police trick failed, however, for the members of the Mason’s Union immediately offered their hall, but a few steps away, and directly after the doors were opened the place was crowded to its fullest capacity, and hundreds were unable to get in. Harry C. Vrooman, editor of The People, Mrs. Ellen Bowles, and Holmes Merden were the speakers, and their words found ready response with the audience. Colporter Brand was on hand with an armful of copies of the “Speeches of the Condemned” and sold every one of them.

The Providence People of last Saturday was issued in mourning with inverted rules.

NEWARK, N.J.

A Preacher Scoriates the Courts and Prophecies Trouble.

Rev. Hugh O. Pentecost, being a man, evidently, of broader views than others of his associates preached to his congregation in Newark, N.J., upon the subject: “What Does it Signify?” In the course of his remarks he said it was not proven that either of the “anarchists” threw the bomb, nor was it proved that they had any connection with the person who did throw it.

“Our law courts,” said he, “favors the rich and oppress the poor. Our legislators are owned by the rich and our executive officers enforce only such laws [words missing]. The real anarchists in the community are the monopolists, the political bosses and the unfaithful officials. These are the men who rob the people and clamor for the death of the poor, friendless anarchist, because, driven through desperation, he fires a bomb into the ranks of his robbers and oppressors. Justice and equity are not to be found under the present social system. The pure religion of Jesus Christ is not to be found in the church which is a part of that system. Think of these things in order to stave off a bloody encounter which you and your children surely will see unless equity speedily asserts itself.”

The church was crowded with hundreds besides members of the congregation.

HARTFORD, CONN.

Rev. John C. Kimball preached a notable sermon last Sunday which has aroused the fiercest denunciation of the capitalist press. He emphatically protested against the murder of the “anarchists.” His sermon was highly philosophical. He claimed they were not guilty of murder, and spoke of Christ as a breaker of the law.

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