by Ann Williams
Haymarket Square Riot
Our verdict this morning cheers the hearts of tyrants throughout the world, and the result will be celebrated by King Capital in its drunken feast of flowing wine from Chicago to St Petersburg. Nevertheless, our doom to death is the handwriting on the wall, foretelling the downfall of hate, malice, hypocrisy, judicial murder, oppression and the domination of man over his fellowman. The oppressed of earth are writhing in their legal chains. The giant Labor is awakening. The masses, aroused from their stupor, will snap their petty chains like reeds in the whirlwind.
Haymarket Martyr Albert Parsons’ last words to his wife
The Haymarket Square Riot, which took place in Chicago, Illinois, on May 4, 1886, is the inception of the international May Day observances. Although the causes of the riot are still not fully known, it is believed that it was the division between the business and working classes in the late 19th century that probably brought about the disaster.
Prosperity was starting to return to the city of Chicago following the years after the Great Fire, but many activitists were annoyed that the wealth was staying in the hands of the privileged few. Companies such as the McCormick Reaper Works experienced constant unrest among their workers over their working conditions, the paltry amount of pay and the long hours they were required to work. There was no doubt, especially in the slaughterhouses, that men were working six days a week, 10–12 hours a day, for very little remuneration. In 1886 strikes and protests had become commonplace, and bad feeling had been brewing since the end of the Civil War. Trade Unions began to form to protect the rights of the worker, and many of the organizers were blatant socialists, which helped spark the event that was to change the face of the labour movement forever.
Violence erupted on May 3, 1886, during a meeting of strikers at the McCormick Reaper Works, and as a result anarchists turned Chicago into a city just waiting to boil over. On the evening of May 4, a meeting was called to protest against the action the police had taken against striking employees at the McCormick factory the day before. In the ensuing scuffles the police had killed one man and injured many others. The workers had been striking in an effort to reduce their working day to eight hours.
They expected around 20,000 to turn up for the meeting, but the rain had kept many of them indoors. In truth only around 2,500 rather tired spectators showed up to listen to speeches from Albert Parsons, Samuel Fielden and August Spies, all three of whom were considered to be dangerous anarchists by the city authorities. Despite this, Mayor Carter Henry Harrison issued a permit to allow the meeting to take place, believing that there would be no real reason for concern. Others in authority were not so sure, and in response to local businessmen 600 police officers were put on duty that night in West Chicago. Police Inspector John Bonfield told his men to be prepared for a riot. Believing that the trouble might be citywide, he arranged for a further 100 police officers to be on hand should they be required.
The rally began at Haymarket Square at around 8.30 p.m. The crowd were fairly subdued, partly due to the wet weather, and when Mayor Harrison rode his horse through the crowds, he was satisfied that it was going to be a peaceful gathering. He told Inspector Bonfield to send his reserve officers home. However, Bonfield wasn’t convinced that there wouldn’t be trouble and ignored the Mayor’s request.
The rally was starting to draw to a close at around 10 o’clock, and Inspector Bonfield, accompanied by 176 policemen, went in rather heavy-handedly, demanding immediate dispersal of the remaining
200 workers. Without warning, a crude hand-made bomb was thrown into the police column from a foyer in Des Plaines Street. Officer Mathias Degan was killed in the blast and six other officers were seriously wounded. The police, who were initially stunned, quickly responded by firing wildly into the fleeing crowd of workers. This random firing continued for up to five minutes and in the ensuing chaos six officers were killed and at least 60 others injured. Medical evidence later showed that most of the injuries received by the police were caused by their own bullets.
Following the days of the riot, despite the Mayor’s pleading for calm, Bonfield and Police Inspector Michael Schaak decided to take the matter into their own hands. They were determined to find the person or persons responsible for the throwing of the bomb, or who had made the bomb in the first place. The police started a reign of terror among the working class citizens of Chicago. Hundreds of well-known anarchists and socialists were rounded up, beaten and interrogated at all hours of the night. They were so determined to get their man that they forced false confessions by using violence. Of course, by this time, whoever the real bomber was, had probably faded away into the distance anyway. Out of all the men the police arrested, 31 were named in criminal indictments and eight were held for trial.
Out of the eight that were charged with causing the riot, seven of them received the death sentence, with the eighth being sentenced to 15 years in prison. They were all sentenced on conspiracy charges to incite violence that led to the subsequent deaths of the police officers. The sentencing sparked more outrage in labour circles and resulted in protests around the world, making the defendants into international political heroes. The eight men appealed to the state supreme court, but their appeal got them nowhere.
One of the men, Louis Lingg, tried to kill himself by blowing himself up, and mortally wounded he died soon after. Four of the men charged, August Spies, Albert Parsons, George Engel and Adolph Fischer, were hanged on November 11, 1997. Two of the men had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment and one remained in prison even though there was no firm case against him.
In 1893 Judge Altgeld was chosen as the Democratic candidate for the office of governor in the state of Illinois. Unlike his predecesor, Altgeld looked at the defendants’ appeals claiming that they had not received a fair trial, and they were subsequently pardoned. Judge Altged was criticized by the media, calling him an ‘anarchist’ for pardoning the three labour union activists, an act which made him very unpopular and one which risked his political career. John Peter Altgeld simply said he was doing what he thought was right, and that he fought for the underdog, won, and paid the price of what sometimes comes with justice. He was criticized and hated by many for what he did.
On May 4, 1889, the city of Chicago erected a monument of a police officer in Haymarket Square. For many years the police were seen as the victims of the riot, but with the formation of the labour unions opinions started to change. The statue was defaced in the 1960s, blown up twice, repaired, and finally it was moved to the Chicago Police Training Academy.
A second monument was erected in German Waldheim Cemetery, Illinois, and it depicts Justice preparing to draw a sword while placing a laurel wreath on the brow of a fallen worker. At the base of the statue are the final words of August Spies just before his execution:
The day will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you are throttling today.
On the other hand, the inscription below the monument of the police officer reads:
In the name of the people I command peace.
But somehow peace has not been very forthcoming since its dedication in 1889.
Part Three: 1900–1969
The Los Angeles Times Bombing
‘Sons of Duty,’ they were defenders of Industrial Freedom under Law. When they died they were exercising their inalienable and constitutional rights as American citizens, empowered to labour freely, without menace and without fear, in the performance of their duty to themselves, their families, their journal and their kind.
Inscription on the monument to the victims of ‘the crime of the century’
The Los Angeles Times (also known as the LA Times) is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, and is the second largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States. The paper was first published on December 4, 1881, under the name Los Angeles Daily Times, but the company was soon experiencing major financial difficulties.
Its saviou
r was Colonel Harrison Gray Otis, a former Union Army lieutenant. As soon as he heard that the newest Los Angeles newspaper was for sale, he headed for the city. He managed to scrape together $6,000 and bought a quarter interest in 1882, and the Mirror Company, who printed the paper, gave him the job as Editor. In October 1882, Otis and his family moved from Santa Barbara in California and established a home in Los Angeles, and for a weekly salary of $15, Otis wrote the editorials and much of the local news. His wife Eliza contributed columns about women, morals and religion.
Otis soon turned the newspaper’s fortunes around and made it a financial success. In 1884 he bought out the remaining three-quarters of the newspaper, and also the printing company, and formed the Times-Mirror Company.
Otis was a powerful man who hated unions, and he was a staunch Republican. This was often reflected in the paper’s contents, both in the news and editorial pages, and because of his views he made many enemies along the way.
RETRIBUTION
On October 1, 1910, a bomb exploded by the side of the Los Angeles Times building. The force of the blast weakened the second floor of the three-storey building, which caused it to collapse on top of the office workers below. Fire quickly spread throughout the building, and by the time the fire services managed to get the flames under control, 21 of the newspaper’s workers had been killed and many more seriously wounded. One of the survivors said, ‘Frames and timbers flew in all directions. The force of the thing was indescribable’. Many of the employees had tried to escape the flames by jumping out of the windows without any safety nets to catch them. At the end of the day all that was left of the Los Angeles Times building was a pile of smouldering debris.
Another bomb exploded, this time at the home of Harrison Gray Otis. A third bomb was found at the home of the secretary of the Merchants and Manufacturers Association, but the experts managed to diffuse the third bomb before it caused any damage.
The police were sure that the bombings were the work of one specific group, and Otis himself blamed organized labour and dubbed it ‘The Crime of the Century’. Organized labour retaliated by blaming Otis, asking, ‘Are his own hands clean?’ The President of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) denied any participation by their union in the tragedy, arguing that urban terrorism would actually do labour’s cause more harm than good.
William J. Burns, a famous detective, was hired to make a full investigation. Going on a hunch, Burns was led to the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers (BSIW), which was located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Suspecting the union’s secretary, John J. McNamara, Burns set up a trap in a Detroit hotel on April 12, 1912. His ploy worked and he arrested McNamara, his brother James, and another accomplice by the name of Ortie McManigal. In a suitcase owned by McManigal, Burns had discovered guns and six lock mechanisms, which were similar to the type used in the Los Angeles bombing. McManigal became the key witness and Burns succeeded in personally turning him against the McNamara brothers. Burns had McManigal secretly transported to Chicago, where he confessed that he had been hired by John McNamara to plant dynamite at dozens of anti-union work sites around the country, and that the Times bombing was the work of John’s brother, James. The brothers were subsequently arrested and charged with murdering the 21 workers at the Los Angeles Times.
This sparked off an outrage as many people believed that it was just another attempt at damaging the reputation of the trade union movement, which was starting to gain strength. Clarence Darrow, an eminent American lawyer, was asked to defend the McNamara brothers. Darrow had defended several trade union leaders arrested during industrial disputes, and he had also become involved in the campaign against child labour and capital punishment. In 1906–07 Darrow successfully defended William D. Haywood, leader of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), when he was charged with murdering Frank R. Steunenberg, the former governor of Idaho. Despite his reputation for winning his cases, Darrow was reluctant to take the case because he felt the prosecution’s case against the brothers was too strong. Although many of the trade unionists believed that the brothers had been framed, Darrow discovered that the police did have a considerable amount of evidence that they could use against the two men. Darrow felt sure that the brothers would be found guilty and executed and for this reason he convinced the brothers to change their plea to guilty. After much discussion the McNamara brothers agreed to admit their guilt in exchange for a prison sentence.
Their guilty pleas were entered before the selection of the jury selection was complete. John, the older brother, was sentenced to 15 years in prison, while James, who had actually planted the bomb, was sentenced to life. Some of the brothers’ supporters in the trade unions claimed to be shocked by their confessions and were vastly disappointed that Darrow had not performed with his usual enthusiasm, although he did, in fact, save the men from execution, which was his prime concern.
REPERCUSSIONS
The McNamara case lead to heavy losses and declines in membership for all Los Angeles unions. Labour union efforts to turn Los Angeles into a union town in the early part of the 20th century failed miserably. The AFL was seriously hurt by the public backlash and received strong criticism for supporting the McNamara brothers. The public felt justified in their criticism for not only had the brothers taken 21 lives when they blew up the Times building, but they had also been instrumental in destroying the labour movement in Los Angeles.
As for the newspaper itself, Otis Chandler remained with the Los Angeles Times until 1980. In 2000 the Times-Mirror Company was purchased by the Tribune Company of Chicago, Illinois, ending one of the last examples of a family-controlled metropolitan daily newspaper in the United States. John Carroll, former editor of the Baltimore Sun, was brought in to modernize the appearance of the publication, and today it is the nation’s fourth-largest newspaper, with an average weekday circulation of approximately 850,000.
Assassination Of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
What is the good of your speeches? I come to Sarajevo on a visit, and I get bombs thrown at me. It is outrageous.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophie on June 28, 1914, started a series of diplomatic events that were instrumental in provoking World War I.
Franz Ferdinand, the eldest son of Carl Ludwig, was born in 1863. He had a difficult childhood that was plagued with illness, and his family never really expected him to survive into adulthood. However, Ferdinand was much stronger than his family had anticipated, and by his 13th birthday, his ill health was just a distant memory. He joined the Austro-Hungarian army in 1883 and proved his worth by working his way up from Captain to General in a relatively short period of time.
Ferdinand first met Sophie von Chotkovato in Prague in 1888, and it was here, at a dance, that the couple fell in love. Although Sophie was descended from a noble Bohemian family, she was not considered to be an elligible partner for the future Archduke. Ideally, a suitable marriage partner needed to be a direct descendant of the House of Hapsburg or from one of the ruling dynasties of Europe. However, Ferdinand insisted that he would marry no other woman, and to avoid undermining the stability of the monarchy, Emperor Franz Josef offered him a solution. He told Ferdinand that he would be allowed to marry Sophie as long as it was stipulated that her descendants would not be allowed to succeed to the throne. He was also informed that his wife would not be allowed to accompany him in the royal carriage, or even sit beside him in the royal box.
The wedding went ahead even though the only members of Ferdinand’s family to attend were his stepmother, Maria Theresia, and her two daughters. Despite this rocky start, the marriage was a success and they had three children – Sophie, Maximilian and Ernst.
In 1896 at the age of 51, Franz Ferdinand became heir to the throne following the death of his father. In the years leading up to his reign, Ferdinand’s relations with Kaiser Wilhelm and the other Archdukes was at t
imes hostile. However, the bitterness eventually subsided and Ferdinand started to take a more serious role in the activities of the government. His first major appointment was as Inspector of the Army, which made him realize the Kaiser’s army was in poor shape, thus giving him the chance to reshape it. He promoted naval expansion and modernized the military, and he soon became a popular man with the armed forces. His reputation spread, and Franz Ferdinand was invited to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to make an inspection of the Austro-Hungarian troops there.
THE BLACK HANDS AND THE EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE ASSASSINATION
Both Bosnia and Hertzegovina were provinces just south of Austria, which, up until 1878, had been governed by the Turks. The disposition of land lost by the Turks during their disastrous war with Russia was settled in 1878 with the Treaty of Berlin. Bosnia was now populated primarily by three groups – Croats (Roman Catholics), ethnic Serbs and Muslims. Many of the Bosnian-Serbs had a strong desire to unite their lands with that of their Serb associates across the river, a desire which was shared by many of the people in Serbia. In October 1908, Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina directly into the Austro-Hungarian empire, removing any hopes that Turkey might have of reclaiming their territories. The Serbs were not happy about this takeover, and through this unrest a secret society was formed called the Black Hand (Ujedinjenje ili Smrt) in Belgrade. They undertook the work of an older sect called The People’s Defence (Narodna Odbrana), which included anti-Austrian propaganda within Serbia, sabotage, espionage and political murders. The society included many people of high ranking, including government officials, professional people and army officers.
