The Rise and Fall of Anarchy in America. George N. McLean
already related. He also identified the following circular, by which the meeting was called:
“Attention, working men! Great mass-meeting to-night, at 7 o’clock, Haymarket square, between Desplaines and Halsted. Good speakers will be present to denounce the late atrocious act of the police, the shooting of our fellow working men yesterday afternoon. Working men, arm and appear in full force.”
“The Committee.”
Some of the anarchist’sanarchists indicted for conspiracy turned State’s evidence. Gottfried Waller, a Swiss by nationality, a cabinet-maker by trade, formerly a socialist, and a member of the Lehr and Wehr Verein, testified that the latter organization comprised various armed groups of anarchists; that the letter “Y” in the Arbeiter Zeitung meant for the armed section to meet at Grief’sGreif’s hall; that he acted as chairman of the meeting of seventy or eighty persons, Engel, Fischer and Breitenfeld, the commander of the Lehr and Wehr, being present. The witness testified that Engel unfolded a plan whereby if a collision between the strikers and the police should occur, the word “Ruhe” would appear in the Arbeiter as a signal for the Lehr and Wehr and the Northwest group of anarchists to assemble in Wicker Park with arms. They should then storm the North avenue police station, and proceed thence to other stations, using dynamite and shooting down all who opposed them, and should cut the telegraph wires to prevent communication with the outside world. Engel said the best way to begin would be to throw a dynamite bomb into the police station, and that when the populace saw that the police were overpowered, tumult would spread through the city, and the anarchists would be joined by the working men. This plan, Engel said, had been adopted by the Northwest group. It was decided to appoint a committee to keep watch of affairs in the city and to call a meeting for the next night in the Haymarket. Fischer was directed to get the handbills calling the meeting printed. Those present at the preliminary meeting represented various groups throughout the city. Fischer announced that the word “Ruhe” would mean that a revolution had been started. Engel put the motion, and the plan was adopted. The committee on action was composed of members from each group; the witness knew only one—Kraemer. The members of the armed groups were known by numbers, and witness number was 19.
Spies was questioned in January, 1885, at Grand Rapids, Mich., relative to these secret organizations, when he said that force must bring about the necessary reform which the ballot-box had failed to inaugurate and was incompetent to perform. Shook, of Grand Rapids, also testified that Spies had said that the secret drilled organizations of Chicago for the revolution of society numbered over 3,000, and that none except members of those organizations knew of the modus operandi by which they intended to wage their warfare.
Lieutenant Bowler testified to seeing men in the crowd fire upon the police with revolvers; officers S. C. Bohner and E. J. Hawley saw Fielden fire. In the line of proving up the conspiracy to incite the working men to violence, it was shown by the evidence of James L. Frazer, E. T. Baker, A. S. Leckie, Frank Haraster, Sergeant John Enright and officer L. H. McShane, that Spies and Fielden incited the mob to attack McCormick’s Reaper Works and the non-union employes on May 3. Detective Reuben Slayton testified to having arrested Fischer at the Arbeiter Zeitung office. He had a loaded revolver hid under his coat; a file-grooved dagger and a fulminating cap, used to explode dynamite bombs. Theodore Fricke, former business manager of the Arbeiter, identified the copy of the “Revenge” circular as being in Spies’ handwriting. Lieutenant William Ward testified to having commanded the Haymarket meeting to disperse in the name of the people of Illinois, and that Fielden cried, “We are peaceable,” laying a slight emphasis on the last word.
William Seliger, of 442 Sedgwick street, testified that Louis Lingg boarded with him, and that himself, Lingg, Huebner, Manzenberg and Hewmann worked at making dynamite bombs of a spherical shape. He attended the various meetings. He identified the calls for the armed sections to meet in the Arbeiter Zeitung. BalthasarBalthazar Rau brought the “Revenge” circular to Zephf’s hall. Lingg worked at first on “gas-pipe” bombs; they made forty or fifty bombs the Tuesday before the riot. Lingg said they were to be used that evening; he and Lingg carried a small trunk full of the bombs to Neff’s hall, 58 Clybourne avenue, that evening, where they were divided up among the anarchists; besides the Northwest group the Sachsen Bund met at Neff’s hall; witness, Lingg, Thieben and Gustave Lehmen and two others from the Lehr and Wehr Verein, left Neff’s hall for the Larrabee street police station; Lingg said a disturbance must be made on the North side to prevent the police from going to the West side; Lingg wanted to throw a bomb into the station; the police were outside, and they could not get near; the patrol-wagon came along completely manned, and Lingg wanted to throw a bomb under the wagon; he asked witness for fire from his cigar; witness went into a hallway and lit a match, and before he returned the wagon had passed: they returned to Neff’s hall where he heard a bomb had fallen on the West side, and killed a great many; Hewmann blamed Lingg and said in an angry voice, “You are the cause of it all;” they then went and hid their bombs under sidewalks and in various places, and went home; Lingg first brought dynamite to the house about six weeks before May 1, in a long wooden box; he made a wooden spoon to handle it with in filling the bombs; witness belonged to the Northwest group, and his number was 72, Engel was also a member. [The bombs were here produced and Judge Gary ordered them removed immediately from the court roomcourtroom and from the building.] Seliger’s testimony was unshaken on cross-examination. Mrs. Bertha Seliger corroborated her husband’s testimony, testifying that at one time six or seven men were at work making bombs, and that after the Haymarket Lingg tore up the floor of a closet to secrete those he had on hand.
Lieutenant John D. Shea, Chief of the Detective force, testified to having assisted in the raid on the Arbeiter Zeitung office, May 5. The galley of type from which the “Revenge” circular was printed, copies of Herr Most’s book, and other anarchistic literature, red flags and banners with treasonable devices, and a quantity of dynamite were found. The witness asked Spies if he wrote the “Revenge” circular, and he refused to answer. When he arrested Fischer he asked him where he was on the night of the Haymarket meeting. Fisher said in the Arbeiter ZietungZeitung office with Schwab, and that Rau brought word that Spies was at the Haymarket, that a big crowd was there, and they all went over. He had a belt, a dagger, and a fulminating cap on him when arrested, but he said he carried them for protection. I said: ‘You didn’t need them in the office.’ He said: ‘I intended to go away, but was arrested.’ I also said: ‘There has been found other weapons like this sharpened dagger; how is it you come to carry this?’ He said he put it in his pocket for his own protection.
Detective William Jones testified that he had a locksmith open a closet in Spies office, and in a desk were found two bars of dynamite, a long fuse, a box of fulminating caps, some letters, and copies of both the celebrated circulars. At Fischer’s home he found a lot of cartridges and a blouse of the Lehr und Wehr Verein. Officer Duffy found two thousand copies of the circular calling upon the working men to arm, and the manuscript of the “Revenge” circular in the Arbeiter Zeitung office. Herr Most’s book, “The Science of Revolutionary Warfare,” found in the Arbeiter office, was offered in evidence; also the manual for the manufacture of explosives and poisons.
Bernhard Schrader, a native of Prussia, five years in this country, a carpenter by trade, testified that he was a member of the Lehr und Wehr Verein; was at the meeting at Greif’s hall the night of May 3, and he corroborated Waller’s testimony throughout. Besides those mentioned by Waller, Schrader named Hadermann, Thiel and Danafeldt, as attendants at the meeting. He saw BalthausarBalthazar Rau distributing the “Revenge” circulars at a meeting of the Carpenter’s Union on Desplaines street. Witness was present also at the Sunday meeting on Emma street. It was here agreed to cripple the fire department, in case they were called out, by cutting their hose. Witness went to the meeting at 54 West Lake street in response to the signal “Y” in the Arbeiter Zeitung. He was at the Haymarket, but did not know who threw the bomb. The Northwest group of the Lehr und Wehr were armed with Springfield rifles. Witness’ number in the organization was 3,312.
Lieutenant Edward Steele testified that when the police entered the Haymarket somebody cried out: “Here come the blood-hounds. You do your duty, and we’ll do ours.”
Lieutenant Michael Quinn testified that he heard this exclamation and that the man who made it was Fielden,