nded upon the Haymarket Square. Mumbling orders for the crowd to
disperse, they fell upon the assembled men and women with clubs and guns.
At that moment, someone--to this day unknown--threw a bomb into the midst
of the meeting, killing one policeman outright and wounding scores of
people.
These are the facts of the Haymarket meeting and the events which lead up
to it. What the press made of it was the prelude to one of the rawest
frame-up trials in American history.
All the leading radicals in the city were rounded up and arrested. Many
more were indicted in their absence and heavy rewards were posted for
their capture. Among these was Albert Parsons, who had left before the end
of the meeting, and had fled to a safe hiding place when the man-hunt
began. The newspapers from coast to coast, our worthy _New York Times_ not
excepted, howled for their blood, raved about an Anarchist plot to blow up
Chicago, seize the government, murder, arson, pillage, rape--the whole
program which William Randolph Hearst has made only too familiar to the
American public.
On June 21, 1886, the trial began. Eight men were singled out as
victims--August Spies, Albert Parsons, George Engel, Adolph Fischer, Louis
Lingg, Samuel Fielden, Michael Schwab and Oscar Neebe. Efforts to postpone
it until the hysteria had died down failed. The men who came forward to
defend the Haymarket victims were conservative lawyers headed by one,
Captain Black. Convinced of their innocence and enraged by the efforts to
railroad them to the gallows, they did their best to provide adequate
defense. But they had illusions about the justice available in the
American courts. They planned, for instance, to have Parsons walk into the
courtroom and surrender himself, asking for a fair trial! This they were
sure would make a "good impression" on the judge and jury!
The judge, Judge Gary, gave one of the most shameful performances that
this country has ever seen, and it has seen plenty from its judges. He
helped choose the jury---to make sure it would convict. He questioned men
who stated they had already formed an opinion about the case, had definite
prejudices against Anarchists, Socialists and all radicals, were not
certain they could render an impartial verdict--and ruled that they were
not disqualified! He said from the bench that "_Anarchists, Socialists and
Communists were as pernicious and unjustifiable as horse thieves_," and,
finally, in charging the jury
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