Workingmen, to Arms:

Transcription

1 Workingmen, to Arms: The Haymarket Affair Hunter Flory Junior Division Individual Paper 2,434 Words 1

2 Working in a factory in the mid 1800s was one of the most difficult jobs that there was to offer hours of bland, tough, sweat-inducing work in a crowded building with other unfortunate people. Working 6 days a week meant working for a total of hours a week. The salaries were tough as well, with a total of $1.50 earned every day. Doing repetitive, unrewarding, exhausting work would be reason for hostile behavior and unhappiness. And that s just the beginning of industrialization in Chicago and factory work. A life-threatening riot and exchange at a public space in Chicago may be the reason behind some of our labor laws, and labor law changes across the world. Chicago was slowly becoming more of an industrial area, with demand for products and more and more people coming to look for work. This created a gap between business owners and business workers. The workers were earning business owners lots of money, and the workers were receiving not a lot in return. Workers hated standard business owners because of the unfairness they felt, knowing that the job they hated may be the best they'd get. Many workers wanted more fair work hours, cut from 10-hour work days to 8-hour work days. With that, the 8-Hour Movement began. The movement was led by soon to be well-known activists such as August Spies and Albert Parsons. That started with the exchange between workers and business owners, ideas against ideas, what the workers wanted and what was wanted from the workers working for business owners. The 8-Hour Movement was well-known around industrial cities, and wherever it took place, it had the same goal of a shortened work day. Unions were a big part of these protests; a group of workers would all strike as a whole to get what they wanted, such as higher pay or shorter hours. The thing about these unions is they worked so well. A business owner would either have to give the union strikers what they 2

3 wanted or lose money each day. Along with union protests and strikes, public protests around the city of Chicago were popping up and were aimed to be peaceful and were quite popular too. Speeches were a common way of protest and effective, sharing thoughts on the laws and the movement, gaining supporters day by day. Songs were another way of protest. A somewhat well-known song that came from the protests is The Eight Hour Day! Marches started around the city, with protesters shouting sayings like, 8 hours for work, 8 hours for sleep, 8 hours for what we want! On May 1 st, 1886, a march with 80,000 workers and supporters walked down Michigan Avenue with banners held up in pride. Union members took up a large chunk of the supporters in this march. This march was the largest demonstration of protest for the 8-Hour Movement (Adelman). On May 3 rd, 1886, union workers of the McCormick Reaper Plant went on strike, wanting an 8-hour work day. August Spies, a famous figure in the 8-Hour Movement, was among these men, supporting their actions. They had done a strike like this a year before with the same demand, gaining respect around the city. This time it was different. Strikebreakers, protected by a police force, entered the plant. The strikebreaker s purpose was to take the place of the striking workers and keep the business running. Strikebreakers were a main threat of union striking, completely ruining the strike by just filling in for workers that had left. It worked but was difficult, seeing that the union workers would harass them. On May 3 rd, two workers came and confronted some of the strikebreakers. With aggression in the air, Spies pleaded for everyone to settle, but it was too late. Police fired at the crowd, killing two workers. An angry Spies then scheduled a meeting at the Haymarket Square for May 4 th, 1886 to discuss the event at the McCormick Plant with other activists. 3

4 The police saw the poster talking about the meeting, titled "Revenge!" and "Workingmen, to Arms!" Even after a name change from "Workingmen Arm Yourself in Full Force!" to new its name, it still held an aggressive attitude. The police said this was a threat of possible violence, and scheduled a visit to the meeting. May 4 th arrived, and 3,000 people out of an expected 20,000 showed up (Adelman). Albert Parsons, another known activist with the 8-Hour Movement, and Spies were attending to say some speeches. As speeches were shared one after another, police were nearby, watching to break any violence, along with Mayor Carter Harrison, Sr. The newspaper later said that Parson's words grew (Coutesy of Wikimedia) wilder and aggressive as his speech went on. At about 10:30 P.M. the police came by to stop the meeting from progressing any further. Fielden, another activist in the movement, argued that the meeting was peaceful and there was no reason to leave the square. As soon as the police repeated themselves and marched towards the meeting, a homemade bomb was thrown at the police. This would start the exchange between activists and police officers for the year. The initial blast killed 1 man and fatally injured 6. Right after the blast, the police fired round after round at the protesters while blinded by smoke and thrown into chaos. Some of the protesters ran into nearby alleyways, gathering other protesters as they did as a way to escape. 70 protesters and 60 police officers were injured or dead after the meeting, mostly injured. 4

5 With the meeting turning into a riot, the encounter at the square was making the front page of newspapers. August Spies, along with other people organizing the meeting, was arrested. Somebody tipped the police off, saying the bomb thrower was a man from North Chicago named Louis Lingg. When the police arrived at his home, it seemed as if Lingg had a last-minute run, but left plenty of evidence behind. His room was filled with crudely made bombs, like the one at Haymarket, and cartridges. Two days after the initial search and lots of exploration, police found Lingg on the opposite side of Chicago. When they attempted to detain him, a quick exchange began when he pulled out a.44 revolver, put it to a police officer's chest and was milliseconds away from shooting him. He was disarmed and seized. Louis Lingg, who used to be a simple foreign citizen, was arrested on May 14 th. Afterward, friends and family of Lingg were asked about him, but they wouldn't cooperate with police. (Is it the Thrower?). After the riot, Haymarket Square was off limits and a large anti-union vibe hung over Chicago, with average citizens supporting the police over the activists. The police were funded by the public to stop protests. Strikebreaking was occurring more often. Most union members were breaking their ties with the union and going on with their normal lives. There were still some union members continuing with their protests, but they were rarely seen and usually harassed and stopped by strikebreakers and police. Union supporters who were at the square on the 4 th had their homes entered and were all rounded up to get tried. The police thought that the activists planned the bombing at Haymarket Square, but they had little evidence to prove it. August Spies ended up getting arrested, along with his brother and an editor that worked with Spies. When searching the living space of Spies, the police found the "Revenge Poster" and other evidence for the prosecution. The poster was used as evidence because of the 5

6 aggressive words directed at the law. Some were arrested and later let go, the police trying their best to find anyone behind the bombing at Haymarket Square (Adelman). Many were arrested because of the riot. One man, Rudolf Schnaubelt, was arrested and later let go because of lack of information. With today's knowledge, Schnaubelt seems to be the most likely man behind the bombing. 8 people were tried for the crime at Haymarket Square, but only 2 of them were present when the bomb went off. Those who went on trial were Albert Parsons, August Spies, Louis Lingg, Samuel Fielden, Michael Schwab, George Engel, Adolph Fischer and Oscar Neebe. The trial of August Spies et al. vs. Illinois started on June 21 st, 1886, and went until August 11 th. The trial was a way for people to have an exchange with the defendants. There was a large bias set against the defendants with a majority of the jury not liking them, along with a lot of the public. The judge consistently ruled for the prosecution, showing much bias in the courtroom as it was. After 3 weeks of looking for a jury, 12 were seated for the duty, and a lot of them openly stated that they disliked the defense after the trial. When the defense would object and prove prejudice in the jury, the judge would refuse to dismiss the jury. This made the defense team feel defeated and exhausted. Even the bailiff was prejudiced, getting jurors that most likely did not like the defendants (Haymarket Affair). The jury heard testimonies from 118 by the end of the trial. Eventually the 8 men were found guilty and heard their sentences. Neebe received a sentence of 15 years in prison, and the rest were sentenced to death. The sentencing outraged many supporters of the labor movement because of the unfairness of the trial. While in jail, Louis Lingg committed suicide in his cell by putting a blast cap in his mouth and setting it off. Newspapers would call the defendants all sorts of names, 6

7 such as "red ruffians", "bloody monsters" and "arch counselors of riot, pillage, incendiarism and murder," all quite rude names to say (Haymarket Affair). The governor changed Fielden and Schwab's sentences to life in prison a day before the hanging of the defendants because of the injustice in the court case. The next day, on Nov. 11 th, Parsons, Spies, Fischer and Engel were all publicly hung in white robes and hoods. Family members and friends came to see people beloved in their lives get hung. Lucy Parsons, who is the sister of Albert Parsons, showed up and got searched for bombs upon arrival. None were found on Lucy. The 4 men left from this crime were then hung, but according to an eyewitness report, were strangled slowly by the ropes instead of dying instantly, as many watched (Haymarket Affair). Everyone in the crowd that day went home shaken, whether they were for or against the hanging of these men. After the trial and executions were finished, 1887 was the first year of the celebration of May 4 th, or May Day. The date for May Day was later changed to May 1 st on The activists were treated with sympathy and people mourned their deaths, saying that the event as a whole was tragic, not blaming the activists. The first international celebration of May Day was a hit. In 1890, the front page of a New York newspaper was dedicated to promoting the event. Commemoration for the event was then common a year later. It was later treated as more of a remembrance for innocent workers that ended up getting involved and harmed because of the exchange at Haymarket Square. There were other strikes around the time of the Haymarket Affair that contributed to the goal of the 8-Hour Movement. All of the strikes had similar goals and encounters as the Haymarket Affair. 7

8 The Great Railroad Strike in July 1877 was the result of a wage cut for 3 rd time. Railroad workers in West Virginia then walked off their jobs and went straight to the tracks and blocked them off. More and more workers joined in and had a collective number of 80,000 workers striking. This strike harmed two-thirds of the country's railroad system and caused $10,000,000 dollars of destruction. This event took the lives of more than 100 people. The Homestead Strike of 1892 was a strike set in play by a union of workers who made steel and tin. It started all because of the union the workers had. The striking caused the manager to threaten the workers with a wage cut of 20%. With that, the striking strengthened and caused the manager to lock the workers out and hire an agency to get new workers. The Pullman Strike in 1893 started because of immense of wage cuts and workers being laid off. Workers of the Pullman Car Company then started a strike, along with members of the American Railroad Union. The strike and the union fell apart once the Supreme Court ruled to stop the strikes and boycotts. All of these other strikes fueled the fire to the goal of many labor workers at the time, shorter hours and better wages. The striking and violence showed how strongly everyone felt about their hours and the amount of work they put forward, and what they received in return. May 4 th was a setback for the labor movement, drawing negative thoughts to the movement, but it finally prevailed in The incident brought attention to the movement; years after the court case it had many more supporters. Workdays finally didn t have to be any more than 8 hours. This started a sway of labor movements worldwide for an 8-hour work day. The 8-hour work day then spread through Europe 8

9 and was achieved throughout Europe. All of North America, including Puerto Rico, got their 8-hour work days within the years of New Zealand got an 8-hour work day in the 1990s, but has had a work week of hours since There is still a demand for rights related to work, such as the current movement for a minimum wage raise to $15. This shows that there is still a want for the right wages for the right jobs. Some disagree, others agree. The people that disagree state that there are jobs which require much more skill and intellect that receive $15 an hour. The people that agree state that some of the more unfortunate people need this raise to support their families and pay bills. States all over the country are getting wage raises but it's not national. Workers unions were a large factor in the 8-Hour Movement s protest. Without their efforts in protest, we may have had the same working schedule and salary today as a 1800s immigrant worker. This has shown success within the striking and rioting at the time of the Haymarket Affair and makes it all worth it. 9

10 Primary Sources The Evidence for the Defense. Chicago Tribune 3 Aug. 1886: 4. Proquest Historical Newspapers. Web. 19 Nov This source helped me understand what the trial was like and what the public knew about it. The Haymarket Monument Fund. Chicago Tribune 9 Oct. 1887: 10. Proquest. Web. 19 Nov I used this source just to see if anyone was will to pay substantial amounts for this monument in commemoration of this event. The most I saw was $ A Hellish Deed. The Haymarket Riot and Trial; Selected Newspaper Articles. Chicago Tribune 5 May 1886: Web. 11 Nov < I used this source for a number of things. Firstly it had a witness report that I wanted to look at from a bystander's POV. Second I got a few a POVs of some people involved and what they thought on the event as a whole. Is it the Bomb Thrower? Chicago Tribune 15 May 1886: 1. Proquest Historical Newspapers. Web. 19 Nov I used this source to find out more on the alleged bomb thrower Louis Lingg and what he has done against allegations and to see if he seemed guilty or not guilty. Legal Responsibilities of Inciters. Chicago Tribune 19 Sep. 1887: 4. Proquest Historical Newspapers. Web. 20 Nov I used this source as and see what the press was saying on the trail. They seemed somewhat biased so I stayed away from using their thoughts. 10

11 Pleading for the Anarchists. Chicago Tribune 13 Aug. 1886: 4. Proquest Historical Newspapers. Web. 19 Nov I used this source to see what the supporters of the defendants want, what they think and what they re doing about the trial. Potter, John. Spies and Fielden Arrest. The Argus [Rock Island] 6 May 1886: Library of Congress Newspapers. Web. 18 Nov I used this source to help me out on what the police did to round all the anarchists up to be put on trial. Potter, John. Bloody Work. The Argus [Rock Island] 5 May 1886: Library of Congress Newspapers. Web. 18 Nov I used this source for more eyewitness reports and what a lesser known newspaper would say about Haymarket Square. Secondary Sources Adelman, William. The Haymarket Affair. Illinois Labor History Society. Illinois Labor History Society, Web. 5 Nov < I used this source for common known knowledge and to start off my research. It was helpful because the many directions it set me to find out more on thinks like The Knights of Labor. 11

12 August Spies. Wikipedia. Wikimedia, 4 May Web. 2 Dec < I used this source for information on August Spies involvement with the 8 hour movement. Eight-Hour Day. Wikipedia. Wikimedia, 11 Dec Web. 18 Dec < I used this source to see the effects of the 8-Hour Movement across the world. The source also told me who was involved in the 8-Hour Movement. Gates, Rayeanne. "Riots/Unions." Unions in the Late 1800's. Weebly, n.d. Web. 13 Feb < This source was great to find out about other strikes and riots and to find out a bit about the events too. Hamrick, Amanda. The Haymarket Riot: Impending to the Labor Movement. The History Rat. N.p. 19 July Web. 11 Nov < I used this source to find out more on the 8 hour movement but used it as somewhat of an example on a project for this topic. Haymarket Affair. Wikipedia. Wikimedia, 30 Nov Web. 9 Dec < I used Wikipedia as an outline of what to include and to use as a reference of what I thought would be good to add what where. This source also led to me needing to get more sources. 12

13 Johnson, Ray. List of Chicago Police Officers Killed and Injured at Haymarket Affair. Chicago Now. Chicago Tribune, 4 May Web. 11 Nov < I used this source as an Injury report. It was very different from the other ones I saw so I didn t use it for much. Knights of Labor. Wikipedia. Wikimedia, 19 Nov Web. 2 Dec < I used this source to find out any other involvements that the K.O.L. did with the 8- Hour Movement and general knowledge. 10 Feb Haymarket Affair. Web. 15 Feb < air_map_chicago_tribune_may_5,_1886.jpg/150px- Haymarket_Affair_map_Chicago_Tribune_may_5,_1886.jpg>. I used this image to give readers an idea of where the area of the square was and how the riot went down. Thale, Christopher. Haymarket and May Day. Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago Historical Society, N.d. Web. 7 Jan < I used this source for information on May Day, its celebration and other effects from the new holiday. 13