Page:The Chicago Martyrs (1899).pdf/126

 118 General Parsons—Yes, the 9th of October.

Mr. Parsons—Yes. It is concerning this workingmen's movement: "The strong probability of Mr. George’s election in New York has also a meaning for the so-called capitalistic class of this community. A brief summary of the inception and progress of the Anarchists' movement, which terminated at the Haymarket on the 4th of May last, will make this clear.

"Following the great railroad strikes of 1877 came the failures of savings banks; the unpunished defalcations of the trustees of the poor, and the enormous immigration, increasing competition for work and bringing with it a large element of the victims of Bismarck and of Bismarck's servility, soured with life and ready for desperate deeds. Under such inauspicious circumstances workingmen's parties were formed and tickets put in the field; some were captured, others disorganized, some fell into the hands of the Socialists, who found time to form a party which elected Frank Stauber to the city council from the fourteenth ward." I was a prominent actor, your honor, in all of this matter that has been related here in the News.

"Stauber was subsequently re-enforced by the election of Alpeter in the sixth ward and another one in the fourteenth and Chris Mayer in the fifteenth, while the Socialistic labor candidates for the fifth and seventh wards were only defeated by a small majority. Alpeter and Stauber and his colleagues refused all overtures from the ring which then as now controlled these politics I hey were proof alike against bribery and intimidation and the party which they faithfully and honorably represented was becoming powerful and troublesome as an opponent to the ring. At the city election following a flagrant violation of the ballot box was perpetrated in the sixth ward by 'Cabbage' Ryan, through which Alpeter was defrauded of a seat, and the offender was sheltered from punishment, his case being dismissed without a hearing in some manner. This was followed the next year by the breaking open of the box in the second precinct of the fourteenth ward and the fraud and perjury by which Stauber was kept out of his seat for twenty three months, fraud and perjury which were condoned by the courts. It was upon the same day and at the same election that Cullerton succeeded by a suspicious majority of not over twenty votes over a Socialist by the name of Bauman, and the council practically denied the contestant an opportunity to present his rights. One оf these frauds was perpetrated in the interest of the Republican party the other in the interest of the Democratic. The record needs no comment, but it is no small wonder that the party was driven from the field, unable to cope with the rascals of both the other parties."

Then he goes on to show that it was such things as this that brought about Anarchy and produced the Haymarket affair; brought that affair about—that is, he is assuming, your honor, that we, the men alleged, the men convicted by the jury, are guilty of that thing which we specifically now and here deny. But even if true, the editor of the News alleges, that there were extenuating circumstances: that there was someone else connected with the moral responsibility, even though we were personally guilty of the offense. Now, on the idea of extenuation, Mayor Harrison, about three weeks ago, was asked: "How do you like the verdict in the Anarchist case?" "Well, I don't care to talk about it. We have punished these people who violated the law, and