I
A
58
' ‘ he Great Anarchist-Trial.
THE .
¢ .HAYMARKET SPEECH -
\
_As IRE-DELIVERED IN THE CooK C0UN71‘Y COURT RooM, '*
CHICAGO, ILL., BEFORE THE HONORABLE JUDGE,
JURY ‘AND SPECTATORS, MONDAY,
1 ' AUG. 9, 1886, BY THE

I
FAMOUS LABOR-‘REFORM ORATOR,
ram— *2
‘ ‘ _-‘=m-—-
ALBERT R. PARSONS.
1886.
CHICAGO LABOR PRESS ASSOCIATION, 76 AND 78 FIETH AVENUE.
Elia—sag 1- a-fimar __ in‘:
> ,- i,»
.
NOTE.
The Chicago Times of August 10 contained the following state-
:ments, among others, in regard to the great trial:
“I The climax in the Anarchist trial was reached yesterday. Schwab, Spies and
Parsons told their respective stories to the jury from the witness-chair, to a spell-bound
audience of spectators, an amazed jury, and a surprised judge. * * * Parsons was
composed and eloquent. * * * His brother, General W. H. Parsons, sat with eyes
‘fixed upon him during the time he was ‘upon the stand. As soon as Mr. August Spies
:retired Mr. Parsons took the stand, and in a quiet, deferential tone answered the ques-
tions put to him in a firm voice, not appearing to be in the least unnerved by his
peculiar position. ‘At length he was asked to give ‘the substance of his Haymarket
speech, and he did so, and if the jury, the court, and the audience have been enter-
Iained since the trial began, they were entertained by the chief agitator of the Chicago
Anarchists. He pulled out of his pocket a bundle of notes, and began at the jury in
‘tones which betokened that the speaker was primed ‘for the finest speech of his life.
Luckily for him the witness-chair was a swinging one. He held his notes in his left
hand, and, together with the swaying of his body, gesticulated with his right arm.
From low, measured tones he went on from eloquence to oratory, and from oratory to
logic, and from logic to argument.”
Rights and Wrongs of Labor.-
CAPTAIN BLACK: " Now, Mr. Parsons, going back to the meeting,
retracing our steps for a moment—will you tell us, please, what was the
substance of your speech that night, as fully as you can remember ? ”
THE SPEECH.

“I have taken some notes of reference since then to refresh my
memory. I recollect distinctly of mentioning all of these points, but I
could not recall them seriatim unless I put them on paper, and that is.-
the reason I have done so. ,
“ When I was introduced I looked at the crowd and observed that
it was ‘quite a large crowd. I am familiar with public speaking anti
with crowds, and I should estimate there were three thousand mem
present, and I consider myself a judge of such matters. The street.
was packed from sidewalk to sidewalk, north and south of the ‘wagon,
but especially south of the wagon, for a considerable distance. I faced.
the south. I first called the attention of those present to the
EVIDENCES OF DISCONTENT AMONG THE WORKING CLASSES,
not alone of Chicago, not alone of the United States, but of the civil-
ized world, and I asked the question, if these evidences of discontent,
as could. be seen in strikes and lockouts and boycotts, were not indica- I
tions that there was something radically wrong in the existing order of
things in our social affairs. I then alluded to the eight-hour move-
ment, and spoke of it as a movement designed to give employment to
the employed, work to the idle, and thereby bring comfort and cheer
to the homes of the destitute and relieving the unrelieved and weari-
some toil of those who worked not alone ten hours, but '
TWELVE, FOURTEEN AND SIXTEEN HOURS A DAY.
I said that the eight-hour movement was in the interests of civilization,
of prosperity, of the public welfare, and that it was demanded by every’
interest in the community, and that I was glad to see them assembled
on that occasion to give their voice in favor of the adoption of the
4 . RIGHTS AND WRONGS OF LABOR.
eight-hour workday. I then referred again to the general condition of
labor throughout the countr . I spoke of some of my travels through
the States of Pennsylvania and Ohio, where I had met and addressed
thousands and‘ thousands of workingmen. I told of the Tuscarora
Valley and of the Hocking Valley and of the Monongahela Valley—
among the miners of this country, where their -
WAGES AVERAGED 24% CENTS :A DAY.
I showed, of course, these were not wages they received while at work,
, but that the difficulty was they did not get the day’s work, and conse-
quently they had to sum up the totals and divide it. Throughout the
year it amounted to 24% cents a day. I asked if this was not a con-
dition of affairs calculated to arouse the discontent of the people, and
to make them clamor for redress and relief. I pointed to the fact that
in the city of Pittsburg a report was made by, I think, the Superin-
tendent of Police of that city, stating that at the Bethel Home, a char-
itable institution in that city, from Jauuary I , 1884, to January 1, 1885,
there were 26,374 destitute men—tramps—American sovereigns—‘who
had applied for a night's lodging and a morsel of food at one establish-
ment alone in the city of Pittsburg. I referred, of course, to many
other places and similar things, showing the general condition of labor
in the country. I then spoke of the eight-hour'movement—that it was
designed to bring relief to these men and to the country. I thought
surely there was nothing in it to excite such hostility on the part of
employers and on the part of monopoly and corporations against it, as
was witnessed in different parts of the country. I referred to the re-
fusal of the corporations and monop'olists to grantand concede this
modest request of the working class, and their attempts to defeat it.
I then referred to the fact that in the face of all these causes producing
these effects, the monopolistic newspapers, in.the interests of corpora-
tions, blamed such men as I—blamed the so-called agitators, blamed
the workingmen—for these evidences of discontent, this turmoil and
I confusion, and so-called disorder. I called the attention of the crowd
specifically to that fact—that we were being blamed for this thing,
when, on the contrary, it was evident to any fair-minded man that we
were simply calling the attention of the people tothis condition of
things and seeking a redress for it. I impressed that upon the crowd
specifically, and I remember that in response to that several gentlemen
RIGHTS AND WRONGS‘ OF LABOR. 5
spoke up loudly and said: ‘ Well, we need a good many just such men
as you to-right.these wrongs and to arouse the people.’ I spoke of the
COMPULSORY IDLENESS AND STARVATION WAGES,
,and how these things drove the workingmen to desperation—drove
them‘to commit acts for which they ought not to be held responsible;
that they were the creatures of circumstances, and that this condition
‘of things ‘was the fault, not of the workingmen, but of those who
claimed the right to control and regulate the rights of the workingmen.
I pointed out the fact that monopoly, in its course in grinding down
labor in this country and in- refusing to concede anything to ,it—‘
refusing to make any concessions whatever—that in persisting in such
course it was , ,
CREATING REVOLUTIONISTS, ‘
and if there was a single revolutionist in America, monopoly andcor-
po'rations were directly responsible for his existence. I specifically
called attention to this fact, in'order to defend myself from thecharges
constantly being made through the mouthpiece of monopoly—the cap-
italistic press. I called attention in this connection to the Chicago
' Times and other newspapers. ‘I called the attention of the working.-
people that night to the strike of 1877, when the Chicago'Tz'mes de-
clared that hand-grenades ought to be thrown among the striking. sail-
ors who were then upon a strike on the river wharvesin this city, in
order to teach them a lesson, and that other strikers might be warned
‘by their fate. I said that the Chicago Times was the'first' dynamiterin
America, and as the mouthpiece of monopoly and corporations it was
the first to advocate the killing of people when they protested against
wrong and oppression. I spoke of another Chicago paper which at
that day advocated that when bread was given to the poor strychnine
should be placed on it. I also called attention to Frank Leslz'e’s Illus-
tratea’ Paper, which declaredv in an edito'riaIQhat the American toiler
must be driven to his task either by the slave-driver’s lash or the im-
mediate prospect of want. ' I spoke of the New York Herald, and its
saying that lead should be given to any tramp who should‘come around»;
Whenever a workingman, thrown out of employment and forced to
wander from place to place in search ‘of work, away from family and
home, asked for a- crust of bread, the New York Herald advised those
to whom-he applied. to fill him‘ with lead instead of bread. I I called‘ at-.
tention‘to_wha't Tom Scott, the railway monopolist, said- during the
6
RIGHTS AND WRONGS OF LABOR.
' strike of 1877, ‘ Give them 'the rifle diet,_and see how they like that
kind of diet.’ I referred to jay Gould, when he said we would shortly
have a monarchy in this country, and to a similar statement in‘the
Imz’z'anapolzk journal. Then I referred to how monopoly was putting
these threats into practice. They not only used these threats, but they‘
put them into practice, and I cited East St. Louis, where Jay Gould
called for men and paid them $5 a day for firing upon harmless, inno-
cent, unarmed workingmen, killing nine of them and one woman in
cold-blooded murder. I referred to the Saginaw valley, where the
militia was used to put down strikes. I referred to Lemont, 111., where
defenceless and innocent citizens and theirtown were invaded by the
militia of the ‘state of Illinois, and without any pretext men, women,
and children were fired upon and slaughtered in cold blood. I referred.
to the McCormick strike on .the previous day, and denounced the
action 'of the police on that occasion as an outrage. I asked the
workingmen if these were not ‘facts, andiif monopolies and corpora-
tions were not responsible for them, and were they not driving the
people into this condition of , things. And then I used some words or
some phrase in connection with the use of'the military and the police
and the Pinkerton thugs to ‘shoot down workingmen, to drive them
back into submission and starvation wages. I then referred to a
Chicagonpaper of the day before, to which my attention had been
I . . .
called on Tuesday afternoon. In an editorial 1t asserted that Parsons
and Spies incited trouble at McCormick’s, and ought to be lynched
and driven out of the city. ‘I was away at Cincinnati at the time. I
called attention 'to_ the fact that ‘the newspapers were wickedly exciting
the people against the workingmen. I denied the newspaper charge
that we were sneaks and cowards, and defied them to run us out of the
city.‘ I pointed to the fact that the
Q CAPITALISTIC . PRESS‘
were the subsidized agents and organs of monopoly, and that they
0
held stocks and bonds in corporations and railroads, and that no man '_
could be elected an alderman of this city unless he had the sanction
of some one of the corporations and monopolies of this city. Then
I said, ‘I am not here, fellow-workmen, for the purpose of inciting
anybody, but to tell the truth, .and to state the facts as they actually
exist, ‘though it should cost- me my life in doing it. I then referred to
the Cincinnati ‘demonstration, at which'I was present the Sunday pre- '
RIGHTS AND WRONGS'OF LABOR. ‘7
- held upon farms west of the Alleghanies.
vious. I said that the organiz'ations'of workingme'n in that city—the
trades unions-and other organizations—had a grand street parade and
picnic. They sent for me to go down there and address them. It was
an eight-hour demonstration. I attended on that occasion and spoke
to them. I referred to. the fact that they turned out in thousands and
that they marched with Winchester rifles, two or three companies of
them. I supposed there were about two hundred men at the head of
the column, the Cincinnati Rifle Union. I said that at the head of the
procession they bore the red flag—
THE RED- FLAG OF LIBERTY, FRATERNITY, EQUALITY AND LABOR,
all over ‘the world—the red flag, the emancipator of labor. I pointed
out that every other ‘flag repudiated the workingman, outlawed the
workingman, and that he had no shield and no flag but the red one. I
then referred to our country, and to men saying this was a movement
' of foreigners, and so on. I pointed out the fact that the desire for right
and the thirst for liberty and for justice was not a foreign affair at all;
it was one which concerned Americans as well as foreigners, and that-
patriotism was a humbug in this connection; that it was used to separ-
ate, the people, to divide them, and to antagonize them against each
other; that the Irish were separated and their national feeling was kept
alive as against an ‘Englishmantin order that the exploiters and depre-I
dators upon them might more easily make them victims and use them
as their tools. I referred in that connection to land monopoly and
showedhow the farms of this country were being driven into land teni
ures like those of Europe. I called attention to an article which ap-
peared in the Nari/z American Rerz'ew last December, which I think
was by an American statistician of this country, in which it was stated
that over three hundred and fifty millions of dollars .in mortgages were
I stated that over fifty per
cent, perhaps two-thirds, of the farms in the States of Illinois, Wiscon-
sin and Michigan were under mortgage, and that monopoly was mak-
ing it impossible for the toilers to pay for these farms, and that they
were breaking them up, forcing them to become tenants, and institut-
ing the European system in this country‘. I said I did not regard that
as a question of patriotism, nor a foreign question, but an American
question concerning Americans. I referred to the banking monopoly
of the country, by which a few men are empowered to make money
scarce in order that they may control markets, run corners on the diff
8 _ RIGHTS AND WRONGS OF LABOR;-
ferent mediums of exchange, and produce a panic in the country by
making money scarce. They made- the price of articles'dear, threw
labor out of employment, and brought on bankruptcy. I said that
monopoly owned labor,'and'employed its armed hirelings' to subjugate
the people. ‘ In the light of these facts and of your inalienable right'to
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,’ I said, ‘it behooves you, as
you love your wives and children, if you would not see them perish
with want and hunger, yourselves killed or cut down like dogs in the
streets—Americans, as you love liberty and independence,
ARM! ARM YOURSELVES! ’
A-voice then said to me, ‘ We are ready now.’ I did not understand
exactly what the gentleman said, but I made that reply, as has been
testified to by many here. I called attention to the fact that the Consti-
tution of the United States gave to every man the right to keep and
bear arms, but monopoly was seeking to deprive the citizen of that~
right. I called attention to the fact that the Constitution guaranteed
us the right of free speech, of free press, and of unmolested assembly,
but that corporations and monopoly, by paid-for decisions‘ of courts,
had trampled these rights under foot, or were attempting to do so. I
called attention to the fact that the Government of the United States
was in the hands of the money power, and that from this fact—the sway
of this money power—it was almost impossible for a poor man to get
justice in a court of law; that ’
LAW was FOR SALE,
just like bread; if you had no money you could get no bread, and with-
out money you could get no justice; that justice was almost beyond the
reach of the poor, and that the poor were made poor and kept poor by
the grinding processes of the‘corporations and monopolies. I then
called attention to Socialism, and explained what‘ it was. _I gave them
Webster’s definition of it—that it meant'a more equitable arrangement
of society, a more just and equitable arrangement of social affairs; that
there was nothing in the word or in the purposes of Socialism'for any
body to become alarmed at. On the'contr‘ary, it should be hailed with
delight by all, as it was designed to make all happy and prosperous;
I then spoke in this connection of the wage ‘system of ‘industry, and
showed that thewage system- of industry wasa despotism‘, inherently
and‘ necessarily so, because under it the wage~worker is forced and comi
pelled to work on‘such-conditions' and at such terms as the employers
RIGHTS AND WRONGS OF LABOR 9
of labor may see fit to dictate to‘ him. This I defined to be slavery,
hence I said they were wage-slaves, and that the wage system was what
Socialism~proposed to displace. (I then showed the power that vthe
wage system gave to the employing class by the lockout, the blacklist,
and the discharge; that I myself had been, blacklisted because I exer-
cised my right of free speech as an American, because I saw fit to be a
member of a labor organization; that ‘I had been deprived repeatedly
of my bread for that reason by my employer. I then called attention
to the United States census foi- the year 1880, and I showed thatthe
returns made there—statistically gotten up by a Republican adminis-
tration—these returns showed that eighty-five cents from every dollar
produced went to the profit—taking classes, and that fifteen cents was
the average sum received by the producing class for having produced
the whole dollar._ I said that this was wrong, and that in the face of
such a condition of things we could expect nothing but poverty, desti-
"tution, want and misery. I showed how under this system that the
workingmen of the United States were really doing
_ TEN HOURS’ WORK FOR Two HOURs’ PAY;
that the employers say to the men: ‘You want to work only eight
hours. Do you mean to say that we must give you ten hour’s pay for
eight hours’ work ? ’ I said, ‘ Gentlemen, fellow workmen, let us answer
these men and say and prove to them by the official statistics of the
United States census that we are not receiving now but two hours’ pay
for eight hours’ work, that that is what the wages of the country on the
average represent. I spoke of corporations crowding the workingmen
to the wall, and summed it up in some such words as these: ‘ Now, for
_ years past the ~Associated Press, manipulated by Jay Gould and other
traitors to the republic and their infamous minions, have been
SOWING THE SEEDS OF REVOLUTION.’
These seeds, I thought, could be summarized about as follows:
To deprive labor of the ballot.
To substitute a monarchy for the republic.
' To rob labor and then make poverty a crime.
-To deprive small families of their land, and then convert them into
' ser-fs to serve a huge landlordism.
To teach labor that bread and water are all that it needs.
-To throw bombs into crowds of workingmen who were opposed to
laboring for staryation wages. '
IO RIGHTS .AND WRONGS OF LABOR.
To take the ballot by.force of arms from the majority when it‘ ‘is
used against the interests of corporations and capital.
To put strychnine upon the bread of the poor.
To hang workingmen to lamp-posts by mobs in the absence of tes-
timony to legally convict them.‘-
To drive the poor working classes into open mutiny against the
laws, in order to secure their conviction and punishment afterward.
These threats and diabolical teachings, I said, had been openly and
boldly uttered by the great conspiracy—the solid Associated Press and
monopolies of this country—for years, against the liberties of the poor,
and the workingman of America was as sensitive to the wrongs imposed
upon him as would be the possessor of millions. I said that this was
' the seed from which had sprung the labor movement, and it was as
natural as cause and effect. The workingmen present appeared to be
very much interested. I never saw a more quiet, orderly, interested
gathering of men—and I have spoken to a great many in my life—than
was present on that occasion. I called their attention to the fact that
LABOR PAID FOR EVERYTHING
—paid all the expenses of the Government, of the police, of the armies,
of legislators, of congressmen, of judges—paid everything. Labor paid
it all. That I, as a tenant—I used my own case as an illustration—
says I: ‘ Now, the landlord claims that he pays the taxes. What are
the facts P When I' pay him ‘my rent, I in fact pay the taxes. He
claims that he makes all the repairs on the house, and paints it up. and
does all such things. He does not do anything of the’ kind. He is
simply my agent to look after these things, and I, as his tenant, pay
for it all. So it is with all tenants.’ I said that labor bears all the
burdens but derives none of the benefits of our present civilization. I
referred to the fact that it was through these methods that the working
people, who produced all the wealth, were kept. poor, and being poor
. they were ignorant; that our school teachers had yet to learn the fact
that the great need of ' the people was more material'force before it
would be possible for them to become amenable to the influences of
educational forces; that ignorance was the result of poverty; that intern;
perance was the result of poverty, and for every man who was poor be-
cause he drank I could show twenty men who drank because they were
poor. I, said that this poverty, this'discord, this commotion in the civ-
ilized world was because of the disease, the cramming of people away
RIGHTS AND WRONGS OF LABOR. 11
4*;
- therefore, strikes must of necessity'fail—as a general thing.
into hovels and dens unfit for animals to live in; it was the cause of the
death of the young, of old age coming upon middle age; that it was the
cause of crime; that poverty was at the root and bottom of war, of dis-
cord and of strife, and that this poverty was an '
ARTIFICIAL, UNNATURAL POVERTY
which Socialism proposed to remedy. I was at this time, as you under-~
stand, gentlemen, making a speech for Socialism. .I had been talking
especially for Socialism. I then spoke as a trades-unionist. I am a
member of my union and of the Knights of Labor. I said that these
organizations differed somewhat with Socialism in that they hoped to
receive and obtain redress within the present system, but that was not
possible, in my belief; that a study of social affairs and of historical de-
velopment had taught me that the system itself was_at fault, and that as
long as the cause remained the effects would be felt; that every trades
union, every assembly of the Knights of Labor, every organization of
workingmen had for its ultimate end—let its course be what it might—
the emancipation of labor from economic dependence, and whether they
sought it or not, events and the developments of this existing wage sys-
ter'n would of necessity force or drive these men into Socialism ‘as the
only saver, and the only means by which they could live—that they
could exist in the end in no other way. If I remember rightly I then
said that strikes were attempts to right these wrongs on the part of the
unions and the Knights of Labor; that I did not believe in strikes; I
did not believe that redress could .be had by that method; that the
power was in the hands of‘ the employer to refuse; that if the men went
on a ‘strike the employer could meet the strike with a lockout, and could
keep them ~out until they were so hungry that they would through their
destitution be compelled to return and accept the terms of the employer;
I called
attention to the ‘ scabs,’ and said that the unionist made war on the
scabs. ‘ Now,’ says I, ‘ here is the distinction between a Socialist and
a trade-unionist. The unionist fights the scab. What is a scab 1’ ,As
a general thing, a man who, being out of employment and destitute,- is
driven by necessity to go to work in some other man’s place at less
wages than has previously been paid. He is at once denounced as a
scab by the unionists, and war is made upon him. N ow, Socialists don't
do this; they regard these men as the victims of _a false system and to be
pitied. The scabs might be compared to fleason a dog. The union-
12 RIGHTS AND WRONGS OF LABOR.
. ists want to kill the fleas, but the Socialists would kill the dog‘; that dog
is the wage system of slavery. I then pointed to the ballot—how we were
SWINDLED AT THE BALLOT BOX
‘and defrauded and cheated, how we were bulldozed and intimidated
and'bribed and corrupted—yes, corrupted by the very money that ‘had
, been stolen from us. Men would come to us when we were poor and
give us bread money if we would vote their ticket and we often did itv
through necessity, and for these and other reasons, through this intim-
' idation, bribery and corruption, the workingmen had but little to ex-
pect from the ballot. I said we had petitioned and passed resolutions,
and had done everything in our power for redress, but there had been
no relief and no redress; in fact, there was a rebuff on every occasion.
I then said to them: ‘ Gentlemen, .
SOCIALISM MEANS THE FREE ASSOCIATION OF THE PEOPLE
for the purposes of production and consumption—in other words, uni-
versal co-operation. This is the sum-total of Socialism, and the only
solution of the present difficulties between capital and labor.’ I said
that monopoly and corporation had formed a gigantic conspiracy
against the working classes. I then called upon them to unite, to or-
ganize, to make every endeavorto' obtain eight hours; that the eight-
hour movement meant a peaceful solution of the labor trouble; that if
the employers in this and all'other countries would concede this demand
it meant peace, if they refused it meant war, not by the working classes,
not by laborers, but by monopolists and corporations upon the lives,
- liberty and happiness of the working classes. 'I said that the Govern-
ment, in the hands of corporations and monopoly, deprived the labor-
ers of their labor product, of their right to live, and was driving- labor
into open revolt'and forcing people to defend themselves'and to pro-
_- tect and maintain their right to self-preservation. I said the monopoly
~ conspiracy originated-in the great railroad strike of 1877, that this con-
spiracy since that time had proposed to use‘ force, and that they had
a used force. Vanderbiltsaid, ‘ The public be damned.’ - The’ New York
World and other papers had said that the American must be contented
with the wages he received, and not expeet any more wages than his
European brother,'and be contented with that station in 'life to which
‘ it had pleased God to call him. I then appealed to them _to defend
' hour’s speech ‘at, the I-Iaymarket.”v ~
‘themselves, ‘their rights and their liberties—to combine, to unite, for- in
union there was strength. That, gentlemen, was the substance of my
‘