[May 11, 1886]
STRONG EVIDENCE OBTAINED AGAINST THE LEADERS
The Man Who Threw The Bomb Known –
Rumors That the Prisoners Will Be Protected by the Mayor.
Chicago May 10. – It is stated by a man who has had access to all the evidence which the police have collected against the men who were responsible for the riots of last week that it is known that the bomb thrown into the body of police in Desplaines street. Tuesday night was only one of more than 20 which had been brought there to spread destruction when the proper time arrived. The man who threw the single bomb, who is, The Time’s informant says, known to the police beyond a shadow of reasonable doubt, was premature in his work. It was intended that the bombs should all be thrown at a given signal, the body of police being of course the objective point. That they were not was no fault of the men carrying them. It is assumed that the premature discharge, being entirely unexpected, disconcerted and frightened the other Anarchistic agents, who turned and fled with the mob. The idea appears to be that the Spies brothers, Fielden, Schwab, and Parsons, should he be arrested, can readily be convicted of being accessories before the fact. An interesting and vital statement from a party who was present at the time of the explosion, but whose name has been withheld, indicates that Fischer, Stange, and Hierschberg were some of the secondary actors who undertook to do the work after it was planned and urged by the leaders. Of these three Fischer and Hierschberg were the most directly connected with the Arbeiter Zeitung faction and the former; the police claim can clearly be proved to have known all about the bomb throwing and either threw it or stood within reaching and either threw it or stood within reaching distance of the man who did.
Anton Hierschberg was brought before Justice Meech this morning charged with having participated in the Haymarket riot and being one of an unlawful assemblage. Inspector Bonfield said that the police connected the prisoner with the printing of the circulars which called the assembly at the Haymarket last Tuesday night. He was there at the time of the riot and received a shot through his coat. Hierschberg was therefore held in $6,000 bail, which he was unable to give.
The two Spieses, Schwab, and Fielden are showing the effect of their confinement and are wearing out. It is among the possibilities that one of them will be willing to turn State’s evidence should it be necessary to strengthen the facts already in the possession of the authorities. What these facts are nobody except those who hold them knows accurately believes that he can secure the indictment and conviction of the Anarchist leaders.
In addition to the four arrested Wednesday morning at least a dozen other persons have been taken into custody, and held either without bail or in such heavy sums that they are in no danger of getting out of jail. Bombs, dynamite, and incendiary literature have been found in many parts of the city, and though everything is as quiet now as though no trouble had ever occurred the police are constantly making forages and gathering up dangerous stuff. The Grand Jury will meet next Monday and the cases of the Anarchists will be taken up at once. There were no more deaths at the hospital today, and it is believed now no more policemen will die.
Chicago, May 10. – Despite the vigorous steps taken by the police to suppress the Anarchists there is a growing feeling that the leaders of the gang are not going to be punished as they deserve or according to the clear construction of the law quoted in these dispatches against them. Most of this impression arises from lack of confidence in the honesty and good faith of Mayor Carter Harrison, and it is finding expression in no uncertain way. To begin with, as was pointed out in the Times of Wednesday morning last the speeches which preceded the throwing of the bomb into the ranks of the police marching up Desplaines street Tuesday evening were even less incendiary that those uttered by the same speakers in their public meetings for months past. The fierce attacks of Spies in the Arbeiter Zeitung upon law and order just prior to the outbreak were no more fierce than have been printed in the columns of that sheer and the Alarm, Parson’s paper, again and again. One Joe Greenhut, a confidential agent of Mayor Harrison, as long ago as January, last said in an interview that the Anarchists were well armed, were drilling constantly, were engaged in the infernal instruments of warfare, and even predicted that there would be an outbreak of this gang about May 1. Yet in the face of these which the Mayor had of the character and purposes of Spies and his associated, not a finger was lifted to save the citizens of Chicago from the schemes of these plotters. They were as free as the air to go where they would and say what they wanted to and though the voice of the most influential and conservative newspapers in the city was lige and property, the Mayor permitted the conspirators to pursue the uneven tenor of their emitted only be their destructive powers.
Since the explosion of Tuesday night the Mayor’s own organ has read him lectures such as he has seldom received and accused him of permitting unlawful and dangerous assemblages and treasonable utterances when permission was but little better than encouragement. These things are not forgotten by the public, which demands that speedy and severe justice be meted on to which they control is lost to Mayor Harrison or not, and thus arises the growing fear that Spies and his comrades are in less danger of just punishment than men charged with much less serious offense. In discussing the origin of the recent outbreak before the Congregational ministers today, the Rev. Dr. Goodwin alluded to this fear, and said in so many words that the voters who elected Harrison when he last ran were responsible even beyond the civil authorities for a condition of affairs which make such an outbreak possible.
Commending the Police.
Chicago, May 10. – Reminders of the Haymarket bomb and the labor riots poured in on the City Council this evening, and occupied nearly all its time. Three Aldermen introduced resolutions commending the courage and heroism of the police and expressing sympathy for the families of the killed and wounded men. Resolutions extending the thanks of the Council to Mayor Harrison and Chief of Police Ebersold for their energy in suppressing the riots and to the men at the scene of the bomb explosion for their undaunted courage and determination to maintain the public peace were unanimously adopted. The conduct of Capt. Ward and Inspector Bonfield were especially commended. The resolutions proposed that provision be made for pensioning the disabled policemen and the families of the dead ones in the next appropriation bill when it was explained by the Mayor and several Aldermen that under the charter the city could not pension any one. To reach a similar end however, the following was finally framed and agreed to:
Resolved, that the City Council of the city of Chicago hereby requests the Mayor, and advises all future Mayors, to employ all officers of the Police Department who were on May 4, 1886, so maimed as to render them incapable of performing police duty, in such positions as they can fill, and we pledge ourselves and all future Councils, as far as we can to appropriate for the pay of those so employed a sufficient sum to make the annual pay equal to that of able-bodied policemen.