Under a sky that was showing promise of rain, during the first week of May, now notoriously reserved for observations and celebrations of the working class, Chicago became one window by which the American public views the struggle of the working element. On the front page of the Chicago Daily Tribune dated May, 5, 1886, the story of the previous days' melee is displayed. The obvious conservative view point of the report is important to notice. The police officers names and injuries were the first topics reported in the article, ideally they are the heroes of the situation. Second in the column, was the title "Incendiary Speech". The paper offers that "A rabid character, Sam Feldman" gave the speech. The speech placed the culpability of the problems between worker and boss on the latter. Feldman states, "The Socialist's are not going to declare war; but I tell you war has been declared upon us." To an applauding crowd he furthermore states, "I know you have [resistance] too. You have been robbed. You will be starved into a worse situation."(1.) According to the story this is the point when the police began to edge its line formation down Displaines Street toward the rally. An unseen person, allegedly an anarchist, launched the bomb from the crowd towards the police officers. When it exploded a melee began that would last the day.
The Chicago Daily Tribune served as the news wire for this event and is responsible for the light in which American Society viewed the participants.
An eventful beginning of May in Chicago sprouted from the demand for an eight hour work day. According to the Chicago Daily Tribune the Lumber Hands joined together and refused to work. The paper states, "The way things looked yesterday in the lumber district it seems that the strikers will be left out until starved into submission or until angry housewives and starving children force them to resume work."(2) The paper further states that few of the strikers are part of the highly organized Knights of Labor. The descriptions of the strikers proposed by this article are important to note. It describes the protesters as a "blood thirsty mob of anarchists." They "marched through the streets with an American flag turned upside down and two flaunty rags that had just been soaked in fresh blood. The crowd consisted of Bohemians and Poles and presented a solemn appearance. Not a Knight of Labor was among them."(3) The fact that the Knights of Labor, a somewhat respected labor party, is noted as not being responsible for the riot is one way in which the paper demonstrates the aggressors' unattractiveness. The allusion to the angry housewives and starving children is obviously another effort to label the protesters as inhumane and wrong. This tone persists throughout the descriptions of the weeks events.
For the Chicago Tribune the journalistic prejudice is not born in 1886. For example, on December 25, 1873 the paper has an article entitled "Our Communists." On Christmas day the paper felt it should give a brief sketch of the socialist movement. The column describes the movement as an affront to private property. It prints a copy of the Manifesto of the Communist Party, which describes history of man as a warring of classes.(4) The mood of the article is obvious in the following statement, "The Internationalist, or Socialists, in this country are but recent growth, but in Europe they have been agitating for years, and the outrages by the Communists, who sprang from the Socialists, ...are still in everybody's minds, and it is but natural that our citizens should look with dread upon the demonstrations made this week (1873) under the auspices of such men."(5) This is another example of the viewpoints proposed by the journalistic columns of the Chicago Daily Tribune.
This momentous week in Chicago had various protests daily. Among these strikers included railway workers, machinists, lumberers, and women. A riotous mob was gathering strikers as it walked the city. Commonly, the police were involved and directly confronted strikers, protesters, and finally rioters. Starting with the first protests, "Police will be disposed about the city at points where trouble is thought most likely to occur, and others will be held to act at a moments notice. The entire force will be on active duty until a more settled condition of things exists."(6) For places of employment through out the town where workers wanted to work officers were supplied to help to maintain peace. The Michigan Central Road expected no problem from its workers, nevertheless, Chief Ebersold "intended to give them police protection against any intimidation from strikers of other roads." (7) Some detectives were even called on to replace striking workers. (8). Ideally, the confrontation between the police and the protesters embodied the professed confrontation between the working classes and capital, of the era, that the organizations wanted to draw attention to.
This momentous time period illustrates America's fascination with anti-socialism that would proliferate into the following century. Anarchy's central station in Chicago coupled with the Bohemian make-up of the city married the ideal with immigrants. According to the 1884 school census of the city a third of the population was German.(9).
The displays of violence and antagonism from the strikers of Chicago and throughout the country resulted in failure. The mass media as well as the opinion of main-stream America became afraid of the movement and the people behind it. This is evident in the rather quick trial and sentencing of the leaders of the Anarchist movement in Chicago. This reaction of the public and the political fallout resulting from it should be considered as America's first red scare.
The purpose of this blog will continue on this theme of prejudicial trends of the American public influenced by popular media, whether the protesting characters should be considered heroes or terrorists, and why the Haymarket events should be considered the First Red Scare.
SOURCES
1. The Chicago Daily Tribune, Front Page-no title, May 5, 1886.
2. The Chicago Daily Tribune, "A Storm of Strikes", May 2, 1886.
3. ibid.
4. The Chicago Daily Tribune, "Our Communists", December 25, 1873.
5. ibid.
6. The Chicago Daily Tribune, "A Storm of Strikes", May 2, 1886.
7. The Chicago Daily Tribune, "Will Work Unless Prevented", May 3, 1886.
8. ibid.
9. Nelson, Bruce, "Beyond the Martyrs", {Rutgers University Press}, 1988, p. 16.
