Haymarket Address

HIST 1120                                                                               Name:_______________________

Date:

A Haymarket Radical Addresses the Court
Date:1886

Oscar Neebe, the son of German immigrants, and a tinsmith active in the trade union movement, was sentenced to life in prison for purportedly helping to instigate the Haymarket Square bombing but was pardoned by Illinois Governor John Altgeld in 1893.

I have been in the labor movement since 1875. I have seen how the police have trodden on the Constitution of this country, and crushed the labor organizations. I have seen from year to year how they were trodden down, where they were shot down, where they were “driven into their holes like rats,” as Mr. Grinnell said to the jury. But they will come out! Remember that within three years before the beginning of the French Revolution, when laws had been stretched like rubber, that the rubber stretched too long, and broke—a result which cost a good many state’s attorneys at that time their necks, and a good many honorable men their necks.

We socialists hope such times may never come again; we do everything in our power to prevent it by reducing the hours of labor and increasing wages. But you capitalists won’t allow this to be done. You use your power to perpetuate a system by which you may make your money for yourselves and keep the wage-workers poor. You make them ignorant and miserable, and you are responsible for it. You won’t let the toilers live a decent life.

Well, these are all the crimes I have committed. They found a revolver in my house, and a red flag there. I organized trade unions. I was for reduction of the hours of labor, and the education of laboring men, and the re-establishment of the Arbeiter-Zeitung—the workingmen’s newspaper. There is no evidence to show that I was connected with the bomb-throwing, or that I was near it, or anything of that kind. So I am only sorry, your honor—that is, if you can stop it or help it—I will ask you to do it—that is, to hang me, too; for I think it is more honorable to die suddenly than to be killed by inches. I have a family and children; and if they know their father is dead, they will bury him. They can go to the grave, and kneel down by the side of it; but they can’t go to the penitentiary and see their father, who was convicted for a crime that he hasn’t had anything to do with. That is all I have got to say. Your honor, I am sorry I am not to be hung with the rest of the men.

QUESTION:

According to Oscar Neebe’s document, how did Socialists help workers? Explain in a paragraph or so.

One of the ways that socialists helped workers was by reducing the long hours workers had to put in at work. Workers used to face grueling schedules, working approximately 10-16 hours every day for six days a week. Notably, even children were also being exploited in this way. Socialists advocated for an eight-hour-long working day, and this demand led to the Haymarket Affair of 1886. This incident, unfortunately, was violent, and people died while others were arrested, including Oscar Neebe, but it only reinforced the labor movement and the demand for eight-hour working days (Janas, 2019). Eventually, the demand was met, and workers were given exactly what they wanted.

The second way that socialists helped workers was by organizing trade unions. For example, The Knights of Labor, which became one of the largest labor organizations in America, was significantly influenced by socialist influences. In addition to unions, socialists were also involved in organizing and supporting workers in strikes for the sake of worker’s rights. An example of such a strike is the Pullman Strike of 1894, led by Eugene V. Debs, who was a socialist and leader of the American Railway Union. Even though federal troops stopped the strike, it was significant enough that Labor Day, a national holiday that highlights the plight of workers, was established from it (Locke, Wright & Wright, 2019).

References

Janas, V. (2019). The significance of the Haymarket tragedy then and now. ESSAI, 17(1), 23.

Locke, J., Wright, A., & Wright, B. (Eds.). (2019). Capital and labor. In The American Yawp: A Massively Collaborative Open U.S. History Textbook, Vol. II: After 1877. Stanford University Press. http://www.americanyawp.com/text/16-capital-and-labor/

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HIST 1120                                                                               Name:_______________________

Date:

A Haymarket Radical Addresses the Court
Date:1886

Oscar Neebe, the son of German immigrants, and a tinsmith active in the trade union movement, was sentenced to life in prison for purportedly helping to instigate the Haymarket Square bombing but was pardoned by Illinois Governor John Altgeld in 1893.

I have been in the labor movement since 1875. I have seen how the police have trodden on the Constitution of this country, and crushed the labor organizations. I have seen from year to year how they were trodden down, where they were shot down, where they were “driven into their holes like rats,” as Mr. Grinnell said to the jury. But they will come out! Remember that within three years before the beginning of the French Revolution, when laws had been stretched like rubber, that the rubber stretched too long, and broke—a result which cost a good many state’s attorneys at that time their necks, and a good many honorable men their necks.

We socialists hope such times may never come again; we do everything in our power to prevent it by reducing the hours of labor and increasing wages. But you capitalists won’t allow this to be done. You use your power to perpetuate a system by which you may make your money for yourselves and keep the wage-workers poor. You make them ignorant and miserable, and you are responsible for it. You won’t let the toilers live a decent life.

Haymarket Address

Well, these are all the crimes I have committed. They found a revolver in my house, and a red flag there. I organized trade unions. I was for reduction of the hours of labor, and the education of laboring men, and the re-establishment of the Arbeiter-Zeitung—the workingmen’s newspaper. There is no evidence to show that I was connected with the bomb-throwing, or that I was near it, or anything of that kind. So I am only sorry, your honor—that is, if you can stop it or help it—I will ask you to do it—that is, to hang me, too; for I think it is more honorable to die suddenly than to be killed by inches. I have a family and children; and if they know their father is dead, they will bury him. They can go to the grave, and kneel down by the side of it; but they can’t go to the penitentiary and see their father, who was convicted for a crime that he hasn’t had anything to do with. That is all I have got to say. Your honor, I am sorry I am not to be hung with the rest of the men.

QUESTION:

According to Oscar Neebe’s document, how did Socialists help workers? Explain in a paragraph or so.