The Chicago Martyrs by John P. Altgeld

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ADDRESS OF OSCAR NEEBE.
ADDRESS OF OSCAR NEEBE.
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together revised all the articles printed in the paper that day. A few minutes
later Harrison went out, and our whole set of compositors were coming down
the stairs, and another lot of ruffians came up the steps, and Mrs. Holmes
and Mrs. Parsons-were sitting at the desk writing, and a man whom you .could
see was a noble Democratic officer, said: " What are you doing there?" Mrs.
Holmes is a lady in my eyes, and sbe said: "I am corresponding with my
brother. He is the editor of a labor paper." As she said that he snatched
the lady, and she protested as an American woman, and as she protested he
said: "Shut up, you bitch, or r will knock you down." I repeat tbe same
words here, and I have a riJ!:ht to, as the noble officers of Chica~o have used
this language. That is one of your men, Mr. Grinnell-juflt like you. You
have insulted ladies when you have not dared to insult gentlemen. Mrs. Parsons
was called the same name by the officers. They called her a black bitch,
and wanted to knock her down; and they said they would not let us publish
any paper; they would take the types and material and throw them out of
the window. Wjl are a stock company, a company chartered by the State of
Illinois for the publication of a labor paper and lahor literature. Our charter
states it. When I heard they wanted to destroy the property of the laboring
men of the city of Chicago, who had paid tbeir money to have tIle pape~
published, I said: "As long as I stand I slutll publish that paper," and took
charge of it. I suppose Grinnell thought after Oacar Neebe was indicted for
murder the A1-beitel'-Zeit1mg would. go down. But it didn't happen that way.
And Mr. Furthman, too (pointing to the assistant State's attorney)-he is a
scoundrel, and I tell it to you to your face. There is only one man that acted
as a gentleman, and he is MI'. I~gbam; but yon three have not. Inside of
two weeks I had enough money from Ute toilers, from hired girls, and from
men who would take their last cent out of their pockets to re-establish tbe
paper and to buy a press of our own. I conld not publish the paper sooner.
because the honorable detectives and Mr. Grinnell followed us up, and no
printing bouse would print our paper, because of the threats of these men,
and we had to bave our own press. 'Ve published our own paper after we
had a pres!! purchased witb the money coutributed by tbe workingmen of the
city.
That is the crime I bave committed, getting men to try and establish a
workingman's paper that stands today; and I am proud of it. They have not
got one press simply-they have two presses today, and tbey belong to the
workingmen of this city. From the date of the first issue to the present day,
your honor, we have gained fonr thousand subscribers' to our daily paper.
Tbere are the gentlemen sitting over there from the Freie P,.esse and Stactts­
Zeitung-they know it. The Germans of this city are condemning these
actions. I say that it is a verdict against Germans, and I, as an American,
must say that I never saw anything like that.
These are the crimes I have committed after the 4th of May. Before the
4th of May I committed some other ·crimes. My business brought me in connection
with the hakers. I saw that the bakers in this city were treated like
dogs. The baker bosses treated their dogs better than they treated their
men. I said to myself: "These men have to be organizeo; in organization
there is strength;" and T helped to organize them. That is a great crime.
'l'he men are now working tell huu!"::; a day inlltead of fourteen and sixteen
hours, and instead of being compelled to eat slops like the dogs, and sleep on
the stairways or in the barn, they can sleep and work whenever they please.
I have helped to establish that, your honor. That is another crime. And I
committed a greater crime than that. I saw in the morning when I drove
away with my team that the beer brewers of the city of Chicago went to work
at 4 o'clock in the morning. They came home at 7 and 8 o'clock at night.
They never saw their families or their children by daylight. I said to myself:
"If you organize these men they can live like men. You can help to make
good catizens of them." And everybody said: "They are down low; they are
drunkards." I went to work and organized them. I rented a hall and issued
an appeal for them, and got them to come, and I organized the men. On
Saturday, May lor May 2. I was conferring with the beer brewer bosses of Chicago
and we had a meeting. I was the chairman of the committee, and I asked
the beer brewer bosses to reduce the hours.of labor down to ten hours a day,
and they did it. On the Monday after I committed that great crime-that
was Saturday-I was in session with the beer brewers t,he ,,'hole day. In the
evening I took my supper and went to the North Side Turner Hall, where the
Union men, over eight hundred str~ng, were, and I don't know anything
about McCormick's, or what Spies bad done or said. I entered the hall. I
went on the platform and presented the Union with a document signed by
every beer brewer of Chicago, guaranteeing ten hours labor and $65 wages-:­
$15 more wages pt>r month, and no Sunday work, to give the men a chance to
go to church, as many of them are good Christians. There are a good many
. Christians among them. So, in that way, I was aiding Christianity-helping
the men to 11:0 to church.
After the meeting I left the hall, and stepped into the front saloon, and
tbere were ctrculars lying there called the" revenge" circular. I picked up a
couple of them from a table and folded them together and put them in my
pocket, not having a chanr.:e to read them, because everybody wanted to treat
me. They all thought it was by my efforts that they got $15 a month more
wages and ten hours a day. Why, I didn't have a chance to read the circulars.
From there I went to another saloon across the street, and the president
of the Beer Brewers' Union was there; he asked me to walk with him, and
on the way home we went into Heine's saloon. He was talking to Heine
about the McCormick affair, and I picked up a circular and read it, and Heine
asked me: "Can you give me one?" I gave him one and he laid it back on
his count.er .
That is my statement. You cau helieve it 01' not; but Heine didn't testify
any other way. Mr. Griuneil indicted me for murder. That is the whole
story in short of what I had to do with this Haymarket afrair. So you see I
had nothing to do with it, and didn't know a\lything about it. The next day
I read in the paper that Attorney Walker-certainly an honorable mall-was in
the saloon. It was kind. of dangerous for him evidently, for he subsequently
denied being there. However tbat may ha.ve been, I was there.
And, your hOllor, I committed another crime. I saw that the grocery
('Iorks and othor (:Ierks of this city worked until 10 and 11 o'clock in the even­
In~. I iesued l\ Clllllll1d rented a hall, and paid for the hand-bills, and called