The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-11-11
Anarchists Honor Memory of
 the "Chicago Martyrs Today

In New York, Chicago, Rome anG other centers of anarchist propaganda the reds will hold meetings today to glorlfy the memory of their mar tyrs, the men who were hanged in Chicago for participation in the Hay markey Square riot. The execution took place on November II, 1887 twenty-eight years ago today, and ever since the anniversary has been kept as Chicago Martyrs Day. by anarchists the world over. Last year a celebration of the day was held in Tokio by the Japanese anarchists, and there has been observances of this character in India, and other distant parts of the world. To Emma, Gold man, Alexander Berkn7an and other American anarchist leaders and their followers, this is the red letter day of their calendar.
 The Haymarl1et Square riot in Chicago occurred on May 4. 1886, when the police undertook to break up meeting of strikers. A bomb was thrown by some person, never identified, but supposed to have been Seven policemen were killed and twenty-seven were wounded, and the city was aroused to a high pitch of anger against the reds
 Of the anarchists who were arrest ca and tried for participation in the IiOL. August SP1oS, AOOIph f1Scher, George Enge1 and Albert R. Parsons were hanged on Nov. II, 1887. Louis Lingg, who was also convicted and sentenced to deatf,- escaped the moose by killing himself in prison on the day before the execution of his com rades. Samuel Fio1den and Michael Schawb was sentenced to life irnpris c!1ment, and Oscar Neebe. was com n1itted for fifteen years. All these were pardoned by Governor John F A1tge1d in 1893.
 That the execution of Spies, Fischer, EngeI, and Parsons was not warrant trial is the opinion advanced by many ed by, the evidence presented at their legal authorities in late years. That public cIamor played no part in their convictioIS is not to be denied. That they were anarchists, and that at least some of them had made wildly incen- diary speeches, was developed by the evidence but their actual connection with a. plot which had for it's purpose the destruction of human life is still open to doubt. The criticisms of the trial made by those entirely lacking given the reds" support for their claim that the men were "mar- tyrs." The pardon granted to the inn prisoned anarchists by Governor Al tGe1d aroused a, storm of protest, and drove Altgeld from public life and en- DlIL0rOd us lSCL0F years 1I1dL He WAS animated by a stern sense of duty, and sacrificed himself for what he believ- ed to be right, is the opinion since ex- pressed by Brand WhitloclS, the United States Minister. to Belgium. and others who were personally acquainted with the discredited Illinois statesman.
 Tra de unionism and anarchism and socialism was closely allied at the period of the Haymarket riot, and the cause of organized labor shared for time in the popular condemnation vii sited upon the anarchists. The NcNa- mara case demonstrated that the old anarchistic spirit is not yet entirely eliminated from the trade union ranks. That the McNamara's only suf- fered inmprisonments while the Chica- go anarchists were hanged for a les ser crime in which their complicity was not proven beyond a reasonable doubt affords an illustration of so- ciety's attitude toward it's malefactors