A Monumental Labor Day
This monument was dedicated to Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld on Labor Day,
September, 1915. The sculptor was Gutzon Borglum who became famous after he carved the President's faces into the stone wall of Mount Rushmore. Altgeld became a hero of the burgeoning labor movement in the United States for the role he played in pardoning three labor activists involved in Chicago's infamous Haymarket Massacre.
On May 1, 1886 rallies were held across the United States in support of an eight-hour
workday for the men and women toiling away in factories around the country. On the night of May 4th, a group of anarchists held another large rally in the Haymarket wholesale produce district just west of downtown Chicago. Speeches were given from the bed of a wagon to the thousands of people who had gathered at the intersection of Randolph and Des Plaines Streets. Soon around 200 policemen marched toward the crowd with orders to disperse when someone threw a bomb into the police ranks. One officer died instantly as a result of the bomb. In the next few days, more policemen died of injuries sustained in the explosion. The spectators who were killed by the bomb, or from police gun fire in the ensuing panic, were not officially recorded by the authorities.
This monument by artist Mary Brogger was dedicated in 2004, to the memory of those
killed, and to the brave pioneers of the labor movement who fought for the rights of working men and women. It stands on the spot where the speaker's wagon stood on that fateful night, 123 years ago.
The Haymarket sculpture wasn't the first monument to stand in the Randolph Street area.
In 1889 the city erected a statue in memory of the policemen killed in the violence of that May night. Unlike the 2004 memorial, there was no mention of the spectators who lost their lives. The statue became a popular location for protests, especially for any group that had problems with the police department or the power structure they represented. In the 1920s a public transit driver rammed the statue with his cable car and the sculpture was moved to a nearby park. By 1956, when the city no longer had any cable cars, the monument was brought back to Randolph Street, which is where I remember seeing it. In the 1970s, the Weather Underground took credit for blowing up the monument - twice. It was moved to the Chicago Police Academy in 1976, and in 2007, relocated to the new headquarters of the Chicago Police Department, where I doubt it will ever be blown up again.
As a result of the policemen's deaths, charges were brought against 8 men associated
with the Haymarket event. No one was ever accused of actually throwing the bomb, instead the men were brought to trial for inciting a riot as a result of the speeches a few of them gave that night. In one of the worst examples of the abuses of jurisprudence, deceptive practices and unjustified cruelty, seven were convicted and sentenced to death and one man was sentenced to 15 years in prison. In 1893 a memorial was erected to commemorate the lives of August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer and George Engel who were hung on November 11, 1887. Louis Lingg committed suicide before being brought to the gallows. The Martyrs Monument stands in German Waldheim Cemetery, 12 miles west of Haymarket Square, where all the men had been buried.
In that same year, John Altgeld pardoned the three remaining defendants. Where he saw
the failures of our legal system, others saw an anarchist sympathizer. He was pilloried in the Chicago Tribune, New York Times, and Harpers Weekly, burned in effigy, and when he ran for another term as governor, he lost the election. The plaque on the back of the Monument reads:
These charges are of a personal character, and while they seem to be sustained
by the record of the trial and the papers before me and tend to show that the
trial was not fair, I do not care to discuss this feature of the case any farther,
because it is not necessary. I am convinced that it is clearly my duty to act in
this case for the reasons already given, and I, therefore grant an absolute pardon
to Samuel Fielden, Oscar Neebe and Michael Schwab this 26th day of June, 1893.
John P. Altgeld,
Governor Of Illinois
Posted by designslinger at 9/7/2009 2:33 AM 
Categories: Art,History
Tags: Martyrs Monument John Peter Altgeld Haymarket Massacre
Categories: Art,History
Tags: Martyrs Monument John Peter Altgeld Haymarket Massacre
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