Life of Albert Parsons
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offered money and employment to those who would consent to do this. Further, that they deliberately planned to have fictitious conspiracies formed in order that they might get the glory of discovering them. In addition to the evidence in the record of some witnesses who swore that they had been paid small sums of money, etc., several documents are here referred to.
First, an interview with Capt. Ebersold, published in the Chicago Daily News, May 10, 1889.
CHIEF OF POLICE EBERSOLD'S STATEMENT.
Ebersold was chief of the police of Chicago at the time of the Haymarket trouble, and {or a long time before and thereafter, so that he was in a position to know what was going on, and his utterances upon this point are therefore important. Among other things he says:
"It was my policy to quiet matters down as soon as possible after the 4th of May. The general unsettled state of things was an injury to Chicago.
"On the other hand, Capt. Schaack wanted to keep things stirring. He wanted bombs to be found here, there, all around, everywhere. I thought people would lie down and sleep better if they were not afraid that their homes would be blown to pieces any minute. But this man Schaack, this little boy who must have glory or his heart would be broken, wanted none of that policy. Now, here is something the public does not know. After we got the Anarchist societies broken up, Schaack wanted to send out men to again organize new societies right away. You see what this would do. He wanted to keep the thing boiling-keep himself prominent before the public. Well, I sat down on that; I didn't believe in such work, and of course Schaack didn't like it.
"After I heard all that, I began to think there was, perhaps, not so much to all this Anarchist business as they claimed, and I believe I was right. Schaack thinks he knew all about those Anarchists. Why, I knew more at that time than he knows today about them. I was following them closely. As soon as Schaack began to get some notoriety, however, he was spoiled."
This is a most important statement, when a chief of police, who has been watching the Anarchists closely, says that he was convinced that there was not so much in all their Anarchist business as was claimed, and that a police captain wanted to send out men to have other conspiracies formed, in order to get the credit of discovering them, and keep the public excited; it throws a flood of light on the whole situation and destroys the force of much of the testimony introduced at the trial.
For, if there has been any such extensive conspiracy as the prosecution claims, the police would have soon discovered it. No chief of police could discover a determination on the part of an individual, or even a number of separate individuals, to have personal revenge for having been maltreated, nor could any chief discover a determination by any such individual to kill the next police
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