leaders were arrested. All eight arrested workers were convicted in what is
now commonly recognized as a frame-up. Four of them—Parsons, Spies, Fischer
and Engel—were hanged. Five years later, Governor John Altgeld of Illinois,
a rare type in US politics, freed the four Haymarketers remaining in prison
and proclaimed their innocence. The movement for the 8-hour working day and
the Haymarket affair caused a great swell of trade-union organization.
Furthermore International May Day emerged from this movement, for the
International Socialist Congress, convened in France in 1889, declared May
the 1st as the day of celebration by world labour. A monument in honour of
the Haymarket martyrs, erected by the labour movement, now stands in
Waldheim Cemetery outside Chicago. The Chicago police have not forgotten
Haymarket either. In fact, they put up. a monument on the site of the
tragedy. Not to the victims, but to their executioners: a 3-metre statue of
a policeman was put up on a tall pedestal in the hope, apparently, that the
people of Chicago would cover it with flowers in token of their respect.
There were no flowers, but there were bombs. In fact, the "New York Times"
remarked that this was "Chicago's most frequently bombed statue". There was
a series of explosions in October 1969 in protest against the police attack
on a youth demonstration during the Democratic Party convention. A year
later there was another explosion; it cost $ 5,500 to repair the damage.
Guarding the statue became a problem. In 1970, after it had been repaired,
it was placed under round-the-clock guard. To make double-sure, it was
constantly scrutinized by a hidden TV camera., This cost the city $ 68,000
a year, more than the statue had cost. There were several suggestions how
to reduce the cost. 'In the end, it was decided to/ remove the bronze
statue from Haymarket Square and put it in a safe place. It now stands in
the lobby of Chicago police headquarters.
THE "GANGLAND CAPITAL OF THE USA"
In its bustling growth, Chicago survived the political machinations of
mayors like "Big Bill" Thompson,16 the speculations of Samuel Tnsull17 and
the gang wars of Al Capone's days.18 The one thing for which Chicago is
known around the world is crime. In January 1919, the sale of whiskey was
prohibited in the USA. Prohibition gave rise to the. illegal liquor trade
with big profits for the powerful criminal gangs who shared the money with
the police and politicians in order to buy immunity from arrest. The gangs
competed with each other in the illicit liquor trade ("bootlegging"),
gambling, the operation Or "protection" of night-clubs and illicit bars
("speakeasies"). They also supplied strike-breakers to employers and the
trade-union chieftains who used them against the militant left-wing.
Murder, arson and vandalism were engaged in as business enterprise on a
practical basis. The combination of war profits, polyglot political
structure, building boom and prohibition turned Chicago, figuratively,
overnight in the crime centre of the USA, the "gangland capital of the
USA". • And even now, thanks to countless film and television shows
depicting that era of ^Chicago's history, some visitors expect to see black
limousines filled with scarfaced gangsters roaring about the streets.
Organized crime is still a part of Chicago's life—as it is in most US
cities.
Crime has become an integral part of the American way of life. As
Americans themselves put it, "in the US you feel very afraid to walk the
streets at night. Even in the daytime it is sometimes dangerous but
especially so at night."*
1 "Chicago" seems to have a clearly established than usual. A French
explorer who visited the region in 1688 said the natives called it
"Chicagou" because of the abundance of wild onions growing there. Scholars
have thought it was the disagreeable odour Of the little wild onions that
inspired the Indian name, and that "place of the bad smell" might be more
accurate interpretation of the name.
2 Among Chicago's numerous nicknames are the "Lake City" and the "Queen
City of the (Upper) Lakes".
3 Similar to other US cities, Chicago has a dual city and county
government. Chicago and its suburbs comprise Cook County which exercises
certain governmental functions over the entire area. Other functions are
retained individually by the City of Chicago and the suburbs in a municipal
form. This political structure, based on a capitalist economy, provides
fat profits for bankers, bondholders, real-estate dealers, public utility;
interests, politicians, the police and criminals.
4 The American Peace Crusade—an American organization embrac/ ing peace
supporters of all walks of life.
5 The Young Workers Liberation League—a progressive youth
organization of the United States. It fights against militarism and racism,
for democracy and socialism, for all young people's demands for work and
education. Its main aim is a democratic government and full civil rights *'
for all.
6 "King Daley"—Richard J. Daley, former mayor of Chicago, "boss" of the
Democratic political machine fbr Cook County. Got notoriety in 1968 when he
brutally dispersed the peaceful demonstration of students during the
Democratic Party nominating convention in Chicago.
7 Today new process and techniques have made it unnecessary to move
America's meat to Chicago for processing (the butchers have gone to the
prairies) and the memories of those moutains of flesh, that pervasive scent
of the stockyards, are like many other things of Chicago's past, just a
terrible ghost-story.
8 In 1942, at the University of Chicago, Enrico Fermi and other scientists
set off the world's first controlled atomic reaction.
9 The Chicago fire (October 8—9, 1871) devastated an area three and one-
half miles square, left almost 100,000 persons homeless. By 1871 Chicago
was a city built of wood. Even the side-walks were of pine and a dry season
preceding the fire made the city a virtual tinder-box.
10.The phrase is taken from "Chicago" (1914), a poem in free verse by Carl
Sandburg: "Hog Butcher of the World, Tool-Maker, Stacker of Wheat; Player
with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler: Stormy, Husky, Brawling
City of the Big Shoulders."
11. In 1912 Theodore Dreiser (1871 — 1945) published "The Financier", a
novel about Frank Cowperwood, a shrewd and ruthless businessman, who
accumulated a fortune through financial machinations. The fashionable North
Side of Chicago could not bear "The Financier", for it cut too close to the
bone, so the publisher, Harper's, refused to publish its sequel "The
Titan". Frank Cowperwoo,d was too clearly identified with Charles Yerkes,
the Chicago magnate (who donated the Yerkes Observatory to the University
of Chicago). Yerkes' earlier corrupt manipulation of Philadelphia's
municipal funds, followed by imprisonment, was known to his colleagues in
Chicago, but he was given access to the public funds again. Dreiser had
become familiar with tVse "robber barons" while working as a journalist in
Chicago.
12 "The Pit", a novel by Frank Morris (1870—1902), brought to life the
spectacular wheat market on La Salle Street in Chicago. "The Pit" was
actually a sequel to "The Octopus", which tells of the struggle between the
California wheat farmers and the railroad companies.
13. "The Jungle", a novel by Upton Sinclair (1878—1968), was published in
1906. Its detailed first-hand description of conditions in the Chicago
stockyards sparked off a campaign that led to the passage of a Pure Foodand
Drug Act and a Meat Inspection Act by the US Congress. The novel gave a
most compelling picture of the humans engaged in the industry where only
the squeals of the animals escaped being converted into profits.
14. Sandburg, Carl (1878—1967). Born in Illinois, Carl Sandburg wrote in
his free verse of the turbulent life he had observed in the small prairie
towns of Illinois and in the raw metropolis in Chicago. He first gained
reputation with his "Chicago Poems" (1915). He was awarded the Pulit-zer
Prize (1951) for his "Collected Poems".
15. Within a decade, however, New York City captured the tallest sky-
scraper lead and held it. The champion until May 1973, was Manhattan's
1,350-feet-high, twin-towered World Trade Center, which tops the Empire
State Building by 100 feet. But now, after a lapse of about 80 years,
Chicago again boasts the tallest tower—the Sears, Roebuck and Co. Building,
which soars 1,450 feet above the city.
16. "Big Bill" Thompson (1869—1944) served three terms as mayor of Chicago,
became notorious for political machinations. Thompson practised what in
American political terminology is known as the "spoils system"—"to the
victor belongs the spoils". In the 1920's it seemed that power in Chicago
was shared between Thompson, entrenched in City Hall, and Capone, sitting
with his gunmen in the Lexington Hotel. This state of bliss was enjoyed by
the financiers, industrialists, gangsters and
politicians.
17. Samuel Insull (1859—1938)—public-utilities financier. By 1907 he
overcame the competing publjc-utilities companies in Chicago and soon he
came to control the city's transit system. When the Depression broke out in
1929, Insult's pyramid of corporations was one of the first to collapse
into bankruptcy. Thousands of his stockholders were ruined. Insull
disappeared before he could be brought into court
18 Al Caponet(1899—1947)—American gang leader in Chicago in the 1920's. He
received tribute from businessmen and politicians. His crime syndicate
terrorized Chicago and controlled the gambling there. Capone' was
mysteriously murdered and given a funeral featured by more than twenty
truckloads of floral wreaths and numerous limousines filled "with
gangsters. Thousands watched while the newsreel cameras cranked away. Crime
as big business went on; in time the warfare between gangs produced a new
"czar".
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