Page:Karl Liebknecht - Militarism (1917).djvu/175

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SOME CARDINAL SINS
143

given no time to enjoy its exploit, and had to retire soon in a badly beaten-up condition. St. Louis, which for a time was entirely in the hands of the strikers, was finally re-conquered for "law and order" by the entire police force and several companies of the militia, after a veritable siege of the headquarters of the executive committee.[1]

The terror which overtook Chicago in the month of May, 1886, is attributable to the Pinkertons and the police force. Mr. McCormick, of the McCormick Reaper Works, let his armed Pinkertons loose upon the strikers (to protect the "willing workers," as was alleged), and thus started off the sanguinary attacks by the police, who clubbed men, women and children without distinction, killed six persons and wounded numerous others. That occurred on May 3. On the 4th of May the celebrated dynamite bomb affair occurred, which produced a violent street battle in which 4 workmen were killed and about 50 wounded, whilst of the police 7 were killed and 60 wounded. The


  1. See Hillquit's History of Socialism in the United States, which has been mostly used for the part referring to the United States.