July 23: Berkman Shoots Henry Frick
Alexander Berkman, an anarchist who was lover and comrade to Emma Goldman, attempted to assassinate Henry Clay Frick, chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company, in his office on this date in 1892, to avenge the deaths of nine miners killed by Pinkerton guards on July 6 during infamous Homestead Strike in Pennsylvania. Berkman shot Frick twice and stabbed him several times before being subdued. Frick was a notoriously aggressive capitalist described in the press as “the most hated man in America.” He lived to be 70. Berkman would serve fourteen years in prison before being pardoned in 1906. From 1907 until 1915, he was editor of Goldman’s publication, Mother Earth. On the evening of Frick’s death in 1919, Berkman and Emma Goldman were attending a farewell banquet in Chicago before their expulsion from the country. When a reporter asked him to comment on Frick’s death, he said that Frick had been “deported by God. I’m glad he left the country before me.” In 1936, suffering with a painful prostate condition, Berkman took his own life at age 66.
“We all believe in violence and we all disbelieve in violence; it all depends upon the circumstances. Under ordinary circumstances no one wants violence, no one wants bloodshed; and yet certain circumstances arise when violence seems to be necessary in order perhaps to combat greater violence, in order to combat a greater evil that may menace humanity.” —Alexander Berkman
George Jochnowitz -
Did Berkman think that if he succeeded in killing Frick, he would have in any way improved the lot of exploited workers?
If he were alive today, he would support the NRA.
I am reminded of retired Representative Jay Dickey, Republican of Arkansas, has his own interpretation of what the Second Amendment means. He said, “We have the right to bear arms because of the threat of government taking over the freedoms that we have” (cited in The New York Times, January 25, 2011). Representative Dickey is in favor of overthrowing the government of the United States by force and violence.
MICKEY FLACKS -
Duh… The Homestead Strike was a strike against Carnegie STEEL Corp., and the dead were steelworkers, not miners — although I will admit that in US labor history, probably most of the dead were miners… Not this time, though!