The anarchists wanted to bring Chicago to the brink of revolution, but all the bomber succeeded in doing was to make the city’s upper and middle classes believe that the city’s workers were on the verge of armed revolt and to countenance virtually any repressive act and the suspension of civil liberties. Richard Ely, the economist and advocate of the Social Gospel, would call it “a period of police terrorism.” The arrest of anarchist leaders and their subsequent trial became a cause célèbre.
