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And The Labor Movement
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"Labor Day differs in every essential way from the other
holidays of the year in any country," said Samuel Gompers, founder and
longtime president of the American Federation of Labor. "All other
holidays are in a more or less degree connected with conflicts and
battles of man's prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed and
power, of glories achieved by one nation over another. Labor Day...is
devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race, or nation."
Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation
of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic
achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national
tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength,
prosperity, and well-being of our country.
More than 100 years after the first Labor Day
observance, there is still some doubt as to who first proposed the
holiday for workers.
Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general
secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder
of the American Federation of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to
honor those "who from rude nature have delved and carved all the
grandeur we behold."
But Peter McGuire's place in Labor Day history has not
gone unchallenged. Many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, not
Peter McGuire, founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the
contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the
International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the
holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in
New York. What is clear is that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor
Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and
picnic.
The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday,
September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the
Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day
holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.
In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as
the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged
similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York
and celebrate a "workingmen's holiday" on that date. The idea spread
with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was
celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.
Through the years the nation gave increasing emphasis to
Labor Day. The first governmental recognition came through municipal
ordinances passed during 1885 and 1886. From them developed the movement
to secure state legislation. The first state bill was introduced into
the New York legislature, but the first to become law was passed by
Oregon on February 21, 1887. During the year four more states —
Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York — created the Labor
Day holiday by legislative enactment. By the end of the decade
Connecticut, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania had followed suit. By 1894, 23
other states had adopted the holiday in honor of workers, and on June 28
of that year, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in
September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and
the territories.
The form that the observance and celebration of Labor
Day should take were outlined in the first proposal of the holiday — a
street parade to exhibit to the public "the strength and esprit de corps
of the trade and labor organizations" of the community, followed by a
festival for the recreation and amusement of the workers and their
families. This became the pattern for the celebrations of Labor Day.
Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later, as more
emphasis was placed upon the economic and civic significance of the
holiday. Still later, by a resolution of the American Federation of
Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as
Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of
the labor movement.
The character of the Labor Day celebration has undergone
a change in recent years, especially in large industrial centers where
mass displays and huge parades have proved a problem. This change,
however, is more a shift in emphasis and medium of expression. Labor Day
addresses by leading union officials, industrialists, educators, clerics
and government officials are given wide coverage in newspapers, radio,
and television.
The vital force of labor added materially to the highest
standard of living and the greatest production the world has ever known
and has brought us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals
of economic and political democracy. It is appropriate, therefore, that
the nation pay tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the
nation's strength, freedom, and leadership — the American worker. |