|
"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.
| |
|
