So just what is the history of this holiday marking the end of summer?
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
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.
Labor Day Legislation
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.
A Nationwide Holiday
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.
