Today, there are no longer 12-hour working days. There
are good wages. Workers can also get insurance, pensions, and pay when they are sick. But
more important, workers have gained respect. After all, the United States grew into a
great nation by the hard work of many men and women, who work at their jobs every day of
the year. That is why we, as Americans, celebrate Labor Day.
"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.
Patriotic Bunting Border
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 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.
How to Fly the USA Flag
Lets Say Thanks
www.LetsSayThanks.com
You can pick out a thank you card and Xerox will print it and it will be
sent to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq. You can't pick out
who gets it, but it will go to some member of the armed services. How
AMAZING it would be if we could get everyone we know to send a card.
This is a great site. Please send a card. It is FREE and it only takes a
second.
The House Chamber and Capitol Activities
(pdf)
Download entire 10-page activity booklet includes coloring
pages, a word puzzle, and a maze.
