"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.
