Labor Day 2019
On
September 2, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor celebrates and honors the
greatest worker in the world – the American worker. Labor Day 2019 is the 125th
anniversary of Labor Day being celebrated as a national holiday.
Labor Day:
What it Means
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.
Labor Day
Legislation
The
first governmental recognition came through municipal ordinances passed in 1885
and 1886. From these, a movement developed 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 1887, 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 more states had
adopted the holiday, and on June 28, 1894, Congress passed an act making the
first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of
Columbia and the territories.
Founder of
Labor Day
More
than a century 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 co-founder 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.
By
1894, 23 more states had adopted the holiday, and on June 28, 1894, President
Grover Cleveland signed a law making the first Monday in September of each year
a national holiday.
A Nationwide
Holiday
The
form that the observance and celebration of Labor Day should take was 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 changed 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 pays tribute on Labor Day to the
creator of so much of the nation's strength, freedom, and leadership – the
American worker.
