September 20, 2007
The History of Labor Day
Labor Day: How it Came About; What it Means
“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.
Founder of Labor Day
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.