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Labor Day was enacted into law
at different periods since 1887. The list below
indicates the year of enactment for the given
states.
|
Alabama |
1892 |
Montana |
1891 |
California |
1893 |
Nebraska |
1889 |
Colorado |
1887 |
New Hampshire |
1891 |
Connecticut |
1889 |
New Jersey |
1887 |
Delaware |
1893 |
New York |
1887 |
Dist. of Columbia |
1894 |
Ohio |
1890 |
Florida |
1893 |
Oregon |
1887 |
Georgia |
1891 |
Pennsylvania |
1889 |
Illinois |
1891 |
Rhode Island |
1893 |
Indiana |
1891 |
South Carolina |
1891 |
Iowa |
1890 |
Tennessee |
1891 |
Kansas |
1891 |
Texas |
1893 |
Kentucky |
1898 |
Utah |
1892 |
Louisiana |
1892 |
Virginia |
1892 |
Maine |
1891 |
West Virginia |
1899 |
Massachusetts |
1887 |
Washington |
1891 |
Minnesota |
1893 |
Wisconsin |
1893 |
Missouri |
1895 |
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Labor Day Year
|
Venue/Event
|
1908 |
Kennywood Park Picnic |
1909 |
Exposition Park, Conneaut Lake |
1910 |
City Dedication of Labor Temple |
1911 |
Parade & River Boat Excursion |
1912 |
Parade |
1930 |
(C.L.U. minute entry - Aug. 21) |
1931 |
West View Park |
1932 |
Westview Park (Parade?) |
1933 |
Westview Park |
1934 (Monday Sept. 3) |
Westview Park |
1935 |
Kennywood |
1940 (Sept. 2) |
Intown Parade |
"Labor Day differs in every essential 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 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, l883.
In l884 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 l885 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 2l,
l887. 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."
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