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 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 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.
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.
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.