Sept. 7 is Labor Day, and a time to salute the phenoms, “who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold.”
Those words belong to Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, co-founder of the American Federation of Labor, and the man some believe first suggested the idea of an annual, nationwide day off for working Americans. Others credit the concept to Matthew Maguire, a machinist and secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., who recommended the observance while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York.
Whoever its founder, Labor Day remains a true-blue holiday with a valiant, long-standing history going back to the Panic of 1893 when the unemployed masses, frustrated by the economic crisis, rose up against city leaders. The following year’s Pullman Strike in Illinois and the May Day riots in Cleveland convinced President Grover Cleveland to propose a bill making Labor Day a national holiday.
Long before it went national, the first Labor Day was celebrated on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 1882 in New York City, the labor capital of the world. Two years later, the first Monday in September was designated Labor Day in the city, and the Central Labor Union urged other groups to celebrate a “workingmen’s holiday” on that date.
These days, Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer, celebrated with family barbecues and endless retail therapy, but its focus — American workers — should not be forgotten. They are the unsung backbone of our economy. Their exceptional contributions have helped to make this nation stable, prosperous, and the undisputed leader of the free world.
They are the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, the firefighter, the cleaner, the cop, the farmer, the shopkeeper, the office worker, the bus driver, the chief operating officer, the cook, the mail lady, the reporter, the social worker, the sanitation man, the zookeeper, the teacher, the shoemaker, the health worker, and all the other laborers, traders, vendors, entrepreneurs, and executives who have engineered the best production system in history, improved our standard of living, and made the American Dream possible.
On Monday remember to salute the person responsible for America’s continued success — the American worker.
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