Why is there a Labor Day holiday celebrated in September when there already is a perfectly good labor day celebrated on May Day?
While you will find no text book with a clear explanation—there is none—we can infer the reasons between the two days that honor the working man.
May Day is the traditional day that the workers of the world unite. It has long been associated with socialism, communism and even anarchy and is almost impossible to dissociate from radicalism. On May 4, 1886, a violent fight between Chicago police and strikers pushing for an eight-hour work day broke out. The deadly Haymarket riots, as the incident became known, spurred an international workers’ day that was championed by the likes of Eugene Debs and Samuel Gompers.
Samuel Gompers, while more moderate than Debs, also pushed for workers’ rights on May Day. Evening Star (Washington, DC), April 16, 1922Peter J. McGuire, an official with the American Federation of Labor, was a pro-workman radical…so much so that his own father disinherited him. But time tempered McGuire who realized that to effect change with industrialists and other decision makers affecting laborers, he had to amend his message.
Perhaps it was McGuire’s practicality that led to his idea for a separate workers’ holiday to be held in September. In the spring of 1882 he promoted the idea of a Labor Day parade in September, “as it would come at the most pleasant season of the year, nearly midway between the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving, and would fill a wide gap in the chronology of legal holidays.”[1] The Central Labor Union celebrated the first Labor Day on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, complete with parade and picnic.
Others are credited with the idea of the September Labor Day, but who originated the idea is less important than the why. Were the turn-of-the-century labor leaders savvy enough at public relations to know they would be more successful in changing industrialists’ minds to their way of thinking if they were less radical? After all, McGuire’s testimony before a United States Senate Committee was so sensible that he admitted “every strike is a success” despite winning or losing because laborers were always treated better after a strike regardless of the victor.[2]
That September 5, 1882, Labor Day, initiated by Peter McGuire, laid the groundwork for following Labor Days. Various unions took up the celebration, and by 1887 Oregon was the first state to designate Labor Day a state holiday. Other states followed, and in 1894 a South Dakota senator and a House member from New York introduced bills making Labor Day a national holiday. On June 28, 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed the bill into law.
[1] Stewart, Estelle M. “Origin and Significance of Labor Day.” Monthly Labor Review 43, no. 2 (August 1936): 279-284.
[2] Grossman, Jonathan. “Who is the Father of Labor Day?” Labor History 14, no 4 (Fall 1973): 612-623.
Comments (2)
While much has been made in this country that the first Labor Day to honor workers was conducted in the USA in September of 1982, prior to the Haymarket Affair, which in Chicago on May 4, 1886, it is incredible that countries around the globe began celebrating Labor Day as of May 1st, the USA would not follow suit,except for the very reason that the bloody Haymarket Affair occurred in the USA with President Grover Cleveland, a conservative Democrat. calling out the National Guard to beat the heads of the striking workers.
One would not think that the date of the Boston Tea Party, the end of WWI, formerly called “Armistice Day”, should not be celebrated on the correct dates of these historical events. While July 4th may credibly criticized for not being held on July 3rd due to that being the date of the first signing of the Declaration of Independence, a day difference is understandable. But, to ignore the significance of the date or even the month, of the Haymarket Affair occurred in 1882, is nothing less than an attempt to deny history and the effects of the event on the world labor movement.
I absolutely agree with Victoria. What occurred was surely an attempt to deny history. I am glad this article was published with the facts. Nothing can remain hidden forever.