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Show 1SS w iff OF lis Origin And Ihingsi It Stands Yon f If 7 tember day thirty- lj? two J'ears SO. the Vi scattered groups 5K'y of wayfarers i along Broadway XVT'Tj watched the !?$-VIm ranks of worklng-I worklng-I ajVs men march down LI irjltl ish street, but a JyYy SlmJl few thousand In f-S V CJ number, with little lit-tle of noise and less of pomp and display, the man must have been a dreamer, indeed, who could see from that small beginning begin-ning America's great Labor day of the present. But, as far as can be learned, this parade, Sept. 5, 1882, was the first time that the labor unions set aside a specific day devoted to the goddess at whose shrine they worshiped, and turned out in full force that all the world might see. And this demonstration demon-stration was confined solely to New York city. Tims Was Auspicious. Tt was on the occasion of the annual an-nual meeting of tbe Knights of Labor, which was held there that year. This organization oi labor had been founded about fifteen years before by some striking garment workers of numbers, few for these days, but imposing im-posing then, so aroused the feelings of Price that he leaned over to the rest of us and, addressing Richard Griffith in particular, exclaimed: " 'This is Labor day, Uncle Dick! Labor day now and hereafter!" "That moment I have always considered consid-ered to be the instant when Labor day was born. The incident, trivial in itself, was the nucleus of many a conference. Each of us worked to the end of having a particular day set apart by law devoted to the consideration consider-ation and interests of the laboring classes." But it was not achieved immediately. immediate-ly. Each year more and more lodges In more and more cities of the country coun-try fell into line with the suggestion and set apart a day. There was no action ac-tion taken by the states. Indeed, the movement for a Labor day had reached continent-wldo proportions before be-fore It was even broached, with any result, in the legislatures of the various va-rious states. Typically American Idea. But the genius of the American people peo-ple was behind the idea. Olivor Wendell Wen-dell Holmes, greatest of genial pMl-osophers, pMl-osophers, In speaking of the inborn desire of the American people to perpetuate per-petuate some idea that is dear to them by the dedication of a special day to it, says somewhere that if a party of Americans were shipwrecked upon a desert island the first thing they would do would be to hold a meeting and organize. Their proceedings they would then ratify in a formal banquet, even though they feasted on nothing but raw crawfish, and they would conclude con-clude the whole thing by setting apart that day as hereafter to be annually kept holy in memory of their adventure. adven-ture. And so, in keeping with this American Ameri-can spirit, the leaders of labor, backed by their followers, more and more spread the propaganda of Labor day; each year they held their day holy, demonstrating the faith that was in them by a parade of all the crafts. Philadelphia. It was born at a time when the laboring man was beginning to do a good deal of hard thinking for himself and wonder quite a deal whether all this talk about the blessings bless-ings of poverty and the lowly poor being God's own was quite as true as Its smug-faced teachers had, for generations, gen-erations, been dinning into the ears of the man behind the hammer and the shovel. And so the Knights of Labor, filled with those doubts, throve amain. At their head was Terence V. Powderly. now occupying a responsible position In the new Department of Commerce. "It has been stated at various times that Labor day had this or that man for Its father," said Mr. Powderly, when asked concerning this occasion of momentous birth. "But the day had no father, or rather," he corrected with a smile, "it had many fathers, and I think I should know, having been present at the birth. "Labor day, as we know it today, was a growth, born from the perception percep-tion of many men at the same time of the need of such a day. Of such movements, It is always hard to fix j :::':":"-;-:-'.-:vw.-r-'' : jffy. ' J : S: I v f i 7 f J "4 i an exact moment when they spring Into being when, from a vague idea they become the practical thing. But of Labor day It can be said with certainty cer-tainty that it was born in New York city Sept. 5, 1S22. In Honor of Knights of Labor. "At that time the Knights of Labor, of which I was grand master workman, work-man, were holding their annual convention con-vention in that city. The labor unions of New York determined to give a demonstration in our honor, and so, on the ufternoon of the day mentioned, they paraded to the number of several thousand. "So eagerly had the idea been grasped by the labor folks of New York that the whole day was practically prac-tically given over to labor just as the Fourth of July is given over to Samuel Gompers. President American Federation of Labor. And this grew until the lawmakers of the country must needs take notice no-tice of such an Insistent call. Accordingly, on Jan. 4, 1387, a bill was introduced in the legislature of New York state, providing for the setting set-ting aside, as a legal holiday, devoted to the interests of labor, the first Monday Mon-day in each September the first notice no-tice taken' by any state of the Labor day movement. But though New York was the first to take up the matter, she was not1 the first state to formally adopt it, into her laws. For faraway Oregon, in whose legislature a Labor day bill, was introduced January 17, passed ib into a law by the signature of its governor gov-ernor February 21, thus writing her name at the head of the states in adopting the movement as a formal state measure. It was not until May 6 of the same year that the New-York New-York bill, introduced in January, wa3 passed and signed by the governor of that state. Two States Divide Honor. Thus New York and Oregon may be said to divide between them the honor of first formally recognizing Labor day New York by introduction of the first bill, Oregon by the passage of the first law. After these two states had formally set aside a day the others followed with more or less alacrity. It should be said, In Justice to these latter states, that their delay in passing a measure which, it was then clear to the world, was desired by a large body of desirable citizens, was not due to any organized opposition against such a measure on the part of any political party or class of people, but was due to two natural causes. One, the congestion of many bills In the various legislatures, whose consider-, ation, from local causes, was a matter of great urgency. The other, that, as the day had become, by common consent con-sent of the people throughout the country, a day of holiday, any ratification ratifica-tion of such adoption by the people was a matter of pure formality. It was much like the case of Deco ration day. The spirit and sentiment of the people in the South, where most of the graves of the Civil war were dug, crystallized upon a certain time in the early summer to honor the memory of the dead by decoration of the cemeteries, alike of Confederate and Union dead. In the course of years a certain day was formally adopted by law by the various states: but few people can recall when their : particular Etate passed r ich. law. Terence V. Powderly. the consideration of our national independence. in-dependence. "We were deep In deliberations on that day. I well remember, for the cause of labor, before that time an infant in swaddling clothes, was beginning begin-ning to walk erect, and its inarticulate cry of the past was framing itself Into sentences for the world to listen. Therefore, when we were informed that the laboring people of New York had made the day a virtual holiday and would parade in our honor, we adjourned to review the procession from the stand erected in Union Square. "Upon that platform were, among others, Hugh F. Pentecost, Robert Price, a coal miner of Pennsylvania and member of the General Executive Board of the Knights of Labor, and Seneral Worthy Foreman Richard Sriffith, a veteran in the cause. "As the procession passed by, Its |