Show tah baw a al 4 w monal via W 7 e 4 Z azz 1 by ELMO SCOTT WATSON IN N SEPTEMBER n 8 will be observed the forty sixth anniversary of a holiday which originated in america but which in less than hall half a century has become inter A national in its scope for that Is the date of savi the annual celebration of labor day and its advent recalls the little group of workers in new york city who on may 8 1882 heard the suggestion which eventually resulted in the addition of this holiday to our national calendar the man to whom the idea of labor day js Is usually credited was P J mcguire for many years secretary of the united brotherhood of carpenters Carp entera and joiners of america a vice president dent of the american federation of labor and one of the best known labor leaders of his day thought was that one day in the year should be set aside as a general holiday for the men and women who toll in its initial form he contemplates a festival day for fol only who work with hands and muscle a day to be devoted to parades picnics and s speeches peeches mcguere mcguere presented his idea at a se session selon of tile the newly formed central in new ill may 1882 nis his clin choice ace for such a holiday was the first monday in depte september a at a strategic date midway be tween tile fourth of july and thanksgiving tle he fc felt it that this was the most suitable day of the entire year for a new holl bol I 1 day and especially for the workers for it offered a respite in their labors after the hot weather of july and august the choice of tile the day of I 1 the lie week was a happy one too for li it really meant a two day respite from froin work sunday and monday how flow wise ills his choice was la Is shown by the fact that in recent years there hns hits been a tendency toward a triple holl boll day the laborer laying down ills hla tools friday evening and not taking them up again until tuesday morning in fact no other hol holiday iday of the year year in and year out offers a similar advantage to that of labor day maguires mcguires McGui res suggestion suggest len was readily accepted by the members of the central la labor or union and the first celeb celebration raj dil took place in new york on september 8 5 although as previously stated mcguere Is usually credited with having originated this holiday there Is another roan man who had hatt J fame part in it IL that man Is theodore F cuno and his pirt la in the origin of labor day Is told lr in alle the following story which appeared tn in the kansas city star under the headline of tile the aristocrat who planned the first labor day crotti his hie utopian colony shack in the tha clump dotted of vernon parish louisiana theodore F curio cuno international socialist SOcIal lat who let amerlean american lalor labor to marching thirty flye five years agn ae win will mark with satisfaction Mon mondays Monda davs vB parade of tabor labor all over the united states cuno tin an aristocrat by birth breeding and nelin atlon his long lire life of socialism and co operate elsm will oo co no marching monday every day tr iw labora day d y in the colony colon Y that the late job carriman los angeles lawyer established first in the mojave aegert and later two miles souta of this parish seat beat every day of the bcd to Is a demonstration of the the theories that theodore P F cuno was beginning to in 1882 when during the powderly fight in the knights of labor he wrote the first american labor day proclamation urlah uriah stevens secret society or of 1169 bad evolved greatly from its lt original form when cuno then editor of th the brewers journal in now new york w wrote r ot the simple call to labor he be still anz 2 I 1 has bas tn in his fits scrapbook at the llano cul ony Y shade shack since the first general assembly of the knights of labor at reading heading pa ila the organization had be eun to assume the form which it wars waa to 0 o maintain until the american federation of labor displaced dl placed it as the most mosi powerful factor in in amerle american an labor affairs in 1881 1981 th the e society had drop dropped ped all secret furbelows fur belowa belows with which elevens elevans had endowed it in 1882 while the commotion over the row powderly derly leadership was waa threatening to fallt the knights asunder a group of the lead era 8 r a including cuno met in new york a and nd made plans for the first labor day demonstration to prove the solidarity of labor having written the proclamation calling for the parade cuno marched tit at the head of tie procession carrying carryl nir it a banner on which were inscribed the words PAT NO RENT nent and now thirty alve years later he in IB realizing rea lising in fact the doctrine that he preached on hla his banner in that first parade of labor for as a colonist bf now llano theodore cuno pays no rent neither does hu ha pay board nor to Is he bothered by tailor bills shoe bills or light bills an a member of the colony he Is 3 entitled to all those things and therefore contributes his share of the colony labor that to IB the way they do things at llano colony i cuno believes that despite the legal difficulties through which the colony hns has passed under the itha much discussed george T picked the the llano linno experiment will succeed falth faith says saya cuno I 1 Is believing some borne thing that you know so 0 o but he has faith in the colony of which he Is the dean and for which he has been a financial angel noting the progressive strides of american labor in the thirty five years that have passed since the arst labor day dayl parade tn in new york the scholarly philosophic old man of seven lang languages un and a background of liberal european er 0 education holds to the opinion that never in the history of man has haa the laborer been so comfortable as I 1 Is the american at n laborer in this day when he wrote Ms his proclamation as the jefferson of the american the place of labor in the american scheme was indefinite its future nebulous collective bargaining was not generally recognized the courts had not passed on labors rights and limitations now all that Is in changed and cuno believes bel levea that labor truly dominates in a partnership to which it la Is as Indi indispensable spen sable as capital largely aloof from the world about him surrounded by hlo his excellent library tits his numerous scrapbooks and his memories cuno has a detached data c hed view of the problems of the world in which he was wa once greatly embroiled as a socialist of international repute his grandfather was a belgian baron and wealthy theoretically cuno has nothing more than his interest in llano colony he wears the simple overall uniform or of the colony and the rough colony shoes yet he ha smokes ex cellena cigars and with those and the classics he Is content 1 I would rather have a glass of water and a crust of bread in peace than to live comfortably la in unhappiness Is IB his way of putting it after the new york fork celebration ot labor day in 1882 the popularity of the he holiday grey with great swiftness until it had extended to every part of the country it became not only a holiday for the man who worked with his bis hands but tor for tile the man who worked with hla brain also in tile the years that have intervened it tins has become a festival of relaxation ution and recuperation for all strata of tour social structure for millionaires and mill workers alike so sa that it Is doubtful if there Is an adv v of our that has such universal popularity formal action toward making labor day a national holiday Iroll day was taken by the federation of trades and labor unions of the unit ed cd states and canada the predel ir sor of the american federation of labor at its annual convention in id ChIc chicago igo in 1884 there the delegates adopted a resolution stating that the first monday in september should be set apart as aa a laborers national holiday and recommended its observance ay by all wage workers irrespective of sex calling or nationality although popular response to this resola resolution tion was spontaneous it took untiring work on the part of organized tabor labor to secure legal sanction for such a holiday although congress and state legislatures received constant requests for or the enactment of federal and state laws recognizing the day na as a national holiday it was ten years before the passage of an net aci by congress establishing ill the e first monday in september ns as a legal holiday for the district of columbia and the territories oregon was waa the first state to act upon the matter and it legalized labor day as aa a holiday in 1893 other states eventually followed Oregon Or egons li lind lead until it Is now a legal holiday throughout the united states and extends to hawaii porto alco and the virgin islands in mos roost t states it Is by statutory provision but in wisconsin and wyoming oming labor day Is established by the he governors proclamation from a strictly american holiday to one of worldwide world wide observance has been the history lil story of labor day since I 1 its establishment forty years ago in continental europe however it Is observed on the the first of may instead of I 1 the first monday in september bu but t this adoption of the american idea came about in connection with the eight hour houa movement inaugurated by the american federation of labor in 1889 in that year a meeting of the international labor congress was held in paris and samuel gompers president of the american federation of labor sent a message to the congress urging the international body to cooperate in the move for the eight hout day and ap appealing for demonstrations in all european countries on may I 1 of the following year I 1 gompers compers suggestion found favor iw with ith the th e international iFer organization inIZ lind aind plans clans were made for such a demonstration the follow following lu year so the start mado in 1890 caught the fancy of european workers and maj I 1 became the recognized recognised labor da day in europe Elo however wever european countries nave have been slower than this ona in granting a legal status to the day probably because the may day demonstrations st were at first made the occasion tor for radical activities and disturbances which brought the workers into conflict with the authorities in late lata YC years ars however the scenes of violence olence il have largely disappeared and now five european countries austria czechoslovakia 0 slovakia la esthonia Esth onla finland and madeira recognize 11 may ay I 1 as a legal holt boll daay iri ID south america the same thing Is true in colombia Colomb lN ecuador and uruguay and in latin america slay may day Is a legal holiday in haiti anti and panama incidentally on one e of the possessions of the united states tile the philippines follows the european custom in celebrating labor day tn in may instead of in september the labor holiday to Is celebrated variously in the british possessions throughout the world canada jolna joins with her sister on the south by celebrating it on the first monday in september and newfoundland observes ll it on september 9 2 queensland and western australia follow fobair the european custom by observing may 1 but victoria toria australia observes eight hour dy day on april 21 new south wales on in october 0 and south australla australia on octoba 14 all of these celebrations to la foreign countries however go back to the basic idea which was presented to tile the Cef central itral labor union in new york city in 1882 so that Is why it can tx said that labor day whatever the date of it may be Is the one abne american n national liti onil holiday which has become nn international holiday and it Is one important contribution trib ution which america has hag made to the social history of f the world |