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Show 'fflie Oiifim of 0) H I , , 5 .51 V' iV o- Monday in September should be sot Y - '"" V '' ;'"'' JUy' 'V''S ' x' . lrt us "u laborers' nutloiml noil- !l V . '"RS? ' 'i'v'':VV '' ' 3 ''" and recommended Us observance , ' V&' ' 'CVn J "by all wage workers. Irrespective of. ' ' ::a-v SS. - "iVHvir sex, calling or nationality." Although i V 'i .C4 vi. ? popular response to this resolution fv 'V' -X i'S--i I X' '-''- ' was spontaneous, It took untiring X i .--V,. ''KJ T sV''?"''' work on the part ot organized labor . I i ''' 1 ; ?V" -vfwttf ; ' to secure legal sanction for such a I Yv " ' ''& v'a V- Y''--i?':y:'W l''ly. Although congress and JL V, '" V$V5,V,.V svfc' X?--'3 state legislatures received constant t h ' d 'V requests tor the enactment of fed- - V"-' . "if'-.v end and state laws recognizing the ' . ' ' day as a national holiday, It was ten ; ' ''''' ; . 1 , A ftf-ty"?. years before the passage of an act V?: SS-U V'v''' i''' b.v congress, establishing the first ' V 4"-W y Monday In September as a legal holl- Rv ELMO SCOTT WATSON ,W ' ,' ,i,iv for the District of Columbia and r' s sr.r'iT.Mr.r.u :t win fi tie observed the forty-ills forty-ills siitl1 atinl ersarr of i M I .J tioMihlv tthlell o:''..itl:l!ed Si la America but which. ' W In Uss than half a cni- ; tury, has In-come ln:cr- ! f,rv. national Ui H- '"l"'-"TT"?"" '"l"'-"TT"?"" Kor that Is the due of 'ry1 ,he !,n!::l1 celebration K- J of i:1i.or day and its fclveat recalls the little Rr-ttp of ' workors in New York city who on :' jiay S, heard the sticestlon ; which eventually resulted la the ad-- ad-- f.ioa of this holiday to our national o'.er.thr. Tie nan to whom the Idea of UVr day is usually credited was 7 F. J. MeCiiiire. for many years secre- ti.-T of the Vnit.-d I'.roih.erhood of Ca-e-'-ors and Joiners of America, a ri.-e president of the American Fed-eri'.:a Fed-eri'.:a of I.aNT and one of the be-t-' iii-in labor leaders of his day. j Mcluire's thought was that one day -( .1'. (J -it ,-ar should be set ns:d as a p r-Lrral boil-lay f-r the ni.-n ati-1 worn- -, !.o t-il. In its lal-.ial form he 2 c ::or.,; latts a f-s:;val day f-r only tse who work with I a:..!- a:i 1 ir.'iv a day to be d.-voteJ t- p.ir.i.!--s. i : : --s ar. 1 s-.-wh-s. V ,; :.re .rv-t ;.-.-J bis hi- a at -1 a y ti e n- !y f.-nn-l vn:r..l :a L' t a in N-w Vo;k city in M..y. ills cl '-l-e f--r S'l- h a hoii ia-. l'e frt Mon-l:-.v In S.-;.tembT a - a 5tr:.-cric date r-.i 1 vay h tw.-.-n t'o; F.:.:-:ii ..f J-:'y and Tl-:i!.!--!.vini. He i -M; t! at ti ls was the t:ost suitable ay ' ti entire year for a new ho'.l r.i i: a:.d e?;'e.':.aliy for the workers. f.-.r It oTered a rv.vlte in their labor a :i a.r the h"t weather of July and : ' Airist. The choice of the day of the : c: wek was a hap;y one. too. for It -.12 really meant a two-day respite from :i :2- rnri ?ur..;ay and Monday. How t.1 his choice w-as Is sho-.vn by the Ci fict that in recent years there has I r.i2 tn a tf-n kr.cy toward a triple boii- i.r. the luhorer laying down bis tods :? 'J Fri lay evenins and not taking thetn :: ::- i-j si';, in until Tuesday morninz. In 'at. no other holiday of the year, 2i- yar in and year out. offers a similar i-ivantaje to that of Labor day. -: ' McGwire's sua-estion was readily a'.p-pi by the members of the -n-r"J t.-al Labor union and the f.r-t c.-h br.i-i br.i-i ton took place In New York on S--p- ::'2'?; tercber 5. 1S2. Although, as prevl-asly prevl-asly stated, McOuire Is u-ua'ly rred-' rred-' Ittd with having orii'inated this boll- "f- ay. thr-re is another man who had i ' f.ce part In It That man is Tlieo-- Tlieo-- -1 (lore F. Cuno and his part In the ; orii-in of Labor day is told in the fol- i:;"'i lowing story which appeared In the Kansas City Star under the headline , r'f "The Aristocrat Who Thinned the First Labor Day": ' From his Utopian color.y ph--el In . ... r; tt.i tUTi-.p-dottd uplands of V'-rr.on . Parish. Traiicinns Thunrlnri- F fiUnO. - '.' le'wnational Socialist who rut Ain't- ian labor to irarcliinit thirty-five d -i Jr aito. will mark with ,-atisfaotion J- i'.on'Iav's parade of labor all over the t-'nitil States. Cuno, an aristocrat by birth, breed -I1-", and 'nelination. despite his long y- : ' 1'fe of poeialism and "ro-opera t ivism." ilo no marching Mond.iv. Every - 'is'j liay labor's day in the colony that lie afe Job Harriman, Los Anff-b.s (.f;.i- lvyer, e5tabll!ned first In the Mojave "f-sert and later two miles south of lnls Parish seat. Every day of the "05 ' 1 'iemonstration of the theories that j-.;-'- . Theodore F Cuno was beeinning to -3 R'impse In 1882, when, durin the ',';. '' Powderly fight In the Knlerhts of habor, he rote the first American Labor day proclamation. ','ic';a. h'riah tStevena" secret society of 18i3 , hai evolved greatly from Its original 'J:.;!- 'orm when Cuno, then editor of the r'"V- Erewer-i! Journal In New York, wrote -. eJr ' the impie call to labor, which he still ti.is m n's n,-r:pbi,-k nt the I.lano col-onv col-onv -h.u-k Sitn-e the llrst t;,-nrral ns-,-::.!.!' of the Kic.kMs ef Labor nt Kr.ulaii;, la, th ornaiui:Hiiin had be-K-in to nssuiee the form whleh It was fo maintain mil l the Atm-rU-nn Kedi-ra- to-u ef 1 ..i r.. r di-i'l.o-.-d it as the most powerful t.iator in Anieriean tabor affairs. af-fairs. In 1-iSl the noi-lety had dropp.d rvll Cirri (-.irbrlonl with which Slovens Slo-vens had endowed It. In 1SSI, while the commotion over the l'owderly leader-ulup leader-ulup was threaienlnff to split the KnlKhts asunder, a croup of the leaders. lead-ers. Inolud'.nK Cuno. met In New York and made plans for the first Labor day demonstration to provo the solidarity of laber. Itj.vir.pt written the proclamation ca'.linpr for the parade. Cuno marched nt the head of t;.e procession rarrylnpf banner on which' were Inscribed the words: "PAY NO RENT" And now. thirty-five years later, he Is re.ibi r.K In fact the doctrine that he p-ea.-h-d on his banner In that first parade r.f labor Kor ns a colonist of New Llano. Theodore Cuno pays no fl n'-' thr does r nay board, nor Is be b.'-h-r-J hr tailur bills, shoe bills or'l tbt bil.s. As a member of the color col-or v he s entitled to all those things rd ih.refore contributes his share of e rjo-.v labor. That Is the way they do ib.ni-'s'nt Llaio colony. ,-u-v-. believes that despite the loKal d ri cal'.l-s Ihrouch which the colony b p -.d under the administration of ;V.e much discussed C.-orse T. Pickett. e Llaao experiment will succeed. K,-.h savs Cuno, Is -bel.evinq some-U some-U - Vat you know Isn't so.- but he has faith in the colony of which he Is ,h, d-an and f-r which he has been "rr,- .hepro.resslve ..ride, of -ra's'Ied" day Parade In New York, the scholarly, -cnlcold man of seven B and a backBrouna -iBat education holds to th, , L American toilers the place of L,arp;.'n;he courts had not passed on rabsh-aod .mauation. Now all T Ur rrSlv-domlna. in a part-nTrsh part-nTrsh ip"o which it Is as indispensab.e as cap. tab world about Lately aloof from the w or him, snrronnJcJ scrapbooks and library, his numerous . rap h a r problem, of the world In view of the r-r reatlv embroiled wh:ch he nat,nnal repute. ss a Socialist ot B ,gian baron, ran1d, r;heTheore,ically Cuno has nnd wealth. ineo lnterest In nolhins more n (he simpltf Llano colonv He and the overall ",( rm t smolie3 . rouKh colony fhoe9-,3,ln th0se and the cellent clears: and wiin ra(h classics he Is "Unt 1 & crust f have a - a than to live comfortably unlipil- hiUay of putun.it , .. Iiaj extended to evtii iL.iS until it hau t no of the coimtr. t Dtc worked itu s .rain als0. nian wh0 worhed v. U R in the years that relaxation has becotne a fes Ut q oHf ttn recipe.a -on o nIonaIrc9 ana su,,;ll stru t tr u . ml:lworl;ers lu.lidays fu, if tl.ere is larIty. t,,nt ',aS,S net" "n toward maUing Kormal action ay Ll'b0r federation of Organised WkC" , L bor L 'ions of the Unit-Trades Unit-Trades and the predecessor ed States and I C naratlon of Labor, ot the American I eae chicago nt us nnnnal convent on In ,n 1SS., There the de c a resolution Rtaiin Monday in Seiitetnber Bhould he set apart as "u laborers' national holiday" holi-day" nnd recommended Its observance "by till wnj;e workers, Irrespective ot sex, calling or nationality." Although nomtlar rcsnonse to this resolution was Bpontaneous, It took untiring i-work i-work on the part ot organized labor to secure lepil snnctlon for such a holiday. Although congress nnd state legislatures received constant reipiests for the enactment ot federal fed-eral nnd state laws recognizing the day ns a nationnl holiday, It wna ten years before the passage of an act by congress, establishing the first Monday in September ns a legal holl-ihiv holl-ihiv for the District of Columbia nnd the territories. Oregon was the first slate to net upon the matter and It legalized Labor day as a holiday in 1SP3. Other states eventually followed fol-lowed Oregon's lead until It Is now a legal holiday throughout the United States and extends to Hawaii, Torto Kico and the Virgin Islands. In most slates It Is established by statutory provision, but In Wisconsin and Wyoming Wy-oming Labor day Is established by the governor's proclamation. From a strictly American holiday to one of world-wide observance has -been the history of Labor day since Its establishment forty years ago. In continental Kurope, however, it Is observed ob-served on tjie first of May instead ot the first Monday In September, but this ndoptlon of the American Idea came about In connection with the eight-hour movement, Inaugurated by the American Federation of Laoor iu ISs'J. In that year a meeting of the International Labor congress was held In l'aris and Samuel Gompers, president presi-dent of the American Federation of Labor, sent a message to the congress ur-in- the International body to cooperate co-operate In the move for the eight-hour dav nnd appealing for demonstrations In all Kuropean countries on May 1 of the following year. flomper's suggestion found favor with the International organization and plans were made for such a demonstration the following year. So the start, made In 1S00, caught the fancy of Kuropean workers and May 1 became the recognized Labor day in Europe. However, European countries coun-tries have been slower than this one in granting a legal status to the day, probably because the May day demon-strations demon-strations were at first made the occa- l -itloa nnd distUTb- slon tor rauiciu au.. -- ances which brought the workers into conflict with the authorities. In lata vears, however, the scenes of violence have largely disappeared and now five European countries-Austria, Czechoslovakia, Czecho-slovakia, Estbonia, Finland and Madeira Ma-deira recognize May 1 as a legal boli- 0- iv In South America the same thing is "'true in Colombia, Ecuador and Uru'-uay and in Latin America May day'ls a legal holiday in Haiti and 1- anama. Incidentally, one of the possessions pos-sessions of the United States, the I-hilippines, follows the European custom iu celebrating Labor day In Mav instead of in September The labor holiday. Is celebrated variously in the British possessions h oughout the world. Canada Joins Witb her sister on the south by celebrating cele-brating it on the first Monday in September Sep-tember and Newfoundland obsenes I on September 2. Queensland and Western Australia follow the European custom by observing May 1. but ... toria Australia, observes Lil t- Hour day" on April 21. New South s on October tralia on Octobe. 14. All of these cetebrations in foreign countries, however, how-ever, go back to the basic idea winch !. presented to the Central Labor union in New York city In lib-, so Z is why it can be said that Labor lov whatever the date of it may be, ?s U.e one American national holiday Ivh cb has become an international holiday and it is one important con-tH con-tH l uti'on which America has made to he social history of the world. |