Labor Day

“ If the American Labor Day does not represent real unity and solidarity of the workers in their immediate field—the economic field—what wonder that it represents the same disruption and betrayal in the political field? ”

“ On this Labor Day weekend, Americans pay tribute to the spirit of hard work and enterprise that has always made this nation strong. Every day, our workers go to factories and offices and farms and produce the world's finest goods and services. ”

“ LABOR DAY, in the United States, a legal holiday in nearly all of the states and Territories, where the first Monday in September is observed by parades and meetings of labour organizations. In 1882 the Knights of Labor paraded in New York City on this day; in 1884 another parade was held, and it was decided that this day should be set apart for this purpose. ”

“ Tonight I ask employers, large and small, throughout the nation, to use the help of the state and Federal Employment Service whenever in the general pick-up of business they require more workers.
Tomorrow is Labor Day. Labor Day in this country has never been a class holiday. It has always been a national holiday. It has never had more significance as a national holiday than it has now. In other countries the relationship of employer and employee has been more or less been accepted as a class relationship not readily to be broken through. ”

“ The laws of our country have designated the first Monday of each September as Labor Day. It is truly an American day, for it was here that for the first time in history a government was founded on a recognition of the sovereignty of the citizen which has irresistibly led to a realization of the dignity of his occupation. ”

“ A prominent feature of May Day, distinguishing it from Labor Day, is also the recognition of the fact that “knowledge is power,” that education of the workers in true principles of the Labor Movement, is a vital thing. That is the reason one never sees ignorant and treacherous politicians disgrace the Labor banner by speeches at May Day meetings as they do at Labor Day gatherings. ”

“ Before you fire up the barbecue for the long weekend, I want to talk a little bit about the reason we get to celebrate Labor Day – and that’s the labor movement that helped build this country and our middle class. ”

“ But I wanted to take a moment to talk to you about the real meaning of Labor Day – a day we set aside every year to honor the hardworking men and women who fought for so many of the rights that we take for granted today. ”

“ Note.—As Labor Day falls upon the first Monday in September when the schools are either beginning or not yet opened, we would suggest holding the exercises upon some day later so that all the schools may take part. Let parents assist by being present. Our schools should teach that all labor is ennobling and idleness a disgrace. ”

“ Accordingly, while the Labor Day does not object to the yoke of capital being kept upon the neck of Labor indefinitely and, at best, is emblematic of the attempt to have the yoke padded, the International May Day as even its battle hymn, the “International” expresses it—is a challenge to the capitalist class, is a demand upon them to surrender, is an appeal to the wage slave class of the world to close their ranks, to rise and fight to secure their own emancipation, better future for their children, to redeem the human race. ”

“ American Labor Day is one of the institutions that is made to serve that purpose, too. The capitalist politicians have conveniently fixed it for the early part of September, about two months before Election Day, the season when the politicians make or prepare to make their nominations of candidates. The big gatherings of union men, voters, at Labor Day parades, mass meetings and picnics, supply splendid opportunities for advertising the candidacy of some capitalist politician claiming to be a “friend of Labor.” ”

“ This Labor Day, we are reminded that we didn’t become the most prosperous country in the world by rewarding greed and recklessness. ”

“ No, it is to the tune of the vulgar rag-time and of the stale, capitalist patriotic hymns that the “organized labor” forces are marching on Labor 26Day. These rag-time melodies and patriotic hymns send the cheer of joy and hope and triumph to the hearts of capitalists and politicians. But to the ears of awakened class-conscious wage slaves and revolutionists these tunes are worse than a funeral dirge for the hopes and aspirations of the proletariat! ”

“ On this Labor Day weekend, we honor the working men and women who are the strength and the soul of America. For people who work hard all year, this weekend offers the opportunity to relax with our families at a picnic, a barbecue, a beach, or just in our own homes. ”

“ This weekend we mark the 92d observance of Labor Day, a day when we celebrate the strong backs, keen minds, hard work, and dedication that have made America the mightiest nation on Earth. We celebrate this land of immigrants and their descendants, the men and women who came to this land in search of freedom and hope and the opportunity to make an honest wage. ”

“ Labor Day symbolizes our determination to achieve an economic freedom for the average man which will give his political freedom reality. ”

“ It is therefore not an accident only that at most, if not at all of the Labor Day gatherings, prominent politicians are invited to speak, and that those parades generally lead the mass of the workers past the City Hall and other such buildings, from the windows of which the politicians review the parade and flatteringly cheer the tramping hosts of poor, deluded workers. ”

“ One of the things for which labor unions have struggled is the shortening of the working day. Through their efforts, and through the awakening of public interest and knowledge in regard to the matter, the working day is now fixed by law at eight hours in most industries, often with a half holiday on Saturdays. Experience has shown that this change has in no way reduced the product of industry. There are still some industries, however, in which men toil at the hardest kind of labor for twelve or more hours a day, sometimes even including Sundays. ”

“ A vampire, when he settles down upon the body of a sleeping person and sucks its blood, is known to fan his victim with his wings, to soothe the victim’s pain, and to prevent him from waking up and driving the vampire 10away. So was the Labor Day created by the political agents of the American capitalists to fan the sleeping giant, the American working class, while the capitalists are sucking its blood. ”

“ It will be well for labor on Labor day to concentrate its vision on the United States of America. The field is sufficiently broad and there are enough object lessons in full view to engage the attention of the most critical, and it will be strange indeed if the inquiry is not made. ”

“ It is the awakened, intelligent, class-conscious Working Class of the World that stands back of the May Day. In America May Day is celebrated by the revolutionary Socialists in the political arena and, besides a few progressive locals of the American Federation of Labor, by the Industrial Workers of the World in the economic arena. ”

“ It merely produces what it needs. If society finds that a three-hour work day is requisite for the production of all that is needed, it establishes such a term of work. [187] If the methods of production improve in such wise that the supply can be raised in two hours, the two-hour work day is established. If, on the contrary, society demands the gratification of higher wants than, despite the increase of forces and the improved productivity of the process of labor, can be satisfied with two or three hours work, then the four-hour day is introduced. ”

“ As all work, men and women alike, and as machinery has been brought here to a wonderful degree of perfection, the actual labor necessary to maintain the people is, of necessity, very light. At first, a hundred or so years ago, in the early days of the community, the time of labor was fixed at five hours per day. But every decade, with the growth of the population, the labor hours have been diminishing. ”

“ In some shops week-workers are locked out for the half-day if late, or docked for every minute of time lost, an extra fine being often added. Piece workers have great freedom as to hours, and employers complain much of tardiness and absenteeism. The mere existence of health and labor laws insures privileges formerly unheard of; half-holidays in summer, vacation with pay, and shorter hours are becoming every year more frequent, better workshops are constructed, and more comfortable accommodations are being furnished. ”

“ Second, The statute does not provide that the employer and the laborer may not agree with each other as to what time shall constitute a day's work. There are some branches of labor, connected with furnaces, foundries, steam or gas works, where the labor and the exposure of eight hours a day would soon exhaust the strength of a laborer, and render him permanently an invalid. ”

“ This standardizing of the day of labor, while not general in the country, had its effect. The twelve-hour day, while still long, was a decided betterment over the sixteen-hour day. There was beginning to be a little possible margin for social, mental, and recreational activity. But the twelve-hour day must inevitably get the better of the human system and of the spirit of man. It is too long and too steady a grind, and habit and long hours soon tell their story. They inevitably lead to the condition of the "man with the hoe." ”

“ Turning now from theory to fact, we find that there has been a great improvement in the condition of labor in this respect. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the almost universal working day was, as McMaster tells us, from sun to sun. As factories grew up the habits of agricultural labor were carried over into industrial occupations, and working days of 16 and 18 hours were not uncommon. ”

“ Every morning a new handful is broken in, to stay there a week or two, if that long, and take to their heels. Praise be the labor turnover, as long as we have such brassworks.
Before eight o'clock of a cold Monday morning (thank goodness it was not raining, since we stood in shivering groups on the sidewalk) I answered the Sunday-morning “ad”:
GIRLS AND WOMEN
between 16 and 36; learners and experienced assemblers and foot-press operators on small brass parts; steady; half day Saturday all year around; good pay and bonus. ”

“ Men and women are being hurled into the ranks of the unemployed by thousands and by hundreds of thousands. We must reduce the number of jobless workers.
We must organize along industrial lines to shorten the hours of labor. If an eight-hour day were inaugurated, it would mean the additional employment of millions of men and women in America tomorrow. It would insure us leisure for study and recreation—for work of organization and education, and it would mean higher wages in America generally. For the fewer men there are competing for jobs, the higher the wage they are able to demand. ”

“ It is obvious that men or women working from ten to sixteen hours daily will have little strength or leisure for study, or activity in revolutionary work. It is also patent that wages are bound to be higher where men toil eight hours a day than where they work sixteen hours. It requires two shifts of men, working eight hours daily, to run a machine that one man runs sixteen hours. ”

“ The hours of labor for boys are the same as for men and women; their wages are from thirty-six cents to $1,10 a week, with a pint of cider a day. They are taught to love drink from their earliest age, and a few years so confirms them in the taste, that they rarely, if ever, get rid of it in after life.
Such is an outline of the employment of women and children in agriculture in these counties, and the effect which it is calculated to produce upon their physical and moral condition. The labor, taken by itself, would seem to be comparatively harmless ”

“ In all work which cannot be stopped even for a single day (as in the case of nurses, engine-drivers, tramway, electric or gas workers, etc.) , the workers are afforded a day's rest some other day of the week instead of the regular holiday. ”

“ In so far as possible, Sunday should be maintained as the weekly day of rest; and whenever the needs of the community, public convenience or demand compel labor on Sunday, persons thus employed should be given a legal right to rest on some other day of the week.' Report of the Joint Special Committee to Revise, Consolidate and Arrange the General Laws * * * Relating to the Observance of the Lord's Day, Mass.Leg.Docs., H.Doc. ”

“ In your day, riches debauched one class with idleness of mind and body, while poverty sapped the vitality of the masses by overwork, bad food, and pestilent homes. The labor required of children, and the burdens laid on women, enfeebled the very springs of life. Instead of these maleficent circumstances, all now enjoy the most favorable conditions of physical life; the young are carefully nurtured and studiously cared for; the labor which is required of all is limited to the period of greatest bodily vigor, and is never excessive; ”

“ The Industrial Shareholders of the World, a still more rabid body, insisted on having an eight per cent law for their money. All great cities were the scenes of wild capitalist riots. Formerly indifferent citizens were alarmed and angered by seeing their quiet streets turned into Bedlam at night, with reckless old capitalists roaring through them in taxis, singing Yankee Boodle or shouting "Down with labor!" For that finally became the cry: labor must go. They still meant to use labor, somehow, they confusedly admitted, but capital and not labor must have absolute control of all industries. ”

“ Of course capitalists and laborers did not get on any too well together. Self-respecting men on each side hated the other side's ways—even their ways of dressing and talking, and amusing themselves. The workers talked of the dignity of labor and called capital selfish. On the other hand, ardent young capitalists who loved lofty ideals, complained that the dignity of capital was not respected by labor. These young men despised all non-capitalists on high moral grounds. ”