LABOR DAY -- AMERICA’S NEARLY ANONYMOUS HOLIDAY

By Edwin Cooney

I’m guessing that you know much more about the origins of Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Memorial Day, and Independence Day than you ever knew about Labor Day!

Nevertheless, in lots of ways Americans celebrate Labor Day, the first Monday in September, almost the same way as they do Independence Day. There may be a few less parades, but the fireworks and picnics are about the same. A lady might don a light cardigan over her halter top, and a gentleman might wear a windbreaker over his t-shirt, but they can usually still comfortably picnic outdoors. Baseball pennant races are inevitably tighter and that makes the day more meaningful. Occasionally, to the glory of America, the National Football League’s first Monday night game of the season is televised Labor Day night.

America’s first Labor Day was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5th, 1882 by the Central Labor Union of New York City. For many years it was thought that Peter J. McGuire, Secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, was the force behind the original promotion of Labor Day by the Central Labor Union of New York City. However, it has recently been discovered that Matthew Maguire, Secretary of both Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, New Jersey as well as of the Central Labor Union of New York City, sent out the invitations to workers to attend the scheduled parade and picnic. Keep in mind that since it was an unofficial holiday, attendees would be sacrificing a day’s pay in order to participate in the first Labor Day -- so the invitations had to be pretty compelling. Hundreds of people did sacrifice and Labor Day became a municipal, next a statewide, and finally a nationally celebrated holiday.

Some people have concluded that the reason Peter J. McGuire was favored as the father of Labor Day over Matthew Maguire had mostly to do with Matthew Maguire’s politics. Although both men dabbled in Socialism as young labor activists, Matthew Maguire had the audacity to run as the Vice Presidential nominee on the Socialist Labor Party ticket in 1896 under the party’s presidential candidate Charles Horatio Matchett. Thus, because of Labor’s early association with Socialism both here and abroad, many Americans who insist that they admire nothing more than hard work have been quite touchy about celebrating the value of the American laborer.

However confused or hesitant Americans may feel about the political doctrines behind the celebration of Labor Day, next to getting a raise in pay, we love nothing more than a holiday. Hence, despite our suspicions of the motives, politics and the absolute loyalty of laborers, we take the day off.

Each of us, if we take the time to think of it, has our own personal reasons for celebrating Labor Day or any other day. For me, Labor Day is the equivalent of December 31st, the last day of the year. That means that tomorrow is the first day of the future. Of course, one can say that about any day on the calendar, but my way of looking at Labor Day goes back to my youth. Labor Day was the last day at home before going back to the residential school I attended. In that way, it was both sad and exciting. Tomorrow, I would see friends I hadn’t seen since June. I’d meet new friends, teachers and caregivers. The hot sticky summer would be replaced by the cool crisp temperatures and low humidity of fall. Of course, there was the “labor” of school work just ahead of me. While I can’t say that I looked forward to laboring in the classroom, the anticipation of classroom labor never spoiled my enjoyment of Labor Day.

Then, of course, there’s the definition of labor vs. work. Labor is usually associated with hard unskilled toil. Work, however physically hard it may be, is usually identified with the application of a skill. Thus, a lady labors as she gives birth and a gentleman labors to shovel snow from his driveway.

Additionally, there’s the American ambivalence about working and workers. If one works for oneself, one is celebrated as an entrepreneur: industrious, brave, and independent. A worker who looks to his or her union for support and guidance, especially political guidance, is regarded by many Americans as a prisoner of socialist thugs. The entrepreneur joins the Chamber of Commerce or the National Association of Manufacturers and becomes a “solid citizen.” A dedicated union worker is just a little suspect!

At the bottom of the barrel we find the worker who works for the government -- especially the federal government. No matter how long or hard this worker studied in college, no matter how much money was spent by the federal worker’s parents to send their child to college, he or she is contemptuously labeled “a bureaucrat.”

Still, most Americans genuinely admire the worker, because, as we work, whether we’re overcompensated or not compensated at all, we’re sharing with others the best within us.

Whether Labor Day is a mere holiday, the last day of the year, or the glorification of labor and/or work, make the best of it -- because Jack Frost is right around the corner!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY