As mentioned in my last post, one of my as yet unpublished stories takes place during the Pullman Strike of 1894. My research for it uncovered some history about Labor Day, so this is a good time to share that information with you.
The first known celebration of Labor Day in
the U.S. was organized by labor unions and occurred in New York City on September
5, in 1882. In 1887, Oregon was the first to make it an official state holiday,
and other states soon followed. But it took the Pullman Strike to turn it into
a national holiday.
In July 1894, President Cleveland ordered federal
troops in to break up the strike, which was disrupting the U.S. mails. People
still argue about his motives and whether it was the right response, but that
isn’t the subject of this post and I won’t accept any comments on that issue.
In any event, President Cleveland felt the need to smooth things over with the labor
unions. He apologized by making the first Monday of September a federal holiday.
And we have been celebrating it as Labor Day
ever since.
__________
The photo at the top of this post shows an
early Labor Day parade. I couldn’t find an exact year or location for the photo,
but it is in the public domain because of its age.
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