Labor Day. Quick, what comes to mind? Chicago union thugs? Politics? American workers and “the man” at odds with one another?
Naaaah, cookouts, pool parties, last hurrah’s before school starts. That’s more like it!
Labor Day’s Dubious Beginnings
Established in 1894, the original premise of Labor Day was ostensibly to commemorate Organized Labor’s contributions to the improvement of the work environment such as fair pay for workers, improved occupational safety and the establishment of child labor laws. But like many nationally recognized days, the underlying motive for declaring a National Labor Day was actually more political than civic.
It was President Grover Cleveland who designated the first Monday of September as Labor Day. However, it was not actually for any deep sense of personal appreciation of labor unions (Clevelend was not a union supporter). It was rather an attempt to return to the good graces (and retain the vote) of the average American worker after what became infamously known as the 1894 Pullman strike.
In the late 1860’s railway transportation was booming. People were able to travel longer distances at one stretch than ever before, and to travel safely through the night. A visionary named George Pullman recognized a market opportunity, and designed a luxury model of rail car that would allow for comfortable sleep during long distance rail travel which gained national noteriety and success by it’s place of prominence in Abe Lincoln’s funeral train.
Pullman built his Pullman Company Car factory in 1864 on prarie land located on the outskirts of Chicago, and also built housing, (row houses for workers, larger independant homes for his foremen) a bank, a hotel, churches. Pullman, of course, retained ownership of all the properties, profiting not only from his factory production, but also from rent on his properties. Everyone was pretty happy with this arrangement until the economy went into depression and hit the “Panic of 1893”.
Many companies, including some railroads, went belly-up during this period. Pullman company workers took a pay cut of 1/3 of their salary, however Mr. Pullman refused to lower the factory workers rent on Pullman-owned houseing, so 150,000 local American Railway Union members initiated a strike at the Pullman Palace Car Company.
In response, Pullman angrily closed the plant, but this action backfired when the union called upon Eugene Debs, leader of the American Raiload (national) Union and all of it’s 260,000 members to join the strike and brought rail car service to a screeching halt across the entire country. It was a long strike, starting in 1893, ending tragically in 1894.
On July 2, 1894, President Grover Cleveland sent Federal troops into Chicago to enforce a federal court injunction ordering the A.R.U. to end the strike, riots broke out, and a disputed number (about 26-34) of civilians died. Debs was arrested and spent 6 months in prison reading the works of Carl Marx, and “viola!”, the modern day movement of organized labor violence and radical union thuggery was born (in reaction to the government intrusion into the matter) and Cleveland initiated this yearly “celebration of laborers” because clearly they were a force to be reckoned with and he hoped to make ammends.
Who would have thought that 114 years later the corrupt unions and the corrupt government and the corrupt city of Chicago would join ranks to help make Barack Obama the 44th President of the United States. (As they say, politics makes for strange bedfellows). Like the Bible tells us in Ecclesiastes, there really is nothing new under the sun!
Ah, Labor Day, a proud legacy for America!
I think I’ll stick to the hot dogs and pool parties.
Backround sources:
Strike Against Pullman Palace Car Company Paralyzed Railroads in 1894
United States History-Panic of 1893
Serve Him in the Waiting 