Although many of us view Labor Day as the holiday that signals the end of summer, the last day of the year when we can fashionably wear white, and is the beginning of the football season, it seems appropriate to know our country has dedicated one day a year day to pay tribute to the American worker. Labor Day, a national holiday, celebrates labor and the working men who have over the history of this country, added materially to our high standard of living and our nation having the greatest production the world has ever known.
In tribute to those social and economic achievements, it is believed Mathew Mcguire, a machinist who served as Secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York proposed the holiday, first celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882. Initially, recognition of the contribution made by working men was through municipal ordinances that led to bill’s being introduced in numerous states. As its popularity grew, in 1894 Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday.
Although the character of observing Labor Day in cities across the country has changed over the years from parades, speeches and festivities, the American worker through this national holiday receives wide recognition in the news, on the radio and television as creators of much of the nations’ strength, freedom and leadership, as well they should.
Susan Moffat Thomas
Executive Director
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