Los Angeles herald., 1892-09-06
THECAEBRAT0N OF LABOR DAY,
Workingmen OF the City Form
An Imposing Parade.
Fitting Addresses Delivered by GEN
eral Skinner and Mrs. Diggs.
The Parade Beats the Record-The Hail
Crowded-General SINNERS Elo-
queat speech - Other Ad-
dresses Delivered.

Labor day was generally observed
yesterday throughout the city. While
there was not general suspension of
business, all public offices were closed,
except those in the federal building. In
the evening the occasion was observed by
the working men of the city by a grand
street parade and meeting at Turn
verein hall, where public addresses
were delivered by number OF speak
ers.
The parade was the largest affair Of
the kind ever held in this city, and will
be long notable as the best turnout the
labor organizations of Los Angeles ever
made.
1t was z 80 pm. before the procession
started. There were fully 1900 men in
line, bearing torches, representing s6v-
enteen different trades. The parade
passed down Main street to the Pico
house, then down Spring street to Fifth,
thence to Main, up Main to Third, to
Spring, to Turnverein hall.
Here was assembled the largest crowd
that has ever been seen in the hall since
its erection. There were many ladies in
the audience, but it was largely made up
of men and voters. After every seat III
the house had been occupied, hundreds
were compelled to stand.
The chairman of the evening, Sam J..
Chapel, called the audience to order,
and in few brief words introduced the
orator of the evening, Gen. j. L. Skin
ner. The general spoke, in main, as fol-
lows:
1t would be unnatural in me did not
comprehend and appreciate the honor
you have bestowed upon me in placing
in my hands the grateful labor of repre-
senting you as a co-laborer and partaker
with you of the honors of this day, q
day set apart, not as a holiday, or to be
spent in idle pleasure; but as day de-
voted by the executive of this state, and
recognized and participated in by the
people of the civilized world to distin-
guish and honor labor, and to certify
that all the enlightened world acknowl-
edges its obligations to the laborer, and
does him homage for his works. Hav-
ing myself, from the earliest days
of recognized manhood, earned my
bread and fought my way
step by step on liie's rugged
path in obedience to the divine ordi-
nance that man shall earn his bread by
the sweat of his brow; having for many
years worked side by side with the
sturdy, brave hearted miners, partici-
pating in their dangerous labor, adding
my strength to theirs, to rend from the
stony womb of nature her royal twin
ofsprings, the metals of gold and silver,
that enrich the world and build up the
0f H.
could it be otherwise than that 1 should
sympathize with his, the laborer's lot,
mourn with his griefs, oppose his OPP
pressors, entertain the same ideas that
flow in his mind, seek with better
knowledge his rights, strive to obtain
the recognition of those liberties that it
has taken him ages of toll and battle to
wrest from the powers that enslaved
and embittered his existence?
take it, the laboring people of the
world are a united people; race of
brain and muscle, creative, industrial
people, be the individuals of what cline
or of what tongue; and to this race OF
people belongs all the liberty that the
world has recognized and grasped.
Wherever we choose to look, we see
nothing but the results of the combina-
ton of the forces of the laborer's mind
and his muscle; from the great ship
| that stems her way, with her capacious
bosom filled with the fruits and products
OF bounteous America, to the starving,
stricken poor of the old world; from the
dainty glove that decks the hand of the
aristocrat, as it drops the chary penny
in the palm of beggary from the great
cities, crowded with commerce and
/ heartlessness, with satiated wealth and
gaunt want; from the ranches where
the autocrat of hundred thousand
acres fills his Golfers from the laborer's
! toll, to the garden plot where the strug-
Cling husband strives to support the
shivering children and the delicate wife
of poverty-all, everything, is the pro-
duct of the laborer, the result of labor.
Stop labor, and civilization ends
education stops, arts are forgotten
want, starvation and barbarism,
take the place OF industry, refinement
and progress, and the human race falls
to slumber in the dark embrace Of
death. Labor is the life of the human
race.
What is the destiny of labor, Mr.
Chairman, is beyond the powers o.
mans feeble intellect to grasp. Labor
will go forward and upward forever in
it's destiny, beneitting and elevatine
the human race till the riddle of crea
tion has been read and the divine in
telligence, God himself, shall hold com
munion with the sons of men.
But more important question may
well be asked: What is the destiny OF
the laborer? This man whose mint
conceives and designs, whose muscle
executes; this man who is building ur
society, and upon whose strength, truth
and labor society rests, is subordinate
and absolutely dependent. You are
just entering upon the era of liberty
Education is the great foundation anc
basis of all true power. 1t is for wan
of education that you are wildly seeking
and more wildly indulging, in measures
at the present day that are unbefittint
and unbecoming the dignity o
your people. Demand that you coun
try be dotted thicker and thicke
with it's school houses; send you
children to them; force them into edu
cation: you, yourself, read and learn O
the conditions of other people, of othe
climes, outside of the limited environ
ment of your own lives. Above al
things, read that book of the people
that great conservator of your libertie
and the great protectors of your rights
the daily newspaper. The newspape
is the book in which is written the dali
doings of the world, and of the peopl
of all classes and conditions; and if, m
friends, the tone of the daily newspape