The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-08-31
LABOR DAY.

second celebration in this city Monday.
There viii be a general suspension of
business, and the day will be given
lover to parade, oratory and social en-
ioyment 1t is perhaps not out of the
way to note that while the American
workingmen are honoring the day set
lapart for them by act of the Congress,
the former queen, surrounded by her
friends, will celebrate her birthday,
with all of the old-t time pomp that may
be summoned.
| Labor Day was instituted that
Throughout the nation attention-might
be called TO that vast and important
! body of the citizens of the nation, the
bone and sinew of the Republic, whose
tasks call for untiring attention to
their performance. That the right TO
organize may be exemplified, for with
out organizations there would be no
celebration, nor in fact would there be
a. day to celebrate. 1t is essentially
day on which the dignity and nobility
of labor may be eulogized and apostro-
phized and the men whose tolls are
thus glorified see in their part in the
greatness of the nation a new meaning
! and significance.
! What the nation owes to the men
who have made the name of American
workingman famous, is incalculable. 1t
| was not always the man whose brain
gave birth to the great idea who de-
served the credit of the invention which
revolutioniZed a trade or business. 1T
lis more often the man who, working at
the lathe or bench, thought out the
practical application of the machine or
the full working of the part. 1t was
not always the thinker who could put
into concrete form his idea for the
saving of labor, but his suggestion has
more often been made applicable to
plant by the workman. 1t is to the
hard working <and conscientious man
before the hammer and the roll, at the
furnace and the forge, that the pre-
eminence of American manufactures OF
steel and iron are due 1t was a work
man who made the steam engine what
it is, a workman who made the spin
ming jenny the practical machine, who
enabled the air-brake and car-coupling
ito be successfully applied.
No nation has produced such accur-
ate and painstaking workmen as those
whose handiwork now spans the
streams of the world, ploughs the
oceans into productive commercial fur
rows and draws the commerce of the
nations along the iron highways. 1t Is
not all that the workmen of our coun-
try have in them the blood of all ma
tions, that they combine the thought
fulness of the Briton and the skill of
the Gaul, the tenacity of the Teuton
and the versatility of the Latin. but
with the freedom of the republic has
come an era of general education and
of special information which has never
before been equalled. Coupled with the
qualities which have made the leaders
in state and war-craft, there Is in the
American workman an infinite capac-
'ity for taking pains. In no other coun-
try do the shops turn out SO much
who have made the name American"
quality have been schooled to do their
best with the most insignificant part,
so that the finished product is COM
bination of perfectly made portions.
1t is perhaps the first time that La
Dor Day is to be celebrated at a time
when the workmen of the foremost
branch of national industry are not at
their tasks. From end to end of the
country organized labor is at daggers
drawn with the employers. This too
after a period of activity during which
high wages have been earned, makes
the time one for reflection. The wealth
of the bosses, the comparative indie
pendence of the workmen, the strength
of the unions and the strong feeling in
favor of labor, as meaning organiZa-
tons, are the factors. Outside of the
mere matter of the men who quit work
there is another side; the men whose
work depends upon 1.-The working of all
the trades which are concerned in the
turning out of the ultimate product. 1t
is now the question of the interdepend-
ence of all men, and this will have to
be reckoned with all over the country,
wherever the men of any trade strike
for what they deem their rights. Now
a strike means the throwing out of en-
ployment of an army of men who have
no grievance but that of their breth-
rem. This celebration of Labor Day
viii be an object lesson in that it will
show that there is success before the
great strike only when all men whose
unit 1t is safe to say that as there
can be no absolute trust or combina-
ton of capital so there will never come
the time, no matter how wise it might
be that such should be the result, that
labor will be unit in its demands and
acts.
1t is, then, the true meaning of La
Dor Day that the dignity of labor, the
brotherhood of men and the upbuilding
of the character of the tradesman
should be taught and in the full COM
prehension of this brotherhood will lie
the future equality of the laborer and
the employer. In this way only can
there be safety. 1t Is not that there
must be war between the elements. but
peace and .unity that there will Jesuls.
a betteringSof >rondi tious fars aus nsaiss
When thausfss pT4faf in his
works Hes nights wondering If
"a a a RI ,~1,y. a,,l