The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1916-09-04
This Should Be a Day of
Rejoicing for the Workers
of Our City and Our Country

<z OF Our lily ana Our Country
The organized workers of Detroit will
4 march today with their respective unions.
They have good cause for marching.
No city in the country is more pros
u 'oerous: nowhere is labor more generally
ethployed: nowhere is it better paid.
The primary object of the Labor Day
a parade is TO call our attention TO Labor's
q numbers and to cause us TO stop for the
& ncnce and reflect upon their Importance
H ~ society in general and to their city in
yparticular.
b This year. however, the object of La
Dor Day has been met and the lesson OF
4 Labor Day driven home with emphasis
many days ahead of time.
The possibility for time of a strike Of
\ railroad trainmen served to call our at
5. tention to our indebtedness to the work
ery in sin &c field, and to the utter de-
pendence Of what is perhaps the country S
6Tcatest industry upon the hands that
Eore on the throttle or upon the brake.
The president Of railroad might die
8Sor its entire force Of officers be wiped out
Il IA some great calamity, for that matter.
lint the wheels under the cars would go
IA running just the same.
I But let something happen that would
4 keep the other end Of the railroads or
nnnization away for a single hour. from
call boys to engineers and conductors,
and that railroad would face a state of
4 chaos.
The possibility of the railroad strike
" made US mindful, as the Labor Day pa
& tade is intended to make US mindful, that
II IN all Of the industries the Importance
8 Of labor is tha same.
II made as mindful that the pavement
D adding to the city's beauty calls first for
workers; that the autos gliding over it
require workers for their construction
that the engine and the tires and the
e what-not in the construction of an auto
mobile require workers for their making.
II made us mindful that for every sky
scraper the city boasts, many men had
\ 10 offer their lives; that for every
\ smoking factory stack some man had TO
get out of his bed earlier than the presi-
3 dent of that factory.
Have you ever seen the real Labor
parade?
}.s Get out of your bed great deal earlier
oome morning and come down TO the city
{ knll and watch it.
It will soon be in line and moving be-
fore the sun is up, while it Is yet pitch
dark
This parade i'm the downtown district
every morning of the week brings an
other suggestion of the army of women
& who must get up with the men, and get
the dinner pail filled.
Maybe the real object Of the Labor
Day parade, after all. is to give late
+ sleepers an idea Of just how many men
4 and women there are in the world who
\ cannot be late sleepers.
Let us look upon the line Of men in
today's parade and be thankful that it
has not formed with the same purpose
Cor which lines of men are forming all
over the war zone in the old country to-
81 day.
The lines forming in Detroit and all
over the country today are lines of build
II ers.
The lines forming in Europe are lines
q men gathered for the common purpose
6f killing, tearing down and destroying,
So much more wisely has the country
~ these workingmen been governed, and
4 much more carefully has it been
Atched over while the other countries
the world were going madly about
Hoir Preparations for gore-shedding.
These workers may be thankful today,