The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-05-02
By H. NJ. wICKs.

THE May Day that the working
4 class of the world celebrates is
not that mystical, PARKWAY festival
Of sacrifice to gods and goddesses Of
ancient Greece and the still more
ancient Babylon; we do not celebrate
it because the name of the month is
derived from Maia, the mother of
Mercury to whom the Romans Of
fered up sacrifices on the first day
of the month, nor because we do ho-
mage to the professions to the grot-
to of Egeria. Nor yet is our May
Day derived from the Maypole ccle-
brations In medieval and Tudor Eng
land; the gayety of which aroused
the ire of the puritans who abolished
it during the Cromwellian interreg-
mum.
OUR May Day is International
" Labor Day, born of the struggle
Of the working class against its his
torical enemy, the capitalist class;
born on American soil out of the
great eight-hour agitation of the
eighties of the last century. For
years May First had come to be
dreaded by the exploiters of labor in
the United States in that era when
the colossal trusts of today were
young giants endeavoring to enslave
the working class Of continent. 1t
is the irony of history that the pres
sure Of the masses of American la
Dor and the preparations that were
made for the resumption Of the eight
hour struggle in 1899 impelled Sam
uel Gompers, president of the Amer
lean Federation of Labor, to request
the International Labor Congress at
Paris to arrange sympathetic demon
strations throughout Europe on May
LIST, the day selected for the beginn-
/ ing of the American eight-hour day
strike. 1t seems ironic today in view
Of the subsequent history of Com
pers who not only repudiateep Inter
national Labor Day for an dlous
national labor Hay bDt s7h 90 - =
with the most nalevoleut billings
gate those workers who even sugs
gested sympathetic strikes in the
United States, say nothing of inter-
national action.
1 THE American labor movement, or
L rather that portion Of it that
was organized under the banner Of
the Federation of Organized Trades
and Labor Unions Of the United
States and Canada. first set aside
the First of May for the beginning
of universal strike" at its con-
vention that began in Chicago on
October 7, 1884, when the following
resolution was adopted:
Resolved. BY the Federation of
Organized Trades and labor I'm
ions of the United States and Can
ada, that eight hours shall consti-
tute a legal days labor from and
after May 1, 1886, and that we re-
commend to labor organizations
throughout this jurisdiction that
they so direct their laws as to con-
form to this resolution by the time
named"
But the struggle for the eight
hour-day required something more
than a mere resolution directing its
affiliated bodies to enforce it, as the
new labor movement in America
soon discovered as it passed through
the blood baptism Of the ensuing
years.
At the time the resolution was adj
opted the knights of Labor played
more important role as far as its
influence upon the working class
was concerned than did the new Fed
Grafton which only had an affiliated
membership of $4,000, so the conven-
ton instructed its Legislative COM
mittee" to extend an invitation to
the Knights Of Labor to cooperate
Gin the general movement to estab-
lish the eight-hour reform"
Few even of the unions affiliated
with the Federation adopted the pro-
posal to donate two per cent of their
revenue to the fund for financing the