The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1927-08-26
BY ELMO SCOTT WATSON

J. !. !. !: !. !. ! :. !.
Wg HAT is the spirit of
E Labor Day? There
AWAS may be as many an
~ ~ swers to that ques-
ASH " ton as there are an
Va swerers, but from sew
eral of them, though
phrased in different
terms, it may be pos
sible to arrive at some statement
which will come near expressing the
meaning, not. only TO labor but to all
other divisions of human society, of
this day Of days for the working man.
Labor Day was first suggested in
the New York city Central Labor
union in May, 1882. 1t was decided
to observe the first Monday in Sep
TENDER of that year as a festival day,
with parade, speech-making and pic
MICS. Labor held that, whereas there
were other holidays representing the
religious, civil and military spirit,
there was none which stood for the
industrial spirit. Accordingly this
first celebration was held, and it was
a big success.
In 1884 the American Federation of
Labor officially proclaimed the first
Monday in September as Labor Day.
All wage earners, irrespective of sex,
calling or nationality, were urged to
observe it until it should be as IN
common for man to work on Labor
Day as it would be for him TO toll on
the Fourth of July. State legislatures
were urged to make the day a legal
holiday, and 80 of them eventually
did enact laws to that effect. Con-
gress made it a legal holiday in 1894
for the District of Columbia and the
territories and, although a number of
states have no Labor Day law, the
federal act has been accepted by all
of them, and this holiday is generally
observed throughout the United States
Perhaps one of the first interpreta-
tions of the spirit of Labor Day was
that uttered by the late Samuel Com
pers, the Grand Old Man of Ameri-
can Labor" in the first Labor Day
editorial which he wrote after con-
gress had made it a legal holiday.
The editorial, which appeared in the
American Federationist for Septem-
Der, 1894, follows:
In the cycle of time we are again
on the dawn of our most important
national hOHday-Labor Day. Most i'm
pOrtant, since it for the first time in
the history of the world devotes a day
to the recognition of the fact that the
wage earners must hereafter be re-
garded as the important factor in the
economy of life. In this day when so
many look upon the dark side of the
progress of the labor movement and
predict worse things in store for the
laborer, it is not amiss to direct atten-
tion to the fact that the life of the
human family is one vast struggle, and
that though the progress is not as
swift as we, as we'll as our impatient
brothers and sisters of labor, would
like IL to be, yet the fact that n our
decade we can see the rights of labor
more clearly defined, the vantage
ground obtained, and obtaining a
clearer insight into the existing
wrongs, the more intelligent percep-
ton and determination to achieve la
boris rights.
The past year has witnessed several
contests, some of them defeats, but
though defeated in the immediate OBJ
ject sought, they have awakened new
conscience in the American people, and
will contribute more to the thorough
organiza ton of the wage workers of
our country than hundreds of meet
ings, speeches or pamphlets. The great