The union times. (New Haven, Conn.) 1941-1948, 1942-09-05

American labor unlOnlstS. VINO nave
built the first Monday in Septem-
Der into this country's symbol of
labor freedom.
DIRECT LINE TO TO-DAY
A rather direct line of thought and
action may be traced between P. J.
McGuires original proposal for Labor
, Day, made on May 8, 1882, to the
infant Central Labor Union of New
York City, and the slogan which
labor has selected to symbolic its
fight this crucial war year:
FREE LABOR WILL WIN"
Mcclure himself, in an interpreta-
ton of his Labor Day proposal, said
in 1897:
Pagan feasts and Christian OBJ
servances have come down to us
through the long ages. But it was
reserved for this century, and for the
American people, to give birth to
Labor Day. In this they honor the
toilers of the earth, and pay homage
to those who from rude nature have
delved and carved all the grandeur
we behold"
INQUIRIES PLANS
Mcclure, then an official of the
brotherhood of Carpenters and
Joiners, and later to become vice.
president of the American Fedora
1 ton of Labor, sold his idea to the
Central Labor Union, which pro-
ceeded. without the sanction of
government officials or the COM
immunity at large, to celebrate ''La-
lbor Day."
McCuire's proposal, as outlined
on, that day in May, was strikingly
prophetic of what has become
! Iabor's ''great day. in practically
all of the free countries of the
world.
The Day, Mcclure said, should
start with a street parade (which
would publicly show the strength
and esprit de corps of the trade
and labor organizations"
The parade should be followed by
"a picnic or festival in some grove"
the proceeds of which should be divid-
ed on a semi-co-operative basis, each
local union keeping the money for the
tickets it sold and contributing to the
expenses in proportion to its MEM
bership.
"CLOSER BROTHERHOOD"
The NeyO York Herald wrote of
that first parade that it was colorful
and "the most orderly parade ever
seen." Of the picnic, it said that
Americans and English, Irish and
Germans, they all hobnobbed and
seemed on a friendly footing, as
though the common cause had estab-
lished a sense of closer brotherhood"
The next year, 1883, the city Cen
trail Labor Union again sponsored a
Labor Day parade, and the Tribune
saw fit to report it much more fully.
This time the trades unions began
to assemble at $50 in the morning
at historic Cooper Union, symbol OF
liberty and reminiscent of one OF
Lincoln's greatest speeches on free
dom. At 10, when the procession got
under way, there were 10000 workers
in line. and they marched past a re-
viewing stand in Union Square on
which were Louis F. Post Justus
Schwab, Robert Bissert, P. ]. Nc
CURE, and other well-known labor
leaders.
After the parade the celebration
moved to Wendeps Elm Park, where
fully 10000 persons listened to
soeeches and watched athletic games.
10000 In PARADE
In 1884 there were 10000 men
i'm the parade and item times that
. number lined the streets and
cheered."
Unions We'd with each other in
! developing original and colOrful
floats and other stunts. The print
ers had a truck bearing one of
BENJAMIN Franklin's printing
presses. The oldest bricklayer in
New York rode ON another truck,
surrounded by little girls. The
! cigar-makers had truck bearing
their members at work, and the
cigars they made were distributed
among the crowd. Twelve hundred
members of the Eastern Butchers
Union, call stalwart men, march
ed in uniform garb of ''check
jumpers, black caps, and dark
trousers walking down the ave-
nue. IL abreast.
The second division of the