The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1944-08-24
WHAT LABOR DAY MEANS
IWE ARE now approaching the one day

| ITE ARE now approaching the one day In the
- year that the working men and women can
| eally call their oWn-Labor Day which this year
viii be celebrated September A. During this crisis
5 may be just another day to thousands of work
! rs working in munition plants or at other essen
al industries, but it is labors day for all that.
Labor Day is not just another holiday IN the
ordinary sense of the word. 1t has greater
significance. 1t is day set aside by the Congress
lof the United States to pay homage to the mass
Of wage-earners in appreciation Of their wonder
Iful achievements.
AS members of the organized trade-union
movement, we have duty to perform on this day.
Remember when you stood before the members OF
your local union after being accepted by it as one
worthy Of membership and obligated yourself to
do all in your power to advance the interests OF
our union and the labor movement in general?
We'll, if we have forgotten this, Labor Day is a
good day to rededcate ourselves to this obligation
The labor movement has done so much for the
workers, in addition to securing better working
conditions and wages. There is not one law in the
land for the benefit of the workers that organized
labor has not had a hand in making. These laws
are not for the benefit of the organized workers
only. Every man and woman who work for wages
have been benefited by them
Regardless of what newspaper cOlumnlStS may
write or radio commentators may say, labor has
played very important part in the present war;
1t is true there have been strikes in spite of the
fact that we have given mo strike" pledge, but
sanctioned by the international unions, whose
members were involved. None of these strikes
created the havoc those fellows would have you
believe they did, but they certainly furnished
ammunition for unfriendly writer's.
In the American Encyclopedia, Labor Day isl
described as a holiday, the first Monday in Sep
tember in the United States, Puerto Rico, Hawaii,
Alaska May 1 generally observed for this pur-
pose in Europe and the Philippines. Labor Day isl
the only day recognized as a National holiday byI
Congressional action.
1t was in 1884 that movement was started
TO have the first Monday in September adopted asI
a legal holiday in our several states. BY 1881
twenty-three States had adopted this day as al
legal state holiday. A bill was introduced in Con-
gress to make the first Monday in September al
holiday in the same sense as New Years Day,I
Christmas Day. Washington's Birthday, Decora-
tion Day, and independence Day. The bill wasI
introduced in August, 1898, passed by the Senatel
June %, 1894 and by Congress June 26, sgnedI
by Vice President Stevenson, President of thel
Senate and by Grover Cleveland, President of the|
United States, June %, 1894. Almost ten years.
from the time the movement was started to makeI
it labors holiday by law, Labor Day became al
reality
1t was only by consistent work on the part of
the leaders in the labor movement then that thisI
feat was accomplished. SO Labor Day is morel
than just holiday 1t is monument to the mem
ory of the working men and women of yore.