Some thoughts to work on this Labor Day

09-04-2005

 

It's worth noting, because we live in a time when economic forces, both domestic and international, have eroded the power of organized labor. Unionism has been in decline for decades, evident even in the recent fractious split of the AFL-CIO.

But perhaps nowhere have these forces been more evident than in the airline industry, as cutthroat competition, moribund management and insatiable investors have caused carrier after carrier to tear up contracts and end commitments they made to their labor force. Northwest Airlines is working to break a strike by its machinists -- an action not all that dissimilar from steps taken by Henry Clay Frick in 1892 at the Homestead mills of Carnegie Steel.

So, with those events front and center, some random thoughts on this holiday:

Although summer's end doesn't really occur for another 18 days, Labor Day marks the end of the vacation season for many families. That's mostly a consequence of the start of school.

While many travelers without families have discovered that trips are often best taken after the busy season, Labor Day isn't a big holiday for long distance travel. Instead, it's regarded as a day for shopping, picnicking or attending a political rally or baseball game. Millions of people turn to their TVs for another Labor Day tradition -- the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon. This will be the 39th edition.

Ever wonder who put the labor in Labor Day?

Although the original Labor Day celebrations date to a Sept. 5, 1882, parade organized in New York City by the Knights of Labor, it was in August 1894 that President Grover Cleveland signed legislation declaring the first Monday in September a national holiday to be observed by both labor and management.

The only president elected to two non-consecutive terms, Cleveland was both the 22nd and 24th president. A Democrat, he had a reputation as a hard worker who was scrupulously honest at a time when many politicians were neither, although critics claimed he had little imagination and seemed overwhelmed by the nation's economic problems in his second term.

Cleveland's decision to enact a national holiday was an effort to ease tensions in the wake of several decisions he had made earlier that year. Coxley's army, a group of about 500 displaced workers (including the young novelist Jack London), had marched on Washington, D.C., before being dispersed on April 30 for walking on the Capitol's grass.

And only weeks earlier Cleveland had dispatched 12,000 federal troops to settle the violent strike against Pullman Palace Car Co., which manufactured sleeping cars for the railroads. Led by Eugene V. Debs, the strike had spread to other unions and threatened to shut the nation's railroads. Six days before Cleveland put his name on the legislation to create Labor Day, the troops crushed the demonstrations, killing 13 strikers, and sending Debs to prison.

Clearly these conflicts were on Cleveland's mind, but other earlier strikes under his administration had contributed to the labor tensions.

It was on May 4, 1886, during his first term, that a rally in support of the eight-hour work day at the McCormick Reaper plant in Chicago went bad, when someone tossed a small bomb at a group of 200 police officers gathered to disperse the crowd. The police began firing in the dark, killing at least four strikers and several of their own.

In the aftermath of the Haymarket Riot, eight radical labor organizers were arrested, charged and convicted of being responsible for the bombing. The following November, four of them were hanged. In 1894, all eight were pardoned, but four had already been executed and one had apparently committed suicide. The Martyrs' Monument in Forest Park, Ill., is a tribute to their sacrifice.

Then, of course, there was the Homestead Steel strike in 1892, when the Pennsylvania National Guard was called in to extinguish the fires of organized labor.

Thus, while the law was signed by a nervous president, the holiday was created by determined laborers, along with a host of other benefits that many workers -- both organized and nonunion -- had come to take for granted.

In either case, it's based on a unique sentiment.

According to Samuel Gompers, founder and longtime president of the American Federation of Labor, "Labor Day differs in every essential way from the other holidays of the year in any country. All other holidays are in a more or less degree connected with conflicts and battles of man's prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed and power, of glories achieved by one nation over another. Labor Day ... is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race or nation."

It is proper that anyone who enjoys a holiday tomorrow should reflect at least a few moments on the contributions of American laborers, both organized and independent, who made this respite possible.

On a more sober note, the incomprehensible natural disasters that occurred this week along the Gulf Coast recall that it was on Labor Day 70 years ago that the most powerful hurricane in American history killed more than 500 people, flattening the Florida Keys with winds that exceeded 200 mph.

As the full trauma of the Hurricane Katrina tragedy unfolds, that cost is likely to be far exceeded. The ranks of labor will conduct the searches and saving of humanity, manage the cleaning up and rebuilding of splintered cities, and provide the cement to heal shattered lives.

It's a labor we can all endorse.

When in Rome

I also want to acknowledge the more than 50 readers who have responded to my request for suggestions on what to see and do on one day in Rome. I have enough information about Roman sites to fill a small guidebook, not to mention enough restaurant recommendations to dine for a month. Over the next few weeks, I'll be developing an itinerary for the day, and after the trip, I'll report on how it went. In the meantime, thanks to all for taking the time to contact me. It's clear that many Post-Gazette readers love Rome.

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