Founder of Labor Day
More
than 100 years after the first Labor Day observance, there is still
some doubt as to who first proposed the holiday for workers.
Some
records show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the
Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American
Federation of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor those "who
from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold."
But
Peter McGuire's place in Labor Day history has not gone unchallenged.
Many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, not Peter McGuire,
founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the contention
that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the
International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the
holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in
New York. What is clear is that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor
Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and
picnic.
The First Labor Day
The
first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882,
in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor
Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a
year later, on September 5, 1883.
In
1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as
originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar
organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and
celebrate a "workingmen's holiday" on that date. The idea spread with
the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated
in many industrial centers of the country.
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