Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 September 1894 — LABOR’S OWN DAY. [ARTICLE]

LABOR’S OWN DAY.

How It Was Observed This Year in Many of the Large Cities. In the summor of 1882, Matthew Maguire, Secretary of the Central Labor Union, of Paterson. N. J.. introduced a motion at one of the meetings of the union that the various bodies represented there should hold a joint demonstration and picnic instead of the separate assembly picnics that had heretofore been the vogue, and suggested that this combined labor outing occur on the first Monday in September. The resolution met with favor, and the first Monday in September of each year was set aside as ‘‘labor ho iday.” The second demonst at.ion —1883 —was a grand success. Thirty thousand people were in line, but the celebration up to this time was confined to New York City. In the following year the movement had extended to twenty prominent cities of the United States, and 1885 saw the observance of Labor Day advance with still more rapid strides, until now it reaches all the new centers of industrial development in the South as well as the North, and every prominent city in the United States has its Labor Lav. This year the day was generally observed. In Chicago labor marched through the streets with its trousers turned up, and with little rills of water running down the back of its neck. Over 7.100 union workmen splashed through the mud to celebrate Labor Day, undeterred by the heaviest down* ! pour in over two months In New York labor made an imposing demonstration. Not far trom 20,00 i men, representing all the tr.des unions, were in line. The holiday was celebrated throughout all New England. Business was generally suspended. In all the cities a wealth of entertainment was offered, and all day the streets were alive with bands of music and processions. In Boston over 15,000 were in line. A Toronto dispatch says that for the first time in the history of the Dominion Labor Day was celebrated by a general suspension of business in different cities and towns throughout Canada. At Omaha . 0,000 people participated in the celebration. Thirty thousand representatives of Nebraska labor unions were in the procession. There were 2,500 m:n in line in the Labor Day par ale at Milwaukee, and they marched through a drenching rain-torm. The celebration of the day by the organized workingmen of Indianapolis did not* attract s.> much attention as it had for several years past.