The Observer, September 8, 2006
Volume XXXIX, Issue 2
Letters to the Editor
History of Labor Day should be remembered
Coming off of a three day weekend we should all feel rested and ready to continue on with our collegiate responsibilities….right. Anyway, the Labor (Labour for our British friends) Day holiday was, for most, a welcomed break and a chance to enjoy barbecues, friends, and family.
However, we should not forget why we celebrate this holiday for the workers. Labor Day has been celebrated since the 1880s when President Grover Cleveland made it an official holiday. Traditionally, workers' holidays occurred on May Day (May 1). However, this was seen as too socialist for the diehard capitalistic society of Gilded Age America.
Even so, Labor Day still symbolized a victory for working people and one could say it was the first step in America's breaking with raw, unregulated capitalism. This would ultimately end with the Great Depression and the creation of Social Security by FDR.
So for this little break in our labors that we enjoy, we can thank the many working men and women who sought a respite from their own toils in the hopes of making a more equitable, if not more fair, society. Labor Day, it seems, has become accepted as a day of rest and recuperation, and something socialist-esque that even our libertarian friends can kick back and enjoy.
