Confronting the Illinois National Guard, Pullman strikers gather outside of the Arcade Building in Pullman, Ill., during the Pullman Railroad Strike in 1894.

Dustin White
Editor

Signifying, for many, the end of the summer, Labor Day has been officially recognized for more than 120 years. Many see it as a final chance to take that family vacation before school gets into full swing, and autumn to begin to set in. However, the history behind the celebratory day is quite different, and begins with civil unrest.



Industrial Revolution
The founding of Labor Day begins in the late 1800s, during the height of the Industrial Revolution.

In order to simply provide the basic necessities one needed to survive, individuals found themselves working 12 hour days, seven days a week. It wasn’t just the average adult that had succumbed to such long hours, but children as young as five and six, paid only a fraction of what adults made, who were busy toiling away in mills, factories and mines across the country.

As one can imagine, the situation was dire for anyone who found themselves in this situation. With poor and dangerous working conditions, many wound up in jobs that led to premature death.

At the same time, as manufacturing jobs were beginning to replace agricultural ones, the rise in labor unions began to see a drastic increase. In turn, this increased enrollment began to give unions more prominence, and allowed them to become increasingly vocal.

Organizing rallies, as well as strikes, unions protested the poor working conditions that so many Americans faced. Trying to secure better pay, as well as negotiate hours with employers, the protests that began for nobel reasons often escalated into riots.

During this tumultuous time, the idea of a “working man’s holiday” began circulating. However, it wasn’t until 1882 that a holiday similar to Labor Day was proposed.

It isn’t completely clear who first made the proposal. Some historians point to Peter J. McGuire, of the American Federation of Labor, who had observed labor festivals in Canada, and wanted a similar celebration the United States.

Other historians, with growing frequency, point to Matthew Maguire, secretary of the Central Labor Union, as the individual who initiated the proposal. Whoever it was, the idea began to spread quickly among workers.

On Sept. 5, 1882, the first Labor Day parade, in U.S. history, took place when 10,000 workers took unpaid time off from their jobs, and marched from New York City Hall to Union Square.

It would take another 12 years before Congress would officially recognize the day as a holiday.

Pullman company
George Pullman was the president of the Pullman Palace Car Company, which designed railroad sleeping cars. Wanting to design a utopian workers’ community, as well as isolate those individuals from the political and moral influences of Chicago, Pullman founded the city of Pullman, Ill. in 1890.

The city was laid out strictly. For assembly and craft workers, row houses were provided. Managers were housed in modest Victorians.



For Pullman, a luxurious hotel was built, where visiting customers, suppliers and salesmen could also be lodged while in town.

Overseeing his community, in much the same manner as a feudal king, Pullman controlled nearly everything. All the residents worked for the Pullman company. Their paychecks would be drawn from Pullman bank, and their rent would be deducted automatically from their checks.

For a decade, the system worked smoothly. But it wouldn’t last.

In 1893, the nation was caught in an economic depression. Pullman’s company, and the city that relied on it, did not escape from the harsh consequences.

As orders for railroad sleeping cars declined, Pullman found himself forced to lay off hundreds of his employees.

Those who seemed lucky enough to retain their jobs, did so at considerable cutbacks, while their rent remained the same. For nearly everyone, the economic down turn had tremendous effects.

On May 11, 1894, employees of Pullman’s company had finally had enough, and went on strike in order to protest both the wage cuts they were seeing, as well as the firing of union representatives.

Coming to their aide, on June 26, the American Railroad Union, led by Eugene V. Debs, initiated a boycott of all Pullman railway cars.

The boycott crippled railroad traffic throughout the nation. It wouldn’t be long until rioting broke out. Mobs of both union, and non-union workers began pillaging railroad cars, and causing such a stir that the national government had no choice but to act.

Having become a national issue, the then sitting president, Grover Cleveland, found himself between a rock and a hard place. With 1894 being an election year, and mail trains being interrupted, not to mention the nervous railroad executives, Cleveland needed to put an end to the strike as quickly as possible.

The choice he made ended up in an eruption of violence. Declaring the strike a federal crime, Cleveland deployed over 10,000 groups in order to quell the uprising. In return, the riots became increasingly violent, with two men eventually being killed.

The strike ended on Aug. 3, 1894. Debs ended up in prison, and the Pullman employees were made to sign a pledge that they wouldn’t unionize again. Industrial workers’ unions, from the fallout, ended up being effectively stamped out. It wouldn’t be until the Great Depression that they would find a resurgence.

Fall out
Once the strike was quelled, Cleveland experienced a great deal of backlash. With many finding his methods too harsh, protests against the president began.

Knowing that he would not win reelection with the negative public opinion he was facing, he helped rush through legislation that would officially establish Labor Day. Having passed through both houses of Congress unanimously, Cleveland signed the bill just six days after the Pullman strike was ended.



However, the general public was not so forgiving. Cleveland would not win his reelection bid.

With the day being officially recognized though, many saw it as a day for political organizing.

“The day for which the toilers in past centuries looked forward, when their rights and their wrongs would be discussed … that the workers of our day may not only lay down their tools of labor for a holiday, but upon which they may touch shoulders in marching phalanx and feel the stronger for it,” Samuel Gompers, head of the American Federation of Labor, said in 1898.

Today
Gompers view of Labor Day has long past. Instead, many see it as the last long weekend of the summer.

It has also become one of the largest retail days of the year, second only to “Black Friday.”

The day has thus found many people employed in retail not only having to work on the holiday, but also picking up longer hours; an ironic twist on the history.

No longer are many Americans enrolled in unions either. Less than 15 percent belong to a union, and for the retail sector, that percent drops to three.

That’s not to say that the day doesn’t still contain significance. It has become a day that many associate with spending time with family, and cherishing those moments.