Labor Day is a day of rest that commemorates years of war. Congress
inaugurated the holiday just days after President Grover Cleveland sent
12,000 federal troops to break the Pullman strike. The tactics were
bloody; U.S. deputy marshals killed two men, and wounded many more.
That was 1894, an election year. Cleveland needed a way to win
workers back to his side. He saw an opportunity in a federal holiday
honoring workers — as well as organized labor.
"The movement for a national Labor Day had been growing for some time," writes
PBS Newshour. "In September 1892, union workers in New York City took
an unpaid day off and marched around Union Square in support of the
holiday. But now, protests against President Cleveland's harsh methods
made the appeasement of the nation's workers a top political priority.
In the immediate wake of the strike, legislation was rushed unanimously
through both houses of Congress, and the bill arrived on President
Cleveland's desk just six days after his troops had broken the Pullman
strike."
No comments:
Post a Comment