In 1894 during President Grover Cleveland second term, signed a proclamation making the first Monday in September to be Labor Day. But, he story began 10 years earlier, during Cleveland's election to his first term when he courted the Labor movement. In his first two years, he pushed to expand the Bureau of Labor to include the power to arbitrate labor disputes. A power, that perhaps Cleveland believed could have avoided the disastrous Pullman strike of 1894, the year Cleveland proclaimed the first Labor day holiday.
The depression in the late 1860s shattered the existing labor movement destroying the National Labor union. In 1874, a group of labor leaders campaigned for a new National Department of Labor, but settled for a more attainable goal of a Bureau of Labor. Through the early 1880s, their movement gained strength as the economy rebounded and labor organizations increased in number and power. Then in 1884, they struck gold when the formation of a labor bureau became a hot election item. Both Republicans and Democrats courted the labor vote and both favored the creation of a labor bureau.
In the Senate, a bill to establish the Bureau of Labor passed with little opposition and a similar bill passed the house with a vote of 182 to 19. President Chester Arthur signed the bill on June 27, 1884 and appointed Carroll D. Wright was appointed of Massachusetts as the first U.S. Commissioner of Labor. President Grover Cleveland who also ran on a platform for a strong Bureau of Labor, took upon as one his first tasks to enlarge the Bureau of Labor. In a special message to Congress dated April of 1886, Cleveland recommended that the Bureau be expanded to include the power to investigate and arbitrate labor disputes. In his letter he stated that the "present condition of the relations between labor and capital is far from satisfactory". Cleveland laid the blame on the "alleged discrimination in favor of capital as an object of governmental attention". In other words, the federal government was favoring the wealthy and capital over labor or the worker. He reminded them of the limited powers they have within the constitution, but he was convinced that something could be done to give the Bureau power to "prevent the disturbances which so often arise from disputes between employers and the employed". Cleveland suggested that Congress create a commission of three members who would on behalf of the government, arbitrate whenever possible all controversies between labor and capital. Such a commission would be justified by the commerce clause of the Constitution which grants Congress the right to "to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several States".
Later that year, when President Grover Cleveland was addressing Congress with his State of the Union (delivered as a written letter), he reminded them of his earlier request for the "enlargement of our present Labor Bureau and adding to its present functions the power of arbitration".
The relations of labor to capital and of laboring men to their employers are of the utmost concern to every patriotic citizen. When these are strained and distorted, unjustifiable claims are apt to be insisted upon by both interests, and in the controversy which results the welfare of all and the prosperity of the country are jeopardized. Any intervention of the General Government, within the limits of its constitutional authority, to avert such a condition should be willingly accorded.I could not find any acts by Congress in 1886 or 1887 of expanding the bureau or establishing an arbitration commission. The first act passed by Congress regarding arbitration, was the Arbitration act of 1888 which established arbitration panels and gave the federal government the right to investigate and arbitrate labor disputes. This act was passed in response to railroad disputes, but was never utilized, and was repealed and replaced in 1898 by the Erdman law. In Cleveland's second term The Arbitration Act of 1888 established it's only panel ever during the 1894 Pullman strike, and that panel issued it's first report only after the strike had been ended by a federal court injunction. Included in the commission's report, was a recommendation that Cleveland's original request that there be a permanent US strike commission with official duty to investigate disputes between railroads and their employees. Cleveland did not get his commission, but he did once again appeal to Labor. On June 28, 1894, Cleveland signed legislation declaring September 1st to be a national holiday in honor of Labor. Labor Day had been celebrated at the local and state levels since 1883, but was now being adopted as a national holiday. It was the least, Cleveland could do after ordering federal troops to end the strike by the American Railway Union at the Pullman Palace Car Company. In the wake of deaths of workers at the hands of U.S. Army troops, Congress unanimously approved legislation to make Labor Day a national holiday. One can only imagine, that Cleveland must have been thinking that this all could have been averted if Congress had created the commission like he requested 8 years earlier.
In a special message transmitted to the Congress at its last session I suggested the enlargement of our present Labor Bureau and adding to its present functions the power of arbitration in cases where differences arise between employer and employed. When these differences reach such a stage as to result in the interruption of commerce between the States, the application of this remedy by the General Government might be regarded as entirely within its constitutional powers. And I think we might reasonably hope that such arbitrators, if carefully selected and if entitled to the confidence of the parties to be affected, would be voluntarily called to the settlement of controversies of less extent and not necessarily within the domain of Federal regulation.
On September 3, 1956 a 3 cent stamp was released in honor of Labor Day. It featured a design from the mosaic mural at the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington called "Labor is Life" by artist Lumen Winter.
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