A working holiday: Labor Day movement helped put an end to child labor

Temple Daily Telegram ^ | September 6, 2009 | Patricia Benoit

[Peter Horry]

A century ago, Labor Day in Bell County was more about brotherhood and less about barbecue. The first Monday in September began 127 years ago as a "working man's holiday," but, in reality, in Bell County, the day emphasized more "working" than "holiday."

Far from being the "last day of summer vacation," most Bell Countians anticipated Labor Day for a bountiful cotton harvest. Although the observance is 118 years old in Texas, not until 1909 did Bell County's Labor Day celebrations swell to widespread celebration. Before then, 12-hour shifts were common; worker conditions perilous. Railroads, Temple's major employer, were the lead source of industrial accidents.

In 1910, Labor Day in Texas took on child labor. Women's groups took advantage of the parades and speechifying to point out the problems.

[Brilliant]

That was 100 years ago. What have they done for us lately?

Here’s the answer: They’ve made it possible that millions of adults also can’t work.

[LuvFreeRepublic]

Hey Brilliant, brilliant remark!

[Star Traveler]

Well, I note that this is from Temple, Texas, and that reminded me of riding the Amtrak through there (going towards Dallas), and coming up on President Bush’s Ranch in Crawford (right after Temple). We were supposed to see it from the Amtrak line on the backside, I think...

I was just reminded of it, from the article, since they mentioned several “keywords” that tied into that trip... :-)

It was nice country, around there, to have a ranch, from what I could see from Amtrak...

[Peter Horry]

I see similarities between the NAACP and the labor movement, they both started out to correct legitimate grievances and then both decided abuse of power isn’t that bad if they have the power.... kind of reminds one of Animal Farm.

The labor movement became defined by radicals and unions who showed no regard for the health and well being of the companies they depended on and little for their members... beyond using them as pawns. As a result, we have lost much of our production capacity while being told that our transition into a service economy was a good thing. If we don’t reverse this trend there may little need for the service sector.