Neue Presse, August 29, 2001,  by Gerd Besserer,  paraphrased and translated by Maria Brand

 

Why do we Celebrate Labor Day on the First Monday in September

And not on the First of May?

It was the 1st of May 1886 when more than 80,000 workers took to the streets of Chicago to demand an 8-hr workday and better working conditions. Factory owners had pushed the workers over the edge by making them work 16- hr days for $2.00, which was not enough to live on, not to mention supporting a family. More than 2,000,000 children were employed to work 12-hr days helping to put bread on the table. Living quarters were poor beyond description. These conditions and the striking workers created a very tense atmosphere in the city of Chicago. The bosses of industry saw their profits jeopardized.

A German immigrant by the name of August Spies was about to deliver a speech in front of the factory gate. The crowd was restless, people pushed and shoved. Police, started to shoot. Four people were killed. Many more were wounded.

Spies, who had observed all this from the speaker's platform, encouraged the people to go to the Hay Market Square, for a rally.

There, the situation turned worse. A bomb exploded killing a police sergeant. Sixty bystanders were hurt. Police again opened fire. Some demonstrators fired back. Ten people died fifty more were wounded.

 Eight people were arrested six of them were Germans. Proof of their involvement in the shooting was never established. Yet, they were judged and seven were condemned to die; one received a15 year prison sentence.

Three of the Germans and one American were hanged in November of 1887 among them August Spies. When the rope was laid around his neck he cried out:" The voices which you are trying to silence will speak louder from their grave."

The German immigrant was right. Five years after the riot at Hay Market Square the Governor of Illinois, John Peter Altgeld, exonerated all men convicted and hanged. Prove of involvement in the bombing could not be established.

To commemorate the wrongful dead of these men, the "International Union Congress" decided on the first of May 1889 that Labor Day should be celebrated on the 1st of May of every year.

In 1894 the US-Congress declared the first Monday of September to be celebrated as Labor Day in the USA in remembrance of the first protests by workers in New York City in 1884. This decision was agreeable to company owners and workers alike. No one wanted to be reminded of the tragedy, which occurred at the Hay Marked Square in Chicago on May first 1886.