Podcasts · Letters from an American

Labor Day

· 7:24

Episode Labor Day

0:00 7:24

September 4, 2026

On September 5, 1882, workers in New York City celebrated the first Labor Day holiday, Their goal was to emphasize the importance of workers in the industrializing economy, Twenty years after the Civil War, government had swung toward men of capital, and working men worried they would lose their rights, Inequality was growing in the country, Workers helped elect reformer Democrat Grover Cleveland to the White House in 1884, In 1888 Cleveland won the popular vote but lost in the electoral college to Benjamin Harrison, In 1892 Cleveland was re-elected in a landslide, Investors rushed to take their money out of the stock market and the economy collapsed. Cleveland and the Democratic Congress had to abandon many of their pro-worker policies, But on June 28, 1894, Cleveland signed Congress’s bill making Labor Day a legal holiday.

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