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Labor Day — 100 Years Ago
Today is Labor Day. Here’s what our fellow Americans were focused on 100 years ago.
Labor Day had its roots in the late 19th century and grew to become a national holiday in the early 20th century. Its coincidence with the communist revolution in Russia is no coincidence. In that context I hope the irony of a day celebrating labor by not working is not lost on you.
100 years ago the women’s suffrage movement was in full swing but the talk of the day was child labor. Here’s a cartoon from 1917 showing a workman picking away at the foundations of American Progress. The chipped away stone says: “Free Speech and Tolerance.” Next on the base of the statue are “Child Labor Laws”; “Hours of Labor”; and “Temperate House Laws.” It’s unclear to me whether this cartoon was advocating for child labor or opposing it. Context is everything when reviewing history and this era has a very opaque mantle around it.
From Margaret Sanger and the eugenics movement to President Wilson and the great experiment to bring progressivism to the United States — I feel that this era is a mix of stupendous failures all built upon the best-intentioned intellectual thoughts of the day. As Jonah Goldberg has…
