The picnics, speeches, and parades of today’s Labor Day were all part of the first celebration, held in New York City in 1882. Its promoter was an Irish-American labor leader named peter J. McGuire. A carpenter by trade, McGuire had worked since the age of eleven, and in 1882 was president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners (UBCJ). Approaching the City’s Central Labor Union that summer, he proposed a holiday that would applaud “the industrial spirit-the great vital force of every nation.” On September 5 his suggestion bore fruit, as an estimated 10,000 workers, many of them ignoring their bosses’ warnings, left work to march from Union square up Fifth Avenue to 42nd Street. The event gained national attention, and by 1893 thirty states had made Labor Day an annual holiday.
今天勞動節(jié)的野餐、演講和游行都是1882年在紐約市舉行的第一次慶?；顒拥囊徊糠?。它的發(fā)起人是一位名叫彼得·J·麥奎爾的愛爾蘭裔美國勞工領(lǐng)袖。作為一名木匠，麥奎爾從11歲起就開始工作，并于1882年擔任木匠與木工聯(lián)合兄弟會（UBCJ）主席。那年夏天，在參加該市中央工會時，他建議增加一天假期，用于稱贊“工業(yè)精神是每個國家的巨大生命力”。9月5日，他的建議取得了成效，估計有1萬名工人從第五大道的聯(lián)合廣場游行至第42街舉行游行罷工，其中許多人無視老板的警告。這一事件引起了全國的關(guān)注，到1893年，已有30個州將勞動節(jié)定為一年一度的節(jié)日。

The quick adoption of the scheme may have indicated less about the state lawmakers’ respect for working people than about a fear of risking their anger. In the 1880s the United States was a land sharply divided between the immensely wealthy and the very poor. Henry George was accurate in describing the era as one of “progress and poverty.” In a society in which factory, owners rode in private Pullmans while ten-year-olds slaved in the mines, strong anti-capitalist feeling ran high. Demands for fundamental change were common throughout the labor press. With socialists demanding an end to “wage slavery” and anarchists singing the praises of the virtues of dynamite, middle-of-the-roaders like Samuel Gompers and McGuire seemed attractively mild by comparison. One can imagine practical capitalists seeing Labor Day as a bargain: A one-day party certainly cost them less than paying their workers decent wages.
該提議的迅速通過與其說表明州議員對勞動人民的尊重，不如說表明他們擔心激怒勞動人民的風險。19世紀80年代，美國是一個貧富分化嚴重的國家。亨利·喬治（Henry George）準確地將這個時代描述為“進步與貧困”的時代。在一個工廠老板現(xiàn)有私人普爾曼臥車（Pullmans），而十歲的孩子在礦井里勞作的社會里，強烈的反資本主義情緒高漲。要求進行根本性變革的呼聲在整個勞動新聞界都很普遍。社會主義者要求結(jié)束“工資奴役”，無政府主義者歌頌炸藥的優(yōu)點，相比之下，像Samuel Gompers和McGuire這樣的中間道路者顯得很溫和。人們可以想象，務(wù)實的資本家把勞動節(jié)視為一筆交易：一天的休息肯定比付給工人體面的工資要便宜。