Another from the NYT, the day before Labor Day, 1887. (Don't miss the last paragraph.)
The organization of the parade is reminiscent of a parade that took place during the 1886 election, described in Chapter 10 of Post & Leubuscher's book, Henry George's 1886 Campaign: An Account of the George-Hewitt Campaign in the New York Municipal Election of 1886. (Incidentally, while the NYT earliest references to Labor Day are in 1887, after the NYS legislature had made it official there, P&L, writing in December, 1886, refer to a Labor Day parade in Newark on Labor Day, September 6, 1886).
I've not yet read The Standard's account of the day. (Text files of the months leading up to it are online; I'll have to read the PDF original for the following issue, which one can order on disk from the bookstore at schalkenbach.org.) Here's the relevant passage from the 9/3/87 issue, including the blurb immediately above it, which quotes the fellow who defeated George in the election; it neatly encapsulates the distinction between the kinds of taxation.
"The true theory of taxation," says Mayor Hewitt, as reported in the World, "is to tax value wherever you find it." There was once a certain man traveling from Jerusalem to Samaria, who fell in with a set of tax gatherers who conducted business on just that principle.
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Labor day will be celebrated in New York this year as a legal holiday. It was in 1882 that the Central labor union, then recently formed, issued a call to the labor organizations of New York to parade through the heart of the city on the first Monday of September. It was only with the greatest exertion on the part of a few men that the parade was made a success; but a success it was, and immediately after it was suggested that labor organizations set aside the first Monday of September in each year as labor’s holiday.
In 1883 the celebration here was much more significant than in 1882, and in several other cities it was also observed. During the following three years the voluntary observance of the day by organized labor grew into an institution in all the leading cities of the Union, and at the late session of our legislature it was legally made a public holiday in this state.
It is evident that the day will be very extensively recognized. Parades and meetings are to be held not only in the large cities, but in towns and villages. The farming population is not yet aroused to the significance of the day to them. Such persistent efforts to narrow the labor movement to artisans have been made by the pro-poverty press, to which a few members of labor organizations have unfortunately lent their influence, that farmers are disposed to count themselves out of the labor movement. But as this narrowness is giving way to broader views of labor, labor day will become a welcome and honored anniversary with all who work, whether in factory or office, in the shop or on the farm.
Ready for Labor Day
For the Great Parade Expected to Include 60,000 Persons
The preparations for the Central Labor Union Parade tomorrow have been completed. Grand Marshal John Morrison issued a proclamation yesterday requesting all workingmen and workingwomen to assemble at their respective places of meeting, whence they will march to take their places in the parade. Thereby they will show that although they may differ from each other in other matters they are as a unit upon industrial questions. All workers, whether they be trades unionists, Knights of Labor, Socialists, or Greenbackers, are asked to unite in the parade, provided they believe in the principles of the Central Labor Union and in a united labor movement, for the emancipation of labor, against the common enemy, capital.
No national flags other than American ones are to be permitted in the procession. The Grand Marshal has appointed as his aides, Hugh Whoriskey, A. J. Johnson, T. J. Mahon, F. Opitz, B. Abrahams, Michael O'Brien, M. Sullivan, P. T. Larkin, William Drebs, and Charles Burton.
The printing trades have been given the right of line, and Marshal William H. Bailey will be in command of this section. The chapels of all the morning papers, with one exception, will be in line. The printing trades section will have 12 divisions that will form along the streets crossing the Bowery from Fourth-street to Grand-street. Mr. Morrison yesterday estimated that fully 60,000 men will take part in the parade.
The entire police force of the city has been ordered on duty Monday. Superintendent Murray, who has been, and is still, with his family at Far Rockaway, will return to duty on that day and will assume command of the force. One thousand patrolmen, with the necessary officers, have been detailed to preserve order along the line of the parade. They will be under command of Inspectors Steers and Williams and Capts. Brogan, Ryan, McDonnell, McElwain, Allaire, Clinchy, Eskins, Reilly, Gunner, and Killalea. There will also be a large reserve force on hand in case of emergency.
In Brooklyn Monday the public schools will be closed. All the municipal departments of that city will be closed, and the City Hall will be decorated with various flags and bunting. In this case the employes in the County Clerk's office will celebrate by eating their annual clambake at DeWitt's Cottage Hotel, Broadway Station, Long Island. Many of these gentlemen are said to be afflicted with a most egregious bivalvular consumption and confidently expect to excoriate all historic annals concerning the disappearance of the clam. In Westchester County the indications seem to be that Labor Day will be observed by laboring. There will be hard work in all but one or two factories. The convicts in Sing Sing Prison will also observe the day by laboring as usual.
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