100 years ago in The Record
Monday, September 2, 1918 Labor Day is an “international holiday” this year, The Record reports, as Trojans turn out to watch the annual parade and honor organized labor’s contributions to the war effort. “Long before the parade began crowds gathered along the line of march and it was a big parade, the biggest Troy had seen in a long time,” our reporter writes. The highlight of the day is the raising of a service flag boasting 531 stars, representing members of the city’s Central Federation of Labor currently serving in the military. “In former years this day was celebrated by parades, picnics and various other amusements,” federation vice-president I. Seymour Scott recalls, “but to- day we have cast aside all thoughts of pleasure. “Among all the chapters that organized labor has written to its credit in the history of this country none is more glorious and splendid than the one we are writing today, the great chapter of the loyalty of labor in the United States in these great hours…. You know and I know that if labor were not loyal, in vain we might attempt to win victory out of this great struggle. “The hosts of organized labor to- day are building this new United States and this new world. Labor is marching under the flag of this free republic to- day on the thunder-smitten hills of France. The voice of labor mingles with the great harmony of freedom all over this land.”
The orator of the day is T. M. Guerin from the general executive board of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America. The war notwithstanding, Guerin argues that “the labor question is the one great question of to- day.”
The success of the nation in war and peace, Guerin says, “depends upon the beneficence of our laws upon the large opportunity it offers to the wage workers to better their conditions and in its self-sacrificing devotion to the purest ideals of freedom and righteousness to all mankind.
“No thinking man of today doubts the stern realization of the truth, that the best fortification that any nation can possess is a contented working class who feel that its government and its people will treat him fair.”
Today’s festivities are marred by an incident outside the county court house. Michael Garrity is “roughly handled by the crowds” for failing to take his hat off during the playing of the national anthem.
Friends quickly come to Garrity’s aid, explaining to angry patriots that he’s mentally ill. The 32 year old was released from the Marshall Sanatorium last week. Arrested for disorderly conduct, Garrity will be sent back to Marshall tomorrow.