CELEBRATING A SOLEMN LABOR DAY

With the national unemployment rate over 8 percent and the COVID-19 pandemic still raging in parts of the country, it’s undeniable that millions of working families are suffering. That gives Labor Day 2020 a special significance this year beyond usual end-of-summer rituals. Now more than ever, it is a time to celebrate and ref lect on the contributions of this nation’s essential workers. Even if there are no parades.

From The San Diego Union, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 1938:

10,000 WORKERS FROM 50 A.F.L. UNIONS

MARCH IN S.D. LABOR DAY PARADE

MAYOR, BISHOP BUDDY, IZAC

IN REVIEWING STAND

“God must love the workingman and his family—he made so many of them,” some one paraphrased yesterday as more than 10,000 workers marched up Broadway in the Labor day parade. It was an impressive show of strength for organized labor, with floats and banners frequently bearing out the implied theme of the parade: The American standard of living for millions of workers in the United States has been brought about chiefly through the demands of organized labor for shorter hours and better pay.

CROWDS JAM WALKS

Crowds jammed the sidewalks from the foot of Broadway to Thirteenth st. the spectators were in laughing holiday mood, but always orderly. When the Stars and Stripes went by, at the head of each marching unit, men’s hats came off, women stood at attention and small children applauded. Many American flags were flying in the cooling breeze at frequent intervals down the long line of march.

Rep. Ed. V. Izac, Mayor Percy J. Benbough and Bishop Charles Francis Buddy reviewed the parade at Twelfth ave. and Broadway. Few policemen were in evidence. Most of those were in the parade, with the exception of the usual motocycle policemen who ride down the line and call “Stand back on the curbing, please,” or “Hey, you stand back there, you guys.” It all depends.

PARADE MOVED PROMPTLY

The parade began moving promptly at 10 a.m. following the mounted policemen came two workers with trumpets making way for the queen, Miss Marjorie Walz, El Cajon. Bonham boys’ band, young workers of tomorrow, led automobiles carrying federal, state, county and city officials and members of the clergy.

Then came the first of the white-clad men representing the 50 American Federation of Labor unions in the parade. Out in front marched a group of labor leaders, including J.W. Brown, president, and John Lydick, secretary, Federated Trades and Labor council of San Diego county.

Almost every form of service which San Diegans receive daily or upon demand--and take for granted—was represented and it took the marching men one hour to pass. Divided into local unions, there were the men who build our cities—the carpenters, steel and iron workers, masons, painters and decorators.

FOOD MEN MARCH

The men who supply food to San Diego homes were there, the butchers and grocery store clerks forming the longest line in the long chain of workers. Transportation men marched in familiar blue overalls of railroad yards. Electricians, cannery workers, retail

clerks, office workers -- San Diego’s baby local, firemen, nurses, machinists, waiters, stage hands, cooks, motion picture operators — a dramatic array of worker of this community paraded by.

Bands included Amaroc post V.F.W.; Post 6. American Legion; Fraternal Order of Eagles; Local 299’s musicians; North Park Boys’ band and Bonham Boys’ bank.

Hearkening back to the “first American laborer,” an Indian in full array pranced up Broadway on a horse, followed by examples of the horse and buggy age, a covered wagon, buggies and the pony express, and old hotel coach and wagons.

TRUCKS DISPLAYED

The 100 “floats” included some clever and beautiful floats; the rest of the rolling stock was merely another reminder that this was a Labor day parade, being made up of the trucks that service San Diego in many lines.

Among the most interesting floats was one entered by the milk industries, with a live cow and calf as central figures, the plasterers’ and cement finishers graphic entry; Ramona Turkey day’s feathered float; the grocery clerks’ entry, depicting their kind chained to long hours and then the “union in strength” that is bringing a happier way of life; the gay floats of night club entertainers, the beautiful floral entry of Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, the great American flag of the butchers, retail clerks’ bevy of lovely girls, the musical float of brewery workers with just ahead of it a plea to motorists to drive safely as “school opens tomorrow.”