1921 Labor Day brought peace after period of conflict
It was a quiet Labor Day in Columbus on the first Monday in September in 1921. And in its own way, the holiday was reflective of a tranquility across the country in the ranks of organized labor.
A contentious national election in 1920 had pitted two former newspapermen from Ohio against each other to win the presidency. James M. Cox was a Democrat, governor and owner of the Dayton Daily News. He argued that an America emerging from World War I needed to see a continuation of the Progressive policies of President Woodrow Wilson.
Warren G. Harding was a Republican, United States Senator and owner of the Marion Star. He said America was in need of rest and recovery. Probably intending a return to normality, Harding did what he sometimes would do and popularized a new word: He said America needed a return to “normalcy.”
Harding won the election and “normalcy” still is with us. The 1920s would end up being called the “Roaring Twenties.” It was the era of Prohibition and bathtub gin, of flappers and Flaming Youth, and the time when women got the vote and the gates of immigration closed for several decades. And the previously defunct Ku Klux Klan marched again.
It was a busy decade. But in 1921, it was only getting started. Much of America was at peace with itself now that the mobilization for the Great War – soon to be called World War I – was over. Many groups in America that had been in conflict over issues of race, gender, class and nationality were at least at truce, if not at peace, one with another.
Among those were management and labor. The story of the two was one of consultation and compromise, as well as occasional contention and confrontation. Workers had organized to improve their condition mostly at the state and local level in the early years of American history. It was only later that national organizations came into the fray.
As an example, typesetters – men who could read and set lead type for printers upside down and backward – were men who could not easily be replaced. In the 1830s, typesetters in Columbus followed the lead of some other cities and organized a successful craft union.
Other crafts and trades had varying success with similar organization. In the interim, national trade unions had come together to form the American Federation of Labor in 1886 and the United Mine Workers in 1890. Both groups had been founded in Columbus, which was a railhead and a nice place to hold conventions. (It still is.)
Columbus and Ohio played an important role in the story of organized labor in America. Many of the largest factories in America were built in Ohio and the state was a major center of transportation and trade for many years.
In 1882, workers in New York marched in support of a law to create a one-day workers holiday each year. The movement was successful and support for similar holidays in other states began, as well. In 1890, John P. Green, an African American representative in the Ohio General Assembly, successfully moved through a law creating a Labor Day in Ohio. In 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed an act establishing a national Labor Day.
So a tradition was born. On the first Monday in September, workers marched, families and friends lined the streets and picnics with speeches and entertainment were held in parks across America.
By 1921, after 30 years of parades and picnics, many people in Columbus and
America were looking to Labor Day less as a celebration and more of a three-day weekend. Across much of America at that time, public school began on the day after Labor Day, when swimming pools also closed and traditionally it was the last day of the season to wear white or seersucker to formal events.
Monday, Sept. 5, 1921, was a quiet day in Columbus. The Dispatch reported: “Despite the unsettled weather, Labor Day was marked by the passage of many parties in the country in the vicinity of Columbus, where the warm lazy hours were spent in picnicking and fishing. Other than this there was no activity whatsoever in the downtown district.”
A similar calm was observed across the country. A local headline read, “Labor Abandons Usual Parade in New York City – First Time for Years Demonstration is Omitted on the First Monday in October.”
Another article went on to note that the Labor picnics continued to be held. They would continue for a time in Columbus, as well.
Then the world began to change a bit. Schools started to open earlier and the pools remained open a bit longer. And no one would really care who wore white and when.
But Labor Day remained in its quiet way, to thank all those who work for a living.
Local historian and author Ed Lentz writes the As It Were column for Thisweek Community News and The Dispatch.