The Labor Day Quiz
Test Your Knowledge about the Workman's favorite holiday!
#1. Where was the first Labor Day Parade celebrated?
a)New York City b)Pullman, Illinois c)Detroit, Michigan
#2. Which state first granted Labor Day legal status as a holiday?
a)New York b)Texas c)Oregon
3. What year did Labor Day pass legislation as a national holiday?
a)1887 b)1894 c)1849
4. In 1898, who was the head of the American Federation of Labor?
a)Samuel Gompers b)George Pullman c)Eugene V. Debs
5. Other than worker's appreciation, what other significance does Labor Day have?
a)everyone gets to BBQ b)the new school hyear begins c)last long weekend of summer
6. What major event ultimately resulted in Prseident Grover Cleveland's reluctantly approving Labor Day as a national holiday?
a)The Woodward March b)The Pullman Strike c)The 1937 sit down strikes
7. What day of the week was the first Labor Day celebrated?
a)Friday b)Monday c)Tuesday
8. Who formallyintroduced the idea of Labor Dayat a meeting of the Central Labor Union on May 18, 1882 saying: "Let us have a festive day during which a parade through the streets of the city would permit public tribute to American Industry"?
a)Peter J. McGuire b)Walter Reutner c)Jacob X. Coxey
9. In what decades was most of the federal laws protecting workers passed?
a)1890s b)1930s c)1950s
10. What other country besides the United States celebrates Labor Day on the first Monday of September?
a)France b)Great Britain c)Canada
ANSWERS:
1. September 5, 1882 some 10,000 workers assembled in New York City.
2. Oregan became the first state to grant legal status as a holiday in 1887.
3. In 1894, Congress passed legislation marking Labor Day as a legal holiday in the USA.
4. Samuel Gompers. He said, "the day for which the toilers in past centuries looked forward when the rights and their wrongs would be discussed. That the workers in our day may not lay down their tools of labor for a holiday, but upon which they may touch shoulders in marching phalanx and feel the stronger for it."
5. It is more synonymous with BBQ's, congested highways and last long weekend of summer.
6. The Pullman Strike in Chicago. The American Railway Union, led by young Eugene V. Debs, came to the cause of the striking workers, and railway workers across the nation boycotted trains carrying Pullman cars.
7. Tuesday, September 5, 1882. Peter J. McGuire had suggested a September date in order to provide a break during the long stretch between Independence Day and Thanksgiving.
8. Peter J. McGuire, an Irish-American cabinet maker and pioneer unionist who proposed a day dedicated to all who labor.
9. The 1930s. The National Labor Relations Act of 1935, which strengthened union rights to organize and negotiate with employers, was key legislation.
10. Canadian trade unionists have celebrated this day set aside to honor those who labor from the 1870s on. The first Labor Day parade in Winnipeg, in 1894, was two miles long.
So you do know a bit about hard work!
Have a Great Labor Day
Teach us to count our days aright,
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Relent, O LORD! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
Fill us at daybreak with your love,
that all our days we may sing for joy.
Make us glad as many days as you humbled us,
for as many years as we have seen trouble.
Show your deeds to your servants,
your glory to their children.
May the favor of the Lord our God be ours.
Prosper the work of our hands!
Prosper the work of our hands!
- Psalm 90
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Pray for the Canonization of Blessed William Joseph Chaminade
"How is it possible to find Jesus without Mary, since Jesus himself did not come to us except with the consent of Mary! . . . We reach Jesus but through Mary, as Jesus came to us but through Mary."Blessed William Joseph Chaminade
