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Short Stuff: Labor Day · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the Shorty. I'm Josh, there's Chuck
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: and Jerry's over there, so that makes this stuff you
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: should know shorties. Welcome to the Shorty. I like that.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to switch things up because these are a
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: little different, you know. Sure, they're their own thing. Chuck. Yeah.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: We we decided that we needed a signal to people
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: that this was different, and we decided against a three
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: minute long I suggested a series of blinks, but after
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: a little while we figured out that wasn't gonna work. Well,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: I see you're wearing white, m hm. And that's because
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: it's not yet Labor Day, and then it's acceptable. Still
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: is that still a thing? Oh? Was it ever? I
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: think so? Yeah. I think that, um, gangs of angry
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: people would beat you senseless if they saw you wearing
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: white after Labor Day. Gangs of angry boaters and country clubs. Yeah,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: maybe clutching their pearls. We're talking Labor Day, Yeah, we
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: are talking Labor Day. And a lot of people kind
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: of look at Labor Day and say that's a weird
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: name for a day off to go have a picnic
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: before we have to go back to school or something. Sure,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: and that is a pretty appropriate thought if you think
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: about it, because it really doesn't have anything to do
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: with labor. Um. It's a day off, which is something,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: but it's not a day off for everybody. It just
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: seems insensible until you start to know the origins of
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Labor Day and you say, oh, it came out of
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: the labor unions, hence the name labor Day. Let's get
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: back to that. Yeah, exactly. Uh, as far as national
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: holidays in the US and Canada, it's been around since
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: about eighteen, well since exactly eight And it was, like
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: you said, labor unions. They don't know exactly who started
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: this tradition, but I think scholars generally say one of
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: two people, both involved in labor unions probably did so. Yeah,
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: one Waster McGuire and the other one was Matthew McGuire,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: two different spellings, but um they I saw somewhere that
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Matthew McGuire was much more radical and that um Peter
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: McGuire was much more um centrist. He was the chill one.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: So he was the one that gets He got the
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: official credit over time, but it may have actually really
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: been Matthew McGuire. He was just overlooked because he was like,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: let's have let's have some labor party rallies and maybe
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: we'll throw some bombs or something. Possibly, so Peter McGuire
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: with a C. He was a general secretary of the
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: And I love this, the Brotherhood of Carpenters and joiners.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: And I guess they mean joiner is as a woodworking joiner. No,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: I think they mean like people who like to join clubs. Different. No, sure,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: it's gotta be right because it's follows carpenters. But I mean, yeah,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: I guess that's what that means. Nothing like a dovetailed joint, right,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: that's what it is that really gets my blood flowing.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: But shouldn't it be jointers? I don't know. I bet
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: you someone will have some good information on this, like
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: a joiner was a former name for carpenter or something, right,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: but well, so McGuire. Peter McGuire's claimed to fame. Other
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: claim to fame was um that he co founded the
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: a f L. What, Yeah, the American Federation of Labor.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: I thought you met the American Football League. No, who
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: was that? Well? I don't know, Okay, So the the
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: whoever came up with the idea it's murky, but we
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: actually do know. The first Labor Day that was September five,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: eight two, and it took place in New York and
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: it was like a real deal Labor Day thing. Yeah,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: the parade, Yeah, and the whole the whole reason behind
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: the First Labor Day Parade was like, at the time,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: if you worked, you worked in a factory most likely,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: and you worked anywhere between twelve and tend to twelve
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: to fourteen hour days, seven days a week. And so
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: these labor unions were starting to organize, but they were
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: you know, they were pretty good at organizing people in
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: their trade, but they weren't coming together to to really
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: join their strengths. And so whoever's idea this was to
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: have this first Labor Day parade. The basis of it
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: was get all these different people from different unions together
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: and so they can see that they have all this
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: stuff in common, and then maybe we can really become, like, um,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: a strong political force and we can agitate for like
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: a five day work week and eight hour work days.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: And they were successful, but it came out of this
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: first this first parade that they had. Yeah, they were like, hey,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: we get all Thanksgiving, Christmas in the fourth of July,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: how about one extra day off? Yeah, and and for
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: this first labor day and for other ones too, they
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: were like, well, no, you can't have the day off.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: So it was a general strike, is how they took
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: the day off. Yeah. So enter President Cleveland, Mr Grover Cleveland.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: And uh is an interesting background because he was not
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: a union supporter. But everyone thinks when he signed the
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: law saying the first Monday in September shall be Labor
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Day nationwide, while I grew up mustache or shaved the beard,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: especially as you can tell pretty good Chuck. But most
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: people think that even though he wasn't a union supporter,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: he was trying to, uh, sort of put himself in
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: a better light because of some political damage earlier that year.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: He sent federal troops in to put down a strike.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: And this was I mean, I know we covered some
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: of this in the Union's Long Unions episode, but a
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: lot of times these strikes became you know, bloody battles
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: and riots, and uh, a strike by the American Railway
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Union at the Pullman Company in Chicago did just that
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: and thirty four workers died. So they think Cleveland was
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: like all right, Uh, you're gonna have a day off.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: I saw both things. I saw that Cleveland saw this
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: as politically healing, you know, it was like like a
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: boney was tossing to the to the unions and a
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: labor in general. I also saw that that Congress had
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: a bill um going in circulation years before this happened,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: and that Cleveland just happened to be the president who
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: was sitting at the time, and so he was the
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: one who signed it. And really it wasn't any any
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: political tool at all. So I saw both but either
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: way it did. It did come on the heels of
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: that for sure, and that was a that was a
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: big deal, that strike. I was looking into it, Chuck,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: and there's like, um, like the whole thing started because
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: some some workers from the Pullman Company. Pullman made railroad
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: cars at the time, like the popular ones like the
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: good on the Pullman yard here in Atlanta, right right.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: So they went to to the head of the company,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: I think either George or Charles Pullman, and said, hey,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: we we want to we want to work fewer hours.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: We think we're working too much for too little pay.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: He said, oh, that's great, I'll take it into consideration
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: and like true Montgomery burns fashion. He fired the people
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: for even asking and so that started this whole, this
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: whole strike that ended up, Like you said, it was bloody.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: There are riots. They were overturning railroad cars. Overturning railroad cars.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Do you know how hard that would be? I imagine
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: that was rope involved, I would hope. So, yeah, in
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: the Incredible Hulk, should we take a little quick break. Yeah,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: I'm a little worked up. All right, We're gonna take
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: a quickie everybody, and we will come back and finish
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: up about Labor Day right after this, all right? So, oh,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: what's Labor Day like around the world, Josh? It has
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: other names in different parts of the world's at right, Yeah,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: and it takes place at different times, like May Day.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: May one is known internationally, is like the the day
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: of workers, basically what Labor Day was originally to America.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Um May Day is to the rest of the world,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: especially Europe and China and some other places. And it's
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: been definitely co opted as a kind of a communist
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: day too. Interesting, Yeah, which is another reason why we
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: don't really tend to celebrate May Day. We celebrate Labor
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: Day in a totally different part of the year. Nothing
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: to do with communism. Yeah, and I actually looked up
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: the origins of this whole white after Labor Day and
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: are old buddies at Mental Floss and new buddies here
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: at work will in mangsh I don't know if they
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: wrote this one, but apparently that came in the eighteen
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: eighties or so post Civil War, when uh, new money
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: started happening, and apparently the old money people were like, geez,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: there's more rich people now than ever, and we can't
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: distinguish between the rich folks. So I'm on an old
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: blue blood and this guy just made his money and
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: I don't know whatever they were making back then that
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: could make you rich. Um chewing gum, radio knobs, radio knobs.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: He's got new money. So they felt the need the
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: old blue bloods too, uh design a bunch of silly
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: like fashion rules and society rules, Uh that I don't
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: know if only they would know about it. Yeah, just
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: doing trapped people maybe, but as a way to distinguish,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: you know, old money and true rich people from these
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: vulgar new rich people. And apparently not wearing white outside
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: of summer was just one of those rules that was
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: so those were the very people who would beat you
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: senseless if they caught you wearing white. That was the
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: other part of it too, not just feeling foolish, but
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: feeling vulnerable tremendous paint. But they do confirm that these
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: days it's not a big deal. I think it's just
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: kind of become more of a joke now when someone
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: says you don't wear white after Labor Day, I see
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: you just laugh and laugh at the joke. But as
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: far as unions go, the US now obviously is way
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: down as far as union membership in the nineteen fifties,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: and this is pretty remarkable if you ask me about
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: of the workforce in America belong to a union. Yeah,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: it's amazing. Yeah, they've got things done back then too.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: What are he's saying? I think, you know, uh, and
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: now I believe and I'm not sure when this was written,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: but it's probably roughly the same. But about four I
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: saw even lower, which I mean would definitely go on
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: to explain why labor days really lost its meaning to
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: you know. Well, now I think people know it as
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: just that sort of last blast um. Even though kids
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: start school way early now, it used to be sort
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: of around that time when you would head back to
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: school and stuff. Yeah, I was thinking about that. It
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: made me nostalgic for when I was in school, like
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: seeing like, oh yeah, Labor Day right after that you
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: would go back to school. And now it's like not
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: been in school for a full month now. Yeah, But
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: I mean I remember having like all of June, July,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: and August off for sure. I know, now these kids
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: are back in school and August it's weird chumps. But
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: they do get a very quick break with Labor Day
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: at least, no, I know, they definitely have some pretty
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: killer breaks that we didn't have. For sure. They get
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: all the brakes. Well that's it, huh, that's that's one
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: in the can. If you happen to be listening to
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: this on Labor Day, pay yourself on the back because
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: you just created an s Y s K trifecta. There.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: Oh that's nice, chuck, and put on something white just
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: to stick it in the eye of those blue bloods.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: If you want to get in touch with us, you
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: can go to our website stuff you should know dot com.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: It's got all of our social media links. You can
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: also send us an email. Pay attention you should address it.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: Tore Ucky to Stuff podcast and how Stuff Works dot com.