WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- The 116th observance of Labor Day Monday marks a federal holiday proffered by U.S. President Grover Cleveland to pacify an angry labor movement, historians say.
Labor Day, aften considered the day that signals the start of school, the end of wearing white accessories and the final weekend of summer, was Cleveland's hastily developed answer to organized labor, which had just seen federal marshals and troops kill workers while quelling a strike, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The idea was to select a day at the opposite end of the calendar to May 1, or May Day, the socialist workers holiday, historians said. So, instead of the first of summer, the first Monday of every September, heralding the advent of fall, became Labor Day, when most American workers get a paid day of rest.
The Times said passage of the legislation was a rare display of unanimous support in both houses of Congress.
