On Aug. 28, 1893, Sen. James Kyle of South Dakota introduced S. 730 to the U.S. Senate to make Labor Day a legal national holiday on the first Monday of September each year. President Grover Cleveland signed the bill on June 28, 1894.
By then, a fall holiday called Labor Day was already being observed. Beginning in the late 19th century, parades, picnics and other celebrations took place to support labor issues such as shorter hours, better pay and safer working conditions, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
In introducing the legislation, Kyle said that labor organizations were united in asking that the first Monday of September be set apart as a holiday in order to make the observance uniform. This would result in workers enjoying vacation privileges on the same day, according to the Dec. 1, 1965, issue of “The Wi-Iyohi,” a monthly bulletin published by the South Dakota State Historical Society.
Prior to serving as a U.S. Senator, Kyle served as pastor at the Congregational Church in Aberdeen and Ipswich and as finance officer for Yankton College. A speech he delivered at a Fourth of July celebration in Aberdeen in 1890 vaulted him to public attention.
According to “The Wi-Iyohi,” Kyle spoke in favor of women’s suffrage and prohibition, and took a swing at big corporations, banks and railroads. This speech resulted in Independents nominating Kyle for election to the state senate. He won and headed to Pierre in January 1891. At that time, the Legislature chose South Dakota’s U.S. senators, and the 36-year old Kyle was chosen on Feb. 16, 1891, to succeed Gideon Moody.
He entered the U.S. Senate as an independent and Populist and aligned with the Democratic caucus in the U.S. Senate.
Kyle was re-elected in 1897 as an independent. Republican legislators supported him, and he aligned with the Republican caucus in the U.S. Senate for his second term.
“Labor never had a better friend than Senator Kyle,” said his successor as senator, Alfred Kittredge, when memorializing Kyle, “and no one better understood its needs or extended a more sympathetic and helping hand. As a boy he worked upon the farm to aid in securing the education he so eagerly sought and highly prized, as a man and Senator he did not forget the labor of his youth.”
The above was taken from an article (This moment in South Dakota history is provided by the South Dakota Historical Society Foundation, the nonprofit fundraising partner of the South Dakota State Historical Society at the Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre. Find us on the web at www.sdhsf.org. Contact us at info@sdhsf.org to submit a story idea.)
I am proud to say that I served the Ipswich UCC church for 10 years. What I am not proud of is that though Labor Day has been a national holiday since 1894, our country has not valued or lifted up the Laboring Class. In 1930 at the height of the Great Depression, the average income for the individual was $4,887 a year, today that equivalent would be $84,328 per person. Our average household income today which usually includes two full-time workers is what? $82,139. Now remember, the height of the depression is $84k in today's dollars per individual and now it is $82K per family. There are now have over two thousand billionaires. To make a billion dollars by working in 50 years without any expenses, that person would be making $9,615 per hour in a 40 hour work week, 52 weeks per year. Anyone close to making $10,000 per hour? Divided by our minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, which hasn't been raise in over 20 years, 1,326 people would be employed to achieve the same effect. If they only had one billion dollars, and many of them have tens and hundreds of billions of dollars. And remember, when minimum wage was introduced in the 1938, it was for a living wage, not for teenagers and part-time jobs, but for adults to support their families, which was a one-income family. A Congregational minister, one hundred and thirty years ago, called upon this nation to take care of its people, not corporations and financial institutions. And it took him to Congress.
Paul is writing to a Christian community this he hasn't visited before and it is in the seat of power of the Roman Empire. There everyone is scrambling to gain more power and prestige, to stab each other in the back in hopes of getting ahead. Paul writes a revolutionary idea, everyone is equal and you are to care for everyone. There are some back then and some today who believe that some are more 'equal' than others, but Paul proclaims that all are God's children. All are entitled to have enough. Even those who are against you should have the basics of life, give them their daily bread. In that age, at least half of the work force was enslaved, in our day, 60% of families don't have $500 in savings in case of emergency, which only drives them further into debt, further into not having adequate food and housing, and further into a nation that is divided between the wealthy few and the poverty of many.
In writing to the early Christian community in Rome, where the rulers live and the power of the Empire resides, Paul reminds them they are to contribute to the needs of the people. In July, we had a group of youth from around Minnesota and North Dakota who continue to share that message. Let's continue to share that message, not one of hate, not in punishment or retribution, but one of love: love for everyone, love for the earth, and the love of a just God who calls on us to defeat evil with good. Amen.
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