Hens Dobler, age 14, of Pocatello, Ids., for his question:
WHEN WAS THE FIRST LABOR DAY?
Labor Day, a holiday honoring working people, is observed on the first Monday in September as a legal holiday throughout the United States and Canada. For most, the day is a pleasant time for rest and recreation. The holiday also marks the end of summer.
Oregon is 1887 became the first state to make Labor Day a legal holiday. President Grover Cleveland signed a bill in 1894 making Labor Day a national holiday in the United States.
Two men have been credited with suggesting a holiday to honor working people in the United States: Matthew Maguire, a machinist from Peterson, N.J., and Peter McGuire, a New York City carpenter who helped found the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners.
Maguire and McGuire played important parts in staging the first Labor Day parade in New York City in September, 1882.
An executive department of the United States government called the Department f Lab r administers and enforces laws that seek to promote the welfare o~ United States wage earners, their working conditions and their opportunities for profitable employment.
Congress established a Bureau of Labor in the Department of Interior on June 27, 1884. In 1888, Congress gave the bureau independent status as the Department of Labor, but its head did not serve in the President's Cabinet. Then in 1903, Congress established the new Department of Commerce and Labor and made the Department of Labor a bureau in it.
On March 4, 1913, the President signed a law creating an independent Department of Labor. This department was the first Cabinet office to have a woman as its head when Frances Perkins became secretary of labor in 1933.
The Department of Labor administers federal laws on child labor, equal pay, minimum wages, overtime and public contracts. It develops standards and policies for promoting the welfare of workers.
The Department of Labor also carries out federal laws on workers compensation programs and handles appeals from federal workers regarding compensation. It develops apprenticeship standards for the training of skilled workers in industry.
The department also administers laws dealing with the election of labor union officers and with financial reporting of unions. In addition, it regulates financial reporting of private pension and welfare plans and the persons who manage the assets of such plans.
The department acts as the government's chief fact finding agency in labor economics. It collects, analyzes and publishes information on employment and unemployment, industry relations, occupational safety and health, price trends, productivity and technology, wages, family budgets and economic trends and labor conditions.
The Department of Labor also protects the safety and health of workers by enforcing standards it develops. It also develops standards in the areas of labor laws and administration. It also administers the public employment service and unemployment insurance programs and promotes the interests of U.S. workers in international affairs.