20th century pioneers gave Labor Day meaning Wayne E. Reilly, Bangor Daily News, ME
Two thousand strong, they marched through the streets of Bangor, a new kind of army, seeking to show the world their determination and solidarity. Thousands of onlookers cheered along the parade route on that Labor Day, 1904.
These 'soldiers of industry,' as the papers called them, were waging a war for working conditions most of us take for granted today.
In the first 'division' were the carpenters and joiners, the iron moulders, the stove mounters, the journeyman barbers, the railroad men, the bricklayers, plasterers and masons, and the papermakers.
In the next division came the sawmill workers, the building laborers, the plumbers, and gas and steam fitters, the longshoremen, the cigar makers, the painters and decorators, and the sheet iron workers.
Three more divisions followed. They included granite cutters, weavers, typographers, retail clerks, teamsters, textile workers and others.