An Urban's Rural View

I don't have any polling data to support this, but I'm reasonably sure Labor Day is the least understood American holiday.

Even though we've celebrated it for 120 years -- or maybe because we've celebrated it that long -- many Americans have only the vaguest idea why they're getting the first Monday in September off.

To many, it's just the unofficial end of summer. Google "Labor Day 2014" and two of the first five items suggest Labor Day is just another opportunity for retailers to get shoppers into the stores.

No wonder Americans have but a vague idea what it's all about.

Labor, after all, is one of those simple words with many meanings. Say "labor" and you could be talking about the union movement -- "organized labor." Or you could be talking about work -- "the fruits of the rancher's labor." Or about workers, as in, "The dairy farmer's labor didn't show up today and some of his cows didn't get milked."

You could also be referring to the process of childbirth -- "Mrs. Smith went into labor." Or you could be describing a state of ignorance -- "American children labor under the delusion that the supermarket produces their food."

Presumably the holiday is not memorializing the delusion.

The U.S. Department of Labor, which should know, says Labor Day "is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers" (http://tiny.cc/…).

Labor unions still take a proprietary interest in the day; in some cities unionists still march in Labor Day parades. But in 2013 only 11.3% of wage and salary workers belonged to unions (http://tiny.cc/…).

So the "American workers" to whom the day is dedicated include anyone with a paying job -- farm laborers included. In other words, if an employer gave you Labor Day off, it was for a holiday celebrating yourself.

Does a business owner who does manual labor -- like, say, a farmer -- qualify as "labor" for Labor Day purposes? Organized labor, which divides the world into "management" and "labor," would probably consider farm owners management.

As managers, farmers know labor is a challenge. Recruiting enough of it. Finding ways to need less of it. Managing it.

As Paul Conklin points out in his book "A Revolution Down on the Farm" (http://tiny.cc/…), ag labor has been expensive since the first English settlers farmed along the Atlantic Coast in the 17th century. For much of our history new ag technologies have been as much about saving labor as increasing yields.

Nobody gets National Agriculture Day (http://www.agday.org/…) off, farmers included; it is, alas, not a national holiday. So whatever the unions think, farmers should feel free to celebrate themselves on Labor Day.

Let no one labor under the delusion their labor isn't worth honoring.

Urban Lehner

urbanity@hotmail.com