Far from being the “last day of summer vacation,” most Bell Countians anticipated Labor Day for a bountiful cotton harvest. Although the observance is 118 years old in Texas, not until 1909 did Bell County's Labor Day celebrations swell to widespread celebration. Before then, 12-hour shifts were common; worker conditions perilous. Railroads, Temple's major employer, were the lead source of industrial accidents.
In 1910, Labor Day in Texas took on child labor. Women's groups took advantage of the parades and speechifying to point out the problems.
When the observance came to Texas on Sept. 7, 1891, feelings of goodwill between workers and employers of all trades filled the day, according to newspaper accounts.
That camaraderie reached all the way to Temple. Railway employees used their union influence to insist that Temple's Santa Fe Hospital, established in 1891, bring qualified physicians to provide medical care. As result, the railway hired Dr. Arthur Carroll Scott in October 1892 to be chief surgeon. Scott gradually gained the confidence of the railroaders.
“It was not long before the railroad men began to feel that they were in the hands of doctors who had a human interest in them,” Scott recalled.
Newspaper accounts indicate that Temple's and Cameron's Labor Day events in the early 1900s were subdued through 1909. “There was little to distinguish it (the Temple Labor Day observance) from ordinary times,” reported the Bell County correspondent for the Galveston Daily News. Employees were kept at their workstations and “the cotton pickers left early for the cotton fields” in Milam County.
In 1909, Labor Day in Temple evolved into a community-wide event. Part of the celebration was due to Temple's comparative economic good health despite statewide downturns.
For the first time, all major businesses closed and workers were encouraged to attend programs and a mammoth picnic at Midway Park. The Temple Pastors' Association designated the Sunday before as “Labor Sunday,” with sermons geared to honoring workers and their families.
The mayor and other elected officials led the massive parade through downtown and out to the park. Labor organizations provided food. Keynoter was the Rev. Pius A. Heckman, pastor of St. Mary's Catholic Church.
A tradition was established. In following years, Labor Day remained a citywide celebration with the addition of a shoot sponsored by the Temple Gun Club.
Child labor problems persisted. In November 1909, state inspectors visited Rockdale mines and factories and removed child workers. Operators promised to prevent the practice. The inspector in Temple found many violations.
The AFL-CIO deplored children in factories and sweatshops. National union leader Samuel Gompers' magazine called the practice of hiring underage workers “evil” and said it should be outlawed “for the protection of little children.”
Temple women's organizations - among them various groups of Temple church women, the Women's Temperance Union, the International Order of the King's Daughters and Sons and the City Federation of Women's Clubs - joined forces to demonstrate in favor of taking children out of factories and keeping them in classrooms.
Employers felt the heat. In September 1902, W.V. Smith, owner of the Belton Yarn Mill, told a gathering of Texas cotton manufacturers in Brenham, “I have studied the subject of child labor in cotton mills and do not believe it is profitable, and for this reason, the Belton mill employs very little of it. What few children the mill employs are not burdened with hard work or mistreated in any way.”
Manufacturers resolved that employing children under age 18 was unprofitable and should be eliminated “so far as practicable.” Factory owners insisted that many children were often the sole support of their families because fathers were “given to drink.”
The Texas Women's Federation of Women's Clubs initiated a 1911 child labor law with backing from the state labor commissioner and the Child Welfare Conference of Texas, a confederation of a dozen voluntary and professional associations.
Meanwhile, rising through ranks to become a statewide leader in the anti-child labor movement was Belton native Ina Caddell Marrs. She served two terms as president of the Texas Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations (now the Texas Congress of Parents and Teachers) from 1920 to 1924.
Under her leadership, the Joint Legislative Council or “Petticoat Lobby” formed a coalition of women's organizations to become a loud voice for education and reform during Gov. Miriam Ferguson's term. Supporting the Petticoats were churchwomen, Temple's City Federation of Women's Clubs and the Texas Graduate Nurses' Association, led by Temple nurses.
It was no surprise that children's welfare would become hallmarks of Labor Day.
“The notion here was that there was no particular cause except to respect and honor labor in American society, to take time off from work to celebrate workers. It also was to specifically be a family day,” said Michael Merrill, director of the George Meany Memorial Archives in Silver Spring, Md.
pbenoit@temple-telegram.com
