25,000 workers "hit the picket line" in the Massachusetts town to protest against working conditions at the mills and the plight of child labor.  The strike, which lasted most of the summer, had little impact on the Fall River textile owners, but attention was brought to the child labor force in the United States (more than 250,000 children in mills, factories and mines), and the National Child Labor Committee was formed later in the year (1904).

 Children working in the spinning room, Fall River MA, 1912.

Here we are, approaching the Labor Day Weekend, and so much has changed!  First of all, the power of the labor unions which led to the celebration of Labor Day in the first place has been drastically reduced across the country.  No unions at Walmart! 

Plus, most of us don't even think of ourselves as "working class" -- we're middle class, thankyouverymuch, and it is so not some non-existent empty fantasy, come on! 

Oh wait, you're probably looking at the headlines at IPS News "Good To Be Boss" where it says that the 2006 top-earning hedge fund managers earned on average $655.5 million while the average US worker went home with $29,544.00.  But you have to remember, Trickle Down Economics doesn't happen over night.  And with the average American CEO salary in the same period at $10.8 million, you can easily see how the gap between rich and poor narrows significantly.  The average worker just has to work 365 Years to make the same amount his boss does in One Year, or his Boss makes in a day what he makes in a year.  Either way you do the math, there's still plenty of room for a middle class in that gap, right?   

Anyway, the old days when the Democratic Party stood by the Worker are over!  The "working class" votes Republican!  How this happened is a mystery to the Liberals on the coasts.  These poor factory workers are voting themselves out of jobs, out of their homes, health care, why, out of existence, and what'supwiththat?  Well, so that gay people can't get married, as for example, that's what.

Look, children don't have to work anymore, people!  See?  At least, not white children, we have little brown people to do the work now.  Oh wait, no we don't.  They're bad, they're stealing our jobs, get them out of here, they're not Americans!  They can't work here!

It's so confusing.

Happy Labor Day, everyone.  Enjoy the Hamptons!  The Pines!  Enjoy the sun and the sand and the water, one last time!  I'm going to the Hollywood Bowl myself, for the 1812 Overture and fireworks.  Workers of the World, UNITE!