American Labor Day can also be considered as a modern, capitalist version of the ancient custom of the days of serfdom and slavery. In those days the masters, for recreation and amusement, often-times set aside one day to celebrate the “enthronement of slaves.” They would take a slave, take the chains off his limbs, put him on a mock throne, put a mock crown on his head and, bowing to him in mock humility and obedience, would humbly serve him and overwhelm him with flattery. And the Silly Pool on the mock throne would throw out his chest and swell with pride. But the day of mockery over, the chains were again clapped on his limbs, and the miserable slave, groaning, would resume his life of a beast of burden. Likewise with the unawakened American workman on Labor Day. On that day the chains of wage-slavery are, figuratively speaking, taken off his limbs; he is made the hero of the day; his masters, the capitalists, stand before him in mock humility; their spokesmen in the press, pulpit and on their political platforms, overwhelm him with flattery; and the modern Silly Fool, likewise, throws out his chest and swells with pride. But, the day of mockery and of the Fool’s Paradise over, the masters,—who during this day are only slyly smiling—break out into sardonic laughter—though unheard by the slave—clap the chains back on his limbs and he again hears only the crack of the whip of Hunger and Slavery. It is only natural, therefore, that when the capitalist masters send out on Labor Day their hired bodyguard—the police and militia—they send them not to molest or injure the workingmen, but to march, as honorary escort, at the head of their Labor Day parades. And why shouldn’t they? Don’t they know that the American Labor Day is only a day for the annual injection of a new dose of narcotic “dope,” of the antidote against the Social Revolution?! What, indeed, is the key-note to the speeches delivered at Labor Day gatherings in America by the capitalist politicians, clergymen and professional “labor-lieutenants” of the capitalist class—the Gomperses, the Mitchells, the Duncans, the O’Connells, the Lennons, etc.? It is the biggest Lie of the Age, the lie that wealth is the joint product of Brother Capital and Brother Labor, that is, of the capitalist class and of the working class; that the interests of both are identical or reciprocal, that the two can and should live in harmony, peace and brotherhood with each other, and that the aim of the Labor Movement is to maintain indefinitely that harmonious equilibrium, and thus perpetuate the capitalist wage system by securing for the workers “a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work” by means of an “equitable division” of that “joint product of Brother Capital and Brother Labor.” Craft Union “Organization” and Spirit.