The laws of our country have designated the first Monday of each September as Labor Day.  It is truly an American day, for it was here that for the first time in history a government was founded on a recognition of the sovereignty of the citizen which has irresistibly led to a realization of the dignity of his occupation.  It is with added propriety that this day is observed this year.  For the first time in five years it comes at a time when the issue of world events makes it no longer doubtful whether the American conception of work as the crowning glory of men free and equal is to prevail over the age-old European conception that work is the badge of the menial and the inferior.  The American ideal has prevailed on European battle-fields through the loyalty, devotion, and sacrifice of American labor.

The duty of citizenship in this hour is to strive to maintain and extend that ideal at home.

The past five years have been a time of rapid change and great progress for the American people.  Not only have the hours and conditions of labor been greatly improved, but wages have increased about one hundred per cent.  There has been a great economic change for the better among all wage-earners.

We have known that political power was with the people, because they have the votes.  We have generally supposed that economic power was not with the people, because they did not own the property.  This supposition, probably never true, is growing more and more to be contrary to the facts.  The great outstanding fact in the economic life of America is that the wealth of the Nation is owned by the people of the Nation.  The stockholders of the great corporations run into the hundreds of thousands, the small tradesmen, the thrifty householders, the tillers of the soil, the depositors in savings banks, and the now owners of government bonds, make a number that includes nearly our entire people.  This would be illustrated by a few Massachusetts examples from figures which were reported in 1918: 

Number of Stockholders

Railroads 40,485
Street railways 17,527
Telephone 49,688
Western Union Telegraph 9,360
                                -------
                                117,060

Number of Employees

Railroads 20,604
Street railways 25,000
Telephone 11,471
Western Union Telegraph 2,065
                                 ------
                                 59,140

Savings bank depositors 2,491,646

Railroad, street railway, and
telephone bonds held by
savings banks and savings
departments of trust companies
                           $267,795,636

Savings bank deposits $1,022,342,583

Money is pouring into savings banks at the rate of $275,000 each working day.