Last Monday all labor unions and organizations throughout America celebrated Labor Day in pomp and magnificence. The most spectacular features of the day were the huge parades along the main streets of almost all the American cities. Every year on the first Monday of September the rank and file of labor celebrates this day which is dedicated to the rights of labor; for it is this class of our people which contributes so much to the progress and welfare of the country.

"To labor and the common ordinary workingman is due the advancement and the economic, commercial, and industrial progress of any country," says President Theodore Roosevelt," for all Americans, all of us, are workers. We must remember, however, that on becoming prosperous, after accumulating a few thousand dollars, we must not forget the laboring class, nor should we fail to pay our respects to it. It is well known by now that the laboring class constitutes the very 2muscles and sinews of the economic body of this great and powerful nation."

In Chicago, also, labor's greatest and most significant holiday was celebrated with magnificence and in a spirit of jubilation. In the parade which wound its way through the center of the city, about twenty-five thousand workers, both men and women, participated. It is estimated that about three thousand Greek laborers represented the thinking and populous Greek Community of Chicago in this imposing demonstration of the city's laboring class.

The parade was most picturesque as thousands of well-organized and well-disciplined groups of laborers filed by with their own banners indicating the particular labor union to which they belonged.

We all realize that the laborer is a most important factor in American society. A great deal depends upon labor's energy and resourcefulness; without it economic life comes to a standstill. The lowly, common worker is the axle of the complicated machinery of the nation through which it is fed, sheltered, 3nourished, and offered the benefits of a highly industrialized community. That is the reason our statesmen and great political leaders have such great respect for labor which has equal rights even when the highest positions in the nation are taken into consideration.

The law in this country makes no discrimination between the rich and poor, between the governors and the governed. Both have the same rights and the same duties before the laws of the country. This is the reason why the working classes became conscious of their power and finally began to organize into powerful labor unions for the protection of their interests. No wonder that labor plays such a vital role in the affairs and structure of the nation. In no other country is labor so excellently and so strongly welded together. This is the reason why it progresses and contributes to the general prosperity of America.

We, the Greeks, not only of Chicago but America in general, have much to learn from the unification and organization of American labor.

Unfortunately, we Greeks are laboring under the illusion that the American worker suspects and is hostile toward the foreign laborer. This is a false notion. The American worker likes and sympathizes with the foreigner and the hard-working immigrant; he does not hate or persecute him. The foreign laborer, however, must strive to become a part of the American labor unions. When this is done, then in the American laborer we will find a faithful comrade and a protector. We will discover, to our surprise, that American labor supports the floundering and confused immigrant in his efforts to obtain jobs and win security. Both foreign and Greek labor have much to benefit by joining the ranks of American labor or by emulating its methods and chief objectives. We will then observe that this country's watchword and password is "In Unity there is Strength."

P. S. Lambros.