LABOE, FEDERATION OF 382 LABOR, DEPARTMENT OF similar undertakings; and in the early decades of the 19th the growing ideas of freedom had begun to make other great changes in the condition of the workers. The right of combination re- ceived in 1824 was utilized in the for- mation of trades-unions and co-operative societies, and the admission of the work- ingmen to the franchise has given them a share in the political life of the country. The emancipation of agricultural labor from serfdom, which was effected in France at the Revolution of 1789, was not completed in central Europe till 1848, and in Russia not till 1861. Laws for the regulation of labor are now intended not to fix wages as formerly, but to pro- tect the weaker class of workers. LABOR, AMERICAN FEDERA- TION OF, an association composed of about 80 national labor organizations, embracing about 7,000 local unions. It was organized at Columbus, O., in 1886. In 1905 the Socialists withdrew and formed other organizations, but they have since made various efforts to control the association, without success. The Federation was successful in getting Congress to pass a law declaring that labor was not a commodity to be handled about but a human entity. The Federa- tion showed patriotic ardor during the Great War and helped the government. LABOR CONGRESSES, meetings of the delegates representing organized labor. While there have been frequent congresses of labor of a single nation there have been but few international labor congresses. The first one, held at Geneva, Switzerland, in 1866, was very moderate in the tone of its demands, contenting itself with approving of the alliance among workers to better their condition, and recommending technical education and the establishment of mutual credit organizations. The Sec- ond International Labor Congress was held at Lausanne the next year and opposed the co-operative societies and advocated the taking of active steps to secure for the workers full political rights. The Third International held at Basel in 1869 is the most famous of all because of the radical nature of its pro- nouncements. More representative of international labor than any previous congress it was certainly more extreme than its predecessors. In addition to declaring in favor of the government ownership of all land and the application ot the single tax theory it adopted this revolutionary motion demanding "the de- struction of all States, national and ter- ritorial, and on their ruins the founding of the International State of Laborers." The later meetings of the International are not known by their numbers. That held at The Hague in 1872 was featured by the break between Marx and Bakunin, the celebrated exponent of the anarchists. When the Socialists became more numer- ous they began to dominate the labor con- gresses at the expense of the more con- servative trade unionists. At one of these congresses. May 1st was declared to be a holiday in honor of workers of all lands. The observance of this day has since been very general in Europe, although in America, where the Socialist movement has not made serious head- way, the first Monday in September is observed as a national Labor Day. In 1912 the International Congress, meeting at Basel, condemned the Balkan War and tried to unite the workers of all lands in a demonstration against it. The European War of 1914 camt too suddenly to permit of any con- certed plan to stop it, moreover the ex- cessive wave of national patriotism which swept over all nations seemed for the time to deny the international char- acter of the labor movement. Attempts were made, however, during the war to hold an International Labor Congress. The most important was the one pro- posed to be held at Stockholm, Sweden, in the summer of 1917. As the Ger- mans were at that time anxious for peace there was little difficulty in securing passports for their delegates. But the Allied Governments looked askance at the proposal, the United States labor delegates refusing to attend if the Ger- mans were present. Kerensky, the Rus- sian Premier, alone of all the Allies favored the Congress. After the Armi- stice was signed a Labor congi-ess was held at Geneva where German as well as delegates from the Allied countries were present. The critical question here was the extent to which the Bolsheviki should be encouraged. Here the Con- gress was so hopelessly divided that it contented itself with demanding peace with Russia and the abandonment of the blockade. LABOR DAY, a legal holiday, by State enactment only, observed on the first Monday in September in the prin- cipal manufacturing and industrial States, when ordinary labor is sus- pended, and labor organizations parade the streets and hold meetings. In Eu- rope, as a i-esult of the Labor Confer- ence at Berlin in 1890, in many parts of the Continent May 1 to some extent has come to be observed as a labor holiday. LABOR, DEPARTMENT OF, an of- fice of the United States government,
