Labor Day Parade Marches Through Walla Walla
Despite a drizzling rain, 350 union members and city officials celebrated the holiday with a parade, speeches, and athletic competition at Singleton’s Grove.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Organized labor of Walla Walla made a fine showing in the Labor Day exercises yesterday afternoon. Despite a drizzling rain that fell at times, the program was carried out as planned. The parade at 1:30 o'clock was participated in by 350 union men representing 11 different organizations. Following the parade, addresses at Singleton’s grove were made by State Labor Commissioner Blackman and Corporation Counsel Blandford. The athletic events held after the speaking included races for union men, married men, and a high-stakes greased pole contest.
“The laboring man's legal holiday, set apart in nearly every state of the union by legislation, is perhaps the most universally observed... of any legal holiday.”
Labor Day in 1903 was a young civic institution, having only become a legal holiday relatively recently. Today, the event remains a cornerstone of Walla Walla civic life, though the specific union trades marching—like horse shoers—reflect a drastically different economic reality.
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