Enjoy Your Labor Day, You've Earned It

The factory work day done, these guys appear to be making a quick dash for freedom. I have no idea what the actual story is here, but as their dash from a long day's laboring is being accomplished by bike, it seems quite an appropriate way to mark this annual day of recognition here at the blog.

In 1912 while on the campaign trail, the man who was soon to become President, Woodrow Wilson, gave a Labor Day speech during which he talked of, among other things, monopolies and the threat such entities posed to the well-being of the American public. More than this, though, I found it especially interesting that the man who was perhaps the most bicycle-adept President in US history chose to equate monopolies with the automobile:

"I believe that the greatest force for peace, the greatest force for righteousness, the greatest force for the elevation of mankind, is organized opinion, is the thinking of men, is the great force which is in the soul of men, and I want men to breathe a free and pure air. And I know that these monopolies are so many cars of juggernaut which are in our very sight being driven over men in such ways as to crush the life out of them. And I don't look forward with pleasure to the time when the juggernauts are licensed. I don't look forward with pleasure to the time when the juggernauts are driven by commissioners of the United States. I am willing to license automobiles, but not juggernauts, because if any man ever dares take a joy ride in one of them, I would like to know what is to become of the rest of us; because the road isn't wide enough for us to get out of the way…"

So tomorrow we get an extra day free from laboring - ride it , enjoy it, but watch out for those juggernauts on the road.