The Tin Man’s Rusty
by Ted Mallory
tedm@mapletonpress.com

There it goes. Summer. Last Monday was the unofficial end. Oh sure, it’s dang hot this week, and autumn doesn’t officially begin until September 23, but you and I both know that the jig is up. The kids are back to school, the tomato, zucchini, and cucumber crops are tapering off and there really isn’t any more good fresh sweet corn. The last big BBQ, the last family reunions, the last trip to the lake, that was last weekend.

Here’s how my goofy brain works; it’s Labor Day so I think about Memorial Day, the other book-end on summer. Whenever I think about Memorial Day I think about three things, veterans, the Indianapolis 500, and the Wizard of Oz. That’s not so weird. For decades the Wizard of Oz and the Indy 500 always came on TV that weekend, so stay with me.

Okay, so I’m thinking about Frank Baum’s "The Wizard of Oz," that makes me think of Labor Day again. "What? Where is he going with this?" You’re saying to yourself, trust me, I’ll get there.

The Wizard of Oz is actually an allegory. An Allegory is a story where everything symbolizes something else, right? Come to find out that Dorothy represents all of us, at least we average Midwesterners. The Wizard represented politicians, the Emerald City is Washington D.C., all our hopes and dreams for a better life are pinned on the Wiz.

The Cowardly Lion is the Church, it’s supposed to reign in our lives, but too often Christians are too complacent or too frightened to take a stand for what’s right. The Scarecrow is Farming, Agriculture, the American Farmer. Scarecrow was probably the smarted person in the story of the Wizard of Oz, but too often we in rural America sell ourselves short. I hear students everyday put themselves down because they’re from Iowa or from a small town, when in reality we’re no less intelligent or sophisticated then anyone else in America.

The Tin Man is more rusty than ever these days. He represented the American worker. I don’t know if it’s the 50’s fear of Communism, the 60’s and 70’s corruption and unrest, or the rampant greed and materialism of the 80’s and 90’s, but it seems like people just don’t respect labor anymore. In the 90’s, less than 15 percent of workers belonged to unions, in the 1950's of nearly half did.

It could be that all we ever hear about is the "new economy," information and service have replaced manufacturing. It could be that we encourage our kids to get white-collar jobs to make more money. It could be that more and more blue-collar jobs are held by immigrants. Sometimes we whites wish life and America would just stay white. Whatever the reason we forget about the working man. Even if politically you’re opposed to labor unions, you should still recognize and respect the contribution of workers.

We think of farmers on thanksgiving and veterans on Memorial Day and Veterans Day, but on Labor Day, we think about Boats, Brauts, and Bud Light.

Let me give you a refresher course. In the 1890’s Pullman Illinois was a "Company Town." That meant workers lived in homes rented to them by the Railroad they worked for. Pay was low and rent was high.

It reminds you of the line from Tennessee Ernie Ford’s old tune "Sixteen Tons"-

"Saint Peter don’t ya call me ‘cause I can’t go, I owe my soul to the company store."

At any rate, Eugene V. Debs came in and organized the American Railway Union. They went on strike for better by, lower rent and a day off once a year. President Grover Cleveland broke the strike and Debs went to prison, his ARU was disbanded, and Pullman employees were forced to sign a pledge not to unionize again. Unions were pretty much eliminated until the Great Depression.

In September 1892, union workers in New York City took an unpaid day off and marched around Union Square in support of a national holiday for workers.

1894 was an election year. President Cleveland seized the chance at conciliation, and Labor Day was born. He was not reelected.

Think about your folks. Whether they’re farmers, teachers, mechanics, hair-dressers, sell insurance, drive truck, or work at the plant, they were working to keep a roof over your head, clothes on your back and food on the table. Labor day is summer’s last hurrah, but it should also be a day when you say thanks to people who work hard to make life better. Without the Tin Man, you’d never get out of the woods.