Samuel Gompers Quotes
Show me the country that has no strikes and I’ll show you the country in which there is no liberty.
Samuel GompersSamuel Gompers Labor Day is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race or nation.
Samuel GompersSamuel Gompers No human being is unimportant. My inspiration comes in opening opportunities that all alike may be free to live life to the fullest.
Samuel GompersSamuel Gompers All other holidays are in a more or less degree connected with conflicts and battles of man’s prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed and power, of glories achieved by one nation over another. Labor Dayis devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race, or nation.
Samuel GompersSamuel Gompers Do I believe in arbitration? I do. But not in arbitration between the lion and the lamb, in which the lamb is in the morning found inside the lion
Samuel GompersSamuel Gompers It is impossible for capitalists and laborers to have common interests.
Samuel GompersSamuel Gompers The trade union movement represents the organized economic power of the workers… It is in reality the most potent and the most direct social insurance the workers can establish.
Samuel GompersSamuel Gompers So long as we have held fast to voluntary principles and have been actuated and inspired by the spirit of service.
Samuel GompersSamuel Gompers [The labor movement is] a movement of the working people, for the working people, by the working people, governed by ourselves, with its policies determined by ourselves.
Samuel GompersSamuel Gompers To be free, the workers must have choice. To have choice they must retain in their own hands the right to determine under what conditions they will work.
Samuel GompersSamuel Gompers The labor of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce.
Samuel GompersSamuel Gompers So long as there is one [person] who seeks employment and cannot find it, the hours of work are too long.
Samuel GompersSamuel Gompers Show me that product of human endeavor in the making of which the workingman has had no share, and I will show you something that society can well dispense with.
Samuel GompersSamuel Gompers In the last analysis, the welfare of the workers depends upon their own initiative. Whatever is done under the guise of philanthropy or social morality which in any way lessens initiative is the greatest crime that can be committed against the toilers.
Samuel GompersSamuel Gompers Let social busybodies and professional “public morals experts” in their fads reflect upon the perils they rashly invite under this pretense of social welfare.
Samuel GompersSamuel Gompers One fact stands out in bold relief in the history of man’s attempts for betterment. That is that when compulsion is used, only resentment is aroused, and the end is not gained. Only through moral suasion and appeal to man’s reason can a movement succeed.
Samuel GompersSamuel Gompers