The labor of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce.
SAMUEL GOMPERSShow 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.
More Samuel Gompers Quotes
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The man who has his millions will want everything he can lay his hands on and then raise his voice against the poor devil who wants ten cents more a day.
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No race of barbarians ever existed yet offered up children for money
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The periods of unemployment accompanying depression in the business cycle . . . present a challenge to all our claims to progress, humanity, and civilization.
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Labor Day is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race or nation.
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To make manhood more noble, womanhood more beautiful, and childhood more happy and bright.
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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
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It is impossible for capitalists and laborers to have common interests.
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So long as we have held fast to voluntary principles and have been actuated and inspired by the spirit of service.
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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.
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Doing for people what they can and ought to do for themselves is a dangerous experiment.
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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.
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The working people know no country. They are citizens of the world.
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We will stand by our friends and administer a stinging rebuke to men or parties who are either indifferent, negligent, or hostile, and, wherever opportunity affords, to secure the election of intelligent, honest, earnest trade unionists, with clear, unblemished, paid-up union cards in their possession.
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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.
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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.
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What does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures.
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[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.
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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.
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No human being is unimportant. My inspiration comes in opening opportunities that all alike may be free to live life to the fullest.
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There may be here and there a worker who for certain reasons unexplainable to us does not join a union of labor. That is his right. It is his legal right, no matter how morally wrong he may be. It is his legal right, and no one can or dare question his exercise of that legal right.
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To free him from the tyrannies, petty or otherwise, which served to make his existence a slavery.
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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.
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Workingmen are at the foundation of society.
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You can’t weigh the soul of a man with a bar of pig-iron.
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The worst crime against working people is a company which fails to operate at a profit.
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Where trade unions are most firmly organized, there are the rights of the people most respected.
SAMUEL GOMPERS