The labor of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce.
SAMUEL GOMPERSTo make manhood more noble, womanhood more beautiful, and childhood more happy and bright.
More Samuel Gompers Quotes
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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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Our movement is of the working people, for the working people, by the working people. . . .
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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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It is impossible for capitalists and laborers to have common interests.
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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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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 worst crime against working people is a company which fails to operate at a profit.
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So long as there is one [person] who seeks employment and cannot find it, the hours of work are too long.
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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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To make manhood more noble, womanhood more beautiful, and childhood more happy and bright.
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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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Time is the most valuable thing on earth: time to think, time to act, time to extend our fraternal relations, time to become better men, time to become better women, time to become better and more independent citizens.
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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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The working people know no country. They are citizens of the world.
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