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Samuel Gompers

Samuel Gompers Books

Labor Union Leader

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“W.Z. Foster {head of the American Communist Party}, who had no money, went to Moscow and came back and announced that he was building a great secret machine to undermine the American labor movement and turn it over to the Red International, owned by Lenin. He began publication of an expensive magazine and proclaimed 'a thousand secret agents in a thousand communities.'”

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Author:Samuel Gompers
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“In many instances the conduct of colored workmen, and those who have spoken for them, has not been in asking or demanding that equal rights be accorded to them as to white workmen, but somehow conveying the idea that they are to be petted and coddled and given special consideration and special privilege. Of course that can't be done.”

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Author:Samuel Gompers
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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, we have sustained our forward progress, and we have made our labor movement something to be respected and accorded a place in the councils of the Republic. Where we have blundered into trying to force a policy or decision, even though wise and right, we have impeded if not interrupted the realization of our own aims.”

IfsTryingLongHas BeensMadeSpiritForceDecisionPrinciplesWiseProgressPolicyMovementLaborAimInspiredRealizationRepublicCouncilInterruptedLabor MovementForward Progress
Book:The American Federationist
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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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Book:The American Federationist
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“Doing for people what they can and ought to do for themselves is a dangerous experiment. 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. Let social busybodies and professional "public morals experts" in their fads reflect upon the perils they rashly invite under this pretense of social welfare.”

PeopleWayDoneLastsSocialMoralDangerousCrimeDependsOughtMoralityWorkersCommittedExperimentsWelfareAnalysisExpertsInvitesInitiativePhilanthropyPerilPretenseFadsGuiseSocial WelfareBusybodies
Book:The American Federationist
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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, to make manhood more noble, womanhood more beautiful, and childhood more happy and bright.”

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Author:Samuel Gompers
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“The freedom of speech and the freedom of the press have not been granted to the people in order that they may say things which please, and which are based upon accepted thought, but the right to say the things which displease, the right to say the things which convey the new and yet unexpected thoughts, the right to say things, even though they do a wrong.”

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Book:Seventy Years of Life and Labour: An Autobiography
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“Our mission has been the protection of the wage-worker, now; to increase his wages; to cut hours off the long workday, which was killing him; to improve the safety and the sanitary conditions of the workshop; to free him from the tyrannies, petty or otherwise, which served to make his existence a slavery.”

LongHas BeensHoursExistenceCuttingConditionsIncreaseSafetySlaveryWorkersKillingMissionsProtectionTyrannyWagesPettyWorkshopsSanitary
Book:The American Federationist
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