HAPPY LABOR DAY!!! ABRAHAM LINCOLN: All that serves labor serves the Nation. All that harms is treason. If a man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor he is a liar. If a man tells you he trusts America, yet fears labor, he is a fool. There is no America without labor, and to fleece the one is to rob the other. ABRAHAM LINCOLN: The strongest bond of human sympathy outside the family relation should be one uniting working people of all nations and tongues and kindred’s. ABRAHAM LINCOLN: Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. ANDREW JACKSON: When the laws undertake to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society -- the farmers, mechanics and laborers have a right to complain of the injustice of their government. ULYSSES S. GRANT: Whatever there is of greatness in the United States or indeed in any other country, is due to labor. The laborer is the author of all greatness and wealth. Without labor there would be no government, and nothing to preserve. FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT: If I were a worker in a factory, the first thing I would do would be to join a union. Trade unionism has helped to give everyone who toils the position of dignity which is his due. FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT: It is one of the characteristics of a free and democratic modern nation that it have free and independent labor unions. CALVIN COOLIDGE: The business of America is business. CHARLES EVANS HUGHES, (Chief Justice, Supreme Court, 1937): Long ago we stated the reason for labor organizations. We said that they were organized out of the necessity of the situation; that a single employee was helpless in dealing with an employer; that he was dependent ordinarily on his daily wage for the maintenance of himself and his family; that if the employer refused to pay him the wages that he thought was fair, he was nevertheless unable to leave the employ and resist arbitrary and unfair treatment; that union was essential to give laborers opportunity to deal on an equality with their employer. WOODROW WILSON: The masters of the government of the United States are the combined capitalists and manufacturers of the United States. WALTER LIPPMANN: Nothing is more stubbornly resisted as the attempt to organize into effective unions. Yet it is labor organized that alone can stand between America and a permanent servile class. Unless labor is powerful enough to be respected it is doomed and degrading servitude. Without unions no such power is possible. Without unions industrial democracy is unthinkable. Without democracy in industry -- that is where it counts most -- there is no such thing as democracy in America. DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER: ****** Today in America unions have a secure place in our industrial life. Only a handful of reactionaries harbor the ugly thought of breaking unions and of depriving working men and women of the right to join the union of their choice. I have no use for those -- regardless of their political party -- who hold some vain and foolish dream of spinning the clock back to days when organized labor was huddled, almost a helpless mass. Only a fool would try to deprive working men and women of the right to join the union of their choice. JOHN F. KENNEDY: ****** The American labor movement has consistently demonstrated its devotion to the public interest. It is, and has been, good for all America. As President, I consider the House of Labor vital to the interests of this country and the cause of freedom. Those who would destroy or further limit the rights of organized labor -- those who cripple collective bargaining or prevent organization of the unorganized -- do a disservice to the cause of democracy. JOHN F. KENNEDY: ****** Our labor unions are not narrow, self-seeking groups. They have raised wages, shortened hours and provided supplemental benefits. Through collective bargaining and grievance procedures, they have brought justice and democracy to the shop floor. But their work goes beyond their own jobs, and even beyond our borders. For the labor movement is people. Our unions have brought millions of men and women together, made them members one of another, and given them common tools for common goals. Their goals are for all America -- and their enemies are the enemies of progress. The two cannot be separated.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 20:23:09 +0000
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