6 Quotes & Sayings By Samuel Gompers

Samuel Gompers was born in 1852 in Massachusetts. He worked as a tailor in New York City until the early 1880s when he began studying political economy at Columbia University. In 1886, he founded the Brotherhood of Carpenters, and while working with them, he became interested in labor unions. He moved to Chicago in 1894, where he was elected president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) Read more

Gompers was an important figure in the history of the American labor movement.

1
The worst crime against working people is a company which fails to operate at a profit. Samuel Gompers
2
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 Gompers
3
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. Samuel Gompers
4
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 Gompers
5
No race of barbarians ever existed yet offered up children for money. Samuel Gompers