John L. Lewis Quotes

• All forms of government fall when it comes up to the question of bread—bread for the family, something to eat. Bread to a man with a family comes first—before his union, before his citizenship, before his church affiliation. Bread!

  John L. Lewis

  Topics in Uncategorized

• No tin hat brigade of goose-stepping vigilantes or bibblebabbling mob of blackguarding and corporation-paid scoundrels will prevent the onward march of labor, or divert its purpose to play its natural and rational part in the development of the economic, political, and social life of our nation.

  John L. Lewis

  Topics in Uncategorized

• The labor movement is organized upon a principle that the strong shall help the weak. The strength of a strong man is a prideful thing, but the unfortunate thing in life is that strong men do not remain strong. And it is just as true of unions and labor organizations as is true of men and individuals. And whereas today the craft unions of this country may be able to stand upon their own feet and like mighty oaks stand before the gale, defy the lightning, yet the day may come when those organizations will not be able to withstand the lightning and the gale. Now, prepare yourselves by making a contribution to your less fortunate brethren… Organize the unorganized!

  John L. Lewis

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Solidarity, Strength, Labor

• Let the workers organize. Let the toilers assemble. Let their crystallized voice proclaim their injustices and demand their privileges. Let all thoughtful citizens sustain them, for the future of Labor is the future of America.

  John L. Lewis

  Topics in Future, Justice

  Tags in Injustice, Organize, Labor

• We live in a country where we’re supposed to have freedom of the press and religious freedom, but I think to some degree, there’s a sense of fear in America today, that if you say the wrong thing, what some people will consider what is wrong, if you step out of line, if you dissent, whether you be an entertainer, that somehow and some way this government or the forces to be will come down on you.

  John L. Lewis

  Topics in Dissent

  Tags in Freedom

• But the Committee for Industrial Organizations is here. It is now henceforth a definite instrumentality, destined greatly to influence the lives of our people and the internal and external course of the republic.

  John L. Lewis

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in People

• The workers of the nation were tired of waiting for corporate industry to right their economic wrongs, to alleviate their social agony and to grant them their political rights. Despairing of fair treatment, they resolved to do something for themselves.

  John L. Lewis

• Workers have kept faith in American institutions. Most of the conflicts, which have occurred have been when labor’s right to live has been challenged and denied.

  John L. Lewis

• While the men of the steel industry were going through blood and gas in defense of their rights and their homes and their families, elsewhere on the far-flung C.I.O. front the hosts of labor were advancing and intelligent and permanent progress was being made.

  John L. Lewis

• Unionization, as opposed to communism, presupposes the relation of employment; it is based upon the wage system and it recognizes fully and unreservedly the institution of private property and the right to investment profit.

  John L. Lewis

• This is true only because the purposes and objectives of the Committee for Industrial Organization find economic, social, political and moral justification in the hearts of the millions who are its members and the millions more who support it.

  John L. Lewis

• In the steel industry the corporations generally have accepted collective bargaining and negotiated wage agreements with the Committee for Industrial Organization.

  John L. Lewis

• The steel workers have now buried their dead, while the widows weep and watch their orphaned children become objects of public charity. The murder of these unarmed men has never been publicly rebuked by any authoritative officer of the state or federal government.

  John L. Lewis

  Topics in Children

  Tags in Government

• The organization and constant onward sweep of this movement exemplifies the resentment of the many toward the selfishness, greed and the neglect of the few.

  John L. Lewis

  Tags in Selfishness

John L. Lewis (14)

Birth:	12th February, 1880
Death:	11th June, 1969
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Union Leader

About

John Llewellyn Lewis was born in Lucas County, Iowa, USA. He was an American labor leader and miner who served as president of the United Mine Workers of America from 1920 to 1960. A major player in the history of coal mining, he was the driving force behind the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, which established the United Steel Workers of America and helped organize millions of other industrial workers in the 1930s. He is the author of book, Heywood Broun as He Seemed to Us.

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