James Bryce Quotes

Fear of the consequences of the masses’ indignation often induces the class holding parliamentary power to make concessions which the masses would not otherwise have obtained

It would be possible to say without exaggeration that the miners' leaders were the stupidest men in England if we had not frequent occasion to meet the owners.

While unions did not play a part in my family life when I was being brought up, my early years were most certainly spent in a working-class community.

All the world over, I will back the masses against the classes.

The working classes in every country only learn to fight in the course of their struggles.

If capital and labor ever do get together it's good night for the rest of us.

Without Socialism the working class is a heterogeneous mixture of different categories, some of which have independent, varying interests, sometimes opposed to each other.

In the class-struggle the conflict must always concern itself with immediate, practical objects

No matter what the motive of the employer, any strike aimed at him is in physical fact a strike against ourselves and our country. No matter if he claims or seems to be in non-essential production, no strike is proper, for strikes are infectious and damaging to morale.

This trial is a fight between capital and labor, of which this is but a manifestation up here in the woods.

Regardless of the degree of class consciousness of their members, the trade unions are, by their very nature, driven on to the revolutionary goal.

The history of all countries shows that, by its own efforts, the working class can develop only a trade-union consciousness—that is, the realization of the need of getting together in unions in order to fight employers and to demand from the government the passing of laws necessary for the workers.

It ill behooves one who has supped at labor's table and who has been sheltered in labor's house to curse with equal fervor and fine impartiality both labor and its adversaries when they become locked in deadly embrace.

Labor and capital may be partners in theory, but they are enemies in fact.

The masses of the working-people of Scotland have read history, and are no revolutionary levelers.

It is an ugly name, that of "The Masses," for the great majority of human beings in a nation.

If there is to be peace in our industrial life, let the employer recognize his obligation to his employees

It is impossible to place labor and capital in harmonious or friendly relations, except by the means of slavery

There is and always has been in an advanced stage of wealth and civilization, a conflict between labor and capital.

The workers, before all else.

When huge factories were established there could no longer be a close tie between the master and his men; the workman hated his employer, and the employer looked on his workmen simply as hands.

Before there were unions, there was no middle class.

What Franklin Roosevelt did, which really offended them, was he strengthened the labor unions - made it possible for them to strike. The oligarchs were furious because the working class was not supposed to have any power at all.

Employers ganging up against workers is like raising an army of elephants against ants.

People seem to know about May Day everywhere except where it began, here in the United States of America. That's because those in power have done everything they can to erase its real meaning.