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I then saw that he was by way of saying no, because he was red, embarrassed, very polite, and said, “Of course, you know I have great respect for what you think and what you think ought to be done, but in this case there are great principles at stake. There are great concepts at stake. If we lose this concept that these men have a right to organize and reorganize and organize again any way they please, completely free from any influence of their employer, from the public opinion of a group or of the government, then we will have lost everything for them.”
I'm paraphrasing what he said, of course, but that's pretty accurate. He claimed there were great principles at stake. I remember saying to him, “But look here, under that set of circumstances hoodlums could get into the labor movement - plain hoodlums. They could, by ambitious sounding promises that they perhaps could or could not fulfill, break up legitimate trade unions. They could start new ones which could be only temporary, but which could create great confusion in the labor movement and real progress in the labor movement would be stopped. The Labor movement would just come down to be a place for political bickering. They would be throwing their weight around
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