With all their faults, trade unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in men, than any other association of men.
Clarence Darrow
Agreed Cherie!
Agreed here, too.
A trio in agreement.
Not something you will hear Neil Kinnock saying at party conference lol
I was expecting a little more controversy! As to Neil Kinnock, I always prefer more open minded people
Here comes the controversity.
I doubt this.
I wouldn’t doubt, had the gentleman not felt the need to use superlatives.
I would have agreed had he f.e. stated: ‘Despite all their faults, trade unions have done and achieved a lot for many people in parts of the world.’
Decency? Honesty?
Even betterment of the race?
Which race?
Or does he mean species?
Would I take more time, and were my English better, at the end I would probably have at least some of your visitors convinced that this is a ridiculously exaggerating statement.
Well in 2010, Mr. Darrow might have sounded slightly different … or not.
The peace of the night, dear Unionists and Non-Unionists.
PS: I can’t stand smilies!! Why would I put four then? Pure appeasement (policy).
Sic.
Well I took it to mean human race as in all of it. But there are other people I can think of that have done such things too.
I think it reads rather like an evangelic speech
Spoken that way, I’m sure he’s right, CP!
I think he was trying to convince us
It sounds to me like a slight exaggeration.
I’m afraid I’m no expert on Trade Union history but this quote does sound a teeny weeny bit pompous to make a claim like that.
But a good rallying call, never-the-less.
(PS – I hate controversy – it can loose friends)
It does indeed sound like a rallying call, I wonder if it was part of a larger speech.
A little bit of a debate is OK though
I hate “smilies” too Sean, just as I hate all “emoticons” – I even hate both the damn dreadful words. We used to manage to convey humour and all manner of emotions through words, or we used the subtle strategy of leaving readers uncertain as to whether we were jesting or not, which allows an issue to be regarded in at least two ways, but nowadays some people just don’t accept you may be making a lighthearted jest if you don’t put in a damn smiley. But prompted by Sean I am going to do what I’ve been contemplating for a while. I am giving smilies up altogether, banned, verbotten, banished. It will mean my words will offend more often, but that’s a small price to pay for the disappearance of the smiley from my lines.
Oh dear am I being controversial with my overuse of the smilies :-O
Just couldn’t resist!
Ha, Andrew,that’s a word, and not a damn dreadful one. [Hurra, just by will I managed to prevent my fingers from wallowing in vice.]
“…fingers wallowing in vice” sounds interesting Sean, or painful, or possibly both. Am I joking? Am I serious? Am I reflecting on interesting experience? No emoticons shall help you decide. May delicious ambiguity return.
Oh yes, DonQuiscott. Let me be your Seanso Pansa!
Agreed Sean. Hand me my lance, I see a huge sideways colon and bracket in sickening yellow shade that needs some serious tilting at. A bigger enemy than even the windmills. Forward Rocinante! Full speed! Attack!
And there was me thinking that gentlemen were supposed to protect fair ladies not rearrange their smiles!!!
Darrow was a lawyer and, as a courtroom lawyer, he would be prone to theatrical hyperbole. That doesn’t mean he was disinterested as lawyers must be to prevent emotional involvement. The quote is from his book The Railroad Trainman, Nov. 1909.
But he certainly believed in the idea of Unions. This is how he addressed a jury in 1907 during the trial of Charles Moyer, William Hayward and George Pettibone in 1907 -
“I don’t mean to tell this jury that labor organizations do no wrong. I know them too well for that. They do wrong often, and sometimes brutally; they are sometimes cruel; they are often unjust; they are frequently corrupt. But I am here to say that in a great cause these labor organizations, despised and weak and outlawed as they generally are, have stood for the poor, they have stood for the weak, they have stood for every human law that was ever placed upon the statute books. ~~~ I know their cause is just.”
I think we can safely say that he was one of the ‘good guys’
Another rousing speech, we could probably do with some publicity from him these days!
“Gentlemen”?
What are they?
Ahh! I suppose that was just wishful thinking on my part?