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.

John Llewellyn Lewis, president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), radio broadcast (September 3, 1937); reported in Vital Speeches of the Day (September 15, 1937), p. 733. The quote was directed at President Franklin D. Roosevelt, as noted by The New York Times, which reported, "The fact that Mr. Lewis did not mention the President by name did not dull the point in the eyes of those who had followed labor developments through the violent days of last Winter and Spring. These observers unanimously accepted this part of his speech as a direct reference to Mr. Roosevelt's invocation of 'a plague on both your houses' when the labor unions and steel mill operators were 'locked in deadly embrace' only a few months ago"; (September 4, 1937), p. 1.