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I have pleaded (labor's) case, not in the quavering tones of a feeble mendicant asking alms, but in the thundering voice of the captain of a mighty host, demanding the rights to which free men are entitled.

— John L. Lewis

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Source and credibility

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Source: Speech at United Mine Workers convention at Indianapolis (March 1940), quoted in Melvyn Dubofsky and Warren R. Van Tine, John L. Lewis: A Biography (1986), p. 278
Source quality: Secondhand citation Quoted from another book or article rather than from the original.

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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.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John L. Lewis (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.