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“What precisely is the goal of the Labor Party you ask? Why this is simple, we fight for control of industry, the regulation of capital, and the rights of the workers. We do this because we are at our core, nothing if not the party of the farmer and the worker.”
--- John P. Altgeld, Labor Party Governor of and Senator from Illinois


“The Labor Party, if left to its own devices would bring about a complete revolution in this country. Oh many in that party really may hope to avoid it because they know the cost, but the Labor Party wants nothing more than to string up every homeowner, every store clerk, and every businessmen in this country from the nearest lamp post.”
--- David B. Hill, Democratic Republican Senator from New York


“We must not waste time going on and on about the need for an eight-hour work day or cry out for the nationalization of this industry or that. If this party seeks to achieve reform, real meaningful reform we must recognize there is only one solution: The abolition of liquor in America.”
--- John St. John, Labor Party Governor of Kansas


“Don’t listen to the reactionaries at Tammany Hall, or the Republican Party chapter. The Labor party is the friend of you all. All the local political boss has to offer you at the saloon is a system of entrapment, where you trade your voice in our democracy for the crumbs of survival. They hope you all will take those crumbs because you have come all this way to our country. They think you have come because you are pathetic and desperate. They think that because you are immigrants from a thousand lands that you have no dignity, and that they can trade your say for a back breaking job and a few beers. Remind them that in this land you have come too, that the power comes not from on high, but from the workers. Remind them that you know the Labor Party is your friend.”
--- Albert R. Parsons, Labor Party Congressmen from New York


“The Labor Party’s view on the Freedmen is clear, they do not want us to be seen, they do not want us to be heard, they do not want us to work, and most of all they do not want us to be here. Their dream of a Worker’s state does not include the Negro. So long as we are not welcome to work in the fields as farmers or in the factories as toilers. So long as we are excluded from their unions and their chapters, no negro should ever be tempted to vote for a Labor Party candidate.”
--- Frederick Douglass, Republican Secretary of Education


“The Farm and Labor Party will always be the party of the masses of Americans who work their own fields and toil day in and day out for their pay. It is in the class interest of the American Masses that it sets forth to transform the nation, in the name of a better tomorrow for ourselves and our children.”
--- Farm and Labor Party Platform preamble


“It is the opinion of this body that the American Labor Party is by no means, an organization of the working class. As such, it has no place in the Second International.”
--- H. M. Hyndman speaking for the International Socialist Bureau


“The time has come yet again for the Labor Party to throw its party once again and try to run someone for president once more. This would be interesting, except that it will inevitably follow the same pattern as always: They will daringly nominate a true friend of the workers. If he loses it is because the forces of reaction have sought to destroy them once more and they shall stand in defiance. If he wins, the party will quickly find he enjoys the company of a Rockefeller or a Morgan much more than that of the unwashed masses. And with that they shall declare ‘We shall get it right next time’ and that will be that until the next election.”
--- Ambrose Bierce


A new Timeline in a Day by Japhy
We Shall Get it Right Next Time
Or:
The Many Rises, Falls, and Divisions of the American Labor Party
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