Quotes

The Cry Wolf Quote Bank chronicles the false predictions and hyperbole by opponents of these laws and protections.  While the issues and specific policies change over time, the rhetoric and themes remained the same.  You can search the Quote Bank for what opponents said to prevent these laws from passing. Using the drop down menus on the right their statements by issue, by specific law, by who said it and by the core themes they evoke.   Elsewhere on the site, you can find articles, studies, and other material that debunks their claims. 

E.g., 2024-03-29
E.g., 2024-03-29

The child will become a very dominant factor in the household and might refuse perhaps to do chores before six a.m. or after seven p.m. or to perform any labor.

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Senator Weldon Heyburn (R-ID). Only date available: 1908.
01/01/1908 | Full Details

It is likely enough that many of these child laborers will grow into capitalists and become "too rich," like their present oppressors.

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A New York Sun editorial. Only date available: 1907.
01/01/1907 | Full Details

Here is the Argentine Republic, which is competing with us to-day in the markets of the world with dressed beef and canned products; here is old Mexico, and other countries of South America. These countries have not such restrictions will absolutely capture the trade from this country if we make unreasonable restrictions that keep us out of business in foreign countries.

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Judge Samuel H. Cowan, attorney for the Texas Cattle Raisers Association and the American National Live Stock Association. Testimony, House Committee on Agriculture.
06/06/1906 | Full Details

We have no authority until the meat becomes commerce. You see we have a right to control commerce, but not manufacture. I have the belief that it would be better if the Federal Government had general power to enact police powers for the protection of the people against impure and unwholesome foods, if it could stop with that…There is not one single thing in the Federal Constitution that expressly confers upon Congress any police power whatever, and by police power I mean the power to enact laws for the preservation of the public health, the public morals, and the public peace.

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E.D. Crumpacker (R-IN). Testimony, House Committee on Agriculture.
06/06/1906 | Full Details

We are opposed to a bill…that will put our business in the hands of theorists, chemists, sociologists, etc., and the management and control taken away from the men who have devoted their lives to the upbuilding and perfecting of this great American industry.

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Thomas Wilson, spokesperson for the meatpacking industry, Testimony, House Agricultural committee.
06/06/1906 | Full Details

If you would pass a law which requires unnecessary expense…that expense must to some extent be ultimately borne by the public. Either the consumer or the producer must stand it.

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Judge Samuel H. Cowan, attorney for the Texas Cattle Raisers Association and the American National Live Stock Association. Testimony, House Committee on Agriculture.
06/06/1906 | Full Details

The very great objection to that is the possibility of confusion. We have State laws and we have city laws in the matter of constructions, and we have insurance laws that we have got to comply with….the construction of a building that might suit the Secretary of Agriculture would not suit those folks, and what might suit those folks might not suit the Secretary of Agriculture.

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Thomas Wilson, spokesperson for the meatpacking industry, Testimony, House Agricultural committee.
06/06/1906 | Full Details

It makes business sense to have them clean. We want them to be sanitary, and expect them to be sanitary, and will do anything in reason to make them sanitary. The only question is whether it will not lead to complications, to make the Secretary of Agriculture the judge as to what is sanitary. He might be disposed to call in some outside talent…and we most certainly question the qualifications of that talent.

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Thomas Wilson, spokesperson for the meatpacking industry, Testimony, House Agricultural committee.
06/06/1906 | Full Details

Meat canned five years ago is just as good as meat canned six months ago….Of course [putting the date on a can] benefits nobody if the meat is just as good with age, like whisky is said to be, as it is without.

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Judge Samuel H. Cowan, attorney for the Texas Cattle Raisers Association and the American National Live Stock Association. Testimony, House Committee on Agriculture.
06/06/1906 | Full Details

I know those packing houses as well as I know the corridors of the capitol [i.e.: not particularly well, he only served one term in DC]...there is not a kitchen of a rich man in this city, or any other, that is any cleaner, if it is as clean, as those places...Of course, you know the sort of men many of the laborers in the packing houses are—foreigners of a low grade of intelligence...If those men happen to spit, they are likely to spit, but it doesn’t go on the meat.

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Rep. Charles Wharton (R-IL), congressman for Chicago’s meat-packing district.
05/26/1906 | Full Details

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