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., 2024-03-28
E.g., 2024-03-28

If this bill should become law, we will be forced to cancel immediately every line of advertising.

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One patent-medicine maker (unnamed) had written to multiple newspapers with the warning.
01/01/1934 | Full Details

[The bill] will seriously affect employment and morale in the industries indicated. It will put thousands of men and women out of work. It will close dozens of manufacturing plants and hundreds of stores...It will hurt thousands...It will help none...When the ‘Tugwell’ Bill is introduced in Congress, it must be defeated.

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The New York Board of Trade’s Drug, Chemical and Allied Trades Section’s warning.
01/01/1934 | Full Details

Unlimited power entrusted to bureaucrats warps their judgment on the opinions they might have as normal citizens.

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William L. Daley of the National Editorial Association warned.
12/08/1933 | Full Details

The enactment of this legislation will mean a complete readjustment, if indeed the business of manufacturing and selling packaged medicines can be continued at all. This is very doubtful.

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Proprietary Association chief H.B. Thompson, Senate Committee on Commerce.
12/07/1933 | Full Details

The disastrous provisions of this bill could wreck the industry of pharmacy.

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Bruce Philip, Counsel for the National Association of Retail Druggists,testimony to the Senate Committee on Commerce
12/07/1933 | Full Details

The present law removes all responsibility from the purchaser and fosters litigation. It invites nuisance suits and spurious claims.

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Frank Gordon, president of the Investment Bankers Association
10/31/1933 | Full Details

No corporation director is going to risk existing resources by putting his name on financing under a law that makes him personally liable for the next ten years and adopts the unprecedented principle that he is to be judged guilty unless he can be proven innocent.

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Frank Gordon, president of the Investment Bankers Association
10/31/1933 | Full Details

No manufacturer can possibly continue in business except by the grace of the officials in Washington.

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An unnamed pharmaceutical industry lawyer’s prediction.
08/01/1933 | Full Details

The fact is that one of the reasons why our business leaders, large and small and in almost every kind of business, are fearful of the future is because of the well-defined campaign of a very few people to foist upon this country a complete scheme of compulsory social insurance. The little group—and it is astonishingly small in numbers, though tremendously vocal—is largely of foreign origin, a substantial part of the advocates of this system coming from Germany and from countries lying further east.

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M. K. Hart, president of the New York State Economic Council, New York Times.
04/11/1933 | Full Details

In all probability, however, compulsory unemployment insurance cannot be had without an amendment to the Constitution, probably both state and federal, as such a measure might be attacked on the grounds that it is confiscation of property without due process of law.

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Wall Street Journal editorial against unemployment insurance.
01/13/1933 | Full Details

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