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

'Free Business from Political Persecution' and 'The Country is Suffering from Too Much Law'.

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NAM stickers from 1914.
01/01/1914 | Full Details
Law(s): Tax: Income | Themes: Government takeover

No honest man can make war upon great fortunes per se. The Democratic Party never has done it; and when the Democratic Party begins to do it, it will cease to be the Democratic Party and become the socialistic party of the United States; or better expressed, the communistic party, or quasi communistic party, of the United States.

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Democrat Senator John Sharp Williams (D-MI).
08/27/1913 | Full Details
Law(s): Tax: Income | Themes: Socialism!

Not only is this against the principal of home rule, but such legislation transfers the enforcement of the law to an unknown and untried body of men and takes it out of the hands of the Fire Department….one of the most efficient departments of the City of New York.

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Charles F. Noyes “who represents owners of many store and loft buildings in Manhattan”.
03/23/1913 | Full Details

Many owners will be so financially embarrassed by the great expenditure made necessary thereby that great numbers of buildings would be forced into foreclosure or otherwise sacrificed.

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The Realty League inveighs against the Factory Investigating Commission fire regulations.
03/19/1913 | Full Details

In Utica no one ever bothers the factories about these things. Why are we bothered this way? No, we do not keep the names and addresses of our homeworkers. Women wanting such work come in and get it and that’s all there is about it.

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The manager of a felt shoe factory
01/01/1913 | Full Details

I don’t think the public is going to gain anything by forcing the small baker out of business.

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Frank P. Hill, representative of the New York Retail Bakers’ Association. Only date available: 1913.
01/01/1913 | Full Details

This bill will make it difficult for the poor baker to continue to exist, thereby making it easier for the large baker to combine with his larger brother and increase the price of bread or lower the size of the loaf, why, that is a very strong point in opposition to this bill, because the very people you are going to aid—the poor have got to be taken into consideration.

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Harold M. Phillips, of the United States Real Estate Owners Association. Only date available: 1913.
01/01/1913 | Full Details

I don’t believe we are under any obligation to work and force spiritual and mental improvement on the men because they work for us.

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A factory owner, unnamed. Only date available: 1913.
01/01/1913 | Full Details

[Those killed in factory fires are] an infinitesimal proportion of the population.

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Robert Dowling, NYC real estate man, and voice of business on the Factory Investigating Committee. Only date available: 1913.
01/01/1913 | Full Details

But the majority of [buildings] you go in are unkept; they are dirty; they are unclean; their stock is strewed all over the floor. Where they use machinery there are no passageways whatsoever….In a great many cases there is only about one door on that loft you can get in. Goods are piled up in front of the windows, in front of the doors, and you have got to use a battering ram to get into any of them.

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Retired New York City Fire Chief Edward F. Croker. 1913
01/01/1913 | Full Details
Law(s): Triangle Factory Laws | Themes:

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