“And drill, ye tarriers [drillers], drill!
Drill, ye tarriers, drill!
For it’s work all day for sugar in your tay,
. . .
Drill, ye tarriers, drill!
And blast!

“I’ve been working on the railroad,
All the live-long day,
I’ve been working on the railroad,

“. . . a car which anyone could afford to buy, which anyone could drive anywhere, and which almost anyone could keep in repair.”

–Charles Sorenson, 1908

–Alexander Graham Bell, 1876

“. . . Much that one man can not do alone two can do together, and once admit the fact that cooperation, or, what is the same thing, combination, is necessary on a small scale, the limit depends solely upon the necessities of business. Two persons in partnership may be a sufficiently large combination for a small business, but if the business grows or can be made to grow, more persons and more capital must be taken in. The business may grow so large that a partnership ceases to be a proper instrumentality for its purposes, and then a corporation becomes a necessity. . . .”

–John D. Rockefeller, president of Standard Oil, testimony

“ . . . Every step taken was necessary in the business if [Standard Oil] was to be properly developed, and only through such successive steps and by such an industrial combination is America today enabled to utilize the bounty which its land pours forth, and to furnish the world with the best and cheapest light ever known, receiving in return therefore from foreign lands nearly $50,000,000 per year, most of which is distributed in payment of American labor.”

–John D. Rockefeller, president of Standard Oil, testimony

“. . . This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of wealth: first, to set an example of modest, unostentatious living, . . to provide moderately for the legitimate wants of those dependent upon him; and after doing so to consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds which he is called upon to administer, . . . in the manner which, in his judgment, is best calculated to produce the most beneficial results for the community—the man of wealth thus becoming the mere agent and trustee for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience, and ability to administer, . . .”

–Andrew Carnegie, “Wealth,” The North American Review, June 1889

“At seven o’clock we all sit down to our machines and the boss brings to each one the pile of work that he or she is to finish during the day. . . . This pile is put down beside the machine and as soon as a skirt is done it is laid on the other side of the machine. . . . The machines go like mad all day, because the faster you work, the more money you get. Sometimes in my haste I get my finger caught and the needle goes right through it. . . . We all have accidents like that. . . . Sometimes a finger has to come off. . . . All the time we are working the boss walks about examining the finished garments and making us do them over again if they are not just right. So we have to be careful as well as swift. . . .”

–Account of a young woman working in New York City’s garment industry

“An act to prohibit the employment of children under fourteen years of age for certain work.

“Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Colorado:

“Section 1. That any person who shall take, receive, hire, or employ any children under fourteen years of age in any underground works, or mine, or in any smelter, mill, or factory shall be guilty of a misdemeanor; and upon conviction thereof before any justice of the peace or court of record shall be fined not less than $10 nor more than $50 for each offense . . .”

–Law passed by the General Assembly of Colorado

“We live in the latter part of the Nineteenth century. In the age of electricity and steam that has produced wealth a hundred fold, we insist that it has been brought about by the intelligence and energy of the workingmen, and while we find that it is now easier to produce it is harder to live. We do want more, and when it becomes more, we shall still want more. [Applause.] And we shall never cease to demand more until we have received the results of our labor. . . .”

–Samuel Gompers, Louisville, Kentucky, May 1, 1890

–Chicago, May 1886

Question: Did the Pullman Company, during its years of prosperity, ever voluntarily increase the wages of any . . .of its employees?
Answer [George Pullman]:  Not specially on account of prosperous business. It has always paid its employees liberal wages. . . . I think that it has never had a strike. . . .
Question: But it has never increased the wages of its employees voluntarily?
Answer: Certainly it has not increased them any other way.
Question: It has never divided any of its profits with them in any shape or form?
Answer: The Pullman Company divides its profits with the people who own the property. It would not have a right to take the profits belonging to the people who own that property. . . .
Question: Well, we will not discuss that question. . . . Now, when the first year of losses comes, it makes a reduction of 20 or 25 percent on [the wages of] its employees.
Answer: In that particular branch [factory]. It was a question whether we could get cars to build or whether we should shut up our shops.

–testimony before a presidential committee

“ . . . In practice, [this] consists of the farming out by competing manufacturers to competing contractors the material for garments, which, in turn, is distributed among competing men and women to be made up. The middleman, or contractor, is the [oppressor] (though he also may be himself subjected to pressure from above) and his employees are the . . . oppressed. He contracts to make up certain garments, at a given price per piece, and then hires other people to do the work at a less price. His profit lies in the difference between the two prices. In the process he will furnish shop room and machines to some, and allow others, usually the finishers, to take the work to their living and lodging rooms in tenements. . . .”

–Illinois Bureau of Labor Statistics report, 1893