Nicholas Klein (1884–1951) was an American

labor union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

advocate, and

attorney Attorney may refer to: * Lawyer ** Attorney at law, in some jurisdictions * Attorney, one who has power of attorney * ''The Attorney'', a 2013 South Korean film See also * Attorney general, the principal legal officer of (or advisor to) a gove ...

who is best known for his speech to the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America in 1918.

Biography

Klein was born in Cincinnati, became an orphan at 16 and started his career as a European reporter for the magazine of Los Angeles socialist Gaylord Wilshire in 1904. He wrote for the '' Hobo News'' later. In 1907, Nicholas Klein ran in Ohio's 2nd congressional district as a third-party candidate for US House of Representatives from

Socialist Party of America The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of Ameri ...

but lost to Republican incumbent

Herman P. Goebel Herman Philip Goebel (April 5, 1853 – May 4, 1930) was an American lawyer and politician who served four terms as a U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1903 to 1911. Early life and career Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Goebel attended public sch ...

. He became an attorney after graduating from

Nashville YMCA Night Law School Nashville School of Law (formerly known as the Nashville YMCA Night Law School), is a private law school founded in 1911. The school's students attend classes at night on a part-time basis. History In the fall of 1911, Morton B. Adams, Wil ...

in 1910, and worked as an adviser for James Eads How. In 1920s he was affiliated with Universal Negro Improvement Association and provided legal counsel to Marcus Garvey before his deportation in 1927. In 1935, he was elected to Cincinnati City Council, serving three terms later. During his last term in 1940–1941, he served as Vice Mayor of the city. Klein married Eva Chassin in June 1916 and had two daughters, who were named Peace and Liberty. They lived in

Bond Hill Bond Hill is a neighborhood of the City of Cincinnati. Founded as a railroad suburb and temperance community in 1870 in northeastern Millcreek Township in Hamilton County, Ohio, it is one of a number of neighborhoods lining the Mill Creek, an ...

. He was a Free Mason.

Address to the Clothing Workers

Klein is best known for his speech to the Clothing Workers in May 1918, where he said the following: Klein's words are often summarized as "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win", and misattributed to Mahatma Gandhi, who made different remarks to a similar effect in a 1920 speech at Muzaffarabad, included in ''Freedom’s Battle''. A possible precursor is "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident", a misquotation of

Arthur Schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer ( , ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the prod ...

recorded at least as early as 1913. Schopenhauer's actual wording, included in a preface to '' The World as Will and Representation'' in 1819, translates as "the truth, to which only a brief triumph is allotted between the two long periods in which it is condemned as paradoxical or disparaged as trivial".

Notes

References

*Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
''General executive board report and proceedings of the biennial convention''
(1919)

(Monday, August 4, 1930) ''Time''

External links

*' And Then They Build Monuments to You' (1918) on Wikisource {{DEFAULTSORT:Klein, Nicholas American trade unionists 1884 births 1951 deaths People from Cincinnati