Two Union Songs

We will sing one song

We will sing one song of the meek and the humble slave,The horny-handed son of the soil;He’s toiling hard from the cradle to the grave,But this master reaps the profits of his toil.

Then we’ll sing one song of the poor and ragged tramp,He carries his home on his back;Too old to work, he’s not wanted round the camp,So he wanders without aim along the track.

  chorus  Organize, O toilers, come organize your might;  Then we’ll sing one song of the workers’ commonwealth  Full of beauty, full of love and health.

We will sing one song of the children in the mills,They’re taken from playground and schools,In tender years made to go the pace that kills,In the sweatshops mid the looms and spools.

Then we’ll sing one song of the one big union grand,The hope of the toiler and the slave;It’s coming fast; it is sweeping sea and land,to the terror of the grafter and the knave.

  chorus  Organize, O toilers, come organize your might;  Then we’ll sing one song of the workers’ commonwealth  Full of beauty, full of love and health.1913

The preacher and the slave

Long-haired preachers come out every night,Try to tell you what’s wrong and what’s right;But when asked how ’bout something to eatThey will answer with voices so sweet:

  chorus  You will eat, bye and bye,  In that glorious land above the sky;  Work and pray, live on hay,  You’ll get pie in the sky when you die.

And the starvation army they play,And they sing and they clap and they pray,Till they get all your coin on the drum,Then they tell you when you’re on the bum:

  chorus

Holy Rollers and Jumpers come out,And they holler, they jump and they shout“Give your money to Jesus,” they say,“He will cure all diseases today.”

  chorus

If you fight hard for children and wife,Try to get something good in this life,You’re a sinner and bad man, they tell,When you die you will sure go to hell.  chorus

Workingmen of all countries, unite,Side by side we for freedom will fight:When the world and its wealth we have gainedTo the grafters we’ll sing this refrain:

  final chorus  You will eat, bye and bye,  When you’ve learned how to cook and to fry;  Chop some wood, ‘twill do you good,  And you’ll eat in the sweet bye and bye.1911