CIRCUMSTANCES ALTER CASES

(A. D. Cridge)



We're Communists and Socialists

And dynamiters, too;

We're slaves of walking delegatess*

Who tell us what to do,

There's nothing we should kick about,

We've all got "cheek" sublime;

But we're "bone and sinew of the land,"

About

Election

Time.



We're howlers of calamity,

We're crazy flat fools,

We're lawless scum and foreign scruff,

And "stubborner nor mules."

They threaten us with Gatling guns

And in our "hair to climb";

But we're "thinking toilers of the land,"

About

Election

Time.



We're wild-eyed hayseeds, lazy shirks,

Alliance traitors, knaves;

We're looters of the vaults of wealth,

And our speaker always "raves";

We're a danger to the country

And Republic all the time;

But we're "honest, sturdy farmers,"

About

Election

Time.



We're everything that's vile and mean,

For twice three hundred days;

Nihilists, thugs and Pinkertons

Are urged on us to blaze,

If we but demand justice,

As against a gilded crime;

But we're "valiant hosts of labor,"

About

Election

Time.



They tell us of protection,

And the glory of a tax;

The right of honest capital

To ride upon our backs;

Our comfort and prosperity

(Though we haven't got a dime),

And to once more save the party,

About

Election

Time.



They tax us, and they drive us,

And mock us in our woe;

They tell us we're responsible,

Though they know it isn't so;

And we stand right up and take it,

While the "bloats" their pockets line,

Oh, we're several milLion darndest fools,

About

Election

Time



* The term "walking delegates was used to describe union

organizers who were accused of using unscrupulous tactics

to coerce workers into joining.

Note: Published in the Journal of the Knights of Labor, May 4,

1893. Tune not supplied, but sings well to Auld Lang Syne.

@union @politics

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