The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1881-02-24
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LABOR.
One by one fall ancient errors.


One by one fall ancient errors,
Reared by might and propped by wrong,
And earth wonders when they perish
That they stood the test so long.
In the strife of new opinions,
Come the lessons Of The hour:
Freedom shall enfranchlse labor,
Labor shall assert It's power.
Brothers of the farm and workshops,
Let US walk with prouder tread,
God himself ordained In wisdom
Man should toll to earn his bread.
Who with active brain and muscle,
Labors on as heaven cecrees,
He 1t Is fulfllls his mission,
Not the pampered child Of ease.
Sum- n.embrowned and brawny tollers
Wear the livery OF God,
Callous hands and kindly natures
Speak the heritage Of blood.
Riches perish what are honors,
When the sordld heart is cold,
Truth Is better far than riches
Worth than lands or boarded gold.
Labor arms the hand Of science,
Wakens natures hidden course;
Guides the vapOrdrlven engine,
Crashing onward in it's course,
Bridges torrents, spans the gorges,
Wrenches metals nom tbe mine,
Binds the earth In iron letters.
Speeds the message through the brine.
Labor shapes the massive anchor,
Guides the ship and maps the sea,
Iron thews and wiry slnews
Guide the fated argosy.
Labor rescues trackless regions,
Where the deer and bison feed,
Cloth the yellow fields with hamlets
And whatever else men need.
Echoes Of the axe and hammer
Frghts the mustang barb and deer,
Savage Sioux and wild Comanche
Fly before the pioneer.
From the waving world Of grain fields,
Where the sea like prairie smiles,
Lo, thousand towns and cities
Sprlnging like volcanic isles
Dwellers In stately temple,
Metal-ribbed and cased with stone,
Dream not how the patient workmen
Reared its columns one by one.
That among the swarthy laborers
Nightly passing by their door,
Noble souls are doing penance
For the sin of being poor.
Gathering crowds Of dandy loafers
Throng the parlors Of the great;
Spurned Of earth but watched by heaven,
Painting Lazarus must walt.
Ye who never felt longing,
Unappeased from out your store,
Ask why vice and dissipation
Dog the footsteps OF the poor.
Stint the hours OF recreatIon;
What are hours to working menP
Rob them Of their scanty wages,
II they fail to labor ten.
Then deplore the social evil
Wonder al the sin and shame,
Spurn the hand that holds the ladder,
By whose help You rise to fame
Tell the suffering and the needy
Virtue is It's own reward;
have seen the righteous starving,
And the wealthy culprlt spared.
1 have seen the heartless owner
Reaping where he has not sOwn,
Ragged children faint and hungry
Ask for bread, and get stone.
In that world to which we hasten,
All the things that are amlss
Shall appear ordained In wisdom,
But they see not so In this.
All too long to gilded idols
Tolling millions idly kneel,
All too long the chains of custom
Bind their victim to the wheel.
Down with dogmas, creeds and systems,
Based on folly, nursed by crime
Soulless mummies -esurrected
From the catacOmbs of time.
Hoary errors shrined In darkness,
King.giv"n creeds, Transmitted right,
These like century's buried parchments
Fall to ashes in the light.
See upon the massive boulder
That deles the glaciers shock,
Where the feather of the eagle
Lett his imprint on the rock
Hew away and mould opinion,
Let the plastic mind be wrought,
Ere the errors OF the ages
Crystalline in deed and thought.
Heed no longer dying echoes,
Echoed from the echoes gone,
Hear the trumpet voice Of progress,
See the better era dawn.
Reconstruct the social fabric
Give the worklngman his own,
Right rejected of the builders
Makes the eternal corner stone.