Anti-Slavery Poems and Songs of Labor and Reform, Complete

THE PROBLEM.

     I.
     NOT without envy Wealth at times must look
     On their brown strength who wield the reaping-hook
     And scythe, or at the forge-fire shape the plough
     Or the steel harness of the steeds of steam;
     All who, by skill and patience, anyhow
     Make service noble, and the earth redeem
     From savageness. By kingly accolade
     Than theirs was never worthier knighthood made.
     Well for them, if, while demagogues their vain
     And evil counsels proffer, they maintain
     Their honest manhood unseduced, and wage
     No war with Labor's right to Labor's gain
     Of sweet home-comfort, rest of hand and brain,
     And softer pillow for the head of Age.

     II.
     And well for Gain if it ungrudging yields
     Labor its just demand; and well for Ease
     If in the uses of its own, it sees
     No wrong to him who tills its pleasant fields
     And spreads the table of its luxuries.
     The interests of the rich man and the poor
     Are one and same, inseparable evermore;
     And, when scant wage or labor fail to give
     Food, shelter, raiment, wherewithal to live,
     Need has its rights, necessity its claim.
     Yea, even self-wrought misery and shame
     Test well the charity suffering long and kind.
     The home-pressed question of the age can find
     No answer in the catch-words of the blind
     Leaders of blind. Solution there is none
     Save in the Golden Rule of Christ alone.

     1877.