WHAT DO YOU CARE

White Ribbon, Volume 25, Issue 290, 18 August 1919, Page 6

WHAT DO YOU CARE

Out of the mines in the chill of the mom, Stunted, ill-nouri.died, comes the forlorn Stream of humanity undersized men. Slaving and toiling foi life-blood; hut then. Dressed waun and cosy, with slate, hook and lule, Oeorgc and your Nellie have started to si hool; They are your children, then cheek** warm and fair. While Tony’s a hunky, s», W hat do vou rare? Ovei the budge-., the lulls, and the fen. Streams the piocession of undersized men, Climbing the stairs to the waiting machines; Lowered in cages, to death marked ravines. Look at their fans; sad, pinched, and worn! Look at their garments: thieadhm and torn! Look at their swagger, the precocious air, Some mothei , babies, hut What do you care? Children of poverty, born to duress, Cradled and nursed in thi lap of distress ; Wearing the garments of manhood in youth; Learning its vices, but missing i'* truth. Slaving and toiling in factoiy and pit. Seeking thru pittance wherever they’ll tit, Caged m the sweatshops and penned m the lair <U tubercular poison, hut —What do vou care? l oir. \ a hunky, and Saiiunv ’> a wop. Loreigneis truly, and aliens but stop! S«'ine woman Imre them in travail and tear— Somebody's children, to some mother, dear.. Think n«>t because they’re from poverty’, stem Some mother's lie.ut is not breaking for them; Or, ’cause they dwell in the vale of despair, She does not love them, hut What do you care? What do you care, the arraignment doth read,

Whu is youi plea to the true-bdl of greed ? What can you offer b\ v\av of dr fence r Nuu who judge lives by theii value in cents, Sponsor of slavery’s misery-tilled pen’ I hey are your chattels, these undei sized men ! What will you say when the Judge, truly fair, Cries, “These aie My children, hut What do you care? William Edward Ross, in “Pearson’s Magazine.“