Songs of the Workers (15th edition)/Gone are the Days

by Richard Brazier

GONE ARE THE DAYS
By Richard Brazier
(Tune: "Old Black Joe")

Gone are the days, when the master class could say,
"We'll work you long hours for little pay;
We'll work you all day and half the night as well."
But I hear the workers' voices saying, "You will, like Hell."

CHORUS

For we're going, to take an eight hour day.
We surely will surprise the Boss some first of May.

Now, workmen, it's up to you to say
If you want a general eight hour day.
As soon as you are ready, we are with you heart and hand.
All you have to do is to join our Union grand.

Now, workingmen, we are working far too long;
That's why we've got this vast unemployed throng.
Give every worker a chance to work each day;
Let's all join together and to the Boss all say,

---

The I. W. W.; "Most Hated and Most Loved."

“For my part, I sympathize with them. While they are threatened and imprisoned I am manacled. If they are denied a living wage, I, too, am defrauded. While they are industrial slaves I cannot be free. My hunger is not satisfied while they are hindered and neglected. When they are flung out on a desert, under a scorching sun, I too, burn, and my soul is athirst. When one of them is dragged from his bed and hung to a railroad trestle, a great horror of darkness falls upon my spirit, and from the depths of my heart I cry out against those who persecute the weak and unfriended.—Helen Keller.