Union Labor Bulletin

THE PSALM OF LABOR.

For centuries I have served mankind. For ages I have borne the burdens of the world.

I have stirred the earth. I have made it bring forth increase.

I have caused the desert to bloom and changed the wilderness into a garden.

I have garnered the grain. I have gathered the fruit.

I have fed the world. I have provided food for all the people.

I have tamed wild beasts and made them the servants of man.

I have woven fibers into cloth and fashioned garments. I have clothed the people.

I have hewn down mountains and transformed the rock into human habitation.

I have felled the giants of the forest and made them furnish comfort and protection to man.

I have gone down into the bowels of the earth and forced her to give up her treasure.

I have wrought in the glare of the furnace, undaunted by the hissing of steam and clanging of steel.

I have enriched the nations. I have produced the wealth of the world.

But my eyes have been blinded and my hands have been shackled.

I did not see that the wealth I had created was mine; nor that the good things of life belonged to me.

But the scales are falling from my eyes, I am beginning to see.

I will arise in my strength. I will break my chains.

I will take what belongs to me. I will lay hold of my own.

I will bring comfort and abundance to all. I will bring peace and joy to the multitude.

All mankind will be blessed. All the inhabitants of the earth made glad.

For I am greater than greed. I am mightier than Mammon.

I am Labor. - Ada M. Stinson, in Machinists' Journal.