From The Tacoma Times, November 8, 1913. By Berton Braley.
“All is well”—the word is said
By the blind men to the blind,
And the Tory nods his head
Quite contented in his mind;
“All is well”—men starve and die
In the midst of plenty’s store,
Babies weep and mothers cry,
Famine lingers at the door,
Children toil in roaring mills,
Robbed of all their hours of play,
Doing work that stunts and kills—
“All is well,” the Tories cry.
Women take the wage of shame,
Driven by the scourge of want;
Still the slogan is the same,
“All is well,” resounds the vaunt.
Law is trampled under foot,
Right is sunken in the mire
And the thug, the vicious brute,
Beats and slugs and kills—for hire.
Men who dare to speak the truth
Pace within a prison cell;
Power rules that knows no ruth,
Yet men murmur, “All is well!”
Fetid street and filthy slum—
Toil that makes men’s lives a hell,
Want and woe and vice and rum—
Let’s be thankful “All is well!”
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