I've been singing this song since I was a kid and have long forgotten the source. I've tried googling it, but have gotten nowhere. I'd love to at least know the author's name. I was told it was written by the 'mayor of Eastend Saskatchewan.'

This is the song:

East End was once a happy town
Where harmony and love
Was busting out of all the seams
And in the skies above.
The dove of peace was laying eggs;
There were no signs of strife.
For each man loved his neighbour,
And sometimes his neighbour's wife.

But a sudden change soon come about--
Storm clouds were in the sky.
Nobody stopped to kiss a body,
Coming through the rye.
For each man eyed his neighbour
With malice and with hate;
Housewives no longer spilt the beans
Across the garden gate.

CHORUS:
We had a war, a civil war.
Folks often asked us what we all were fighting for.
Well, some of us wanted water mains,
And sewers and bath-tubs too;
While the rest of us decided
We would make the slop-pails do.

It was sewers versus slop-pails;
The town was split in two.
With profane propaganda,
The air was often blue.
The sewer and water faction
Had a sanitary plank--
They said shallow wells and slop-pails
And toilets always stank.

But the slop-pailers were stubborn;
They fought with tooth and nail.
The said our nit-wit council
Should be languishing in jail.
They spoke how high taxation
And plumbers' union fees
Would land us in the poor house
And they'd throw away the keys.

But when those votes were counted,
Slop-pailers met defeat.
And draglines started tearing up
Our quiet village street.
Then peace and harmony, once more,
Displaced the grapes of wrath.
So when next you visit East End,
Just stop in and have a bath.

Anyone???