The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #147218   Message #3410898
Posted By: Anne Neilson
27-Sep-12 - 10:58 AM
Thread Name: Socialist Monologues Anyone?
Subject: RE: Socialist Monologues Anyone?
How about this, from a book called "Radical Renfrew" edited by Scot poet Tom Leonard?

It's by Alexander McLachlan, who was born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire in 1818. Having worked in a cotton factory before being apprenticed to a tailor, he eventually emigrated to Canada in 1840. He was not successful as a farmer, relying more on tailoring, writing and lecturing before his sons were able to work the farm for him. He eventually became a Canadian government lecturer and emigration agent for emigration from Scotland to Canada. He died in Orangeville in 1896.


YOUNG CANADA (or, Jack's as Good's his Master)

I love this land of forest grand,
The land where labour's free;
Let others run away from home,
Be this the land for me!
Where no one moils and strains and toils
That snobs may thrive the faster,
But all are free as men should be,
And Jack's as good's his master!

Where none are slaves that lordly knaves
May idle all the year;
For rank and caste are of the past --
They'll never flourish here!
And Jew or Turk, if he'll but work,
Need never fear disaster;
He reaps the crop he sowed in hope,
For Jack's as good's his master.

Our aristocracy of toil
Have made us what you see,
The nobles of the forge and soil,
With ne'er a pedigree.
It makes one feel himself a man,
His very blood leaps faster,
Where wit or worth's preferred to birth
And Jack's as good's his master.

Here's to the land of forests grand,
The land where labour's free;
Let others roam away from home,
Be this the land for me!
For here 'tis plain the heart and brain,
The very soul grow vaster,
Where men are free as they should be,
And Jack's as good's his master.