ARE THEY GOING TO HANG MY PAPA?
By "Owen Spendthrift"

"Comrades, can you tell me what flag it is that waves—"
The speaker thus addressed a motley crowd—
"Where law protects the millionaire, to be obeyed by slaves?"
Rose a murmur then in chorus long and loud.
The meeting was assembled; the miners were all there.
Many protest resolutions had been read.
Through that tempest of confusion came a child with golden hair,
And, sobbing, thus so pleadingly she said:

CHORUS. "Are they going to hang my papa? He's innocent, I know.
He never could do any wrong, he is so good and true.
It surely will kill dear mamma, and break my heart in two.
Are they going to hang my papa?" pleads this babe with eyes of blue.

Tearful with emotion he raised one bony hand
O'er the pleading child, the speaker gaunt and tall,
So silent In his movement, like a spirit in command,
Till the calm of death spread o'er that crowded hall.
"Arouse, ye slaves! Awaken! What will your answer be?
Are we union men to suffer every wrong?
If they murder honest Haywood, they will have to murder me!" —
Then rang a voice above that mighty throng: (Chorus)

The words were also published in:

The Labor World, Duluth, Minn., Saturday, May 18, 1907, page 4.

The Washington Post, Washington, DC, Tuesday, April 30, 1907, page 4.


There is some interesting information in:

A blog called Idaho Meanderings

Annotated Bibliography of Early Idaho Songs

A research paper called Treemonisha, or Der Freischütz Upside Down: A Musical Ancestry Quest by Marcello Piras, in "Current Research in Jazz."

The last paper says that "Owen Spendthrift" was the nom de plume of Frederick Forrest Berry, a poet, writer, and pamphletist from St. Louis, MO. He apparently had a connection to Scott Joplin, having written lyrics to go with a tune Joplin composed.