DT Corr: The Commonwealth of Toil

Subject: DT Corr: The Commonwealth of Toil
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 Jan 17 - 02:20 AM

I found this song in Hard Hitting Songs for Hard-Hit People, compiled by Alan Lomax, with notes on the songs by Woody Guthrie, music transcription by Pete Seeger (Oak Publications, 1967, page 97). The lyrics are identical in Lift Every Voice! The Second People'[s song Book (Oak Publications, 1953, page 26)
Just a couple words are different from the Digital Tradition. Maybe the DT is right and not this source.

COMMONWEALTH OF TOIL
(Ralph Chaplin)

In the gloom of mighty cities,
'Mid the roar of whirling wheels,
We are toiling on like chattel slaves of old,
And our masters hope to keep us
Ever thus beneath their heels,
And to coin our very lifeblood into gold.

CHORUS
But we have a glowing dream
Of how fair the world will seem,
When each man can live his life secure and free.
When the earth is owned by labor
And there's joy and peace for all
In the commonwealth of toil that is to be.

They would keep us cowed and beaten,
Cringing meekly at their feet.
They would stand between each worker and his bread.
Shall we yield our lives up to them
For the bitter crusts we eat?
Shall we only hope for heaven when we're dead?

They have laid our lives out for us
To the utter end of time.
Shall we stagger on beneath their heavy load?
Shall we let them live forever
In their gilded halls of crime
With our children doomed to toil beneath their goad?

When our cause is all triumphant
And we claim our mother earth,
And the nightmare of the present fades away,
We shall live with love and laughter
We, who now are little worth,
And we'll not regret the price we have to pay.

@work @IWW
tune: Darling Nellie Gray
filename[ TOILCOMW
TUNE FILE: NELLGRAY
CLICK TO PLAY
SOF

Subject: RE: DT Corr: The Commonwealth of Toil
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Sep 20 - 04:53 PM

Any other sources for this song?

Subject: RE: DT Corr: The Commonwealth of Toil
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Sep 20 - 06:50 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4WCKXwp4H0

https://war-poetry.livejournal.com/199994.html

The second link may be more useful than the first.