[_This poem was read at a banquet of the Cotton Garment Manufacturers
of New York during the last week of March. The author, a
representative manufacturer, dedicated these verses, reflecting a new
attitude toward employes, to his business associates._—Ed.]
Do we purchase Toil at the lowest rate
As we buy our cloth and thread?
Do our workers labor long and late
For the price of their daily bread
In gloomy lofts where shadows frown,
In foul, unwholesome air,
Till Want and Weariness drag them down
Where—we neither know nor care?
If such things be, they must pass away
Ere we hail the Dawn of a Better Day.
Have they wrought us harm in the darker days,
Have they kept the whole truth hid?
Have they told false tales of our works and ways
And of wrongs that we never did?
Be not too wroth at the hiss of shame,
But pass old slanders by.
And cleanse your shirts of the taint of blame
Where e’er the blame may lie.
Old feuds, old sores be forgot for aye
In the hopeful Dawn of a Better Day.
Let us wipe the slate of the bitter score,
Let us turn the blotted page,
And grant that we owe our workers more
Than the dole of a “living wage.”
They give us more than their time and skill
In the health and strength they spend;
And earn the right to the kindly will
And helpful hand of a friend.
We must give them more than the coin we pay
Ere we hail the Dawn of a Better Day.
So, here’s a task that we may not shirk,
For the toiling thousands plead;
We must give them comfort while they work
And help in every need;
We must lend them strength if their souls are weak
And teach them how to live;
Nor let us, all to meanly seek
Return for all we give,
As we lift our eyes for the gladdening ray
Of the golden Dawn of a Better Day.
If this light that leads us shall not dim
They will see, ere the course is run,
That the worker’s weal and the weal of him
Who owns the shops are one.
Then each shall have his rightful gain
Ungrudged—and great and small
Shall give their best of hand and brain
For the good of each and all,—
And we’ll stand together, come what may
In the brighter Dawn of a Better Day!