Be Moderate!
The Plough1974James ConnollyNo public scan is online for this item; the text below was read from a privately held copy.
Machine-read text, not corrected. Cut from the scan by machine, by the size of the headline type. Where columns were set close together, lines of a neighbouring article can run in, and a headline can be missed so that two articles share a page. For anything you quote, read the scan.
Scan page 5
criticising the trade union leaders and “‘fakirs”
Some men, fainthearted, ever seek Our programme to retouch And will insist, where’er they speak, That-we demand too much Tis passing strange, yet | declare Such statements cause me mirth, For our demands most moderate are:
We only want the earth!
“Be moderate!”’ the trimmers cry, Who dread the tyrants thunder “You ask too much, and people fly From you aghast in wonder’. Tis passing strange, yet | declare Such statement cause me mirth For our demands most moderate are, We only want the earth! :
Our masters all, a godly crew Whose hearts throb for the poor, Their sympathies assure us too, If our demand were fewer Most generous souls!\But please observe What they enjoy from birth Is all we ever had the nerve To ask, that is THE EARTH The “Labour Fakir’’, full of guiley Base doctrine ever preaches, And, whilst he bleeds the rank and file Tame moderation teaches Yet, in his despite, we'll see the day, When, with sword in its girth, © Labour shall march in broad array To seize its own, THE EARTH For Labour long, with sighs and tears To its oppressors knelt, But never yet to aught save fears, Did heart of tyrant melt.
We need not kneel, our cause is high, Of true men there’s no dearth. And our victorious rallying cry Shall be, “We Want The Earth”.
Although Connolly wrote many articles of his day he also turned to verse to express himself. The following few stanzas written by him in 1910 seem almost to have been composed with sqme of the “‘fainthearied’’ leaders of todays labour movement in mind! would threaten their positions. be raised much higher. ‘against them. ADVERT.