Though my product may not show it

I essay too be a poet

And I’m seeking light and information.

Now, who balances the Budget?

This is no time to “fudge.” It

Is of great importance to the nation.

 

If our high-up legislatives

Caught the thought of simple natives

They might relieve that budget first themselves –

Cut their salaries in half –

Give their perquisites the gaff –

Not jump on fellows lower down, poor elves.

 

But the millions poor and jobless

Find them callous and quite sobless.

No unemployment gets beneath their skin –

Constantly they’re adding to it.

Prohibitions will not do it.

Restrictions cannot help to make men win.

 

There is such a thing as logic

And you can’t forever dodge it –

No matter what your congressman may say.

It seems queer to think of curing

Hardships such as we’re enduring

By cutting down production every day.

 

Now, the farmer, so says rumor,

Needs a helping.  The Consumer

His Congress says shall pay the cost, by heck, –

If Consumer hoards his penny

Or, indeed, he hasn’t any

I’d like to know who gets it in the neck.

 

Or if Congress, just to please him,

Finds a way that guarantees him

‘Gainst loss, whatever happens to U.S.

In our system economic

Won’t this move be worse than comic

With the budget getting more instead of less?

 

Well, our yesteryear’s good dinner

Is today a darn sight thinner –

So, poor folks, draw your belts in for relief –

Small as now your loaf of bread is,

So great the cost of overhead is,

Your loaf will sure be shrinking, to your grief.

 

But the cost of bread must go up –

And your appetite slow up –

That budget must be balanced, don’t you see?

If for beer your hunger hankers

Give up half and save the bankers

That budget’s fed by folks like you and me.

 

Take the widow and her pension –

Thirty dollars – small to mention –

Assured her in her country’s happier day.

Shall she too not help the budget?

Cut to fifteen – should she grudge it?

Shall want and destitution bar the way?

 

Or the shell-shocked veteran seedy

In his wits a trifle needy –

Shear him down, both care and compensation;

U.S. payrolls promised smaller

Yet the nation’s debts grow taller

‘Guised in what is called self-liquidation

 

I am seeking, dumbly seeking,

Some great mind with knowledge reeking

Who can give me light and solve the matter.

Will those talked of bonds, some billions,

Spread out thinly, feed our millions

Or be lent abroad and leave us flatter?

 

I would like to know the reason

Why we people, who in season,

Had kept a little gold and put it by

Must yield up our precious metal

To the Federal Reserve kettle.

Can Morgan, Dawes or Meyer tell us why?

 

There’s our sapient Mr. Woodin –

How can he come out so good in

Shipping gold despite Frank D.’s embargo?

Did our Franklin ipse dixit

Or the House of Morgan fix it –

Privilege of that Woodin ship and cargo.

 

Should that highty money pirate,

J.P. Morgan, now desire it

How can his mild inflation stay away?

Was it with a leer sardonic

Or a baffled sneer ironic

He gave degraded dollars his okay?

 

Ah, that precious plan, inflation,

Dollars cheapened with elation,

Prices raised to more than we can pay!

When the gold today we borrow

Can be paid in lead tomorrow

Small wonder it is hidden all away.

 

Now, while in this muddle groping,

I and several more are hoping

Some “Daniel come to judgment” may appear.

Not, however, Daniel Roper –

He of Commerce lore the doper

Where “raddio” broadcastings are far from clear.

 

Will our franklin be the wiser

With this Daniel for adviser

Who gives the Founding Fathers no renown?

Was T. Jefferson a dummy?

Is our Constitution rummy?

Can Democratic stomachs keep that down?

 

Now I’ve got another notion

Since this thing was set in motion. –

This gold about which F.D. seems so hurt –

There’s the cotton I am wearing,

If I’ve gold, then am I daring

When I say he might also take my shirt?

 

Of that silver, too, I’m thinking –

That too us dear England linking –

And Congress knew F.D. would cut it low –

“Twixt the promised price and market

Didn’t Deah Auld England “lark” it?

Ten token millions cut to seven, you know.

 

Wouldn’t that same bit of money

Make our veteran’s lives more sunny?

Why must our new dictator cut them cold?

Are we, after all, but chess men

Moved as suits him and his yes-men –

The pedagogic crowd to whom we’re sold?

 

Bank deposits guaranteeing –

It’s a thing beyond my seeing

How five hundred can protest for twice as much.

If of gold the laws despoil me

How can reason but recoil me

From Glass and Steagall’s plans, or any such.

 

And that time when Glass grew tragic

And would stop Pecora’s magic

Rushing to Morgan’s aid and succor –

Had some other palms been greased up?

Why was he in such a precious pucker?

 

And that migratory Davis,

(Surely he’s one rara avis)

Mixt up with Woodin in kind Morgan’s band –

Like Raskob, perhaps one day

He’ll reciprocate in some way

But some way that’s quite proper, understand.

 

There’s our Labor Seecretary

(Messrs. Green and Woll be wary

Lest your unions bow to Federal minions!)

Is our Perkins Soviet minded

And, perhaps, a little blinded

By her crass collectivist opinions?

 

Then if all her previous planning

Will admit some further scanning

Autocratic bureaus are expensive.

Will ten thousand in their fervor

For her Soviet theories serve her

Payless – or for salaries extensive?

 

Kindly look, my friends and neighbors,

Back of socialistic labors

Where Moscow-pattern plannings take their shape

Taxed and chiseled of your money,

Doped with propaganda honey,

How shall you from that slavery escape?

 

Messrs. Freeman, do you like it?

No? Then now’s the time to spike it!

Leave no chance for socialist dictator.

Watch your congressmen- they need it!

Guard your country’s purse – they bleed it!

Guard your freedom now – you cannot later!

 

Free men form the STATE. Who gave them

To a “STATE” that would enslave them?

In whose gift are “OUR HUMAN RESOURCES”

Are you men or are you cattle?

Dare he say that without battle?

Your freedom is ALMIGHTY HEAVEN’S DOWER.

 

Free men formed our State. What gave them

To a “STATE” that should enslave them?

When passed all power from makers to created?

When close they to take on fetters? –

They who owned the State, NOT DEBTORS?

THAT OWNERSHIP HAS  NEVER BEEN ABATED.