The Commonwealth Of Toil

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 life blood into gold.

CHORUS:
But we have a glowing dream
Of how fair the world will seem
When each one can live their 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?

CHORUS

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?

CHORUS

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.

CHORUS:
But we have a glowing dream
Of how fair the world will seem
When each one can live their 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.