Sunday April 16, 1916
From the United Mine Workers Journal: Little Child of the Mines

The following poem by Ellis B. Harris appeared in the November 11, 1913, edition of the Miners' Bulletin, the official strike bulletin of the Western Federation of Miners during the Michigan Copper Strike:

Little Children of the Poor
by Ellis B. Harris

Little children of the poor,
My heart goes out to you.
Little lives that must endure
Where miseries accrue;
In the factories and mills
There robbed of play and hearth
Suffering a world of ills
For parasites of wealth.

Little children of the poor,
You, tender, precious flowers,
Blooms for gardens sweet and pure,
Yet robbed of playtime hours.
Is it strange that blood runs wild
And hands are clenched in wrath
When we contemplate a child
Upon the thorn strewn path?

Little children of the poor,
Brave hearts shall place the blame
For the lives that you endure,
And point the nations's shame.
Boasting here of Freedom's reign
And scorning royal commands,
Forging them a master's chain
To shackle baby hands.

Little children of the poor,
Pearls for trampling swine,
Cast and mired that they secure
The wealth from mill and mine.
There are those who hear the call
From far off Galilee,
Heeding, until Mammon fall
And you, His Jewels, are free.

Little children of the poor,
A future day shall break,
When no one can e'er secure
Your lives for profit sake;
When the people's rule shall fill
The world with melody,
And childhood's joys and laughter thrill
The world with ecstasy.

SOURCE
Miners' Bulletin
(Official newspaper of the
Western Federation of Miners
in the strike zone of Michigan's Copper Country)
-of Nov 11, 1913

IMAGES
From the United Mine Workers Journal
-UMWJ, Child at Mine, Apr 13, 1916
-UMWJ, Cover, Apr 13, 1916
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=NQpQAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcove...

See also:
Hellraisers Journal: "Little children of the poor, pearls for trampling swine..."
-by JayRaye
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/12/1255004/-Hellraisers-Journal-Li...

Set the Children Free-Larry McDonald & Toots Hibbert