A Case Of On The Dole (1933) – Then As Now !

http://folkstream.com/855.html

A Case Of On The Dole (1933)

Come listen to my song, and I won't detain you long;

To explain the present poverty I'll try.

Even if you don't agree, you'll have better sight to see,

If I help to wipe the cobwebs from your eye.

Soon we're coming to the end, when we'll have no cash to spend,

Now the Banks have put the country up the pole.

But don't make a mistake, to their system you'll awake,

With the landlord and the tenants on the dole.

Chorus:-

Soon we'll all be on the dole,

Yes, we'll all be on the dole,

Now the Banks have put the country up the pole.

So we can lie in bed all day

Because we'll have no rent to pay

With the landlord and the tenants' on the dole.

Now it's one of Nature's laws to eradicate the cause,

And time alone will then effect a cure,

So we human beings must try, and that remedy apply

To the social ills the people now endure.

The real gist of this song is that our distribution's wrong,

Because, we allow the Banks to hold the sway;

Helped by Plutocratic law, which really is the cause

Of the poverty we're suffering today.

Soon we'll all be on the dole,

Yes, we'll all be on the dole,

If the usurious Banks we can't control,

We have to change the laws

Which we all know are the cause

Why the people, of to-day are on the dole.

With each country's goods o'erflowing

yet each nation now is owing

More interest than it's possible to pay;

Yet those Banking Thieves how cry we'll be wealthy by-and-by

If we only work an extra hour each day.

He'll deserve the nation's thanks who

Takes the power from the Banks:

Then the help of the machines can be enjoyed.

With the hours cut down to four the depression will be o'er

And ne'er again will we have unemployed.

Then we'll all get off the dole.

Yes, we'll all get off the dole,

With the people all united as a whole.

Preach and practice what is right

And put the Profiteers to flight

And ne'er again will we go on the dole.

--"Mulga Mick," Glenorchy.

Notes

Like many songs and poems of the Great Depression this example has uncanny resonance today, Profiteers, Userious Banks, Banking Thieves, Plutocratic Law, Governments which caved in to corporate greed in the expectation more funds will come their way at election time -- all leading to increased poverty and leading to demands for an urgent change in direction. The language here is pure IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) a radical organisation whose song and poetry had a remarkable influence in Australia.