By Francis William Lauderdale Adams
Come then, let us at least know what’s the truth.
Let us not blink our eyes and say
We did not understand; old age or youth
Benumbed our sense or stole our sight away.
It is a lie – just that, a lie – to declare
That wages are the worth of work.
No; they are what the Employer wills to spare
To let the Employee sheer starvation shirk.
They’re the life-pittance Competition leaves,
The least for which brother’ll slay brother.
He who the fruits of this hell-strife receives,
He is a thief, an assassin, and none other!
It is a lie – just that, a lie – to declare
That Rent’s the interest on just gains.
Rent’s the thumb-screw that makes the worker share
With him who worked not the produce of his pains.
Rent’s the wise tax the human tape-worm knows.
The fat he takes; the life-lean leaves.
The holy Landlord is, as we suppose,
Just this – the model of assassin-thieves!
What is the trick the rich-man, then, contrives?
How play my lords their brilliant roles? –
They live on the plunder of our toiling lives,
The degradation of our bodies and souls!
Francis William Lauderdale Adams (27 September 1862 – 4 September 1893)[1] was an Australian essayist, poet, dramatist, novelist and journalist.
