Source: May Days: An Anthology of Verse from Masses-Liberator, Edited by Genevieve Taggard, Boni and Liveright, 1925;
Transcribed: Sally Ryan for marxists.org in 2000.
The price of milk went up one cent,
A penny more a quart,
And a rich man made through the summer months
Five thousand more than he ort.
He made five thousand more a year,
And they called him a "wonderful financier."
The babes in the slums went up to God–
Five thousand! It startled the nation.
The Charities puzzled, they wondered why,
And began an investigation
Of what caused the babies to wither and faint–
And they called the cause "the summer complaint."
Then the rich man gave five hundred bucks,
Five hundred bucks he gave,
To relieve the scourge of summer complaint,
And the babies' lives to save.
With five hundred bucks he headed the list,
And they called him a "great philanthropist."