And you say the Illinois and Michigan Canal Had never been built or saved for the people Except for Archer Price! Why don’t you tell that he fought the Canal in 1830, Saying it would burden the people? And why don’t you say that even then He was acting for his own interests and the man in the room? Why don’t you show that his art of compromise Created the Public Canal Committee When he failed to block the Canal, And failed of appointment as Canal Commissioner? Why don’t you show that through that committee The squatters stole the wharves on the river? Why don’t you show how his friends grew rich Through buying the lands at public sales Which were given to build the Canal, And which the Committee was pretending to conserve? Why don’t you show that through that Committee, Pretending to be a friend of the people, He opened a fight at length on the squatters And won the fight, and won the wharves For himself and a clique of friends? Why don’t you tell--? Cry me down if you will-- I object--I object-- VI THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATES Have you ever seen the Douglas monument There in Chicago? They say it’s by the Lake, With a column of marble a hundred feet high, And a statue of The Little Giant on top, With knit brows and lion face, Like he used to look when debatin’ with Linkern. I want to go up to Chicago sometime, To see that monument. And some one told me They carved on his marble coffin the words: “Tell my children to obey the laws, And uphold the constitution.” Well, they couldn’t have put sadder words On his coffin than that. For it was tryin’ to obey the laws and support the constitution That killed him. And why should his children do the same thing and die?