Socialist Cartoon and Poem, 1919

From The Messenger, August 4, 1919.

  The Negro Worker, by Anise in Seattle Union Record

He had offered his LIFE To his country; He had been over In FRANCE, And came back CRIPPLED; Slightly, and not enough To interfere with work And he went out hunting A JOB In the shipyards From some of these patriots Who made a lot of money From the war, But the employment managers And their foremen Were very UNWILLING To take on a Negro. They said to him: "We are afraid You will get a RIVET Or a MONKEY WRENCH Dropped on you By some of the men. For they are sort of

PREJUDICED Against colored folks." But after a while He got a job With one of the companies Which are doing work For the shipyards; And they paid him The $4.16 rate When all the rest Were getting $4.64 And he said to me: "I don't know whether Those foremen were LYING, Or wheter the workers Would really treat a fellow Who was wounded in France As badly as THAT, Just because he was colored! But I DO KNOW That I can't get into The UNION I belong to, And have to manage by joining A different union.

Yet the unions take in All sorts of FOREIGNERS, Who never INTEND to be American citizens. And never were asked by anyone While I, whose fathers Were FORCED to come here-- I, who am of NECESSITY And PERMANENTLY A part of this nation-- And BLACKMAILED. I wonder why They are so shortsighted, As not to realize That every time They keep ANY WORKER, Man or woman, White, or yellow, or black, OUT of a UNION, They are forcing a worker To be a SCAB, To be used AGAINST THEM?