Industrial Workers of the World

Praise God from whom all blessings flow
This war is one of them you know
Don’t worry o’er your kids and wives
You must go there and chance your lives
I know you’d say I ought to go
And take a gun and fight the foe
But listen brethren while I sing
The good news that I’m going to bring
What would Kalgoorlie say if I
Went sending men to bye and bye
With what they call the bayonets point
And with their blood the ground anoint
My flock would surely go astray
If I dare should go away
With no one here to take my place
I’m best off here where it is safe
I was there for a little while
But oh the noise it was so vile
No place for Bishops Oh No No No
‘Tis dangerous too Oh Oh Oh
So you who have the strength to fight
Are cowards if you do not fight
But I am not like other men
I cannot fight so there - Amen

Poem displayed in the window of the local IWW office in Boulder, WA in 1915. It was accompanied by a caricature of a clergyman knelt in prayer. Tom Scott, Kicking Like Hell citing military intelligence file 17/1/10