Advance Democracy (1938)

Across the darkened city
The frosty searchlights creep
Alert for the first marauder
To steal upon our sleep.
We see the sudden headlines
Float on the muttering tide,
We hear them warn and threaten
And wonder what they hide.
There are whispers across tables,
Talks in a shutter'd room.
The price on which they bargain
Will be a people's doom.
There's a roar of war in the factories,
And idle hands on the street,
And Europe held in nightmare
By the thud of marching feet.
Now sinks the sun of surety,
The shadows growing tall
Of the big bosses plotting
Their biggest coup of all.
Is there no strength to save us?
No power we can trust...

Randall Swingler