"I know that all men ever born are also my brothers....
Limitless leaves too, stiff or drooping in the fields,
And brown ants in the little wells beneath them
And mossy scabs of the worm fence, heaped stones, elders, mulleins and poke weed."
A Child said, "What is grass?" fetching it to me with full hands.
How could I answer the Child?
"I want to trust the sky and the grass!
I want to believe the songs I hear from the fenceposts!
Why should a maple-bud mislead me?"
PART ONE
NEWS AND LABOUR
A big New England factory, not long ago, wanted to get nearer its raw material and moved to Georgia.
All the machine considerations, better water-power, cheaper labour, smaller freight bills, and new markets had argued for moving to Georgia.
Long rows of new mills were built and thousands of negroes were moved in and thousands of shanties were put up, and the men and the women stood between the wheels. And the wheels turned.