Full Choir
Shapes bracing the earth and braced with the whole earth!
Four Voices
In the labor of engines and trades and the labor of fields I find the developments
And find the eternal meanings....
The Railroad Builders
O Freedom, in your name,
We have built a railroad across a continent
And linked the east and the west with strips of steel;
We have worked, Freedom, for the empire which is yours,
For that which is not yours is nothing.
[Freedom lifts her head and listens.]
The Steel Workers
Steel! Steel! Steel!
Flame and smoke and blood!
We have pounded with our fists, Freedom,
And forged with our hearts,
And our bodies have fed the furnaces,
That your empire, Freedom, might endure in steel
Over the land and upon the seas.
[Freedom listens still but gives no sign.]