The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest / The writings of philosophers, poets, novelists, social reformers, and others who have voiced the struggle against social injustice; selected from twenty-five languages; covering a period of five thousand years

by Unknown

Of hope and work and deeds and golden schemes,

Of mighty voices raised in song and story,

Of huge inventions and of splendid dreams;

Ten thousand years replete with every wonder,

Of empires risen and of empires dead;

Yet still, while wasters roll in swollen plunder,

These broken men must stand in line—for bread!

The Unemployed Problem

(From “Past and Present”)

By Thomas Carlyle