Creeps the frightful phantom, Hunger, with its bloodless body gaunt.
Wider, wider spreads the chasm ‘twixt the wealthy and the poor,
Social discontent declaring that such wrongs cannot endure.
And this yawning of the chasm is the curse of every race,
As it saps and kills its manhood ere it reach the zenith-place;
Spartan valor, Grecian learning, Roman honor had their day,
But land plunder rose among them, dooming death by slow decay.
Shall we wait for evolution, let it right these monstrous wrongs,
While the helpless, young, and tender writhe and groan ‘neath social thongs?
Nay, ‘tis better all should perish in a battle for the right,