WATCH THE COURTS

As you value freedom, As you appreciate liberty, As you estimate the utility of your tongue. As you consider the comforts and welfare

of your kind, As you love home and family and friends

and country, I warn you, watch the courts!

The politician is the braggart and brawler

of the hustings, The common disturber of the peace, The bungling purioiner of your goods, And more times than not you know him liar and knave;

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You know his mask of loyalty to you and yours

Is the trick of his trade, and you know the

choice " ' 'Twixt the one and t'other is Hobsoil's, That he and t'other both are but shield To the coward and sneak behind, Who merit your alert watchfulness. But I warn you, watch the courts!

The coward and sneak behind are more

dangerous than their tools, Less manly than their 'emissaries, * More uncftious than their accomplices,

We were blinded with fear of the red flag

and promised relief in the law. . We were lulled and lured to have faith in the courts

As we would rest our safety with the god of gods,

And when our love and loyalty were won, When pride and patriotism and devotion

filled our hearts with ardor Even to the fertilizing in their defense the fields of carnage with our flesh and blood,

And mingled our mangled bodies with the mangled manhood of supposed enemies, We began to realize that the coward and

sneak held the rudder of state; W* began to suspect the wind didn't blow

right in the church; We felt more and more the unseen hand in

the law;— But we still had the courts!— Our friends, our prote<5lors, our shields

against invasion! They were the anchors to our liberties, our

property, our happiness, And tho the storms raged about us in

blackened danger We could rest assured of safety.

But what is this?

I ,ess boisterous than their pusillanimous pals;

They are the claws covered with fur,

The teeth of the trap to the bait, ^{: :}

The pitfalls covered with glamor and deceit,

The poisoned wells to the thirsty.

Sometimes we discover them before they barm us.

Tho they show their fangs and strike

We may stamp them out like poisonous snakes.

They are menace to our fields and factories;

They are disease come with pitiless ravage;

They are tempests and destruction come to our welfare.

Yet I warn you, watch the courts!

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We have been urged to build barriers against the invasion of these I name;

We have been compelled to seek shelter from their enmity;

We have been influenced, enticed, decoyed, pursuaded

To guard ourselves against this horde of foes to the commonweal,

And to find refuge in the church, behind the laws, with the courts.

We were approached on our blind side and frightened with hell fire.

Do we feel a giving Itway, a loosening of

the grip at the bottom? Are we at last in danger? Have the coward and sneak unloosed the

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fastenings?

Ah, there is a hurrying of feet!

The life-boats are putting off!

The pirate crew have monopolized the

boats and floats and are sailing away! Men and women and children are struggling in the waters of despair! Our anchors are failing us! Sauve qui petitt

Brothers and sisters and comrades. Lest the coward and sneak whoHy succeed in their nefarious designs,

I WARN YOU, WATCH THE COURTS ! ! •

JO LABADIE

1906