Home Burdens of Uncle Sam
Anna Manning Comfort
"Take up the white man's burden,"--
Yes, Uncle Sam, oh do!
But why seek other countries
Your burdens to renew?
Great questions here confront you.
Then, too, we have a past--
Don't pose as a reformer!
Why, nations look aghast!
"Take up the white man's burden,"--
But try to lift more true.
Recall the poor wild Indian
Whom ruthlessly you slew.
Ignoble was our treatment,
Ungenerous we dealt
With him and his hard burden,
'Tis known from belt to belt.
"Take up the white man's burden,"--
The negro, once our slave!
Boast lightly of his freedom,
This problem still is grave.
We scoff and shoot and lynch him,
And yet, because he's black,
We shove him out from office
And crowd him off the track.
"Take up the white man's burden,"--
Yes, one of them is sex.
Enslaved are your brave women,
No ballot, while you tax!
Your labors and your conflicts
Columbia's daughters share,
Yet still denied the franchise,
Quick give! be just! deal fair!
"Take up the white man's burden,"--
Start in with politics.
Clean out the rotten platform,
Made up of tricks and tricks,--
Our politics disgraceful,
In church and school and state.
We have no "ruling bosses,"
Oh, no! the country's great.
"Take up the white man's burden,"--
But, oh, if you are wise
You'll seek not "motes" far distant,
With "beams" in your own eyes.
Why fight the foreign despots,
Or Filipino isles?
Come, "scrap it" with "home tyrants!"
And politicians' wiles.
"Take up the white man's burden,"--
Right here in our own times.
Give justice, 'tis demanded
This side of distant climes.
Yes, take the white man's burden,
But take it here at home;
With self, oh, Samuel, wrestle,
And cease the seas to roam!
--Syracuse, N.Y., Anna Manning Comfort, The Public 2 (May 13, 1899) |