Though grafters may steal at the top of their bent, And pocket a million a day; Though sharpers may promise their thirty per cent And slip with the booty away; Though boodle and cheat and crafty deceit Are constantly dragged to the light, Though cynics may hiss, you may bank upon this: The heart of the people is right. The heart of the people is loyal to truth, Though their minds may be caught with a lie. The heart of the people is merry in youth While the ages go tottering by. The croakers may mourn and the sages may scorn, But the people are sunny and bright; The sceptics may doubt and the jesters may flout, But the heart of the people is right. You may pile up your powder by thousands of tons, Your threatenings never may cease, You may magnify armies and navies and guns, But the people are ever for peace. You may fool them awhile with the glitter and guile Of the camp and the drill and the fight, But as circles the sun all peoples are one, And the heart of the people is right. You may brandish the lure of insatiate greed, You may mask the ungenerous wrong, And perhaps for a moment the sin may succeed, But it will not succeed very long. Though riches may flaunt and luxury vaunt Its maddening whirl of delight, The people are bent on a simple content, And the heart of the people is right. There are leaders that lead to the timorous rear, And look to the days that are gone; But the people have never a cowardly fear, And the people move steadily on. While the scholars debate and the theorists prate, They are scaling a loftier height; And the future, they know, has a balm for all woe, And the heart of the people is right. So whenever the parties are muddled and weak, And bosses are brutal and base, And thinkers that write and prophets that speak Are all in a pitiful case, Look cheerily then to the masses of men And see with their sensible sight, Confidingly trust in the good common dust; For the heart of the people is right. |