Mrs. Clara Sullivan's Letter - Pete Seeger

Dear Mister Editor, if you choose

Please send me a copy of the labor news;

I’ve got a son in the infantry

And he’d be mighty glad to see

That someone, somewhere, now and then

Thinks about the lives of the mining men

In Perry County

In Perry County and thereabout

We miners simply had to go out

It was long hours, substandard pay

Then they took our contract away

Fourteen months is a mighty long time

To face the goons on the picket line

In Perry County

I’m twenty-six years a miner’s wife

There’s nothing harder than a miner’s life

But there’s no better man than a mining man

Couldn’t find better in all this land

The deal they get is a rotten deal

Mountain greens and gravy meal

In Perry County

We live in barns that the rain comes in

While operators live high as sin

Ride Cadillac cars and drink like a fool

While our kids lack clothes to go to school

Sheriff Combs he has it fine

He runs the law and owns a mine

In Perry County

What operator would go dig coal

For even fifty a day on the mine pay-roll!

Why, after work my man comes in

With his wet clothes frozen to his skin

Been digging coal so the world can run

And operators can have their fun

In Perry County

When folks sent money to the Hazard Press

To help the strikers in distress

They gave that money, yours and mine

To the scabs who crossed the picket line

And the state militia and F.B.I

Just look on while miners die

In Perry County

I believe the truth will out some day

That we’re fighting for jobs at decent pay

We’re just tired of doing without

And that’s what the strike is all about

And it helps to know that folks like you

Are telling the story straight and true

About Perry County