1922 Poem on US Trade
THE romance of unfamiliar place names has been felt and exprest by many poets. Here is a lyric that dedicates it to the supposedly unpoetical theme of export trade. The Public Ledger (Philadelphia) gave it currency first, but our curtailed version comes from The World’s Markets (New York):
MERCHANDISE
By MILTON HAYES
Merchandise! Merchandise! Tortoise-shell, spices,
Carpets and indigo—sent o’er the high seas;
Mother-o’-Pearl from the Solomon Isles—
Brought by a brigantine ten thousand miles.
Rubber from Zanzibar, tea from Nang-Po,
Copra from Hayti, and wine from Bordeaux;
Ships, with top-gallants and royals unfurled,
Are bringing in freights from the ends of the world.
Crazy old wind-jammers manned by Malays,
With rat-ridden bulkheads and creaking old stays,
Reeking of bilge and of paint and of pitch—
That’s how your fat city merchant grew rich;
But with tramps, heavy laden, and liners untold
You may lease a new life to a world that’s grown old.
Merchandise! Merchandise! Nations are made
By their men and their ships and their overseas trade.
So widen your harbors, your docks and your quays,
And hazard your wares on the wide ocean ways,
Run out your railways and hew out your coal,
For only by trade can a country keep whole.
Feed up your furnaces, fashion your steel,
Stick to your bargains and pay on the deal;
Rich is your birthright, and well you’ll be paid
If you keep in good faith with your overseas trade.
So send out your strong to the forests untrod,
Work for yourselves and your neighbors and God;
Keep these great nations the homes of the free,
With merchandise, men and good ships on the sea.
Merchandise! Merchandise! Good, honest merchandise!
Merchandise, men and good ships on the sea.
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- The First Aircraft Carriers 1922
- Renee Prahar, Sculptor – 1922 Article
- Problems with Church Reunion 1922
- Schools Promote Agnosticism 1922
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