I don't quite see it! Maybe I am dense.

A "friendly" Strike, you call it; "amicable"!
Nice sounding words! Strikes mostly mean hot war.
But in to-day's wild Socialistic Babel
Blest if I always know just where we are.
But if I'm out of work, or out of fuel,
Me and a many thousand like me, mate,
Your "friendly" conflict seems a _leetle_ cruel
To us, with idle hands or empty grate.

I'd like to taste the sweets of "solidarity"
In this connection; so would my pale friend;
He's a poor Clerk. I fancy human charity,
_All round_, a lot of bitter strife would end;
And if _that_'s "solidarity," I'm for it;
But in your "play" _are_ you considering _us_?
No need for snivelling bunkum; I abhor it;
But does fraternity shape itself _thus_?

Must fight for your own hand? Oh, ah! precisely.
Only that's ISHMAEL, after all, right out.
Maybe that for yourself you're acting wisely,--
Though even that seems open to some doubt,--
But if your self-advancement means a smasher
To mill-hand, poor mechanic, labourer, clerk,
Without a fire to fry his slender "rasher,"
Fraternity's outlook still looks rather dark.

With Coal two bob a hundred, and still rising,