Image: A poster comes to life. The roar of blast furnaces and the whistles of mill yard trains beat a rhythmic accompaniment to the words of Sergeant Vineyard and Chief Evans who spoke to a group of steelworkers at one of Allegheny-Ludlum’s plants. At this informal gathering in the mill yard, the servicemen acknowledged their debt to the men at forge and furnace, men without whose work victory would be impossible.  United States. Office of War Information.  LC-USE6- D-005611

Lyrics:

With pride of purpose sir, despite my empty pockets
I’ll join my brothers and sisters to take a stand
‘Cause it’s been too long coming, it’s high time to join the fight
To set things right up and down this whole hard land
See we lost the plot–we got misdirected
Sold a bill of goods that came back to bite us hard
But we’re wise to it now—the con of liquidation
And we’ll wipe its stain from every farm and mill and factory yard
“Masters of the universe” they called our betters
Trading in their towers in a world where we don’t rate
Serving a cross of gold, in the cause of Mammon—
They’ll sell you down the river for a profit marked in carat weight
It’s time we melt it down, to pay fair wages
And put the dignity of workers back at center stage
Building real wealth, through honest labor
Undoing every depredation of this Gilded Age
Then we can turn the page, and forge a brighter future
One where the metal mattering most ain’t gold, it’s “steel gauge”