I came across this while reading a novel by Ivan Doig entitled Work Song. It is set in the Montana copper mining fields near the town of Butte-called the "richest hill on earth"-in the time period of 1919. The major theme is the importance of song as a way to rally the workers around a protest. There was a book called the Little Red Songbook that was made up of labor protest songs from 1909. One of the items was a IWW song aimed at the Salvation Army; an organization the radical workers group said were more interested in "saving souls" than in providing relief for striking workers. That song had lyrics we have all heard before.
"You will eat, bye and bye,
in that glorious land above the sky.
Work and pray, live on hay
you'll get pie in the sky when you die"
I an also reminded of a labor song sung in the movie Matewan that was about the West Virginia mine wars on the 1920's. That was the song "Gathering Storm".
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