Written an unknown date in 1924 at age 29 or 30

You ask me why I came this way,

But my story can't be brief.

I lost my mother a year today,

And I'm laden down with grief.

It's not so much that I can't forget,

As the way I've been used since.

To put her away I went in debt,

Lost my job for fingerprints.

I went to jail for I hadn't a dime

To pay my honest debt.

And the judge just smiled as he fixed my time,

And said, "That's what you get".

Six months behind the City wall

I hammered rock with a will.

My time was up and I answered the call,

And was shoved out broken and ill.

I've tried in many a town for work,

And I get it, such as 'tis.

But a foreign hand wherever I lurk

Underbids me in the 'biz'.

II worked for a fellow in San Joaquin

Till a Jap agreed for less.

I walked away feeling sore and mean;

Where to go I could not guess.

I strayed like a driftwood into the South,

And I got a job for a time;

But alas, a Greek set me down in the mouth,

For he promised to work for a dime.

I lost a job because of a Turk,

Or a 'Frog', or a Hun or Wop;

And I got run in 'cause I wouldn't work;

When free, I can not stop.

I'll do my best wheree'er I can,

In North, South, East or West;

But it's hard for a true American

When Congress admits the pest.

Our International Melting Pot

Should be a thing of the past.

Let Industry rise with a brighter spot,

Then Americanism will last.

I've kept you here an hour or more,

And I guess you know why I'm here.

If you want to know where I'm headed for,

It's a land where no foreigners steer.

Note - Wow, I didn't know there were that many racial slurs in there. I guess it goes along with the time. It's interesting to note that this was written in the '20's, before the great depression even hit. Also, it's a little odd that he should have that view when his own father was an immigrant. Then again, his father wasn't all that good of an example. I must also comment on the fact that his last line is self-contradictory in that if he were to go to this new land, he himself would become the foreigner.