Publication: Melbourne Herald
Date: 08 July 1937
Because of an acute world shortage of steel, old iron bedsteads, fenders and dust bins are to be collected for conversion into war munitions for many civilised nations.
Steel! Hearken to our fierce appeal, Rising on a tide insurgent, Ever pleading, ever urgent— Cries in desperation hurled Out into a frenzied world; Be it for our ill or weal, Give us steel! Iron ore or old scrap metal; Shovels, ships, a pot, a kettle, An outworn bridge, an old tin tray— So sapient man may rend and slay— A baby’s cot, a rusty wheel. Steel! Steel! Give us steel! Chorus (allegro): There’s a good time coming for the coming world of man. There’s a good time coming if they consummate the plan. There’s a hot time looming; but I’d rather not be there When the bedsteads will be booming, When the dust bins will be booming, And the fenders will be flying in the air. Pom!—Pom! Steel! Here in supplication kneel Lords of earth, the nation’s leaders, Tyrants turned to piteous pleaders. Rag and bone men seeking junk, Crazed by fear or else war-drunk, Urged by dreams they can’t conceal: Give us steel! Driven then to desperation, Soon they’ll fall to confiscation, Robbing, rending, in alarm: Wreck the factory! Raid the farm! Force shall back the fierce appeal. Steel! Steel! We must have steel! Chorus: There’s a great time coming for our dearly cherished sons. There’s a high time coming ’mid the drumming of the guns. There’s a reckoning we’re storing; but I’d rather not be there When the dust bins will be roaring, And the bedsteads will be soaring, And the fenders will be flying in the air. Pom!—Pom!