Kansas Fool

We have the land to raise the wheat
And ev'rything that's good to eat.
And when we had no bonds or debts,
We were a jolly, happy set.

cho: Oh Kansas fool, poor Kansas fool!
The banker makes of you a tool.
I look across the fertile plain,
Big crops made so by gentle rain
But twelve-cent corn gives me alarm,
And makes me want to sell my farm.

With abundant crops raised everywhere
'Tis a mystery, I do declare.
Why farmers all should fume and fret
And why we are so deep in debt.

At first we made some money here
With drouth and grasshoppers each year
But now the interest that we pay
Soon takes our money all away.

The bankers followed us out west
And did in mortgages invest
And looked ahead and shrewdly planned
And soon they'll have our Kansas land.

from Songs of the American People, Silverman
RG
Oct00