Carl Sandburg and the Common People
...t, he chose the right wing Social-Democrats of Wisconsin. This movement pledged to the orderly inclusion of their reforms, through the ballot box. The Wisconsin socialists were highly organized and determined to achieve their programs with electoral support. Sandburg envisioned a society that reformed the government, eliminated corrupt power, prohibited child labor; women's right to vote, and urban renewal. He wanted free medical care for the unemployed, workman's compensation, higher wages and shorter hours for working people, better living and working conditions for everyone. Sandburg had traveled throughout the world and had been an eyewitness to many different social reforms: I am the audience that witnesses history. The Napoleons come from me and the Lincolns. They die. And then I send forth more Napoleons and Lincolns. I am the seed ground. I am a prairie that will stand for much plowing. Terrible storms pass over me. I forget. The best of me is sucked out and wasted. I forget. Everything but Death comes to me and makes me work and give up what I have. And I forget. Sometimes I growl, shake myself and spatter a few red drops for history to remember. Then--I forget. He knew that inventions, ideas and hard work come from the common people. All Napoleons and Lincolns came from common families. During the time that this poem was written Sandburg knew that the circumstances of the common people were as much a subject of fierce public debate and confrontation as they were at any moment in American history. Phillip Yanelli, author of The Other Carl Sandburg stated: Sandburg held out only one hope for the country and its ordinary people. If the United States collapsed, he believed th...