Seven Cent Cotton and Forty Cent Meat - Peter Seeger

Seven cent cotton an' a forty cent meat

How in the world can a poor man eat?

Flour up high and cotton down low

How in the world can we raise the dough?

Clothes worn out, shoes run down

Ol' slouch hat with a hole in the crown

Back nearly broken and fingers all sore

Cotton gone down to rise no more

Seven cent cotton an' eight dollar pants

Who in the world has got a chance?

We can’t buy clothes, we can’t buy meat

Too much cotton and not enough to eat

Can’t help each other, what’ll we do?

I can’t explain it so it’s up to you

Seven cent cotton and two dollar hose

Guess we’ll have to do without any clothes

Seven cotton an' a forty meat

How in the world can a poor man eat?

Mules in the barn no crop laid by

Corn crib’s empty and the cow’s gone dry

Well water low, nearly outta sight

Can’t take a bath on a Saturday night

No use talkin', any man is beat

With seven cent cotton an' a forty cent meat

Seven cent cotton an' a forty cent meat

How in the world can a poor man eat?

Poor are gettin' poorer all around here

Kids comin' regular every year

Fatten our harvest, take into town

All we get is six cents a pound

Very next day we have to buy it back

Forty cents a pound in a paper sack