Lyrics:

spoken:
Malvina Reynolds puts together many of her songs out of things she reads in the newspapers -- and this was directly made up from a letter written to a newspaper by a woman named Mrs. Clara Sullivan, down in the Eastern part of Kentucky where they been having the troubles in the coal mining area
So. Malvina called her song 'Mrs. Clara Sullivan's Letter.'

Dear Mister Editor if you choose
Please send me a copy of the labor news
I've got a son in the Infantry
And he's be mighty glad to see
That someone, somewhere, now and then
Thinks about the lives of the mining men
In Perry County

In Perry County and thereabout
We miners simply had to go out
It was long hours, substandard pay
Then they took our contract away
Fourteen months is a mighty long time
To face the goons from the picket line
In Perry County

I'm twenty-six years a miner's wife
There's nothing harder than a miner's life
But there's no better man than a mining man
Couldn't find better in all this land
The deal they get is a rotten deal
Mountain greens and gravy meal
In Perry County

We live in barns that the rain comes in
While operators live high as sin
Ride Cadillac cars and drink like a fool
While our kids lack clothes to go to school
Sheriff Combs he has it fine
He runs the law and owns a mine
In Perry County

What operator would go dig coal
For even fifty a day on the mine pay-roll
Why, after work my man comes in
With his wet clothes frozen to his skin
Been digging coal so the world can run
And operators can have their fun
In Perry County

When folks sent money to the Hazard Press
To help the strikers in distress
They gave that money, yours and mine
To the scabs who crossed the picket line
And the state militia and the F.B.I
Just look on while miners die
In Perry County

I believe the truth will out some day
That we're fighting for jobs at decent pay
We're just tired of doing without
And that's what the strike is all about
And it helps to know that folks like you
Are telling the story straight and true
About Perry County