When you buy clothes on easy terms Collectors treat you like measly worms One dollar down, then Lord knows If you can't make a payment, they'll take your clothes When you go to bed you can't sleep You owe so much at the end of the week No use to colic, they're all that way Pecking at your door till they get your pay I'm a-gonna starve, and everybody will 'Cause you can't make a living at a cotton mill When you go to work you work like the devil At the end of the week you're not on the level Payday comes, you pay your rent When you get through you've notgot a cent To buy fat-back meat, pinto beans Now and then you get turnip greens No use to colic, we're all that way Can't get the money to move away I'm a-gonna starve, and everybody will 'Cause you can't make a living at a cotton mill Twelve dollars a week is all we get How in the heck can we live on that? I've got a wife and fourteen kids We all have to sleep on two bedsteads Patches on my britches, holes in my hat Ain't had a shave, my wife got fat No use to colic, everyday at noon The kids get to crying in a different tune I'm a-gonna starve, and everybody will 'Cause you can't make a living at a cotton mill They run a few days and then they stand Just to keep down the working man We can't make it, we never will As long as we stay at a lousy mill The poor are getting poorer, the rich are getting richer If you don't starve, I'm a son of a gun No use to colic, no use to rave We'll never rest till we're in our grave I'm a-gonna starve, and everybody will 'Cause you can't make a living at a cotton mill