They earned the right

“Boy, this verse is fact, not fiction, all the fellows I have named

Worked for years for wages and were never once ashamed.

Dirt and grease were their companions, better friends than linen white;

Better friends than ease and softness, golf or dancing every night.

Now in evening clothes you see them in the nation's banquet halls.

But they earned the right to be there, years ago, in overalls.”