01 November 2010 By Smedley Darlington Butler WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most
profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only
one international in scope. It is the only one in
which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the
losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something
that is not what it seems to the majority of the
people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is
about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very
few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few
people make huge fortunes. In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the
profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new
millionaires and billionaires were made in the United
States during the World War. That many admitted their
huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many
other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no
one knows. How many of these war millionaires shouldered a
rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them
knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested
dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened
nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun
bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of
an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in
battle? Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if
they are victorious. They just take it. This newly
acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few –
the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the
war. The general public shoulders the bill. And what is this bill? This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly
placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds.
Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability.
Depression and all its attendant miseries.
Back-breaking taxation for generations and
generations. For a great many years, as a soldier, I had a
suspicion that war was a racket; not until I retired
to civil life did I fully realize it. Now that I see
the international war clouds gathering, as they are
today, I must face it and speak out. Again they are choosing sides. France and Russia
met and agreed to stand side by side. Italy and
Austria hurried to make a similar agreement. Poland
and Germany cast sheep's eyes at each other,
forgetting for the nonce [one unique occasion], their
dispute over the Polish Corridor. The assassination of King Alexander of Jugoslavia
[Yugoslavia] complicated matters. Jugoslavia and
Hungary, long bitter enemies, were almost at each
other's throats. Italy was ready to jump in. But
France was waiting. So was Czechoslovakia. All of them
are looking ahead to war. Not the people – not those
who fight and pay and die – only those who foment wars
and remain safely at home to profit. There are 40,000,000 men under arms in the world
today, and our statesmen and diplomats have the
temerity to say that war is not in the making. Hell's bells! Are these 40,000,000 men being
trained to be dancers? Not in Italy, to be sure. Premier Mussolini knows
what they are being trained for. He, at least, is
frank enough to speak out. Only the other day, Il Duce
in "International Conciliation," the publication of
the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said: "And above all, Fascism, the more it considers
and observes the future and the development of
humanity quite apart from political considerations of
the moment, believes neither in the possibility nor
the utility of perpetual peace... War alone brings up
to its highest tension all human energy and puts the
stamp of nobility upon the people who have the courage
to meet it." Undoubtedly Mussolini means exactly what he says.
His well-trained army, his great fleet of planes, and
even his navy are ready for war – anxious for it,
apparently. His recent stand at the side of Hungary in
the latter's dispute with Jugoslavia showed that. And
the hurried mobilization of his troops on the Austrian
border after the assassination of Dollfuss showed it
too. There are others in Europe too whose sabre
rattling presages war, sooner or later. Herr Hitler, with his rearming Germany and his
constant demands for more and more arms, is an equal
if not greater menace to peace. France only recently
increased the term of military service for its youth
from a year to eighteen months. Yes, all over, nations are camping in their arms.
The mad dogs of Europe are on the loose. In the Orient
the maneuvering is more adroit. Back in 1904, when
Russia and Japan fought, we kicked out our old friends
the Russians and backed Japan. Then our very generous
international bankers were financing Japan. Now the
trend is to poison us against the Japanese. What does
the "open door" policy to China mean to us? Our trade
with China is about $90,000,000 a year. Or the
Philippine Islands? We have spent about $600,000,000
in the Philippines in thirty-five years and we (our
bankers and industrialists and speculators) have
private investments there of less than $200,000,000. Then, to save that China trade of about
$90,000,000, or to protect these private investments
of less than $200,000,000 in the Philippines, we would
be all stirred up to hate Japan and go to war – a war
that might well cost us tens of billions of dollars,
hundreds of thousands of lives of Americans, and many
more hundreds of thousands of physically maimed and
mentally unbalanced men. Of course, for this loss, there would be a
compensating profit – fortunes would be made. Millions
and billions of dollars would be piled up. By a few.
Munitions makers. Bankers. Ship builders.
Manufacturers. Meat packers. Speculators. They would
fare well. Yes, they are getting ready for another war. Why
shouldn't they? It pays high dividends. But what does it profit the men who are killed?
What does it profit their mothers and sisters, their
wives and their sweethearts? What does it profit their
children? What does it profit anyone except the very few to
whom war means huge profits? Yes, and what does it profit the nation? Take our own case. Until 1898 we didn't own a bit
of territory outside the mainland of North America. At
that time our national debt was a little more than
$1,000,000,000. Then we became "internationally
minded." We forgot, or shunted aside, the advice of
the Father of our country. We forgot George
Washington's warning about "entangling alliances." We
went to war. We acquired outside territory. At the end
of the World War period, as a direct result of our
fiddling in international affairs, our national debt
had jumped to over $25,000,000,000. Our total
favorable trade balance during the twenty-five-year
period was about $24,000,000,000. Therefore, on a
purely bookkeeping basis, we ran a little behind year
for year, and that foreign trade might well have been
ours without the wars. It would have been far cheaper (not to say safer)
for the average American who pays the bills to stay
out of foreign entanglements. For a very few this
racket, like bootlegging and other underworld rackets,
brings fancy profits, but the cost of operations is
always transferred to the people – who do not profit. WHO MAKES THE PROFITS? CHAPTER TWO The World War, rather our brief participation in
it, has cost the United States some $52,000,000,000.
Figure it out. That means $400 to every American man,
woman, and child. And we haven't paid the debt yet. We
are paying it, our children will pay it, and our
children's children probably still will be paying the
cost of that war. The normal profits of a business concern in the
United States are six, eight, ten, and sometimes
twelve percent. But war-time profits – ah! that is
another matter – twenty, sixty, one hundred, three
hundred, and even eighteen hundred per cent – the sky
is the limit. All that traffic will bear. Uncle Sam
has the money. Let's get it. Of course, it isn't put that crudely in war time.
It is dressed into speeches about patriotism, love of
country, and "we must all put our shoulders to the
wheel," but the profits jump and leap and skyrocket –
and are safely pocketed. Let's just take a few
examples: Take our friends the du Ponts, the powder people –
didn't one of them testify before a Senate committee
recently that their powder won the war? Or saved the
world for democracy? Or something? How did they do in
the war? They were a patriotic corporation. Well, the
average earnings of the du Ponts for the period 1910
to 1914 were $6,000,000 a year. It wasn't much, but
the du Ponts managed to get along on it. Now let's
look at their average yearly profit during the war
years, 1914 to 1918. Fifty-eight million dollars a
year profit we find! Nearly ten times that of normal
times, and the profits of normal times were pretty
good. An increase in profits of more than 950 per
cent. Take one of our little steel companies that
patriotically shunted aside the making of rails and
girders and bridges to manufacture war materials.
Well, their 1910-1914 yearly earnings averaged
$6,000,000. Then came the war. And, like loyal
citizens, Bethlehem Steel promptly turned to munitions
making. Did their profits jump – or did they let Uncle
Sam in for a bargain? Well, their 1914-1918 average
was $49,000,000 a year! Or, let's take United States Steel. The normal
earnings during the five-year period prior to the war
were $105,000,000 a year. Not bad. Then along came the
war and up went the profits. The average yearly profit
for the period 1914-1918 was $240,000,000. Not bad. There you have some of the steel and powder
earnings. Let's look at something else. A little
copper, perhaps. That always does well in war times. Anaconda, for instance. Average yearly earnings
during the pre-war years 1910-1914 of $10,000,000.
During the war years 1914-1918 profits leaped to
$34,000,000 per year. Or Utah Copper. Average of $5,000,000 per year
during the 1910-1914 period. Jumped to an average of
$21,000,000 yearly profits for the war period. Let's group these five, with three smaller
companies. The total yearly average profits of the
pre-war period 1910-1914 were $137,480,000. Then along
came the war. The average yearly profits for this
group skyrocketed to $408,300,000. A little increase in profits of approximately 200
per cent. Does war pay? It paid them. But they aren't the
only ones. There are still others. Let's take leather. For the three-year period before the war the total
profits of Central Leather Company were $3,500,000.
That was approximately $1,167,000 a year. Well, in
1916 Central Leather returned a profit of $15,000,000,
a small increase of 1,100 per cent. That's all. The
General Chemical Company averaged a profit for the
three years before the war of a little over $800,000 a
year. Came the war, and the profits jumped to
$12,000,000. a leap of 1,400 per cent. International Nickel Company – and you can't have a
war without nickel – showed an increase in profits
from a mere average of $4,000,000 a year to
$73,000,000 yearly. Not bad? An increase of more than
1,700 per cent. American Sugar Refining Company averaged $2,000,000
a year for the three years before the war. In 1916 a
profit of $6,000,000 was recorded. Listen to Senate Document No. 259. The Sixty-Fifth
Congress, reporting on corporate earnings and
government revenues. Considering the profits of 122
meat packers, 153 cotton manufacturers, 299 garment
makers, 49 steel plants, and 340 coal producers during
the war. Profits under 25 per cent were exceptional.
For instance the coal companies made between 100 per
cent and 7,856 per cent on their capital stock during
the war. The Chicago packers doubled and tripled their
earnings. And let us not forget the bankers who financed the
great war. If anyone had the cream of the profits it
was the bankers. Being partnerships rather than
incorporated organizations, they do not have to report
to stockholders. And their profits were as secret as
they were immense. How the bankers made their millions
and their billions I do not know, because those little
secrets never become public – even before a Senate
investigatory body. But here's how some of the other patriotic
industrialists and speculators chiseled their way into
war profits. Take the shoe people. They like war. It brings
business with abnormal profits. They made huge profits
on sales abroad to our allies. Perhaps, like the
munitions manufacturers and armament makers, they also
sold to the enemy. For a dollar is a dollar whether it
comes from Germany or from France. But they did well
by Uncle Sam too. For instance, they sold Uncle Sam
35,000,000 pairs of hobnailed service shoes. There
were 4,000,000 soldiers. Eight pairs, and more, to a
soldier. My regiment during the war had only one pair
to a soldier. Some of these shoes probably are still
in existence. They were good shoes. But when the war
was over Uncle Sam has a matter of 25,000,000 pairs
left over. Bought – and paid for. Profits recorded and
pocketed. There was still lots of leather left. So the
leather people sold your Uncle Sam hundreds of
thousands of McClellan saddles for the cavalry. But
there wasn't any American cavalry overseas! Somebody
had to get rid of this leather, however. Somebody had
to make a profit in it – so we had a lot of McClellan
saddles. And we probably have those yet. Also somebody had a lot of mosquito netting. They
sold your Uncle Sam 20,000,000 mosquito nets for the
use of the soldiers overseas. I suppose the boys were
expected to put it over them as they tried to sleep in
muddy trenches – one hand scratching cooties on their
backs and the other making passes at scurrying rats.
Well, not one of these mosquito nets ever got to
France! Anyhow, these thoughtful manufacturers wanted to
make sure that no soldier would be without his
mosquito net, so 40,000,000 additional yards of
mosquito netting were sold to Uncle Sam. There were pretty good profits in mosquito netting
in those days, even if there were no mosquitoes in
France. I suppose, if the war had lasted just a little
longer, the enterprising mosquito netting
manufacturers would have sold your Uncle Sam a couple
of consignments of mosquitoes to plant in France so
that more mosquito netting would be in order. Airplane and engine manufacturers felt they, too,
should get their just profits out of this war. Why
not? Everybody else was getting theirs. So
$1,000,000,000 – count them if you live long enough –
was spent by Uncle Sam in building airplane engines
that never left the ground! Not one plane, or motor,
out of the billion dollars worth ordered, ever got
into a battle in France. Just the same the
manufacturers made their little profit of 30, 100, or
perhaps 300 per cent. Undershirts for soldiers cost 14¢ [cents] to make
and uncle Sam paid 30¢ to 40¢ each for them – a nice
little profit for the undershirt manufacturer. And the
stocking manufacturer and the uniform manufacturers
and the cap manufacturers and the steel helmet
manufacturers – all got theirs. Why, when the war was over some 4,000,000 sets of
equipment – knapsacks and the things that go to fill
them – crammed warehouses on this side. Now they are
being scrapped because the regulations have changed
the contents. But the manufacturers collected their
wartime profits on them – and they will do it all over
again the next time. There were lots of brilliant ideas for profit
making during the war. One very versatile patriot sold Uncle Sam twelve
dozen 48-inch wrenches. Oh, they were very nice
wrenches. The only trouble was that there was only one
nut ever made that was large enough for these
wrenches. That is the one that holds the turbines at
Niagara Falls. Well, after Uncle Sam had bought them
and the manufacturer had pocketed the profit, the
wrenches were put on freight cars and shunted all
around the United States in an effort to find a use
for them. When the Armistice was signed it was indeed
a sad blow to the wrench manufacturer. He was just
about to make some nuts to fit the wrenches. Then he
planned to sell these, too, to your Uncle Sam. Still another had the brilliant idea that colonels
shouldn't ride in automobiles, nor should they even
ride on horseback. One has probably seen a picture of
Andy Jackson riding in a buckboard. Well, some 6,000
buckboards were sold to Uncle Sam for the use of
colonels! Not one of them was used. But the buckboard
manufacturer got his war profit. The shipbuilders felt they should come in on some
of it, too. They built a lot of ships that made a lot
of profit. More than $3,000,000,000 worth. Some of the
ships were all right. But $635,000,000 worth of them
were made of wood and wouldn't float! The seams opened
up – and they sank. We paid for them, though. And
somebody pocketed the profits. It has been estimated by statisticians and
economists and researchers that the war cost your
Uncle Sam $52,000,000,000. Of this sum,
$39,000,000,000 was expended in the actual war itself.
This expenditure yielded $16,000,000,000 in profits.
That is how the 21,000 billionaires and millionaires
got that way. This $16,000,000,000 profits is not to
be sneezed at. It is quite a tidy sum. And it went to
a very few. The Senate (Nye) committee probe of the munitions
industry and its wartime profits, despite its
sensational disclosures, hardly has scratched the
surface. Even so, it has had some effect. The State
Department has been studying "for some time" methods
of keeping out of war. The War Department suddenly
decides it has a wonderful plan to spring. The
Administration names a committee – with the War and
Navy Departments ably represented under the
chairmanship of a Wall Street speculator – to limit
profits in war time. To what extent isn't suggested.
Hmmm. Possibly the profits of 300 and 600 and 1,600
per cent of those who turned blood into gold in the
World War would be limited to some smaller figure. Apparently, however, the plan does not call for any
limitation of losses – that is, the losses of those
who fight the war. As far as I have been able to
ascertain there is nothing in the scheme to limit a
soldier to the loss of but one eye, or one arm, or to
limit his wounds to one or two or three. Or to limit
the loss of life. There is nothing in this scheme, apparently, that
says not more than 12 per cent of a regiment shall be
wounded in battle, or that not more than 7 per cent in
a division shall be killed. Of course, the committee cannot be bothered with
such trifling matters. WHO PAYS THE BILLS? CHAPTER THREE Who provides the profits – these nice little
profits of 20, 100, 300, 1,500 and 1,800 per cent? We
all pay them – in taxation. We paid the bankers their
profits when we bought Liberty Bonds at $100.00 and
sold them back at $84 or $86 to the bankers. These
bankers collected $100 plus. It was a simple
manipulation. The bankers control the security marts.
It was easy for them to depress the price of these
bonds. Then all of us – the people – got frightened
and sold the bonds at $84 or $86. The bankers bought
them. Then these same bankers stimulated a boom and
government bonds went to par – and above. Then the
bankers collected their profits. But the soldier pays the biggest part of the bill. If you don't believe this, visit the American
cemeteries on the battlefields abroad. Or visit any of
the veteran's hospitals in the United States. On a
tour of the country, in the midst of which I am at the
time of this writing, I have visited eighteen
government hospitals for veterans. In them are a total
of about 50,000 destroyed men – men who were the pick
of the nation eighteen years ago. The very able chief
surgeon at the government hospital; at Milwaukee,
where there are 3,800 of the living dead, told me that
mortality among veterans is three times as great as
among those who stayed at home. Boys with a normal viewpoint were taken out of the
fields and offices and factories and classrooms and
put into the ranks. There they were remolded; they
were made over; they were made to "about face"; to
regard murder as the order of the day. They were put
shoulder to shoulder and, through mass psychology,
they were entirely changed. We used them for a couple
of years and trained them to think nothing at all of
killing or of being killed. Then, suddenly, we discharged them and told them to
make another "about face" ! This time they had to do
their own readjustment, sans [without] mass
psychology, sans officers' aid and advice and sans
nation-wide propaganda. We didn't need them any more.
So we scattered them about without any "three-minute"
or "Liberty Loan" speeches or parades. Many, too many,
of these fine young boys are eventually destroyed,
mentally, because they could not make that final
"about face" alone. In the government hospital in Marion, Indiana,
1,800 of these boys are in pens! Five hundred of them
in a barracks with steel bars and wires all around
outside the buildings and on the porches. These
already have been mentally destroyed. These boys don't
even look like human beings. Oh, the looks on their
faces! Physically, they are in good shape; mentally,
they are gone. There are thousands and thousands of these cases,
and more and more are coming in all the time. The
tremendous excitement of the war, the sudden cutting
off of that excitement – the young boys couldn't stand
it. That's a part of the bill. So much for the dead –
they have paid their part of the war profits. So much
for the mentally and physically wounded – they are
paying now their share of the war profits. But the
others paid, too – they paid with heartbreaks when
they tore themselves away from their firesides and
their families to don the uniform of Uncle Sam – on
which a profit had been made. They paid another part
in the training camps where they were regimented and
drilled while others took their jobs and their places
in the lives of their communities. The paid for it in
the trenches where they shot and were shot; where they
were hungry for days at a time; where they slept in
the mud and the cold and in the rain – with the moans
and shrieks of the dying for a horrible lullaby. But don't forget – the soldier paid part of the
dollars and cents bill too. Up to and including the Spanish-American War, we
had a prize system, and soldiers and sailors fought
for money. During the Civil War they were paid
bonuses, in many instances, before they went into
service. The government, or states, paid as high as
$1,200 for an enlistment. In the Spanish-American War
they gave prize money. When we captured any vessels,
the soldiers all got their share – at least, they were
supposed to. Then it was found that we could reduce
the cost of wars by taking all the prize money and
keeping it, but conscripting [drafting] the soldier
anyway. Then soldiers couldn't bargain for their
labor, Everyone else could bargain, but the soldier
couldn't. Napoleon once said, "All men are enamored of decorations...they
positively hunger for them." So by developing the Napoleonic system – the medal
business – the government learned it could get
soldiers for less money, because the boys liked to be
decorated. Until the Civil War there were no medals.
Then the Congressional Medal of Honor was handed out.
It made enlistments easier. After the Civil War no new
medals were issued until the Spanish-American War. In the World War, we used propaganda to make the
boys accept conscription. They were made to feel
ashamed if they didn't join the army. So vicious was this war propaganda that even God
was brought into it. With few exceptions our clergymen
joined in the clamor to kill, kill, kill. To kill the
Germans. God is on our side...it is His will that the
Germans be killed. And in Germany, the good pastors called upon the
Germans to kill the allies...to please the same God.
That was a part of the general propaganda, built up to
make people war conscious and murder conscious. Beautiful ideals were painted for our boys who were
sent out to die. This was the "war to end all wars."
This was the "war to make the world safe for
democracy." No one mentioned to them, as they marched
away, that their going and their dying would mean huge
war profits. No one told these American soldiers that
they might be shot down by bullets made by their own
brothers here. No one told them that the ships on
which they were going to cross might be torpedoed by
submarines built with United States patents. They were
just told it was to be a "glorious adventure." Thus, having stuffed patriotism down their throats,
it was decided to make them help pay for the war, too.
So, we gave them the large salary of $30 a month. All they had to do for this munificent sum was to
leave their dear ones behind, give up their jobs, lie
in swampy trenches, eat canned willy (when they could
get it) and kill and kill and kill...and be killed. But wait! Half of that wage (just a little more than a
riveter in a shipyard or a laborer in a munitions
factory safe at home made in a day) was promptly taken
from him to support his dependents, so that they would
not become a charge upon his community. Then we made
him pay what amounted to accident insurance –
something the employer pays for in an enlightened
state – and that cost him $6 a month. He had less than
$9 a month left. Then, the most crowning insolence of all – he was
virtually blackjacked into paying for his own
ammunition, clothing, and food by being made to buy
Liberty Bonds. Most soldiers got no money at all on
pay days. We made them buy Liberty Bonds at $100 and then we
bought them back – when they came back from the war
and couldn't find work – at $84 and $86. And the
soldiers bought about $2,000,000,000 worth of these
bonds! Yes, the soldier pays the greater part of the bill.
His family pays too. They pay it in the same
heart-break that he does. As he suffers, they suffer.
At nights, as he lay in the trenches and watched
shrapnel burst about him, they lay home in their beds
and tossed sleeplessly – his father, his mother, his
wife, his sisters, his brothers, his sons, and his
daughters. When he returned home minus an eye, or minus a leg
or with his mind broken, they suffered too – as much
as and even sometimes more than he. Yes, and they,
too, contributed their dollars to the profits of the
munitions makers and bankers and shipbuilders and the
manufacturers and the speculators made. They, too,
bought Liberty Bonds and contributed to the profit of
the bankers after the Armistice in the hocus-pocus of
manipulated Liberty Bond prices. And even now the families of the wounded men and of
the mentally broken and those who never were able to
readjust themselves are still suffering and still
paying. HOW TO SMASH THIS RACKET! CHAPTER FOUR WELL, it's a racket, all right. A few profit – and the many pay. But there is a way
to stop it. You can't end it by disarmament
conferences. You can't eliminate it by peace parleys
at Geneva. Well-meaning but impractical groups can't
wipe it out by resolutions. It can be smashed
effectively only by taking the profit out of war. The only way to smash this racket is to conscript
capital and industry and labor before the nations
manhood can be conscripted. One month before the
Government can conscript the young men of the nation –
it must conscript capital and industry and labor. Let
the officers and the directors and the high-powered
executives of our armament factories and our munitions
makers and our shipbuilders and our airplane builders
and the manufacturers of all the other things that
provide profit in war time as well as the bankers and
the speculators, be conscripted – to get $30 a month,
the same wage as the lads in the trenches get. Let the workers in these plants get the same wages
– all the workers, all presidents, all executives, all
directors, all managers, all bankers – yes, and all generals and all admirals and all
officers and all politicians and all government office
holders – everyone in the nation be restricted to a
total monthly income not to exceed that paid to the
soldier in the trenches! Let all these kings and tycoons and masters of
business and all those workers in industry and all our
senators and governors and majors pay half of their
monthly $30 wage to their families and pay war risk
insurance and buy Liberty Bonds. Why shouldn't they? They aren't running any risk of being killed or of
having their bodies mangled or their minds shattered.
They aren't sleeping in muddy trenches. They aren't
hungry. The soldiers are! Give capital and industry and labor thirty days to
think it over and you will find, by that time, there
will be no war. That will smash the war racket – that
and nothing else. Maybe I am a little too optimistic. Capital still
has some say. So capital won't permit the taking of
the profit out of war until the people – those who do
the suffering and still pay the price – make up their
minds that those they elect to office shall do their
bidding, and not that of the profiteers. Another step necessary in this fight to smash the
war racket is the limited plebiscite to determine
whether a war should be declared. A plebiscite not of
all the voters but merely of those who would be called
upon to do the fighting and dying. There wouldn't be
very much sense in having a 76-year-old president of a
munitions factory or the flat-footed head of an
international banking firm or the cross-eyed manager
of a uniform manufacturing plant – all of whom see
visions of tremendous profits in the event of war –
voting on whether the nation should go to war or not.
They never would be called upon to shoulder arms – to
sleep in a trench and to be shot. Only those who would
be called upon to risk their lives for their country
should have the privilege of voting to determine
whether the nation should go to war. There is ample precedent for restricting the voting
to those affected. Many of our states have
restrictions on those permitted to vote. In most, it
is necessary to be able to read and write before you
may vote. In some, you must own property. It would be
a simple matter each year for the men coming of
military age to register in their communities as they
did in the draft during the World War and be examined
physically. Those who could pass and who would
therefore be called upon to bear arms in the event of
war would be eligible to vote in a limited plebiscite.
They should be the ones to have the power to decide –
and not a Congress few of whose members are within the
age limit and fewer still of whom are in physical
condition to bear arms. Only those who must suffer
should have the right to vote. A third step in this business of smashing the war
racket is to make certain that our military forces are
truly forces for defense only. At each session of Congress the question of further
naval appropriations comes up. The swivel-chair
admirals of Washington (and there are always a lot of
them) are very adroit lobbyists. And they are smart.
They don't shout that "We need a lot of battleships to
war on this nation or that nation." Oh no. First of
all, they let it be known that America is menaced by a
great naval power. Almost any day, these admirals will
tell you, the great fleet of this supposed enemy will
strike suddenly and annihilate 125,000,000 people.
Just like that. Then they begin to cry for a larger
navy. For what? To fight the enemy? Oh my, no. Oh, no.
For defense purposes only. Then, incidentally, they announce maneuvers in the
Pacific. For defense. Uh, huh. The Pacific is a great big ocean. We have a
tremendous coastline on the Pacific. Will the
maneuvers be off the coast, two or three hundred
miles? Oh, no. The maneuvers will be two thousand,
yes, perhaps even thirty-five hundred miles, off the
coast. The Japanese, a proud people, of course will be
pleased beyond expression to see the united States
fleet so close to Nippon's shores. Even as pleased as
would be the residents of California were they to
dimly discern through the morning mist, the Japanese
fleet playing at war games off Los Angeles. The ships of our navy, it can be seen, should be
specifically limited, by law, to within 200 miles of
our coastline. Had that been the law in 1898 the Maine
would never have gone to Havana Harbor. She never
would have been blown up. There would have been no war
with Spain with its attendant loss of life. Two
hundred miles is ample, in the opinion of experts, for
defense purposes. Our nation cannot start an offensive
war if its ships can't go further than 200 miles from
the coastline. Planes might be permitted to go as far
as 500 miles from the coast for purposes of
reconnaissance. And the army should never leave the
territorial limits of our nation. To summarize: Three steps must be taken to smash
the war racket. We must take the profit out of war. We must permit the youth of the land who would bear
arms to decide whether or not there should be war. We must limit our military forces to home defense
purposes. TO HELL WITH WAR! CHAPTER FIVE I am not a fool as to believe that war is a thing
of the past. I know the people do not want war, but
there is no use in saying we cannot be pushed into
another war. Looking back, Woodrow Wilson was re-elected
president in 1916 on a platform that he had "kept us
out of war" and on the implied promise that he would
"keep us out of war." Yet, five months later he asked
Congress to declare war on Germany. In that five-month interval the people had not been
asked whether they had changed their minds. The
4,000,000 young men who put on uniforms and marched or
sailed away were not asked whether they wanted to go
forth to suffer and die. Then what caused our government to change its mind
so suddenly? Money. An allied commission, it may be recalled, came over
shortly before the war declaration and called on the
President. The President summoned a group of advisers.
The head of the commission spoke. Stripped of its
diplomatic language, this is what he told the
President and his group: "There is no use kidding ourselves any longer. The
cause of the allies is lost. We now owe you (American
bankers, American munitions makers, American
manufacturers, American speculators, American
exporters) five or six billion dollars. If we lose (and without the help of the United
States we must lose) we, England, France and Italy,
cannot pay back this money...and Germany won't. So..." Had secrecy been outlawed as far as war
negotiations were concerned, and had the press been
invited to be present at that conference, or had radio
been available to broadcast the proceedings, America
never would have entered the World War. But this
conference, like all war discussions, was shrouded in
utmost secrecy. When our boys were sent off to war
they were told it was a "war to make the world safe
for democracy" and a "war to end all wars." Well, eighteen years after, the world has less of
democracy than it had then. Besides, what business is
it of ours whether Russia or Germany or England or
France or Italy or Austria live under democracies or
monarchies? Whether they are Fascists or Communists?
Our problem is to preserve our own democracy. And very little, if anything, has been accomplished
to assure us that the World War was really the war to
end all wars. Yes, we have had disarmament conferences and
limitations of arms conferences. They don't mean a
thing. One has just failed; the results of another
have been nullified. We send our professional soldiers
and our sailors and our politicians and our diplomats
to these conferences. And what happens? The professional soldiers and sailors don't want to
disarm. No admiral wants to be without a ship. No
general wants to be without a command. Both mean men
without jobs. They are not for disarmament. They
cannot be for limitations of arms. And at all these
conferences, lurking in the background but
all-powerful, just the same, are the sinister agents
of those who profit by war. They see to it that these
conferences do not disarm or seriously limit
armaments. The chief aim of any power at any of these
conferences has not been to achieve disarmament to
prevent war but rather to get more armament for itself
and less for any potential foe. There is only one way to disarm with any semblance
of practicability. That is for all nations to get
together and scrap every ship, every gun, every rifle,
every tank, every war plane. Even this, if it were
possible, would not be enough. The next war, according to experts, will be fought
not with battleships, not by artillery, not with
rifles and not with machine guns. It will be fought
with deadly chemicals and gases. Secretly each nation is studying and perfecting
newer and ghastlier means of annihilating its foes
wholesale. Yes, ships will continue to be built, for
the shipbuilders must make their profits. And guns
still will be manufactured and powder and rifles will
be made, for the munitions makers must make their huge
profits. And the soldiers, of course, must wear
uniforms, for the manufacturer must make their war
profits too. But victory or defeat will be determined by the
skill and ingenuity of our scientists. If we put them to work making poison gas and more
and more fiendish mechanical and explosive instruments
of destruction, they will have no time for the
constructive job of building greater prosperity for
all peoples. By putting them to this useful job, we
can all make more money out of peace than we can out
of war – even the munitions makers. So...I say,
TO HELL WITH WAR! Comments 💬 التعليقات |