2018-02-23 18:58:03 +00:00
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---
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created_at: '2016-11-30T05:11:59.000Z'
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title: War Is a Racket by General Smedley D. Butler (1933)
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url: http://www.wanttoknow.info/warisaracket.shtml
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author: betolink
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points: 317
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story_text:
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comment_text:
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num_comments: 152
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parent_id:
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created_at_i: 1480482719
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_tags:
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- story
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- author_betolink
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- story_13068641
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objectID: '13068641'
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---
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2018-03-03 09:35:28 +00:00
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# ****
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2018-02-23 18:19:40 +00:00
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2018-03-03 09:35:28 +00:00
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War is a Racket
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2018-02-23 18:19:40 +00:00
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2018-03-03 09:35:28 +00:00
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By General Smedley D. Butler
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2018-02-23 18:19:40 +00:00
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2018-03-03 09:35:28 +00:00
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**That war is a racket has been told us by many, but rarely by one of
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this stature. Though he died in 1940, the highly decorated [General
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Butler](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler) (two esteemed
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Medals of Honor) deserves to be heralded for his timeless message, which
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rings true today more than ever. His riveting 1935 book War is a Racket
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merits inclusion as required reading for every high school student, and
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for every member of our armed forces today. Below is a ten-page summary
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of the best of this powerful exposé. For a concise, two-page version,
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[click here](https://www.WantToKnow.info/war/war-corruption).**
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**Foreword**
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**Excerpt from a speech delivered in 1933 by General Smedley Butler,
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USMC**
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War is just a racket. There are only two things we should fight for. One
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is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for
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any other reason is simply a racket.
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It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison.
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Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty-three years and four months
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in active military service as a member of this country's most agile
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military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks
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from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent
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most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall
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Street and for the Bankers.
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I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of
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it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a
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thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained
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in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is
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typical with everyone in the military service.
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**I helped make Mexico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped
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make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys. I
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helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the
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benefits of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international
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banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the
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Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I
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helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.**
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During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a
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swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al
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Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in
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three districts. I operated on three continents.
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**CHAPTER ONE: War Is A Racket **
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**War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily
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the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is international in
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scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars
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and the losses in lives.**
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A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it
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seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows
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what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at
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the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge
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fortunes.
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In the World War \[I\] a mere handful garnered the profits of the
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conflict. **At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made
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in the United States during the World War.** That many admitted their
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huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war
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millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows. \[Please note
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these are 1935 U.S. dollars. To adjust for inflation, multiply all
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figures [X 15 or
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more](ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/cpi/cpiai.txt)\]
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How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them
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dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a
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rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened
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nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of
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them were wounded or killed in battle?
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Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious.
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They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited
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by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war.
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The general public shoulders the bill. And what is this bill?
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This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones.
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Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic
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instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking
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taxation for generations and generations.
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**For a great many years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion that war was a
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racket; not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it. Now
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that I see the international war clouds gathering, as they are today, I
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must face it and speak out.**
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**Again they are choosing sides. France and Russia met and agreed to
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stand side by side. Italy and Austria hurried to make a similar
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agreement. Poland and Germany cast sheep's eyes at each other. All of
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them are looking ahead to war. Not the people – not those who fight and
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pay and die – only those who foment wars and remain safely at home to
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profit.**
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There are 40,000,000 men under arms in the world today, and our
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statesmen and diplomats have the temerity to say that war is not in the
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making. Hell's bells\! Are these 40,000,000 men being trained to be
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dancers?
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Not in Italy, to be sure. Premier Mussolini knows what they are being
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trained for. He, at least, is frank enough to speak out. The publication
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of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said: "And above
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all, Fascism… believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of
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perpetual peace…War alone brings up to its highest tension all human
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energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the people who have the
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courage to meet it."
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Undoubtedly Mussolini means exactly what he says. His well-trained army,
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his great fleet of planes, and even his navy are ready for war. His
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recent stand at the side of Hungary in the latter's dispute with
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Yugoslavia showed that. And the hurried mobilization of his troops on
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the Austrian border after the assassination of Dollfuss showed it too.
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There are others in Europe too whose sabre rattling presages war, sooner
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or later. Herr Hitler, with his rearming Germany and his constant
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demands for more and more arms, is an equal if not greater menace to
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peace.
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Yes, all over, nations are camping in their arms. The mad dogs of Europe
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are on the loose. The trend is to poison us against the Japanese. What
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does the "open door" policy to China mean to us? Our trade with China is
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about $90,000,000 a year. Or the Philippine Islands? We have spent about
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$600,000,000 in the Philippines in thirty-five years and we (our bankers
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and industrialists and speculators) have private investments there of
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less than $200,000,000.
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Then, to save that China trade of about $90,000,000, or to protect these
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private investments of less than $200,000,000 in the Philippines, we
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would be all stirred up to hate Japan and go to war – a war that might
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well cost us tens of billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of lives
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of Americans, and many more hundreds of thousands of physically maimed
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and mentally unbalanced men.
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Of course, for this loss, there would be a compensating profit –
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fortunes would be made. Millions and billions of dollars would be piled
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up. By a few. Munitions makers. Bankers. Ship builders. Manufacturers.
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Meat packers. Speculators. They would fare well. Yes, they are getting
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ready for another war. Why shouldn't they? It pays high dividends.
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But what does it profit the men who are killed? What does it profit
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their mothers and sisters, their wives and their sweethearts? What does
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it profit their children? What does it profit anyone except the very few
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to whom war means huge profits? Yes, and what does it profit the nation?
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**Take our own case. Until 1898 we didn't own a bit of territory outside
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the mainland of North America. At that time our national debt was a
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little more than $1,000,000,000. Then we became "internationally
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minded." We forgot, or shunted aside, George Washington's warning about
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"entangling alliances." We went to war. We acquired outside territory.
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At the end of the World War period, as a direct result of our fiddling
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in international affairs, our national debt had jumped to over
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$25,000,000,000.**
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It would have been far cheaper (not to say safer) for the average
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American who pays the bills to stay out of foreign entanglements. For a
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very few this racket, like bootlegging and other underworld rackets,
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brings fancy profits, but the cost of operations is always transferred
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to the people – who do not profit.
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**CHAPTER TWO: Who Makes The Profits? **
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The World War cost the United States some $52,000,000,000. Figure it
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out. That means $400 \[over $6,000 in today's dollars\] to every
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American man, woman, and child. And we haven't paid the debt yet. We are
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paying it, our children will pay it, and our children's children
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probably still will be paying the cost of that war.
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**The normal profits of a business concern in the United States are 6,
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8, 10, and sometimes 12%. But war-time profits – ah\! that is another
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matter – 20, 60, 100, 300, and even 1,800% – the sky is the limit. All
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that traffic will bear. Uncle Sam has the money. Let's get it. Of
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course, it isn't put that crudely in war time. It is dressed into
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speeches about patriotism, love of country, and "we must all put our
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shoulders to the wheel," but the profits jump and leap and skyrocket –
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and are safely pocketed. Let's just take a few examples.**
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**Take our friends the du Ponts, the powder people – didn't one of them
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testify before a Senate committee recently that their powder won the
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war? Or saved the world for democracy? How did they do in the war? Well,
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the average earnings of the du Ponts for the period 1910 to 1914 were
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$6,000,000 a year. It wasn't much, but the du Ponts managed to get along
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on it. Now let's look at their average yearly profit during the war
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years, 1914 to 1918. Fifty-eight million dollars a year profit we find\!
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Nearly ten times that of normal times, and the profits of normal times
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were pretty good. An increase in profits of more than 950 per cent.**
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Take one of our little steel companies that patriotically shunted aside
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the making of rails and girders and bridges to manufacture war
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materials. Well, their 1910 - 1914 yearly earnings averaged $6,000,000.
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Then came the war. And, like loyal citizens, Bethlehem Steel promptly
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turned to munitions making. Did their profits jump – or did they let
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Uncle Sam in for a bargain? Well, their 1914 - 1918 average was
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$49,000,000 a year\!
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Or, let's take United States Steel. The normal earnings during the
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five-year period prior to the war were $105,000,000 a year. Not bad.
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Then along came the war and up went the profits. The average yearly
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profit for the period 1914 - 1918 was $240,000,000. Not bad. There you
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have some of the steel and powder earnings. Let's look at something
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else.
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A little copper, perhaps. That always does well in war times. Anaconda,
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for instance. Average yearly earnings during the pre-war years 1910 -
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1914 of $10,000,000. During the war years 1914 - 1918 profits leaped to
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$34,000,000 per year. Or Utah Copper. Average of $5,000,000 per year
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during the 1910 - 1914 period. Jumped to an average of $21,000,000
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yearly profits for the war period.
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Let's group these five, with three smaller companies. The total yearly
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average profits of the pre-war period 1910 - 1914 were $137,480,000.
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Then along came the war. The average yearly profits for this group
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skyrocketed to $408,300,000. A little increase in profits of
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approximately 200 per cent. Does war pay? It paid them.
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But they aren't the only ones. There are still others. Let's take
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leather. For the three-year period before the war the total profits of
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Central Leather Company were $3,500,000. That was approximately
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$1,167,000 a year. Well, in 1916 Central Leather returned a profit of
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$15,000,000, a small increase of 1,100 per cent. That's all. The General
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Chemical Company averaged a profit for the three years before the war of
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a little over $800,000 a year. Came the war, and the profits jumped to
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$12,000,000 – a leap of 1,400 per cent.
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International Nickel Company – and you can't have a war without nickel –
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showed an increase in profits from a mere average of $4,000,000 a year
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to $73,000,000 yearly. Not bad? An increase of more than 1,700 per
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cent. American Sugar Refining Company averaged $2,000,000 a year for
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the three years before the war. In 1916 a profit of $6,000,000 was
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recorded.
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Listen to Senate Document No. 259. The Sixty-Fifth Congress, reporting
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on corporate earnings and government revenues. Considering the profits
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of 122 meat packers, 153 cotton manufacturers, 299 garment makers, 49
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steel plants, and 340 coal producers during the war. Profits under 25
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per cent were exceptional. For instance the coal companies made between
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100 per cent and 7,856 per cent on their capital stock during the war.
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The Chicago packers doubled and tripled their earnings.
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**And let us not forget the bankers who financed the great war. If
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anyone had the cream of the profits it was the bankers. Being
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partnerships rather than incorporated organizations, they do not have to
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report to stockholders. And their profits were as secret as they were
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immense. How the bankers made their millions and their billions I do not
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know, because [those little
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secrets](https://www.WantToKnow.info/financialbankingcoverup) never
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become public – even before a Senate investigatory body.**
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Here's how other patriotic industrialists and speculators chiseled their
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way into war profits.
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Take the shoe people. They like war. It brings business with abnormal
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profits. They made huge profits on sales abroad to our allies. Perhaps,
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like the munitions manufacturers and armament makers, they also sold to
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the enemy. For a dollar is a dollar whether it comes from Germany or
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from France. But they did well by Uncle Sam too. **They sold Uncle Sam
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35,000,000 pairs of hobnailed service shoes. There were 4,000,000
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soldiers. Eight pairs, and more, to a soldier. My regiment during the
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war had only one pair to a soldier. Some of these shoes probably are
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still in existence. They were good shoes. But when the war was over
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Uncle Sam has a matter of 25,000,000 pairs left over. Bought – and paid
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for. Profits recorded and pocketed.**
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There was still lots of leather left. So the leather people sold your
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Uncle Sam hundreds of thousands of McClellan saddles for the cavalry.
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But there wasn't any American cavalry overseas\! Somebody had to get rid
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of this leather, however. Somebody had to make a profit in it – so we
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had a lot of McClellan saddles. And we probably have those yet.
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Also somebody had a lot of mosquito netting. They sold your Uncle Sam
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20,000,000 mosquito nets for the use of the soldiers overseas. I suppose
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the boys were expected to put it over them as they tried to sleep in
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muddy trenches – one hand scratching cooties on their backs and the
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other making passes at scurrying rats. Well, not one of these mosquito
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nets ever got to France\!
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Anyhow, these thoughtful manufacturers wanted to make sure that no
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soldier would be without his mosquito net, so 40,000,000 additional
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yards of mosquito netting were sold to Uncle Sam. There were pretty good
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profits in mosquito netting in those days, even if there were no
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mosquitoes in France. I suppose, if the war had lasted just a little
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longer, the enterprising mosquito netting manufacturers would have sold
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your Uncle Sam a couple of consignments of mosquitoes to plant in France
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so that more mosquito netting would be in order.
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**Airplane and engine manufacturers felt they, too, should get their
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just profits out of this war. Why not? Everybody else was getting
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theirs. So $1,000,000,000 – count them if you live long enough – was
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spent by Uncle Sam in building airplane engines that never left the
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ground\! Not one plane, or motor, out of the billion dollars worth
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ordered, ever got into a battle in France. Just the same the
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manufacturers made their little profit of 30, 100, or perhaps 300%.**
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Undershirts for soldiers cost 14¢ \[cents\] to make and uncle Sam paid
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30¢ to 40¢ each for them – a nice little profit for the undershirt
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manufacturer. And the stocking manufacturer and the uniform
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manufacturers and the cap manufacturers and the steel helmet
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manufacturers – all got theirs. When the war was over some 4,000,000
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sets of equipment – knapsacks and the things that go to fill them –
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crammed warehouses on this side. Now they are being scrapped because the
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regulations have changed the contents. But the manufacturers collected
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their wartime profits on them – and they will do it all over again the
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next time.
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There were lots of brilliant ideas for profit making during the war.
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**One very versatile patriot sold Uncle Sam twelve dozen 48-inch
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wrenches. Oh, they were very nice wrenches. The only trouble was that
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there was only one nut ever made that was large enough for these
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wrenches. That is the one that holds the turbines at Niagara Falls.**
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Well, after Uncle Sam had bought them and the manufacturer had pocketed
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the profit, the wrenches were put on freight cars and shunted all around
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the United States in an effort to find a use for them. When the
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Armistice was signed it was indeed a sad blow to the wrench
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manufacturer. He was just about to make some nuts to fit the wrenches.
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Then he planned to sell these, too, to your Uncle Sam.
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The shipbuilders felt they should come in on some of it, too. They built
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a lot of ships that made a lot of profit. More than $3,000,000,000
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worth. Some of the ships were all right. But $635,000,000 worth of them
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were made of wood and wouldn't float\! The seams opened up – and they
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sank. We paid for them, though. And somebody pocketed the profits.
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It has been estimated by statisticians and economists and researchers
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that the war cost your Uncle Sam $52,000,000,000. Of this sum,
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$39,000,000,000 was expended in the actual war itself. This expenditure
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yielded $16,000,000,000 in profits. That is how the 21,000 billionaires
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and millionaires got that way. This $16,000,000,000 profits is not to be
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sneezed at. It is quite a tidy sum. And it went to a very few.
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The Senate committee probe of the munitions industry and its wartime
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profits, despite its sensational disclosures, hardly has scratched the
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surface. Even so, it has had some effect. The State Department has been
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studying "for some time" methods of keeping out of war. The War
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Department suddenly decides it has a wonderful plan to spring. The
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Administration names a committee – with the War and Navy Departments
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ably represented under the chairmanship of a Wall Street speculator – to
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limit profits in war time. To what extent isn't suggested. Hmmm.
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Possibly the profits of 300 and 600 and 1,600 per cent of those who
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turned blood into gold in the World War would be limited to some smaller
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figure.
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Apparently, however, the plan does not call for any limitation of losses
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– that is, the losses of those who fight the war. As far as I have been
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able to ascertain there is nothing in the scheme to limit a soldier to
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the loss of but one eye, or one arm, or to limit his wounds to one or
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two or three. Or to limit the loss of life.
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There is nothing in this scheme, apparently, that says not more than 12
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per cent of a regiment shall be wounded in battle, or that not more than
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7 per cent in a division shall be killed. Of course, the committee
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cannot be bothered with such trifling matters.
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**CHAPTER THREE: Who Pays The Bills? **
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**Who provides the profits – these nice little profits of 20, 100, 300,
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1,500 and 1,800 per cent? We all pay them – in taxation. We paid the
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bankers their profits when we bought Liberty Bonds at $100.00 and sold
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them back at $84 or $86 to the bankers. These bankers collected $100
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plus.** It was a simple manipulation. The bankers control the security
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marts. It was easy for them to depress the price of these bonds. Then
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all of us – the people – got frightened and sold the bonds at $84 or
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$86. The bankers bought them. Then these same bankers stimulated a boom
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and government bonds went to par – and above. Then the bankers collected
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their profits.
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**But the soldier pays the biggest part of the bill.**
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If you don't believe this, visit the American cemeteries on the
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battlefields abroad. Or visit any of the veteran's hospitals in the
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United States. On a tour of the country, in the midst of which I am at
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the time of this writing, **I have visited eighteen government hospitals
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for veterans. In them are a total of about 50,000 destroyed men – men
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who were the pick of the nation eighteen years ago.** The very able
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chief surgeon at the government hospital; at Milwaukee, where there are
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3,800 of the living dead, told me that mortality among veterans is three
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times as great as among those who stayed at home.
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Boys with a normal viewpoint were taken out of the fields and offices
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and factories and classrooms and put into the ranks. There they were
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remolded; they were made over; they were made to "about face" to regard
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murder as the order of the day. They were put shoulder to shoulder and,
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through mass psychology, they were entirely changed. We used them for a
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couple of years and trained them to think nothing at all of killing or
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of being killed.
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Then, suddenly, we discharged them and told them to make another "about
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face"\! This time they had to do their own readjustment, sans
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\[without\] mass psychology, sans officers' aid and advice and sans
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nation-wide propaganda. We didn't need them any more. So we scattered
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them about without any "three-minute" or "Liberty Loan" speeches or
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parades. Many, too many, of these fine young boys are eventually
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destroyed, mentally, because they could not make that final "about face"
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alone.
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In the government hospital in Marion, Indiana, 1,800 of these boys are
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in pens\! Five hundred of them in a barracks with steel bars and wires
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all around outside the buildings and on the porches. These already have
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been mentally destroyed. These boys don't even look like human beings.
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Oh, the looks on their faces\! Physically, they are in good shape;
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mentally, they are gone.
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There are thousands and thousands of these cases, and more and more are
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coming in all the time. The tremendous excitement of the war, the sudden
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cutting off of that excitement – the young boys couldn't stand it.
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That's a part of the bill. So much for the dead – they have paid their
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part of the war profits. So much for the mentally and physically wounded
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– they are paying now their share of the war profits. But the others
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paid, too – they paid with heartbreaks when they tore themselves away
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from their firesides and their families to don the uniform of Uncle Sam
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– on which a profit had been made. They paid another part in the
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training camps where they were regimented and drilled while others took
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their jobs and their places in the lives of their communities. The paid
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for it in the trenches where they shot and were shot; where they were
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hungry for days at a time; where they slept in the mud and the cold and
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in the rain – with the moans and shrieks of the dying for a horrible
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lullaby.
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But don't forget – the soldier paid part of the dollars and cents bill
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too. Up to and including the Spanish-American War, we had a prize
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system, and soldiers and sailors fought for money. During the Civil War
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they were paid bonuses, in many instances, before they went into
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|
service. The government, or states, paid as high as $1,200 for an
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enlistment. In the Spanish-American War they gave prize money. When we
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captured any vessels, the soldiers all got their share – at least, they
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were supposed to. Then it was found that we could reduce the cost of
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wars by taking all the prize money and keeping it, but conscripting
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\[drafting\] the soldier anyway. Then soldiers couldn't bargain for
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their labor, Everyone else could bargain, but the soldier couldn't.
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Napoleon once said, "All men are enamored of decorations... They
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|
positively hunger for them." So by developing the Napoleonic system –
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|
the medal business – the government learned it could get soldiers for
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|
less money, because the boys liked to be decorated. Until the Civil War
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there were no medals. Then the Congressional Medal of Honor was handed
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out. It made enlistments easier. After the Civil War no new medals were
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issued until the Spanish-American War.
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**In the World War, we used propaganda to make the boys accept
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conscription. They were made to feel ashamed if they didn't join the
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army. So vicious was this war propaganda that even God was brought into
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|
it.** With few exceptions our clergymen joined in the clamor to kill,
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|
kill, kill. To kill the Germans. God is on our side. It is His will that
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the Germans be killed. And in Germany, the good pastors called upon the
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Germans to kill the allies ... to please the same God. That was a part
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of the propaganda, built up to make people war conscious and murder
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conscious.
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**Beautiful ideals were painted for our boys who were sent out to die.
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This was the "war to end all wars." This was the "war to make the world
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|
safe for democracy." No one mentioned to them, as they marched away,
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that their going and their dying would mean huge war profits. No one
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|
told these American soldiers that they might be shot down by bullets
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|
made by their own brothers here. No one told them that the ships on
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which they were going to cross might be torpedoed by submarines built
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with United States patents. They were just told it was to be a "glorious
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adventure."**
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Thus, having stuffed patriotism down their throats, it was decided to
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make them help pay for the war, too. So, we gave them the large salary
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of $30 a month. All they had to do for this munificent sum was to leave
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their dear ones behind, give up their jobs, lie in swampy trenches, eat
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canned willy (when they could get it) and kill and kill and kill ... and
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be killed.
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But wait\! Half of that wage (just a little more than a riveter in a
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|
|
shipyard or a laborer in a munitions factory safe at home made in a day)
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|
was promptly taken from him to support his dependents, so that they
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would not become a charge upon his community. Then we made him pay what
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amounted to accident insurance – something the employer pays for in an
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enlightened state – and that cost him $6 a month. He had less than $9 a
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month left.
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Then, the most crowning insolence of all – he was virtually blackjacked
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into paying for his own ammunition, clothing, and food by being made to
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buy Liberty Bonds. Most soldiers got no money at all on pay days. We
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made them buy Liberty Bonds at $100 and then we bought them back – when
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|
|
they came back from the war and couldn't find work – at $84 and $86. And
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|
|
the soldiers bought about $2,000,000,000 worth of these bonds\!
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Yes, the soldier pays the greater part of the bill. His family pays too.
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They pay it in the same heart-break that he does. As he suffers, they
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|
suffer. At nights, as he lay in the trenches and watched shrapnel burst
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|
about him, they lay home in their beds and tossed sleeplessly – his
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father, his mother, his wife, his sisters, his brothers, his sons, and
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his daughters.
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When he returned home minus an eye, or minus a leg or with his mind
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|
broken, they suffered too – as much as and even sometimes more than he.
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|
Yes, and they, too, contributed their dollars to the profits of the
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|
|
munitions makers and bankers and shipbuilders and the manufacturers and
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|
|
the speculators made. They, too, bought Liberty Bonds and contributed to
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|
|
the profit of the bankers after the Armistice in the hocus-pocus of
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|
|
manipulated Liberty Bond prices.
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|
And even now the families of the wounded men and of the mentally broken
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|
and those who never were able to readjust themselves are still suffering
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|
and still paying.
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|
**CHAPTER FOUR: How To Smash This Racket\! **
|
|
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|
|
Well, it's a racket, all right. A few profit – and the many pay. But
|
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|
|
there is a way to stop it. You can't end it by disarmament conferences.
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|
You can't eliminate it by peace parleys at Geneva. Well-meaning but
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|
|
impractical groups can't wipe it out by resolutions. **It can be smashed
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|
|
effectively only by taking the profit out of war.**
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|
The only way to smash this racket is to conscript capital and industry
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|
|
and labor before the nations manhood can be conscripted. One month
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|
|
before the Government can conscript the young men of the nation – it
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|
|
must conscript capital and industry and labor. **Let the officers and
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|
|
the directors and the high-powered executives of our armament factories
|
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|
|
and our munitions makers and our shipbuilders and our airplane builders
|
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|
|
and the manufacturers of all the other things that provide profit in war
|
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|
|
time as well as the bankers and the speculators, be conscripted – to get
|
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|
$30 a month, the same wage as the lads in the trenches get.**
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|
Let the workers in these plants get the same wages – all the workers,
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|
|
all presidents, all executives, all directors, all managers, all bankers
|
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|
|
– yes, and all generals and all admirals and all officers and all
|
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|
|
politicians and all government office holders – everyone in the nation
|
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|
|
be restricted to a total monthly income not to exceed that paid to the
|
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|
|
soldier in the trenches\!
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|
Let all these kings and tycoons and masters of business and all those
|
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|
|
workers in industry and all our senators and governors and majors pay
|
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|
|
half of their monthly $30 wage to their families and pay war risk
|
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|
|
|
insurance and buy Liberty Bonds. Why shouldn't they? They aren't running
|
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|
|
any risk of being killed or of having their bodies mangled or their
|
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|
|
minds shattered. They aren't sleeping in muddy trenches. They aren't
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hungry. The soldiers are\! Give capital and industry and labor thirty
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days to think it over and you will find, by that time, there will be no
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war. That will smash the war racket – that and nothing else.
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Maybe I am a little too optimistic. Capital still has some say. So
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capital won't permit the taking of the profit out of war until the
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people – those who do the suffering and still pay the price – make up
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their minds that those they elect to office shall do their bidding, and
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not that of the profiteers.
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Another step necessary in this fight to smash the war racket is the
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limited plebiscite to determine whether a war should be declared. A
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plebiscite not of all the voters but merely of those who would be called
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upon to do the fighting and dying. There wouldn't be very much sense in
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having a 76-year-old president of a munitions factory or the flat-footed
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head of an international banking firm or the cross-eyed manager of a
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uniform manufacturing plant – all of whom see visions of tremendous
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profits in the event of war – voting on whether the nation should go to
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war or not. They never would be called upon to shoulder arms – to sleep
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in a trench and to be shot. Only those who would be called upon to risk
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their lives for their country should have the privilege of voting to
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determine whether the nation should go to war.
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It would be a simple matter each year for the men coming of military age
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to register in their communities as they did in the draft during the
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World War and be examined physically. Those who could pass and who would
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therefore be called upon to bear arms in the event of war would be
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eligible to vote in a limited plebiscite. They should be the ones to
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have the power to decide – and not a Congress few of whose members are
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within the age limit and fewer still of whom are in physical condition
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to bear arms. Only those who must suffer should have the right to vote.
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**A third step in this business of smashing the war racket is to make
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certain that our military forces are truly forces for defense only.**
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At each session of Congress the question of further naval appropriations
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comes up. The swivel-chair admirals of Washington (and there are always
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a lot of them) are very adroit lobbyists. And they are smart. They don't
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shout that "We need a lot of battleships to war on this nation or that
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nation." Oh no. First of all, they let it be known that America is
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menaced by a great naval power. Almost any day, these admirals will tell
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you, the great fleet of this supposed enemy will strike suddenly and
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annihilate 125,000,000 people. Just like that. Then they begin to cry
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for a larger navy. For what? To fight the enemy? Oh my, no. Oh, no. For
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defense purposes only.
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Then, incidentally, they announce maneuvers in the Pacific. For defense.
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Uh, huh. The Pacific is a great big ocean. We have a tremendous
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coastline on the Pacific. Will the maneuvers be off the coast, two or
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three hundred miles? Oh, no. The maneuvers will be two thousand, yes,
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perhaps even thirty-five hundred miles, off the coast. The Japanese, a
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proud people, of course will be pleased beyond expression to see the
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United States fleet so close to Nippon's shores. Even as pleased as
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would be the residents of California were they to dimly discern through
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the morning mist, the Japanese fleet playing at war games off Los
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Angeles.
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**The ships of our navy, it can be seen, should be specifically limited,
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by law, to within 200 miles of our coastline. Had that been the law in
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1898 the Maine would never have gone to Havana Harbor. She never would
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have been blown up. There would have been no war with Spain with its
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attendant loss of life.** Two hundred miles is ample, in the opinion of
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experts, for defense purposes. Our nation cannot start an offensive war
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if its ships can't go further than 200 miles from the coastline. Planes
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might be permitted to go as far as 500 miles from the coast for purposes
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of reconnaissance. And the army should never leave the territorial
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limits of our nation.
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**To summarize: Three steps must be taken to smash the war racket: 1.)
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We must take the profit out of war; 2.) We must permit the youth of the
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land who would bear arms to decide whether or not there should be war;
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3.) We must limit our military forces to home defense purposes. **
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**CHAPTER FIVE : To Hell With War\!**
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I am not a fool as to believe that war is a thing of the past. I know
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the people do not want war, but there is no use in saying we cannot be
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pushed into another war. Looking back, **Woodrow Wilson was re-elected
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president in 1916 on a platform that he had "kept us out of war" and on
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the implied promise that he would "keep us out of war." Yet, five months
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later he asked Congress to declare war on Germany.**
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In that five-month interval the people had not been asked whether they
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had changed their minds. The 4,000,000 young men who put on uniforms and
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marched or sailed away were not asked whether they wanted to go forth to
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suffer and die. Then what caused our government to change its mind so
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suddenly?
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Money.
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An allied commission, it may be recalled, came over shortly before the
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war declaration and called on the President. The President summoned a
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group of advisers. The head of the commission spoke. Stripped of its
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diplomatic language, this is what he told the President and his group:
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> **"There is no use kidding ourselves any longer. The cause of the
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> allies is lost. We now owe you (American bankers, munitions makers,
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> American manufacturers, speculators, American exporters) five or six
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> billion dollars. If we lose (and without the help of the United States
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> we must lose) we, England, France and Italy, cannot pay back this
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> money ... and Germany won't. So....."**
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**Had secrecy been outlawed as far as war negotiations were concerned,
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and had the press been invited to be present at that conference, or had
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radio been available to broadcast the proceedings, America never would
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have entered the World War.** But this conference, like all war
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discussions, was shrouded in utmost secrecy. When our boys were sent off
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to war they were told it was a "war to make the world safe for
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democracy" and a "war to end all wars."
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Well, eighteen years after, the world has less of democracy than it had
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then. Besides, what business is it of ours whether Russia or Germany or
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England or France or Italy or Austria live under democracies or
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monarchies? Whether they are Fascists or Communists? Our problem is to
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preserve our own democracy. And very little, if anything, has been
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accomplished to assure us that the World War was really the war to end
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all wars.
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Yes, we have had disarmament conferences and limitations of arms
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conferences. They don't mean a thing. One has just failed; the results
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of another have been nullified. We send our professional soldiers and
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our sailors and our politicians and our diplomats to these conferences.
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And what happens?
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The professional soldiers and sailors don't want to disarm. No admiral
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wants to be without a ship. No general wants to be without a command.
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Both mean men without jobs. They are not for disarmament. They cannot be
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for limitations of arms. **And at all these conferences, lurking in the
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background but all-powerful, just the same, are the sinister agents of
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those who profit by war. They see to it that these conferences do not
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disarm or seriously limit armaments. **The chief aim of any power at any
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of these conferences has not been to achieve disarmament to prevent war
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but rather to get more armament for itself and less for any potential
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foe.
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There is only one way to disarm with any semblance of practicability.
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That is for all nations to get together and scrap every ship, every gun,
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every rifle, every tank, every war plane.
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So ... I say, TO HELL WITH WAR\!
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**Note:** Imagine if we took General Butler's advice and in wartime
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forced corporations to join our soldiers in making sacrifices for their
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country. **We could pass laws which guarantee that corporate profits
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decrease during war rather than increase.** Do you think that wars would
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still drag on for years as in Vietnam and Iraq? Please help to make this
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a reality by sending this information to your friends and colleagues and
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contacting your government representatives.
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**For powerful, reliable information on war manipulations, [click
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|
here](https://www.WantToKnow.info/warinformation)
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To order General Butler's book War is a Racket on Amazon.com, [click
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|
here](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0922915865/ref=pd_ecc_rvi_1/102-8123938-9404104?tag=wanttinfo-20)
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For an excellent article on the intrepid Butler, including a plot of
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intrigue, [click
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|
here](http://replay.web.archive.org/20090219220506/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1987/7/1987_7_14.shtml)
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For key, engaging book on Butler's exposing of a plot to overthrow FDR,
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[click here](https://www.WantToKnow.info/plottoseizethewhitehouse)
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For a History Channel video on how Butler stopped a plot to overthrow
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FDR, [click
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|
here](http://www.google.com/search?q=the%20plot%20to%20overthrow%20fdr&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbo=u&tbs=vid:1&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wv)**
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