WAR IS A RACKET

WAR IS A RACKET
BY

SMEDLEY D. BUTLER
Major General United States Marines
( r e t ir e d )

R O U N D T A BL E PRESS, INC.
NEW YORK I9 3 5

CO PYR IG H T, I 9 3 S , BY ROU N D TABLE PRESS, IN C .

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PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES O* AMEXICA BY SEX.ECT PRINTING COMPANY, NSW YO&K

CONTENTS

OIAFTES

'ACE

I. W II. W III. W IV.

ar

Is

Racket

i
-

ho

M a k e s t h e P r o f it s ?

n
26

ho

P ays t h e B i l l s ? -

H o w t o S m a s h T h is R a c k e t !

37

V. T o H e l l

w it h

W ar!

46

TEKCAR A SI RAW

C hapter O n e

W A R IS A R A C K E T T II * *
T

A R is a racket.

I t alw ays has been. It

I t is possibly the oldest, easily the

m ost profitable, surely the m ost vicious.

is the only one international in scope. I t 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 som ething th a t is not what it seems to the m a jo rity o f people. O nly a sm all inside I t is con g ro u p knows w hat it is about.

ducted fo r the benefit o f the very few, a t the

expense of the very m any.

O u t of w ar a

few people m ake huge fortunes. I n the W o rld W a r a m ere handful g a r nered the profits of the conflict. A t least 21,000 new m illionaires and billionaires were m ade in the U nited States d u rin g the W o rld W a r. T h a t m any adm itted their huge blood gains in their income tax re turns. income tax retu rn s no one knows. H o w m any of these w ar m illionaires shouldered a rifle? H o w m any of them d ug a trench? H o w m any of them knew what it m eant to go hun g ry in a rat-infested dugout? H o w m any of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrap nel and machine gun bullets? H o w m any of them parried the bayonet th ru st of an enem y? H o w m any of them were wounded or killed in battle? H ow m any other w ar m illionaires falsified their

O u t o f w ar nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. tak e it. T hey ju s t T his newly acquired territo ry

prom ptly is exploited by the few the self same few who w ru n g dollars out of blood in the war. bill. A n d w hat is this bill? T his bill renders a horrible accounting. N ew ly placed gravestones. M angled bodies. S hattered minds. B roken hearts and homes. Econom ic instability. D epression and all its a tte n d an t miseries. B ack-breaking ta x a tion fo r generations and generations. F o r a g re at m any years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion th a t w ar was a rack et; not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it. N ow th a t I see the international w ar clouds again gath erin g , as they are today, I m ust face it and speak out. T he general public shoulders the

A gain they are choosing sides. F ra n c e and R ussia m et and agreed to stand side by side. I ta ly and A u s tria hurried to m ake a sim ilar agreem ent. P o lan d and G erm any cast sheeps eyes a t each other, forgetting, for the nonce, their d ispute over the Polish Corridor. T he assassination of K in g A lex ander of Ju goslavia com plicated m atters. Jug o slav ia and H u n g a ry , long b itte r ene mies, were alm ost a t each oth ers throats. Ita ly was ready to ju m p in. B u t F ra n c e was w aiting. So was Czechoslovakia. A ll of them are looking ahead to w ar. N o t the people not those who fight and pay and die only those who fom ent w ars and re m ain safely a t home to profit. T here are 40,000,000 m en under arm s in the w orld today, and our statesm en and diplom ats have the tem erity to say th a t w ar is n o t in the m aking.

H e lls bells I A re these 40,000,000 m en being trained to be dancers ? N o t in Ita ly , to be sure. P rem ier M u s solini knows w hat they are being trained for. H e , a t least, is fran k enough to speak out. O nly the other day, I l D uce in In te r national Conciliation, the publication of the C arnegie E n d o w m en t for In tern a tio n a l P eace, said : A n d above all, Fascism , the m ore it considers and observes the fu tu re and th e developm ent of hum anity quite a p a rt from political considerations of the m oment, believes neither in the pos sibility nor the u tility of perp etu al peace. . . . W a r alone brings up to its highest tension all hum an energy and p u ts the stam p of nobility upon the peo ples who have the courage to m eet it. U n d o u b ted ly M ussolini m eans exactly [5 ]

w hat he says. H is well trained arm y, hif g re a t fleet o f planes, and even his navy arc ready for w ar anxious for it, a p p a re n tly H is recent stand a t the side of H u n g a ry in the la tte r s d isp u te with Ju g o sla v ia showed th at. A n d the hurried m obilization of his troops on the A u stria n border after the as sassination of D ollfuss showed it too. T here are others in E u ro p e too whose sabre ra ttlin g presages war, sooner or later. H e r r H itle r, with his rearm ing G erm any and his constant dem ands for m ore and m ore arms, is an equal if not a g re ater m enace to peace. F ra n c e only recently increased the te rm of m ilitary service for its y o u th from a year to eighteen m onths. Yes, all over, nations are cam ping on their arms. T h e m ad dogs of E u ro p e are on the loose. I n the O rient the m aneuvering is m ore

adroit. B ack in 1904, when R ussia and J a p a n fought, we kicked out our old friends the R ussians and backed J a p a n . T hen our very generous international bankers were financing Ja p a n . N ow the tren d is to poison us against the Jap an ese. W h a t does the open d o o r policy in China m ean to us? O u r trad e with China is about $90,000,000 a year. O r the P hilippine Islands? W e have sp e n t about $600,000,000 in the P h ilip pines in thirty-five years and we (our bank ers and industrialists and speculators) have private investm ents there of less th an $200,000,000. Then, to save th a t China trad e of about $90,000,000, or to protect these private in vestm ents of less than $200,000,000 in the Philippines, we would be all stirred up to hate J a p a n and to go to w ar a w ar th at m ight well cost us tens of billions of dollars,

hundreds of thousands of lives of A m ericans, and m any m ore hundreds of thousands of physically maimed and m entally unbalanced men. O f course, for this loss, there would be a com pensating profit fortunes would be made. M illions and billions of dollars would be piled up. B y a few. M unitions m akers. B ankers. Ship builders. M anufacturers. M eat packers. Speculators. T hey would fare well. Yes, they are g e ttin g ready for another war. W h y shouldnt they? I t pays high dividends. B u t w hat does it profit the masses? W h a t does it profit the m en who are killed? W h a t does it profit the m en who are maimed? W h at does it profit their m others and sisters, their wives and their sweethearts? W h a t does it profit th eir children?

W h a t does it profit anyone except the very few to whom w ar m eans huge profits? Y es, and w hat does it profit the nation? T ak e our own case. U n til 1898 we didnt own a bit of territo ry outside the m ainland of N o rth A m erica. A t th a t tim e our n a tional debt was a little m ore th an $1,000,000,000. T hen we became internationally m inded. W e forgot, or shunted aside, the advice of the F a th e r of our C ountry. W e forgot W ash in g to n s w arning about en tan g lin g alliances. W e w ent to w ar. W e acquired outside territo ry . A t the end of the W o rld W a r period, as a direct result of our fiddling in international affairs, our national debt had ju m p e d to over $25,000,000,000. O u r to ta l favorable trad e balance du rin g the tw enty-five-year period was about $24,000,000,000. T herefore, on a pu rely financial bookkeeping basis, we ran

a little behind year for year, and th a t foreign trad e m ight well have been ours w ithout the wars. I t would have been fa r cheaper (not to say safer) for the average A m erican who pays the bills to stay out of foreign entangle m ents. F o r a very few this racket, like bootlegging and other underw orld rackets, brings fancy profits, b u t the cost of opera tions is alw ays tran sferred to the people who do not profit.

C h apter T wo

W H O M A K E S T H E P R O F IT S ? r I W o rld W a r, ra th e r our brief par-*

ticipation in it, has cost the U nited

States some $52,000,000,000. F ig u re it out. T h a t m eans $400 to every A m erican m an, woman, and child. A n d we havent paid the debt yet. W e are p a y in g it, our children will pay it, and our c hildrens children probably still will be pay in g the cost of th a t w ar. T he norm al profits of a business concern in the U n ited S tates are six, eight, ten, and sometimes even twelve p er cent. B u t w ar

tim e profits ah! th a t is another m atter tw enty, sixty, one hundred, three hundred, and even eighteen hundred p e r cent the sky is th e lim it. A ll th a t the traffic will bear. U ncle Sam has the money. L e ts g e t it. O f course, it isnt p u t th a t crudely in w ar time. I t is dressed into speeches about p a triotism , love of country, and we m ust all p u t our shoulders to the wheel, b u t the profits ju m p and leap and skyrocket and are safely pocketed. L e ts ju s t take a few exam ples : T ak e our friends the du P o n ts, the pow der people d idnt one of them testify before a Senate com m ittee recently th a t their pow der won the w ar? O r saved the world for dem ocracy? O r som ething? H o w did they do in the war? T hey were a patriotic corporation. W ell, the average earnings of the du P o n ts for the period 1910 to 1914

were $6,000,000 a year. I t w asnt much, b u t the du P o n ts m anaged to get along on it. N ow le ts look a t their average yearly profit du rin g the w ar years, 1914 to 1918. F ifty eight million dollars a y e ar profit, we find! N e arly ten tim es th a t of norm al times, and the profits of norm al times were p re tty good. A n increase in profits of m ore th an 950 p e r cent. T ak e one of our little steel companies th at so patriotically shunted aside the m aking of rails and girders and bridges to m anu facture w ar m aterials. W ell, their 19101914 yearly earnings averaged $6,000,000. T hen came the war. A nd, like loyal citizens, B ethlehem Steel p rom ptly tu rn ed to m uni tions m aking. D id their profits ju m p or did they let U ncle Sam in fo r a bargain? W ell, their 1914-1918 average was $49,000,000 a year !

O r, lets take U n ited S tates Steel. T he norm al earnings d u rin g the five-year period prio r to the w ar were $105,000,000 a year. N o t bad. T hen along came the w ar and up w ent the profits. T he average yearly profit for the period 1914-1918 was $240,000,000. N o t bad. T here you have some of the steel and pow der earnings. L e ts look a t som ething else. A little copper, perhaps. T h a t al ways does well in w ar tim es. A naconda, for instance. A verage yearly earnings d u rin g the pre-w ar years 19101914 of $10,000,000. D u rin g the w ar years 1914-1918 profits leaped to $34,000,000 per year. O r U ta h C opper. A verage of $5,000,000 p er year du rin g th e 1910-1914 periodju m p e d to average of $21,000,000 yearly profits for the w ar period.

L e ts gro u p these five, with three sm aller companies. T he to ta l yearly average profits of the pre-w ar period 1910-1914 were $137,480,000. T hen along came the w ar. T he yearly average profits for this group sky rocketed to $408,300,000. A little increase in profits of app ro x i m ately 200 per cent. D oes w ar pay? I t paid them . B u t they a re n t the only ones. T here are still others. L e ts take leather. F o r the three-year period before the w ar the total profits of C entral L eath er Com pany were $3,500,000. T h a t was ap p ro x i m ately $1,167,000 a year. W ell, in 1916 C en tra l L eath er retu rn e d a p rofit of $15,500,000, a small increase of 1,100 p er cent. T h a ts all. T he G eneral Chemical C om pany aver aged a profit for the three years before the w ar of a little over $800,000 a year. Came

the w ar, and the profits ju m p e d to $12,000,000. A leap of 1,400 p er cent. In tern a tio n a l N ickel C om pany and you cant have a w ar w ithout nickel showed an increase in profits from a m ere average of $4,000,000 a y ear to $73,500,000 yearly. N o t bad? A n increase of m ore th an 1,700 p er cent. A m erican S u g a r R efining C om pany aver aged $2,000,000 a y ear fo r the three years before the w ar. I n 1916 a profit of $6,000,000 was recorded. L isten to Senate D ocum ent N o. 259. T he S ix ty -F ifth Congress, re p o rtin g on cor p orate earnings and governm ent revenues. C onsidering the profits of 122 m eat pack ers, 153 cotton m anufacturers, 299 garm ent m akers, 49 steel plants, and 340 coal pro ducers d u rin g the w ar. P ro fits under 25 p er cent were exceptional. F o r instance,

the coal com panies m ade between 100 per cent and 7,856 p er cent on their capital stock d u rin g the war. T he Chicago packers doubled and tripled their earnings. A n d le t-u s not fo rg et the bankers who financed this g re at w ar. I f anyone had the cream of the profits it was the bankers. B e ing partnerships ra th e r th an incorporated organizations, they do not have to re p o rt to stockholders. A n d th e ir p rofits w ere as secret as they were immense. H ow the bankers m ade their millions and their bil lions I do no t know, because those little secrets never become public even before a Senate investigatory body. B u t heres how some of the other patriotic industrialists and speculators chiseled their w ay into w ar profits. T ak e the shoe people. T hey like war. I t brings business w ith abnorm al profits.

T hey m ade huge profits on sales abroad to our allies. P erh ap s, like the m unitions m anufacturers and arm am ent m akers, they also sold to the enemy. F o r a dollar is a dollar w hether it comes from G erm any or from F ran ce. B u t they did well by U ncle Sam too. F o r instance, they sold U ncle Sam 35,000,000 pairs o f hobnailed service shoes. T here were 4,000,000 soldiers. E ig h t pairs, and more, to a soldier. M y regim ent du rin g the w ar had only a p a ir to a soldier. Some of these shoes probably are still in existence. T hey were good shoes. B u t when the w ar was over U ncle Sam had a m a tte r of 25,000,000 pairs left over. B o u g h t and paid for. P rofits recorded and pocketed. T here was still lots of leather left. So the leather people sold your U ncle Sam hu n dreds of thousands of M cC lellan saddles for the cavalry. B u t there w asnt any A m er-

ican cavalry overseas! Som ebody had to g et rid of this leather, however. Somebody had to m ake a profit on it so we had a lot of M cC lellan saddles. A n d we probably have those yet. A lso somebody had a lot of m osquito n e t ting. T hey sold y our U ncle Sam 20,000,000 m osquito nets for the use of the soldiers overseas. I suppose the boys were expected to p u t it over them as they tried to sleep in the m uddy trenches one hand scratching cooties on their backs and the other m aking passes a t scurrying rats. W ell, not one of these m osquito nets ever got to F ra n c e ! Anyhow , these tho u g h tfu l m anufacturers wanted to m ake sure th at no soldier would be w ithout his m osquito net, so 40,000,000 additional yards of m osquito n e ttin g were sold to U ncle Sam. T here were p re tty good profits in mos

quito n e ttin g in w ar days, even if there were no mosquitoes in France. I suppose, if the w ar had lasted ju s t a little longer, the enterprising m osquito n et tin g m anufacturers would have sold your U ncle Sam a couple of consignm ents of mos quitoes to p lan t in F ra n c e so th a t m ore m osquito n e ttin g would be in order. A irp lan e and engine m anufacturers felt they, too, should get their ju s t profits out of this war. W h y not? E verybody else was g e ttin g theirs. So $1,000,000,000 count them if you live long enough was spent by U ncle Sam in building airplanes and airplane engines th a t never left the ground! N o t one plane, or m otor, out of the billion dollars* w orth ordered, ever got into a battle in F rance. J u s t the same the m anufacturers m ade th eir little profit of 30, 100, or perhaps 300 per cent.

U ndershirts for soldiers cost 14c to m ake and U ncle Sam paid 30c to 40c each for them a nice little profit for the undershirt m anufacturer. A n d the stocking m anufac tu rers and the uniform m anufacturers and the cap m anufacturers and the steel helm et m anufacturers all got theirs. W hy, when the w ar was over some 4,000,000 sets of equipm ent knapsacks and the things th a t go to fill them cram med w are houses on this side. N ow they are being scrapped because the regulations have changed the contents. B u t the m anufac' tu rers collected their w artim e profits on them and they will do it all over again the n e x t time. T here w ere lots of brilliant ideas for profit m aking d u rin g the w ar. O ne very versatile p a trio t sold U ncle Sam twelve dozen 48-inch wrenches. Oh, they

were very nice wrenches. T he only trouble was th a t there was only one n u t ever m ade th a t was large enough for these wrenches. T h a t is the one th a t holds the turbines at N ia g ara F alls! W ell, a fte r U ncle Sam had bought them and the m anufacturer had pocketed the profit, the w renches were p u t on freig h t cars and shunted all aro u n d the U n ited States in an effort to find a use for them. W h en the A rm istice was signed it was indeed a sad blow to the wrench m anu facturer. W e was ju s t about to m ake some nuts to fit the wrenches. T hen he planned to sell these, too, to your U ncle Sam. S till another had the brilliant idea th a t colonels shouldnt ride in automobiles, nor should they even ride horseback. O ne had probably seen a p ictu re of A n d y Jackson rid in g on a buckboard. W ell, some 6,000 buckboards were sold to U ncle Sam for the

use of colonels! N o t one of them was used. B u t the buckboard m an u factu rer g o t his w ar profit. T he shipbuilders felt they should come in on some of it, too. T hey built a lot of ships th a t m ade a lot of profit. M ore than $3,000,000,000 w orth. Some of the ships were all right. B u t $635,000,000 w orth of them were m ade of wood and wouldnt float ! T he seams opened u p and they sank. W e paid fo r them , though. A n d somebody pocketed the profits. I t has been estim ated by statisticians and economists and researchers th a t the w ar cost your U n cle Sam $52,000,000,000. O f this sum, $39,000,000,000 was expended in the actual w ar period. T his expenditure yielded $16,000,000,000 in profits. T h a t is how the 21,000 billionaires and m illionaires got th a t way. T his $16,000,000,000 profits is not to

be sneezed at. I t is quite a tidy sum. A n d it w ent to a very few. T he S en ate (N y e) com m ittee probe of the m unitions in d u stry and its w artim e profits, despite its sensational disclosures, h ardly has scratched the surface. E v en so, it has had some effect. T he S ta te D e p artm en t has been studying for some tim e m ethods of keeping out of war. T he W a r D e p artm en t suddenly decides it has a w onderful plan to spring. T he A dm in istration names a comm ittee w ith the W a r and N a v y D e p artm en ts ably represented u nder the chairm anship of a W a ll S treet speculator to lim it profits in w ar tim e. T o w hat extent isnt suggested. H m m m . P o s sibly the profits of 300 and 600 and 1,600 per cent of those who tu rn ed blood into gold in the W o rld W a r would be lim ited to some sm aller figure.

A p p a ren tly , however, the plan does not call for any lim itation of losses th a t is, the losses of those who fight the w ar. A s fa r as I have been able to ascertain th e re is noth ing in the scheme to limit a soldier to the loss of b u t one eye, or one arm , or to lim it his w ounds to one or two or three. O r to lim it the loss of life. T here is nothing in this scheme, a p p a r ently, th a t says not m ore th an 12 p er cent of a regim ent shall be wounded in battle, or th a t not m ore than 7 p e r cent in a division shall be killed. O f course, the comm ittee cannot be both ered with such trifling m atters.

C h apter T h ree

W H O PA Y S T H E

B IL L S ?

H O .provides the profits these nice little profits of 20, 100, 300, 1,500, and 1,800 per cent? W e all pay them in taxation. W e paid the bankers their profits when we bought L ib e rty B onds at $100 and sold them back a t $84 or $86 to the bankers. T hese bankers collected $100 plus. a sim ple tro l the them to T hen all I t was m anipulation. T he bankers con security m arts. I t was easy for depress the price of these bonds. of us the people got frightened

and sold the bonds a t $84 or $86. T he bankers bought them. T hen these same bankers stim ulated a boom and governm ent bonds went to p a r and above. T hen the bankers collected their profits. B u t the soldier pays the biggest p a rt of the bill. I f you dont believe this, visit the A m eri can cemeteries on the battlefields abroad. O r visit any of the veterans hospitals in the U n ited States. O n a to u r of the country, in the m idst of which I am at the tim e of this w riting, I have visited eighteen governm ent hospitals for veterans. I n them are a to tal o f about 50,000 destroyed m en m en who were the pick of the nation eighteen years ago. T he very able chief surgeon a t the governm ent hospital a t M ilwaukee, where there are 3,800 of the living dead, told me th a t m ortality am ong veterans is th ree tim es

as g re at as am ong those who stayed at home. Boys with a norm al view point were taken out of the fields and offices and factories and classrooms and p u t into the ranks. T here they were rem olded; they were m ade over; they were m ade to about face ; to reg ard m urder as the order of the day. T hey were p u t shoulder to shoulder and, through mass psychology, they were entirely changed. W e used them for a couple of years and trained them to think nothing a t all of killing or of being killed. T hen, suddenly, we discharged them and told them to m ake another about face ! This tim e they had to do their own re a d ju st ing, sans mass psychology, sans officers aid and advice, sans nation-w ide p ropaganda. W e didnt need them any more. So we scat tered them about w ithout any three-m in u te or L ib e rty L o a n speeches or parades.

M any, too m any, of these fine young boys are eventually destroyed, m entally, because they could not m ake th a t final about face alone.

In the government hospital at Marion, In diana, 1,800 of these boys are in pens ! Five hundred of them in a barracks with steel bars and wires all around outside the build ings and on the porches. These already have been mentally destroyed. These boys dont even look like human beings. Oh, the looks on their faces ! Physically, they are in good shape; mentally, they are gone.
T here are thousands and thousands of these cases, and m ore and m ore are com ing in all the time. T he trem endous excitem ent of the war, the sudden cuttin g off of th at excitem ent the young boys couldnt stand it. T h a ts a p a rt of the bill. So much for

the dead they have paid their p a rt of the w ar profits. So m uch for the m entally and physically w ounded they are paying now their share of the w ar profits. B u t the others paid, too they paid with heartbreaks when they tore themselves aw ay from their fire sides and their families to don the uniform of U ncle Sam on which a profit had been made. T hey paid another p a rt in the tra in ing cam ps where they were regim ented and drilled while others took their jobs and their places in the lives of their communities. T hey paid for it in the trenches where they shot and were shot; where they w ent hun g ry for days at a tim e; where they slept in the m ud and in the cold and in the rain with the m oans and shrieks of the dying for a horrible lullaby. B u t dont fo rg et the soldier paid p a rt of the dollars and cents bill too.

U p to and including the S panish-A m eri can W a r, we had a prize system, and sol diers and sailors fought fo r money. D u rin g the Civil W a r they were paid bonuses, in m any instances, before they w ent into ser vice. T he governm ent, or states, paid as high as $1,200 for an enlistm ent. In the Spanish-A m erican W a r they gave prize money. W hen we captured any vessels, the soldiers all got their share at least, they were supposed to. T hen it was found th a t we could reduce the cost o f w ars by tak in g all the prize money and keeping it, but con scripting the soldier anyway. T h en the soldiers couldnt bargain for their labor. E veryone else could bargain, but the soldier couldnt. N apoleon once said, A ll m en are enam ored of decorations . . . they positively hunger fo r them .

So, by developing the N apoleonic system the m edal business the governm ent learned it could g et soldiers for less money, because the boys liked to be decorated. U n til the Civil W a r there were no m edals. T h en the Congressional M edal of H o n o r was handed out. I t m ade enlistm ents easier. A fte r the Civil W a r no new medals were issued until the Spanish-A m erican W a r. I n the W o rld W a r, we used p ropaganda to m ake the boys accept conscription. T hey were m ade to feel ashamed if they didnt jo in the arm y. So vicious was this w ar prop ag an d a th at even God was brought into it. W ith few exceptions our clergym en joined in the clam or to kill, kill, kill. T o kill the G e r m ans. G od is on our side . . . it is H is will th a t the G erm ans be killed. A n d in G erm any, the good pastors called [32]

upon the G erm ans to kill the allies . . . to please the same God. T h a t was a p a rt of the general propaganda, built u p to m ake people w ar conscious and m urder conscious. B e autiful ideals were painted for our boys who were sent out to die. T his was the w ar to end w ars. T his was the w ar to m ake the world safe for dem ocracy. N o one told them th a t dollars and cents w ere the real reason. N o one m entioned to them , as they m arched away, th a t their going and their dying would m ean huge w ar profits. N o one told these A m erican soldiers th a t they m ight be shot down by bullets m ade by their own brothers here. N o one told them th at the ships on which they were going to cross m ight be torpedoed by subm arines built with U nited States patents. T hey were ju s t told it was to be a glorious adventure. T hus, having stuffed patriotism down

their throats, it was decided to m ake them help pay for the war, too. So, we gave them the large salary of $30 a m onth ! A ll they had to do for this m unificent sum was to leave their dear ones behind, give up their jobs, lie in sw am py trenches, eat canned willy (when they could g e t it) and kill and kill and k i l l . . . and be killed. B u t wait I H a lf of th a t wage ( ju s t a little more in a m onth than a riveter in a shipyard or a laborer in a m unitions factory safe a t home m ade in a day) was p ro m p tly taken from him to su p p o rt his dependents, so th a t they would not become a charge upon his com m unity. T hen we m ade him pay w hat am ounted to accident insurance som ething the em ployer pays fo r in an enlightened state and th a t cost him $6 a m onth. H e had less th a n $9 a m on th left.

T hen, the m ost crow ning insolence of all he was v irtually b lackjacked into p a y in g for his own am m unition, clothing, and food by being m ade to buy L ib e rty Bonds. M ost soldiers got no m oney a t all on pay days. ^W e m ade them buy L ib e rty B onds at $100 and then we bought them back when they came back from the w ar and couldnt find w ork a t $84 and $86. A nd the sol diers bought about $2,000,000,000 w orth of these bonds ! Y es, the soldier pays the g re ater p a rt of the bill. H is fam ily pays it too. T hey pay it in the same heart-break th a t he does. A s he suffers, they suffer. A t nights, as he lay in the trenches and watched shrapnel bu rst about him, they lay home in their beds and tossed sleeplessly his father, his m other, his wife, his sisters, his brothers, his sons, and his daughters.

W h en he retu rn ed home m inus an eye, or m inus a leg o r with his m ind broken, they suffered too as much as and even sometimes m ore than he. Yes, and they, too, contrib uted their dollars to the profits th a t the m unitions m akers and bankers and ship builders and the m an u factu rers and the spec u lators made. They, too, bought L ib e rty Bonds and contributed to the profit of the bankers a fte r the A rm istice in the hocuspocus of m anipulated L ib e rty B ond prices. A n d even now the families of the wounded m en and of the m entally broken and those who never were able to re a d ju st themselves are still suffering and still paying.

C hapter F oue

H O W TO SM A SH T H IS R A C K E T I E L L , its a racket, all right. A few profit and the m any pay. B u t there is a w ay to stop it. Y o u cant end it by disarm am ent conferences. Y ou cant elim inate it by peace parleys at G eneva. W ell-m eaning bu t im practical groups cant

wipe it out by resolutions.

I t can be

sm ashed effectively only by tak in g the profit out of w ar. T he only way to smash this racket is to conscript capital and in d u stry and labor be

fore the n atio n s m anhood can be con scripted. One m onth before the G overn m ent can conscript the young m en of the nation it m ust conscript capital and indus try and labor. L e t the officers and the direc tors and the high-pow ered executives of our arm am ent factories and our steel com panies and our m unitions m akers and our ship builders and our airplane builders and the m anufacturers of all the other things th at provide profit in w ar tim e as well as the bankers and the speculators, be conscripted to g et $30 a m onth, the same wage as the lads in the trenches get. L e t the workers in these p lants g et the same wages all the w orkers, all presidents, all executives, all directors, all m anagers, all bankersyes, and all generals and all ad m irals and all officers and all politicians and all governm ent office holders everyone in

the nation be restricted to a to tal m onthly income not to exceed th a t paid to the soldier in the trenches! L e t all these kings and tycoons and m as ters of business and all those workers in industry and all our senators and governors and m ayors pay half of their m onthly $30 wage to their families and p a y w ar risk in surance and buy L ib e rty Bonds. W h y shouldnt they? T hey a re n t ru n n in g any risk of being killed or of having their bodies m angled or their m inds shattered. T hey a ren t sleep ing in m uddy trenches. T hey a ren t hun gry. T he soldiers are! Give capital and industry and labor thirty days to think it over and you will find, by th at time, there will be no war. T h a t will smash the w ar racket th a t and nothing else.

Maybe I am a little too optimistic. Cap ital still has some say. So capital wont permit the taking of the profit out of war until the peoplethose who do the suffering and still pay the pricemake up their minds that those they elect to office shall do their bidding, and not that of the profiteers.
A nother step necessary in this fight to smash the w ar racket is a lim ited plebiscite to determ ine w hether w ar should be de clared. A plebiscite not of all the voters but m erely of those who would be called upon to do the fighting and the dying. T here w ouldnt be very much sense in having the 76-year-old president of a m unitions factory or the flat-footed head of an international banking firm or the cross-eyed m anager of a uniform m anufacturing p lan t all of whom see visions o f trem endous profits in the event of w ar voting on w hether the

nation should go to w ar o r not. T hey never would be called upon to shoulder arm s to sleep in a trench and to be shot. O nly those who would be called upon to risk their lives for their country should have the privilege of voting to determ ine whether the nation should go to w ar. T here is am ple precedent for restricting the voting to those affected. M any of our states have restrictions on those perm itted to vote. I n most, it is necessary to be able to read and w rite before you m ay vote. I n som e, you m u st own pro p erty . I t would be a simple m atter each year for the men com ing of m ilitary age to register in their com m unities as they did in the d ra ft d u rin g the W o rld W a r and to be exam ined physi cally. Those who could pass and who would therefore be called upon to bear arm s in the event of w ar would be eligible to vote in a

lim ited plebiscite. T hey should be the ones to have the pow er to decide and not a Con gress few of whose members are within the age lim it and few er still of whom are in physical condition to b e ar arm s. O nly those who m ust suffer should have the rig h t to vote. A third step in this business of sm ashing the w ar racket is to m ake certain th a t our m ilitary forces are tru ly forces fo r defense only. A t each session of Congress the question of fu rth e r naval appropriations comes up. T he swivel-chair adm irals of W ashington (and there are always a lot of them ) are very adroit lobbyists. A n d they are sm art. T hey dont shout th a t W e need a lot of battleships to w ar on this nation or that natio n . Oh, no. F irs t of all, they let it be known th a t A m erica is m enaced by a

g re at naval power. A lm ost any day, these adm irals will tell you, the g re a t fleet of this supposed enem y will strike suddenly and annihilate our 125,000,000 people. J u s t like th at. T h en they begin to cry for a larg e r navy. F o r what? T o fight the enemy? Oh my, no. Oh, no. F o r defense purposes only. T hen, incidentally, they announce m aneu vers in the Pacific. F o r defense. U h, huh. T h e Pacific is a g re a t big ocean. W e have a trem endous coastline on the Pacific. W ill the m aneuvers be off the coast, two or three hundred miles? Oh, no. T he m aneuvers will be two thousand, yes, perhaps even thirty-five hundred miles, off the coast. T he Japanese, a proud people, of course will be pleased beyond expression to see the U nited States fleet so close to N ip p o n s shores. E v en as pleased as would be the residents of C alifornia were they to dim ly

discern, through the m orning m ist, the J a p anese fleet playing a t w ar games off Los Angeles. T he ships of our navy, it can be seen, should be specifically limited, by law, to within 200 miles of our coastline. H a d th a t been the law in 1898 the M aine would never have gone to H a v a n a H a rb o r. She never w ould have been blown up. T here would have been no w ar with Spain with its a tte n d a n t loss of life. T w o hundred miles is am ple, in the opinion of experts, fo r defense purposes. O ur nation cannot sta rt an offen sive w ar if its ships cant go fa rth e r than 200 miles from the coastline. P lanes m ight be perm itted to go as fa r as 500 miles from the coast for purposes of reconnaissance. A n d the arm y should never leave the te rri torial lim its of our nation.

T o sum m arize : T hree steps m ust be taken to smash the w ar racket. W e m ust take the profit out of w ar. W e m ust p erm it the youth of the land who w ould bear arm s to decide w hether or not th ere should be w ar. W e m ust lim it our m ilitary forces to home defense purposes.

C h a p t e r F iv e

TO IIE L L W IT H W A R!

T A M not such 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.
L ooking back, W oodrow W ilson was re elected president in 1916 on a platform th at he had kept us out of w ar and on the im plied prom ise th at he would keep us out of war. Y et, five months later he asked Con gress to declare w ar on G erm any.

I n th at five-month interval the people had not been asked w hether they had changed their minds. T he 4,000,000 young m en who p u t on uniform s and m arched or sailed aw ay were not asked w hether they w anted to go forth to suffer and to die.

Then what caused our government to change its mind so suddenly? Money. A n 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. W e now owe you (American bankers, American munitions makers,

American manufacturers, American speculators, American exporters) five or six billion dollars. I f 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 wont. So____ H ad secrecy been outlawed as far as war negotiations were concerned, and had the press been invited to be present at that con ference, or had the radio been available to broadcast the proceedings, America never would have entered the W orld W ar. B ut this conference, like all war discussions, was shrouded in the utmost secrecy. W hen 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.

W ell, 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 E ngland or France or Italy or A ustria live under democracies or mon archies? W hether they are Fascists or Communists? O ur problem is to preserve our own democracy. A nd very little, if anything, has been accomplished to assure us that the W orld W a r was really the war to end all wars. Yes, we have had disarmament confer ences and limitations of arms conferences. They dont mean a thing. One has ju st failed; the results of another have been nullified. W e send our professional soldiers and our sailors and our politicians and our diplomats to these conferences. A nd what happens? The professional soldiers and sailors dont

w ant to disarm .

N o adm iral w ants to be

without a ship. N o general w ants to be without a command. Both m ean m en w ithout jobs. T hey are n ot for disarm am ent. T hey cannot be for lim itations of arms. A nd at all these conferences, lurking in the back ground b u t all-pow erful, ju s t the same, are the sinister agents of those who profit by war. They see to it that these conferences do not disarm or seriously lim it arm a m ents. T he chief aim of any pow er at any of these conferences has been not to achieve dis arm am ent in order to prevent w ar but rath er to endeavor to g et m ore arm am ent for itself and less for any potential foe. T here is only one way to disarm with any semblance of practicability. T h a t is for all nations to g et together and scrap every ship, every gun, every rifle, every tank, every war

plane. Even this, if it were at all possible, would not be enough. The next war, according to experts, will be fought not with battleships, not by artil lery, not with rifles and not with machine guns. I t will be fought with deadly chem icals and gases. Secretly each nation is studying and per fecting newer and ghastlier means of anni hilating its foes wholesale.' Yes, ships will continue to be built, for the shipbuilders must make their profits. A nd guns still will be manufactured and powder and rifles will be made, for the munitions makers must make their huge profits. A nd the soldiers, of course, must wear uniforms, for the manu facturers must make their war profits too. B ut victory or defeat will be determined by the skill and ingenuity of our scientists. I f 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 a greater prosperity for all peoples. B y putting them to this useful job, we can all make more money out of peace than we can out of wareven the munition makers. So . . . I say, TO H E L L W IT H W A R !