The Germs of War/Chapter 11
11. Swat the Germ!
No thinking man can be patriotic to such a scheme of economic aggrandizement. No rational human being can be expected to rush forward to the defense of the gang that has already picked his pockets.
We are intelligent.
We use our minds.
We are for peace.
We are willing to prepare for peace.
The means of preparedness are as obvious as they are unwelcome to the profit patriots.
We are against war. We think we have found the germ of war. Then swat the germ! Let us here highly resolve that we will devote our energy, our thought, our lives to the work of destroying the germs of war. Joining hands, let us declare that:
1. War makers must go! Henceforth, all munitions shall be made by the government.
2. War profits must go! In case of war from this day forward, every able-bodied man in the United States will be put on the government pay-roll at $17.00 a month, and rent, interest, dividends and profits will cease until the war is ended.
3. Economic Exploitation must go! The land, the resources, the public utilities, the social tools, must all be controlled and managed socially, not for profits, but for service.
These three steps we will take in order to destroy the germs of war. Then having turned our backs on the outworn things of the past, we will begin the work of true preparedness—for life, joy, hope, and the future. In furtherance of this plan to make happy, noble human beings:
1. We will guarantee to every child the right to be well born.
2. We will guarantee to every child the right to enough food, clothing and education to insure physical, and mental health and growth.
3. We will guarantee to each adult the full produce of his labor.
4. We will provide insurance against sickness, accidents, unemployment, and death.
5. We will give pensions against old age to every man and woman who has done his share of the work of the world.
6. We will take for social purposes all social values, whether in resources, in franchises, or in the product of any human activity.
7. And finally we will seek to guarantee equal opportunity to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness through a government that restricts its activities to those necessary to provide for securing the common weal.