The Germs of War/Chapter 8
8. The War Makers.
Those who benefit most immediately and most directly by the war business are the makers of the munitions of war. The munition makers, or, more correctly, the "war makers," depend for their livelihood on fear, hatred, preparedness, slaughter, desolation.
The jackal is a prince, the vulture a gentleman, the hyena a reputable citizen compared with these war traffickers. God made the beasts and birds what they are; the munitions business is a man-made business. The quivering flesh of nations as its food. There is more joy among the makers of munitions over one nation at war than over fifty nations at peace. These scavengers of civilization make hell on earth and then fatten on the profits of their frightful business.
If you want a picture of the work of the munition makers, write to Congressman Clyde H. Tavenner (House of Representatives, Washington), and ask for copies of his two masterful speeches, "The Worldwide War Trust" and "The Navy League Unmasked." In the first of these speeches Congressman Tavenner shows that the munitions makers have received hugh profits from the United States Government. Shrapnel that were manufactured in the Government Arsenal for $7.94 were sold to Uncle Sam by the munition makers for $17.50; time fuses were made for $2.92 and bought from the munition makers for $7.00; armor plate, torpedo flasks, rotary drums—all sold to the government for far more than a reasonable profit on the cost of production.
If it is true that we are now unprepared, argues Congressman Tavenner, after spending six hundred millions in the past five years on our navy; if we are unprepared, and spending half a billion each year on our war establishment, there must be some reason. "I believe," he says, "that these officers who, in the expenditure of the people's money, have been paying $115,075 for supplies which could have been obtained for $58,246, should somewhere or in some manner be required to make a public accounting for their acts."
Congressman Tavenner goes into the question of armor plate manufacturé, which he describes as "one long scandal." He shows that nine official estimates place the cost of making a ton of armor plate at $247.17. "Yet since 1887 we have purchased 217,379 tons of armor, paying the Armor ring an average of $440.04 per ton." Then he shows how the armor plate makers of England, Germany, Austria, France, Italy and the United States formed an armor plate trust, and he tells of the scandals in all of those countries and in Japan that arose out of the efforts of these war traffickers to sell more armor and thus make more profits.
He shows how the war makers manufacture news, misrepresent events, publish false alarms, and create fear in order to sell munitions. Case after case he cites, in which European Governments explored the trail of the war makers, and found them plotting and planning to create the same kind of intolerable friction between European Governments that the American interests referred to by the President have been attempting to create between the United States and Mexico.
Most vital of all, he shows that while the United States Government was experimenting with powder, and turning the results of their experiments over to a great American firm of powder manufacturers, this American firm had a contract with a German firm which required it to inform the German firm of "any and every improvement" in their processes of manufacture, and to keep them advised of the orders for powder received "from the government of the United States, or any other parties." This firm was actually turning over to the German firm full information regarding all of the powder secrets and powder business of the United States Government.
Furthermore, Congressman Tavenner shows that a man high in the military circles of the United States was formerly in partnership with one of the great munitions firms, and that one of these firms employs an Ex-Army Official and Ex-Member of Congress to attend to its business in Washington. So, page after page, the sickening recital continues.
The speech, "The Navy League Unmasked," shows that these same war makers, or their representatives, run up and down the land and, in the name of patriotism, cry "Prepare," well knowing that each dollar spent for preparedness is money in their pockets. There is something sinister for the future of the republic in this "pocket-patriotism" or "profits patriotism" because, in the last analysis, it is no patriotism at all.
A group of Mexican bandits recently made a raid on a town in the United States, killed United States citizens and United States soldiers—killed them with rifles and bullets made in the United States. If war is declared tomorrow between Mexico and the United States, these profit-patriots would sell guns and munitions to the Mexicans as readily as they shipped rotten meat to the American soldiers during the Spanish-American War. Their country is capital. Their religion is profit. Their God is gold. Yet they cry patriotism to a pathetically ignorant and patient citizenship which is beginning to wonder whether there is not a need for preparedness after all.
The munition makers are not the only business men who benefit by war. The steel business, the oil business, the coal business, the shoe business, the woolen business, the meat business, the copper business and general business pick up in war times. These businesses are not averse to war. Some of the men engaged in them have been frank enough to wish publicly that the war would last at least three years, because, "It would mean so much to American business!" War for the sake of dividends! Prosperity, built on murder and rapine!
The munition makers are not the source of war.
This is not the end, however. England and Germany did not drop into a war stride because the munition makers wanted contracts, or because war meant better business, but because competitive business is war.
Two hundred years ago France was the leading country of the world. The English developed the factory system, and pushed France out of first place. The supremacy of France ended in 1815 with the Napoleonic Wars.
For a hundred years England has been the supreme industrial and commercial nation. It is only during the past forty years that Germany has come to the front. Her rise has been spectacular, however. Armed with her industrial, social, educational and military efficiency, she has threatened the world supremacy of England in the fields of industry, commerce and finance. England knew and understood the danger; Germany saw her real foe. It was for this reason that England and Germany flew at one another's throats.