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Take the Profit Out of War
- University of Wisconsin Press
- Chapter
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Take the ProWt Out of War Robert M. La Follette february 1915 It is repugnant to every moral sense that governments should even indirectly be drawn into making and prosecuting a war through the machinations of those who make money by it. Yet the vast capital privately invested in plants for naval construction, and the manufacture of munitions of war necessary for the equipment of armies, has the strongest possible inducement to employ every means to shape conditions and inXuence policies which lead on to armed conXict. It means business. It means dividends . It means great accumulations of wealth in private hands to be again turned, though organization, into the building of more plants, more battleships, the manufacture of more powder, more shot and shell. In the end it has but one purpose, and that is to sacriWce human life for private gain. Back of every big army and any appropriation bill is the organized power of private interest, pressing for larger appropriations, for more battleships, more armor plate, more powder, more riXes, more machine guns, a larger standing army, a bigger navy, because there follows in the wake of such legislation fat army contracts, with attendant opportunity for graft and easy money. Over and over again we have heard the same arguments from the same organs of the great special interests, making their hypocritical appeals on the ground of patriotism; urging that thorough preparation for war is always a sure guarantee of peace. What state, what city Wnds security for peace and good order in allowing every man to pack a gun? Why have civilized communities enacted laws and ordinances prohibiting inhabitants from going about armed? States are but aggregations of individuals . Nations are but great groups of human beings. The deadly weapon within ready reach of the hand breeds a murderer. And nations, armed to the teeth, quickly resort to killing as a means of settling their di¤erences. International agreement for reducing the oppressive expenditures in preparation for war may be remote. But one thing we in America can do and do at once: We can nationalize the manufacture of all munitions of war. We can take away from private interest all the incentive to increase army and navy appropriation bills. We can set a worthy example for the world. 249 ...