EUGENE DEBS SPEECH AGAINST
WAR FOR WHICH HE WAS IMPRISONED IN AMERICA Wars throughout history have
been waged for conquest and plunder. In the Middle Ages
when the feudal lords who inhabited the castles whose
towers may still be seen along the Rhine concluded to
enlarge their domains, to increase their power, their
prestige and their wealth they declared war upon one
another. But they themselves did not go to war any more
than the modern feudal lords, the barons of Wall Street
go to war.
The feudal barons of the Middle Ages, the economic
predecessors of the capitalists of our day, declared all
wars. And their miserable serfs fought all the battles.
The poor, ignorant serfs had been taught to revere their
masters; to believe that when their masters declared war
upon one another, it was their patriotic duty to fall
upon one another and to cut one another's throats for the
profit and glory of the lords and barons who held them in
contempt. And that is war in a nutshell. The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has
always fought the battles. The master class has had all
to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has
had nothing to gain and all to lose--especially their
lives.
They have always taught and trained you to believe it to
be your patriotic duty to go to war and to have
yourselves slaughtered at their command. But in all the
history of the world you, the people, have never had a
voice in declaring war, and strange as it certainly
appears, no war by any nation in any age has ever been
declared by the people.
And here let me emphasize the fact--and it cannot be
repeated too often--that the working class who fight all
the battles, the working class who make the supreme
sacrifices, the working class who freely shed their blood
and furnish the corpses, have never yet had a voice in
either declaring war or making peace. It is the ruling
class that invariably does both. They alone declare war
and they alone make peace. Yours not to reason why; Yours
but to do and die. That is their motto and we object on
the part of the awakening workers of this nation. If war
is right let it be declared by the people. You who have
your lives to lose, you certainly above all others have
the right to decide the momentous issue of war or
peace....
You need at this time especially to know that you are fit
for something better than slavery and cannon fodder. You
need to know that you were not created to work and
produce and impoverish yourself to enrich an idle
exploiter. You need to know that you have a mind to
improve, a soul to develop, and a manhood to sustain....
They are continually talking about your patriotic duty.
It is not their but your patriotic duty that they are
concerned about. There is a decided difference. Their
patriotic duty never takes them to the firing line or
chucks them into the trenches.
And now for all of us to do our duty! The clarion call is
ringing in our ears and we cannot falter without being
convicted of treason to ourselves and to our great cause.
Do not worry over the charge of treason to your masters,
but be concerned about the treason that involves
yourselves. Be true to yourself and you cannot be a
traitor to any good cause on earth.
.
...
Major General Smedley Butler: WAR IS JUST A RACKET
it may be useful to
reflect upon the following excerpt from a speech
delivered in 1933 by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC.
General Butler was twice awarded the Congressional Medal
of Honor (1914, 1917). General Douglas MacArthur
described Butler as "one of the really great
generals in American history."
War is just a racket. A racket is best described,
I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the
majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what
it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very
few at the expense of the masses.
I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and
nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then
we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the
dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets
restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the
flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.
I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to
protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There
are only two things we should fight for. One is the
defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights.
War for any other reason is simply a racket.
There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the
military gang is blind to. It has its "finger
men" to point out enemies, its "muscle
men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men"
to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss"
Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.
It may seem odd for me, a military man, to adopt
such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent
thirty-three years and four months in active military
service as a member of this country's most agile military
force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned
ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during
that period, I spent most of my time being a high class
muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the
Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a
gangster for capitalism. I suspected I was just part of a
racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the
members of the military profession, I never had a thought
of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties
remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders
of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the
military service.
The record of racketeering is long:-
- I helped make Mexico,
especially Tampico, safe for American oil
interests in 1914.
- I helped make Haiti
and Cuba a decent place for the National City
Bank boys to collect revenues in.
- I helped in the
raping of half a dozen Central American republics
for the benefits of Wall Street.
- I helped purify
Nicaragua for the international banking house of
Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 .
- I brought light to
the Dominican Republic for American sugar
interests in 1916.
- In China I helped to
see to it that Standard Oil went its way
unmolested.
During those years, I had,
as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking
back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a
few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket
in three districts. I operated on three continents.
© 2002 by Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. Reproduction
encouraged. Please acknowledge source and provide
Foundation contact information in all copies.
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