Page:Scott Nearing - The Germs of War (1916).djvu/27

 The American Exploiters are to continue their system of exploitation; they are to take the surplus secured by this exploitation; they are to invest this surplus for the purpose of exploiting resources and people outside of the United States and the United States is to prepare to defend them in this new exploiting venture. Thus preparedness is intended to back up economic piracy.

Do you object?

Are you not willing to pay higher prices, to add to the tax rate, to pile up national debt, perhaps to give your son, your brother, your husband, your father, in this holy cause of economic exploitation? The oil interests, the copper interests, the steel interests, the timber interests, the sugar interests, are calling to you, "Prepare! Prepare!" will you not rush to their aid?

You may hesitate unpatriotically, and question,—"Why," you ask, "do they not sell their surplus products at home. There are many in the direst need, here. Why not America first?" Why not? Because, the wages paid by these American exploiters to the American wage earners are so small in comparison to their product, that they cannot buy back what they made. The American wage scale stands between the American worker and his product. Now are you not satisfied?

What, you still protest? Then know this. That in the past, the American exploiters have been under a grave disadvantage as compared with their brothers abroad. They alone, among the capitalists of the world, have had no great standing army to protect their interests in their own country. Consequently malcontents and agitators have been able to stir up revolts and cut profits. Stand aside! Let preparedness become a reality and the vested interests of the United States will have an army in the words of President Wilson's last message,—"No larger than is actually and continuously needed for the uses of days in which no enemies move against us. Under no circumstances," he says, "will we maintain a standing army except for uses which are as necessary in times of peace as in times of war."