MILITARISM

THE NEW SLAVERY FOR AMERICA

By JOHN T. FLYNN

AUTHOR OF: THE ROAD AHEAD, WHILE YOU SLEPT, THE LATTIMORE STORY

Published by AMERICA'S FUTURE, INC., 208 E. 43rd ST., NEW YORK 17, N. Y.

The story that follows is an expansion of a broadcast made by John T. Flynn over the facilities of the Mutual Broadcasting System on June 5, 1955.

Note: As a Network Cooperative Program, the John T. Flynn commentaries are available to all Mutual affiliates without cost. If John T. Flynn is not heard in your city, you can contact your nearest Mutual radio station, as an individual or in groups, suggesting it broadcast this important pro-American program.

Copyright 1955, John T. Flynn

MILITARISM—THE NEW SLAVERY FOR AMERICA

by JOHN T. FLYNN

The people of the United States are now confronted by a movement to introduce into this country the project of Universal Military Training—UMT, as it is called—as a permanent institution. The ostensible purpose is to create a great reservoir of manpower to fight whatever global or other wars in which we may be involved. The assumption, of course, is that we live in a world upon which Communist Russia has launched with appalling success a monstrous plan to conquer it all for communism.

Before we go further, let me warn you to be on guard against the supposition that UMT is essentially a military institution. There is a great deal more to it than national defense and soldiering. There is nothing new about it. It has been used in every important country of Western Europe—except Britain, to her eternal credit. And it has brought every country that used it to bankruptcy and war.

As long as I can recall there have been groups here devoted to UMT, chiefly because they thought it offered excellent discipline for our youth. But its sponsors got nowhere with that argument in free America.

Fortunately UMT has been tried in many countries. We will do well, therefore, to keep an open mind until we see clearly the various interests behind this dangerous institution. We can see this in all its aspects in the experience of Germany and Italy.

GERMANY

dreams of colonial expansion.

The great German Chancellor decided, after some experimenting, that he could give the German people all that the socialists promised without setting up socialism — a tragic blunder which politicians in America who have not read history seem not to have comprehended to this day. As early as 1887 various German leaders were talking about capitalism suffering from a "lack of planning." Von Moltke and other German military leaders, following their great victories, were rewarded

ideas of socialism — and to this he added the glamorous job-making boundargle of militarism.

In one social area he established old-age pensions, unemployment insurance and public works to absorb as many unemployed as possible. He encouraged the several German states to take over railroads, electric power plants, water works, municipal transport, telegraphs, forests, mines and industrial enterprises. His avowed purpose was to operate these enterprises at a profit to lighten the burden of taxation on the people. This has been called State Capitalism.

But all these adventures were not sufficient to make the Planned Society work — a society that would provide jobs and security for all and take the wind out of the sails of the socialist revolutionaries.

None of this was enough. And it was no very broad jump for the Junker rulers of Germany to recognize the possibilities in Universal Military Training. While they were aware of its military value to a Germany then straining at the leash for imperialistic adventures, they were also aware of its job-making possibilities. These were derived from two sources:

1. Conscription takes into the armed forces great numbers of young men on coming of age who would otherwise be seeking jobs in private industry.

2. Not only were these regis-

trants removed from the labor market, but they were provided with barracks, clothing, food, medical care at the expense of the taxpayers.

But this program involved still another and enormously important department. These huge levies of men had to be armed. This brought into existence Germany's vast armament industry, which became her greatest industry. It involved not only the manufacture of weapons and munitions, but it drew upon the raw material industries for steel, copper, wood products, chemicals; the garment industry for making uniforms; the shoe industry; the farmers for the immense herds of horses for the cavalry and the feed for horses and men. To which must be added the pay of the drafted men which, however small, made a substantial addition to the purchasing power of the nation.

The immensity of this huge military industry in Germany by 1907 may be seen from some figures. There were 600,000 men in the Army and 33,000 in the Navy. There were 1,800,000 employed in the materials industries such as mining and metals and forestry and commerce and trade, entirely dependent on government military orders. Actually militarism became a huge PWA (Public Works Administration) that provided jobs for vast military and industrial armies. When critics complained of the oppressive taxes and borrowings to support this enter-

prise, the reply, to quote one cabinet official referring to the military industry, was that "The national economy, with its thousand wheels, through which millions find a living, cannot stand still for long." Another German statesman, at the Peace Conference in 1898, declared that "the armies are not impoverishing the people and the military service was not a burden." And he declared that "Germany owed her prosperity to military service." Of course, there was the inevitable professor to assure the people that "In spite of the fact that millions in taxes were required to maintain this rapidly increasing naval power, the public in general was pleased with the new navalism." In fact the Herr Doctor declared:

"People associated prosperity and good times with monarchy and its militaristic props, and they seemed to be convinced that this prosperity would continue if the fighting forces of the nation were continually modernized."

This is not an interpretation put on these policies after the event. The German leaders knew quite well what they were doing and why. An English writer in 1942 called attention to this gaudy boondoggle in our own time. He wrote:

"The special features of the demand for armaments which has enabled it to be used as a solution of the unemployment problem are two. In the first place, the demand, being unlimited, imposes a system not merely of planned production but of

planned consumption. Secondly, the plan of consumption is not determined by considerations of price and profit."

Of course the same result can be obtained from peace-time projects, but there is always a resistance to spending on peace-time projects. But on armies and armaments it is possible to break down the resistance by promoting fears of external danger, threats of war, or invasion. There is another reason. Where money was spent on war goods those who benefited were highly organized — as the huge armament industries in Germany which maintained powerful lobbies and could also keep alive endless war scares. Indeed it became a policy with the armament industries to employ retired army officers who enjoyed easy access and influence over the policy and purchasing bureaus of the government.

However, this policy confronted Bismarck's Germany with one dangerous problem. It was never possible to collect enough laxes to pay the bills. In 1870 Germany defeated France and created the unification of the German states into the German Empire. Bismarck wrung from France an indemnity of 4,467,000,000 marks—a huge sum in the values of that day. But despite this great bankroll to start with, the new empire began immediately to go into debt. Here are the figures on the rise of Germany's national debt follow-

ing the Franco-Prussian war, due chiefly to military enterprises:

In addition to this huge debt of nearly five billion marks of the central government, all the states and local governments were piling up huge deficits. The total of federal, state and local debts in 1913 was:

These totals may not seem extravagant to the youth of our day who think in terms of war-inflated money. But it was a staggering burden to Germany in the money values of that period, prior to two world wars. In 1913, on the eve of World War I, the Finance Minister of Germany declared that "the vital question of Germany's finances must be solved NOW." He said the "stability of the empire is exposed to risk."

In the hope of surmounting the difficulty, the cities and states began buying up private enterprises, hoping to operate them at a profit to overcome the immense burden of social welfare and military services. They never succeeded. Germany approached national bankruptcy.

This is what militarism and welfare and boondoggling did to Germany. The imperial government fell and the new revolutionary republican government proceeded to repeat this crazy experience all over. Between 1926 and 1931 it built up a new national debt of nearly seven billion Rentenmarks. Adding the debts of the state governments, Germany had a new debt of 21 billion Rentenmarks. The appalling finale of all this was Hitler, who did what the Kaiser did in 1914—he turned to

war as an escape—war, the supreme project of obfuscated politicians trapped in impossible promises, in overpowering taxes and crushing debt.

part of the losses on the government's socialist industries. Even this was not enough. It had to support a mountainous debt that ultimately crushed Germany twice—once under the Republic and once again under Hitler.

ITALY

This made a powerful appeal to the masses who had been used to short rations for years. Here again, as in Germany, the politicians of the Right supposed they could silence the demand for socialist institutions by actually giving the people a heavy dose of socialism. It was, of course, never possible to provide sufficient jobs in government-operated industries and bureaus to supplement the heavily taxed and regulated private ones. Depretis tried building roads, financing cooperatives, providing unemployment insurance, health insurance and handouts of all kinds to various minority groups.

sidies for farmers and other government plans to spend money were adopted.

After World War I the experiment was continued, with the inevitable rise of deficits, as follows:

In the single year 1920-21 the deficit was five billion lira greater than the accumulated deficits of pre-war Italy for fifty years. By 1922 the national debt was 92,643,000,000 lira.

up. The rising prices lead to demands for wage increases. The increased costs force ever heavier borrowing until the economic system approaches a crisis. One industry after another falls into idleness. Workers are laid off and the experiment — in reverse — proceeds to devour itself. Six hundred thousand workers in Italy were on strike in six hundred plants. Italy was bankrupt. The Communists ran amuck, took over many of the plants and boisted the Red flag.

in Germany and Italy — and other European countries — both conservatives and radicals turned to immense military establishments to solve the problem of unemployment — and to get the funds for this purpose from oppressive taxation and fantastic borrowing.

THE UNITED STATES

What we have seen in Germany and Italy was duplicated in Austria, France, Russia and other European

Now this evil thing rears its head in our America. It was promoted by General Eisenhower — a confirmed militarist — before he became President, and a powerful group in both parties insist that is necessary on the theory that we must defend ourselves against Communist Russia.

You can't have militarism without a reasonably prospective enemy—and Russia provides our militarist politicians with that essential, although no man in his senses believes that Russia, which has been handed and is in possession of three-fourths

of Europe and Asia, has the slightest intention of risking the losses of these vast areas to engage in a military war against the United States. But the President declares we must undertake the defense of something he calls the "Free World." He told Congress in 1948:

"Universal Military Training is a necessity . . . (It) should be enacted as soon as possible, in the interest of national security and to let the world know that America's championing of free peoples was here to stay."

But he believes militarism is a good thing in itself. In 1949 he declared that everybody ought to be trained and that, as reported by the New York Times, "in future war the women will have to be drafted as well as the men." As a job-making boondoggle, we must set up as the policeman of the world. The general idea of UMT is for a year of training followed by six or more years in the reserve subject to annual training periods. The President has gone so far as to say that six months of this should be served in Europe. This, of course, would be outside and in addition to the regular armed forces.

It is obvious this adventure would get nowhere but for certain results it produces that have no connection with the business of soldiering. We will not understand this until we recapture a clear picture of events in America since 1929 when the Great Depression reared its head. I make no apology for that disaster. It took its roots in the folly and

avarice of over-adventurous businessmen encouraged by certain crackpot economists. The faith of a large part of the business world in those pre-depression fairyland economics was in full bloom until a few days before the crash of 1929. It brought President Franklin D. Roosevelt into the White House in 1933, at which time the whole flimsy structure crashed around our heads.

relief. When in office, he borrowed on an enormous scale. The depression persisted. And then in 1939 came the war in Europe

The immense sums paid to these people flooded into the markets and farms of the nation, creating other millions of employment. All this was paid for out of taxes and government loans in fantastic sums. In 1939, the year the war started in Europe, our government costs — including welfare, boondoggling, farm subsidies, make-work adventures of all sorts—were \$8,700,000,000. Now

compare these expenditures with the following:

These vast floods of billions flowed over the United States — to pay the armed forces, the great army of civilians in government war bureaus; to pay the cost of manufacturing guns, endless floods of planes, munitions, uniforms, food, medicines, naval vessels and all the necessary materiel of war. Factories worked night and day. And the workers flooded into all the shops of the land with their rising wages.

Now, on a somewhat smaller scale, these fantastic expenditures continue to the present time. There is no war. Even the Korean "police action" has been over for two years. But the war boom continues. Russia as an enemy has become almost a necessity to our government. It is the bugaboo used to frighten our people into fantastic spending of taxes and borrowed money. Ten years after the end of World War II our government in a single year, 1955, spent SIXTY-THREE BILLON DOLLARS. Of this over FIFTY-TWO BILLION was spent on militarism and related subjects:

This means the expenditure of over 52 billion dollars on war and military adventures—ten years after the war ended in Europe and Asia. These vast billions, taken from us in taxes and in borrowings, make their way into the hands of government workers, workers in the war industries, to banks and private persons as interest on the war bonds, in payments for food, clothing, medicines and weapons for our "noble allies" and the support of 3,400,000 still in the armed services. Of course these funds flow on to all the departments of private industry where they are finally spent by those who receive them from the government.

But it must be obvious this cannot be kept up forever. At some point the war racket will just wear out. Business prospers while this experiment lasts. Great numbers accept it as something desirable without understanding the dangerous means by which this prosperity is generated. And while many others do not like it, they live in fear of the time when it will come to an end. But this must be obvious to any mind acquainted with the structure and dynamics of our system of private enterprise — namely that it will come to an end, as it has in every country that has used this evil thing called militarism to generate prosperity. The creation of millions of jobs in the armed forces and the munitions plants can be defended only when the nation is confronted

with the danger of war. Now, every man who studies this subject knows that there is no way we can get into war now without actually launching one ourselves. But this could never be defended before the American people. Hence some other excuse must be found to continue the policy.

Of course our militarists insist that the life of the barracks and the submission to the slavery of con-

scription in time of peace is "good for our young men." But it is no good for free young Americans. It is good for the politicians who wish to continue to promise abundance for all and "security from the cradle to the grave." It is good for the internationalists who wish to indoctrinate our young men and women in the principles of One Worldism. It is good for the "statesmen" who imagine they can keep alive this fraudulent prosperity by crushing taxes and endless borrowing.

The day of borrowing is approach ing its end. Senator Harry F. Byrohas recently called attention to the fact that the national debt is now equal to the total value of all the land, all the farms, all the buildings, all the mines, all the machinery, all the livestock — everything of tangible value — in the United States. In short, the nation is now mortgaged to the top of its befuddled skull.

Italy launched their UMT's they were free of debt. It did not take many years to pile the debts so high that the economic system began to crack and the distraught "statesmen" sought an escape in war, which, of course, merely doubled the burden and darkened the inevitable tragedy. This is the fate certain powerful groups in the United States now seek to impose on free America — the slavery of militarism.

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