A DANGEROUS CRIMINAL CLASS?
"Probably the most curious feature of the naval program is the
regularity with which the sky clouds over as the day for the
consideration of naval appropriations approaches. Year after
year, after a long spell of pleasant weather, all at once storm
clouds have drifted across the heavens, international relations
have become suddenly strained, and the whole land has lain in
the shadow of an impending conflict. Fortunately, the storm
blows over as soon as the votes are counted, and in the
beautiful sunlight which follows the storm, workmen are seen
constructing additional battleships. Suspicious persons have
occasionally imagined they saw a connection between the
international weather and the Navy League."
_Dr. Charles E. Jefferson._
"It is criminal that we should expend vast sums on warships and
armament on the advice of interested parties alone...."
"War scares are heard the world over. The world over they are
set going by wicked men for evil purposes."
_Dr. David Starr Jordan, "War and Waste."_
The pacifists have delved out of the infinite latency a very startling
alleged truth, which they are effulging in language of lavish
luminosity, to the effect that it is necessary only for a man to have a
pecuniary interest or personal advantage involved in order to commit any
kind of crime. They have discovered that room for a motive establishes
the motive and proves the crime. They have discovered that those things
which we call integrity and honor and conscience are no deterrents
whatsoever to the commission of the most heinous offense against one's
fellow men, so long as there is profit in it. They believe that, if only
there is money in the game, an inventor or manufacturer or merchant will
scheme for the commission of wholesale poisoning, maiming, and murder.
They believe that the inventors and manufacturers of guns necessarily
foster war in order to promote the sale of their wares. They surmise
that inventors and manufacturers of smokeless powders and high
explosives are capable of standing with the "black hand," capable of
being gladdened at the dynamite outrage, at the street riot, at the
slaughter of song-birds--anything that will consume dynamite or burn
gunpowder.
According to the pacifists, the principal lay of makers of war-materials
is to connive with the officers of the Army and Navy to stir up
international dissension and foment war, in order to create a demand for
their products. The pacifists believe that army and navy officers are
only too willing to co-operate in the nefarious business, because war
brings higher pay and rapid promotion. They believe that it matters not
to these "interested parties" how many of their countrymen are
sacrificed on the firing line, or how many widows and orphans are made.
The groans of the wounded and dying on the battle-field, and the
lamentations in the desolated home, are music to the ears of those who
supply the war-materials; for, with every shot from a rifle, fifty
grains of gunpowder are burned, while bullets enough miss their mark to
equal the weight of each man they kill. Consequently, there is
substantial profit to the cartridge-maker and the gunpowder-manufacturer
for every man killed with a rifle ball.
But it is in shrapnel and the ammunition for the big guns that the
greatest profit lies. Field-guns fire away ammunition costing from ten
to twenty dollars a shot, at the rate of from twenty to forty shots a
minute. This costs a lot of money. At the battle of Mukden, in the
Russo-Japanese war, one battery of eight guns fired 11,159 rounds, or
1,395 rounds per gun. Think of the expense of that ammunition, and the
profit to the manufacturers! It is estimated that when the big naval
guns are fired, the cost of the smokeless-powder charge, the projectile
and bursting charge, together with the wear and tear of the gun, amounts
to more than $2,000 a shot, and the damage done to a warship hit may be
many millions.
Look at it any way you will, war, according to the pacifist notion, is a
real Klondike for manufacturers of war-materials. The peace sophists
have been able to put two and two together, with the conclusions that
such an opportunity for profit is too strong for human nature to
resist, and that, as they have found room for the motive, they have
proved the crime.
Of course, their accusation is a pretty severe arraignment of human
nature, after all these years of civilization and Christian
enlightenment.
It is strange how human nature can have improved so much lately, as
claimed by the pacifists, and how the spirit of brotherhood and
good-will can have suddenly become so dominant that the peoples of the
earth now despise war, and are so afflicted with the horrors of it that,
just as soon as the great European War is over, they are not going to
fight any more, while still the makers of war-materials remain in the
primitive savagery of the stone age. It seems to me that, if human
nature has so improved as to be an efficient bar to a nation against
waging war for plunder, regardless of the advantage and the profit, it
ought also to be a similar bar to inventors and manufacturers of
war-materials, and to army and navy officers, against precipitating war
for pecuniary or personal advantage.
But, according to pacifist reasoning, those "interested parties" are
more endowed with the spirit of the hyena than with the spirit of
brotherhood. Perhaps, however, the manufacturers of war-materials, and
army and navy officers, were not home when the great improvement in
human nature knocked at their door.
If considerations of mere personal profit are sufficient to make the
best of us foster war, which the peace fanatics esteem wholesale murder,
it is strange that the inventors and manufacturers of drugs and
medicines, the proprietors of drugstores, and the medical profession and
undertakers, do not form a league and co-operate in spreading infectious
diseases, in order to create a greater demand for their wares and for
their services.
Of course, the reason may be that they have not yet thought of it, and
it may be wrong for me to suggest the thing to them. Still, it is queer
that it has not been suggested to them by what the pacifists have said
concerning the conduct of our army and navy officers and of the
inventors and manufacturers of war-materials.
Let us see what the facts actually are:
The inventors and manufacturers of war-materials, and our army and navy
officers, by virtue of the study and experience that qualify them for
their business or profession better than others, are also qualified
better than others to judge what are our actual needs for national
defense.
If the manufacturers of war-materials, and our army and navy men, are to
be convicted of inciting war on the evidence that by so doing they
create a demand for their services, then necessarily others benefited by
a like demand may be convicted on the same evidence.
Mr. Andrew Carnegie himself is the greatest of all American armorers. He
it was who introduced the Bessemer steel process into the United States,
from which all our gun-makers and all our armament-makers have greatly
benefited. It is his name and that of Herr Krupp which Neptune reads
graven in the walls of fighting-ships. He still draws an income from his
interests in the great armor-making steel corporation--an annual income
big enough to pay the combined salaries of all the four thousand
officers of the United States Army.
Truly, if the discovery of room for a motive proves both the motive and
the crime, and is sufficient to convict these four thousand men of being
willing to sell their souls in order to raise their salaries a few
dollars, Mr. Carnegie himself is at least open to suspicion.
Likewise, the varied and many institutions--incubators of the doves of
peace--born of the great armor-maker's generosity, which continue to be
his beneficiaries, cannot escape the suspicion that taints their
pedigree.
Even the leading man--the principal star on the stage where _Uncle Sammy
unter Alles_ is being played--Dr. David Starr Jordan, is paid from the
Carnegie Peace Foundation with money equally tainted by the sweaty hands
of the grimy men who are forging armor-plate in the Smoky City.
But we all know that Mr. Carnegie is above any such suspicion. We know
that the pacifist method of reasoning must be false.
The education of our army and navy officers teaches them not alone
military science, but also national devotion and personal honor.
Devotion to duty is necessary in order to keep them in the service,
under the altogether inadequate pay they receive. The pay of the
American army and navy officers is smaller, in proportion to their
knowledge and the value of their services, than that of any other class
of men in the country. If every army and navy officer should abandon the
service for a position in civil life when he could get a raise of wages
for so doing, there would not be a corporal's guard left in the service.
Whenever a public work is placed in charge of an army or navy officer,
there is no _sub-rosa_ rake-off, or divvy with civilian contractors.
There is absolutely no graft of any kind in their service, and the
government is sure of getting the maximum amount of work for the minimum
cost. Not one cent of graft has fallen upon the palms either of Colonel
Goethals or of any other army officer in the whole course of
construction of that mighty work--the Panama Canal. New York City tried
to get Colonel Goethals as Police Commissioner. He has received scores
of offers of positions in civil life at many times his present salary,
because of the military capacity and honor that make the Goethals sort
of service very valuable.
I know many army and navy men intimately. I have had opportunities of
hearing their off-guard conversations and interchange of ideas on all
manner of subjects, and have thereby been enabled to see their character
revealed to the naked soul, and I have never yet discovered any other
attitude or tendency among them than the emulation of exactly that type
of honor, efficiency, and manhood which is Colonel Goethals'.
I cannot award this same high praise to the politicians I have known.
An army or navy officer always drives just as close a bargain as he can
on behalf of the government when doing business with civilians, although
the economics of the transaction is of no personal concern to him.
When a politician makes a bargain, his first consideration is: "Where do
I come in?" His next consideration is: "Where does the party come in?"
Duty to the government is a minor consideration.
It is the demand for a thing that leads to its invention, just as it is
the demand for a thing that leads to its manufacture. The demand must
precede the production.
When the inventor designs a gun, or invents a new explosive, he does not
simultaneously try to invent ways and means of creating a market. He
may, on the contrary, be inspired with a spirit of patriotism, and feel
that in the event of war his work will be of signal service to his
country, both by killing his country's enemies and by saving the lives
of his own people.
The manufacturers of war-materials are much more likely to be actuated
by honorable motives, and to make large sacrifices from a spirit of
patriotism, than are the manufacturers of soap, agricultural machinery,
or automobiles.
The builders of Ericsson's _Monitor_ were not able to get the government
either to approve or to back the enterprise. They were, however,
fortunately inspired by a high spirit of patriotism, and by a strong
belief in Ericsson's invention; consequently, they built it at their own
expense. It was completed just in the nick of time. The terrible
_Merrimac_ appeared before the _Monitor_ was quite ready. She could
laugh at forts, and the projectiles from the guns of our wooden navy
glanced off her mailed sides like raindrops off a duck's back. Whether
she would be able to run up the Potomac and bombard Washington, was a
question only of the depth of water.
The little coterie of bureaucrats in Washington, who had ridiculed the
fantastic innovation of Ericsson, were now on Uneasy Street, and sent
urgent appeals for the _Monitor_ to be made ready and sent to Hampton
Roads with all speed. The peculiar craft did arrive on the morning of
the second day of the naval fight. The result is one of the good
stories of history--a story that has never been quite equaled in
fiction.
The _Monitor_ had not yet been accepted by the government when she
fought the _Merrimac_; she had not yet received the government's
approval.
A country Reuben, who saw a giraffe for the first time at a circus,
looked the animal over, and, finding that it did not conform to his
ideas of what an animal ought to be, remarked, "By gum, there ain't no
sich critter!" Likewise, the naval experts at Washington did not believe
that there could be any such fighting-ship. After that fight, however,
the _Monitor_ was quickly purchased, and hurried orders were given for
more _Monitors_.
The patriotism and pluck of the warship-builders saved the country.
The pacifists are strongly urging what they term the nationalization of
all manufacture of war-materials; that is to say, that all such
materials should be made at government plants. Their object is to have
the work done by disinterested persons, who will not be tempted to
promote war in order to make a market for those materials. By admirable
inconsistency, the pacifists would, in so doing, place the manufacture
of war-materials in the hands of army and navy officers, whom they
pronounce the most pernicious of all promoters of war.
Before Congress acts upon the suggestion of the pacifists to
nationalize the manufacture of all war-materials, it would be well to
see what would have happened in the past, had the thing been done
sooner. We can judge from that concerning the advisability of adopting
the measure now.
If it had been adopted at the time of the Civil War, Ericsson's
_Monitor_ never would have been built, because its building depended
upon private personal patriotism and private enterprise.
If the measure had been adopted twenty-five years ago, then naturally,
during that period, private invention and private enterprise would have
been eliminated, and the government would not have profited from
civilian genius and energy. Let us see, then, what private invention and
private enterprise have done for the government for the past
quarter-century, since the advent of smokeless powder.
Colonel E. G. Buckner, vice-president of the du Pont Powder Company, in
an article in _Harper's Weekly_, of June 27, 1914, places the credit for
the four most important inventions in the development of smokeless
powder--first, to Vieille, of France, who produced gun-cotton; second,
to Mendeleeff, of Russia, who told us how to colloid it; third, to
Francis G. du Pont, who eliminated danger in the manufacture; and,
fourth, to Hudson Maxim, who invented the multi-perforated grain that
gave absolute control over the burning.
It will be seen that two of the most important steps in the development
of smokeless powder were made by American civilian inventors. The
alcohol replacement invention of Francis G. du Pont and my own invention
of the multi-perforated grain, rendered possible the use of a colloid of
pure nitro-cellulose as a smokeless cannon-powder. It would be
absolutely impossible successfully to make a pure nitro-cellulose
cannon-powder without these two inventions. If the manufacture of
smokeless powder had been nationalized twenty-five years ago, this
government would not stand, as it stands today, ahead of all other
governments, in the excellence of its smokeless powder.
When the government first ordered a pure nitro-cellulose powder, large
quantities of solvents were consumed in its preparation. Private
manufacturers introduced new processes to overcome this difficulty,
resulting in a material reduction in the cost of the powder, which has
already effected a saving to the government of more than $2,000,000.
It is a peculiarity of smokeless powder that, regardless of however
stable it may be when first made, it gradually begins to decompose after
long standing, which, until recently, necessitated its destruction.
Several years ago, however, Mr. Francis I. du Pont, son of the Francis
G. du Pont above-mentioned, invented a process for the successful
reworking of smokeless powder that has begun to decompose, at a mere
fraction of the original cost, making it just as good as ever. This
invention alone will hereafter save the government more than a million
dollars a year.
When the new army rifle was developed, it was found that the smokeless
powder then used by the army, containing nitro-glycerin, was so erosive
as to destroy the accuracy of the arm when only 1,600 rounds had been
fired. The government obtained from abroad some smokeless powder, which
enabled 3,000 rounds to be fired before the gun was destroyed, but after
that number of rounds, the rifling was practically obliterated.
A private manufacturer invented a new smokeless rifle-powder, with
process and apparatus for its manufacture. With this powder, it is now
possible to fire as high as 20,000 rounds before the accuracy of the gun
is destroyed. This invention easily multiplies the life of the army
rifle by six. As the army rifle will now last six times as long by the
use of this powder as it would by the use of any other powder, the value
of the invention to the government is by far the chief value of the gun
itself. Consequently, it is estimated that this invention alone
represents a value for the guns that the government now has on hand of
more than $15,000,000.
Not only does our small-arms powder effect a great saving in the wear
and tear of our shoulder-rifles, but also our pure nitro-cellulose
cannon-powder effects a similar saving in the life of our big guns. Our
big guns, using pure nitro-cellulose powder, last, with equal accuracy,
more than twice as long as British guns, which use cordite.
It will be seen from the foregoing considerations and figures that
private genius and private enterprise alone have saved the government
very many millions of dollars. Of course, it may be argued that, since
guns and ammunition and all kinds of military implements and engines
have been perfected, there is not now room for civilian inventors to be
so useful to the government during the next twenty-five years as they
have been in the past twenty-five.
A similar attitude of the average mind would have existed had the same
question been raised twenty-five years ago. When our Patent Office was
first established, the Commissioner of Patents predicted that within
fifty years everything possible of invention would have been invented
and that then the Patent Office would have to be abolished for lack of
business. The number of inventions received by the Patent Office,
however, has rapidly increased, and is still rapidly increasing. More
inventions are received now each year at the Patent Office than were
received during the first fifty years of its existence. The reason for
this is that every invention, either directly or indirectly, creates a
demand for other inventions. The inventor is still working in virgin
soil, and the room for invention is infinite.
If the manufacture of war-materials were to be nationalized, not only
would the government rob itself of the aid of large quasi-government
manufactories, but also it would rob itself of the benefits of the
inventive genius of the whole people. The value of that genius may be
approximated by recalling what citizen inventions have done since the
outbreak of the American Civil War.
Breech-loading guns of all kinds, the percussion cap, cartridges for
small-arms, fixed ammunition for quick-firing guns, the breech mechanism
for all guns, the built-up gun, the great improvements in steel
manufacture, the revolving turret and the _Monitor_ type of
fighting-ship, the steam turbine, the internal-combustion engine, all of
the great inventions in smokeless powders and high explosives, and their
adaptability to use in ordnance, the submarine torpedo-boat, the
self-propelled torpedo, the aeroplane and the dirigible, and any number
of other inventions indispensable to modern warfare, have been the
invention of civilians. Of course, army and navy officers have invented
a great many important things themselves, and have rendered great
service in the development of civilian inventions. But it must be
remembered that army and navy officers constitute but a very small part
of the population. Even were army and navy men ten times more
proficient in the invention of war-materials than civilian inventors,
the number and value of civilian naval and military inventions would
preponderate enormously over those of government officers.
We have been assured all along by the peace sophists that, if war should
come, the great American genius would rise to the occasion and spring to
our rescue, with all manner of destructive contrivances, capable of
annihilating armies and sweeping fleets of fighting-ships off the seas.
If the beautiful nationalization plan of the peace sophists, however,
were to be carried out, the great American genius would get no
opportunity to fructify the prophesied militant cataclysmic ogerism to
the discomfiture of our enemies.
No other government has nationalized the manufacture of armaments and
war-materials to the exclusion of private manufacturers. On the
contrary, other governments strongly encourage private manufacture, for
they realize the vast importance of drawing upon the inventive genius of
the whole people, and of enlisting private energy, private enterprise,
and private capital in government work.
The French government for more than a hundred years has made all its own
gunpowder, but its chief gun-works are private enterprises. Possibly, if
the French smokeless powder had been perfected by private enterprise to
meet government requirements, those requirements would have been more
exacting with private manufacturers than with government manufacturers,
and the battleships _Jena_ and _La Liberte_ would not have been blown up
by the spontaneous combustion of bad gunpowder. If this government were
to nationalize the manufacture of its war-materials, we know, by what
has been done in the past, through private enterprise and private
inventive genius, that the government would suffer enormously.
In this era of Congressional investigations, it would be well to have a
government inquiry made as to whether or not there should be a new
classification of acts of treason. It should be inquired whether or not,
in time of peace, public preachments should be allowed advocating the
disbanding of our Army and the destruction of our Navy--acts which in
time of war might be interpreted as treason, and the offenders backed up
against a wall and shot. It should be inquired whether or not foreign
emissaries, and possibly spies, have not for years been collaborating
with American advocates of disarmament. It should be inquired whether or
not the Washington lobby that has been operating against governmental
appropriations for the Army and Navy, has not received foreign support.
If these things have not been done by representatives of foreign
countries, with such a wide-open opportunity, then the diplomats and
strategists of foreign nations ought to be sent to a kindergarten for
instruction. Could anything be more likely than that foreign Powers
should possess the sagacity to grasp such an opportunity to weaken our
defenses?