The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1915-10-15
.sE GREAT WORLD
WIDE WAR TRUST
|etting in Good Trim to Make Us
y PAY Cost Of Militarism.

gfHh&Nre the Senate iOUDy iuNcSIl6dllol
\; 6pmmittee that he owned 1,00(
8 shares of stock in the United States
Steel Corporation and held "con
Siderable" interest in copper mining
81 He also testified that he owned sever
/. thousand shares in the Pittsbure
Coal Co., and two newspapers, the
Pittsburg GazetteTimes and the
% Pittsburg Chronicle-Telegraph In
# Creased armament will require great
Gquantities of both copper and coal.
NR& The United States Steel Corpora
tion is the owner of the Carnegie
Steel Co., which concern has obtain
ed $32,O0O,0OO worth of contracts
from the Navy Department for
nrmor alone, and other millions of
dollars worth of contracts for other
materials used in the increasing of
the Army and Navy.
On February 2, 1915, one of Sena-
tor divers newspapers editorially
ss asked:
M but what is meant by that re-
Bounding mouthful, disarmament by
Sthe United States?' Isn't it fact
n that the United States is pretty well
@sdisarmed as matters stand? There
ssisn't much sense in talking of the
sUnited States disarming before it is
4 armed"
@ Two billion dollars have been COL
8slected in ten years from the men,
. women and children of our nation
for militarism, sum sufficient to
V dig the Panama Canal, pay off the
~ national debt, with enough left to
defray for one whole year the entire
expenses of all the churches, includ-
ing foreign missions, all the free
schools, colleges and universities in
America.
And the end is not yet The war
traffickers have not finished reaping
their harvest-they are just getting
in good trim to make us pay the cost
of militarism in real earnest. Amer
lean people, listen to this little col
loquy which occurred recently at one
of the hearings of the Naval Affairs
Committee between Representative
Finley Gray, of Indiana, and Admiral
Vreeland, big navy booster.
Mr.. Gray-I wish to inquire of the
admiral if it is not the policy of 9TH
er governments to increase their ma
vies with all the other leading pow
ers?
Admiral Vreeland-It is sir.
Mr.. Gray-What should be the ad
vantage to us or any other powers
if the navies were increased equally
by all the nations of the world?
Would there be any advantage to us
or to any other power?
Admiral Vreeland-Not if you
mean in the same ratio.
Mr.. Gray-Would not the same
grounds exist after an increase for
further increase?
Admiral Vreeland-It would seem
so.
Mr.. Gray-There would be no ad-
vantage gained by any nation, then.
How long could that be maintained,
that even increase, and what advan-
tage would it be to the nation?
Admiral Vreeland-If it continues
to increase, the poorer nation will
eventually exhaust itself, and then
the other nations, the United States
included, will have free hand-I
mean be free to build in accordance
with the changed conditions.
Mr. Gray-Then it is only ques
tion of the limit taxation?
Admiral Vreeland-Yes, sir.
In other words, the only thing that
the international war trust has to
fear on the score of reduction of
profits is the limit of the ability of
men, women and children to keep on
paying the ever increasing per capita
appropriation tax in the form of
higher prices for foodstuffs and for {
wearing apparel. This is certainly
n bright prospect for the Armor,
Powder, Battleship and Ammunition
Trusts. But for the taxpayers the
prospects are not so bright.
If the txpayers of the world want
to escape being forced to pay higher
and higher taxes until they get so
high they simply cannot pay them, !
there is but one thing TO do, and
that is for the people of all the ma '
tions to insist that their governments
their own munitions of I
war.
If the millionaire and multi-mil- \
lionaire war trust magnates cannot
make huge profits in supplying ar
NOR, guns, powder and battle ships
they will take the same attitude to-
ward the wasting of public funds
that the rest of us do.
Call $50 for coal of any kind.