1 
 
 MILLIONS FOR TRIBUTE 
 NOT ONE CENT FOR DEFENSE 
 
 A Reply to Henry Ford 
 
 By 
 
 HENRY B. JOY 
 
 Detroit, Mich.
 
 feet 
 
 Annex 
 
 ~ 
 
 077
 
 The Wrong of "Unpreparedness" 
 
 A Reply to The Peace-at-any-Price Propaganda 
 of Henry Ford 
 
 Mr. Ford's statement is reprinted on page 11 
 
 Differences of opinion among men are but the natural result 
 of the differing mentalities with which nature has endowed them. 
 
 It is announced that "Henry Ford's wealth, gained in the 
 pursuit of things of peace, will be given to aid the world in its 
 effort for an unending peace." A splendid spirit of self-sacrifice 
 in the interest of the welfare of the human race is thus exem- 
 plified. I indeed wish Mr. Ford's wealth which he has created 
 could accomplish the purpose he seeks. But how will he give his 
 wealth to the work, and how soon, because indeed time presses? 
 
 Mr. Ford is quoted as saying, "I would teach the child at its 
 mother's knee what a horrible, wasteful and unavailing thing 
 war is." 
 
 I do not believe much expenditure on his part toward this end 
 is necessary. It is obvious what war is. It has been many times 
 painted, pictured and portrayed in all its horrors and wastes and 
 all of Mr. Ford's millions would make but a small addition to the 
 total already spent and being spent to the desired end. 
 
 The small boy is taught and has been taught the horrors of 
 war through all time, but nature has provided that what may be 
 the horrors of war to those it has endowed with peace-at-any- 
 price ideas, are not by any means the views of war held by the 
 young hopefuls of the world's people. In fact, nature has pro- 
 vided that those youngsters look upon war as a pretty good prop- 
 osition. They see lots of opportunities of proving their superior 
 mettle and ability. I do not think Mr. Ford would get very far 
 with the child at its mother's knee. I know I cannot with mine 
 and the more dead and dreadful horrors there are in the war 
 pictures of the day the more delighted he is with them, and the 
 delay is irksome until he can get over to the neighbor's yard and 
 engage in the sham battles which sometimes become real and now 
 and then end disastrously for him. 
 
 To labor with a small boy over the horrors of war would be 
 like seeking to carry water in a sieve and Mr. Ford is too good a 
 mechanic to try that. 
 
 So we have, I assume, to start in on his campaign for peace 
 
 21 177RR
 
 at some other place of beginning, leaving the mothers to overcome 
 as best they may the instincts of nature. It is quite unfortunate 
 that these instincts were put by nature into humans before my 
 good friend Mr. Ford had a chance to modify them. But there 
 they are, nevertheless. 
 
 I am inclined to think that circumstances and conditions and 
 environment make some difference in a man's mental attitude. 
 It may be that if Mr. Ford's factory instead of being just outside 
 of Detroit, and if his home instead of being in the peaceful village 
 of Dearborn were or had been located in the formerly prosperous 
 state of Belgium, his views as to the desirability of military train- 
 ing and preparedness might be tinged with a different coloring. 
 
 He might think more favorably of those men of strong fibre 
 who were prepared to the best of their ability to resist the inroads 
 of the invading hordes of an overwhelmingly prepared and trained 
 nation seeking it is alleged "more room in the sun," whatever 
 that may mean. At any rate we have the result an industrious 
 nation utterly overrun, devastated and destroyed. 
 
 I think it would be better for Mr. Ford to adopt that as a 
 point of beginning and seek to prevent a recurrence of such an 
 unfortunate event in the world's history. 
 
 He frankly states that he does not know how or where to 
 begin ; therefore I assume he will not resent a frank suggestion. 
 
 I suggest that he devote his forces to prevent a repetition of 
 a Belgium destroyed. If he can do that then he would be well 
 rewarded and recompensed by sacrificing his millions to that end, 
 and the world would be bettered forever. 
 
 If a repetition of the Belgium devastation can be prevented, 
 then indeed will the world have traveled far towards a cessation 
 of wars. 
 
 There is a strong feeling in my mind that to talk for peace 
 today in the United States, no matter how earnestly we all as a 
 people may desire peace in the world, is to embarrass our govern- 
 ment in its sincere efforts to maintain peace with honor and 
 national self-respect, if indeed such a condition is at all possible 
 under the circumstances which have developed and carried us on 
 as a nation to the brink of international war. 
 
 And if circumstances beyond our control force us over the 
 edge of the war precipice, we will find ourselves utterly unfitted, 
 untrained and unprepared for war. 
 
 4
 
 Mr. Ford says, "We do not want war. We will not have war." 
 He says, "Surely the world is big enough for all to live in at peace 
 with all." 
 
 But he does not seem to realize that there are always the big 
 fellows, the big bullies that have to be curbed, who have to be 
 regulated and limited by stronger authority than their own wills. 
 He surely must know that the races of the earth never have lived 
 at peace, and while the United States has had great immunity 
 from war during the period of its existence, yet during that inter- 
 val the world has been made to grow very small by improved 
 transportation and that all nations now are very near neighbors. 
 The ocean instead of a barrier of defense is the highway open to 
 the invader. 
 
 It seems apparent also that our responsibility as a nation, if 
 we are to be one at all, requires us to be able to take our share of 
 the burdens of such a responsibility and be capable of joining 
 others to enforce right and justice among nations, and to defend 
 ourselves in the event some other power does not think our ideas 
 of justice are correct ones. Some nation may be today looking 
 with covetous eyes on our "place in the sun," which location has 
 made Mr. Ford so prosperous under the wise laws which in the 
 main through generations have controlled our international affairs 
 and protected our industries and prosperity and peace. 
 
 It is certain that no other nations are particularly devoting 
 their efforts to the promoting of American international or domes- 
 tic trade, and if we propose to develop and expand and protect 
 our trade it will be because of our wilful intent and preparedness 
 to do so, and to maintain the prosperity of our country. 
 
 It is not beyond the realm of reason, it is indeed very possible, 
 even probable, that Germany may, in the event of her being vic- 
 torious, lay a heavy tribute on the United States for our having 
 shipped supplies and munitions of war to her enemies. 
 
 The levying of unfair tribute, as it was then viewed, led the 
 American Colonies to break away from England and set up the 
 nation of red-blooded people that have grown and developed to 
 a condition of prosperity so that Mr. Ford has created for him- 
 self a mighty industry out of that prosperity, the foundations 
 of which were laid by Washington and his half-starved, half- 
 clothed, armed citizenry, aided to the point of success by France 
 and Lafayette. France crossed what was then a very wide ocean 
 
 5
 
 to come to our aid. The records show that in 1780, after a voyage 
 of seventy days, forty French vessels arrived at Rhode Island 
 with fifty-five hundred French soldiers placed directly under 
 Washington's command, and bringing eight million livres of 
 French gold to pay for their supplies and other wants. Today a 
 hundred times as many troops could be landed in this United 
 States in one-tenth of seventy days to enforce any tribute asked. 
 
 Would Mr. Ford have been a signer of the Declaration of 
 Independence? Would he have been a soldier in Washington's 
 army? 
 
 Mr. Ford says "In all the history of civilization I cannot find 
 one man who has justified war!" 
 
 Were the signers of the Declaration of Independence justi- 
 fied? Was the war that followed justified? I am sure Mr. 
 Ford will not say that we were not justified in the war of 1812 ! 
 Were we justified in the Mexican war? Was the war prevent- 
 able which was unfortunately precipitated because we in the 
 United States could not understand each other as to the menace 
 of slavery to our nation? Those who took part in that war on 
 both sides now all agree that it made of us again a united, vig- 
 orous people. 
 
 Were we justified in sending our men and ships to protect 
 Americans and aid in protecting those of other nationalities in 
 the Boxer troubles in China? We could not have done it if we 
 had not had the armed ships and trained armed men ready on the 
 instant, which is what Mr. Ford so violently opposes as a policy. 
 
 When the U. S. S. Maine, of sacred memory, while making a 
 friendly call in Havana harbor, was escorted by the Spanish auth- 
 orities to a "safe" mooring buoy and blown up and our flag dis- 
 honored and several hundred red-blooded, good American sailors' 
 lives snuffed out, ought we to have apologized for having been 
 there at all? Were our actions in undertaking the war unjusti- 
 fied ? Many of us who went to the Spanish War felt that we were 
 justified in answering the call of our government for men. Does 
 Mr. Ford believe in the words of the song, "I didn't raise my boy 
 to be a soldier ?" I am sure he cannot, though he flatly says so. 
 
 Mr. Ford believes in peace as do all his fellow countrymen. 
 He believes in unpreparedness, in which I hope all his fellow 
 countrymen disagree with him, as I certainly do. Indeed I should 
 be grieved more than I can express if my good friend can or does 
 
 6
 
 array himself on the side of Bryan and his followers. There 
 has never been, it seems to me, a more conspicuously disgraced 
 man since Benedict Arnold's day than Mr. Bryan. Mr. Bryan 
 saw fit to desert his post of duty, the most important office next 
 to that of the Presidency itself, in a time of serious international 
 negotiations, being carried on in an effort to secure peace and 
 respect to Americans. He saw fit to compel us to show a divided 
 front to a possible enemy. Could such a desertion of the post of 
 duty at a critical moment be called less than traitorous to the 
 cause of America "Peace with honor?" 
 
 Mr. Ford goes further and authoritatively speaks for Mr. 
 Edison, who has been asked by the Government to co-operate in 
 war plans and who has accepted the Chairmanship of the Com- 
 mittee working to that end. Mr. Ford says "Mr. Edison will 
 never use his great brain to make anything which would destroy 
 human life or human property." Yet Mr. Edison is actually on 
 the work as Chairman in seeking to upbuild our military effi- 
 ciency. Mr. Edison is truly a man of great brain. He has 
 devised wonderful things. He has said many strong patriotic 
 things. I believe Mr. Edison would have signed the Declaration 
 of Independence and been in Washington's army. At any rate, 
 I feel that Mr. Edison can speak for himself as an American as 
 he has done in the past. Does Mr. Edison accept Mr. Ford as 
 his spokesman? If he does, he should instantly be asked to resign 
 from the Committee in aid of war plans. As a matter of fact 
 Mr. Edison is now supplying his storage batteries for our sub- 
 marines the most deadly of our war devices ! 
 
 Mr. Ford's desire to accomplish permanent peace is a very 
 laudable object. We should all join forces to that end, but will 
 not Mr. Ford's attitude urging strict non-preparedness, and 
 therefore necessarily the acceptance uncomplainingly of any 
 -demand for tribute or indemnity, or any insult or harm to Amer- 
 icans by the victors in the European conflict, only tend to pro- 
 mote the recurrence of war? Will any peace, which is only a 
 peace during which to repair and recuperate, be a beneficial 
 peace ? 
 
 The nations of Europe are doing more to establish permanent 
 peace than is the United States of America, or Mr. Ford. They 
 are struggling, fighting, sacrificing, dying for that very object. 
 
 7
 
 Their citizens are dying by thousands that permanent peace may 
 be restored and the invader held back to the limitations of his 
 own country. 
 
 According to Mr. Ford's religion, no resistance should be 
 offered to the invader. No state of preparedness should have 
 been available to the nations to resist one of their number who 
 might seek to expand and conquer. 
 
 Would it have been better if France had not sent us General 
 Lafayette and his troops without whose aid the war would no 
 doubt have been ended favorably to the English in the days when 
 our early colonists resisted the burdens sought to be placed on 
 them? 
 
 Should we not now as a nation be able to resent any insults 
 and injuries extended to, or burdens of tribute levied on our 
 nation and our citizens, as our forefathers did for us in similar 
 circumstances? Would not such a course tend more to the ces- 
 sation of wars for all time, if all nations today joined together 
 to stand for the right as God gives them light to see the right, 
 and backed by guns and not by "scraps of paper" treaties ? 
 
 Is the heritage left to us by those who have fought and died 
 that America might exist as a free and righteous people a heritage 
 of disgrace? Are we a changed people? Is our blood turned 
 to water? Are we always hereafter to exist by permission of 
 other nations whose blood is red? Is our oversea trade always 
 to be in the ships of other nations and by permission of other 
 nations as it is today ? 
 
 It is even a serious question whether as a people serving our 
 own ends as a nation, we should not aid in defending the weak 
 against the strong. Should we not possibly even aid those nations 
 who have followed our example and Mr. Ford's advice, and not 
 maintained a condition of complete preparedness, and who are 
 now consequently the victims of the impossible attitude of dis- 
 armament and unpreparedness for defense of their industries 
 and their homes ? What is our duty as a people ? 
 
 Has there ever been a time in our history when such insults, 
 if we may call them such, by foreigners both at home and abroad 
 have been extended to the President of the United States? 
 
 Does Mr. Ford realize that his statement broad and long 
 
 8
 
 throughout, rings with the same embarrassments to those whom 
 we have put in authority, the President and others, as do the 
 resolutions of the German-Alliances and other similar foreigners 
 and foreign publications among us? 
 
 I think and feel that if Mr. Ford had had the whole picture 
 before him, he would not have by thought or act tended to aid 
 those who are obviously seeking to embarrass the American peo- 
 ple in the performance of the plain duty they owe themselves 
 as a people, to instantly plan and put in force a scheme for effi- 
 cient military preparedness commensurate with the ability of 
 this nation so to do, and fully and amply in proportion to our 
 national military and naval requirements as urged by those who 
 know, and they are not civilians, namely, the General Boards 
 of the Army and Navy. 
 
 It is obvious that our international relations are critical. Any 
 American who in these times wittingly seeks to embarrass and 
 prevent the President and the Congress from insisting on and 
 obtaining every respect for American rights which it is right- 
 ful should be ours from any and every nation of the earth, is, 
 whether he knows it or not, deliberately tending to precipitate 
 this country into a war a righteous war to protect its honor, 
 compel respect and defend its citizens, who have a right to look 
 to their flag and their American passports as an adequate protec- 
 tion in their lawful affairs. 
 
 Mr. Ford is quoted as saying: 
 
 "I could make vast sums from warfare if I so 
 chose, but it would be better to die a pauper than that 
 anything that I have helped to make, or that any 
 thought, word or act of mine should be used for the 
 furtherance of this slaughter." 
 
 An impression might be drawn from this statement that Mr. 
 Ford would discountenance supplying the belligerents with Ford 
 cars or any other supplies necessary to contending armies or 
 nations. Yet at the plant of the Ford Motor Co., Ltd., of 
 England, at Manchester, there is being filled now a war order 
 for fifteen thousand Ford ambulance cars for the English 
 Government alone. This fact was stated by Mr. P. L. D. 
 
 9
 
 Perry, manager of the English Company, recently to a Detroit 
 newspaper and I have quoted from that paper. 
 
 Further, I quote as follows another newspaper item : 
 
 "The British Government sends one hundred soldiers 
 from the Army Transport Service to the Ford works at 
 Manchester, England, for two weeks at a time to learn 
 how to repair machines in the field." 
 
 These facts only go to show how far the ramifications of 
 Mr. Ford's business extend, probably without his knowledge, 
 into the belligerent armies, and that Mr. Ford's very small and 
 reasonable profit derived therefrom is obtained by and with the 
 consent only of the British Navy, which so efficiently has kept 
 open the highways of the sea to Mr. Ford's oversea commerce. 
 
 If this nation is saved from war, with honor and prestige 
 retained, it will be due to the almost solidly united front pre- 
 sented by the patriotic press of the nation in educating the people 
 in the just doctrines of the rights of Americans travelling on the 
 high seas, and in the pursuit of our lawful trade and commerce 
 between nations. 
 
 It should, however, be ever uppermost in our minds that 
 whatever oversea commerce this nation is enjoying today is by 
 virtue of the strong arm extending over the seas of the world 
 of the armed fleets of the allied nations, especially that of Great 
 Britain, and not by virtue of our own intelligence and prepared- 
 ness to demand and defend our rights against those who might 
 see fit to curtail them. 
 
 This country is placed directly in the position of trying to 
 compel respect for its rights by mere words, by the mere asking 
 rights which no self-respecting nation should surrender except 
 to a superior power after a contest of arms. 
 
 We cannot under our existing unpreparedness obtain and 
 retain our own national rights if seriously opposed therein, much 
 less make effective the very able protest of the President against 
 the wanton destruction on the seas of the lives of innocent non- 
 combatants, even of women and of babies. 
 
 HENRY B. JOY. 
 August 28th, 1915. 
 
 10
 
 From Detroit Free Press, Sunday, August 22nd, 1915 
 
 HENRY FORD TO PUSH 
 WORLD-WIDE CAMPAIGN 
 FOR UNIVERSAL PEACE 
 
 Will Devote Life and Fortune to 
 
 Combat Spirit of Militarism 
 
 Now Rampant. 
 
 LAUGHS AT THOSE WHO PREDICT 
 
 SUCCESSFUL INVASION OF U. S. 
 
 Scores Hypocrites Who Pretend to 
 
 Be Religious, Yet Foster War 
 
 For Sordid Gain. 
 
 "I will do everything in my power to prevent murderous, 
 wasteful war in America and in the whole world; I will devote 
 my life to fight this spirit which is now felt in the free and 
 peaceful air of the United States, the spirit of militarism, mother 
 to the cry of 'preparedness' preparedness, the root of all war." 
 
 These words, uttered Saturday by Henry Ford, hater of war 
 and visualizer of vast foresight, marked the beginning of what 
 will henceforth be the life-work of the man to strike with 
 everything he commands at what he declares to be the direct 
 cause of all wars and all national antipathies that breed war 
 "preparedness." 
 
 "I would teach the child at its mother's knee," said Mr. Ford, 
 "what a horrible, wasteful and unavailing thing war is. In the 
 home and in the schools of the world I would see the child 
 taught to feel the uselessness of war; that war is a thing unnec- 
 essary; that preparation for war can only end in war. 
 
 11
 
 Will Give Much to End Wasteful "Preparation" 
 
 "I have prospered much, and I am ready to give much to end 
 this constant, wasteful 'preparation.' Not by building palaces 
 of peace, not by inspiring fearful peace by powerful armament, 
 but by teaching the men, women and children of America that 
 war does not threaten us, that war will not reach us, that the 
 fullness of peace is their inheritance, not the burden of militarism 
 with its heavy hand that curbs liberty and its foul sustenance 
 upon the blood, the labor and the toil-earned happiness and goods 
 of the worker. 
 
 Entire World United in Demand for Peace 
 "This I would make a world work, for all the world cries for 
 peace, and there can be no peace while there remains one set of 
 these militaristic parasites who encourage war and who damn all 
 whose ideas of patriotism and love of their fellowmen does not 
 call for arming brother against brother. 
 
 "I confess I do not know how it is best to undertake this work 
 in an organized manner. I realize it is a vast undertaking. Yet 
 I want to see this nation and all the nations of the earth nourishing 
 that feeling, already deeply implanted in the minds and hearts of 
 millions, that is expressed in the words: 'We do not want war. 
 We will not have war. We will not have amongst us the breeders 
 of war, be they men who cry out that the enemy seeks us, and we 
 must prepare for him, or be they only those who would dazzle 
 with the false glory that has been the cloak of murder for 
 centuries.' 
 
 "The seed of this project is right here in the Ford organization, 
 in hundreds of organizations throughout the country. We have 
 to develop it and nourish its growth. The workshops, the farms, 
 fair and just conditions, equitable prices and commercial unsel- 
 fishness are the things we wish to improve. 
 
 People of All Lands Cry Out Against War 
 
 "By some remote and providential scheme a little good might 
 result through the use of guns, warships, shrapnel and torpedo. 
 To my mind this is the last and most remote means that could 
 possibly be suggested to gain the national or world-wide end 
 that most sober-minded men wish to obtain. 
 
 "When men think and work, they do right, and the voice of 
 the people, I do believe, in every land under the sun, cries out 
 
 12
 
 against war. The trouble is that they do not make enough 
 noise, and the yell of the few who, for monetary gain, want 
 war just at this particular time, seems to prevail. 
 
 "We who can, ought to help in the right direction. It's a 
 pathetic sight and positive fact that most men who pose as stand- 
 ing for the best things in life and who pray to God in churches 
 on Sundays for peace (the very pillars of the church, they are 
 called) are busiest nowadays in obtaining the orders that will 
 enable them to convert their factories into workshops for making 
 shot and shell for destroying mankind and defeating 
 the finest and loftiest things in the world homes, 
 happiness, prosperity. ****** 
 
 Public Must Control Actions of "Rulers" 
 
 "Nowadays men are prone to think they have nothing to do 
 with and cannot control their own destinies. It is everybody's 
 business to know how the moneys of the country are spent and 
 how the wisdom and judgment of the chief executives is directed, 
 and the sooner we come to understand this the sooner will be 
 stopped the wanton waste of money for murderous and destruc- 
 tive agencies, such as warships, guns and arms. ****** 
 
 "I hate war, because war is murder, desolation and de- 
 struction, causeless, unjustifiable, cruel and heartless to 
 those of the human race who do not want it, the countless 
 millions, the workers. I hate it none the less for its waste, its 
 uselessness and the barriers it raises against progress, and the 
 development of the world, human and material. 
 
 "Aside from the burning fact that war is murder, the waster of 
 lives and home and lands, and that 'preparedness' has never 
 prevented war, but has ever brought war to the world aside 
 from all this is the utter futility (from a cold, hard business view 
 alone) of the equipment of an army today with weapons that are 
 obsolete tomorrow. 
 
 "We build a vast naval machine today. A few months hence 
 it is surpassed by that of another country and is practically 
 useless. We give our soldiers a death-dealing rifle. Tomorrow 
 another nation's soldiers have a weapon that surpasses ours. 
 
 "The United States has spent more than a billion dollars on a 
 navy and army that was to cope with an invasion that never 
 occurred and never will occur. And yet the very 'war experts' 
 
 13
 
 who were responsible for that burdensome army and navy admit 
 that our army and navy never would have been able to meet, 
 with any hope of success, those of other so-called powers. 
 
 "And with all their prophecies of war fallen flat, they cry for 
 still greater waste. 
 
 "The people of the United States have been compelled to 
 throw a billion dollars into a junk pile, and these men would 
 have another billion go the same way. If one- tenth of what 
 has been spent on preparation for war had been spent on the 
 prevention of war, the world would always have been at peace. 
 
 "Why, if the United States is threatened by another nation, 
 have we lived in peace for 100 years? Our army and navy never 
 was able to stop the 'paper invasions' that the war-breeders talked 
 of, and yet we have lived unmolested, happy and at peace with 
 all races of men. 
 
 Isolation is Thorough Protection of United States 
 
 "The isolation of the United States is a perfect safeguard 
 against successful invasion, and if this fact would not prevent 
 a landing of hostile armies the very vastness of the country and 
 the enormous population would make such an attempt futile. 
 We are neither Aztecs nor East Indians. 
 
 "The writers of military treatises showing how Japan, or 
 Germany, or any other nation could invade the United States, 
 under the guise of history and 'military probabilities,' are trying 
 to fill the minds of the people with fear by the use of their high- 
 sounding nonsense that is what the whole thing is, nonsense. 
 It's a good joke to see these big business men, now in the news- 
 papers, spending a few weeks' vacation learning the art of 
 soldiering. I wonder if they are really frightened by the stories? 
 
 "The pity of it is that this same war talk is allowed to take up 
 the columns of newapapers and magazines that could be used 
 toward the inspiration of peace. 
 
 "The advice of militarists as to the need of a vast army and 
 navy is about the same as the advice of a group of professional 
 gamblers would be in the framing of civil laws. The only differ- 
 ence is that the military men would gamble with human lives 
 and the peace and plead for 'national honor' when they mean 
 'personal glorification' or 'blood-money.' 
 
 14
 
 Edison Won't Aid in Destroying Human Life 
 
 "They have called in Thomas Edison to help their war plans. 
 Let me say that Thomas Edison never has and, in my opinion, 
 never will use his great brain to make anything which would 
 destroy human life or human property. He could destroy 
 nothing. His mind is a constructive mechanism that abhors 
 destruction, and war is destruction. He is a man of peace, 
 for he realizes the true meaning of war wanton, unnecessary 
 and unreasoning destruction, death and disruption of all that 
 peace has builded. 
 
 "I believe that the time is at hand when the man who works 
 will forever put an end to the system that can tear him away 
 from his home and family to send him forth to a death against 
 his will; death inflicted by another human worker who bears 
 him no ill-will and to whom he is a brother; death that can bring 
 nothing but sorrow to those he leaves behind; death hurled out 
 by the pressure of a finger moving at the order of one whom the 
 worker has placed above him as a leader, and who thus betrays 
 him to murder and the danger of death. 
 
 "I believe that this same worker is going to end the conditions 
 that allow the man he places above him to give that murderous 
 order; to cause him to seek the life of a brother worker in another 
 land and send that brother searching in turn for his blood. 
 
 "And I would assist this worker to educate his children from 
 the cradle to think only in terms of peace, to hate war, and all 
 the accoutrements of war, and strive forever to drive from the 
 world this spirit of murder, destruction and chaos. 
 
 "The present war's end will, I believe and hope, see the end 
 of the military spirit and the military castes in all Europe; the 
 death of the military party in Germany; and those very workers 
 who are today performing wonders of arms against the whole 
 of Europe under the eyed of an emporer and a Fatherland may 
 be the very ones who will end that reign of militarism. 
 
 "So that it may be said: 'We have ended war forever; we have 
 done away with the parasites that breed war in the world.' And 
 from every nation in Europe, in the world, will come the echo of 
 the words, 'We have ended war forever.' That cry will be the 
 cry of the man who works, the man created to love and be loved 
 by his fellows, to enjoy peace and to share that joy with all." 
 
 15
 
 World Big Enough to Give Peace to All 
 
 "Surely the world is big enough for all to live in at peace with 
 all. If nations want colonies they can have them without killing 
 their sons and devastating homes and lives. If Germany, as 
 many of her opponents claim, wanted colonies, she could have 
 secured a very extensive 'place in the sun' by direct purchase a 
 business transaction for a fraction of the terrific cost she is now 
 paying in warfare. 
 
 "I could today make vast sums from warfare if I so 
 chose, but it would be better to die a pauper than that 
 anything I have helped to make, or that any thought, 
 word or act of mine should be used for the furtherance of 
 this slaughter. 
 
 "I shall expect the sneers and condemnation of those 
 whose business is war and of those who profit by war. But 
 
 I can weigh against this the feeling for peace and against war 
 and the spirit that brings war, which, I know, burns in the hearts 
 of the masses the world over, and in this I will feel that I am 
 right. 
 
 "I shall raise my voice in no controversy with those who cry 
 out that such peace would bring destruction upon us by martial 
 nations, but who really mean that they would have peace 
 by enforcing their will upon others with cannon, and 
 whose constant cry of 'prepare* cloaks their damnable 
 aims. The very thought of such men and such ideas cannot but 
 bring the strongest words of condemnation and reproach from 
 any man. 
 
 "The building of armament by the United States is not only a 
 waste of itself and a war-breeding policy, it is worse still, it is 
 an example that the nations of Latin America and all the world 
 have followed, adding the burden and the danger to the peoples 
 in those lands. 
 
 "The nations of the world need an example to lead them away 
 from war, and this, the country we live in, is, I believe, the land 
 destined to show the world the way toward the end of this mur- 
 der. The world has followed the United States for generations 
 in all that goes for progress. Let us have disarmament; let us 
 show that we mean peace when we say the word, and the world 
 will follow in that, too. 
 
 16
 
 "I feel, and I have the world's history and the spirit of a 
 world's people back of me, that the 'preparedness' now being 
 preached is nothing but a criminal waste, a call to slaughter, 
 and a disgrace to a nation that has been the guiding star of the 
 world towards liberty, happiness and peace. 
 
 "I realize only too well that since the beginning of history the 
 overpowering, unanswerable weapon of wealth always, down to 
 this very day, has been on the side of slaughter, and this, I know, 
 has stood as the great barrier to the peace that men have craved 
 since civilization was born. 
 
 "If I can but see the world and America is the brain of the 
 world and the brain the guide of all moving toward that day 
 when war shall cease, when nations shall not burden the workers 
 with the enormous expense of huge armaments and then destroy 
 the workers with those very armaments, I shall be content to 
 end my days where I began, an humble worker in a peaceful 
 world. 
 
 "Millions of men, every one of them a husband, a son, a father 
 or a brother, have gone to their death within a year on the 
 battlefields of Europe. There is sorrow in millions of homes, a 
 dozen nations are paralyzed and filled with mangled, crippled 
 men and boys who by the laws of nature can only produce child- 
 ren who will in some way bear, in part, the burden and mark of 
 their parents' suffering. And all for nothing. 
 
 "It is horrible to contemplate. If these men who brought 
 on the war were insane, we could comprehend the cause 
 of the war. But when we think that all is done coldly, delib- 
 erately by these militaristic parasites, and that millions of 
 men are torn from the life that is theirs by right of birth, and 
 driven to slaughter by the system of murder that envelopes 
 these nations, we are crushed by the enormous crime. 
 
 "The very thought of this makes me feel that I know of nothing 
 to which I would rather give my life, nothing that would give 
 me a more certain feeling that I was doing a man's work, nothing 
 that would make me feel more content in the knowledge that I 
 had done a great duty that had been placed before me, than to 
 use that which I have to help bring to an end 6,000 years of this 
 unjustified hatred, ruthless waste, destruction and murder. * 
 
 "In all the history of civilization I cannot find one 
 man who has justified war, who did not publicly brand it as 
 
 17
 
 the curse of man and the work of Cain. Yet these same men are 
 often the very ones who call for the 'preparedness' that brings 
 on war. What can we think of men who cry aloud against mur- 
 der and yet fly eagerly to place in the hands of their children, 
 or more frequently the children of their more humble brothers, 
 the implements of murder? 
 
 Quotation from Mr. Ford's Statement in 
 Detroit Free Press, September 5th, 1915. 
 
 Sloths and Lunatics in Military Cliques 
 
 "The working man is beginning to realize that it is not the 
 rulers of the nations who make war, be they presidents, kings or 
 emperors. It is the military cliques that surround and sway them 
 it has always been these same parasites, these sloths and 
 lunatics. For I firmly believe that every man who delib- 
 erately devotes his life to the trade of a soldier is either 
 lazy or crazy, and, unhappily, most of them are merely lazy, 
 so we are not permitted to put them in asylums. 
 
 "Nor is it always the fault of the young men who go into the 
 army or navy that they do so. In many cases it is the last choice. 
 If the large manufacturers and business men of the world would 
 make it their duty and religion to see that their men are paid a 
 wage that will make them contented, and assure them of steady 
 employment, then the recruiting officers for the militarists would 
 have even a harder job to get disciples. 
 
 "Instead, many of these business men are working hand in 
 glove with the military men who start, drive and end the wars. 
 And they are in it for what they can get out of the murder to 
 fatten their wallets. They work for the very conditions that pre- 
 vent good wages and steady work for willing men. What will 
 they do with their surplus of munition-makers when the war is 
 ended?
 
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