General Fred D. Grant, of the United States Army, threw this into the teeth of the lard-and-tallow magnates:[[19]]
“It is your statesmen and your people that create wars. First the people become irritated, generally through some commercial transaction. The statesmen then take hold of the matter and they compromise, or try to, if the nations are nearly equal. If they are not nearly equal the stronger one slaps the weaker one in the face and the soldier is then called in to settle the matter.”
War tightens the grip of the industrial ruling class on the working class at home and all over the world.
War—mark this—war absolutely concentrates public attention upon one thing, the war, the events of the battlefield. This gives the crafty capitalists a perfect opportunity to sneak, to do things in the dark, while the people are “not looking,” opportunity to slip into city council chambers, state legislatures and national legislatures, and there get “good things”—charters, contracts, franchises and other profitable privileges.
Here is the substance of the matter:
Under capitalism the worker’s consuming power is arbitrarily restricted. Under a CLASS-labor system the worker’s life is always arbitrarily repressed, the worker is FORCED TO PRODUCE MORE THAN HE IS PERMITTED TO CONSUME, leaving a SURPLUS for the ruling class. Under chattel slavery, of course, the slave’s life was arbitrarily restricted by his master. The chattel slave was a human animal used to produce his “keep”—and a surplus. Of course you see that—don’t you? Under serfdom the serf’s life was arbitrarily restricted by his landlord-and-master. The serf was a human animal used to produce his “keep”—and a surplus. That’s easy to see, isn’t it? And now under capitalism the wage-earner’s life is arbitrarily restricted, limited, by his employer-master who allows the wage-earner a reward called wages. The wage-earner is used as a human animal to produce his “keep”—a living for himself and his family—and a surplus.
Notice: wages will not buy plenty of excellent food. Wages will not buy plenty of good clothing. Wages will not buy plenty of thoroughly good shelter. Wages will not buy plenty of high-grade furniture. Though the wage-earner is able and willing to produce and does produce all these things abundantly, yet his wages will not permit him to consume these things abundantly. Wages will not buy as much value as wage-paid labor produces.
Thus there is a surplus.
If you will think about this a moment (if you will think) you will understand how it is that a glossy, well-fed employer often smilingly asserts that “there is prosperity—times are good—no cause for complaint,” and so forth—even tho’ millions of the poor are in sore want. You see he can smile as gently and fraternally as a hyena—he feels good; he can smile as long as there is that surplus. That’s his. It’s lovely—for him.