Business men are bound to be exceedingly heavy financial losers through America’s entrance into the war. Every element of self-interest should have caused them to use their utmost efforts to preserve America’s neutrality from which they drew so much profit during the two and a half years before April, 1917. Every consideration of personal advantage commanded men of affairs to stand with and support the agitation of the “peace-at-any-price” party. They spurned such ignoble reasoning; they rejected that affiliation; they stood for war when it was no longer possible, with safety and honor, to maintain peace, because they are patriotic citizens first and business men afterward.
The insinuation that “big business” had any share in influencing our Government’s decision to enter the war is an insult to the President and Congress, a libel on American citizenship, and a malicious perversion or ignorant misconception of the facts. Those who continue to circulate that insinuation lay themselves open to just suspicion of their motives and should receive neither credence nor tolerance.
[1]. It is true that a few years ago a capital levy was made in Germany, but the percentage of that levy was so small as to actually amount to no more than an additional income tax, and that at a time when the regular income tax in Germany was very moderate as measured by the present standards of income taxation.
Transcriber’s Note:
Any obvious errors in spelling or punctuation have been corrected.