Page 125 - Dragon Flood

I believe there is much truth in these words. America has always been ruled by a moneyed
aristocracy. If the robber barons, the bankers, and financial powers of the nation had not
found it in their interests to engage in a bloody civil war, Lincoln could not have engaged
in such a conflict. If the money interests, the great corporate trusts, had not found Lincoln’s
aims to be in harmony with their own, the war would never have taken place.

As we saw in a previous chapter, this has ever been the state of things. The men who signed
the Declaration of Independence, and who met to hammer out a national Constitution,
derived great personal profit from the Revolution. Out of necessity the profit takers must
induce the masses to join with them. Deception and violence are two of the chief methods
of assuring the compliance of the masses. The reason a particular war is fought is pitched
to the public as if all is being done in their own interests. The benefit to accrue to a moneyed
elite is glossed over, and if possible, completely hidden.

As America has aged the government’s methods for securing the compliance of the public
have become much more sophisticated. The year 1917 saw war looming once more for
America. World War I in Europe was taking place, and the majority of Americans strongly
opposed entry into the war. There were corporate and political interests, however, who
favored entry. Among them were the House of Morgan (J.P. Morgan), and weapons
manufacturers who saw the potential to profit should America enter the war.

The pro-war advocates realized that American opinion needed to change to effect entry into
the war, and this required the control of free speech so that only opinions in favor of war
would be heard. The Espionage Act was passed by Congress in 1917. It prescribed a $10,000
fine, and twenty years in prison, for interfering with military operations, or with the
recruitment of troops. If a citizen, or newspaper, publicly criticized American involvement
in the war they faced severe penalties.

President Woodrow Wilson in his State of the Union address delivered on December 7,
1915, asked Congress for the legislation. He stated:

There are citizens of the United States ... who have poured the poison of disloyalty into the
very arteries of our national life; who have sought to ring the authority and good name
of our Government into contempt... to destroy our industries... and to debase our politics
to the uses of foreign intrigue.... We are without adequate federal laws.... I am urging you
to do nothing less than save the honor and self-respect of the nation. Such creatures of
passion, disloyalty, and anarchy must be crushed out.

Wilson asked Congress to pass a law that would provide for censorship of the press. He
submitted legislation for their consideration that incorporated such censorship, stating,
"Authority to exercise censorship over the press ... is absolutely necessary to the public
safety."

I am confident that it was not “the public safety” that President Wilson was actually
concerned with. Rather, it was the interests of the money trusts, such as the Rockefeller’s,
Morgan, Carnegie, and others. These are the ones who were being criticized in the press,
and who stood to benefit the most by entry into the war.