-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.boondocksnet.com/ailtexts/loveston.html <A HREF="http://www.boondocksnet.com/ailtexts/loveston.html">American Imperialism: The Menace of the Greates </A> --[1] -- American Imperialism in The United States 1898-1935 Edited by Jim Zwick Copyright � 1995-1999 Jim Zwick ------------------------------------------------------------------------ American Imperialism: The Menace of the Greatest Capitalist World Power By Jay Lovestone (Chicago: Workers Party of America, n.d. [1925]). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Chapter I The Growth of American Imperialism The United States entered the arena of capitalism as a world power after the Spanish-American War in 1898. After having routed Spain the United States secured undisputed control of the American Mediterranean -- the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. Puerto Rico was annexed. A protectorate was established over Cuba. In Cuba there is invested about $1,000,000,000 of American capital in the sugar industry alone. This is 60 percent of the total capitalization of the sugar industry. Fully 85 percent of the capital invested in the Cuban railways is American. One-third of Cuba's imports is edible and more than half of that third comes from the United States. According to the last reports of the Department of Commerce, Cuba has outstripped Japan as our second best customer in steel. Turning to the Pacific, the Yankee imperialists annexed in quick order the Philippines, Guam and Hawaii. In the Philippines, the American imperialists have a territory the size of the Kingdom of Italy and with a population greater than that of Canada or Hungary. Sixty-five percent of the foreign commerce of the Philippines is done with this country. Close to $300,000,000 of American capital is invested in these islands, which are teeming with natural resources and are only three days away from China, the richest and cheapest labor mine in the world. They are the gateway of American capital to the prize market of the Far East where 800,000,000 people live. Then followed the complete domination by the United states thru the successful engineering of the revolt of Panama against the Republic of Colombia. Having secured "general supervision" of the new government and unrestricted control of the Canal Zone, the American capitalists proceeded to establish their hegemony over Nicaragua and mastery of the alternative canal route. Scarcely had the ink dried in Wilson's democratic notes when American troops dissolved the Haitian parliament. Today the United States is the political master of over 150,000 square miles and almost 10,000,000 people in Central America and the Caribbean, which has become an American lake. In the Pacific, the United States has an island empire of an area of more than 125,000 square miles and a p opulation of at least 13,000,000. "Peaceful Penetration" Our imperialists are also engaged in the "peaceful penetration" of other countries. In recent years particular attention has been paid by our capitalists to Canada, Mexico, Central and South America. Because of the collapse of the European market American investors and merchants have been making especially strong efforts to develop these markets. In the Latin American countries the United States has today invested $610,000,000 in public securities and $3,150,000,000 in industries. 1. In Canada The last annual report of the Canadian Commissioner of Trade shows the rapidity and extent of the hold the Yankee exploiters have on Canadian resources. The total amount of American capital invested in Canada is more than $2,500,000,000 and is today more than the entire British interest. American investors now hold 18 l/2 percent or $701,000,000 of Canadian government, provincial and municipal securities, as against only 12.8 percent or $511,000,000 held by British investors. Almost 25 percent (24.1) of the Canadian Pacific Railway shares are in the hands of American capitalists. American interests are rapidly assuming control of Canada's mines, railways, motor car and accessories industries, meat packing, rubber, paint, metals, pulp and paper, and refined petroleum industries. In the manufacturing and associated water power industries the American investments are now placed at well over one billion dollars. British investments in similar enterprises are only 350 million dollars. In Canadian public utilities, forest, and mining industries American investments are estimated as considerably in excess of British investments. Sixty-one percent of the capital invested in the motor car industry was found to be American in 1919. More than 40 percent of the electrical apparatus, meat packing, rubber, paint, varnish, brass, copper, condensed milk, and refined petroleum are United States owned. In 1920 approximately $250,000,000 of the United States money was invested in the Canadian pulp and paper industry. This was about 80 percent of the total capital invested in that industry. Approximately one-eighth of the total American trade with the world is with Canada -- $979,079,003.00. Chapter II Latin America and the Far East 2. Mexico Under the guise of protecting the weaker nations of South and Central America, the United States has assumed the undisputed hegemony over this territory. The Pan-American Union growing out of the Monroe Doctrine is completely dominated by American imperialists. American bankers are the dominant figures in the International Committee of bankers in Mexico. Thomas W. Lamont, of J. P. Morgan & Co., is chairman of this committee. Mortimer L. Schiff is the vice-president of the American section. Charles E. Mitchell, of the Illinois Merchants Trust Co.; Charles H. Sabin, of The Guaranty Trust Co.; Albert H. Wiggin, of the Chase National Bank, and Robert Winsor, of Kidder-Peabody & Co., Boston, are among the other leading figures in this group of international exploiters. Foreign investments in Mexico indicate that American capitalists lead in oil and mining. United States investors have twice as much capital ($130,000,000) invested in oil and five times as much capital invested in mining ($250,000,000) as does Great Britain. Over $150,000,000 of American capital is invested in railroads and more than $120,000,000 in agriculture. American capitalists hold more than $25,000,000 of the Mexican national debt bond issue. Wall Street is planning to spend upward of $150,000,000 in new oil investments. There is a tendency for a heavy flow of American capital southward. New York and Philadelphia banks have announced the floating of a new loan of $40,000,000 to the Mexican government. 3. In South America The nitrate beds of Chile; the oil, meat and wheat of Peru; the coffee and rubber plantations of Brazil, and the packing industry of the Argentine Republic, are steadily falling into American control. Speaking before the Investment Bankers' Association, on October 20, 1923, Dr. L. S. Rowe, Director General of the Pan-American Union, boasted that "American investment in Latin America has passed from the period of adventure to the period of helpful, productive and permanent investment. American companies are securing, to an increasing extent, contracts for the construction of public works in Latin America. Port works, drainage works, water works and street railway systems constructed by American companies are now in evidence in almost every country of South and C entral America. Since the close of the Great War the American people have loaned to Latin America in public loans, disregarding the loans of all private enterprises, over a half billion dollars. The precise amount is $529,580,000." Since 1921 American investors have purchased Chilean external bonds to the extent of $62,000,000 and internal bonds totaling $5,000,000. American investments in Chilean iron and copper mines have materially increased. Our Latin American trade has risen from $1,073,000,000 for the ten months ending November 1, 1922, to $1,440,000,000 for the corresponding period of 1923. The trade of the United States with the Latin American countries reached the gigantic figure of $182,558,425 for the month of March, 1924, alone. Our total Latin American trade amounted to only $750,000,000 in the year preceding the war. In the calendar year of 1923 trade of the United States with Latin America amounted to $1,743,679,842 -- "an increase of 121 percent over that of the fiscal year of 1913-14 and of 26 percent over that of 1922." Imports into the United States were greater by 115 percent and exports 130 percent than in 1913-14. The Latin American countries now take 45 percent of their imports from the United States as against less than 25 percent in the year before the war. The official custom house returns of the 20 countries forming the Latin American group show $834,000,000 in merchandise imported from the United States in 1921 as against $319,000,000 before the war. This is an increase of over 150 percent. To illustrate. America's share of Mexican imports in 1913 was 48 percent; in 1921 it was 76 percent. Its share of Cuban imports in 1913 was 53 percent; in 1921 it was 75 percent. Our share of Argentina's imports in 1913 was only 15 percent; in 1921 it rose to 28 percent. Our share of Brazil's imports rose from 16 percent in 1913 to 31 percent in 1921. In 1913 Uruguay's imports were only 12 percent from the United States; in 1921 it reached the figure of 26 percent. The outstanding feature of this tremendous increase in trade in both exports and imports is that manufactured articles constitute approximately 80 percent of the total purchased from the United States by South America. The Sweep of Dominion Several months ago there was formed the Bank of Central and South America to specialize in Latin American investments. The importance of this organization is clearly seen when one analyzes the personnel of the Board of Directors. M. Anderson, of J. P. Morgan & Co.; James Brown, of Brown Bros. & Co.; W. Palen Conway, of the Guaranty Trust Co.; Walter E. Frew, of the Corn Exchange Bank; G. W. McGarrah, of the Mechanics and Metals National Bank; Maurice A. Oudin, of the Marine National Electric Co., and E. R. Stettinius, of J. P. Morgan & Co., are among the leading directors in this organization of financiers. American capital is rapidly tightening its grip on Brazil. According to the Wall Street Journal, there is today invested close to $300,000,000 of American capital here. Federal, state and municipal bonds, railways, navigation, packing, mining, cable, coffee, and mercantile and public utility concerns form the bulk of American investments. The United States is also playing the leading role in the electrification of South America. In the last decade over $100,000,000 have been invested in this field alone, in Brazil, Argentina and other South American nations. It is safe to say that at least one-quarter of a billion dollars of American money is now invested in Argentina. Mr. Samuel Insull and ex-Senator Lorimer preside over a corporation capitalized at more than a billion dollars controlling the main industries of the Republic of Colombia. As a reward for building a national railway this group has secured the right to exploit for fifty years more than 200 acres of proven petroleum lands for each mile of railway constructed. Our capitalists are planning to develop the iron, coal, lumber, oil, chemical, limestone and packing house industries. The Standard Oil Co. is getting great concessions in Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru and Argentina. In Argentina American capital is coming into conflict with British capital. The contract recently closed between Bolivia and the Standard Oil gives the American corporation 8,500,000 acres of petroleum land for 55 years and the right to build and run railways, tramways, harbors, telephones and telegraphs and all other public utilities. The International Petroleum Company, 60 percent of whose stock is owned by the Imperial Oil Co. of Canada, which is in turn 80 percent controlled by the Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey, owns the huge De Mares concession in Colombia. The same corporation owns 400,000 acres in Peru, which has the highest grade of oil known today. American bankers have concluded successful loans to Guatemala, Costa Rica, Salvador and Honduras. In Guatemala an American bank has recently been set up to draw all paper money out of circulation. Haiti has borrowed $7,500,000; Chile, $44,000,000; Uruguay, $13,000,000; Brazil, $55,000,000; and Argentina, $250,000,000, in recent months. American banking interests and the United Fruit Company have bought the International Railways of Central America, valued at $60,000,000. This is the largest American-owned railroad outside the United States. It gives direct access from the east coast to Fonseca Bay where the United States has concessions for the construction of a naval base to guard the Pacific end of the Panama Canal. It is a great step towards the construction of the important transcontinental railway from New York to Buenos Aires. Just as the German imperialists had their slogan "Berlin to Bagdad" so our Yankee imperialists have their cry, "New York to Buenos Aires." The significance of this sweep of American control cannot be over-estimated. When Dr. Rowe pointed out that American investment has passed from the "period of adventure" to the period of "productive and permanent investment" he had unconsciously touched the pith of the whole imperialist problem and its vital import to the working class. When American capitalists invest their millions wrung from the workers in such permanent fields as mines, railways and public utilities, they secure complete control of the country and shape the policies and politics of the governments of these weaker nations. Out of this economic condition there grow numerous alliances, ententes, and conflicts. No sooner had the United States declared war against Germany than there was an echo of American hostility in the Latin countries south of the United States. What is more, the balance of class power and class relationships in these backward countries is tremendously influenced and colored by the fact that the basic industries are dominated and owned by foreign investors having at their beck and call the most powerful government in the world to guarantee the safety of their investments and the stability of their profits. In the words of General Leonard Wood, a stable government is a "government under which foreign capital invests at ordinary rates of profits." 4. Towards the East It has oft been said that the Pacific will be the scene of the next world war. The United States is fully aware of this political truth and has taken financial, military and political measures to prepare for such a war, should it occur. American commerce with the Oriental countries is now three times what it was ten years ago, and accounts for almost 25 percent of our total trade. Within the last year alone American trade with the Far East has increased 25 percent. For the nine month period ending March, 1924, American trade with the Far East increased 38 percent over the corresponding period of last year. According to the Trade Record of the National City Bank the total exports from the United States to the Orient for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1924, will be 700 million dollars as against only 200 millions in 1914. Here, as in the Latin American countries, our exports are largely of manufactured goods -- at least 75 percent. In China, American shipping and railway interests are extending their control. Wilson's withdrawal from the Six Power group has not hindered the extension of American interests. The Robert Dollar Co., the Pacific Mail Steamship Co., the Admiral Oriental Line, and the Green Star Steamship Corporation are among the leading shipping firms plying between China and America. When the foreign governments concentrated warships at Canton in order to prevent Dr. Sun Yet Sen from seizing the customs funds, an American flotilla of five destroyers participated and an American admiral was put in charge of naval operations. The Department of Commerce is now proposing several amendments to the China Trade Act of 1922 so as to remove the federal tax and other "penalties" and thus aid American corporations in Chinese business. It has been estimated by the Union Trust Co., of Cleveland, that the recent Japanese earthquake has resulted in the destruction of 2 percent of the wealth of the entire empire in an area covering one-seventh of the country. This has enabled the American capitalists to extend their influence in Japan. The United States is proving to be the leading banker and manufacturer in supplying the funds for Japanese reconstruction. About $300,000,000 will be needed to help Japan restore its losses. A group of American capitalists, amongst whom are found such powerful concerns as J. P. Morgan & Co., Kuhn, Loeb & Co., the National City Co., the First National Bank of New York, Brown Bros. & Co., Philadelphia, Lee, Higginson & Co., have just gotten together with about fifteen other banking firms and floated a loan of $150,000,000 to Japan. This is the largest long term loan floated in the United States since the armistice and marks a positive step in advance towards American financial and commercial supremacy in the Far East. At the close of last year there was organized in Tokyo the Japanese-American Engineers' & Contracting Corporation, capitalized at $50,000,000, which is to be financed and controlled jointly by American and Japanese interests. Through the organization of this company American capitalists have assured themselves the role of the dominant group in the reconstruction of Japan. The Tokyo Electric Co., which has recently absorbed nine competing companies, has formed a combination with the Westinghouse Electric Company of America. Likewise, the General Electric Company has concluded a combination with the Shibaura Electric Works. The Western Electric Company has formed a combination with the Nippon Dento Electric Works. The hand of American capital is also suspected in the recently announced union of flour mill companies in Japan. Through this merger six of the biggest companies with a combined daily producing capacity of close to twenty thousand barrels united. This corporation is now planning to swallow up fifteen smaller companies and organize itself into a national federation. In China our imperialists are on their guard. At the conference of the Associated American Chambers of Commerce of China and Manila, recently held at Shanghai, our capitalists passed a resolution demanding that Washington immediately strengthen the American marine, naval and military control in China to the fullest requirements. It is said that this was "the most important meeting an American commercial organization has ever held." The fact that Japanese imperialism has not yet been able to collect dividends in its Siberian and Korean ventures, coupled with the fact that American capitalists are steadily extending their influence in the Far and Middle East, only accentuates the points of conflict between the United States and Japan. 5. In the Near East, Europe, and Africa In the Near East, American imperialism is also making itself felt. The famous Chester concessions, the drive for oil in Mesopotamia, and the growing interest of American investors in Palestine and Syria, indicate the direction of the trade winds here. The Yankee imperialists have their eyes on Europe also. Wall Street has done more than its share to turn Austria into a coolie colony. An American corporation lawyer, Jeremiah C. Smith, is today financial dictator of Hungary. Our capitalists are now landing heavily on Italian resources and bolstering up the Fascist tyranny of Mussolini. At the close of 1923, there was announced the organization of the Italian Power Co., a 100 percent American corporation organized to finance light and power enterprises in Italy. Among the directors of this new American imperialist outfit are Morgan, Mellon, the Bankers' Trust, General Electric and Rockefeller interests, displacing French and Swiss interests. Our capitalists are interested even in the wildest thickets of African investments. In the recent Tangiers controversy, involving about half a dozen European countries, the United States, that is, the Stone & Webster Electric & Power interests, were represented by Father Denning, who was supposed to be bringing the Light of Christianity and the Power of the Saviour to the backward tribesmen. Chapter III The American Colonial Empire American Colonialism In more ways than one does the American imperial and colonial empire resemble the Roman empire of old. But the most outstanding resemblance of the policy of the Roman republic of yesterday to the modern American capitalist imperialistic republic of today, lies in the management of the colonies and in the interference with domestic affairs in the various spheres of influence. The American military governor generals of the colonial possessions are the exact prototypes of the procurators and pro-consuls governing the provinces of the old Roman empire. In Rome men were given the office of pro-consul or procurator in order to redeem either their personal fortunes or those of their political friends and masters. On exactly the same principle are our colonial military governor generals chosen today. General Leonard Wood was sent into the Philippines to force upon the Filipinos an economic policy which would enable him to repay in valuable concessions the powerful bankers and manufacturers who financed his primary campaign in 1920 to the cost of $2,000,000. Likewise, we find Major Enoch H. Crowder, formerly chief of the American military staff, serving as Ambassador to Cuba. An American commission is now in Bolivia watching the collection of taxes in the interest of the Standard Oil Co. In Nicaragua, the only solvent country in Central America, the United States administers the treasury and customs of the country in the interest of the American bankers and investors. The decisive outcome of an election in Honduras depends on the conduct of an American warship lying off its coast. The Argentine Republic cannot pass laws regulating its own industries without the sanction of the American packing interests. South America is often in danger of war and strife because of the machinations of American war contractors fostering rivalry among the southern republics. The Bethlehem Steel Co. has recently become the official contractor for the Argentine navy. The Secretary of State Hughes has become the official spokesman for the American bankers in all their deals as shown by the recent $6,000,000 loan to Salvador in which the State Department "assisted" in the selection of the collector of customs, who, according to the loan contract, is to be appointed in case of default. American capitalists have been quick to extend their domination wherever catastrophe has aided them. The collapse of the sugar market in Cuba during the latter part of 1920 is a typical case in which the industries of the weaker country were salvaged in order to enable the American interests to secure over 50 percent control. How serious the interference of American capitalists, aided and abetted by the United States Government, is in the internal affairs of these weaker exploited nations is clearly seen from the present situation in Brazil. An American naval mission of about 30 officers, with the approval of the United States Navy Department has for several months taken over control of the Brazilian naval schools, shipyards, and fleet. They were paid by the Brazilian government. This has resulted in upsetting the naval balance of power between the A B C powers and has proven a source of serious trouble to the whole continent. In the Philippines American occupation and influence are characterized by the same brutality and outrageous conduct coloring the actions of the other imperialist powers. Since General Wood has arrived in the Philippines he has pursued a policy of forcing the natives to hand over valuable concessions to American capitalists. In this campaign General Wood has made the attempts of the natives to nationalize their industries, the target of his attacks. The obvious purpose of these attempts at government ownership in these lesser developed countries is to save the industries from falling into the hands of foreign exploiters. The purpose of this agent of American imperialism is to remove all hindrances and obstacles to the domination of the weaker countries by American capital. The Filipinos strongly resent this move of General Wood. Their Senate and Legislature have gone on strike against this high-handed policy of their American masters. The Filipinos are bent on preventing the American capitalists from gobbling up their country. There is talk of independence. The American auditor, Wright, has cut off the independence funds. So serious a turn have recent events taken in the Philippines that the imperialists of other countries are afraid that the contagion of national independence will spread from these Islands and make trouble in the entire Far East. Thus the editor of the "Far East," one of the leading Japanese imperialist journals in Tokyo, recently declared that the Filipino crisis was "adding fresh fuel to the anti-foreign fires smouldering in China, to the anti-British blazes in India and to the general unrest against control in many parts of Asia and in large sections of Africa." This remark is especially significant since normally Japan would like to see the United States get out of the Philippines in double quick time. It is interesting to note how the capitalist imperialists of all countries line up and forget their differences when their fundamental interests are at stake. In Cuba When the Cuban millionaire, Colonel Tarafa, proposed his bill to consolidate the railways so as to eliminate 47 private ports in Cuba, President Coolidge, at the behest of the American Sugar Refining Co., the American Metal Co., and more than a score of other firms representing at least a half billion dollars, warned the Cuban government to drop consideration of this measure. American imperialist agents even resorted to the tactics they employed in the Canal Zone by an attempt to engineer a fake revolution in the country. Much resentment has been stirred up in Cuba against this high-handed attempt of the American capitalists to throttle their native government. The Virgin Islands In the other colonies and spheres of American influence there is considerable trouble brewing. The Virgin Islands are complaining bitterly, as can be seen from the following appeal by the editor of the "Emancipator," one of their native papers: "We are serfs who work for wages ranging from ten cents to a dollar a day. Politically we are peons governed by the United States Navy. Federal United States laws have worked havoc upon these islands. The people live in one-room houses; eat scanty meals, and are forced to move about in a manner unbecoming civilized people at this age." In Puerto Rico Puerto Rico has repeatedly demanded its independence from American imperialism. What American exploitation of Puerto Rico means is seen from the following appeal of Senator Iglesias for independence: "There are 776,396 acres of the island's choicest land under the control of 447 American, Spanish and French corporations and individuals. We have all the evils of absentee ownership and faulty systems of education, industry, credit and sanitation." In Mexico Even Mexico does not afford unbounded peace and comfort to American imperialists. Though Obregon and Calles have completely surrendered to Morgan and Rockefeller interests, and are dropping all pretense at friendship even with the most conservative labor elements, there are disturbing factors on the political horizon in Mexico. In spite of our capitalists being sure that Calles, the most likely successor to Obregon, will do their bidding, they are taking steps to make sure that no losses are suffered by them in the change of administration. American interests played a most important part in the recent rebellion of de la Huerta against the Obregon-Calles combination. Haiti and Santo Domingo Our marines hold Haiti, San Domingo and Nicaragua. Central America is under our financial thumb. An American financial mission is instructing Colombia how to run its finances. Bolivian policy is dictated by American bankers. Peru is virtually in American hands. The present Fascist Peruvian government is a puppet of big financial interests with headquarters in Wall Street. Dollar Diplomacy The diplomacy and philosophy of American imperialist policy by Secretary of State Hughes have been forcefully stated by Secretary of State Hughes before the American Bar Association a few months ago. If one should strip bare such verbiage of Hughes as the Monroe Doctrine "does not infringe upon the independence and sovereignty of other American states and does not stand in the way of Pan-American co-operation," he will find that American imperialism in no way differs from any other capitalist imperialism. Despite all our protestations of loyalty to the "principle of national security" all Latin America protested most emphatically against the dictatorial attitude of the American delegates to the recent Pan-American conference. Chapter IV The Menace of Militarism The rule of dollar democracy by our financiers and industrialists at home has been translated into a regime of dollar diplomacy abroad and in our vast colonial possessions. American democracy now truly rests upon a monarchy of gold and an aristocracy of finance. In order to maintain control of our growing imperialist empire and spheres of influence and in order to serve American investors abroad, the American government has been steadily developing and strengthening its military and naval machines. We have invested over $4,000,000,000 in the navy. The aim of the American navalists is to secure a navy second to none. The 1923 report of the former Secretary of the Navy Denby demands a further increase in the American fighting ships. Gunboats, submarines and fast cruisers are especially recommended. From December 31, 1912, to December 31, 1922, the value of the American Navy has increased from $602,352,000 to $1,445,992,000, or an increase of 259.4 percent. Growth of Militarism The extent to which the United States has been militarized is clearly portrayed by the report of the Secretary of War for 1923 in the following: "During the past ten years, while the cost of national defense has been doubled, the regular army has increased its actual total strength from 92,035 to 132,834, the national guard from 120,802 to 160,598, the organized reserves from 0 to 78,338, and the total of the army of the United States from 212,000 to 371,770. This increase alone, considered in relations to the decrease in value of the dollar and the change in character of the army (including addition of such elements as motor transportation, tanks, aviation, and chemical warfare service), would apparently justify a doubling of the total defense cost. In the same period, moreover, the number of citizens under training, not as members of the army of the United States, has increased as follows: In the citizen's military training camps from 0 to 31,000 and the reserve officers' training corps (which corresponds to the unorganized military schools of the pre-war period) from 31,028 to 101,129. The total of individuals under training has thus increased from 243,865 to 504,010. From April 15, 1910, to January 1, 1920, the persons in military and naval service stations abroad rose from 55,608 to 117,238." The national Defense Act of June 4, 1920, provides for one huge army consisting of the regular army, the national guard, and the organized reserve including the officer's reserve corps. The country has been divided into nine territorial areas to carry this scheme into effect. This policy strives for a mark in militarism never before attempted. It proposes to organize an army of two million in time of peace, the creation of a distinct and permanent military propagandist caste throughout this country. The duty of this caste is to stimulate militarism. Under this policy the Regular Army is to be used to garrison overseas possessions, the Coast Defenses, and instruct the National Guard and Organized Reserves. The organized reserves "will be available for emergencies within the United States or elsewhere." A Business Government The Department of Commerce through its Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce and its Foreign Trade staff abroad, and the Department of State, through its diplomatic and consular staff abroad, vie with the Departments of War and Navy in rendering services to our imperialist exploiters. Congress has acted to help American capitalists find new sources of raw material needed by them in their manufacture and especially those sources of products now controlled by foreign interests. Thus we find the Secretary of Commerce say in his last, 1923, report: "There are a number of necessary raw materials for the supply of which we are predominantly dependent on imports from foreign countries. Possibly as a result of the war, but more particularly during the past 18 months, there has been a growing tendency for producers of these commodities to combine in control of prices as against the American market. This is particularly the case in nitrates, tanning extracts, quinine, rubber, sisal, tin, cork, mercury, tungsten and various minor minerals." Under authority of Congress, the Secretary's report says, an exhaustive examination of such combinations was undertaken by the department before the close of the fiscal year to determine first, the character and extent of the combinations themselves; second, whether alternative sources of these raw materials could be stimulated and their natural competition induced; third, what relief could be obtained by stimulation of synthetic or substitute materials within our own borders; and fourth, what protective or retaliatory legislation could be undertaken?" Preparing For Action Our employing class is preparing for a show down on all fronts in its struggle for imperialist supremacy. First of all, the joint congressional reorganization committee is planning to submit to Congress a program aiming at a complete reorganization of the government machinery. The outstanding features of this plan are an increase in the centralization of power, particularly in the hands of the executive division of the government. This obvious purpose of such proposals as giving the president an official assistant and consolidating the army and navy into one department of National Defense is to enable the government to function more swiftly and surely in case the working masses at home will display any restiveness over our new imperialist aggrandizement. Besides, the General Staff of the War Department has prepared tentative plans to mobilize over four hundred thousand officers and men at their home stations some time after the 1924 election. Army men are banking much on this maneuver which is the first of a series to be put over under the National Defense Act. This mobilization will be the first grand show of military force in the country since the armistice. >From reliable sources in Washington, I have received a report which discloses the plan of our big industrial and financial magnates to end the present chaos characterizing the administration of our colonial affairs. The capitalists and bankers are sick and tired of having the authority over our insular possessions and customs collections in Central and South America divided in the hands of the War Department, Navy and Interior; Haiti, the Philippines, Puerto Rico and the customs receivership of San Domingo Zone are in the hands of the War Department; while the Virgin Islands and Guam are run by the Navy Department. The people closest to the stock exchange and the White House have worked out a plan whereby the entire administration of insular affairs and protection of all American interests abroad will be centralized in the hands of one administrative head bearing the title of Colonial Secretary and holding membership in the cabinet. This move is an outright notice to the American workers and farmers that our big business interests are ready for a flyer in imperialism. In other words, the American workers are face to face with the situation which will inevitably, sooner rather than later, lead this country into a new war. Hard hit as England, France and Japan may be at present, no one seriously expects them to allow America to ride roughshod over their own imperialist plans. --[cont]-- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. 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