The Cause and Cure of War and Poverty

Charles R. Eckert

[A speech delivered before the U.S. House of Representatives, Thursday, 14 May 1936]

Mr. Speaker, in the confused and bewildered world of today there are two outstanding problems about which many Americans are deeply concerned. One is the problem of war, the other economic security. War has disturbed the happiness of the human race from time immemorial, and economic security has been a delusion and a snare. Those of our generation thought these two problems were settled and solved. At the turn of the century it was freely predicted that there would be no more war, and as late as 1929 economists and statesmen gave assurance that prosperity was permanent; that we were living in a new era; that poverty was all but banished from the earth. Since these pleasant prophecies of peace and plenty, we have witnessed the greatest war of all time and experienced the most widespread and devastating depression of all the years of our national existence. The prophets were in error. Neither the problem of war nor the problem of poverty is settled or solved.

Inasmuch as the problem of war remains unsettled, even after our participation in a war to end war, the Congress of the United States is confronted with the task of providing a military establishment adequate for the defense of the Nation. There is a wide difference of opinion as to the necessary strength of the land and sea forces for adequate defense, while others question the good faith of the Government's professions in regard to her military preparedness, charging that the United States, in common with many of the leading Nations of the earth, is thinking in terms of aggression as well as defense.

Be that as it may, the fact remains that the world is still war minded, and as long as this mental condition obtains, there can be no peace and cessation of preparation for war. This is a fact accepted by all practical men and women, whether they be militarists or pacifists. As long as the world psychology is what it is today, no nation on earth will adopt the policy of unpreparedness. Whether we like it or not, the leading nations of the earth will continue to place upon the backs of the people the ugly and heavy burdens incident to preparation for war. The only question upon which there is a difference of opinion is as to how and to what extent war preparation shall be prosecuted.

The prevailing thought demands extensive preparation, and so we find that, in spite of the many woes of the average citizen, he still cries out for a large Navy and an adequate Army. This, of course, means a tremendous draft on the Treasury of the United States, as is amply testified by the Navy appropriation bill and the accompanying Army bill. Although the distress and tax burdens of the people are rapidly becoming unbearable, predictions are common that another major war is imminent and that such a war would plunge the world into an era of darkness and destruction. The distress and burdens of the people, the misery and demoralization of war, together with the suggestion of a return to semibarbarism in the event of another major war, are impelling earnest men and women in all walks of life to search for a solution not only for the age-old problem of war, but poverty as well.

The two problems, war and poverty, persist in their onward march, and stubbornly refuse to yield to any of the nostrums and remedies proposed. Why this persistency? Can there be no solution? Are the problems too difficult for the human mind to fathom? In many lines of human endeavor man has demonstrated a high order of mental genius - so much so that in our modern world of invention many achievements seem wierd and uncanny. In the light of man's progress in the various spheres of science, why such abject failure and defeat in social science?

There can be only one answer. In the physical sciences man seeks to discover and follow natural law. Not so in the social sciences. Here, with an abandon that is disconcerting, he flounders and fumbles and makes confusion worse confounded. In the light of our past experience, why not follow the example of the true scientist and seek the root cause of war and poverty? It is only by doing this that we may hope to find the true answer.

WHAT IS THE CAUSE OF WAR?

Wars are not waged for pleasure. There is a real, definite reason why war persists.

Why are men ready to fly at each other's throats and defy and violate every instinct of civilized behavior?

The war in Africa, the recent war in China, the fear of war that is disturbing the foreign offices of the leading nations of the world are due to reasons that are not far to seek. Charles O'Connor Hennessy, of New York, in a recent address, said:

Men may cry "Peace! Peace!" but there can be no lasting peace until the root causes of war are recognized and removed; until the peoples may be led to accept a new and simply philosophy of human relationships - that of equal rights for all, freedom for all, justice for all. Political peace and economic war are irreconcilable. There can be no political peace at home or abroad unless it is founded upon cooperation in freedom and mutual friendship and respect.

We propose to end the curse of war, with all its barbarities and brutalities and its grievous burdens upon the backs of the workers of the world, by leading nations to recognize and remove the true causes of international contention and strife. These have their roots not alone in hostile tariffs and the struggle for markets but in the economic imperialism which exploits the natural resources of distant and undeveloped lands for the enrichment of favored groups of capitalists at home.

Since the World War many laudable efforts have been put forth and machinery set up in the hope of arresting the war madness of the world. There is the League of Nations, the World Court, the Kellogg treaties outlawing war, and many other measures designed to prevent war; yet, in spite of it all, the war spirit is still acute, and all attempts to stem the onward tide of aggressive armies in the Orient and the far-off regions of Africa have been in vain, while rumors of wars more devastating and terrible than any yet recorded fill the ears of men everywhere. There can be no political peace so long as great and valuable economic prizes can be obtained by the arts of corrupt, selfish, or ignorant governments. The true basis of both political and economic peace can only spring from a condition of social justice - a condition that abhors any and every form of privilege, which implies, of course, an economic order based upon the doctrine of equal rights for all, freedom for all, justice for all.

War and rumors of war still continue, and so with the problem of poverty. It, too, persists and remains unsolved. As with the problem of war, there are those who are seeking remedies for its solution. But all in vain. There seem to be insurmountable difficulties. So far both the problem of war and the problem of poverty have eluded the wit and genius of man. Wherever we chance to look, there is confusion and bewilderment. Is there any doubt about the facts pointed out by Mr. Hennessy? The way to peace, this thinker and economist declares, is for the people to accept a new and simple philosophy of human relationships - that of equal rights for all, special privileges for none. And how nicely this matches the doctrine proclaimed by the founders of the American Republic. Our great chart of liberty, the Declaration of Independence, breathes the very soul of this simple philosophy. Those who long for peace, those who would labor for peace, will find their hope for peace not in large armies and formidable navies, but in the deep philosophy of Him who bade men to love one another and the truths contained in the Declaration of Independence. Man's thoughts must be turned away from the doctrine of force and conflict to the doctrine of good will, natural rights, and social justice. It is only in this way that war may be outlawed and peace achieved. The problem of war must first be resolved and settled in the minds of men before any lasting peace can be established. Until this is achieved, the mad race for armaments will continue, and tremendous sums of the taxpayers' money will be spent annually for war and preparation for war.

And why poverty? It likewise has its roots in the absurdities of our economic order. Mr. Theunis, president of the Economic Conference of the League of Nations, called together a few years ago and attended by representatives of 51 countries to find the cause of war and industrial depressions, said:

The main trouble now is neither in any natural shortage of the resources of nature nor any inadequacy in man's power to exploit them. It is all in one form or another a maladjustment, not in an insufficient productive capacity, but a series of impediments to the full utilization of that capacity.

Since both war and poverty have a common cause - a cause inherent in our economic structure, perhaps by answering the question, "Why poverty?" we will kill two birds with one stone. A brief survey of the fruits of our disordered economic system reveals the extent to which the people have been reduced in the scale of poverty. The Brookings Institution of Washington, D. C., reports that 71 percent of the American people in 1929 - at a time when incomes were at the highest point in the years of our so-called prosperity - received only enough of the products of their toil that enabled them barely to exist.

The discovery of the Brookings Institution is not surprising. It is a fact known to everyone who stops to think. The question naturallly arises, "Why this condition in a land of plenty?" The answer is found in Mr. Theunis's statement, that it is all in one form or another a maladjustment of our economic order.

And wherein lies this maladjustment? Many are of the belief that our money structure is at fault. Others contend that the machine is the culprit; while still others maintain that our productive process is too abundant; and so ad infinitum.

In the midst of this confusion of thought, let us call for counsel and light, Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, founder of the Democratic Party, and one of the world's great politico-social philosophers. Mr. Jefferson, in 1785, was stationed in France as Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States. This was Jefferson's first visit abroad. Before reaching foreign shores, Jefferson, in common with the great body of his countrymen, knew little or nothing about poverty. In the new America, every able-bodied and willing worker was employed. Here economic opportunities were open to all on equal terms, and none were so rich as to invite envy, and none so poor as to demand charity. Everyone was prosperous in proportion to his thrift, ability, and application. Not so in France. There Jefferson found the problem of unemployment and poverty in all its ugliness and despair - and this before the advent of the so-called machine age or the rise of the House of Morgan or the doctrine of economic abundance. Why then the problem of unemployment and poverty in all its horridness and magnitude similar to the problem now confronting the American Nation? Let the story be told in Jefferson's own words. In 1782, a few years before his first trip abroad, Jefferson, in answer to a letter from a friend in France inquiring about economic conditions in America, wrote:

From Savannah to Portsmouth you will seldom meet a beggar. In the largest towns indeed they sometimes present themselves. They are usually foreigners who have never attained a settlement in any parish. I never yet saw an American begging in the streets or highways.

As late as 1814 Jefferson wrote Thomas Cooper:

The old and crippled among us who possess nothing and have no families to take care of them being too few to merit notice as a separate section of society.

As soon, however, as Jefferson set foot in France he saw the real thing in poverty. After a year's residence he wrote to an American correspondent, saying:

Of 20 millions of people supposed to be in France, I am of the opinion there are 19 million more wretched, more accursed in every circumstance of human existence than the most conspicuously wretched individual of the whole United States.

And observed that the land of France was concentrated in a very few hands, and that the people had been expropriated from the land and huddled in cities and towns. The streets and highways were filled with beggars, which to Jefferson was a new and distressing aspect in human society. This impelled Jefferson to ask:

What could be the reason that so many should be permitted to beg who are willing to work, in a country where there is a very considerable proportion of uncultivated lands?

and answered by saying:

Whenever there is in any country uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural rights. The earth is given as a common stock for man to labor and live on.

The distress and poverty of the French people were so amazing that he, in a letter to Monroe, exclaimed:

My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of and which no other people on earth enjoy! I confess I had no idea of it myself.

The testimony of Jefferson, depicting in dramatic fashion the economic condition of the people of France as compared with the people of his own country, emphasizes the fact that the people of France were expropriated from the land, while in America there was no end of accessible land on equal terms to all. The conditions in France filled the land with beggars and mendicants and untold millions of wretched men and women, while in America there was neither poverty nor mendicancy.

The account of France's misery and woe and America's blessings and good fortune in the days of Jefferson points the way for the answer to the enigma of our time. Today the economic conditions in America are not unlike the conditions prevailing in France immediately preceding the French Revolution. In France property had been concentrated in a few hands. The major portion of the land of the country was in the possession of the nobility and the church, while the masses of the people were economically dependent upon the few who controlled the economic resources of the Nation. In America today the wealth is in the hands of the few. The natural resources - the wide open spaces of our western domain -are no longer free, and the masses of our people, as in France 150 years ago, are economically dependent upon the few who control the economic resources of America. We today have our beggars and mendicants, and millions of poor and wretched men and women. France had her social eruptions. We today are menaced with dire forebodings, and no one can tell whether or not America will escape her share of the world's civil commotions and eruptions.

A century and a half ago the economic condition of the two countries was vastly different, the one struggling with the problem of poverty and social insecurity; the other enjoyed plenty and social stability. Today the picture is different. The story of Jefferson is quite illuminating and suggests the answer to the question why a free, independent, and self-reliant people have been reduced to a condition of social insecurity and economic servitude.

Mr. Theunis calls attention to the fact that maladjustments in our economic order are the cause of war and industrial depressions. Wherein lies the maladjustment?

Jefferson observed that the earth is given as a common stock for nian to labor and live on, and it might not be amiss to remind ourselves that here in America, as in France a century and a half ago, the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural rights And again let us be reminded that in France during the hectic days of the Revolution, the National Assembly of France declared that ignorance, neglect, or contempt of human rights are the sole causes of public misfortunes and corruption of government. France, as a result of her delinquency, had her Revolution. America, like her sister Republic, has been blind and neglectful of the first duty of government.

We prate about natural rights, about the right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, and yet we have so far forgotten the primary function of government - which is to secure the people in the enjoyment of their natural rights - that millions of our fellow citizens, for all intents and purposes, are disinherited and strangers in the land of their birth. Herein lies the fundamental maladjustment, and thus our economic structure is set for the few to exploit the many, resulting, of course, in the few being inordinately rich and the many abjectly poor.

Those who seek to prevent war and abolish involuntary poverty have but one course to pursue if they wish to achieve their ends. War and poverty have their root causes in the maladjustment of our economic order. The impediments that stand in the way to the full utilization of the earth on which we live must be removed so that labor and industry may have unrestricted access to the resources of Nature and unimpeded exchange among all the peoples of the world. When this happy condition shall come to pass, then and not until then, may we hope to enjoy the blessings of abundance and peace.