I. Consider the Armament Maker
To give arms to all men who offer an honest price for them without respect of persons or principles: to aristocrats and republicans, to Nihilist and Czar, to Capitalist and Socialist, to Protestant and Catholic, to burglar and policeman, to black man, white man and yellow man, to all sorts and conditions, all nationalities, all faiths, all follies, all causes, and all crimes.—Creed of Undershaft, the arms maker, in Shaw’s Major Barbara.
II. Merchants in Swaddling Clothes
These in their dark Nativity the Deep
Shall yield us, pregnant with infernal flame,
Which into hollow Engines long and round
Thick-rammed, at th’ other bore with touch of fire
Dilated and infuriate shall send forth
From far with thundring noise among our foes
Such implements of mischief as shall dash
To pieces, and o’erwhelm whatever stands
Adverse. . . .
III. Du Pont—Patriot and Powder-Maker
Take saltpeter, charcoal, and sulphur, and you can make thunder and lightning, if you know how.—Roger Bacon, De Nullitate Magiae.
IV. American Musketeers
The Yankees beat all creation. There seems to be no limit to what they are able to do.—Lord Wolseley to Hiram Maxim.
V. Second-Hand Death
“War,” says Machiavel, “ought to be the only study of a prince,” and by a prince he means every sort of state, however constituted. “He ought,” says this great political doctor, “to consider peace only as a breathing time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes ability to execute military plans.”—Burke, A Vindication of Natural Society.
VI. Krupp—The Cannon King
Alfred Krupp’s life was Longfellow’s noblest poem, lived— not written—and of him can it surely be said that he has, in dying, left behind him “footprints on the sands of time” that will comfort many a “shipwrecked brother” yet unborn.—Captain O. E. Michaelis, U. S. Army.
Peace-time Consumption
PEACE-TIME CONSUMPTION
The United States contributes to the $4,500,000,000 yearly bussiness of armament manufactures
SIR BASIL ZAHAROFF
Super Salesman of Death
SIR HIRAM MAXIM
VII. Automatic Death—The Story of Maxim’s Machine Gun
Maxim, it is all right and highly commendable for a man to be very patriotic and do all he can for his country, but you are one of the directors of an English company. We are neutral; we cannot take sides.—A fellow director to Hiram Maxim.
VIII. Supersalesman of Death
I am a citizen of the world: my Fatherland is wherever I work and I work everywhere.—Alfred Nobel.
IX. Stepmother of Parliament
“The Government of your country! I am the Government of your country, I and Lazarus. Do you suppose that you and half a dozen amateurs like you, sitting in a row in that foolish gabble shop, govern Undershaft and Lazarus? No, my friend, you will do what pays us. You will make war when it suits us and keep peace when it doesn’t. . . . When I want anything to keep my dividends up, you will discover that my want is a national need. When other people want something to keep my dividends down, you will call out the police and military.
