War is a racket by definition, not by accident. A racket requires that the people paying for it don’t know what they’re paying for. Butler argues that war functions this way structurally: the profits go to those who never risk their lives, and the costs fall on those who do. The arrangement is maintained by propaganda — “beautiful ideals painted for our boys who were sent out to die.” The “war to end all wars.” The “war to make the world safe for democracy.” None of these were the operative reasons. They were the salesmanship.
The profit data is not speculation — it is documented. Chapter Two is a ledger. Du Pont’s average yearly earnings 1910–1914: $6 million. Average 1914–1918: $58 million. Nearly a 950% increase. Bethlehem Steel: from $6 million to $49 million annually. US Steel: from $105 million to $240 million. Anaconda Copper: from $10 million to $34 million. International Nickel: from $4 million to $73 million — an increase of more than 1,700%. The pattern across 122 meat packers, 153 cotton manufacturers, 299 garment makers, 49 steel plants, and 340 coal producers: profits under 25% were exceptional. Coal companies made between 100% and 7,856% on their capital stock. “A mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War.”
The soldier is not compensated — he is conscripted and then billed. The soldier received $30 a month. Half went to support his dependents. Six dollars went to accident insurance — something an employer pays in any enlightened state. He had less than $9 a month left. Then he was “virtually blackjacked” into buying Liberty Bonds at $100. After the war, when he couldn’t find work, those bonds were bought back from him at $84 or $86 — by the same bankers who had arranged the transaction. “The most crowning insolence of all,” Butler writes, was that the soldier was made to pay for his own ammunition, clothing, and food through this mechanism. Soldiers bought approximately $2 billion worth of those bonds.