George W Quotes

[FONT=verdana, geneva]THE "PATRIOTS"[/FONT]

[FONT=verdana, geneva]From preparedness to patriotism was a short step. The preparedness advocates had used the flag freely. They had played national airs, evoked the spirit of the founders of American democracy and worked upon the emotions of the people until it was generally understood that those who favored preparedness were patriots.

[/FONT] [FONT=verdana, geneva]Patriotism ran high. Enthusiasm for the flag increased. Patriotic committees were organized, but when the names of the patriots appeared in the newspapers they were distinguished by one outstanding fact, the vast majority of them were the successful business and professional men who were the center and forefront of the patriotic movement just as they had been the center and forefront of the preparedness movement.

[/FONT] [FONT=verdana, geneva]The price of flags rose rapidly - the flag manufacturers took this opportunity to get their share of the good things that were "going round" - nevertheless, the workers by the hundreds of thousands "contributed" to provide flags for the establishments in which they were employed. Men were discharged when they refused to make such "contributions."

[/FONT] [FONT=verdana, geneva]The business interests were "in clover." After years of unpopularity, after being forced to endure investigation, criticism, and antagonistic legislation, after being condemned by even the conservative element in public life as a menace to American progress and well-being, the business interests suddenly found themselves in a movement that was carrying the people, and they worked it for all it was worth.

[/FONT] [FONT=verdana, geneva]"Patriotism" was the refrain of every speech and every article - a patriotism of their own particular brand.[/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, geneva]The plutocratic brand of patriotism won the endorsement of the press, the pulpit, the college, and every other important channel of public information in the United States. The "educated," "cultured," "refined," "high-principled" editors, ministers, professors and lawyers accepted it and proclaimed it as though it were their own. Turning their backs upon principle, throwing morals and ideals to the winds, they tumbled over one another in a wild scramble to be the first to join the chorus of plutocratic patriotism.

[/FONT] [FONT=verdana, geneva]The American plutocracy was magnified, deified, and consecrated to the task of making the world safe for democracy. The brigands had turned saints and were conducting a campaign to raise $100,000,000 for the Red Cross. The malefactors of great wealth, the predatory business forces, the special privileged few who had milked the American people for generations became the prophets and the crusaders, the keepers of the ark of the covenant of American democracy.

[/FONT] [FONT=verdana, geneva]This campaign was directed by H. P. Davison, one of the leading members of the firm of J. P. Morgan & Co.
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[FONT=verdana, geneva]The Great Madness.[/FONT]


[FONT=verdana, geneva]We've gone from [/FONT]good faith and justice toward all nations to making the world safe for democracy and plutocratic patriotism. I doubt George Washington and Thomas Jefferson would approve of our interventionist policy.