Meet the corporations who made billions off of WW1 (2024)

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General Major Smedley Butler had a distinguished military career. He won more medals than most soldiers in history. But his bravery outside the battlefield is more remarkable: after retiring, he delivered a compelling anti-war message that made America sit up and listen👇

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General Butler's central message was simple: wars are a racket waged not for democracy or peace, but for the business interests who profit wildly during war time. The young men who kill and die aren't told the real reason they're being marched off. Instead they're shamed into it.

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General Butler gives many examples of corporations who recorded extraordinary profits during the first world war. Du Ponts manufactured gunpowder, and saw their profits jump by "more than 950%." Or take the Leather Company - they saw "a small increase of 1,100%."

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General Butler writes: "You can't have a war without nickel." This is why International Nickel Company saw its profits jump by "more than 1,700%." A war takes battleships, aircrafts, guns, and a 100 other items. Many manufacturers see their best ever years during the bloodbath.

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The US government spent a billion dollars on "building airplane engines that never left the ground!" This money was taken from the US citizens through government debt and "liberty bonds" - a major depletion of their purchasing power for material that never helped the war effort.

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The shoe manufacturers love war as it brings "business with abnormal profits." They sold the US government 35 million pairs of shoes in WW1 - General Butler writes his regiment had "only one pair" per soldier. At the end of the war, 25 million pairs were left unused.

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20 million mosquito nets were sold to Uncle Sam in WW1: "I suppose the boys were expected to put it over them as they tried to sleep in muddy trenches - one hand scratching cooties on their backs and the other making passes at scurrying rats." The nets never reached the warfront.

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The US army was convinced by some businessmen that "colonels shouldn't ride in automobiles, nor should they even ride on horseback." 6,000+ buckboards - four wheeled carriages driven by a large animal - were sold to the government "for the use of colonels!" Never used.

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The shipbuilders built and sold $635 million worth of wooden ships to the US government that "wouldn't float." General Butler: "The seams opened up -- and they sank. We paid for them, though. And somebody pocketed the profits."

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Bottom line. Peace is clearly not in everyone's best interests. General Butler saw and exposed the military-industrial complex before the term existed in the 1930s. He showed that business interests combine with military adventurism to create the racket that is war.