peace, to peace and to war, for all is grist which comes to their mill.
Let us give one example among a thousand to show how indifferent these
men of money become to everything but money. It is a matter of recent
history that a group of great German capitalists bought mines in
Normandy and gained possession of a fifth part of the mineral wealth of
France. Between 1908 and 1913, developing for their own profit the iron
industry of our country, they helped in the production of the cannons
whose fire is now sweeping the German lines. Such a man was the fabled
Midas of antiquity, King Midas of the golden touch.... Do not suppose
them to entertain hidden but far-reaching designs. They are men of short
views. Their aim is to pile up as much wealth as they can, as quickly as
possible. In them we see the climax of that anti-social egoism which is
the curse of our day. They are merely the most typical figures in an
epoch enslaved to money. The intellectuals, the press, the politicians,
the very members of the cabinets (preposterous puppets!), have, whether
they like it or not, become tools in the hands of the profiteers, and
act as screens to hide them from the public eye.[12] Meanwhile the
stupidity of the peoples, their fatalistic submissiveness, the mysticism
they have inherited from their primitive ancestors, leave them
defenceless before the hurricane of lying and frenzy which drives them
to mutual slaughter....

There is a wicked and cruel saying that nations always have the
governments they deserve. Were this true, we should have reason to
despair of mankind, for where can we find a government with which a
decent man would shake hands? It is all too clear that the masses,
those who work, are unable to exercise due control over the men who rule
them. Enough for the masses that they invariably have to pay for the
errors or the crimes of their rulers. It would be too much, in addition,
to make those who are ruled responsible. The men of the people,
sacrificing themselves, die for ideas. Those who send others to the
sacrifice, live for interests. Thus it comes to pass that the interests
live longer than the ideas. Every prolonged war, even a war which at the
outset was in a high degree idealistic, tends more and more, as it is
protracted, to become a business matter, to become, as Flaubert wrote,
"a war for money."--Let me repeat, there is no suggestion that the war
is undertaken for money. But as soon as the war is afoot, th