Chapter 18

The War to End All Wars had already started. I did not see it at the time, but the military establishments on both sides knew it was coming. Britain, France, Germany, and Austria had all begun preparations for a dynastic war decades before the actuality. It was a war between the old dynastic rulers, the Habsburgs and the Hohenzollern, with their hatred and fear of the very idea of democracy, and the democratic states of Europe. The Central Powers rightly feared the democratization of Europe and intended to bring back the autocratic states of old, once and for all. They plunged the continent into war on the flimsiest of pretexts, and isn't it amazing how many wars have been started with the flimsiest of pretexts or outright lies, and people never quite seem to catch on, instead being caught up in Patriotic fervor that the rulers use to lead them blindly into war.

The grandest war of history started all so slowly from the perspective of one living in New York; an assassination, recriminations, bluffs, harsh words, then the gradual mobilization. As I read about it, I was certain that sanity would prevail. Obviously, the great powers could not go to war on this slim provocation. But the stated reasons were not the real reasons and Europe blundered into a ghastly war with the old Dynastic powers of the center sure they could wipe out these democratic upstarts. The Hohenzollern and Habsburgs had never accepted the revolutions and truly believed they could turn back the clock in Europe.

Again, I was made wealthy both in the transportation of materials to Europe and the vast raw materials needed for the war. I could, I suppose, regret that I made money from the horrendous suffering of the war. But someone would have, whether it was I or another wouldn't have mattered in the least. War is a completely irrational activity once begun. Yes, the fortune I leave behind will be tainted with blood money. But then how many fortunes do not contain some?

Three long years later, Russia was convulsed by Revolution and withdrew from the war. Even the doves in the American Congress realized by now that a victory of the Central Powers would wipe democracy from Europe and thankfully for those of us who despise German cooking, they entered the war. Again, a pretext was used and the newspapers beat the drums of war, just as they did for later presidents. But it was a pretext that convinced the common man, not the real reason.

Suddenly, all of my war profiteering was a great patriotic enterprise, and I was lauded for furthering the war effort. All of my friends were ever so anxious to know of the progress towards supplying the army and navy to beat the Central Powers. I was a bit of a hero. I, of course, could not enjoy that any more than I had in 1915 when I was a profiteer. But such is the capriciousness of man.

The war apparently ended in complete victory. But the Allied powers failed in their duty to prevent the next war, instead punishing the Germans to the point that the war never ended, there was simply an interregnum until ten years later when Europe again began the slide into the second half of the Great War in 1940.