Michael Howard The Causes Of War Summary

In entering World War 1, the United States proved to it’s citizens that not a single care would be given about their sons, fathers, brothers. The stock brokers, manufacturers and bankers prospered immensely from the vile that went on in the period of four years. The so figuratively called “masters” in Eugene V.Cantons speech, control the masses to their free will. Eugene also believed that the “master” class has always declared wars for their own personal benefits. The masters chose wars for their subjects to fight. Eugene states in his speech “No war by any nation in any age has ever been declared by the people.” And this holds true because the fact that the federal lords and barons of wall street have turned the common man against itself in search for
personal economic gains, can be proven by just gazing into the past. These atrocious actions have been happening for long periods of time. Over the history of mankind many sociobiologists have hypothesized that the most common reason for mankind to go to war is due to the fact that man is innately aggressive.
Michael Howard's short manifesto has impacted the way many people look at war, and how they start. Michael without a shadow of a doubt states in his essay The Causes Of War, “Force, or the threat of it, may not settle arguments, but it does play a considerable part in determining the structure of the world in which we live.” Although Michael merely shrugs at the claims made by sociobiologists he also brings a few important ideas to the table himself. When Michael discusses the subject of fear in parallel to the idea of U.S joining WW1 he tries to emphasize that as a justifiable reason to take part in the war. The author does so by showing how fear was inevitable in the national community. The idea of fear may be a resounding case in the ears of a poor man, the fat cats in Wall Street did not fear anything that would come their way. The idea that billions of dollars would be borrowed from the Federal Reserve and millions of expensive stocks would be sold for mere dollars in NASDAQ was too good of an opportunity to pass up for the robber
barons.
Theodore Roosevelt wouldn’t have been helpless if he was to win a war by fighting Germany by himself, that is why he had to somehow hook the masses into taking his side and fighting off the militant Germanic forces. When Theodore made the speech to call all patriotic beings in America to fight in the war he used a great deal of pathos to catch the eye of the patriots. Roosevelt stated in his speech, “We believe that it would be an act of baseness and infamy, and act of unworthy cowardice, and a betrayal of this country and of mankind to accept any peace except the peace of overwhelming victory...” This play on emotion caused many young men to be killed, or hospitalized. Donald Trumbo explains this phenomenon clearly in his book Johnny Got His Gun. In the book a young man by the name of Joe Bonham is lampooned during a draft that he is going off to fight for the country he loves and the people that surround him. Drunk off of the idea of patriotism Bonham goes off to fight in the war, and in the process loses his limbs and all of his senses except the sense of feel. In his crazy far out ramblings Trumbo's voice may be heard. In one of these mental episodes Joe (Donald Trumbo) goes off on a tangent where he states, “You plan the wars you masters of men plan the wars and point the way and we will point the gun.” (pg. 243)