Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) [Illustration: INDUSTRIAL DESPOTISM, SHREWDLY CALLED FREEDOM. /] (Illustrating the Wage-Earner’s “Freedom of Contract.”) WAR—WHAT FOR? BY GEORGE R. KIRKPATRICK “The cannon’s prey has begun to think, and, thinking twice, loses its admiration for being made a target.”—_Victor Hugo._ “A nod from a lord is a breakfast—for a fool.”—_Proverb._ “The poor souls for whom this hungry war opens its vast jaws.”—_William Shakespeare._ First Edition, August, 1910. Second Edition, October, 1910. Third Edition, December, 1910. Fourth Edition, April, 1911. Fifth Edition, Thirtieth Thousand, May, 1911. PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR, WEST LA FAYETTE, OHIO COPYRIGHTED, 1910, BY GEORGE R. KIRKPATRICK. All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT ON PAGE 350. WAR—WHAT FOR? SINGLE COPY, $1.20 Liberal discounts in clubs of 3, 10 and 25 or more. By the same author: THINK—OR SURRENDER About 100 pages of elementary economics, politics and organization—for the propaganda of Socialism. (Nearly ready.) [Illustration] This book is dedicated to the victims of the civil war in industry; that is, to my brothers and sisters of the working class, the class who furnish the blood and tears and cripples and corpses in all wars—yet win no victories for their own class. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENTS. PAGE Preface 5 Ready 9 An Insult from the Commander-in-Chief 10 Chapter One: A Confidential Word with the Man of the Working Class 11 Chapter Two: What Is War? 21 Chapter Three: The Situation—Also the Explanation 29 Chapter Four: The Cost of War—(1) In Blood, (2) In Cash 47 Chapter Five: Hell 77 Chapter Six: Tricked to the Trenches—Then Snubbed 107