This sum also shows that the working class, stripped and dulled to supply this annual sum, _ignorantly consenting to and blindly hurrahing for their own destruction_, are in the condition of _hypnotized children_—almost utterly helpless, their eyes blinded with tears, their ears stopped with blood, their souls numb and dumb in a living death. This sum—all this cash cost—is, in its last analysis, slyly _subtracted from the lives of the producing class, the working class—sucked from the veins of the humble multitude of toilers_, and the workers are so meek and weak and bloodless and stunned and stunted—so constantly in a dull, prideless stupor—that they are unable to stand erect in holy indignation, seize the powers of government and sweep this hell’s nightmare from the world. War devours the welfare of the workers. The _capitalist_ class dare not _place all the facts frankly before the working class_. Everywhere it is: “Hush! Hush! The _working_ class must not study the burdens of war.” The workers? “They must not _think_. They must not _think_. They must _obey_.” That is the word for the working class: OBEY. A very eminent authority on war[64] says: “Only _once_ in recent history do I remember _any attempt_ on the part of a European government to calculate the economic consequences of war under _modern_ conditions. It was when M. Burdeau was in the French Ministry. He appointed a committee of economists for the purpose of ascertaining how the social organism would continue to function in a time of war, how from day to day their bread would be given to the French population. But _no sooner had he begun his investigation than a strong objection was raised by the military authorities_, and out of deference to their protest the inquiry was _indefinitely postponed_. Hence we are going forward blindfold.” A real statesman, Senator Charles Sumner, has said:[65] “All history is a vain word, and all experience is at fault, if large war preparations ... have not been constant provocatives of war. Pretended protectors against war, they have been the real instigators of war. They have excited the evil against which they were to guard. The habit of wearing arms in private life exercised a kindred influence.... The Standing Army is to the nation what the sword was to the modern gentleman, the stiletto to the Italian, the knife to the Spaniard, the pistol to our slavemaster,—furnishing, like these, the means of death; and its possessor is not slow to use it.” “Were half the power that fills the world with terror, Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts, Given to redeem the world from error, There would be no need of arsenals and forts.”[66] “Workers of the world, unite!” Rouse. Think. Rise. Hurl this curse of war from the world. On the battlefield of industry unite. On the battlefield of politics unite. Seize the powers of government.