Defense or imperialism?

• Author: La Follette, Robert M.
• Position: 1921 - Brief article

February 1921

There will never be another time when it will be so easy to induce the nations of the Earth to reduce armaments as the present.

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This country must choose whether it will lead the movement to disarm or set the pace in a new competition which can only lead to war.

The people--who must pay the staggering price of a race in armaments--are opposed to such a program. They have no foreign investments to protect, and no dividends, derived from armor contracts, at stake.

Conceding the right of the owner of capital to invest his money where he pleases, the people must force Congress to declare against the policy of using the State Department and the military arm of the Government for collecting private claims for those seeking large profits in foreign lands.

When our capitalists withdraw their money from this country to stake it on the turn of fortune's wheel in some foreign land, let...