twice as many workers are organized as in 1916. But this same
labor force has lost its hold on the public. Furthermore, it is divided
in its own camp. It fears capital. It also fears its own factions. It
threatens, but it does not dare.

"We said that the employing class was immensely more powerful than in
1914. There is more money at its command. Eighteen thousand new
millionaires are the war's legacy. This money capacity is more
thoroughly unified than ever. In 1914 we had thirty-thousand banks,
functioning to a great degree in independence of each other. Then came
the Federal Reserve Act and gave us the machinery for consolidation and
the emergency of five years war furnished the hammer blows to weld the
structure into one.

"The war taught the employing class the secret and the power of
widespread propaganda. Imperial Europe had been aware of this power. It
was new to the United States. Now, when we have anything to sell to the
American people we know how to sell it. We have learned. We have the
schools. We have the pulpit. The employing class owns the press. There
is practically no important paper in the United States but is theirs!"

9. _The Run of the World_

The war gains of the American plutocracy at home were immense. Even more
significant, from an imperial standpoint, were the international
advantages that came to America with the war. The events of the two
years between 1916 and 1918 gave the United States the run of the world.

Destiny seemed to be bent upon hurling the American people into a
position of world authority. First, there was the matter of credit. The
Allies were reaching the end of their economic rope when the United
States entered the war. They were not bankrupt, but their credit was
strained, their industries were disorganized, their sources of income
were narrowed, and they were looking anxiously for some source from
which they might draw the immense volume of goods and credit that were
necessary for the continuance of the struggle.[47]

The United States was that source of supply. During the years from 1915
to 1917, the industries of the United States were shifted gradually from
a peace basis to a war basis. Quantities of material destined for use in
the war were shipped to the Allies. The unusual profits made on much of
this business were not curtailed by heavy war taxation. Thus for more
than two years the basic industries of the United States reaped a
harvest in profits which we