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The Soon Coming Judgment Of God Upon America and How To Escape It 225
worked to cover them up and conceal them from the American people and the Congress of the
United States. G. Edward Griffin provides a very effective summary of the events surrounding
the sinking of the Lusitania and further details concerning US complicity in his book The
Creature From Jekyll Island.
The story begins when Britain and France came to America for financing of their war
effort after they had exhausted the financial resources of Europe. The Morgan Banking
establishment was chosen to sell bonds in America. This endeavor brought him over $10 million
in profits. J. P. Morgan was a man who would stop at nothing to make a dollar. No man, no law,
nor loyalty to his country would stand in his way.
Morgan’s first recorded business deal was to defraud the US Government on an arms deal
at the outbreak of the Civil War. Using two front men, he bought 5,000 defective surplus Hall’s
carbines (rifles) from the US government for $3.50 each and sold them to the Army as new
Rifles for $22 a piece. The army inspecting officers had condemned them as thoroughly
unserviceable and as of obsolete and dangerous pattern.” The deal defrauded the government of
much needed capital and put the lives of our soldiers at risk. A Congressional Committee
“reported that the rifles were so bad that it was found that they would shoot off the thumbs of the
very soldiers using them.” The committee reported the following after an investigation:
Thus the proposal actually was to sell to the Government at $22 each
5,000 of its own arms, the intention being, if the offer was accepted, to obtain
these arms from the Government at $3.50 each…. It is very evident that the very
funds with which the purchase was affected were borrowed on the faith of the
previous agreement to sell. The government not only sold one day for $17,486
arms which it had agreed the day before to repurchase for $109,912—making a
loss to the United States of $92,426—but virtually furnished the money to pay
itself the $17,486 which it received.
Based on the investigation and report of the Congressional Committee, the government
refused to pay for the rifles. Morgan filed suit and astoundingly a court eventually ordered the
government to pay Morgan’s contract in full.
879
Morgan was no less ruthless and showed no more allegiance to the US during WW I.
Besides floating bonds, he was also chosen to broker and ship arms, ammunition and other war
supplies to Britain and France. This was a task of unbelievable proportions. “Each month,
Morgan presided over purchases which were equal to the gross national product of the entire
world just one generation before.” Morgan supplied Britain and France with a staggering $3
billion in war supplies. For this he made a nice commission of $30 million. This does not take
into account the profits from many of his subsidiaries, which were manufacturing arms and
ammunition and other supplies for the war effort. Morgan also made additional undisclosed sums
brokering arms to Russia, Italy and Canada.
880
As an example of the profits made for Morgan through the control he exercised over US
industry, consider the case of United States Steel Corporation (US Steel). In 1913, prior to the
out break of WW I—U .S. Steel’s earnings on common stock per share were 11%. By 1916, two
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