In the US big business has always been a magnet for conspiracy theories. In Europe it’s usually the nobility or the landed gentry that gets blamed for the oppression of the common man but as we had no system of nobility the next best thing we had were faceless and distant corporations always either seeking to rob the poor or steal their land. I could say that for the most part that business doesn’t deserve this reputation but then again there have been some glaring examples of misbehavior on their part. I will look at 3 such verifiable conspiracies.
In the 19th century the Old West was opening up and there was seemingly an unending amount of territory available to anyone who cared to settle and work the land. Of course this was not true and soon people began to fight over the most desirable pieces of territory. One such fight took place in Wyoming.
The open grazing laws in the state meant that various cattle herds would mix together at times and some people used this as an excuse to take unbranded cattle as their own. A powerful and influential group of cattle breeders took on a smaller less organized group of breeders in what would be known as the Johnson County war. The Wyoming Stock Growers Association (WSGA) took on a loosely affiliated group of smaller ranchers and hired groups of thugs to kill and intimidate what they called rustlers.
At the height of the tensions a party of 50 men (mostly hired guns from Texas) from the WSGA “invaded” Johnson County with a secret list of alleged rustlers with the intent of murdering these men. The party took care to cut the telegraph lines and to sneak into the county to not alarm the locals.
Although successful at first, they were eventually met by a larger party of County citizens numbering around 200 that cornered and then besieged them at the TA ranch. One expedition member escaped the ranch and telegraphed the Governor who in turn contacted the local US Cavalry commander to apprehend and arrest the WSGA expedition. In reality they were rescuing them.
A long trial ensued and was held in Johnson County. Most of the hired guns left Wyoming. The few expedition members that did face prosecution had the benefit of expert legal counsel, paid for by the WSGA, that endlessly stalled the trial until the County could no longer support the cost of continued prosecution and all charges were dropped.
Now we enter the 20th century and things get extremely vague. In 1929 there was a worldwide economic collapse known as the great depression. Millions were out of work and starving. Three political-economic theories competed for dominance; capitalism, fascism, and communism.
In the US president Roosevelt had been elected on a platform to rescue the nation from the depression. He chose a left leaning policy of supplying relief to the poor.
In higher circles this was looked upon as a direct threat to the upper class and the capitalist system. Men such as Henry Ford, Irene Du Pont, and others thought that the great depression was proof that the democratic process was a failure and that a small group of men or a single leader should lead the nation. They looked at examples from Germany and Italy as models for them.
Gerald Macguire, a wall street investor, approached a former US Marine General called Smedley Butler with a proposition.
Butler had been a World War I hero and had been awarded the Medal of Honor twice. He was also the unofficial leader of the “bonus army”. The bonus army had been a group of veterans that had marched on Washington DC seeking a monetary bonus that the government had promised them for their service. Instead the government turned the regular Army loose on them and several people were injured or killed. This action made Butler very bitter and vocal about his opposition to the government.
Macguire intimated that he represented some powerful business leaders. His idea was to have Butler march on Washington with the bonus army. The veterans would receive arms from the group of business men and take over the capital. They would then install Roosevelt as a figurehead president and run things behind the scenes.
Butler however was not interested. Rather than lead the bonus army, Butler took the plot to the US congress in late 1934 and began telling the story in public. Finally a congressional committee was convened to review the matter behind closed doors.
Portions of the committee hearings were leaked. The story was carried in the New York Times and was ridiculed. Congress took less than 4 days to research it and concluded that although some discussions took place that nothing could be proven or warranted more investigation. Large parts of General Butler’s testimony were “lost” and to this day cannot be found.
It is interesting to note that most major newspapers at the time were privately owned and the owners were friends with some of those associated in the plot. Also of interest is that Gerald Macguire died in 1935 of “natural causes” at the age of 37.
Butler became an ardent critic of capitalism and the “banana wars”.
In 1918 statistician for an insurance company noted the number of deaths among workers that dealt with asbestos and reported this to the government. In the 1930s the primary manufacturer of Asbestos in the US had this and other reports rewritten to minimize the effects that asbestos had on health.
Internal memos written in the 1940s within the company showed that upper management had direct knowledge of the health risks associated with asbestos but chose to suppress all stories and studies relating to this.
In the 1950s the company used its influence to rewrite safety warnings issued by government agencies about its product.
Finally in the late 1980s studies run by the medical industry show a link between asbestos and lung cancers. In 1999 a Florida jury finally finds that the company willfully tried to suppress evidence concerning asbestos safety.
As I said before, the majority of businesses in the US operate in a manner that is both ethical and fair and for the most part they are a benefit to society but when they decide to skirt the law or even break it, they can cause fearful damage to the average individual.
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