The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance

by Ron Chernow

Some five hundred thousand Ethiopians were sacrificed in a campaign infamous for its savage use of mustard gas. Like the Japanese in Manchuria, Mussolini’s army pretended to act in self-defense and had the effrontery to denounce Ethiopian aggression. Fifty League of Nations states condemned the violation of Ethiopian sovereignty and voted economic sanctions. Relying on voluntary compliance by American business, Secretary of State Cordell Hull asked for a “moral” embargo on sales of war materiel to Italy—shipments of oil, metal, and machinery. These exhortations were often ignored by American industry. Although Britain went along with the League’s economic sanctions, it stopped short of more extreme measures, such as cutting off all supplies of oil. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin instructed his foreign secretary, Sir Samuel Hoare, “Keep us out of the war, Sam. We are not ready for it.”