Check again. It was 1913. We didn’t need a big defense budget because we weren’t fighting wars that we had no business fighting. There were few paved roads because there weren’t cars, and horses didn’t care for pavement. They had fresh well water in most places, which is much better than the municipal crap I had for most of my life. There wasn’t power because Tesla had not yet worked out AC power. When he did, the US was far ahead of the curve on that.
Again, I suggest you check your history. This country was so far ahead in the industrial Revolution it wasn’t funny. You can try and convince people that rape of this nation’s middle class and its wealth through the income tax, but the fact is thats bull crap. The “hero” Eisenhower gets all the credit for out highway system, but Germany should get the credit for that. Good old Ike just copied what he found in Germany. And taxed the hell out of the working man to do his piss poor copy.
BTW, just to clarify defense spending, the founders were smart enough to to know a standing army was a bad thing. That’s why the Constitution says “you MAY have an army, you MUST have a navy”, because they knew two things. Any foreign nation trying to attack the US would have to do it by the sea. So they made the US Law to fund a navy. A standing army was not needed, as outlined in the Second Amendment. They also installed the amendment process for situations that would arise that they could not foresee.
Example? Today the amendment should read “you MAY have an army, you MUST have an navy and an Air Force”. This is because the only viable attack on the US would still require a navy and an Air Force.
Instead, we are raped of our wealth funding a military to fight wars for other nations, covertly and overtly, by proxy as well.