Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 January 1918 — A Rebuke to Slackers. [ARTICLE]

A Rebuke to Slackers.

Another reason who Secretary McAdoo deserved the rebuke administered by the- Boston exemption board, when it refused his request to exempt his stenographer from the draft because the young man was useful to him, is the direct encouragement he is offering to the army of slackers who seek to obtain soft ahd safe jobs in government service in order to keep*out of the army. All over the country are young men who affect a great desire to do “war work,” but who have no intention of entering military service if they can help it. Aided and abetted by their parents—also slackers—oftener than not, they take advantage of every possible political pull or influence to secure for themselves J appointments in government departments, secretaryships, clerkships or some of the many other minor positions made possible by the great increase of public work incident to the war.

Ensconced snugly in one of these E laces,’ the young slacker hopes to e rated indispensable and, while in receipt of a better salary than he had ever earned before, poses among his friends as carrying a heavy responsibility in war work. Such young men are really traitorous to their country and deserve contempt rather than applause. They should be doing “war work” at the front and leave their stenography and clerical and messenger work to older' and more competent men. If Secretary McAdoo should secure the release of his stenographer from military service a precedent would be established that every exemption board in the country will have to resist, for it will be brought before them in innumerable cases. Such slackers are found everywhere; we have them in Indianapolis—young men who are “for” the war, but want other men to flight its battles; fathers and mothers who say their sons must not go where there is danger. When the Boston exemption board denied Secretary McAdoo’s request it directly rebuked every man in the country of draft age who tries to evade service and every man who helps him. That :>oard deserves thanks. —Indianapolis Star.