Newspaper Page Text
September, 1917
THE A TL ANTI AN
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inent. The next step is to let the folks know all about
it, and the third step will be to take by the throat the
gentry who are without shame, and who will yield to
nothing but the strong arm of the law.
The American people will learn in a year or two of this
war what it would ordinarily have taken them 25 years
to learn, and the great thing they will learn will be that
unholy and unlimited greed must be curbed by law, even
though it does smash some of our personal rights non
sense.
The Slacker
He is not a pleasant subject to mention. We know
that there are skunks in the fields and woods, but no
one cares to come into close contact with them. The
slacker is a two-legged beast, quite as malodorous as the
skunk, but lacking the skunk’s courage, for that little
animal goes its way independently and fearlessly, while
the slacker tries to hide his lack of courage and patriot
ism under a mountain of specious lies.
Prior to the war the city of Paris was infested by
the best organized and most audacious band of criminals
in the world, known as “Apaches.” These criminals had
no mercy to expect from the French government when
ever they fell into the hands of the police. Their war
with the forces of law and order was relentless and un
ceasing.
But when Germany started out to destroy France these
“Apaches” remembered that they were Frenchmen, even
though bad Frenchmen. The Apaches have disintegrated.
Many of them are buried on French battlefields, where
they fell battling bravely for France. The ablebodied sur
vivors are in the trenches. Many of them have won mil
itary medals and have become good citizens.
Contrast the conduct of the French “Apaches” with
American “slackers” and ask yourself which are the bet
ter men.
Living under a government so mild that we scarcely
know we are being governed, yet when that Government,
driven by intolerable outrages, at last asserts the rights
of its people and undertakes to defend those rights, it is
confronted by an army of slackers, all of whom are Ger
man helpers whether they are conscious of it or not.
One slacker is a professional pacifist, another is a con
scientious objector, another is anxious lest his beloved
country shall drift into undemocratic ways, another fears
entangling alliances, another thinks we ought not to try
to fight a power which cannot be beaten, and behind these
and many other types lies the unceasing pro-German prop
aganda which skilfully, intelligently and perseveringly
furnishes these slackers with their verbal munitions.
None of these bipeds, which are but pale simulacra of
real men, have a place in any country because being all
without patriotism, and nearly all without courage, they
are not fit for citizenship anywhere.
Whey-blooded and rabbit-hearted they bray like the
ass against their country because they want to sneak
through the world shirking every civic duty and because
they rely on the proverbial patience of their countrymen
to refrain from breaking them into pieces.
But Germany found that our patience was not inex
haustible, and these traitors and near-traitors would do
wel lto note that fact lest they, too, come under the ban
of a patient people.
Camp Gordon
Of all the great training camps established for the
training of our new armies, none of them are better sit
uated from the climatic and health standpoints than Camp
Gordon, Atlanta.
The people of Atlanta wanted the camp and strove to
get it, and having secured it will leave nothing undone
in the way of cordial welcome and good treatment of the
gallant fellows who will get their initial training there.
We want them when they march away to leave with the
regret that one feels on parting with a valued friend.
To this end we must do much more than talk. We
must show by the deed that the spoken word comes from
a heart filled with pride in any gratitude to the splendid
young men who are ready to risk their lives to uphold
their country’s honor and defend its rights.
If there be those among us who can see in Camp Gor
don nothing more than an opportunity to coin dollars for
themselves it is our *most earnest hope that they will be
disappointed in making the dollars, and will incur the
merited contempt of their neighbors, for such conduct
will stain the good name of Atlanta, while far and near
will spread the news of how Atlanta made patriotism a
cloak for greed and graft.
Georgia and the World War
Is Georgia doing her part in the war? In the effort to
increase food crops, in support of the Red Cross, in fur
nishing its quota of troops, the state is undoubtedly meas
uring up with other states.
This is gratifying but not enough. All of us know now
that we were forced into this war against our will. All
of us know the nefarious schemes and designs of the Ger
man government. Notwithstanding this knowledge,
there are far too many flabby men in Georgia who are
mouthing against their own Government in its prosecu
tion of as righteous a war as any nation has ever under
taken.
Our country is entitled to the undivided support of
every man who claims American citizenship. The man
who refuses that support when his country has need of
every ounce of its strength to defeat the most dangerous
band of International pirates that has ever menaced hu
manity is unworthy of citizenship, and ought to go to the
crowd to which he belongs, judging by his words and ac
tions.
Our country owes nothing to men who, claiming Amer
ican citizenship, refuse to discharge the duties of citizen
ship, except a term in jail for the duration of the war.
It is humiliating to have to admit that despite the splen
did loyalty of a majority of Georgians we have some of
these “flabby slackers and tories” amongst us, and it is
to be hoped that loyal Georgians will not fail to let such
see that they are held in deserved contempt by all true
men. -. w—.