Trench and camp. [volume] (Augusta, Ga.) 1917-1919, 1917-12-19
THE STACKER
Extracts From An Editorial in
The Aiken Standard.

We are a nation at war. War is hell.
There is only one way to view the posi-
ton of the people of the United States in
this war in which this country is now
engaged. whether we live in South Caro-
lima or New York or Montana or Texas;
that is to look the situation squarely in
the face and to realize. as far as pos
sibIe, this one indisputable fact:
That, if Germany is not beaten; if the
might of HohenzolIernism is not crushed;
If the world is not freed from the menace
of kaiserism, if, in short, the American
flag should go down in defeat with the
flags and the hopes of the Allies moth
of that which we now defend, nothing of
that which we now hold so important to
our individual well being; will matter.
In other and palmer words, unless
arms, this country will not be free but it
will be a vassalage of the German En-
pre; and your business, your individual
interests, your bank account. your very
home life. will be subordinated to the
VIII of a foreign tryant who pretends to
rule by divine right.
And, looking out upon a world situa-
ton so fraught with gravity to our very
existence and to that birthright of free
dom handed down to us only through
the precious blood of our forefathers, who
wrested Independence from a sovereign
of German blood, it is to the everlasting
shame of our citizenship that there are
among us, here, there and yonder that
most contemplate of the human species,
the Stacker.
There are sIac1ers in business: there
are slackers on the farms; there are
slackers in politics. holding high places;
there are slackers in the pulpit, there are
siackers in every walk of life whose puny
excuse given when they are called upon
to do their bit. in one way and another,
to help win this war for God and coun-
try, reveal not merely their cramped,
starved souls, but lay bare the evident
fact that they lack, in many instances,
the slightest conception of the respon-
sibilty of their American citizenship.
The Stacker is unfit to live in free
country and enjoy the institutions of lib
erty and the Stacker by doing nothing to
help his country is doing all in his pow
er to ieopardize the freedom and the lib
erty which he SO prodigally enjoys.
There are slackers through ignorance,
there are slackers through prejudice,
there are siackers through disloyalty
akin to treason, and there are slackers
through greed; but the worst stripe of
Stacker is the laSt-the man so wrapped
up in his own little, selfish interests and
so, enmeshed in his own affairs. grasping
and holding tight to his precious dollars,
that he will not shoulder his share OF
the burden which German ambition for
world dominion has thrust upon the civil
lized world.
The American people are going through
the fire. we hope not so thoroughly as
have the people in France and England;
but We have got to go through the scorch-
ing flames OF war. We must so through
1t together, aid we muat go through 1t
physically, spiritually and economically
for the next two, three, four, five or
perhaps six years. This is not going to
be short war. When it is won, remem-
ber the American armies will have been
the balance Of power. There are going
to be many thousands and hundreds of
thousands of casualties. They, our boys,
are suffering in their bodies for the peace
and security of America. That others
NAV live thew shall die.
Where, then, we ask in the name of the
living God, is the place fer the Stacker?
Great God of Hosts, be with US yet.
lest we forget. lest we forget?