New Britain herald., 1918-07-03

Germany and l naturally thought
 that Germany was right in her strug-
 gle with other foreign countries.
 Don't you take your old and admired
 irlend's side when he gets into
 controversy with people who are
 strangers to you? We'll l think I
 was all right to have felt that way
 and to have taken that attitude up to
 the time the United States went to i war, and I cant be ashamed of it, | even though l may have been mis- ! taken. But Germany is no friend of mine now. No, sir. Not from the
 moment when she became the recog- ! nized enemy of my country. My
 country's enemy is nly enemy and
 l m going to fight this enemy of my ! country If it costs my life Germany
 is my enemy; I'm out to help get ! the Kaiser and we're going to do it." The Herman cricau" encount-
 cred skepticism from people who l found it difficult to sec how a view 1 point can change with changed cir Cumstanccs: and the doubt was gal ling and unhelpfui as suspicious doubts nearly always are. A great | many good Americans who couldn't l get into uniform and fight Germans 1 felt the need of attacking somebody they could get at and make vince They suffered from the natural and just anger against Germany, but Ger many was too far away. and too shel- tered behind Hindenburg, to be di- rcctly affected and a lot of us just i couldn't contain ourselves; we were so hot we had to let out and give something or somebody within our reach a good cussing." We cussed the "Gcrnan A m and
 it little harder for them to declare their loyalty, but the vast majority of them behaved so we'll under the stress that after a while we had to abandon this means of blowing off our steam. So we picked up the British word "slacker" and used it to vent our irritation; and perhaps we
 did a little good, here and there, with our "slacker' talk; and certainly we did some harm. We were very free with the word, we editors, writers and speakers, who were not in un- form ourselves. We were especially
 bitter against what we liked to call
 the "sWivel-chair warriors" in Wash
 ington. There were men of draft
 age, it appeared, serving in some of
 the departments in Washington, and
 without pausing to inquire how many
 of these were physically unfit for
 service in the field, or how many had
 become indispensable in the positions
 they were filling, We ragged against
 them. Virtuous congressman, who
 themselves had no intention of ever
 being exposed to poison gas or liquid
 fire, felt that it improved a reputa-
 tion for patriotism to make virulent
 Oratorical attacks on these swivel
 chair Warriors'' who were remaining
 out of the zone Of fire-romaining in
 Washington, with the congressman.
 And So, some of the departm ents,
 yielding to Oratory and other pres
 sure, threw out many men who had
 learned their jobs and were working
 more hours a day than any union
 would have allowed; ;-and then other
 men, some of them far less compe-
 tent, and all of them beginners, were
 put into the swivel chairs and the
 work of the war was thereby just so
 much dsarrangcd and just so much
 delayed-aIl of which means some
 thing in the casualty lists.
 We had to learn that criticism must
 know it's own job thoroughly; it
 mustn't be merely following off steam" And enthusiasm is useful
 only when it never takes it's eye off
 the ball. Thousands of unfit men
 were themselves i'll used and made a
 useless expense to Uncle Sam by too
 much indiscrimina.te enthusiasm on
 tho part Of boards that packed them
 off to training camps. And too often certain drafted men were sent to the camps in sullen moods, when tact and an eye on the ball would have sent them not in a mood at all but at least beginning to glow with that steady fire of patriotism which no normal man can lack when he feels and knows understandingly that this country needs him. No doubt the word "slackcr" has had it's uses; but i it is possible that we should have done better not to adopt it; and one thing is certain: those of us who have never worn 8 uniform are not entitled to use "sla cker," in it's mi1j- tary sense, as q condemnation of any other man who is not in uniform We can use the word Traitor" when we can make it good by proof, but we should leave "slacker'' to soldiers and those who have been soldiers We 1 must judge not, lest we be Judged. i Let us save our bitterness for our enemy. l
 To a nation war comes as 3 great i! trouble comes 10 g family. When 3 ] great trouble comes 10 family the 1 members of that family draw closer: ! they depend upon one another as ] never before; and they are kinder 1 to one another than they have been 1 in happier times. They forget differ ] encca that have con1e among them, l and they make sacrifices to help one l another. They find many goodnesses l and rObilites in one another that l they have not discovered before. 1 Their strength to meet their trouble l comes from their unity: they cannot ] meet it if they picker and fall apart. 1