Denver labor bulletin., 1918-05-04
PENNY SLACKERS

The war has developed numerous
kinds of slackers, term by the way,
| which seems to have found its origin
in the war and was first applied to
the men who sought to escape mill
| tary service.
The term Stacker, as applied to
| man who seeks to escape military
duty, is one of contempt. The public
has come to look upon such a man as
coward-a man who not only lacks
patriotism, but the element of per-
sonal courage; and it is probably
true that many a man has enlisted
voluntarily to escape being called a
Stacker. 1t is a measure of the con-
tempt conveyed, in the application of
the term Stacker to an individual, that
individuals have preferred to face the
bullets of the enemy rather than the
contempt of those at home.
But there are dollar slackers whose
cowardice or meanness is much more
contemplate because the dollar that
hides or skulks at it's masters bid
ding has not the element of human
sacrifice. The man who will with
hold his dollars from the support of
those who have gone forth to fight
his battles and to preserve his life
and his property is a more contempti-
BILE coward than the man who seeks
to avoid military service, because the
element of personal risk is not pres
ent in the case of the dollar Stacker.
We know that the past year has
proved that there are many dollar
patriots in the United States. The
success of the Liberty bond issues is
proof of it. Still only about 10 per
cent of the population bought Liberty
bonds, and large percentage of the
men IN arms were purchasers of them,
so there must be many dollar slack
ers among those who remain at home
in snug contentment, while the issue
of whether their country, their lives,
and their property shall be protected
is to be settled by those who cross
the seas to fight, handicapped as they
will be to the extent that the men at
home withhold their dollars.
The dollar Stacker not only with
holds his cowardly money, but in so
doing withholds support from our men
overseas and comes very near being
a traitor to our national cause and to
the still greater cause of world de-
mocracy.
The war savings stamps, together
with the thrift stamps, expose an
other type of Stacker; namely, the
penny Stacker, the man who places a
penny, nickle, or a quarter above
the cause of humanity and above the
lives of his own fellows who are in
the service, the men who are offering
their lives as a supreme sacrifice that
our liberties may be preserved.
1t is true that wage earners are
often obliged to sacrifice selfish en-
joyments or pleasures in order to buy
war savings and thrift stamps to sup
port the war; but this spirit of sac
rifice is expected of them because
they are made of that kind of stuff.
All their lives they have sacrificed,
and their own flesh and blood are of
fering their lives at the front. The
war comes home close to each of us
to the humblest wage Garner as well
as to others.
Each of US must realize and per-
form our individual duty to back up
our men at the front to the fullest |
extent of our power. This we can |
do by saving in every possible way
in our personal and family expenses, |
investing these savings in war stamps
and thrift stamps, thus withholding
our purchases from unnecessary pro- ,
duction and loaning the money to the |
government to buy the things needed |
to win the war. If we withhold this |
support, we shall deserve to be |
classed as penny slackers, the mean
est and most contemplate of all the |
Stacker tribe.