The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1920-09-03

/ technlcal graft delinquentS and draft
/ deserters.
AS things stand today there are ap-
proximately 100000 men-slackers-
about equally divided between delin-
I quents and deserters, who have so far
/ successfully defed the Government
and the conscience of America with
| immunity. It remains for the War
Department to dispose of the 10000
draft deserters and for the Depart-
ment of Justice to take before the
bars of justice the 10000 draft de-
linquents. In much larger sense
it is for the American people. for you
and me and the neighbor next door.
to give these men, as many of them
at least as are guilty. an object les
son in the elements of Americanism.
1t is not in extenuation of a mean
or vindictive spirit that those who
served have right to expect some
measure of justice TO be meted out to
those who Stacked. and Stacked for the
i +A4N+7N pa ~ ANAl q SlAtt4 VI contempt
written across their every act. L
is for the safety, honor and welfare
of the state that we are concerned
The ignoble 100000 and the element
they represent, are still among Us.
just as ready to slack today. tomor.
row, as they were in the acid test of
yesterday.
Who is there so bold as to argue
that this yellow bunch of unrepent-
ant, cowardly, Indifferent and often
times pro-German and anti-American
! slackers. for every one Of which there
is in all probability a regular little
Bergdoll clan of disloyalty at his
back. should in the interest of good
citizenship be let off Scot free? Berg
dollism, stacking. is disease that
calls for the amputation of punish
ment, not the poultice of kind words
and forgiveness. If 100000 were
able to defy the law this time and
get by with it, who knows how many
times that number would be multi
piled in the event of another such ma
tional emergency?
1t is in this spirit, I take it. that
what is hoped will prove a final and
effective drive against these slackers
is now getting under way. The De
partment of Justice is filing with
district attorneys throughout the
United States evidence in its hands
against the 10000 draft delinquents
to whom the draft was nothing at all
in their young lives. and who never
even took the trouble to register. and
asking for a speedy prosecution IN
the Federal courts The War De
partment is publishing the names of
its 100000 draft deserters. and ask
ing the cooperation of all public and
semi-public agencies and institutions
and organizations in a united effort
to bring them before a military tr-
bunal.
The government agency RESPONSE
bic for apprehending and proferring
charges against the draft delinuuentS
is the Bureau Of Investigation of tho
Department Of Justice. The Bureau.
in view of the fact that the Statute
of Limitations will soon operate to
prevent the punishment OF many
thousands of these men, recently took
steps to insure against such a cor
tingency by putting the records
against such delinquents in the hands
of district attorneys in different parts
Of the country and asking for uucl;
| action
The Bureau by the first of August
SGT the ball rolling against 10000 Of
the 10000 men still on its rolls as
draft delinpuents. Many thousand
indictments had been obtained. and
many thousand warrants for arrest
| issued. Results began to be noticed
in the press dispatches from the mid
die Of June on. Thus was chronicled
| in the newspapers of June % the first
| arrests in a drive against $4,000 al
legged slackers in Pennsylvania, and
in those Of June % the indictment b.
Federal court at Brooklyn. y. y.
of 1854 alleged draft evaders. Such
dispatches have continued. and will
| be noted from now on with more and
more frequency, and, I am sure, with
more and more qualification by all Of
us who like to see every fellow gel
| what is coming to him.
I have mentioned that the 10000
draft deserters whose records in the
office of the Adjutant General of the
Army still show the charge of deser-
ton blue penciled in dishonor aero
their records are now being, have
been or are about to be exposed to
the searchlight Of public opinion
The tentative plans for the War Dc
partment's drive against the draft
deserter call for the printing of the
100000 names by local draft board
j