Mennonites in the World War/VII
OUR BRETHREN IN THE DRAFT
[edit]Draft Boards
[edit]From the time it was declared that a state of war existed, the officials at Washington were busy preparing for a large army. Full draft regulations were gotten out which provided for one or more local draft boards in practically every county in the United States and a district board in each Federal judicial district. The former had original jurisdic tion on all questions except industrial and agricul tural daims for exemption and deferred classification. These were decided by the district boards. Local boards arranged for the registration of all men in their territories between twenty-one and thirty-one years of age.
Registration
On June 5, 1917, all men within the age limit were required to register at their respective voting places. Special arrangements were made for those who were away from home, or were sick at that time. Here came the first real test on the nonre- sistant principle. A stand must be taken somewhere but where? Shall they register? Some thought that the place to take a stand was in the rery be ginning; that nonresistant people should not regis ter at all. Others thought that since there was no
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infringement upon the doctrine in so doing, every one should register. With so little discussion of the subject, it is remarkable how very few did not comply with the law. The following is the form that was used :
1. Name in full.
2. Home address.
3. Date of birth.
4. Are you (1) a natural born citizen, (2) a naturalized citizen, (3) an alien, (4) or have you declared intentions. (Specify which) Town, State, Nation.
5. Where were you born?
6. If not a citizen, of what country are you a citizen or subject?
7. What is your present trade, occupation or office?
8. By whom employed?
9. Have you a father, mother, wife, child under 12, or a sister or brother under 12 solely dependent on you for sup port? (Specify which).
10. Married or single. (Which)?
11. What military service have you had? Rank, branch, years, nation or state.
12. Do you claim exemption from the draft (specify grounds) ?
I affirm that I have verified the above answers and that they are true.
Signature
A Scare
In the morning of registration day, word went out from Washington, and in many cases reached those who were conducting the registration about roon, that it would not be necessary to fill out num ber 12, as that matter would come up again in the examination. In order to save time then and later in the tabulation, it was considered best not to have it filled out. Some of the registrants insisted on filling it out but many did not, and later decided that they had been trapped that this was simply a scheme to get the nonresistant boys into the service. The news went like wild-fire, but when explained by
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a local board a few days later gave general satis faction. This is simply one of many conditions which for a time would cause anxiety.
Experience taught us later that while it was not always safe to trust the inferior officers, there was little or no reason to distrust the officials of the War Department at Washington. They might not have understood us, or they might have consid ered our position both wrong and impractical, or their own plans did not always work out as expect ed and would have to be changed, but they at least tried to be just and considerate.
Confidence Instilled ; Examinations
The letter sent out by the General Conference Committee after their interview with Secretary Ba ker helped a great deal to bring confidence, and in the main body of Mennonites the general sentiment prevailed that the brethren in the draft as well as all others should go just as far as they could with out violating a Gospel principle. This would per mit the young men to take the examination and go to camp. In many cases the examinations were very meager and very poorly done, as was shown by the many who were rejected after reaching camp.
Some boards were very considerate and refused to send those to camp who were evidently sincere in their convictions against war, and who in the past had proven themselves to be good producers. They believed that such men would be a greater benefit at home than they could possibly be in camp under the circumstances.
Exemptions
The first draft regulations provided that those
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who could not take combatant service should get from their local boards form number 174. This ex cused them from "any service except such service as the President should define as noncombatant." Calling for this form angered some boards. One member of such board said, "There is no number 174. See, here is the book of forms, and number 173 is the last one in the ! book." It was so, but form 174, for good reasons, had been placed between num bers 143 and 144. This is an illustration of how well these things were studied by some boards. There may be two reasons for this : First, the chair man of one such local board said, "It is simply im possible for us to go over all the instructions which we get and do our other work besides. It would keep one man busy all the time to keep posted;" Second, one could not blame these men for not look ing up some special way for people to get out of service when part of their work was to get people into it.
This method of recruiting the army was not very satisfactory because there were too many complica tions in it and because there was no uniformity. A radical change was made which was supposed to bring about uniformity and greatly simplify the work. All re^stered men were required to fill out a sixteen-page questionnaire. Some of the questions required as many as five answers, so that all told there were about two hundred twenty-five questions to answer, but they were so arranged that no one need answer all of them. These answers were sup ported by affidavits. From these questionnaires (and other information if thought necessary) the local boards divided the registrants into five classes. Class
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I was to be called first, then class II, and so on. The officers at Washington did not believe that any except class I would be needed, but a few were called from class II, where there were not enough in class I to fill the quota. Class V was exempt. There were nine divisions in that class, but only four which generally concerned nonresistants. They were, First, ministers of the Gospel; Second, stu dents preparing for ministry; Third, resident aliens (not enemies) ; Fourth, persons physically or men tally unfit for military service.
Other registrations and classifications were made later, one for the young men who had become of age after the first registration, and one to include all men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five.
Effect of the Questionnaire
As already noticed, the purpose of the question naire was to get unanimity of action on the part of the boards, both local and district. It was an im provement over the old method but it came far short of producing uniformity. To illustrate: page fifty of the Selective Draft Regulations, section 79, rule XII, says, "In class V shall be placed any registrant found to be ; a ; b. A regtilarly or duly or dained minister of religion." In a note below, the Regulations very clearly show what is meant by such "minister of religion." Regardless of this, quite a number of ministers who were ordained in ex actly the manner, and for the purpose set forth in the Regulations were required to go to camp just the same as if they had not been ordained, and one was even sentenced to the disciplinary barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The other side of
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this is illustrated by the action of another board when the bishop appeared before it and said, "I notice that you have one of our young ministers in class I, when it seems to us that he should be placed in class V. Please rea d here what the Regulations say about it and see whether you do not think so too." The member of the board read it and said, "Certainly he belongs in class V, and will be placed there." The bishop went out after having heartily thanked the members of the board and met the young brother who was doubly surprised, First, at seeing his bishop there, not knowing that he was within a hundred miles, and, Second, at being shown a re-classification.
Giving the Soldiers a "Send-off"
Elaborate preparations were made to give the soldier boys a great "Send-off," when the first few contingents went to camp. The band played, and the boys were marched through the towns from which they were going to camp. Great crowds gath ered at the depots long before train time. People tried to be jovial, talked, laughed, and gave the boys many pleasant goodbyes. But there were those in many of the crowds who were not in a mood to take part in jollities. Their boys were going away. They were to prepare for the front, or were to go to camp and there be persecuted for their faith. Would they see them again? The boys were not all laughing. There were those among them who be lieved that war is wrong, and that for them to even take part in these demonstrations and in the prac tices of the camp was wrong. They could take no part in the drill or other war preparations. War
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was the prime object of it all, and that for them was wrong. Others might laugh now and talk brave, but knowing that they would be brought face to face with trials that were greater than going to the front gave rise to very serious thought.
The Position of the Church Tested
The doctrine of nonresistance was being tested. All religious bodies holding it as a tenet of their faith should have worked together for its mainte nance, and especially for the benefit of their breth ren in camp. Instead of this they often differed widely in their attitude taken toward their members in camp. Some were very radical, and urged un wise actions on their members going to camp ; oth ers were almost noncommittal. This latter position caused loss of confidence among the boys in the lead ers of their churches, and the boys soon learned to go to others who were known to take more of a mid dle ground. Here they received what they could not get from their own ministers and often kept up cor respondence with their new advisors rather than to correspond with their own pastors.
One young man writing from camp said, "It is doubtful whether the government will consider the
Church as nonresistant hereafter. Her min isters visit the boys in camp but the boys can get no help from them in the solution of problems aris ing here They seem to be afraid." The opposite
of this was shown in some of the smaller nonresist ant bodies who thought that it was inconsistent with the nonresistant doctrine to do anything in camp, even to keep their own quarters clean or to cook their c vvn food. Mennonites as a rule considered
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that it was the proper thing to do anything in the way of providing for the comfort of self and others, stopping short of noncombatant military service. With this lack of unity as to the application of the nonresistant doctrine, it is not surprising that there should be a difference in the actions of the boys in camp.
As a rule the attitude of the Mennonite young men in camp was in harmony with the attitude of the Church at home, as expressed in her conference decisions. A very few, indeed, took regular service, a few more took some form of noncombatant service, but by far the greater number stood for no service aside from cleaning up in and around their barracks and preparing their own food.
Lack of Uniformity in Camp Officials
Some officers in camp, like some boards, took matters into their own hands regardless of orders from Washington. The Secretary of War issued an order April 27, 1918, and reiterated it July 30, 1918, which reads,
"If, however, any drafted man, upon his arrival at camp either through the presentation of a certificate from his local board, or by a written statement addressed by himself to the commanding officer, shall record himself as a consci entious objector, he shall not against his will, be required to wear a uniform."
In spite of this a number were forced to wear the uniform, some for a short time only, others to the end of the war.
Getting Men to Accept Service
It was not the aim of the war department to call men to these camps and feed them and get nothing in return from them. One of the duties of
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the officers was to get all men to accept service of some kind if that was possible with proper treat ment. Here again methods differed. This is what occurred at one camp which is a fair sample of those used in several others :
One day an officer came into the C. O. bar racks and said, "We need a number of men to tend the fires in the different Y. M. C. A. buildings in the camp. I was informed that the men in this de tachment would not do this. I said that I did not believe it. Surely any Christian man can build fires in a Christian institution. A man is not a man. say nothing about being a Christian, who will not help along that much." With an oath he said, "I want to see whether there is any one here so small that he will not build a fire in a Y. M. C.. A. All who are willing to do this work will please stand. Come now, be men." Not one arose. Several days later one came in who seemed to think that he could win the C. O.'s by flattery. He said, "Now boys, I have heard a great deal about you, and I feel sure that conditions are not as they are presented to me. I have always said that I believed that you were men too much of men to desire to do nothing while others were dying for the welfare of their country. 1 recognize your religious convictions and would not ask you to take up combatant service, but I thought that you might be willing to take up some form of noncombatant service. If there are such here, let them stand." No one moved. "I see that I did not make myself clear; you would not need to go into any danger. You would be kept well back of the lines. Now how many will stand?" No one arose. "Well, possibly you do not want to cross the ocean.
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We will need a great many men here. Will you do service if we promise you that you need not leave America? (Same result as before.) "Well, pardon me, but you will surely be willing to help take care of soldiers who have been wounded and are to be placed into convalescent hospitals. You boys are Christians, and I respect your high standard, but surely it is the work of a Christian to help his fel- lowman. Doubtless you will all take this." With up-turned palms he moved both hands upward, say ing, "Everybody rise for this work." Not a man stirred. He had said too much. He dare not show disgust, but he went out not very well pleased.
The graceful and manly way in which the boys suffered the taunts would have done credit to older and more experienced heads. The C. O.'s in a cer tain camp had been transferred to other barracks. The next Sunday morning an officer came in and said, "Everybody out." They all obeyed. The offic er said, "Line up along here." They did so. Then he said, "Go all around these barracks for a space this wide and pick up all the cigar and cigarette stubs, and deposit them in this vessel." While the boys did this, the soldiers from the other barracks were looking out of their windows and making re marks of the kind that one would naturally expect from such a crowd. After they were through the officer said, "You are excused." Naturally the boys were stirred, but after they were all in the barracks again, one of their number said, "Now boys, we all know that this was done to disgrace us, but let none of us say one word in retaliation/ and they did not. That was too much for the officer. Evidently he expected to have a quarrel, but when no one said
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anything 1 , arrangements were soon made for another transfer.
Trials awaited our brethren at every turn. So long as they could conscientiously obey the com mands of the officers the food was sufficient and of good quality; but when some command was diso beyed, regardless of any convictions which the of fender may have had, he was then placed into the guard-house. Here he did not always fare so well. Frequently these prisoners were put on an alternate diet, two weeks on bread (a very limited amount) and water, then two weeks on regular meals. But meals were not the only ills of the guard-house. Generally these places were infested with vermin and were occupied by the worst class of men in the camp people who were used to fighting all their lives, and would fight on any pretense. One young man was placed into one of these prisons and the officer who took him there said, "Here is a C. O. You have my consent to pommel him as much as you please." To the credit of the prisoners, let it be said that he was not molested. In this, these ruffians showed more consideration than the officer. Some of the hardest trials in camp will be given in Chapter X in the boys own words, and their relig ious privileges will be discussed in Chapter XIII under the general subject, Camp Visitations.
The C. O.'s a Trial to the Officers
The C. O. was not the only one who had trials in camp because of the doctrine of nonresistance. Think of the man who enlisted at the call of his country and was anxious to go to the front to "help make this country safe for democracy," then to find
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himself placed in command of a lot of young men, full of life and vigor, but who refused to fight or even train. Whether he professed to be a Christian or not matters little; he can never understand such actions. Had his views harmonized in the least with that of the C. O., he would not have enlisted. No wonder the C. O. was often treated rather roughly. The wonder is that not a much larger number were made to suffer.
"Specially Qualified Officers"
The order of the President was that the C. O.'s should be "placed under the command of specially qualified officers of tact and judgment/ but in many cases it would be difficult for an offi-cer who desired "overseas service" to use his tact and judgment to the best advantage in the presence of those who to him seemed nothing short of slackers. This "tact and judgment" was to be sought, not with a view of entrapping the boys, but that by personal talks and other legitimate means as many as possible might be persuaded to take up arms and fight, and if that could not be attained then at least to accept non- combatant service.
General Bell
[edit]There were exceptions to this. Major General Bell of Camp Upton asked to be placed in command of the C. O. s. In this case the C. O.'s were largely Socialists. By devoting much time and energy to his new charge he succeeded in getting a large num ber to accept combatant service, but there were not many General Bells. Most of the officers despised the C. O.'s and to be placed in charge of them was more than some could stand. Very often our boys were made to suffer for it, but when we consider conditions we will not think so hard of some of these officials.