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humanity and especially those in need, and it gave excellent opportunity to do religious work. All these our brethren would have been glad to do, but from a ronresistant viewpoint there were too many ob jectionable features. It required the wearing of the military uniform, was directly under the military establishment, and the work must be accepted vol untarily. To willingly take up any activity so vitally a part of the war was simply to endorse the whole military affair not by the service rendered, but by willingly becoming a part of the military establishment. Misrepresented Motives

      Some have made capital of the position of the nonresistants, charging that they would not work in the camps because they were lazy, stupid, dull, bovine, or because of a number of other reasons not very complimentary; that they would not buy lib-

      THE ISSUES INVOLVED 53

      erty bonds nor war saving stamps; not donate to the Red Cross, Y. M. C. A., etc., because they re fused to part with their money. This is so far from the truth that it would be useless to try to refute it. Witnesses to the contrary can be pro duced by the hundreds. The issue was not money, not work, not mental incapacity, but the unscriptur- alness of war.

      A few did not take this position. A small per cent considered it a duty to buy bonds and donate to Government. Some of the young men thought that they owed it to their government and to their fellowmen to take some part, even though they could not kill. They applied for noncombatant service on arrival at camp.

      There were members who did not live up to the standard of nonresistance upheld by the Church. Here and there were those who thought it their duty to support such war measures as the purchase of liberty bonds, war stamps, etc. Some of the draft ees took noncombatant service willingly.

      On the other hand there were those who put a more rigid construction upon the doctrine of non- resistance than the body of the Church was willing to do, even questioning the right of nonresistant people to register, and in camp absolutely refusing to do anything, even to keep their own quarters clean or to prepare their own food.

      Application of the Principle

      Some of the brotherhood made stringent appli cations of the nonresistant doctrine, refusing to sell horses for war purposes or to sell their produce to parties who were known to buy expressly for the

      54 MENNONITES IN THE WORLD WAR

      war. They refused to in any way support war meas ures except in the payment of taxes, etc. Some of the young men in the camps refused to do anything, even to keep their own quarters clean or prepare their own food. (The latter were principally from one of the smaller branches of the Mennonite Church.)

      All along the line between these two extremes the greater body of the Church was to be found. Some with very little persuasion were ready to do nate to war charities or purchase interest-bearing war papers; others yielded only at the threat of vio lence, while the great majority stood for the prin ciple of doing nothing which would have for its prime purpose the helping along of the war and suf fered rather than yield to what they believed to be wrong. All believed in the main issue nonresist- ance but in minor details they did not all make the same application of that issue to the conditions at hand.

      More will be given concerning the attitude of the brotherhood with its results in later chapters of this book.

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