Jonas Smucker Hartzler

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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." ”

“ OUR BRETHREN IN THE DRAFT 95
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. ”

“ 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." ”

“ 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." ”

“ 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. ”