Jonas Smucker Hartzler

“ No one had any choice as to who his room-mate should be. Thus the vilest and the best in the prison might easily have been required to live in the same cell. This was a trial. Think of these young men, clean in hab it and language, being placed with those having loathsome diseases, and who were vile in body and mind, and who had very little regard for human life. With all this these wicked men respected the Chris tians for trying to live clean lives in such a vile place. One of the C. O.'s said, "The prisoners would do anything for us." ”

“ The C. O.'s compare quite favor able with the average soldier." (Here the C. O. intended to refer the officer to the psychological test at Camp Taylor, where the C. O. company made a record twenty per cent higher than the next best company in the camp, but the officer cut him short.)
Officer. "We have the figures and know what we are talking about. It is not so queer that such illiterate fellows should have such narrow-minded views about war, but here you are been going to school for many years, at good schools too, where I am sure they would not teach any such notions. ”

“ A little compromise in camp might have lessened their trials and have kept them from the disciplinary barracks, but it was a case of "Choosing rather to suffer affliction than to enjoy the pleas ures of sin for a season." As a rule, the record of the brethren was good, both in camp and in prison, and it was very evident that they made their influ ence felt, both with the officials and with the prison ers by proving that the religion of Jesus Christ could be lived as well as professed : under adverse circum stances as well as in the home and the Church. ”

“ Then came the influenza. An effort to describe is useless. No wonder that some of the prisoners did all in their power to keep out of that place, and some suffered severely simply because they did not report actual conditions. This crowded condition also meant that patients could not always have the care that they should have had.
The Solitary
This was the most dreaded place in all the dis ciplinary barracks of the nation. At Alcatraz this was possibly thirty feet below the surface of the earth. At Fort Leavenworth it was not so deep but was deep enough to be quite dark. ”

“ A great blessing came to many at that time and has ever since been a means of strength to them, while others who suffered equally severe trials and stood bravely for the right were blest as much as their brethren, only to lose it afterwards, and all because they could not stand the praise of men. ”

“ Their filthy lan guage and dirty stories from the lowest underworld are enough to drive a man crazy. One can not read or think because of the constant stream of filth." Another writes, "I feel that a few years of this kind of confinement would make a mental or a physical wreck of the best kind of a man. We can not be too deeply concerned about those who are still there." The jeopardy is increased by the fact that some of the most loathsome and contagious diseases are found in these men which endangers the health of the prisoners. ”

“ All these could be borne by the relig ious objectors, but for people who were resentful and many of the prisoners were these things bred intense hatred toward the officials ; and what is a great deal worse, against the government, for there is where the blame ultimately lands. ”

“ The public was not pre pared for such a wholesale release, newspapers crit icised the war department very severely, and one of the legislatures in a western state passed a resolu tion showing its disapproval and disgust. ”

“ This leaves about eighty men free to roam around the section at night, for all sorts of devilry. As there are many who have bad records in civil life you will not be surprised at the conditions which ob tain here, where I have to sleep and spend my extra time. Dope fiends, auto thieves, burglars, and ....are quite common. They are very nice to the C. O/s, and will do anything for us, but just living with them is dangerous enough. ”