Conscientious Objector

"HEY! YELLOWBACKS!"--Ernest L. Meyer--John Day ($2.00).

There were 3,989 conscientious objectors in the U. S. Army during the World War.--Soldiers called them "yellowbacks." This book tells of the experiences of one of them.

Pacifist Ernest Meyer was an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin when war came to the U. S. in the spring of 1917. On his draft questionnaire he wrote: "I shall refuse . . . all combatant and noncombatant service." The University expelled him. At Camp Taylor he would not wear his uniform, was put under guard with the other conscientious objectors, tried three times, sent to Fort Leavenworth, finally dismissed after the Armistice. Now he works on the editorial staff of the Capital Times, liberal Madison, Wis., newspaper of the La Follette organization.

Says Author Meyer: at Camp Taylor the "yellowbacks" had to use the same latrine as the soldiers with venereal disease; though no physical violence was ever done to him, many of the religious objectors were beaten, tied to bars of cells, forced to stand in the sun till they collapsed. Religious objectors were of many creeds: Mennonites. Molokans, Christa-delphians, Plymouth Brethren, Adventists, Quakers, members of the Church of God, Church of Christ, Pentecostal, Apostolic Faith, International Bible Students, House of David. Says Author Meyer: though the U. S. Government dealt more humanely with pacifists than did any other nation, 31 religious objectors at Fort Douglas, Arizona, were not released until Nov. 23, 1920, "two year's after the Armistice and 15 months after the release of the last war objector in England."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.