Major Walter Guest Kellogg’s World War I
memoir, The Conscientious Objector
(1919) (Boni and Liveright, New York, New York, P. 141), is greatly
informative, if not highly flattering, reading for those Anabaptists continuing
to hold to a Pacifist idealism. Very
intelligently, Kellogg examines the dilemma of the wartime conscientious objector
and the necessary conflict with the state needing to field armies of soldiers, “Numerically,
the problem indeed is of small importance; as a matter of principle it is of
great importance. The problem is to be
fair to the minority without thereby being unfair to the majority. A sovereign government must not oppress the
honest objector nor, assuredly, should it grant him such special privileges
that it thereby discriminates against its patriotic soldiery,” (Kellogg, p.
6).
Kellogg is the military appointment as
Chairman of the Board of Inquiry who reviewed the status of conscientious
objectors. Admittedly, it is not exactly
clear as to how one would be summoned before the board, but Kellogg did
interview hundreds of CO s, both religious and non-religious, of all manners of
idealism. Regrettably, it is clear that
Kellogg came away from this experience feeling that especially of the
Anabaptists (he lumps Mennonites, Amish, Brethren and Hutterite together into
one solid group), that we are serious in our faith, and legitimate in our
pacifist claims, but all in all, not very useful or even helpful citizens. Of the Mennonites, he reflects, “These men
knew their Bibles. They had read in the
Testaments daily, or almost daily, they testified, for a long period of
years. They did not read so much for the
story of it as they read it for a guide which, in all things, was to govern
their conduct. They knew it narrowly,
unintelligently, but they knew it. An
they knew nothing else.” Nor would
he be the last one to make certain insinuations, “Not infrequently it
transpired that, prior to his induction into service, an objector had been
employed in some shipbuilding yard or munition plant, where he had received
large wages and where, in the shape of torpedo boats or shrapnel, he had
directly contributed toward the war. His
unwillingness to serve in the Army was undoubtedly due to the fact that he had
been taken from a job which paid five dollars or more a day and put into
service at thirty dollars per month,” (Kellogg, p. 60-61). Kellogg also relates numerous incidents
where Mennonites and Hutterites asked to be stationed close to their homes,
which clearly went against the spirit of the CO status. Part of his denigration of the Mennonites personally
was due to his feeling that Mennonites were not so much unpatriotic as they
were self-obsessed and more or less ignorant of the world. He gets pretty blunt -- “It is difficult
to realize that we have among our citizenry a class of men who are so
intellectually inferior and so unworthy to assume its burdens and its
responsibilities… They are good tillers of the soil; they are, doubtless,
according to their lights, good Christians, but they are essentially a type of
Americans of which American cannot be proud,” (p. 41). Of the Quakers, on the other hand, he
says, “The spirit of the Friends, though we may attribute it to an inherent
narrowness, is yet a brave spirit, prompted by a genuine intelligence and
backed by a fine sincerity,” (Kellogg, p. 43).
Discouragingly, one sees where the actions
of a few all too often called the values of their entire culture and religious
affiliates into question and made all Anabaptists look bad. He records that the Camp Dodge, Iowa, newspaper,
The Camp Dodger, contained the following item in its January 4,
1919, edition:
“His religion, which would not permit
him to wear the uniform of a soldier, went back on Priv. Joshua A. Hoffer,
Bridgewater, S.D., when he was discharged from the Army last week.
“Hoffer, who is a Mennonite and maintained
that he was a conscientious objector to military service, refused to wear the
uniform after he was inducted. No
arguments could batter down his religious scruples on this score and all the
time he was in the service he wore his civilian clothing and was assigned to
noncombatant duties.
“Evidently Hoffer admired
the men around him who wore the uniform, and when he was discharged he hied
himself to Dodge City and purchased a classy uniform to show the folks at home
how he looked as a ‘soldier.’ His religion gave way to pride in his personal
appearance and his conscientious scruples gave way to his vanity,” (Kellogg, p.
92).
Distressingly,
of the scriptures quoted to support the pacifist stance, the whole point of
being a positive witness before the world seems to have been too often lost.
Not all Mennonites come across poorly in
Kellogg’s recollection. Generally, while
he keen that those who truly object to carrying a gun in defense of their
homeland based on long-established, and consistently held and pursued religious
ideals should be free to honour the dictates of their consciences, yet such
persons should be willing to at least work to mitigate the sufferings of war
(whereby the Quakers earned so much more respect from him), or to serve in
other ways. President Mosiman of
Bluffton College both earned Kellogg’s
respect, and I believe his appreciation, “The admirable tone of [Mosiman’s]
letter seems to have been little heeded by the Mennonites,” (Kellogg, p. 97).
The
letter in question was written by Mosiman in response to letters from
Mennonites at Camp Greenleaf, Georgia, seeking guidance as to what level of
cooperation with the Army was appropriate:
“It is impossible for me to tell you what to do. This is a matter of conscience and it is your conscience that must decide and not mine. I fear that many of our boys have only got themselves into trouble by much well meant advice…“Personally, I feel that in this time of war every citizen owes his country some service. I feel that it is up to the conscientious objector to do more in the service that he undertakes than the average soldier. I might add that almost all the boys that have gone out from Bluffton College are in the hospital service. My advice to them was that they should prove themselves worthy of their country. They have, on the whole, received splendid treatment and have done good work in the hospital. Of course, I cannot say that you shall do the same, if your conscience does not permit… No Mennonite has a right to exemption as a Mennonite, but only as a conscientious objector…“I hate war as much as any one. But I have seen the menace of German militarism from two and a half years’ residence in Germany, and I have trembled when I saw it. I have exclaimed, ‘What will happen if the Beast should ever break loose?’ America did not want this war. The Mennonites who came to this country to escape war, because they hated it, wanted it least of all. Not to fight has been bred into us. But not that we should not love our country… So there can be no thought in the choice of service that would take us away from danger. Nor should there be hair-splitting about wearing the uniform and such things,” (Kellogg, p. 96-97).
Three observations stand out from this
engagement of Kellogg’s work, first that it is easy for Mennonites to forget
just how different our world and cultural understanding are from that of the
greater West (as part of his job, Kellogg researched and shares how the
question of pacifism was handled in ancient Rome, France, Britain, and Canada,
as well as the United States). Second,
that we need to be aware of our actions and attitudes. Even if we do the right thing with the right
heart and attitude, we can often do inestimable damage to both our reputations
and the cause of Christ if we do not also take into consideration how others
will see our actions. Finally, from the
archives, we have numerous letters from young Mennonites writing to my great-great
grandfather, J.C. Wall, writing to him as teacher and church officer to
instruct them as to how to handle their situation relative the army. The point is that Kellogg observes a somewhat
unfair split between those Mennonites who like the Quakers have educated
themselves and are able to apply reason to the understanding of the promptings
of their conscience, and those who are willing to ignore the training of the
intellect so as to be able to “give a reason to everyone who asks after the
hope that is in you.” By the time the
young men were in contact with Mosiman asking for instruction and
understanding, they were already well into their situation. Those contacts and discussions should have
happened well before the war occurred.
For this reason, programs such as Sunday School and religious courses
should be taken a lot more seriously by both the students and the teachers.
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