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minds of many that they fear the possible threat, not of a vanquished enemy, but of a present ally. If such an idea is current now among our people, will not deliberate and precipitous action be so interpreted in other quarters of the world?

It seems only fair, therefore, that so momentous a decision be delayed long enough for the American people to determine whether such a threat to the peace exists. This can only be decided as we see the final outcome of the United Nations Charter and the unfolding pattern of the postwar world.

Therefore, on behalf of the Northern Baptist Convention I wish again to thank the chairman and members of this committee for the privilege of presenting this statement and to say that it is our earnest hope that the Select Committee on Postwar Military Policy will see fit to recommend to the House of Representatives that official action on this vital matter be delayed until after the hostilities cease and the new pattern of the postwar world begins to take shape.

Chairman WOODRUM. Thank you very much, Mr. Cloward. We are very glad that you have been present.

Reverend CLOWARD. Thank you, sir.

Chairman WOODRUM. For the Mennonite Central Committee, Dr. Harold Bender, assistant secretary, is present.

Mr. Bender, we will hear your statement at this time.

STATEMENT OF HAROLD S. BENDER, ASSISTANT SECRETARY, THE MENNONITE CENTRAL COMMITTEE

Mr. BENDER. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I appreciate very much the privilege of presenting this statement on behalf of the Mennonite Central Committee, and its constituent Mennonite and Brethren in Christ bodies which it represents.

The Mennonite churches of the United States, numbering in all bodies over 125,000 baptized members, and established in this country since 1683, represent a body of Christians originating in Reformation times in Switzerland and Holland. From the very beginning of its history this church has rejected participation in war and violence in any form, holding this to be contrary to the spirit and teachings of Christ and His Gospel, and has endeavored to follow the ways of peace and love, even at the cost of much suffering and sacrifice.

Our Mennonite forefathers came to America from various European countries throughout a period of 200 years, seeking a refuge from persecution and freedom from conscription. Here they found a land where liberty of conscience, separation of church and state, and democratic institutions aided the practice of their way of life as peaceloving nonresistant Christians, and enabled them to make their distinctive contribution to the Nation. They found complete freedom from Old World militarism in a country which, since the time they first arrived, has never had peacetime conscription in any form except for the prewar year 1940-41, which has never had a military caste, and in which the ideal of constructive achievement in peace has always been cherished above that of military prowess. They, and we their children, have deeply appreciated and cherished these ideals and liberties which have continued as a precious heritage in the land which we love, and which have made possible a wider witness to the Christian Gospel and the practice of a purer Christianity.

Our trust that the Congress of the United States intends to maintain such liberties gives us confidence to appear at this time that in any future legislative enactments for the defense of the Nation no policy be adopted which will endanger these great traditions or imperil these principles.

In this appeal we speak from experience. The Mennonite Church was founded in an age when armies were professional and mercenary and served the private or dynastic interests of autocratic rulers or oligarchies, or even intolerant religious groups. In 425 years of history as a peace church since that time, living in Switzerland, France, Holland, Prussia, Germany, Austria, Poland, and Russia, as well as in the United States and Canada, we have seen rulers and dynasties and military systems come and go. We have experienced in our own communities the rise of brutal Prussian militarism, the crushing Napoleonic conquest, the harsh czaristic autocracy, and the Communist terror. We saw the rise of universal military conscription in a Europe which has reaped a fearful harvest of war, perverted nationalism, dictatorship, totalitarianism, and anti-Christian ideologies. For 400 years we have struggled to maintain the ideals of the Christ and His way of peace and love against the encroachments of these monstrous forces and movements. Out of our bitter experience, which has included the ravages of repeated wars, the burdens of militarized economies, and the miseries of forced migrations, we have come to know the power of the military idea once it is given the encouragement of universal peacetime conscription. We have seen those of our own faith who have remained behind in militarized Europe suffer great spiritual risk and loss. We therefore feel we must speak now, for we fear greatly not only for America but for all mankind, if the greatest (and one of the last) nation of the world with a record of genuine moral and spiritual idealism and devotion to peace and the arts of peace, should commit itself to what in our conviction is a policy leading inevitably to militarism.

Apart from the grave danger to the future of world civilization from American adoption of a policy of permanent peacetime conscription, we see the following specific dangers to the spiritual welfare of our country:

First. That conscription will give a powerful forward thrust to the growth of the power of the state over the individual and his life and thought, and place a weapon of untold power into the hands of possible unscrupulous elements who might later secure control of the machinery of the state.

Second. That this growing encroachment of the state fostered by universal conscription will make it difficult and finally impossible for conscientious individuals and groups to live and teach in America the way of life which their conscience and faith in God requires.

Third. That the practice of requiring immature youth to take a year's military training and conditioning for war before being morally and spiritually prepared for intelligent choices on the basis of conscience, will be particularly dangerous to the maintenance of this freedom. The net result of a year of training would, we fear, be a con ditioning to docile submission to state control and a decay of independ

ent conscience.

Having observed thus in history the difficulty of preserving the basic and essential freedoms of conscience and religion in the midst of growing military programs, and having suffered in our own experience the bitter fruits of militarism, and being convinced that even in the affairs of nations the way of love and peace as taught by Christ is the best way, we feel deeply moved, Mr. Chairman, to give our earnest witness against the adoption of a policy of permanent peacetime conscription. We speak not because we believe that religious bodies should seek to dictate state policy, particularly not in defense matters, but because we fear that the losses to the spiritual ideals and liberties of our Nation. might be irreparable.

Chairman WOODRUM. Thank you very much, Mr. Bender.

Mr. BENDER. Thank you, sir.

Chairman WOODRUM. The representative of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, B. F. McLaurin, is our next witness. Will you proceed, please.

STATEMENT OF B. F. McLAURIN, INTERNATIONAL FIELD ORGANIZER, BROTHERHOOD OF SLEEPING CAR PORTERS

Mr. McLAURIN. Honorable Chairman, I regret deeply that it is impossible for many of the members of the Committee on Postwar Military Policy to be present.

I speak for the International Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, whose 15,000 members I represent, and who went on record in September 1944 opposing military conscription. We oppose compulsory military training in peacetime, either by universal military conscription or by selective draft.

The history of universal military training in Europe shows that conscription does not prevent war with other nations, does not assure victory in case of war, nor guarantee against economic chaos at home. The factors causing war are not just military; they are political, economic, and psychological. There is no historic proof that a welltrained standing army has ever stopped war and aggression or that conscription will stop the outbreak of war. As recent examples of this fact, we point to Russia, Italy, Germany, Poland, Norway, Belgium, France, Greece, and the Netherlands.

The record of conscription in the United States with its indoctrination to unquestioning obedience, its segregation and discrimination against minorities, and its subservience to caste patterns belies the claims that it will serve as a panacea for the extension of education and health facilities and as an opportunity to develop a sense of civic responsibility. The testimony of the great majority of educators is more than sufficient to prove this point.

Arbitrary and prejudiced administration has failed to make the fullest use of manpower-even in wartime-because of segregation and discrimination, not only as practiced against racial and religious minorities, but also in the emasculation of the ranks of training schools for doctors, chemists, and other technical trainees. Two out of many instances are these:

At the Freeman Field, Seymour, Ind., where Negroes were being trained for the Four Hundred and Seventy-seventh Bombardment

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Group, 101 Negro officers attempted to enter the officers' club. They were arrested, charged with creating a disturbance, and asked to sign an agreement not to enter the club on the grounds that the club was for the use of white officers only. They were confined to quarters and later 97 were transferred to Godman's Field, near Fort Knox, Ky. Four are still being held on charges of jostling.

At Port Hueneme, Calif., 1,000 Negroes, members of the Thirtyfourth Construction Battalion (Seabees) underwent a mass hunger strike for 2 days, protesting color discrimination in the awarding of promotions. When this demonstration seemed about to obtain its aim, most of the men were shipped out under orders-defeating their effort to serve democracy in the armed services.

Racial segregation and discrimination is the rule in the armed services. Integration is the exception.

Long-time military conscription, in practice, has destroyed the free labor movements in every country where it has existed; in Italy and Germany the unions were forcibly disbanded; in France and Switzerland, the "citizen army" was used to break its own back in labor disputes. In America, where the Government in its policy is just beginning to recognize the rights of labor to organize and bargain collectively for better working conditions and where the people are just beginning to realize the importance of the struggle for a free labor movement, we believe peacetime conscription would threaten the very life of workers and thus destroy the basic principles of our growing democracy.

We oppose this move for peacetime conscription as an admission that we of the United States do not intend to create the conditions necessary for a just and durable peace-these conditions being mutual confidence and justice among the nations of the world, and political, social, and economic security and opportunity for all people.

One of the strongest arguments against peacetime conscription is to be found in the records of those organizations and individuals advocating it. Among them are groups, known for their reactionary and discriminatory policies, and individuals with antilabor, anti-Semitic, racist theories. In addition, advocacy of conscription by the military bureaus by off-the-record methods disqualifies them as teachers of fair play and honesty to our youth. As for their teaching civic responsibility, there, too, we have their record-the most flagrant breaking of the Select Service Act, under which they were empowered, which called for induction without discrimination because of race, creed, or color. Both racial and religious minorities were discriminated against. We are convinced that they will come out used by big business as a military strike-breaking, union-busting force.

We in organized labor feared that our hard-won rights stand in grave danger of a Nation-wide assault as soon as the war is ended. There are plenty of signs that the end of the war will bring a mass attack by the Nation's top industrialists who want to see legitimate labor unions smashed to bits so that profit, already prodigious, may be further increased.

The use of military power to crush or restrict union activities is not without precedent, both here and abroad.

Our democracy cannot survive if we are to have a conscripted army to disrupt civilian life, destroy our civil liberties, and threaten the liberties of others. The United States is the strongest, freest, healthiest

Nation in the world today. Our move toward peacetime conscription shows lack of confidence in a world organization to end war. Furthermore, it gives notice that conscription advocates believe the 60,000,000 jobs promised by the administration cannot be provided by a peacetime economy. We therefore oppose this turning toward a totalitarian solution. The American people can have full and fair employment in peacetime as well as in war. The means lie in an expanding economy and progressive legislation, such as the proposed bill to establish a permanent fair employment practice commission.

Give us more democracy, not less. Give us freedom with opportunity and responsibility, not conscription and imposed discipline. Give us a democracy free of segregation, discrimination, poverty, and hate; a democracy of justice and equality for all and that example will help to establish the peace of the world.

Thank you Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee for the opportunity of extending this message on behalf of the International Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

Chairman WOODRUM. Thank you. The representative of the Greater Philadelphia Committee Against Wartime Enactment of Peacetime Conscription, Dr. Leslie W. Kindred, managing director, Public Education and Child Labor Association is present.

Dr. Kindred, will you proceed please.

STATEMENT OF DR. LESLIE W. KINDRED, GREATER PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE AGAINST WARTIME ENACTMENT OF PEACETIME CONSCRIPTION

Mr. KINDRED. Mr. Chairman, I am Mr. Kindred, and I represent the Greater Philadelphia Committee Against Wartime Enactment of Peacetime Conscription, composed of individuals who represent a broad cross section of life in Philadelphia.

It includes in its membership medical practitioners, educators, clergymen, lawyers, businessmen, industrialists, housewives, social workers, and others engaged in various occupations. Many of the individuals associated with this committee are official representatives of organized labor, educational associations, local churches, and synagogues, church federations, rabbinical assemblies, social agencies, and women's clubs. They have joined this committee because of a common conviction that no such drastic departure from the American way of life should be made as that found in the proposal that this Nation adopt compulsory military training for peacetime while it is still

at war.

In trying to answer the question whether the United States should adopt a policy of compulsory military training now for the postwar period, naturally many people are asking why such a proposal should be made at this time. They have labored under the impression that American lives are now being spent to eliminate the need for large standing armies and the establishment of a military system which has characterized Europe for many years. They also recognize that the United States will have millions of trained men who will still be in the service under the provisions of the National Selective Service Act. for a period of 10 years after this war, or until they attain the age of 45, in addition to this vast manpower pool, we will have the most

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