Word: objectors
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...strongly urge every conscientious objector to register. Unless he does so, it will be practically impossible to ask the government to use the man's abilities and conscientious service in any way that will be helpful to his fellow countrymen...
...make one correction in your editorial of Tuesday, October 15th, on the position of conscientious objectors under the Selective Service Act? The passage you quote as if it were part of the statue does not appear in the Act as it finally became law. The actual provision of the law recognizes as a conscientious objector "any person . . . who, by reason of religious training and belief, is conscientiously opposed to participation in war in any form." It is not necessary for the objector, as you suppose, to be a member of any well recognized religious sect like the Quakers, whose creed...
...problem of the objector on humanitarian or other non-religious grounds is not covered by the law, but it would seem proper for a citizen to set forth such non-religious objections when he files his questionnaire. There is much important hard work to be done for the public welfare in other fields besides military training; and I hope that the government will find it possible to use conscientious objectors of all sorts in such badly needed tasks, although the law itself does not give this privilege to non-religious objectors...
Anyone who is thinking of declaring himself an objector should not fail to consult the Faculty Civil Rights Committee if he is not sure just how and when to make his convictions known. Naturally the main factor in the situation is just what a man's conscience will or will not allow him to do, and on that score, no one can expect outside help. Several pacifist sects set up organizations for relief and reconstruction work in wartime, and then try their best to get them rated as legitimate noncombatant groups under the Selective Service Act. Nearly all these sects...
...first task of the conscientious objector is to fix in his own mind what his conscience will permit him to do. Then he must inform himself exactly as to the type of work involved in the various jobs that will be thrust at him, so that he will not blunder into something that violates his convictions. Having done this, he is prepared to throw his full weight against the war system...