Civilian Public Service
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The Civilian Public Service (CPS) was a program of the United States government that provided
conscientious objectors A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...
with an alternative to military service during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. From 1941 to 1947, nearly 12,000 draftees, willing to serve their country in some capacity but unwilling to perform any type of military service, accepted assignments in "work of national importance" in 152 CPS camps throughout the United States and
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. Draftees from the historic peace churches and other faiths worked in areas such as
soil conservation Soil conservation is the prevention of loss of the topmost layer of the soil from erosion or prevention of reduced fertility caused by over usage, acidification, salinization or other chemical soil contamination. Slash-and-burn and other uns ...
, forestry, fire fighting, agriculture, under the supervision of such agencies as the U.S. Forest Service, the
Soil Conservation Service Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), formerly known as the Soil Conservation Service (SCS), is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that provides technical assistance to farmers and other private landowners and ...
, and the
National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...
. Others helped provide social services and mental health services. The CPS men served without wages and minimal support from the federal government. The cost of maintaining the CPS camps and providing for the needs of the men was the responsibility of their congregations and families. CPS men served longer than regular draftees and were not released until well after the end of the war. Initially skeptical of the program, government agencies learned to appreciate the men's service and requested more workers from the program. CPS made significant contributions to forest fire prevention, erosion and
flood control Flood control methods are used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters."Flood Control", MSN Encarta, 2008 (see below: Further reading). Flood relief methods are used to reduce the effects of flood waters or high water level ...
, medical science and reform of the mental health system.


Background

Conscientious objectors (COs) refuse to participate in military service because of belief or religious training. During wartime, this stance conflicts with
conscription Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...
efforts. Those willing to accept
non-combatant Non-combatant is a term of art in the law of war and international humanitarian law to refer to civilians who are not taking a direct part in hostilities; persons, such as combat medics and military chaplains, who are members of the belligerent ...
roles, such as medical personnel, are accommodated. There are few legal options for draftees who cannot cooperate with the military in any way.


Experiences of World War I

The conscription law of World War I provided for noncombatant service for members of a religious organization whose members were forbidden from participating in war of any form. This exemption effectively limited conscientious objector status to members of the historic peace churches:
Mennonites Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radic ...
(and other
Anabaptist Anabaptism (from New Latin language, Neo-Latin , from the Greek language, Greek : 're-' and 'baptism', german: Täufer, earlier also )Since the middle of the 20th century, the German-speaking world no longer uses the term (translation: "Re- ...
groups such as Hutterites),
Religious Society of Friends Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...
(Quakers) and
Church of the Brethren The Church of the Brethren is an Anabaptist Christian denomination in the Schwarzenau Brethren (german: link=no, Schwarzenauer Neutäufer "Schwarzenau New Baptists") tradition that was organized in 1708 by Alexander Mack in Schwarzenau, Germ ...
. The law gave the President authority to assign such draftees to any noncombatant military role. Conscientious objectors who refused noncombatant service during World War I were imprisoned in military facilities such as Fort Lewis (Washington),
Alcatraz Island Alcatraz Island () is a small island in San Francisco Bay, offshore from San Francisco, California, United States. The island was developed in the mid-19th century with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a military pri ...
(California) and
Fort Leavenworth Fort Leavenworth () is a United States Army installation located in Leavenworth County, Kansas, in the city of Leavenworth, Kansas, Leavenworth. Built in 1827, it is the second oldest active United States Army post west of Washington, D.C., an ...
(Kansas). The government assumed that COs could be converted into soldiers once they were exposed to life in their assigned military camps. Simultaneously the
Justice Department A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...
was preparing to indict 181 Mennonite leaders for violating the
espionage act The Espionage Act of 1917 is a United States federal law enacted on June 15, 1917, shortly after the United States entered World War I. It has been amended numerous times over the years. It was originally found in Title 50 of the U.S. Code (War ...
because of a statement they adopted against performing military service. The draftees' refusal to put on a uniform or cooperate in any way caused difficulties for both the government and the COs. The treatment received by nearly 2,000 of these absolute COs included short rations, solitary confinement and physical abuse so severe as to cause the deaths of two
Hutterite Hutterites (german: link=no, Hutterer), also called Hutterian Brethren (German: ), are a communal ethnoreligious branch of Anabaptists, who, like the Amish and Mennonites, trace their roots to the Radical Reformation of the early 16th century ...
draftees.


Preparation for World War II

After World War I, and with another European war looming, leaders from the historic peace churches met to strategize about how to cooperate with the government to avoid the difficulties of World War I. Holding a common view that any participation in military service was not acceptable, they devised a plan of civilian alternative service, based on experience gained by American Friends Service Committee work in Europe during and after World War I and forestry service done by
Russian Mennonite The Russian Mennonites (german: Russlandmennoniten it. "Russia Mennonites", i.e., Mennonites of or from the Russian Empire occasionally Ukrainian Mennonites) are a group of Mennonites who are descendants of Dutch Anabaptists who settled for abo ...
s in lieu of military service in Tsarist Russia. As the United States prepared for another war, the historic peace churches, represented by Friends who understood inner dealings of Washington D.C. politics, attempted to influence new draft bills to ensure their men could fulfill their duty in an alternative, non-military type of service. On June 20, 1940, the Burke-Wadsworth Bill came before Congress. The arrangements for conscientious objectors were almost identical to the World War I provisions.


Selective Service Act

The Friends representatives continued attempting to make the bill more favorable to the historic peace churches. The Burke-Wadsworth Bill passed on September 14, 1940, becoming the
Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, also known as the Burke–Wadsworth Act, , was the first peacetime conscription in United States history. This Selective Service Act required that men who had reached their 21st birthday b ...
. The influence of the churches was evident in section 5(g), which says in part: "Any such person claiming such exemption from combatant training and service ... in lieu of such induction, be assigned to work of national importance under civilian direction." The bill offered four improvements from the perspective of the churches over the World War I provisions. The exemption applied to conscientious objection based on religious training or belief, opening the door for members of any religious denomination to apply for CO status. Draftees turned down by local draft board could appeal under the new law. Those assigned to "work of national importance" would be under civilian, not military, control and violations of law on the part of those in the program were subject to normal federal jurisdiction, not the military justice system. From the military perspective, it removed the burden of dealing with thousands of uncooperative draftees and segregated the COs and their philosophy from military service members. Unlike harsher methods, the military found that this gentler approach resulted in about one in eight eventually transferring to military service.


Organization

When registration commenced on October 16, 1940, no structure was in place to handle thousands of anticipated conscientious objectors. Church representatives meeting with government officials learned that little thought had been put into the program, and the churches were advised to create a plan. Because the government wanted to deal with one body, not individual religious denominations, the National Council for Religious Conscientious Objectors was formed as a liaison between the churches and the federal government. The historic peace churches outlined a plan that included running and maintaining CPS camps under church control. However, President
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opposed any plan not involving military control over the draftees. To save their plan and retain civilian direction of the program, the churches offered to fund the camps. Aides convinced Roosevelt that putting the COs to work in out-of-the-way camps was preferable to repeating the difficulties of World War I.
Selective Service The Selective Service System (SSS) is an independent agency of the United States government that maintains information on U.S. citizens and other U.S. residents potentially subject to military conscription (i.e., the draft) and carries out contin ...
and the peace churches agreed to a six-month trial of church supported and funded camps for conscientious objectors and thus ''Civilian Public Service'' was born. The first camp opened on May 15, 1941 near Baltimore, Maryland. A total of 152 camps and units were established over the next six years. Six of the units, however, never became operational. The federal government provided work projects, housing, camp furnishings and paid for transportation to the camps. The responsibilities of the churches included day-to-day management of the camps, subsistence costs, meals and healthcare for the men. When the young men arrived at the first camps, they started a six-month experiment that would extend to six years.


Camp life

Civilian Public Service men lived in barracks-style camps, such as former
Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...
facilities. The camps served as a base of operations, from which the COs departed to their daily assignments. Sites were located typically in rural areas near the agricultural, soil conservation and forestry projects where the work took place. A large camp such as number 57 near
Hill City, South Dakota Hill City is the oldest existing city in Pennington County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 872 at the 2020 census. Hill City is located southwest of Rapid City on U.S. Highway 16 and on U.S. Route 385 that connects Deadwood t ...
, had five dormitories and housed as many as 172 men building the Deerfield Dam. Later, with projects located in urban areas, the men lived in smaller ''units'', communal housing near their assignments. CPS men typically worked nine hours, six days per week.
Mennonite Central Committee Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is a relief service, and peace agency representing fifteen Mennonite, Brethren in Christ and Amish bodies in North America. The U.S. headquarters are in Akron, Pennsylvania, the Canadian in Winnipeg, Manitoba. ...
, American Friends Service Committee and Brethren Service Committee administered almost all of the camps. The Association of Catholic Conscientious Objectors managed four camps and the Methodist World Peace Commission two. Each camp was assigned a director responsible for supervising camp operation. The director managed the needs of the men, oversaw maintenance of the camp facilities, handled community relations and reported to Selective Service officials. Initially a pastor had the camp director role. Later, capable men from among the CPS workers directed the camps. Besides the director, a matron, business manager and dietitian staffed a typical camp. An educational director was responsible for creating recreational, social and educational programs for the men. Church history, Bible and first aid were standard course topics. The strength of instructional programs varied from camp to camp, and after nine hours of physical labor, it could be difficult to motivate the men to attend classes. Most camps had libraries, some showed current films and camp number 56 (
Camp Angel Camp Angel was Civilian Public Service (CPS) camp number 56, located from 1942 to 1945 near Waldport and the coast in the Siuslaw National Forest and Lincoln County, in western Oregon. It was one of many CPS camps across the United States where c ...
) near
Waldport, Oregon Waldport is a city in Lincoln County, Oregon, United States. The population was 2,033 at the 2010 census. The city is located on the Alsea River and Alsea Bay, south of Newport and north of Yachats. History Settlement of Waldport began in ...
had a particular emphasis on the arts. Camps produced newsletters and yearbooks documenting their experiences. The camp dietitian, with the help of men assigned as cooks, prepared all of the meals. Camps with large gardens provided their own fresh vegetables. Sponsoring congregations also supplied home canned and fresh produce. The camps were subject to the same shortages and
rationing Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resources being distributed on a particular ...
as the rest of the nation. Sunday worship services were organized by the camp director if he was a pastor, by a visiting pastor, or by the CPS men themselves. While the historic peace churches organized the CPS, 38% of the men came from other denominations and 4% claimed no religious affiliation. Men spent their free time doing crafts such as woodworking, rugmaking, leatherwork and photography. Outdoor activities included hiking and swimming. Men formed choirs and music ensembles, performing in neighboring towns when relations were good. The men earned two days of furlough for each month of service. These days could be saved to allow enough time to travel several hundred miles home or in some cases traded to other men in exchange for cash. Men with wives and dependents found it difficult to support their families. Beyond a small allowance, the men did not get paid for their service, nor were their dependents given an allowance. To be closer to their husbands, women sought employment near their husband's assignment. Later, when jobs on dairy farms became available, families could live together in housing provided for farm workers. Men who became uncooperative with the CPS system and were unable to adjust to the church-managed camps were reassigned to a few camps managed by the Selective Service System. These camps tended to be the least productive and most difficult to administer. Men who felt compelled to protest the restrictions of the conscription law attempted to disrupt the program through the use of various techniques, including the initiation of work slowdowns and labor strikes. Routine rule breaking frustrated camp directors. The most difficult cases were given to the federal court system and the men imprisoned.


Finances

Churches were primarily responsible for financing Civilian Public Service, providing for the men's food, clothes, and other material needs. The churches also provided and paid for the camp director. To cover personal needs, the men received a monthly allowance of between $2.50 and $5.00 (equivalent to $ and $ respectively in ). When jobs were available in surrounding farms and communities, those willing to work beyond their regular CPS jobs could earn extra spending money. The federal government spent $1.3 million on the CPS program. The men performed $6 million of unpaid labor in return. Men who worked for farmers or psychiatric hospitals received regular wages, which they were required to give to the federal government. Objections to this practice developed immediately because the men felt they were helping to fund the war. A compromise was reached where the wages were put into a special fund that was unused until after the end of the war. At one point, church representatives attempted unsuccessfully to have these funds used for providing a living allowance for the men's dependents.


Types of work

The first Civilian Public Service projects were in rural areas where the men performed tasks related to soil conservation, agriculture and forestry. Later men were assigned to projects in cities where they worked in hospitals, psychiatric wards, and university research centers (as test subjects at times).


Soil conservation and agriculture

Anticipating the rural background of most men, the initial camps provided soil conservation and farming-related projects. By August 1945, 550 men worked on dairy farms and with milk testing. Labor-intensive farming operations like dairies were short of workers and accepted COs to help fill the gap. Men assigned to the
Bureau of Reclamation The Bureau of Reclamation, and formerly the United States Reclamation Service, is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees water resource management, specifically as it applies to the oversight and opera ...
built
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to prevent soil erosion, constructed 164 reservoirs and 249 dams. A sixth of all CPS work was performed in this area.Keim p. 49.


Forestry and National Parks

At Forest Service and
National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...
camps, CPS men were responsible for fire control. Between fires they built forest trails, cared for nursery stock, planted thousands of seedlings and engaged in pest control. Campgrounds and roadways on the
Blue Ridge Parkway The Blue Ridge Parkway is a National Parkway and All-American Road in the United States, noted for its scenic beauty. The parkway, which is America's longest linear park, runs for through 29 Virginia and North Carolina counties, linking Shenand ...
and
Skyline Drive Skyline Drive is a National Parkway that runs the entire length of the National Park Service's Shenandoah National Park in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, generally along the ridge of the mountains. The drive's northern terminus is a ...
of Virginia are products of CPS labor. Hundreds of men volunteered for smoke jumping, showing their willingness to take great personal risks. When fire was detected by a
lookout A lookout or look-out is a person in charge of the observation of hazards. The term originally comes from a naval background, where lookouts would watch for other ships, land, and various dangers. The term has now passed into wider parlance. ...
, smoke jumpers were flown directly to the site and dropped by parachute to quickly contain and extinguish the fire. From base camps scattered through the forests of Montana, Idaho and Oregon, the men were flown as many as 200 miles to fire sites, carrying firefighting tools and a two-day supply of
K-rations The K-ration was an individual daily combat food ration which was introduced by the United States Army during World War II. It was originally intended as an individually packaged daily ration for issue to airborne troops, tank crews, motorcycle co ...
. For larger fires, additional men, supplies and food were airdropped to expand the effort. Up to 240 CPS men served in this specialized program. One of the smokejumping schools was at Camp Paxson in Montana.


Mental health

As the war progressed, a critical shortage of workers in
psychiatric hospitals Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociative ...
developed, because staff had left for better paying jobs with fewer hours and improved working conditions. Understaffed wards at Philadelphia State Hospital had one attendant member for 300 patients, the minimum ratio being 10:1. The government balked at initial requests that CPS workers have these positions, believing it better to keep the men segregated in the rural camps to prevent the spread of their philosophy. Eventually the men received permission to work for the mental institutions as attendants or psychiatric aides. Individuals who found jobs at the rural camps unfulfilling and meaningless volunteered for this new type of assignment. The mental health field promised to provide the ''work of national importance'' that the program was designed to produce. By the end of 1945, more than 2000 CPS men worked in 41 institutions in 20 states. The CPS men discovered appalling conditions in the mental hospital wards. In an interview, a conscientious objector described his experience when he first entered a mental hospital in October 1942:Good War (Transcripts p. 12) The CPS men objected to the mistreatment and abuse of patients and determined to improve conditions in the psychiatric wards. They wanted to show other attendants alternatives to violence when dealing with patients. Frank Olmstead, chairman of the
War Resisters League The War Resisters League (WRL) is the oldest secular pacifist organization in the United States. History Founded in 1923 by men and women who had opposed World War I, it is a section of the London-based War Resisters' International. It continues ...
observed: Outraged workers surveyed CPS men in other hospitals and learned of the degree of abuse throughout the psychiatric care system. Contacting church managers and government officials, the COs begin advocating for reforms to end the abuses. Conditions were exposed in institutions such as Cleveland State Hospital, Eastern State Hospital in Virginia and Hudson River State Hospital. One explained: The reformers were especially active at the Byberry Hospital in Philadelphia where four Friends initiated ''The Attendant'' magazine as a way to communicate ideas and promote reform. This periodical later became ''The Psychiatric Aide'', a professional journal for mental health workers. On May 6, 1946''
Life Magazine ''Life'' was an American magazine published weekly from 1883 to 1972, as an intermittent "special" until 1978, and as a monthly from 1978 until 2000. During its golden age from 1936 to 1972, ''Life'' was a wide-ranging weekly general-interest ma ...
'' printed an exposé of the mental healthcare system based on the reports of COs. Another effort of CPS, ''Mental Hygiene Project'' became ''the National Mental Health Foundation''. Initially skeptical about the value of Civilian Public Service,
Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...
, impressed by the changes introduced by COs in the mental health system, became a sponsor of ''the National Mental Health Foundation'' and actively inspired other prominent citizens including
Owen J. Roberts Owen Josephus Roberts (May 2, 1875 – May 17, 1955) was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1930 to 1945. He also led two Roberts Commissions, the first of which investigated the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the seco ...
,
Pearl Buck Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (June 26, 1892 – March 6, 1973) was an American writer and novelist. She is best known for ''The Good Earth'' a bestselling novel in the United States in 1931 and 1932 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938, Buc ...
and
Harry Emerson Fosdick Harry Emerson Fosdick (May 24, 1878 – October 5, 1969) was an American pastor. Fosdick became a central figure in the Fundamentalist–Modernist controversy within American Protestantism in the 1920s and 1930s and was one of the most prominen ...
to join her in advancing the organization's objectives of reform and humane treatment of patients.


Medical experiments

A faction of the Civilian Public Service camps developed into a scientific research unit known as Camp #115, or the “Guinea pig units.” These units included around 500 conscientious objectors who volunteered to be scientific test subjects in a wide range of human medical experiments in the country’s top universities and hospitals. The majority of these experiments were conducted under the direction and approval of the
Office of Scientific Research and Development The Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) was an agency of the United States federal government created to coordinate scientific research for military purposes during World War II. Arrangements were made for its creation during May 1 ...
(OSRD), the Committee on Medical Research (CMR), and the Surgeon General at leading academic and medical institutions such as Harvard Medical School, Yale and Stanford Universities, and Massachusetts General Hospital. These experiments involved a range of research topics, including studying disease, survival in extreme conditions, and equipment testing. The experiments often endangered the health of the COs. The following chart lists the unit numbers, facility, type of project, capacity of CPS assignees, and dates of many experiments done on COs that were approved by the OSRD and CMR as reported by Selective Service. The numbers reported may be slightly inaccurate as some COs and experiments were not properly recorded.


Specific Experiments


= Typhus

=
Typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure. ...
, a disease transmitted by body
lice Louse ( : lice) is the common name for any member of the clade Phthiraptera, which contains nearly 5,000 species of wingless parasitic insects. Phthiraptera has variously been recognized as an order, infraorder, or a parvorder, as a result o ...
, was considered to be “one of the most dangerous of the potential epidemic diseases which were expected to occur during or after the war.” The
Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...
, with support of the US government, headed an experiment on louse disinfestation techniques. Initially its leadership paid homeless individuals $7 a day to participate, however, the "difficulty in securing suitable subjects” led the foundation to be the first experiment to use American WWII COs as subjects. A total of 32 COs volunteered for the experiment. In July 1942, Dr. Davis and Dr. Wheeler began the experiment with COs at a site in Campton, New Hampshire that became nicknamed “Camp Liceum.” They collected lice from an alcoholic ward of Bellevue Hospital and brought it with them to the facility. For 18 days, the men were required to wear undergarments infested with live lice and their eggs. For the second half, they were split into groups and given various delousing powders. Most of the powders proved ineffective and the medical legacy of the experiment was short lived; however, it set a precedent for the use of COs in experiments. Only a few years after the study, scientists discovered
DDT Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, commonly known as DDT, is a colorless, tasteless, and almost odorless crystalline chemical compound, an organochloride. Originally developed as an insecticide, it became infamous for its environmental impacts. ...
which helped prevent a Typhus epidemic and eliminated the need for the Lice Experiment's results.


= Hepatitis

= During the 1940s the cause, method of communication, and treatment of infectious
hepatitis Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver tissue. Some people or animals with hepatitis have no symptoms, whereas others develop yellow discoloration of the skin and whites of the eyes (jaundice), poor appetite, vomiting, tiredness, abdominal pa ...
were not well understood. Experimentation began with COs working at psychiatric hospitals and expanded to a major research project with 30 to 60 test subjects at the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
and
Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
. The men were inoculated with infected blood plasma, swallowed nose and throat washings, and the human body wastes of infected patients, and drank contaminated water.Keim, pp. 75–76. The infectious hepatitis research was instrumental in determining that a virus, rather than bacteria, is responsible for the Hepatitis A and that it is transmitted through human filth, serum and drinking water.


= Malaria

= During the early 1940s,
malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...
was a major threat to troops fighting in the Pacific Front and
quinine Quinine is a medication used to treat malaria and babesiosis. This includes the treatment of malaria due to '' Plasmodium falciparum'' that is resistant to chloroquine when artesunate is not available. While sometimes used for nocturnal le ...
was the chief anti-malarial drug. Made from the bark of the South American cinchona tree, quinine was in short supply during the war, so scientists began searching for alternative treatments. There were over 14 different experiments conducted on COs with an emphasis on malaria research. In many of the cases, the test subjects were bitten by malarial mosquitoes and when the fever reached its peak after three to four days they were given various experimental treatments.Gingerich, p. 272. During one Malaria experiment at the
University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...
, twelve CPS men underwent tests to determine the recovery period for those infected with malaria. This research documented the debilitating effects of the disease and the amount of time required for a complete recovery.


=Cold and pneumonia

= CPS men participated in tests in Pinehurst, North Carolina and Gatlinburg, Tennessee during which they drank throat washings contaminated with soldiers'
colds The common cold or the cold is a viral infectious disease of the upper respiratory tract that primarily affects the respiratory mucosa of the nose, throat, sinuses, and larynx. Signs and symptoms may appear fewer than two days after exposu ...
and
pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...
. Through this experiment, researchers with the Commission on Acute Respiratory Disease came to the conclusion that colds and some types of pneumonia are caused by a virus rather than bacteria.


=Starvation

= To study the effects of diet and nutrition,
Ancel Keys Ancel Benjamin Keys (January 26, 1904 – November 20, 2004) was an American physiologist who studied the influence of diet on health. In particular, he hypothesized that replacing dietary saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat reduces card ...
of the University of Minnesota Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene placed 36 conscientious objectors on a controlled diet. Later known as the
Minnesota Starvation Experiment The Minnesota Starvation Experiment, also known as the Minnesota Semi-Starvation Experiment, the Minnesota Starvation-Recovery Experiment and the Starvation Study, was a clinical study performed at the University of Minnesota between November 19, 1 ...
, the study was split into three parts: a control period, a semi-starvation period, and a refeeding period. For three months the subjects were given a normal daily diet depending on the weight. This was followed by six months of a diet, fewer calories than provided by the famine diet experienced by the civilian population in wartime Europe. The results showed an average of 24% loss in body weight, 40% loss in resting metabolism, decreased heart size, decreased blood pressure, 30% decrease in lung capacity, and other serious effects. The research not only documented the men's ability to maintain physical output, but also the psychological effects of the restrictive calorie diet such as introversion, lethargy, irritability and severe depression. The study then followed the men's long recovery as they returned to a normal diet and regained the weight lost during the experimentation. The study provided valuable insights into hunger and starvation and the results were made available to all major relief agencies concerned with postwar food and nutrition problems, helping to inspire the
Marshall Plan The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred over $13 billion (equivalent of about $ in ) in economic re ...
. It became the most widely publicized of any of the experiments on COs and the results continue to be beneficial to the study of famine and anorexia.


=Other experiments

= A number of other experiments were done to help test soldiers' abilities to survive in the extreme conditions the war presented. These tests included exposure to excessively high altitudes, cold, and heat. For example, to test the effects of extreme heat on soldiers, a group of COs at the University of Rochester rode stationary bikes in 123 degree heat on empty stomachs. In a different experiment, CO participants at Indiana University slept in frigid, temperature-controlled rooms wearing soaked clothing. The results of this study were used to gain information for the army on how different types of clothing responded to cold weather. Experiments also helped to decide adequate survival rations, calculate the duration of time men could survive on life rafts, and calculate the amount of time men could survive drinking only ocean water.


Willingness to participate and public sentiment

Although every COs experience was different, overall, even with the harsh experimental conditions, most participants described their work in the Guinea Pig Units positively. At the time the experiments were thought of as “work of national importance” and an overwhelming number of the COs preferred this form of objection to other CPS manual labor tasks. In fact, "the amount of men not selected for these dreadful experiments after volunteering outpaced the numbers actually chosen". Over 40 years after the experiment, CO Peter D. Watson, discussing his experiences in the Guinea Pig Units at the University of Rochester's medical school, said “it was a chance to serve and to do something worthwhile.’’ They took pride in their efforts, as their research directly helped soldiers during WWII and continues to have a lasting effect on the medical field today. Many COs reported that this work served as a form of humanitarian work that aligned with their pacifist and religious beliefs. Although public views toward COs were generally negative, as they were viewed as cowardly, emasculate, and untrustworthy, after 1944 when the government released their participation in experiments, the media covered the COs involved in experimentation in a positive light. The Minnesota Starvation Experiment was featured in Life Magazine in 1945, making it the first of the Guinea Pig Experiments to be widely publicized. After this publication, other newspapers and journals including The ''Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, World-Telegram, Survey Graphic,'' and ''Coronet Magazine'' began discussing these COs positively. This press coverage tended to focus on the sacrifice the COs were making and the risks they were facing, depicting them as far more patriotic and heroic than prior representations.


=Ethical considerations

= Despite the positive medical impact these studies using COs have had, scholars have deemed the experiments unethical by modern standards. In most of the experiments, the participants were subject to unsafe conditions and many left with permanent negative health effects. As a young surgeon,
C. Everett Koop Charles Everett Koop (October 14, 1916 – February 25, 2013) was an American pediatric surgeon and public health administrator. He was a vice admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, and served as the 13th Surgeon Ge ...
, who later became the 13th Surgeon General of the United States, was part of the research team at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He later expressed regret for his involvement in the studies. In an interview for the documentary "The Good War and Those Who Refused to Fight It", Dr. Koop described his experience with CPS test subjects:


War Relief and Seacowboys

In 1945 and 1946, after World War II, ships were converted to
livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals ...
ships, also called "cowboy ships". From 1945 to 1947 the
United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was an international relief agency, largely dominated by the United States but representing 44 nations. Founded in November 1943, it was dissolved in September 1948. it became part o ...
and the Brethren Service Committee of the
Church of the Brethren The Church of the Brethren is an Anabaptist Christian denomination in the Schwarzenau Brethren (german: link=no, Schwarzenauer Neutäufer "Schwarzenau New Baptists") tradition that was organized in 1708 by Alexander Mack in Schwarzenau, Germ ...
sent livestock to war-torn countries. These "
seagoing cowboys Seagoing cowboys is a term used for men and ships used from 1945 to 1947 for United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and the Brethren Service Committee of the Church of the Brethren that sent livestock to war-torn countries ...
" made about 360 trips on 73 different ships. Of the 7,000 seagoing cowboys, 366 were from the Civilian Public Service, these volunteered to be "seagoing cowboys". The ''Heifers for Relief project'' was started by the Church of the Brethren in 1942; in 1953 this became ''Heifer International''. These ships were known as
cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the '' vaquer ...
ships and moved livestock across the Atlantic Ocean. These ships moved horses, heifers, and mules as well as a some chicks, rabbits, and goats.


Closure and impact

Civilian Public Service men were released from their assignments and the camps closed during March 1947, nineteen months after the end of the
war in the Pacific The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...
. Reforms in the mental health system continued after the war. The experience of Mennonite COs was instrumental in creating regional mental health facilities in California, Kansas and Maryland. Lewis Hill, who was in CPS camp number 37 near Coleville, California, together with
Henry Leroy Finch Jr. Henry Leroy Finch, Jr. (August 8, 1921 – August 22, 1997) was an American scholar and professor of philosophy and a pacifist organizer. Early life and education Roy Finch was born in New York City the oldest child of Henry Le Roy Finch and M ...
and several other COs founded Pacifica Network and KPFA Radio in Berkeley, California, the world's first listener-sponsored radio station.Good War (Arts) Poets William Everson and William Stafford were both in CPS camps. Actor Francis (Fritz) William Weaver spent time in the Big Flats (New York) CPS Camp number 46. Men from the historic peace churches volunteered for relief and reconstruction after their release from CPS. The 1947
Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...
was awarded to American and British Friends Service Committees for their relief work in Europe after the war. Mennonite Central Committee redirected its effort from camp administration to relief and reconstruction in Europe after the war. Civilian Public Service created a precedent for the Alternative Service Program for conscientious objectors in the United States during the
Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...
and
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
s.Keim, p. 100. Although the CPS program was not duplicated, the idea of offering men an opportunity to do "work of national importance" instead of military service was established.


See also

* Civilian Bonds * Jewish Peace Fellowship * Swiss Civilian Service *
Zivildienst Zivildienst is the German denomination for the alternative civilian service for conscripted persons who are conscientious objectors to fulfill their national service, typically in the fields of social work (e.g. hospitals, retirement homes, em ...
People *
Delamere Francis McCloskey Delamere Francis McCloskey (April 29, 1897 – December 14, 1983) was a Canadian-born American attorney and politician, who represented the 1st District on the Los Angeles City Council from 1941 to 1945. Biography McCloskey was born April 29, 18 ...
, Los Angeles City Council member, 1941–43, opposed the camps


Notes


References

* *Dyck, John M. (1997). ''Faith Under Test: Alternative Service During World War II in the U.S. and Canada'', Gospel Publishers. *Gingerich, Melvin (1949), ''Service for Peace, A History of Mennonite Civilian Public Service'', Mennonite Central Committee. *Juhnke, James C. (1975), ''A People of Two Kingdoms: the Political Acculturation of the Kansas Mennonites'', Faith and Life Press. *Keim, Albert N. (1990). ''The CPS Story'', Good Books. *Kovac, Jeffrey, Refusing War, Affirming Peace: A History of Civilian Public Service Camp #21 at Cascade Locks, Oregon State University Press, 2009 *Krahn, Cornelius, Gingerich, Melvin & Harms, Orlando (Eds.) (1955). ''The Mennonite Encyclopedia'', Volume I, pp. 604–611. Mennonite Publishing House. *Mock, Melanie Springer (2003). ''Writing Peace: The Unheard Voices of Great War Mennonite Objectors'', Cascadia Publishing House. *Swarthmore College Peace Collection: ** ** ** ** ** ** **


Further reading

*Alexander, Paul (2008) ''Peace to War: Shifting Allegiances in the Assemblies of God'', Telford, PA: Cascadia Publishing, *Cottrell, Robert C. (2006) ''Smokejumpers of the Civilian Public Service in World War II: Conscientious Objectors As Firefighters'', Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, *Kniss, Lloy A. (2002) ''I Couldn't Fight and Other CO Stories 1917—1960'', Ephrata, PA.: Eastern Mennonite Publications *National Service Board for Religious Objectors (1947) ''Directory of Civilian Public Service: May, 1941 to March, 1947'', Washington, D.C., 167 pages,
ASIN Asin Thottumkal (born 26 October 1985), known mononymously as Asin, is a former Indian actress who appeared predominantly in Tamil, Hindi and Telugu films. She is a trained Bharatanatyam dancer. She has received three Filmfare Awards. She ...
: B000KI7H1C. *Schlabach, Mose A. (2003) ''Memories of CPS Camp Days, Volumes I and II'', Sugarcreek, OH: Carlisle Printing *Van Dyck, Harry R. (1990) ''Exercise of Conscience: A World War II Objector Remembers'', Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books. *Wittlinger, Carlton (1978) ''Quest for Piety and Obedience: The Story of the Brethren in Christ'', Nappanee, IN: Evangel Press, *Zahn Gordon C., ''Another Part of the War: The Camp Simon Story'' (University of Massacvhusetts Press, 1979),


External links


Civilian Public Service
in ''Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online (GAMEO)''
They starved so that others be better fed: remembering Ancel Keys and the Minnesota experimentLewis & Clark College: CPS Camp Newsletters Digital CollectionOral history interview with Charles K. Griffith, a conscientious objector during WW II
from the Veterans History Project at Central Connecticut State University
Civilian Public Service
Searchable database of all 12,000 draftees who served in CPS, plus descriptions of the work in more than 150 camps. Includes images, stories and some primary source documents.
Civilian Public Service Smokejumpers Oral History Project
(University of Montana Archives) {{good article . United States home front during World War II Conscientious objection organizations Conscription in the United States Government agencies established in 1941 Government agencies disestablished in 1947 1941 establishments in the United States 1947 disestablishments in the United States Mennonitism in the United States Quakerism in the United States