Clash by Night

A large part of postwar pacifist activity will be carried on by men who are now in jail, on parole, or in the Civilian Public Service System. For these men a prewar intellectual conviction or a religious derivation has become an article of faith, labeled and tested. They have had to live day by day in functional reference to their belief. External circumstances have forced them to explore byways of their belief that would normally have gone unexplored. Those whom society calls Conscientious Objectors have proved--if nothing else--that they are stubborn. And those who are stubborn in formative youth usually continue to be stubborn about their beliefs in later years. Hence the peace movement can rely on many of the men now labeled "C.O.'s" to carry their activated beliefs on into the postwar era.

Those who are interested in the future of the pacifist idea in America may well question what is happening to these C.O.'s. Where are they going? How are they getting there? Are they sidetracked or in danger of being sidetracked?