2fí0 / One Faith-Many Works

Service, and National Park Service. Later many were transferred to mental hospitals and training schools and public health centers. Of the nearly 12,000 men drafted in the United States into alternate service, 4,665, or 38 percent, were Mennonites." Of this number, 483 came from the Ohio and Eastern Mennonite Conference churches. In all there were 732 young men from the conference who were drafted and of these, 187 accepted regular military service, while 62 received the I-A-O status or that of noncombatant military service. The percentage of men taking the traditional nonresistant stand of the Mennonite Church in the Ohio and Eastern Conference was 65.9 while the percentage for the Mennonite Church as a whole during World War II was 59.5.12

The expenses involved in the administration of Civilian Public Service (the official name for alternate service) were borne by the historic peace churches, the Society of Friends, the Church of the Brethren, and the Mennonites, as well as certain of the leading Protestant denominations. As stated above, the young men who were drafted worked without pay. Where families were involved, their support fell to local congregations or the entire brotherhood of congregations. The leaders of the Ohio and Eastern Mennonite Conference were notably alert and active during the months and years of World War II. They sought humbly and sincerely to guide their congregations into ways of witness and service that were consistent with the gospel of peace as they understood it.12 P. L. Frey of Fulton County, a conscientious objector in World War I, had administrative roles in the Civilian Public Service program and traveled widely during the war years. O. N. Johns of Stark County, a bishop, rendered important service as a counselor to young men and as a confidant to the state office of the Selective Service System. He represented large numbers of Mennonites to the government and in turn explained the government's role to draftees. On October 7, 1959, he was given a certificate of appreciation by the state director, Mr. Harold L. Hays, commending him for his actions which "have been conducted in a spirit of complete fairness to the individual registrants, to the Government, and to the other agencies or persons concerned."

The drafting of hundreds of young men from rural and small town communities, and their service in forests, mountains, hospitals, and health centers, was the beginning of new outlook and vision. The impress of this experience on the Ohio and Eastern churches