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would be hard to measure and difficult to overstate.'' At the end of World War II scores of young men and young women entered foreign relief and reconstruction service under the Mennonite Central Committee. They served in Europe, the Middle East, India, and wherever the Mennonite Church's program of world service had openings."

Since not all men of draft age elected alternative service, the conference expressed concern about "those who erred" by entering the armed forces. In May of 1944 the conference passed a resolution which noted, with regret, "the failure on the part of some of our young men to be true," and "numbers of our people continue to be employed in defense and other questionable industries and to purchase war bonds in lieu of civilian bonds. ." The resolution then called for a program of teaching and counseling by the ministry of each local congregation to "establish" and "recover" the historic nonresistant faith and life of the church.

Much speculation has gone on as to why the lot of pacifist or nonresistant churches and individuals differed so markedly in World War II from that of World War I. Was it because of the general disillusionment that followed the Armistice of November 1918, a disillusionment that seemed to foster a peace movement, especially among the clergy? Was it because the drafted conscientious objectors were inducted into alternate service and so relieved the government (and the public) of much futile and unpleasant handling of nonconformists'? Was there a difference in the social and intellectual climate of the nation so that civil liberties were regarded differently in World War II than in World War I? There seems to be no easy answer or explanation. Dr. Ray H. Abrams, a foremost authority on the domestic scene in the country during the two wars, notes the following in regard to the differences between World War I and World War II:

When compared with 1917-18, the population in World War II took the conflict and the horrors of war more in its stride. Twenty-four years before, there had been a great deal of hysteria. This time, while there was plenty of denunciation of the "Japs" and of Hitler et al., far less real excitement prevailed. One heard and saw less of the wild-eyed patriot. The clergy in their utterances reflected the same differences.... The conscientious objectors were more highly regarded than in World War I, when they were damned or spurned by the clergy ìn general. No one knows how many preachers were pacifists, but they undoubtedly numbered several