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Lack' of publicity to the activities of the Friends is, as we stated above, the cause of alarge partof thaignqfa^eof ethers* in what the church in ques-doing to alleviate -thed^bypairojddfag^fi justly be ^foundlfaull to mention from timeown; organ*several months one lights on The Gazette^ encountered numerous criticisms of the alleged failure of the Friends church as a whole, or the members as individuals, to take any part in this support of the government in the war in- which we are now engaged. Some of these criticisms were offered for the especial benefit of ourself, while others were made by persons unaware that we were a member of the sect* On one or two occasions adjectives relating to the backing of water in a stream by means of. an obstruction placed across the same modified the word '“Quaker,” when discussing war topics. On those occasions our benign countenance remained unchanged, we believe, and the one arraigning* • * ► • w .the sect perhaps was not aware that we had difficulty in restraining ourself. Therefore, with our zeal now loosened,we may overstep'the bounds of pro-* % * m wpriety in reply to some of the criticisms’ made recently.A few days ago the apathy of thesouthern part of the county to organ-4 •ize Home Guard units was attributed to the —— Quakers, it being said that they were always oppose^ to this sort of thing. The critic was perhaps correct to a limited extent. However, we might have attributed^the lethargy of that section to the factthat it hadiJMin.Friends church has always opposed We believe the Friends churchY,. . .■ • . -.••• - - • . \ -„one of the jirst, if not the. first, to declare for world peace. When they did so they received severe criticism from some of the same persons who are now insisting that this shall be thelast war. The Friends church was, ✓ * . -• • • *. *•••*.. ,so, we believe, the first to go ord against the , liquor traffic, church at that time was• . * • . 7 I * . Msome of those who are nowenergies to eliminating the business as a war measure. We believe the Friends would be justified in saying: “We told you so.” Now that all are on the “water wagon”, the Quaker will not complain. He ‘ doesn’t care who gets the honor—it’s the result that counts.We do hot wish to be too harsh in an-some of the criticisms made of the church and its members. A largepart of the statements*^ are made by.• \ » 1 * . • «, * .. # .those ignorant of the true facts. This ignorance is due, to a great extent, be-. •* • . , . i*. *cause the Quakers have not tried to get such^ wide publicity to their acts as some others. It is often said that Friends are exempted from militaryduty. This is not true. They hayfcthat their young men be as-to non-combatant duty. Non-: r s , • r : . * w “ % ■t service does not mean service in which there is no danger; it means service in which one does not have to take the life of a fellow-man. This includes ambulance, Red Cross, Y. M. C. A., and the Friends Recon-struction work. Some of these activities are more dangerous than those bearing arms. Members of faiths have gone into the Red Gross, Y. M G. A., ambulant corps, and Hie like, vrithout being caUed “slackei^i” yet the venom of those who seek to criticise has been aimed at the Qt ak ers. Keep it up; they are used to it.
Newspaper Details
Danville Gazette
Danville, Indiana, US
Thu, Dec 20, 1917
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Greg H.
IN, USA 11 Apr 2020
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