Page:Mennonite Handbook of Information 1925.djvu/99

 diery which bespoke the awful verdict that war is relentless and cruel wherever its effects are felt, and that the path of strife and bloodshed ever leads to destruction and death.

Unlike the wars of 1812 and with Mexico, instead of Mennonites becoming rich and independent because of great profits made in the sale of food products, they, as a people, in the portions of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia were thrown backward financially no less than fifty years on account of the devastating consequences of the Civil War.

A conflict of arms broke out early in the year 1908 between the United States and Spain and was concluded with the magnanimous terms of peace in which a conquering country paid the conquered country the sum of $20,000,000 as one of the terms of the treaty. '

President McKinley called for 125,000 volunteers. This quota of men was supplied without the enrollment of one known Mennonite, though numbers having Mennonite parentage are known to have enlisted, and some who lost their lives, were of Mennonite blood.

A war where only volunteers enlist affords an excellent opportunity for people of nonresistant faith to show where their place is in time of war. It is only when the draft laws are enforced that it often happens that the real position'. of Mennonites is not understood by the authorites_in charge of the war machine, and that bonds, fines, and imprisonments become their lot.