Courage of a conscientious objector VICTOR M. PARACHIN
‘I will not kill’
As those fallen in war are remembered tomorrow, little thought will be spared for those who in all conscience could not fight. Such a man was Ben Salmon, who rejected even the Church’s theory of a just war by following the Beatitudes
O
n 5 June 1917, a young man, Ben Salmon, wrote to President Woodrow Wilson after registering with his local draft board. Even
though he complied with the newly created Selective Service Act, Salmon wrote to Woodrow: “Complying with your edict, I regis - tered today. Your mandate was autocratic, and contrary to the Constitution. I refuse to submit to conscription. Regardless of nation- ality, all men are my brothers. God is ‘our Father who art in heaven’. The command- ment, ‘Thou shalt not kill’, is unconditional and inexorable … Both by precept and example, the lowly Nazarene taught us the doctrine of non-resistance, and so convinced was he of the soundness of that doctrine that he sealed His belief with death on the Cross.” For his convictions, Salmon was arrested, given a military court martial and sentenced to death. This was commuted to 25 years of hard labour in prison. Ben Salmon was a pacifist who refused to accept alternative or non-combatant service in the armed forces. Though there were a handful of others who refused military service in the United States – mainly from historic pacifist Churches such as Mennonite, Quaker, and Seventh Day Adventist – Salmon stood out because he based his pacifism on his Roman Catholic faith.
Salmon was born in 1899 to a working- class Catholic family in Denver, Colorado, where he attended Catholic schools. A series of labour struggles across the United States during his childhood made him sensitive to social justice issues. Then, in his twenties, he became a union activist, picketing and protesting for better working conditions. He helped organise a Railway Clerks’ Union in Denver, for which he was sacked from his job on the Colorado and Southern Railroad. In 1916, he campaigned strongly for
Woodrow Wilson to be re-elected as US President because he was the “non- intervention” candidate opposing American entry into what was perceived as the European war. Wilson’s slogan was “He kept us out of the war”. Many Americans were stunned when Wilson later declared that the US needed to enter the war “to make the world safe for democracy”. On 2 April 1917, Wilson asked
and received from Congress a declaration of war on Germany and conscription was intro- duced from May 1917. Between then and the end of the war 18 months later, more than 24 million American men registered. America’s entry into the war created a crisis of conscience for Salmon. He had absorbed a deep Catholic faith and the values the Church taught him – kindness, compassion, love for God and neighbour. In his letter to President Wilson, Salmon wrote: “When human law conflicts with divine law, my duty is clear. Conscience, my infallible guide, impels me to tell you that prison, death, or both, are infinitely preferable to joining any branch of the army, and contributing, either directly or indirectly, to the death of my fellow working men.” This could not have been an easy decision
to make. He was 28 and newly wedded to Elizabeth Smith, a local Denver woman from a prominent family. Salmon’s 5 June letter launched a bitter struggle between a solitary young Catholic man and the Government of the United States. Although Salmon applied for conscientious objector status, something the US Government made provision for among historic pacifist Churches, Catholics were not included because the Church taught and adhered to a “just war” theology. Although Salmon knew that laws about
draft resistance were severe and harsh, he, nevertheless, wrote to his local draft board clearly stating his position. The response was swift. On 5 January 1918, he was arrested and released on a $2,500 bond. Adjusted for inflation, that would have been nearly a $50,000 (£31,000) bond today. Another man out on bail gave would prob- ably have reconsidered his position. But Salmon was clear in his conviction and the following day he published an article in a small weekly paper, which he distributed to family, friends and parishioners at St Catherine of Siena Church in Denver. Entitled “Killing the Wrong Men”, the article stressed the commandment, “Thou shalt not kill”, applying it even to war.
“But, if killing has to be insisted upon, those responsible for wars – kings, presidents, kaisers, etc. – should be made to fight each other and not drag millions of innocent youths into a game where they would be
compelled to slaughter each other,” he wrote. Salmon had become Denver’s most vocal opponent of the war but his position was not shared by the vast majority. His own beloved Knights of Columbus, upon reading his 5 January letter, voted to expel him. Although hurt by the action of fellow Catholics, Salmon continued to stress the importance of the Catholic Church in his life. He wrote: “It must be understood that the action of the Knights of Columbus did not in any way affect my affiliation with the Catholic Church, except of course that it prejudiced many Catholics against me.” After his later trial, Salmon was found
guilty and was sentenced to nine months in the Denver County Jail. He appealed his case and was again released on $2,500 bond. But his position was then made precarious in April 1918 by an order issued by War Secretary Newton D. Baker directing action to be taken against all conscientious objectors “whose attitude … is sullen and defiant”, “whose sin- cerity is [in] question”, or “who are engaged in propaganda”, and that they should be sub- ject to court martial. A month later, when Salmon received a notice to be drafted into the army, he refused to report for duty and was promptly arrested. After a time in solitary confinement, he also refused to do any work, even that of a non- combatant, towards the war effort. Writers at The Denver Post, in an article dated 21 May 1918, went after Salmon with a vengeance, describing him as “the slacker, pacifist, the man with a yellow streak down his spine as broad as a country highway … who loved the German flag more than the Stars and Stripes”. They included descriptions of Salmon as “pro-German” and “anti- American”, adding that he was “the man who laughs when brave Americans are dying on the battlefields of France”. A military court found Salmon guilty of
desertion and propaganda. Its initial death sentence was subsequently commuted to 25 years’ imprisonment; Salmon was incarcer- ated in the maximum-security prison at Leavenworth, Kansas, and other federal pen- itentiaries spending weeks at a time in solitary confinement. At one time, he spent six months in “the hole” – a medieval type of dungeon located directly over the prison
13 November 2010 | THE TABLET | 9
The Servant of God Benjamin Salmon ©William Hart McNichols
www.fatherbill.org
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