SEVEN "FACTORS" THAT RESULT FROM THE LOSS OF FREEDOM

SEVEN "FACTORS" THAT RESULT FROM THE LOSS OF FREEDOM

(Colorado - Pacifism) De Vault. CPS GI. CIVILIAN PUBLIC SERVICE - GOVERNMENT ISSUE. Published in the interest of pacifism and the common man at CPS 111, Mancos, Colo.

CONSCRIPTION AND PERSONALITY. "This article was written by Don De Vault while in the Marquette County jail awaiting trial for insisting on doing research on penicillin instead of the building of duck ponds to which he had been assigned at Gerfask. The Editors feel the views presented are of such

importance as to merit a complete issue of G.I."

This issue is the scarce newsletter published by the inhabitants of a Civilian Public Service in Mancos, Colorado, during December 1944. A total of 20 issues were published from November 1943 to May 1946. The CPS comprised a string of internment camps established during the war by the Mennonite Church to provide the adherents of their pacifist sect the opportunity to avoid military conscription legitimately and to make peaceful contributions to the war effort, whcih ran the gamut from agriculture and forestry services to dangerous medical experiments.

De Vault discusses seven "factors" that result from the loss of freedom attendant to being conscripted for any task during war time, including a shift of responsibility away from the individual, suppression of initiative, authoritarianism and the regulations of private lives.

DeValt writes, "Perhaps the most unexpected results of loss of freedom are the development of irresponsible, lazy and shiftless characteristics plus, in many cases, actual symptoms of insanity. The great, unthinking, law-abiding majority of people develop servile attitudes and rationalize that the situation is correct. A few people of course rebel. The chief evils producing these symptoms seem to me to be those

attendant upon any system of authoritarianism, bureaucracy and suppression of initiative.... In retrospect I can see that many of the evil effects of conscription are visible elsewhere in our society; in slum dwellers, in W.P.A. workers, in army neuroses cases, and in prison, but into all of these so many factors enter that the causes are obscured in C.P.S. we have pure, unadulterated conscription - conscription for the sake of conscription."

Scarce.... 7 mimeographed pages, Minor toning, minor wear as expected. Held by four institutions, Berkeley, Fresno Pacific, University of Illinois and the

Peace Collection at Swarthmore College.