Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-05-27
Annual bunker Conference
Bv Frederic j. Haskin

| resistance. and absolutely refused to
bear arms on either side during the
Civil war, although they were, with the
Quakers, the original opponents of sla-
very
The south did not understand them
as well as the north and sought to
compel them to fight. Some of them
were arrested, taken to the front, and
the attempt made to force them to be-
come soldiers.
But they replied, uniformly, that they
would prefer to be shot for refusing
arms rather than to bear them. Their
intrepid bravery in facing death rather
than violate a principle won high re-
gard from the southern cavaliers, and
they were sent back home. An effort
was then made to secure their ex-
emption from service. Pending this
some hundred of the Dunkers and
Menhonites started from the very
county in which the annual conference
is now being held to go to, yankee
DOM" as they called it, where they
hoped to be free from liability to con-
scription.
When in the Businesses of the Allie
gheny mountains they were accosted
by single Confederate scout and by
him marched to- Staunton without a
hand being raised in an attempt to es-
NoPC- Illey we're InGnc6 taken 10 R1Ch-
mond and imprisoned in Thunder cas-
tie" Some of the members of the Con-
federate congress argued that they
would not fight because they were on
the wrong side. Their champion re-
piled that he who had lived among
them all his life needed no evidence
that they would not fight, no matter
what the circumstances, but that if
others did need such evidence they had
1t in the fact that a single scout had
turned back enough men to make two
1ull companies without any effort be-
ing made to oppose him. They were
finally exempted from military service
on the payment of a fine of $500 per
man. The well to do paid for them
selves and for their poorer brethren.
1t may not be generally known, but
there are perhaps two hundred thou
sand able-bodied men exempted from
membership in the unorganized militia
of the United States. An ing them
are the Dunkers. When the bill was
pending for the reorganization of the
militia, some six years ago, it pro-
vided that all able-bodied men should
be members of the unorganized militia
AT the instance of Senators Martin and
Beveridge, all members of churches
who profess the principle Of non-re-
s1stance were exempted from military
service. It was feared by some that
this would serve as a cloak for those
who wanted to escape military service.
but the experience Of the Civil war was
that the man who was too much of a
coward to go to the front was too
much of a moral coward to identify
himself with these churches.
The Dunkers had a hard time during
the revolution. The colonists did not
understand them, and they were unpop-
ular because every man was needed in
the effort to establish independence.
Christopher Saur, who printed the first
English Bible on American soil, was one
of their members. His printing office
was ruined and his private fortune
wrecked.
The profession of this doctrine of non
resistance goes further with them than
the refusal to bear arms. They do not
believe in going to law, and If the legal
profession had to live on fees derived
from the Dunkers it would be poor liv-
ing. Their way of settling differences
among themselves is first to confer
privily. If the two cannot adjust their
differences the offended member takes
two witnesses with him, that in the
mouths of two or three the truth may
be established. If satisfaction Is not
obtained the matter is taken to the
church, and if the wrong be not righted
by the offender hearing the church and
needing it he may be communicated
and dealt with as a sinner and a pub
lean" They are slow to go to law,
even with outsiders, and are almost
strangers to court proceedings.
The statement has been made on good
authority that the Dunkers are the
wealthiest people, per capita, in the
United States Perhaps, -sevenths of
them are farmers. Almost without ex-
ception they are expert farmers. They
are a thrifty class, make good, sub
stantial citizens and are highly re-
garded in the communities where they
live.
Plain of dress as are the main body
of Dunkers themselves, they are still
outdone in that direction by a smaller
branch of the church known as the
"old orders" These will not wear but
tons on their clothes, and having
piano in the house is almost unpardon-
able worldliness. They are opposed TO
still sticking to the old-fashioned
spring wagon. The members are for
hidden to take any part in politics
other than to cast their votes, and on
the whole they insist upon simplicity
of life difficult for most people to I'M
derstand.
All Dunkers give the '1xiss of char
ity." However, the men kiss the men
and the women the women, kissing
between sexes being barred When
they pray the prayer is not complete
until it has been followed by the Lords
Prayer. Until some thirty years ago
the Dunkers were opposed to educa-
ton beyond that received in the com
mon schools. They felt that it gave
those who received it a feeling of
pride" feeling that has always been
frowned upon by the church. But the
opposition to education has largely dis
appeared. The church now has num-
Der of schools and colleges of its own,
most of whose teachers are Dunkers.
Copyright 1909, by Frederic j. Haskin)
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