154 The lack of definitive measures of governing those who refused to participate in World War I resulted in cruel treatment, and in some cases, the death of COs. Some of the difficulties during that period have been attributed to the narrowness of the law, the slowness and indecisiveness of the War Department in providing for noncombatant military service, and the lateness of provisions for alternative service (1). But by 1940, as the United States moved away from neutrality and reinstated the draft, the government saw a need to rectify the inadequacies confronted during the First World War and implemented an act which specifically provided for two types of COs: (1) those willing to render noncombatant military service, and (2) those unwilling to render any kind of military service. Section 5 (g) of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, contained the following provisions: Nothing contained in this Act shall be construed to require any person to be subject to combatant training and service in the land or naval forces of the United States who, by reason of religious training or belief, is conscientiously opposed to participation in war in any form. Any such person claiming such exemption from combatant training and service because of such conscientious objections whose claim is sustained by the local board shall, if he is inducted into the land or naval forces under this Act, be assigned to noncombatant service . . . or shall, if he is found to be conscientiously opposed to such participation in such noncombatant service, in lieu of such induction, be assigned to work of national importance under civilian direction (2). Under the Selective Training and Service Act, two distinct classifications for COs were recognized. Of the two, the first Class 1-A-O, meant that the applicant was willing to render service in the military, but objected to service which required use of arms. Men who obtained this classification were usually assigned to a medical unit. ___________________________ 1. Mulford Q. Sibley and Philip E. Jacob, Conscription of Conscience: The American State and the Conscientious Objector, 1940-1947 (Ithaca, N. Y., 1952), 15. 2. 54 U. S. Stat. at L. (1940), 885 at 889.           Contents  Words  Study Questions  Related Sites Next Page