"Our Deeds Carry Our Message": The Early History of the American Friends Service Committee

Abstract

'Our Deeds Carry Our Message": The Early History of the American Friends Service Committee J. William Frost* When I first announced that my next topic for research was the American Friends Service Committee, one of my Swarthmore College colleagues exclaimed, "That will be comparable to working on apple pie, or motherhood. Who could criticize the Service Committee?" Well, now we know that apple pies are full of saturated fats and cholesterol, and motherhood should not be every woman's destiny. Even the flag is controversial. So maybe, granting the rethinking of comfortable assumptions, this is the time for a re-examination of the Service Committee as its 75th anniversary approaches. My colleague was also wrong, because the Committee has never been without its critics. Now it is difficult to take seriously those who in the past have accused the Committee of being naive about war, tolerant of communists, and guilty of knee-jerk responses to poverty, hunger, and militarism. It has been ridiculed as being pro-German, pro-miner, pro-Russian, pro-Jew, pro-Indian, pro-Palestinian, pro-Afro-American. All in all, a list to be proud of! More thought-provoking are recent Friendly critics who say the organization's willingness to sympathize with the oppressed in wars of liberation, the increasing professionalization of the staff, the small percentage of Quakers involved in the tasks and inner workings of the organization, and the decline of explicit religious commitment show that the AFSC has lost its bearings and betrayed the heritage of its founders. Whatever the validity of this perspective today, the preliminary requisite is knowledge of the original purposes of the AFSC, for the alleged shortcomings enunciated by insiders and outsiders might be endemic in the organization—even be virtues. What the critics may be wanting is a new AFSC, created in their image. This paper is about the original AFSC, created in the image of early 20th century Quakers to solve problems they faced. One function of history—including that of religious groups and charitable organizations doing works that all agree are good—is to provide perspective on the present, show how the present grows out of the past without duplicating it, and, in other words, contrast today with the past. For if history or at least historians are to be our guides, then it behooves us to have accurate history. And accurate history could be helpful to those who are involved with the present-day AFSC, because the founders' vision today may make understandable the pre- 2 Quaker History sent activities, thereby satisfying critics and providing opportunities for additional services to Friends as well as to the wider community. At times of commemoration and celebration of anniversaries, the temptation is to allow goodwill and nostalgia to overcome analysis. This is particularly true in America where the celebration of independence meant a parade of ships and fireworks and the party for the Statue of Liberty dwarfed that of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. The legal reality behind the creation and continuation of the AFSC was the First Amendment. So if Friends are interested in the AFSC because in some sense it is "ours" and we made it work, even though most ofthe financial support came from outsiders, all Americans should celebrate the survival of the AFSC because its success expanded the definition of freedom. The task of this article is to present the policies of the founders which shaped the institution: to describe how and why the AFSC evolved. The initial focus is on the actions and beliefs in 1917 of the government , the military, the Society of Friends, the peace movement and the general public—audiences the AFSC needed to persuade of the usefulness of providing conscientious objectors (COs) an opportunity for relief work in France. Changes in American society and in the Quaker community and British Friends' work from 1914 to 1917 created conditions conducive to founding the AFSC. The next sections contain an account of the early policies showing how wartime conditions required adjustments, description ofthe COs, and analysis ofthe problems and accomplishments of the volunteers in France. At home the AFSC created an organizational structure, raised money, and involved the Quaker community in...