were right or wrong, they were
utterly sincere. Even military prejudice has to concede that, and the
sufferings they have unflinchingly borne prove it many times over, but
the point for the country to get just now is that right or wrong, they
cannot now have any adverse effect upon the military policy of the
Government to keep them in prison.' Here is the dangerous thing--'We
are trying to educate public opinion, and particularly labor opinion,
to the point where it will demand the release of these brave and
sincere young men. We say "labor," because we know when labor really
demands a thing, it gets done.' There is the dangerous thing,
gentlemen, the direct connecting up of the I.W.W., the so-called
international socialists and anarchists who were tried, convicted, and
later pardoned by our War Department,--the direct connecting up
between that element and those like the fellow who was sentenced to
prison and who is sending out this letter, and this great and
dangerous Bolshevism that is creeping into this country and is, I am
afraid, more dangerous than many of us realize. I want to see this
caucus go on record--don't be afraid--as strong as you can against
this fellow. The officers who served on those courts know what we had
to endure. We had to treat them respectfully; we were obliged to do
that. Let me tell you a few things, if you don't know them, about what
happened in the guardhouse among those men. They would not do a thing;
they wouldn't make their own beds. They wouldn't flush the toilets in
the guardhouse, and some red-blooded American soldiers had to go and
pull the chain for them. I say you can't send out a message to these
people too strong in condemnation of this type and of the action of
the War Department or whoever is responsible for the solace and the
protection that has been thrown around the man who hid under the cloak
of an act of Congress that was designed to take care of the
conscientious objectors, and there is no conscientious objector under
that act except a man whose religious creed forbade him to take part
in the war in any way. I thank you." (Applause.)

THE CHAIRMAN: "Gentlemen, the question has been called. All those in
favor of the motion as amended will vote 'aye.'"

The motion was unanimously carried.

The general comment at the time was that Major Foster's address summed
up the opinion of the caucus on the War Department's action in regard
to the objector, conscientious or otherw