Plowing My Own Furrow

Plowing My Own Furrow, Howard W. Moore, Syracuse University Press, 1993

This is the autobiography of a man who grew up on a hops farm in early 20th century central New York. Coming from a close-knit family, Moore left home as a teenager to "take on" Manhattan. At age 14, he got a job with the New York Telephone Company as a night switchboard operator at one of the big hotels. The job allowed Moore plenty of time to read, and Moore took advantage of it, devouring Karl Marx, Thorstein Veblen, Edward Bellamy and Eugene Debs, among others. Moore had little formal education, but he made up for it on his own.

Then came World War I, and while the rest of America seemed to be itching to enlist in the military, Moore came to a very different conclusion. He would not fight, nor would he take part in any military activity. The reason was not exactly repugnance at the thought of killing another human being stuck in the same trap as him. It had more to do with a deep conviction that war was futile and its use as an instrument of national policy was confessing to moral bankruptcy.

For his beliefs, Moore and a group of other conscientious objectors (CO's) were court-martialed, sentenced to long prison terms and moved from prison to prison. For a time, they were shackled to the doors of their cells, infested with rats and bedbugs, and forced to stand in one spot, for 8 hours a day. Some of the prison and military personnel tried to be decent and reasonable to the CO's, while others seemed to delight in mistreating, and severely beating, them at every opportunity. Some of the CO's accepted freedom in exchange for "alternate service," but not Moore. He insisted on unconditional release, which did not happen until 1920, 2 years after the war ended.  His relationship with his family had permanently changed for the worse, so Moore went back to New York City, rising to senior level with the WPA.

This is a gem of a book. It is very easy to read, and shows that people objected to war on moral grounds long before Vietnam. For a look at an unknown part of American history, this is very much recommended.