[Gutenberg 18493] • Introduction to Non-Violence

"In the storm we found each other." "In the storm we clung together."

These words are found in the opening paragraphs of " *Hey! Yellowbacks!"

The War Diary of a Conscientious Objector*. Ernest L Meyer uses them to

describe the psychological process by which a handful of men--a few

professors and a lone student--at the University of Wisconsin grew into

unity because they opposed the First World War, when everyone around

them was being carried away in the enthusiasm which marked the first

days of American participation. If there had been no storm, they might

not have discovered their affinity, but as it was, despite the disparity

of their interests and backgrounds, they found themselves in agreement

on the most fundamental of their values, when all the rest chose to go

another way. By standing together they all gained strength for the

ordeals through which each must go, and they were filled with the spirit

of others before them and far removed from them, who had understood life

in the same way.[1]

The incident may be taken as symbolic of the experience through which

pacifists have gone in this Second World War, too. Men and women of many

creeds, of diverse economic backgrounds, of greatly divergent

philosophies, with wide variations in education, have come together in

the desire to sustain one another and aid one another in making their

protest against war. Each in his own way has refused to participate in

the mass destruction of human life which war involves, and by that

refusal has been united by the strongest bonds of sympathy with those of

his fellows who have done likewise. But it is the storm that has brought

unity. When the skies clear, there will be a memory of fellowship

together, but there will also be a realization that in the half light we

have seen only one aspect of each other's being, and that there are

enormous differences between us. Our future hope of achieving the type

of world we want will demand a continuation of our sense of unity,

despite our diversities.