Acts of Conscience: World War II, Mental Institutions, and Religious Objectors

12. “They Were Fighting Everybody”

272 12 “They Were Fighting Everybody” Harold Barton. Born: 1916. Original denomination: Baptist. Drafted from: Eugene, Oregon. Entered CPS: 3/11/43. Left CPS: 5/27/46. CPS Units: Forest Service, Coleville, CA, AFSC; Mental Hospital, Byberry, AFSC. Leonard Edelstein. Born: 1915. Original denomination: Jewish. Drafted from: Germantown , PA. Entered CPS: 11/15/42. Left CPS: 4/24/46. Units: Forest Service, Gorham, NH, AFSC; Forest Service, Campton, NH, AFSC; Mental Hospital, Byberry, AFSC. Willard Hetzel. Born: 1912. Original denomination: Methodist. Drafted from: Toledo, OH. Entered CPS: 10/15/42. Left CPS: 4/15/46. Units: Soil Conservation Service, Big Flats, NY, AFSC; Mental Hospital, Cleveland, OH, AFSC; Mental Hospital, Byberry, AFSC. Philip Steer. Born: 1919. Original denomination: Methodist. Drafted from: Chester, PA. Entered CPS: 3/10/42. Left CPS: 1/22/46. Units: Soil Conservation Service, Coshocton, OH, AFSC; Mental Hospital, Byberry, AFSC. Four Byberry COs created a national movement to reform state mental hospitals and training schools and forced established organizations, including the National Committee for Mental Hygiene and the American Psychiatric Association, to take actions to address the plight of people languishing at America’s institutions.1 Len Edelstein and Phil Steer were from upstate New York and had received undergraduate degrees from Syracuse University. Edelstein went on to receive a law degree from Harvard University and to work for the FBI for a brief period of time. After the war, he changed his name to Cornell to avoid discrimination against Jewish people. Like Edelstein, Will Hetzel was a lawyer. Hal Barton had been a mining engineer before the CPS. In 1968, Marvin R. Weisbord published Some Form of Peace, a book documenting five stories of the work of the American Friends Service Committee. One chapter told the story of four COs at an AFSC unit at Philadelphia State Hospital who started the Mental Hygiene Program of the Civilian Public Service and then the National Mental Health Foundation. The title of this chapter was “Out of Sight, “They Were Fighting Everybody”   |   273 Out of Mind.” Weisbord’s account was based on interviews with the men involved as well as a detailed narrative written by Hal Barton. To avoid misinterpretations, Weisbord sent a draft of his chapter to at least some of the men for comments and corrections. Interviewed many years later about the COs, Weisbord said, “They were fighting everybody.”2 ◆ ◆ ◆ Like many other COs at state institutions, Edelstein, Barton, Hetzel, and Steer were appalled by conditions at Byberry. Hetzel had come to Byberry from Cleveland State Hospital, where he had given an account of abuses he had observed to Justin Reese for the report provided to the Reverend Dores R. Sharpe and released to state officials and the public. At Byberry, he was working in the powerhouse. Steer had barely lasted a month on the wards before transferring to a clerical job at the institution. Edelstein started a recreational program for patients in his off-duty hours to help ease their boredom. Barton was working in the violent building, B. It was during one of the frequent “bull sessions” in one of the cottages for CPS men that the idea of a mental hygiene program emerged.3 Barton and Edelstein agreed that it was not enough to do their best for patients while they were working at the mental hospital. They wanted to make a lasting change. Barton 36. Founders of the Mental Hygiene Program of the Civilian Public Service and the National Mental Health Foundation (from left): Philip Steer, Leonard Edelstein, Willard Hetzel, and Harold Barton. (Swarthmore College Peace Collection, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania) I , -.,. 274   |   “A Lasting Contribution in the Field” kept a diary of his impressions while at Byberry. On February 2, 1944, he wrote, “We’re not thinking enuf as a group and sharing experiences relative to a plan and method in the future: are we going to stress ‘leadership’ or simple back-wearying toil in service. Don’t they go together? . . . We’re not thinking creatively enough in the realm of contacts with patients and regular attendants.” Edelstein and Barton started to discuss ideas on how they could have an impact on all mental hospitals. An exchange of information among COs at the various institutions might help. Barton, who had been ready to go to the newspapers to expose Byberry, wanted to do something to confront hospital conditions more directly. He and Edelstein came up with the idea of collecting reports...