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4 unusual facts about Ben Salmon


Ben Salmon

When President Woodrow Wilson ordered a draft, Salmon was one of a number of Americans to refuse to cooperate.

The fledgling American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) eventually took up his case, and the tide of post-war public opinion favored the release of conscientious objectors.

For example, Cardinal John Farley of New York remarked in 1918 that “criticism of the government irritates me. I consider it little short of treason...

In this he suffered opposition from his church, whose de facto head in America, Archbishop of Baltimore had directed that all Catholics were to support the war.



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