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For most U.S. Mennonites, the center of the U.S. is the tiny (pop. 877) town of Akron, Pa. The home town of greying, spectacled Orie O. Miller, secretary-treasurer of the Mennonite Central Committee, Akron is automatically headquarters of the Committee itself, which traditionally follows its secretary. There, in five white houses, the 50-odd men & women of the Committee staff administer a foreign corps of 260 workers in 16 countries. The foreign corps carries on relief projects and looks after Mennonite conscientious objectors in all parts of the world. Some of the male staff members wear the black or snuff-colored dress of "lay preachers"; some of the women still affect traditional white "prayer caps"; all work for mere subsistence wages.
Last year the Central Committee spent $3,000,000—an average Mennonite contribution of $15. This year's resettlement of D.P.s will cost an estimated $2,500,000. Most Mennonites have come to regard such assessments as one inescapable price of sheeplike living in a wolves' world.
* Mennonites constituted 40% of the conscientious objectors in Civilian Public Service camps during World War II.