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| CHAPTER 6 | ||
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| "MISCHIEF FRAMED BY LAW" | ||
| PAGE 84 | ||
External opposition had been mounting for some time Especially the leaders of most of the religious organizations were bitter in their denunciation of our activity. They resented our calling attention to the evidences that pointed to 1914 as the beginning of the end, and especially the awkward position in which it placed them due to their own active participation in world affairs of the time. William Jennings Bryan, as Secretary of State to President Woodrow Wilson, had made a tour of the country urging the United States of America to stay out of World War I, while most of the clergy
| page 85 |
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February 12, 1918, a number of the Society's publications, including the book, The Finished Mystery, were banned in Canada. The public press there recognized and openly mentioned the prominent part the clergy played in this action. The Winnipeg Tribune at that time said: "The banned publications are alleged to contain seditious and antiwar statements. Excerpts from one of the recent issues of the Bible Students Monthly2 were denounced from the pulpit a few weeks ago by Rev. Charles G. Patterson, Pastor of St. Suephen's Church. Afterward Attorney General Johnson sent to Rev. Patterson for a copy of the publication. The censor's order is believed to be the direct result."
The day following this order in Canada prohibiting circulation of The Finished Mystery, United States Government agents of the department of secret service seized the books of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society at 17 Hicks Street, Brooklyn. Nothing detrimental was found. Then, February 24, 1918, Rutherford delivered for the first time a lecture that has since become world famous. The startling subject was "The World Has Ended--Millions Now Living May Never Die." This was delivered at Clune's Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. In developing his evidences that the world really did end in 1914, Rutherford pointed, among other things, to the world war then raging, as part of the "sign," foretold by Jesus. He then fixed much of the responsibility for these conditions on the world's religious leaders. He admitted there were good clergymen as well as bad, just as there are good and bad lawyers, but he pointed out:
As a class, according to the Scriptures, the clergymen are the most reprehensible men on earth for the great war that is now afflicting mankind. For 1500 years they have taught the people the satanic doctrine of the divine right of kings to rule. They have mixed politics and religion, church and
| page 86 |
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state; have proved disloyal to their God-given privilege of proclaiming the message of Messiah's kingdom, and have given themselves over to encouraging the rulers to believe that the king reigns by divine right, and therefore whatsoever he does is right. So thoroughly has this been impressed upon men that the great law writer, Black stone, incorporated in his commentaries: "The king can do no wrong."
The following day (February 25, 1918) a full-page report of the lecture was printed in the Los Angeles Morning Tribune. Prominent clergymen were so angered by this report that the ministerial association held a meeting that same day and sent its president to the manager of the paper, demanding an explanation as to why they had published so much about the lecture. It was only three days later that the United States Army Intelligence Bureau at Los Angeles took possession of our Los Angeles headquarters, confiscating many of the Society's publications. Now began a period of constant harassment by members of the Intelligence Bureau in an effort to dig up something that could be used in evidence against us on a charge of violating the Espionage Law.
| A CONSPIRACY COMES TO LIGHT |
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| page 87 |
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Great pressure was put on him to do more. A number of young men of draft age associated with the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society had been sent as conscientious objectors to Camp Upton, Long Island, New York. This army camp was under the direction of General James Franklin Bell.
Bell made a personal visit to the office of J. F. Rutherford and tried to persuade him to write a letter instructing these young men to take whatever service he might assign them, even if it were across the sea. Rutherford refused, pointing out it was a matter for everyone to decide for himself. His reply angered General Bell.3
Later Rutherford, accompanied by Van Amburgh, visited General Bell at Camp Upton. There General Bell, in the presence of his aide and the two officers of the Watch Tower Society, made a startling admission, as Rutherford reported years later 4 in a published statement. Bell told about a conference of a large number of clergymen in Philadelphia in 1917. These men had appointed a committee to visit Washington, D. C., to insist on a revision of the Selective Draft Act and the Espionage Law. They selected John Lord O'Brien of the Department of Justice to introduce a bill to have all cases against the Espionage Law tried before a military court with the death penalty imposed as punishment. Bell stated with considerable feeling: "That bill did not pass, because Wilson prevented it; but we know how to get you, and we are going to do it!"
| ACCUSED OF OPPOSING THE DRAFT |
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| page 88 |
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The Espionage Act has proved a fairly effective weapon against propaganda, and if amended as requested by the department by making attempts to obstruct enlistment impossible, there is every reason to believe that it will be thoroughly effective. Its effectiveness for the purpose of killing propaganda, however, has come from the principle that motives prompting propaganda are irrelevant.... For example, the most dangerous type of propaganda used in this country IS religious pacifism: i.e., opposition to the war on the ground that it is opposed to the Word of God. This is a type of propaganda which was extensively used in weakening the Italian armies. The statements used in it generally consist of quotations from the Bible and various interpretations thereof. Convictions against this type of propaganda are only possible where the motive is irrelevant and our juries can be made to infer the intent from the natural effect of a propaganda.
On May 4 another letter from O'Brien was read into the Record to buttress the Justice Department's position, and in
| page 89 |
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One of the most dangerous examples of this sort of propaganda is the book called The Finished Mystery, a work written in extremely religious language and distributed in enormous numbers. The only effect of it is to lead the soldiers to discredit our cause and to inspire a feeling at home of resistance to the draft. The Kingdom News,8 8 of Brooklyn, prints a petition demanding that restrictions on The Finished Mystery and similar works should be removed, "so that people may be permitted, without interference or molestation, to buy, sell, have, and read this aid to Bible study." The passage of this amendment would reopen our camps to this poisonous influence.The International Bible Students' Association 9 pretends to the most religious motives, yet we have found that its headquarters have long been reported as the resort of German agents.
As a result of this intense campaign of the Department of Justice, on May 4, 1918 the Senate approved the Conferees' Report, and the amended Espionage Act was approved, without the France Amendment, May 16, 1918. Ten days earlier (May 7) the Department of Justice had obtained warrants from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York authorizing the arrest of the Watch Tower
| page 90 |
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The next day, May 8, the Department's agents pounced upon us, arresting those of us who were at Bethel. Eventually all eight of us were taken into custody.
Bail was set at $2,500 each, and we were released until the day set for trial, June 3, 1918, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
That was a painful experience for us and brings to mind the Scripture at Psalm 94:20, 21 (Revised Standard Version), "Can wicked rulers be allied with thee, who frame mischief by statute? They band together against the life of the righteous, and condemn the innocent to death."
Temporarily free on bond, we continued our work comforted with the thought expressed in Verse Twenty-two of this Psalm: "But the Lord has become my stronghold, and my God the rock of my refuge."
Book Cover