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Fredrik H Robison
Jailed as Member of I.B.S.A.
Members of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society convicted and jailed under the Espionage Act in 1918: William E. Van Amburgh (Sec.-Treas.), Joseph F. Rutherford (President), A. Hugh Macmillan (Director), Robert J. Martin (office manager), Fredrik H. Robison (Editorial Committee Member), Clayton J. Woodworth (author), George H. Fisher (author), Giovanni DeCecca (worker in Italian Dept.).
It was in July 1917, after Russell's death, that the Watch Tower Society released the book The Finished Mystery, a commentary on Revelation and Ezekiel as well as The Song of Solomon. That book roundly exposed the hypocrisy of Christendom's clergy! It was given extensive distribution in a relatively short time. Late in December 1917 and early in 1918, the Bible Students in the United States and Canada also undertook the distribution of 10,000,000 copies of a fiery message in the tract The Bible Students Monthly. This four-page tabloid-sized tract was entitled "The Fall of Babylon," and it bore the subtitle "Why Christendom Must Now Suffer--The Final Outcome." It identified Catholic and Protestant religious organizations together as modern-day Babylon, which soon must fall. In support of what was said, it reproduced from The Finished Mystery commentary on prophecies expressing divine judgment against "Mystic Babylon." On the back page was a graphic cartoon that showed a wall crumbling. Massive stones from the wall bore such labels as "Doctrine of the Trinity ( '3 X 1 = 1' )," "Immortality of the Soul," "Eternal Torment Theory," "Protestantism creeds, clergy, etc.," "Romanism--popes, cardinals, etc., etc."--and all of them were falling.
The clergy were furious at such exposure, just as the Jewish clergy had been when Jesus exposed their hypocrisy. (Matt. 23:1-39; 26:3, 4 )In Canada the clergy reacted quickly. In January 1918, upwards of 600 Canadian clergymen signed a petition calling on the government to suppress the publications of the International Bible Students Association. As reported in the Winnipeg Evening Tribune, after Charles G. Paterson, pastor of St. Stephen's Church in Winnipeg, denounced from his pulpit The Bible Students Monthly, which contained the article "The Fall of Babylon," Attorney General Johnson got in touch with him to obtain a copy. Shortly thereafter, on February 12, 1918, a Canadian government decree made it a crime punishable by fine and imprisonment to have in one's possession either the book The Finishd Mystery or the tract shown above.
That same month, on February 24, Brother Rutherford, the newly elected president of the Watch Tower Society, spoke in the United States at Temple Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. His subject was a startling one: "The World Has Ended--Millions Now Living May Never Die." In setting forth evidence that the world as known till that time really had ended in 1914, he pointed to the war then in progress, along with accompanying famine, and identified it as part of the sign foretold by Jesus. (Matt. 24:3-8 ) Then he focused attention on the clergy, saying:
"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 1,500 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 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." Showing the result of this, he said: "Ambitious kings of Europe armed for war, because they desired to grab the territory of the other peoples; and the clergy patted them on the back and said: 'Go to it, you can do no wrong; whatsoever you do is all right.'" But it was not only the European clergy that were doing it, and the preachers in America knew it.
An extensive report of this lecture was published the next day in the Los Angeles Morning Tribune. The clergy were so angered that the ministerial association held a meeting that very day and sent their president to the managers of the newspaper to make known their intense displeasure. Following this, there was a period of constant harassment of the offices of the Watch Tower Society by members of the government's intelligence bureau.
During this period of nationalistic fervor, a conference of clergymen was held in Philadelphia, in the United States, at which a resolution was adopted calling for revision of the Espionage Act so that alleged violators could be tried by court-martial and subjected to the death penalty. John Lord O'Brian, special assistant to the attorney general for war work, was selected to present the matter to the Senate. The president of the United States did not permit that bill to become law. But Major-General James Franklin Bell, of the U.S. Army, in the heat of anger divulged to J. F. Rutherford and W. E. Van Amburgh what had occurred at the conference and the intent to use that bill against the officers of the Watch Tower Society.
Official U.S. government files show that at least from February 21, 1918, onward, John Lord O'Brian was personally involved in efforts to build a case against the Bible Students. The Congressional Record of April 24 and May 4 contains memos from John Lord O'Brian in which he argued strongly that if the law allowed for utterance of "what is true, with good motives, and for justifiable ends," as stated in the so-called France Amendment to the Espionage Act and as had been endorsed by the U.S. Senate, he could not successfully prosecute the Bible Students.
In Worcester, Massachusetts, "Rev." B. F. Wyland further exploited the war fever by asserting that the Bible Students were carrying on propaganda for the enemy. He published an article in the Daily Telegram in which he declared: "One of your patriotic duties that confronts you as citizens is the suppression of the International Bible Students Association, with headquarters in Brooklyn. They have, under the guise of religion, been carrying on German propaganda in Worcester by selling their book, 'The Finished Mystery.'" He bluntly told the authorities it was their duty to arrest the Bible Students and prevent them from holding further meetings.
The spring and summer of 1918 witnessed widespread persecution of the Bible Students, both in North America and in Europe. Among the instigators were clergymen of Baptist, Methodist, Episcopal, Lutheran, Roman Catholic, and other churches. Bible literature was seized by officers without a search warrant, and many of the Bible Students were thrown into jail. Others were chased by mobs, beaten, whipped, tarred and feathered, or had their ribs broken or their heads cut. Some were permanently maimed. Christian men and women were held in jail without charge or without trial. Over one hundred specific instances of such outrageous treatment were reported in The Golden Age of September 29, 1920.
Charged With Espionage
The crowning blow came on May 7, 1918, when federal warrants were issued in the United States for the arrest of J. F. Rutherford, the president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, and his closest associates.
The previous day, in Brooklyn, New York, two indictments had been filed against Brother Rutherford and his associates. If the desired results did not come from one case, the other indictment could have been pursued. The first indictment, which laid charges against the greater number of individuals, included four counts: Two charged them with conspiring to violate the Espionage Act of June 15, 1917; and two counts charged them with attempting to carry out their illegal plans or actually doing so. It was alleged that they were conspiring to cause insubordination and refusal of duty in the armed forces of the United States and that they were conspiring to obstruct the recruiting and enlisting of men for such service when the nation was at war, also that they had attempted to do or had actually done both of these things. The indictment made particular mention of publication and distribution of the book The Finished Mystery. The second indictment construed the sending of a check to Europe (which was to be used in the work of Bible education in Germany ) to be inimical to the interests of the United States. When the defendants were taken to court, it was the first indictment, the one with four counts, that was pursued.
Yet another indictment of C. J. Woodworth and J. F. Rutherford under the Espionage Act was at that time pending in Scranton, Pennsylvania. But, according to a letter from John Lord O'Brian dated May 20, 1918, members of the Department of Justice feared that U.S. District Judge Witmer, before whom the case would be tried, would not agree with their use of the Espionage Act to suppress the activity of men who, because of sincere religious convictions, said things that others might construe as antiwar propaganda. So the Justice Department held the Scranton case in abeyance, pending the outcome of the one in Brooklyn. The government also managed the situation so that Judge Harland B. Howe, from Vermont, whom John Lord O'Brian knew agreed with his viewpoint on such matters, would sit as judge in the case in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The case went to trial on June 5, with Isaac R. Oeland and Charles J. Buchner, a Roman Catholic, as prosecutors. During the trial, as Brother Rutherford observed, Catholic priests frequently conferred with Buchner and Oeland.
As the case proceeded, it was shown that the officers of the Society and the compilers of the book had no intent to interfere with the country's war effort. Evidence presented during the trial showed that plans for the writing of the book indeed, the writing of most of the manuscript--had occurred before the United States declared war (on April 6, 1917 ) and that the original contract for publication had been signed before the United States had passed the law (on June 15 ) that they were said to have violated.
The prosecution highlighted additions to the book made during April and June of 1917, in the course of processing the copy and reading the proofs. These included a quotation from John Haynes Holmes, a clergyman who had forcefully declared that the war was a violation of Christianity. As indicated by one of the defense attorneys, that clergyman's comments, published under the title A Statement to My People on the Eve of War, was still on sale in the United States at the time of the trial. Neither the clergyman nor the publisher was on trial for it. But it was the Bible Students who referred to his sermon who were held liable for the sentiments expressed in it.
The book did not tell men of the world that they had no right to engage in war. But, in explanation of prophecy, it did quote excerpts from issues of The Watch Tower of 1915 to show the inconsistency of clergymen who professed to be ministers of Christ but who were acting as recruiting agents for nations at war.
When it had been learned that the government objected to the book, Brother Rutherford had immediately sent a telegram to the printer to stop producing it, and at the same time, a representative of the Society had been dispatched to the intelligence section of the U.S. Army to find out what their objection was. When it was learned that because of the war then in progress, pages 247-53 of the book were viewed as objectionable, the Society directed that those pages be cut out of all copies of the book before they were offered to the public· And when the government notified district attorneys that further distribution would be a violation of the Espionage Act (although the government declined to express an opinion to the Society on the book in its altered form), the Society directed that all public distribution of the book be suspended.
Why Such Severe Punishment?
Regardless of all of this, on June 20, 1918, the jury returned a verdict finding each of the defendants guilty on each count of the indictment. The next day, seven1 of them were sentenced to four terms of 20 years each, to be served concurrently. On July 10, the eighth2 was sentenced to four concurrent terms of 10 years. How severe were those sentences? In a note to the attorney general on March 12, 1919, U.S. president Woodrow Wilson acknowledged that "the terms of imprisonment are clearly excessive." In fact, the man who fired the shots at Sarajevo that killed the crown prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire--which incident triggered the events that plunged the nations into World War I--had not been given a more severe sentence. His sentence was 20 years in prison--not four terms of 20 years, as in the case of the Bible Students!
What was the motivation behind the imposing of such severe prison terms on the Bible Students? Judge Harland B. Howe declared: "In the opinion of the Court, the religious propaganda which these defendants have vigorously advocated and spread throughout the nation as well as among our allies, is a greater danger than a division of the German Army. . . . A person preaching religion usually has much influence, and if he is sincere, he is all the more effective. This aggravates rather than mitigates the wrong they have done. Therefore, as the only prudent thing to do with such persons, the Court has concluded that the punishment should be severe." It is also noteworthy, however, that before passing sentence, Judge Howe said that statements made by attorneys for the defendants had called into question and treated severely not only the law officers of the government but "all the ministers throughout the land."
The decision was immediately appealed to the U.S. circuit court of appeals. But bail pending the hearing of that appeal was arbitrarily refused by Judge Howe,3 and on July 4, before a third and final appeal for bail could be heard, the first seven brothers were hastily moved to the federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia. Thereafter, it was demonstrated that there were 130 procedural errors in that highly prejudiced trial. Months of work went into the preparation of required papers for an appeal hearing. Meanwhile, the war ended. On February 19, 1919, the eight brothers in prison sent an appeal for executive clemency to Woodrow Wilson, the president of the United States. Other letters urging the release of the brothers were sent by numerous citizens to the newly appointed attorney general. Then, on March 1, 1919, in reply to an inquiry from the attorney general, Judge Howe recommended "immediate commutation" of the sentences. While this would have reduced the sentences, it would also have had the effect of affirming the guilt of the defendants. Before this could be done, the attorneys for the brothers had a court order served on the U.S. attorney that brought the case before the appeals court.
Nine months after Rutherford and his associates were sentenced--and with the war past--on March 21, 1919, the appeals court ordered bail for all eight defendants, and on March 26, they were released in Brooklyn on bail of $10,000 each. On May 14, 1919, the U.S. circuit court of appeals in New York ruled: "The defendants in this case did not have the temperate and impartial trial to which they were entitled, and for that reason the judgment is reversed." The case was remanded for a new trial. However, on May 5, 1920, after the defendants had appeared in court, on call, five times, the government's attorney, in open court in Brooklyn, announced withdrawal of the prosecution.4 Why? As revealed in correspondence preserved in the U.S. National Archives, the Department of Justice feared that if the issues were presented to an unbiased jury, with the war hysteria gone, the case would be lost. U.S. attorney L. W. Ross stated in a letter to the attorney general: "It would be better, I think, for our relations with the public, if we should on our own initiative" state that the case would be pressed no further.
On the same day, May 5, 1920, the alternate indictment that had been filed in May 1918 against J. F. Rutherford and four of his associates was also dismissed.
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1 Joseph F. Rutherford, president of the Watch Tower Society; William E. Van Amburgh, secretary-treasurer of the Society; Robert J. Martin, office manager; Frederick H. Robison, a member of the editorial committee for The Watch Tower; A. Hugh Macmillan, a director of the Society; George H. Fisher and Clayton J. Woodworth, compilers of The Finished Mystery.
2 Giovanni DeCecca, who worked in the Italian Department in the Watch Tower Society's office.
3 Circuit Judge Martin T. Manton, an ardent Roman Catholic, refused a second appeal for bail on July 1, 1918. When the federal court of appeals later reversed the judgment of the defendants, Manton cast the one dissenting vote. It is noteworthy that on December 4, 1939, a specially constituted appellate court upheld the conviction of Manton for abuse of judicial power, dishonesty, and fraud.
4 That these men were unjustly imprisoned, and were not convicts, is demonstrated by the fact that J. F. Rutherford remained a member of the bar of the United States Supreme Court from his admission in May 1909 until his death in 1942. In 14 cases appealed to the Supreme Court from 1939 until 1942, J. F. Rutherford was one of the attorneys. In the cases known as Schneider v. State of New Jersey ( in 1939 ) and Minersville School District v. Gobiris ( in 1940 ), he personally presented oral argument before the Supreme Court. Also, during World War II, A. H. Macmillan, one of the men wrongly imprisoned in 1918-19, was accepted by the director of the federal Bureau of Prisons as a regular visitor to federal prisons in the United States to care for spiritual interests of young men who were there because of having taken a stand of Christian neutrality.
From Jehovah's Witnesses-Proclaimers of God's Kingdom, 1993,
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, pages 647-654.
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