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Russellites on trial in 1918...
Russellites on trial in 1918...
Item # 722879
June 13, 1918
THE NEW YORK TIMES, June 13, 1918
* Clayton Woodworth & other Russellites on trial
* Pastor Charles Taze Russell followers
* Christian restorationist minister
* Founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses
Near the bottom of page 7 has a small one column heading: "Would Let Sinners Fight" with subhead. (see images) They would be found guilty about a week later.
Complete with 24 pages, light toning and a little wear along the margins, generally good. Should be handled with care.
Note: This issue comes with a acid-free folder (gratis) for added protection.
AI notes: The trial of Clayton J. Woodworth, a leading official of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society and a prominent so-called Russellite, took place in June 1918 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Brooklyn, amid the heightened wartime repression of dissent during World War I. Woodworth was tried alongside several other Society leaders, including President Joseph F. Rutherford, under the Espionage Act of 1917 and related statutes, with federal prosecutors arguing that their writings—especially the recently published volume The Finished Mystery—contained language hostile to militarism and the war effort and thus encouraged draft resistance and disloyalty among soldiers and civilians. The government introduced passages from the book, correspondence, and internal organizational materials as evidence, asserting that the defendants’ religious teachings undermined national unity during wartime. After a closely watched and controversial proceeding, the jury returned guilty verdicts in mid-June 1918, and Woodworth was sentenced to a lengthy federal prison term (commonly reported as part of a 20-year sentence imposed on the defendants). Although the convictions initially stood and the men were incarcerated, the case later became emblematic of wartime overreach: the convictions were overturned on appeal after the war, and Woodworth was released, with historians now viewing the trial as a significant episode in the history of civil liberties and religious freedom in the United States.
Category: The 20th Century
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