ARRESTED AND OFF TO JAIL

Legal aids provided by the Society and fine training at service meetings helped God’s servants greatly. But for the rigors of life behind bars only Jehovah himself could strengthen his people. As Paul said, “For all things I have the strength by virtue of him who imparts power to me.”​—Phil. 4:13.

Jehovah’s Christian witnesses by the hundreds were arrested and jailed during the turbulent years of the 1930’s and 1940’s. Homer L. Rogers says this regarding legal problems encountered by Jehovah’s people in one area: “The city of La Grange [Georgia] had framed an ordinance that forbade anyone calling at a home in La Grange to offer the householder any piece of printed matter. This was aimed at Jehovah’s witnesses and was only enforced against Jehovah’s witnesses.” How could he be sure of this? The city’s residents testified that all other printed matter was distributed freely in La Grange without hindrance from the authorities.

On May 17, 1936, 176 Witnesses were arrested for preaching in La Grange and were jailed. The next day the women were released, but 76 men were detained for fourteen days in the Troup County Prison and Stockade, four miles outside the city. The regular inmates there were chain-gang prisoners, who actually were shackled while working on roads from sunup to sundown. When the Witnesses were tried, they were pronounced guilty and fined one dollar each or thirty days in jail, according to C. E. Sillaway. Because the city attorney ordered the city clerk not to sign the bond on appeal by certiorari, the brothers lost their appeal rights and 57 returned to complete the thirty-day sentence in the stockade on May 28, 1937. Despite their innocence, these Witnesses now wore prison garb, two persons had to share one blanket during the cold nights, and they did hard labor on streets and elsewhere.

Many were the sufferings of these imprisoned ones. Yet, they also had opportunity to do good spiritually. Brother C. E. Sillaway writes: “Near the end of our thirty days my group and another, twelve in all, were assigned a colored cemetery, almost rural for isolation. Near midmorning a funeral procession came in the main gate and stopped while the undertaker approached us. It seemed that this family was too poor to pay the preacher his going fee for a funeral and they had had no sermon or prayer. Would one of us ministers say a few words? It was a privilege to tell the handful of people the true condition of the dead and the hope of a resurrection. They didn’t mind the jail clothes.”

Theresa Drake says that her first taste of intolerance against God’s people was in the early 1930’s when she was first arrested in Bergenfield, New Jersey. She continues: “I was first fingerprinted in Plainfield, New Jersey. It was in Plainfield where I was held overnight with 28 other sisters. We were held in a small cell and, with 29 of us there, this made it impossible to lie down to sleep. Finally, they took us to the gym in the same building and there they had mats for us to lie on. I remember one policeman opening the door and looking in at us and saying, ‘Like sheep led to the slaughter.’”

Citing another case, Sister Drake writes: “In Perth Amboy we were arrested and held from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. It was at this time that I met Brother Rutherford. He came to bail out 150 of us that were arrested. We were held in one big room at the courthouse. Outside, the people were taking our books and literature from our cars and throwing them all over the courthouse lawn. There were a half-dozen men that were in the rear of the courtroom that were waiting to get Brother Rutherford. They threatened him, but they never got the chance, for as we left the courthouse he was surrounded by us and then went quickly to a waiting car, not his usual one.”

Of Ohio and West Virginia towns, Edna Bauer says: “Many of the friends would be arrested and taken to jail on fire trucks with sirens blowing, loudly calling attention to arrests being made.” Often many would be jailed at once, and no consideration might be shown for age. For instance, Sister James W. Bennecoff recalls an incident in Columbia, South Carolina, “when 200 of us were put in jail, the youngest being six weeks old.”

Conditions in jail could be quite distressing. Earl R. Dale remembers his unjust confinement as a Christian at Somersworth, New Hampshire, and writes: “I slept that night, or tried to. The prison was not too clean. At night there were some little creatures crawling over us and I did not like them, but they liked me.” For preaching the good news at Caruthersville, Missouri, in 1941, Brother and Sister R. J. Adair were jailed for seventy-eight days. Sister Adair describes the place of her confinement as a “dungeon.” Sister Adair’s health was impaired during that incarceration. “It was not a pleasant thing to sleep on a concrete floor with a blanket and pillow for seventy-eight days,” she admits. “But to stay faithful to Jehovah was the important thing.”

Though Jehovah’s witnesses in the United States were jailed often for preaching the Kingdom message, that did not still their lips. As prisoners they kept right on declaring the good news. For example, Dora Wadams had various opportunities to preach while in jail. Once, when news of the Witnesses’ release circulated in a Newark, New Jersey, jail, this is her recollection of what happened: “One night when we were locked in our cells we heard prisoners around us saying: ‘The Bible people are going to leave us tomorrow. This place will never be the same. They are just like angels sent to us.’”

THEIR DAY IN COURT

Jehovah’s servants were ready to defend themselves and their God-given work if their arrests led to court trials. Sometimes they were not even represented by lawyers. For instance, back in 1938 Roland E. Collier, associated with the Orange, Massachusetts, congregation, obtained a permit to use a sound car in nearby Athol. He and another brother were in the sound car playing the record “Enemies” while other Kingdom publishers were preaching from door to door. Brother Coilier was arrested and charged with going from house to house, although he had not done so on that occasion. He tells us: “With interest we waited and prepared for the trial. I studied carefully the Order of Trial published by the Society for preparation for court trials. The day of the trial some brothers came into the courtroom to give me courage. I followed the proper court procedure outlined by the Society, even to the point of cross-examining the chief of police. When all the evidence was in after a complete court trial I was found not guilty and the newspaper carried a headline reading ‘ORANGE MAN PREACHES WAY OUT OF JAIL.’”

Some lawyers who were not Jehovah’s witnesses worked hard to defend God’s people. Often, however, Witness lawyers represented their fellow believers in court. Among them was Victor Schmidt. His wife Mildred says, in part: “After the adverse decision by the United States Supreme Court in the flag case, there was what seemed like an avalanche of mobs and arrests that descended upon our brothers in so many places outside Cincinnati [Ohio]. It became necessary for me to drive my husband to these various places, as he did not drive. For a while there was a different place to go to almost daily. Therefore, I had to give up working with the pioneers. . . . Victor had great faith in Jehovah and this strengthened me to have like faith. As we would near these towns where he was to represent our brothers in court, he would have me pull off the road and he would pray to Jehovah to open the way for him to bring some help to our brothers, and also, if it was Jehovah’s will, to kindly give us protection and to help us never to yield to the fear of men. Many are the times that we saw the evidence of the mighty power of Jehovah’s angelic forces working in our behalf.”

ON TO UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT

Various legal cases involving Jehovah’s witnesses eventually reached the Supreme Court of the United States. One of these was Lovell v. City of Griffin. Though God’s people often had been arrested for preaching the good news in Griffin, Georgia, on one occasion a number of them were placed under arrest for alleged violation of a city ordinance that forbade “the practice of distributing . . . literature of any kind, . . . without first obtaining written permission from the City Manager of the City of Griffin.” Brother G. E. Fiske comments: “There were several brothers over six feet tall and the officials asked if they would be willing to let them pick one to represent the group, and our overseers were willing. So they picked a small, slim sister because they thought she would be easy prey. But she [Alma Lovell] had studied the Order of Trial . . . Not one of the men had prepared as this little sister had, and when the case came up for trial, she spoke to the court for over an hour, giving a wonderful witness. However, the judge was not even interested and he had his feet up on the desk. When she sat down, the judge took his feet down and said, ‘Are you through?’ She said, ‘Yes, Your Honor.’ Then he pronounced them all guilty. The Society’s lawyer immediately appealed the case.” On March 28, 1938, the Supreme Court unanimously held that the ordinance in question was invalid on its face.

While engaging in the Kingdom-preaching work on April 26, 1938, Christian witness Newton Cantwell was arrested with his two minor sons while playing the phonograph record “Enemies” and distributing the book of the same name. The case was carried into Connecticut courts on the complaint of two Roman Catholics. Involved were an alleged breach of the peace and also supposed violation of a Connecticut statute prohibiting the solicitation of donations to charities or a religious cause without approval of the secretary of the state’s public welfare council. Convictions followed in Connecticut courts, and R. D. Cantwell writes: “The case was appealed by the Society and went to the United States Supreme Court . . . the conviction was reversed and the Connecticut statute requiring a permit to offer religious literature for sale, or accepting donations for a religious cause, was found to be unconstitutional as applied to Jehovah’s witnesses. Another victory for Jehovah’s people!”

But Jehovah’s witnesses lost an important case in the United States Supreme Court by a five-to-four decision on June 8, 1942. It was Jones v. City of Opelika. This case involved magazine street work and raised the question of whether Rosco Jones was properly found guilty of violating an Opelika, Alabama, ordinance for “selling books” without having obtained a license and paying the required tax.

A “FIELD DAY” FOR GOD’S PEOPLE

Then came May 3, 1943. It could well be called a “field day” for Jehovah’s witnesses. Why? Because twelve out of thirteen cases were then decided in their favor. Outstanding was Murdock v. Pennsylvania, a license tax case. This decision of the United States Supreme Court reversed its own position in the case of Jones v. City of Opelika. In the Murdock decision the Court held: “It is contended, however, that the fact that the license tax can suppress or control this activity is unimportant if it does not do so. But that is to disregard the nature of this tax. It is a license tax​—a flat tax imposed on the exercise of a privilege granted by the Bill of Rights. A state may not impose a charge for the enjoyment of a right granted by the federal constitution.” Concerning the Jones case, it was said: “The judgment in Jones v. Opelika has this day been vacated. Freed from that controlling precedent, we can restore to their high, constitutional position the liberties of itinerant evangelists who disseminate their religious beliefs and the tenets of their faith through distribution of literature.” The favorable Murdock decision did away with the flood in regard to license tax cases involving Jehovah’s people.

Their efforts have had an effect on the law. Fittingly, it has been said: “It is plain that present constitutional guaranties of personal liberty, as authoritatively interpreted by the United States Supreme Court, are far broader than they were before the spring of 1938; and that most of this enlargement is to be found in the thirty-one Jehovah’s Witnesses cases (sixteen deciding opinions) of which Lovell v. City of Griffin was the first. If ‘the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church,’ what is the debt of Constitutional Law to the militant persistency​—or perhaps I should say devotion—​of this strange group?”​—Minnesota Law Review, Vol. 28, No. 4, Mar., 1944, p. 246.

VIOLENT MOBS FAIL TO SILENCE PRAISERS OF JEHOVAH

While Jehovah’s witnesses were waging legal battles for freedom of worship and their right to preach the good news, in the field they sometimes came face to face with violent mobs. This was not without parallel, however, for Jesus Christ himself had experiences of that kind. (Luke 4:28-30; John 8:59; 10:31-39) Faithful Stephen suffered martyrdom at the hands of an angry crowd.​—Acts 6:8-12; 7:54–8:1.

The worldwide Christian convention held on June 23-25, 1939, was viewed by hoodlums as an opportunity to harass God’s people. Direct wire connections linked New York city, the key city, with other assembly locations in the United States, Canada, the British Isles, Australia and Hawaii. While J. F. Rutherford’s discourse “Government and Peace” was being advertised, Jehovah’s servants learned that Catholic Action groups planned to prevent the public meeting on June 25. So, God’s people were ready for trouble. Blosco Muscariello tells us: “Like Nehemiah raising the wall of Jerusalem and supplying his men with both instruments to build and instruments to fight (Neh. 4:15-22), we were so armed. . . . Some of us young men received special instructions as ushers. Each was supplied with a sturdy cane to be used in the event of any interference during the main talk.” But R. D. Cantwell adds: “We were instructed not to use it unless it was a matter of being cornered in final defense.”

Though it was not known generally, Brother Rutherford was in poor health when he ascended the platform at Madison Square Garden in New York city that Sunday afternoon, June 25, 1939. Soon the talk was under way. Among the latecomers were about 500 followers of Roman Catholic cleric Charles E. Coughlin, renowned “radio priest” of the 1930’s, to whose regular broadcasts millions listened. Since the lower level of the auditorium had been reserved and filled with the Witnesses, Coughlin’s followers, including priests, had to occupy a top section of the balcony behind the speaker.

“There was no smoking elsewhere in the auditorium,” wrote a Consolation correspondent, “but eighteen minutes after the discourse began one man to the left front in this crowd lit a cigarette, and then another to the right front lit one; then the electric lights in this section only were blinked, and then in this one section only there were booings, screams and catcalls.” “I sat tense,” says Sister Edward Broad, “waiting for the confusion to spread all over the Garden. But as a few moments passed I saw that the trouble was confined to a group directly behind the speaker. ‘What will he do?’ I wondered. It seemed impossible for anyone to keep on speaking with things being thrown down on the platform and not knowing at any moment when the microphone might be taken away.” Esther Allen recalls that “wild howling and expressions of ‘Heil Hitler!’ ‘Viva Franco!’ and ‘Kill that damn Rutherford!’ filled the air.”

Would ailing Brother Rutherford yield to those violent foes? “The louder they yelled to drown out the speaker’s voice, the stronger Judge Rutherford’s voice became,” says Sister A. F. Laupert. Aleck Bangle remarks: “The Society’s president did not become afraid but courageously said: ‘Note today the Nazis and Catholics would like to break up this meeting, but by God’s grace cannot do it.’” “That was the opportunity we needed to break into heartfelt applause, giving the speaker our enthusiastic support,” writes Roger Morgan, adding: “Brother Rutherford held his ground to the end of the hour. We later thrilled every time we played recordings of that lecture in the homes of the people.”

C. H. Lyon tells us: “The attendants did their work well. A couple of the more obstreperous Coughlinites were rapped on the head with a cane, and all of them were unceremoniously hurled down the ramps and out of the auditorium. One of the Coughlinites rated some publicity in a daily tabloid the next morning, as they printed a picture of him with his head wrapped, as with a turban.”

Three Witness ushers were arrested and charged with “assault.” They were tried before three judges (two Roman Catholics and a Jew) of the Special Sessions Court of the City of New York on October 23 and 24, 1939. In court it was shown that the attendants had gone into the section of Madison Square Garden where the disturbance broke out in order to remove the disturbers. When the rioters attacked the ushers, they resisted and dealt firmly with some of the radical group. Witnesses for the prosecution made many contradictory statements. Not only did the court acquit the three ushers. It also found that the Witness attendants had acted within their rights.

WORLD WAR FANS THE FLAMES OF VIOLENCE

Mob violence had erupted at the 1939 assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses. But the flames of violence against them were yet to be fanned to greater intensity as the world went to war. It would be late in 1941 before the United States would declare war on Germany, Italy and Japan, but the spirit of nationalism was strong throughout the country long before that.

During these early months of World War II, Jehovah God made an outstanding provision for his people. In its issue of November 1, 1939, the English Watchtower carried an article entitled “Neutrality.” For a caption text it had these words of Jesus Christ concerning his disciples: “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” (John 17:16, King James Version) That Scriptural study of Christian neutrality, coming when it did, prepared Jehovah’s witnesses in advance for the hard times ahead.

THREAT OF ARSON AT KINGDOM FARM

Kingdom Farm, near South Lansing, New York, served well in furnishing members of the Society’s headquarters staff with fruit, vegetables, meat, milk and cheese. David Abbuhl was working at Kingdom Farm when its peace and serenity were disrupted back in 1940. “On the eve of Flag Day, June 14, 1940,” says Brother Abbuhl, “we were put wise by an old fellow who would daily pass by on his way to buy his whiskey at the tavern in South Lansing to a plan by the townspeople and those of the American Legion to burn down all our buildings and wreck our machinery.” The sheriff was notified.

Finally the enemy was on the scene. John Bogard, who was then the farm servant, once gave this graphic account of the trouble: “About six o’clock in the evening the gangs started to gather, one car after another, until there were thirty or forty carloads. The sheriff and his men arrived and began stopping the car drivers and examining their licenses and warning them against any move against Kingdom Farm. They kept driving back and forth along the highway fronting our property till late into the night, but the presence of the police kept them on the highway and frustrated their plan to destroy the farm. It was a most exciting night for all of us there on the farm, but we were reminded vividly of Jesus’ assurance to his followers: ‘You will be objects of hatred by all people because of my name. And yet not a hair of your heads will by any means perish.’​—Luke 21:17, 18.”

So it was that this threatened attack and premeditated arson were averted. An estimated 1,000 cars, carrying possibly 4,000 men, had come from all sectors of western New York state to destroy the Society’s Kingdom Farm property​—but to no avail. Says Kathryn Bogard: “Their purpose failed, and some of the very people who made up the mob are now Witnesses themselves, yes, even in the full-time ministry!”

Part 3​—United States of America

VIOLENCE ERUPTS AT LITCHFIELD

About the same time that Kingdom Farm had been the object of threatened assault and arson, trouble flared up against Jehovah’s witnesses in Litchfield, Illinois. “In some way the troublemakers in Litchfield got wind of our plans so that when we did go in to work the town they were ready for us,” recalls Clarence S. Huzzey. “The local priest rang the church bells as a signal and they began rounding up the brothers​—taking them to the local jail. Some of the brothers were badly beaten and the mob even threatened to burn down the jail. Some of the mobsters located the cars of the brothers and began demolishing them​—reducing them to rubble.”

Walter R. Wissman says: “After being beaten by the mob the brothers were herded into the local jail by the state highway patrol for their own protection. One brother, Charles Cervenka, was knocked to the ground when he refused to salute the flag, the flag was pushed into his face, and he was severely kicked and beaten about his head and body. He was the most severely injured of the brothers and he never quite recovered from the beating. He died a few years later. He said later that as he was being beaten he thought to himself that he was so glad this happened to him and not to one of the newer brothers because he knew that he could take it, while perhaps a newer one would have weakened and compromised.”

“The town of Litchfield was very proud of its accomplishment,” Brother Wissman recalls. “In fact, a number of years later, along in the 1950’s, Litchfield had a centennial celebration with floats depicting the outstanding events in the city’s hundred-year history. One of these floats was in commemoration of the mobbing of Jehovah’s witnesses in 1940. The town officials considered that this was a memorable event in their history. May Jehovah reward them!”

UNHEEDED PLEAS

So serious and numerous were the violent attacks upon Jehovah’s witnesses that United States Solicitor General Francis Biddle and Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt (wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt) made public appeals for the discontinuance of such actions. In fact, on June 16, 1940, the very day of the Litchfield incident, during a coast-to-coast radio broadcast over the network of the National Broadcasting Company, Biddle stated:

“Jehovah’s witnesses have been repeatedly set upon and beaten. They had committed no crime; but the mob adjudged they had, and meted out mob punishment. The Attorney General has ordered an immediate investigation to these outrages.

“The people must be alert and watchful, and above all cool and sane. Since mob violence will make the government’s task infinitely more difficult, it will not be tolerated. We shall not defeat the Nazi evil by emulating its methods.”

But such pleas did not stem the tide of hostility against Jehovah’s witnesses.

CHRISTIAN GATHERINGS DISRUPTED

During those turbulent years, Christians in the United States sometimes were assaulted while gathered peacefully for Bible instruction. That happened, for example, in Saco, Maine, during 1940. While Jehovah’s witnesses were in their second-floor Kingdom Hall there preparing to present a recorded Bible lecture on one occasion, a mob of 1,500 to 1,700 formed, according to Harold B. Duncan. He clearly recalls that a priest was with them, sitting in a car in front of the hall. “The fellow in the [adjacent] radio repair shop turned on every radio he could to full volume so as to drown out the talk,” says Brother Duncan, adding: “Then the mob started stoning the windows. The police in plain clothes with flashlights pointed the light beams on the windows to stone out. The police station was only a block and a half away. I went there twice and informed them of what was happening. They said, ‘When you people salute the American flag, we’ll give you help!’ The mob stoned 70 [small windowpanes] out of the hall and a stone as large as my fist just missed Sister Gertrude Bob’s head and took a corner of the plastered wall out.”

Mob violence also erupted during the 1942 assembly in Klamath Falls, Oregon. According to Don Milford, mobsters cut the telephone wires bringing a discourse from another convention city, but a brother having a copy of the talk immediately took over and the program went on. Finally, the mob broke into the hall. The Witnesses defended themselves and when the door was closed again, one attacker​—“a large powerful man”—​lay unconscious inside the building. He was a police officer and his picture was taken with his badge alongside his face. “We called the Red Cross,” says Brother Milford, “and they sent in two women with a stretcher and took him out. He was later heard to say, ‘I didn’t think they would fight.’” The police refused to aid the Witnesses, and it was over four hours before the mob was dispersed by the state militia.

ASSAULTS DURING MAGAZINE STREET WORK

While policemen in some localities failed to protect Jehovah’s witnesses, that certainly was not invariably true. For instance, as he did magazine street work in Tulsa, Oklahoma, years ago, L. I. Payne noticed that a policeman always was within sight. “So,” says Brother Payne, “one day I asked him why he was always so close by. His remark was to the effect that even though he had a large territory to cover, he would be in that vicinity because he was not going to let anyone run me off or beat me up. He had read how the little towns were treating the Witnesses and could not see why anyone would want to hinder this work.”

As it is, Jehovah’s servants often were assaulted by violent mobs as they engaged in witnessing on the streets with The Watchtower and Consolation. For example, George L. McKee says that week after week in one Oklahoma community mobs ranging from 100 to well over 1,000 infuriated men assailed Witnesses engaged in magazine street work. The mayor, chief of police and other officials would provide no protection. According to Brother McKee, generally the mobsters were led by a prominent physician and leader of the American Legion, a cousin of Belle Starr, notorious woman bandit. First, drunken henchmen started a disturbance. Then came the mob, armed with pool sticks, clubs, knives, meat cleavers and guns. Their object? To run the Witnesses out of town. But each Saturday, Kingdom proclaimers determined in advance how long they were going to engage in street work and, though the mob would gather quickly, they were successful in completing the allotted time. Many magazines were placed with shoppers.

One Saturday about fifteen Witnesses were accosted. “We realized we would have to rely upon Jehovah God and good judgment to escape with our very lives,” says Brother McKee, continuing: “Without as much as a warning, they began to attack three of us brothers with their knives and clubs. . . . With our broken arms, cracked skulls and other injuries, we went to four different doctors in the community, but all refused to give the treatment we needed. We had to travel to a community fifty miles away for the services of a sympathetic doctor. Bruises and feelings soon healed and we were back on the street corner on the following Saturday with the good news of the Kingdom. This spirit prevailed throughout all the troublesome times we had in the heat of persecution.”

FURY AT CONNERSVILLE

Notable among acts of mob violence were incidents that occurred in 1940 at Connersville, Indiana. Certain Christian women on trial there were falsely charged with “riotous conspiracy.” As Brother Rainbow, a zone servant, and Victor and Mildred Schmidt left the courthouse on the trial’s first day, about twenty men lunged at their car, threatened them with death and tried to overturn the vehicle.

On the trial’s final day, the prosecuting attorney used his arguing time more for inciting to riot, sometimes speaking directly to armed men in the building. About 9:00 p.m. the verdict came​—“Guilty.” Then a storm of violence broke loose. Sister Schmidt says that she and her husband Victor, who was one of the lawyers handling the case, along with two other brothers, were cut off from the other Witnesses and were accosted by a mob of from two to three hundred. She tells us:

“Almost immediately, a barrage of all kinds of fruit, vegetables and eggs began bombarding us. We were told later that the mobsters had unloaded a whole truckload of these items on us.

“We tried to run to our car, but were headed off and pushed to the highway leading out of the city. Then the mob rushed at us, striking the brothers and hitting me in the back, causing a whiplash effect. By now, a storm had broken in all its fury. The rain was coming in torrents and the wind was lashing furiously. However, the fury of the elements was insignificant in comparison with the fury of this demon-crazed mob. Because of the storm, many took to their cars and drove alongside of us, yelling and cursing us and always including Jehovah’s name in their cursings. Oh, how that pierced our hearts!

“But in spite of the storm, it seemed as though there were at least a hundred men on foot pressing down on us. Once a carload of friends driven by Sister Jacoby (now Sister Crain) from Springfield, Ohio, tried to rescue us, but the mob nearly upset the car and kicked it and tore at its doors. This brought more blows upon us as the mobsters pulled us away from the car. The friends were forced to drive on without us. As we were driven on and the storm continued unabated, the mobsters kept yelling and chanting: ‘Throw them in the river! Throw them in the river!’ This unceasing chant struck terror into my heart and as we approached the bridge to cross the river the chant suddenly stopped. Soon we were actually across the bridge. It was as though Jehovah’s angels had blinded the mob as to where we were! I thought, ‘Oh, Jehovah, thank you!’

“Then the big burly mobsters began striking the brothers again. How hard it was to see someone you love being struck! Each time they struck Victor, he staggered, but never fell. These blows were blows of horror to me . . .

“Time after time they approached me from the back and would give me that quick whiplashing push. Finally, we were separated from the two brothers and as we walked locked arm in arm, Victor said: ‘We haven’t suffered as much as Paul. We haven’t resisted unto the shedding of blood.’ [Compare Hebrews 12:4.]

“It was very dark and getting late (I learned later, about 11:00 p.m.). We were beyond the city limits and near exhaustion when suddenly a car stopped very close to us. A familiar voice said: ‘Quick! Get in!’ Oh, here was that fine young pioneer lad, Ray Franz, rescuing us from this violent mob! . . .

“Here again, we all felt that Jehovah’s angels had blinded the enemy from seeing us enter the car. Here in the car safe from the mob were dear Brother Rainbow and his wife and three others. Somehow, that little car made room for all eight of us. We all felt that Jehovah’s angels had prevented the enemy from seeing us enter the car. The mob was still violently incensed against us, with no indication of releasing us. It seemed as though Jehovah with his loving arms had reached down and rescued us! We later learned that after the two brothers were cut off from us they had found refuge in a haystack until some brothers found them early in the morning. One of the brothers had been severely hurt by an object thrown at him.

“We arrived home about 2:00 a.m. drenched and cold, as the storm had ended a heat wave and ushered in cold air. Our brothers and sisters ministered unto us, even closing five open wounds on Victor’s face. How thankful we were to be in the loving care of our dear brothers!”

Despite such severe experiences, however, Jehovah upholds and strengthens his servants. “So,” remarks Sister Schmidt, “here we had undergone another kind of trial which Jehovah had mercifully helped us to bear and to ‘let endurance have its work complete.’”​—Jas. 1:4.

OTHER ACTS OF MOB BRUTALITY

Many were the acts of mob violence having Jehovah’s witnesses as their targets. In December 1942 at Winnsboro, Texas, a number of Jehovah’s witnesses were accosted by a mob while doing magazine street work. Among the Witnesses was O. L. Pillars, servant to the brethren (circuit overseer). As the mobsters approached, the Witnesses concluded that street work could not be done under such circumstances. So they began walking toward their car. “In the middle of the main street, in his sound car, was the Baptist preacher, C. C. Phillips,” recalls Brother Pillars. “He had been preaching about Christ and his being crucified, but as soon as he saw us he changed his sermon. He started ranting and raving about how Jehovah’s witnesses would not salute the flag. He told how he would be happy to die for Old Glory and that anyone not saluting the flag should be run out of town. As we passed his truck, we looked ahead to see another mob coming toward us. Soon they closed in on us and held us until the city marshal appeared and arrested us.”

Later, the mob entered the office of the marshal, who made no attempt to protect the Witnesses. They were seized by the mobsters. In the street, Brother Pillars, for one, was being pummeled with fists. “At this time,” says Brother Pillars, “I experienced the most unusual help. I was taking a terrible beating. Blood was gushing from my nose, face and mouth, but I felt little or no pain. Even at that time I marveled at this fact and felt it to be a manifestation of angelic help. . . . To me it explained how our German brothers had faithfully endured the heat of Nazi persecution without wavering.”

Brother Pillars was repeatedly beaten into unconsciousness, then revived and beaten again. Finally, unable to bring him to, the mobsters soaked him with cold water and tried to make him salute a two- by four-inch flag, according to him, “the only flag these great ‘patriots’ could find.” As they held it up, they would also hold up his arm, but he let his hand droop down, showing he would not salute. Soon they had a rope around his neck, jerked him to the ground and dragged him to the jail. Dimly he heard them say: “Let’s go ahead and hang him. Then we’ll be rid of those Witnesses forever.” Not long thereafter, they tried just that. Brother Pillars writes: “They put the new one-half-inch hemp rope around my neck, tying the hangman’s noose behind the ear, and dragged me into the street. Next the rope was thrown over a pipe that extended from the building. Four or five mobsters began pulling on the rope. As I was lifted off the ground, the rope tightened and I lost consciousness.”

The next thing Brother Pillars knew, he was back in the unheated jail. A doctor examined him and said: “If you want this boy to live, you had better get him to the hospital, as he has lost a lot of blood and his eyes have dilated.” To this the marshal retorted: “He’s the most stubborn devil I have ever seen.” “How those words encouraged me,” remarks Brother Pillars, “for they assured me I had not compromised!”

After the doctor left, the mobsters filed through the cold, unlit jail. They struck matches to see Brother Pillars’ face, and he heard them ask: “Is he dead yet?“ Someone replied: “No, but he’s going to die.” Chilled to the bone and soaking wet, Brother Pillars tried to keep from shivering, hoping they would think he had died. Finally, they left and all was quiet. Eventually the door opened, the Texas State Police entered and Brother Pillars was taken by ambulance to the Pittsburg, Texas, hospital. He had been at the mob’s mercy for six hours. But what had happened when they hung him? Why was he still alive? “I found out those answers late the next day,” remarks Brother Pillars, adding:

“Into my prison ward at the Pittsburg hospital where I was recuperating came Brother Tom Williams. He was a local attorney from Sulphur Springs and a real fighter for righteousness. He had endeavored to locate me with no success until he threatened to sue the town. Then they revealed I was in the hospital. How very good it was to see a brother’s face! He then told me that it was all over town​—I had been hung but the rope broke!

“Later, when the F.B.I. made an official investigation and this led to a grand jury inquiry, a group of Pentecostal men were willing to testify. They said: ‘Today it is Jehovah’s witnesses. Tomorrow it will be us!’ When they described the hanging, they said: “We saw him dangling on the rope. Then it broke. When we saw the rope break, we knew it was the Lord that broke it.’”

The marshal and other officials fled across the state line. Hence, they never were put on trial. Brother Pillars recuperated and returned to his work as servant to the brethren in that area.

ENDURING BRUTAL PERSECUTION

“I could never endure such brutal persecution!” you may exclaim. No, not in your own strength. But Jehovah can make you strong if you avail yourself of his provisions for spiritual upbuilding now. The paramount reason for the persecution is connected with the issue of universal sovereignty. In effect, Satan challenged God, claiming that no human would remain faithful to Jehovah under test by the Devil. What a privilege it is to maintain integrity to God, thus proving Satan a liar and supporting Jehovah’s side of the issue!​—Job 1:1–2:10; Prov. 27:11.

In the years since those turbulent days of many mob attacks upon Jehovah’s witnesses in the United States, God’s people have become increasingly aware of their need to depend fully upon Jehovah. While they will defend themselves and their loved ones in harmony with Christian principles, they do not arm themselves with deadly weapons in anticipation of attack. (Matt. 26:51, 52; 2 Tim. 2:24) Rather, they recognize that ‘the weapons of their warfare are not fleshly.’​—2 Cor. 10:4; see The Watchtower, June 1, 1968, pages 345-350.

THEOCRATIC ASSEMBLY IN SAINT LOUIS

Humanity was in the throes of World War II and persecution was raging against God’s people. But ‘Jehovah of armies was with them.’ (Ps. 46:1, 7) He saw to it that they were amply provided with good things in a spiritual way. Very noteworthy along these lines was the Theocratic Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses at Saint Louis, Missouri, August 6-10, 1941.

Jehovah’s servants were eager to be present for that assembly. So, many of them were on the road, bound for Saint Louis. “We soon learned,” says Sister A. L. McCreery, “that all the Witnesses put a magazine [The Watchtower or Consolation] in the car window to identify themselves; so we did too. The whole trip was one of waving to total strangers that passed us by, but we knew they were our brothers by their smiles and waves.”

Despite pressure from Catholic Action and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the management of The Arena refused to cancel the contract for its use by Jehovah’s witnesses. However, the Catholic churches circulated propaganda that caused many householders to cancel rooms they were going to rent to God’s people. “Nuns went from door to door telling people not to rent their rooms to Jehovah’s witnesses,” says Robert E. Rainer. Hence, upon arrival in Saint Louis, “so many Witnesses were without rooming accommodations that it was necessary to have mattresses made and stuffed so they could sleep there on the Arena grounds,” according to Margaret J. Rogers.

Concerning the problem of rooming accommodations, Brother and Sister G. J. Janssen state: “During the convention a picture appeared in the newspaper of a Witness mother and her child sleeping at night on the lawn at the convention grounds. That did it. The local residents, more soft-hearted than their false teachers, began to call the rooming department to say that their extra rooms were available to the Witnesses.” Before long, rooms were being offered by telegrams, telephone calls, letters, personal calls and other means. Kingdom publishers were even stopped on the streets by people who offered them accommodations.