City News in Brief. Outlawed Volumes Surrendered

From The Indianapolis Star, Wednesday, March 20: Members of the local International Bible Students’ Association surrendered 5,000 copies of The Finished Mystery to Charles Tighe, agent-in-charge of the Indianapolis office of the Justice Department. The religious tract, published by Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, has been declared disloyal propaganda in violation of the Espionage Act. This volume is the seventh in a series written by Pastor Charles Taze Russell. Among the objectionable passages, “Nowhere in the New Testament is Patriotism (a narrow-minded hatred of other peoples) encouraged. Everywhere and always murder in its every form is forbidden; and yet, under the guise of Patriotism the civil governments of earth demand of peace-loving men the sacrifices of themselves and their loved ones and the butchery of their fellows, and hail it as a duty demanded by the laws of heaven.”

“City News in Brief. Outlawed Volumes Surrendered,” The Indianapolis Star, 20 March 1918, p. 7:1