Page "Joseph Franklin Rutherford" Paragraph 16

In early May 1918 US Attorney General Thomas Watt Gregory condemned The Finished Mystery as " one of the most dangerous examples of ... propaganda ... a work written in extremely religious language and distributed in enormous numbers ".

Warrants were issued for the arrest of Rutherford and seven other Watch Tower directors, who were charged under the 1917 Espionage Act of attempting to cause insubordination, disloyalty, refusal of duty in the armed forces and obstructing the recruitment and enlistment service of the U. S. while it was at war.

On June 21 seven of them, including Rutherford, were sentenced to 20 years ' imprisonment.

Rutherford feared his opponents would gain control of the Society in his absence.

On January 2, 1919 he learned he had been re-elected president at the Pittsburgh convention the day before, convincing him that God wanted him in the position.

In March 1919 the directors were released on bail after an appeals court ruled they had been wrongly convicted ; in May 1920 the government announced that all charges had been dropped.