by VM44 14 Replies latest watchtower scandals
Does anyone know where it mentioned that Rutherford was involved in William Jennings Bryan's presidential campaign(s)?
Also, I recall reading that Rutherford said Bryan was God's choice as President for the USA! If that was so, then it is very strange that Bryan was never elected President!
Rutherford throughout his life always thought he knew what God wanted.
--VM44
I posted this in the Scandals and Coverups section because I cannot find any original sources that mention this aspect of Rutherford's pre-Bible Students life. Has there been a coverup? or is it that Rutherford was so unimportant that nobody cares what he did early in his life?
--VM44
The next Watchtower president, Joseph Franklin Rutherford (1869–1942), presided over the Age of Politics. Rutherford, universally known as Judge Rutherford, was a lawyer who had served as a temporary judge in Boonville, Missouri. He had, in addition, campaigned for William Jennings Bryan, apostle of Free Silver and other Progressive causes. Like Bryan, he cast himself in the prophetic mode and crusaded against the power of big capital. Like Bryan, he also opposed America's entry into World War I. His opposition to the war and military service led to his imprisonment for nine months on (palpably false) charges of sedition. He became, with some reason, a vigorous enemy of secular authority.
This reference can be found at http://libertyunbound.com/archive/2003_10/cox-truth.html in an article by
Stephen Cox is professor of literature at the University of California in San Diego, and the author of "The Titanic Story."
~Merry
Hi Merry,
Thanks for posting that from Cox's "Truth vs The Truth" article. I also found that article while search the net for Rutherford information, Mr Cox, however, does not provide a source for his comment about Rutherford's campaign work.
I think Jim Penton might have mentioned something about Rutherford and Bryan, but I am trying to find the original source of information.
Does anyone know if a biography of Rutherford was published around the year 1918 when he took charge of The Watchtower? If there was, then there might be something about Rutherford's political activities mentioned in it.
--VM44
It is also mentioned in chapter 6 of Visions of Glory by Barbara Grizzutti Harrison:
He practiced trial law in Boonville, Missouri, for fifteen years, campaigning briefly for William Jennings Bryan.
I haven't been able to discover where they got that bit of information from.
A.H. MacMillan briefly mentions WJB in Faith on the March:
William Jennings Bryan, as Secretary of State to President Woodrow Wilson, had made a tour of the country urging the United States of America to stay out of World War I, while most of the clergy were urging the government to get into it. Bryan resigned when, April 6, 1917, the United States entered the war.~Merry
Penton mentions on page 47 that Rutherford was attracted to Bryan's "populist ideals" and footnotes to page 348 that Rutherford actually campaigned for Bryan.
Apocalypse Delayed.
Joe Rutherford was very active in local Democratic Party politics from 1890-1905. In 1892 he participated in Grover Cleveland's successful campaign for President. In 1896 Rutherford ran for the Missouri State Legislature in the Democratic primary, but lost the nomination by about 100 votes. However, he vigorously campaigned for William Jennings Bryan later that year and helped the Democratic candidate carry the State of Missouri. Rutherford also supported Bryan's 1900 Presidential bid. Bryan ran for President a third time in 1908, but I wasn't able to find any mention of Rutherford's active support of the Great Commoner in that election. In 1908 Rutherford was deeply involved in the Watch Tower, but that wouldn't have prevented him from returning to Missouri in November and casting a ballot for Bryan.
What is interesting is that Bryan was the attorney for creation in the Scopes trial. Hmmm....
I do know that Charles Taze Russell was opposed to voting. See
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/79025/1.ashx
According to A.H. Macmillan in Faith on the March, he baptized Rutherford into the Bible Students in 1906. So, if Rutherford was still voting in 1908, he was not following the "faithful and discreet slave." Well, that's probably easy to understand. Rutherford did change the fds teaching later on anyway.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/1900/peopleevents/pande34.html People & Events William Jennings Bryan 
Despite a long and distinguished political career, William Jennings Bryan is best known for the decisive defeats that he endured. He was nominated three times to represent the Democratic party as their presidential candidate. Three times he was defeated. Known for his quick wit and mastery of spoken language, Bryan was a stirring speaker. In 1896, he railed in support of the coinage of free silver and the end of the gold standard: "You shall not press down upon the brow of labor a crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." Bryan looked upon the wealthy with great suspicion and warned against the unchecked powers of the trusts. Responding to the plight of striking coal miners in Pennsylvania, Bryan said "Whether a man is a laboring man, a farmer or a merchant, he must see that the opportunities are constantly narrowing under this trust system." His campaign against William McKinley in 1900 centered largely on his opposition to McKinley's conduct regarding the war in the Philippines. Condemning what he termed US imperialism, Bryan asserted, "If we steal a man's purse we are thieves. If we steal twelve hundred islands we are patriots. If you steal a man's money you will be sent to the penitentiary. If you steal his liberty you will be sent to the White House." Political observers noted that Bryan was sometimes too forceful a speaker; he ended up scaring, rather than converting, large numbers of voters. Andrew Carnegie, who sided with Bryan on the Philippines issue, decided, "Mr. Bryan is much too earnest, too sincere and true to be entrusted with power, filled as he is with ideas subversive of economic laws."
Following another failed presidential bid in 1908, Bryan was named Woodrow Wilson's Secretary of State in 1913. He resigned from that post, however, in 1915 to devote himself full-time to the cause of American neutrality during World War I. In 1925, Bryan led the prosecution of John T. Scopes, a young biology teacher charged with breaking Tennessee law by teaching Darwin's theory of evolution. Squaring off against noted defense attorney Clarence Darrow, Bryan attempted in vain to defend his literal interpretation of the bible under Darrow's wilting cross examination. Humiliated and weakened by the stress of the trial, Bryan died one week after its conclusion.
