Two Women Stopped Selling Books, Feared Pro-German

Ohio, 1918

GIRL STUDENTS WERE CANVASSING FOR A PRO-GERMAN BOOK

Sheriff Charles Swank was called to Hanover last Friday to make an investigation of two young women, of Mt. Vernon, who were selling a book, said to be pro-German. They were in the village in the morning of that day and the sheriff did not receive the call until the afternoon and by that time they had left.

Yesterday they were again reported to him and he found them on the road between Hanover and Purity. He gave them orders that no more of the books were to be sold in Licking county. Both of the young women were students and were canvassing to make a little extra money during the summer vacation, and were perfectly innocent of doing anything out of the way. Upon the advice of the sheriff they returned to Newark with him and returned to their homes at Mt. Vernon from here.

The title of the book was "A World In Perplexity," and the substance of it was that the American people wanted peace at any price. The book was put on sale by J. C. Castle, head of the Ohio Tract Society. They also were taking orders for another book, "The Prophesies of the World," but had no copies of it in their possession and were selling it from a prospectus. The Sheriff carefully examined this but found nothing that pointed to the fact that this was pro-German, nevertheless the sale of both books will be prohibited in this county hereafter.

—The Newark Advocate, Newark, Ohio, June 11, 1918, p. 5.


TWO MORE GIRLS FOUND SELLING FORBIDDEN BOOK

Sheriff Charles H. Swank was called to the south-eastern part of the county yesterday afternoon to make an investigation of two young women who were selling books in that vicinity. He met them one-half mile north of Brownsville and found they were selling the same books as the two girls found near Hanover, Monday. They gave their names as Earline Trapp and Violet Murphy, both of Mt. Vernon, and were working for the same people as the other two girls were.

The books are being put out by J. I. Castle, head of the Ohio Tract society of Mt. Vernon, and the one book, "A World in Perplexity," has been found to have pro-German tendencies and the sale of the same has been forbidden in Licking county. The other book, "Our Day in the Light of Prophecy" was carefully examined by the sheriff and he found it to be alright, with nothing in it detrimental to the government and gave them permission to continue selling it.

The girls were entirely innocent of any wrong doings and were very much overcome when the sheriff told them that the one book was pro-German. The had sold a number of copies of the book, which met the approval of the sheriff and as soon as the information spread over the community, orders were canceled over the telephone practically at the very house they stopped at. The girls had worked hard in making the sales as they have walked the entire distance over the county and to find that their work had been all in vain was quite a blow to them.

Sheriff Swank gave them one of his personal cards, stating that the text of the latter named book was alright and that it met with his approval and allowed them to continue the sale of the same, but the distribution of the other book will be prohibited in this county.

—The Newark Advocate, Newark, Ohio, June 13, 1918, p. 6.

Note: "A World in Perplexity" was by Arther G. Daniells, published by Pacific Press or Review and Herald, which are names for the Seventh Day Adventist church folks' publishing house. The other, "Our Day in the Light of Prophecy," was by William Ambrose Spicer, same publishing info. I don't know these particular books, but I've seen books like them, in which they size up all the bad news of the day as signs of God's work of judgment and final deliverance. Even "progress" is seen for its negative aspects, how families are broken up, girls go off the the city and are disgraced, etc. I would guess they would portray Germany as being very formidable, lots of men, lots of armaments, since these big battles at the end of the world can't be minimized, and that's the problem for the Sheriff, and that they don't actually take a "pro-German" view. Their business was religion and conversion, not politics or sedition. As for Brother Castle, the one article definitely gives a "C" for his middle initial, the other is hard to read but looks like an "I."