A few months later I went to Red Bluff, California, working with a small congregation. When war was declared after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the people of Red Bluff became more nationalistic, and there was opposition to our preaching God’s kingdom. One night opposers broke all the windows in the Kingdom Hall, smashed some benches and left the place in disarray.

When going out in the field ministry in those days, I did not know whether I would be arrested, beaten or opposed in other ways. When we were offering The Watchtower on the streets of Corning, California, the American Legion had youths bring flags on the street and try to force us to salute them. Because of our Bible-based stand, some of the Witnesses were kicked, punched and told to get out of town.

Later, while I was engaged in the field ministry with three of my Christian sisters in that same town, a member of the American Legion whom I approached at the door said: ‘What are you doing here, you . . . ? You are a young man and should be in the army like my son.’ He then came out of his house and began kicking me all the way out of his yard and half way down the block. He said: ‘If you go on the street corner today, I’ll beat you up.’

I went to the chief of police and informed him of this man’s actions and threats. His response was: ‘Since you’re not wanted in this town, why don’t you leave?’ That did not make us cancel our arrangements to do street magazine work that day. About a half hour later the man that kicked me drove up to me in his car, got out and tried to beat me. Being a much younger man than he, I was able to prevent him from getting too close. Soon a crowd of seventy-five to one hundred persons gathered. Some began to shout, ‘Let’s tar and feather this Witness as a lesson to the others.’ Thanks to Jehovah, I was calm and unafraid. I just stood and looked at them. The chief of police finally arrived and took the man away. We left for Red Bluff to continue our work.

FACING MOB VIOLENCE

I preached God’s truths in South Pasadena for about a year and a half. In 1942, while working there, I attended a convention of Jehovah’s people in Klamath Falls, Oregon, about 700 miles north. Fifty-one other cities were tied in by wire from Cleveland, Ohio, the key city. Klamath Falls was another very patriotic town. We heard rumors that this assembly was going to be mobbed. However, everything went smoothly until Sunday, when the public talk, “Peace​—Can It Last?” was coming over the telephone wire from the key city. Peace did not last long in Klamath Falls, because a mob of over one thousand adults and youths broke into the Witnesses’ cars, smashed them, put crowbars through the radiators, got all the literature and other equipment and piled them up in the middle of the street.

Then they broke into the hall, took Bibles, books and whatever they could from the literature department. They put all of it together in the street and lit a bonfire.

The mobsters tried to push their way into the main building, but the Witnesses closed off all entrances and guarded them. The mob did succeed, however, in cutting the telephone wire, so the rest of the talk being given by the Society’s president had to be delivered by a local Witness, who was prepared to give the talk from a manuscript, if necessary. This angered the crowd more, and they began throwing stones through the windows. We had to put benches against the windows so that the stones would not hit the people in the auditorium. Despite this, some were hurt.

This mob action continued throughout the rest of the afternoon program, and eventually the police succeeded in pushing the mob down the road. The police advised us to get out of the building and not to continue the evening program because they said it would not be possible for them to control the mob when it got dark. The assembly was brought to an end, and we had to work our way through the crowd to get to our hotel rooms. Outside the building, it looked as if a hurricane had struck. Although I was young, I knew that Jehovah can protect his people, and that was proved to me right there. Following my experiences at that assembly, I went back to my assignment and remained there until Jehovah’s organization saw fit to send me elsewhere.