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 PERSUADING GOD 
 BACK TO HERRIN 
 
 BY 
 
 HAL W. TROVILLION 
 
 EDITOR OF THE HERRIN NEWS 
 
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PRESS AND PULPIT 
 
 In the churches there are some ministers and 
 laymen who are constantly berating, belittling 
 and in some extreme cases talking about a decad- 
 ent and dangerous press. The newspapers in 
 general and the Chicago papers in particular are 
 using much church news at the present time and 
 they are willing to use much more if it is real 
 news. Some church news can be made so in- 
 teresting that it will supplant crime news. 
 Newspapers welcome co-operation from the re- 
 ligious organizations, but they resent dictation or 
 propaganda. Less criticism and more co-opera- 
 tion by the church with the newspapers evidently 
 is needed. 
 
 —The Rev. John T. Brabner Smith of the world 
 service commission of the Methodist Episcopal 
 church in a recent lecture at Garret Biblical in- 
 stitute, Evanston, Illinois. 
 
 mm c Bfi u!»cH)Ma 
 
BY WAY OF FOREWORD 
 
 It is well for the country to 
 have liberality in thought and 
 progress in action, but its 
 greatest asset is common sense 
 .... The people know the differ- 
 ence between pretense and re- 
 ality. They want to be told the 
 truth. 
 
 —President Coolidge, 
 
 Aug. 14, 1924. 
 
PERSUADING GOD BACK 
 TO HERRIN 
 
 By 
 
 HAL W. TROVILLION 
 
 Being a True Account of a 
 Successful and Unusual Ex- 
 periment in Journalism Con- 
 ducted by The Herrin News 
 by Resorting to the Old Time 
 Religion to Regenerate a 
 Community that Some 
 Thought God Had Forgotten. 
 
 1925 
 
 The Herrin News 
 
 The Coal Belt's Greatest Newspaper 
 
 Herrin, Illinois 
 
"The right to think., to 
 know, to utter," as John Mil- 
 ton says, is the dearest of all 
 liberties. Without this right 
 there can be no liberty to any 
 people; with it, there can be 
 no slavery. When you have 
 convinced thinking men that 
 it is right, and the humane 
 men that it is just, you will 
 gain your cause, M 
 lose half of what is gained 
 by violence. What is gained 
 by argument is gained for- 
 
 Let us belief- 
 whole of truth can never do 
 harm to the whole of virtue. 
 . . . The last lesson a man 
 ever learns is that libri 
 thought and speech is the 
 right of all mankind; that the 
 man who denies every article 
 of our creed is to be allowed 
 to preach just as often and 
 just as loud as we ourse 
 
 —Wendell Phillips 
 
 (1811-1884) 
 

 f^ 
 
 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 For the past year and a half up to July, 
 1925, no little city on the American conti- 
 nent has been so much in the international 
 news columns as Herrin, up until the 
 trouble started, one of the country's most 
 prosperous coal mining cities, situated in 
 Williamson county in the south end of Il- 
 linois. What manner of city is it, what 
 sort of people inhabit the place that so fre- 
 quently disturbs the nation with its out- 
 landish deportment are natural inquiries 
 that come from those who dwell at a dis- 
 tance. 
 
 From all appearances it is like the usual 
 coal mining 1 and industrial city here in 
 America. It has its share of churches, 
 schools, fraternal organizations and so- 
 cieties. It has a hospital, public library, 
 newspapers and every other convenience 
 and improvement found in any progres- 
 sive Middle West city of 12,000 people. 
 But to the average mind, Herrin is an 
 enigma of our present day culture. The 
 name itself is a very unusual one for a 
 town and now with its uniqueness it im- 
 mediately connotes mob madness, murder 
 and unaccountable rash action. It means 
 nearly everything that we do not like to 
 claim as American, and while there is a 
 fairly good sized foreign colony here, con- 
 sisting mostly of Lombardians from Nor- 
 thern Italy, a sprinkle of miners from 
 Northern England, and Southern Wales, 
 Lithuaneans and Polanders and a very 
 small colony of Syrians, who are engaged 
 principally as small tradesmen, the great 
 
Persuading God Back To Herrin 
 
 mass of population is native to the terri- 
 tory and may be characterized as pure 
 Americans. The years just following the 
 world's war attracted a large number of 
 idle miners from the Alabama' and the 
 West Kentucky coal fields because of the 
 steady work at the local mines up until 
 two years ago. There are no colored peo- 
 ple in Herrin and very few^ in the county. 
 
 In June, 1922, one of the most terrible 
 catastrophes in the annals of American 
 history took place in the county when 
 tw T enty-three persons were killed, or as the 
 press at that time chose to characterize^ it, 
 were massacred in a union and non-union 
 clash. Telegraphic messages bearing the 
 date line of this city won for the event 
 the unpleasant title of the "Herrin Mas- 
 sacre." The entire truth of the trouble 
 which was precipitated by the efforts of a 
 money-mad mine operator to displace 
 union labor in this field never got a fair 
 and full hearing before the people of the 
 nation and the community today still 
 stands discredited and the incident has 
 gone down in history with the indictment 
 against Herrin because of an insufficient 
 understanding of the conditions that led 
 up to 'and precipitated this horrible event. 
 
 But that is now a closed incident. We 
 are here concerned with the reign of ter- 
 ror that came later and from which the 
 community is just now emerging and 
 which has little or no connection with the 
 "massacre" of 1922. 
 
 We might characterize the year of 1924 
 and the first part of 1925 in Williamson 
 county and Herrin w r hich have been so 
 
Persuading God Back To Herrin 9 
 
 much before the world for their unlawful 
 deeds and crimes after the fashion that 
 Carlyle opened his essay on the French 
 Revolution that was gripping the world's 
 attention over a century ago : 
 
 "A huge explosion bursting through all 
 formulas and customs; confounding into 
 wreck and chaos the ordered arrangement 
 of earthly life ; blotting out, one may say, 
 the very firmament and skyey loadstars, — 
 though only for a season. ***** To 
 those who stood present in the actual 
 midst of that smoke and thunder, the ef- 
 fect might well be too violent; blinding 
 and deafening, into confused exasperation, 
 almost into madness. These onlookers 
 have played their part, were it with the 
 printing-press or with the battle-cannon, 
 and are departed; their work, such as it 
 was, remaining behind them; — where the 
 French Revolution also remains." 
 
 Carlyle stood at a distance of half a cen- 
 tury from that great European upheavel 
 to examine into the causes and influences 
 of that mighty event. The heat of battles 
 had long been cooled, but there mere many 
 that sketched the ruins while the guillotine 
 was still dripping red and had it not been 
 for these writers the historians who came 
 along absolutely unbiased later on could 
 not have found their facts out of which to 
 compile a true and accurate story of the 
 rebirth of civilized Europe. 
 
 It is the mission of this little brochure 
 to tell the story of the beginning of the 
 end of one of the most tragic events in 
 the history of southern Illinois — which is 
 the oldest portion of the state and has seen 
 
10 Persuading God Back To Herrin 
 
 many turbulent periods. The ruins left 
 this community are still smoking too hot 
 
 to permit their accurate and fearless hand- 
 ling, for undoubtedly our recent occur- 
 rences have been the most unusual that 
 organized government ever experienced in 
 the Middle West if not in the entire United 
 States. It may not all be over yet — the 
 volcano may not only send up smoke from 
 time to time but it may again spout de- 
 struction and death, but surely not if this 
 wasted and exhausted community heed 
 the last resorted to remedy presented by 
 the Editor-Evangelist Howard S. Wil- 
 liams, the little man from Mississippi 
 who came to us a little while ago bearing 
 a gospel of love into this wilderness of 
 hate. He taught that God was love — not 
 envy nor vengeance. His was the gospel 
 of peace on earth, good will toward all 
 men. This same man departed a short 
 time ago after a six weeks stay with most 
 of the people convinced that there was a 
 God still in the heavens — that He was the 
 father to all mankind — that there was 
 such a thing still in the world as the 
 brotherhood of man, just as the lodges 
 and other societies teach and try to prac- 
 tice, but which the churches in this city 
 had seldom mentioned here during all the 
 reign of terror. 
 
 Just sixteen months before Williams ar- 
 rived there had come into this community 
 another man at the paid services of an or- 
 ganization that was backed almost one 
 hundred percent by the Protestant preach- 
 ers of Williamson county. This new- 
 comer sought to cure the ills of our society 
 
Persuading God Back To Herrin 11 
 
 with powder and lead. During his reign 
 which was virtually supreme, all laws and 
 court orders and even the commands of 
 the militia, which his actions necessitated 
 calling here at a cost to the state of nearly 
 half a million dollars, were inoperative by 
 his command. And during this period the 
 toll of life claimed ran up to thirteen, 
 throwing upon the mercies of the com- 
 munity ten widows and twenty-eight or- 
 phans. Only the death of the newcomer 
 on the night of January 24th last in a duel 
 with Deputy Sheriff Ora Thomas brought 
 to a close the bloodiest conflict that any 
 city in America ever experienced at a time 
 when the nation w T as at peace. 
 
 It was pretty well agreed by all and 
 even admitted by those who had lost their 
 heads for a time in the excitement, that 
 the community was moving fast and sure 
 toward fatal disaster and complete de- 
 struction unless this mob madness was 
 checked. As Lincoln characterized the 
 nation when the slavery issue threatened 
 it, this city could not stand divided against 
 itself. We all saw it clearly day by day 
 as time seemed to bring no improvement 
 nor hold out any hope for betterment. 
 
 There was one thing that was outstand- 
 ing and to which the whole of civilization 
 pointed its finger of scorn. This was that 
 the movement that refused to recognize 
 duly constituted authority was backed by 
 the church. In fact the lawless movement 
 to enforce some of the laws had com- 
 mandered the church and what a formid- 
 able force when the pulpit gets behind a 
 social crusade, when God-fearing, church- 
 
12 Persuading God Back To Herrin 
 
 going, faith-abiding people become so 
 worked up to look upon any means as 
 justifying the end sought! This was the 
 limit to which Herrin's troubles had come. 
 
 How to bring the community back to 
 itself was our immediate problem. The 
 job had to be done by some one from the 
 outside, for no man trusted his neighbor. 
 One had to be one hundred percent their 
 way. So the Moses that was to lead us 
 out had to be one whose hands were not 
 soiled by contact with either side and he 
 had to be as much of a lion tamer as Old 
 Daniel himself. It looked like a job for a 
 martyr, but somewhere there was a man 
 and the will to find him showed the way. 
 
 Howard S. Williams, a former newspa- 
 per owner and publisher at Hattiesburg, 
 Miss., was soon discovered at Cairo, the 
 most southern city in Illinois, conducting 
 a series of successful evangelistic meet- 
 ings after the fashion of Gypsy Smith, Jr., 
 who some two years before had converted 
 Williams. This young editor had sold his 
 publishing plant, taken the money and in- 
 vested in a big gospel tent and was saving 
 the lost souls in the old river town of 
 Cairo. 
 
 Rev. John Meeker, pastor of the Presby- 
 terian church in Herrin, the only Pro- 
 testant minister who was not in sympathy 
 with the methods that had been used in 
 the so-called clean up movement, visited 
 Cairo and sought from Williams the terms 
 upon which he could be persuaded to Her- 
 rin. He was told that if the other preach- 
 ers and their congregations would co- 
 operate that he would pitch tent here and 
 
Persuading God Back To Herrin 13 
 
 start on the problem of regenerating a lost- 
 community. Of this Rev. Meeker assured 
 him and returned to Herrin as happy as 
 if he had at last found the Holy Grail. 
 But a conference with his associate 
 preachers turned him away a very sad and 
 disappointed man. For if not stated in so 
 many words, it was tacitly understood that 
 at this conjuncture of the so-called clean- 
 up movement in Williamson county, a man 
 like Howard S. Williams was persona no a 
 grata. It was known that he preached 
 the old time religion — not narrow doctrine 
 — that his mission was to turn the trans- 
 gressor back to the path of righteousness 
 — that what church the saved soul should 
 unite with to hold him to the straight and 
 narrow was a matter with him and his 
 God. This broad and charitable view of 
 religion apparently is what displeased the 
 other preachers and for some time it look- 
 ed blue indeed for the kingdom of God in 
 Williamson county. 
 
 Then it was that The Herrin News cut 
 in. Like Williams, this paper had been 
 during all the reign of terror much un- 
 welcome because it dared to tell, as long 
 as it was safe to do so, the many atrocities 
 that had been committed in the so-called 
 clean-up movement headed by S. Glenn 
 Young and backed by the preachers who 
 prayed more power to his trusty guns and 
 his armed guards that accompanied him 
 on his destructive raids. But now Young 
 had finally met his man and had been laid 
 to rest by the long prayers and flowery 
 eulogies of the very preachers who were 
 now opposing Williams' advent with the 
 
14 Persuading God Back To Herrin 
 
 old-time religion. Young could no more 
 come to The Herrin News office, as he did 
 upon several occasions during his reign in 
 Herrin, and give orders as to what should 
 go in the paper. The workmen in the 
 mechanical department of the plant no 
 longer worked in fear of being beat up by 
 him and his gang as happened one after- 
 noon when the gang rushed in on the force 
 at work and beat up a linotype operator 
 whom none of them had ever seen before 
 and threatened another operator if he ever 
 again dared put Young's name up in type. 
 But Young had now passed and no one had 
 any fears that his ghost would appear and 
 cause any further trouble. The liberties 
 of the press had been restored all through- 
 out the county with the passing of Young. 
 The Herrin News felt free now to act to 
 restore the community to civilization from 
 which it had been so long ostracised, so 
 the much quoted open letter was sent to 
 Williams by The News inviting him to 
 come to Herrin despite the opposition that 
 had developed in the very institutions 
 where the welcome should have rung loud- 
 est, and the letter impressing upon him to 
 bring along a real, honest-to-God Bible 
 that had all the pages in it. 
 
 So Williams came. He brought the 
 same old Bible that we used to hear 
 preached from. And this is what all of 
 this is about. The purpose of writing this 
 little booklet at this time is to show how 
 dependent the whole fabric of government 
 is upon the practice of true Christian civi- 
 lization and how infirm a foundation is 
 left for duly constituted government once 
 
Persuading God Back To Herrin 15 
 
 the true principles of the right guided 
 church are withdrawn. Had the churches 
 in this county not have been exploited by 
 a spurious doctrine, the law would have 
 stood up under the severest tests it was 
 put to all throughout our troublesome 
 times. But instead of standing up and 
 teaching its true principles, it bent and 
 finally yielded to the onslaught of the mis- 
 guided and fell not only a captive to the 
 will of the surging multitude, but became 
 a mighty barrier behind which many hid 
 to excuse their rioting and wrong-doings. 
 If there is anything anywhere in Ameri- 
 can history since we have had a nation 
 that offers a parallel to our experience, 
 history to the present day is indeed quite 
 silent in the matter. 
 
 Hal W. Trovillion. 
 Herrin, 111., July 25, 1925. 
 

THE HEREIN NEWS CALLS FOR AN 
 EVANGELIST 
 
 (The open-letter invitation sent to Williams to come to the lid 
 of suffering Herrin was heralded everywhere in the press at the tune 
 of hs issuance as a S. 0. S. call. No letter obtained as wide broad- 
 casting by the press as that given the following.) 
 
 The Herrin News Office 
 
 Herrin, 111., May 9, 1925. 
 
 Mr. Howard S. Williams, 
 
 Layman-Evangelist, 
 
 Metropolis, Illinois. 
 
 Dear Mr. Williams :— Upon my return 
 to Herrin yesterday, I was told that you 
 called at The News Office office early in 
 the week to see me. I regret that I was 
 out of the city, for ever since our mutual 
 friend Judge Dewey of Cairo called at my 
 office in Springfield a few weeks ago and 
 told me so many worthy things about you 
 and insisted that you were the very man 
 of the hour for Herrin's present needs, I 
 have looked forward with no little pleas- 
 ure to meeting you and tell you what a 
 harvest awaits you in this community 
 which a lot of people from away think 
 that God has forgotten or deserted alto- 
 gether. Sometimes I am nearly persuad- 
 ed to believe that there is a bit of truth in 
 it. 
 
 In the twenty years that I have publish- 
 ed a newspaper here I know of no time 
 that Herrin was more athirst for a dose 
 of the Old Time Religion, the kind that 
 the song says that "is good enough for 
 me," than right today. We have endured 
 for a long spell now a spurious brand of 
 religion, a sort of "Hell Bent for Heaven" 
 sort, that teaches that God is Hate instead 
 
18 Persuading God Back To Herrin 
 
 of Love — that God is a God of Vengeance. 
 They have us all mixed up on the Com- 
 mandments. The "not" has been dropped 
 probably for convenience sake and some- 
 one has inspired our people to kill, to 
 bear false witness, etc., etc. Instead of 
 obeying the injunction of "keeping the 
 commandments, we have "broken them," 
 broken nearly all of them, over and over 
 again. 
 
 If your Bible has all the pages in it — 
 if the commandments are there in tact, 
 if Paul's great essay on Love is there, if 
 the sermon on the Mount is there and you 
 preach these things — come on to Herrin 
 posthaste for here you are needed — need- 
 ed more than any missionary was ever 
 needed in Abyssinia, more than Living- 
 stone was needed in Darkest Africa. 
 
 If you can accomplish only a few little 
 things, you will have done great good to 
 Herrin — make us believe that God is Love 
 — that we should really love our neigh- 
 bors, not hate them nor carry guns to kill 
 them with, if you can only' get people who 
 have known each other for' ten and twenty 
 years to simply greet one another when 
 they pass on the streets with a brief "good 
 morning/' surely you will have accomp- 
 lished a thing which we have all failed to 
 bring about with long and patient effort. 
 
 I am taking the liberty to hand you 
 herewith my personal check for $50.00 
 which will assist in bringing your party 
 to Herrin. Once here I want to assist you 
 further financially. In addition as pub- 
 lisher of The Herrin News, the city's old- 
 est and first established newspaper, I 
 
Persuading God Back To Herrin 
 
 19 
 
 want to pledge you the unlimited freedom 
 of its news columns for your work and in 
 addition to give you also free access, with- 
 out any charge whatsoever, to its adver- 
 tising columns. What more can I do to 
 assure you that I am for you and your 
 cauS e — but as I said before bring and use 
 a Bible that has all the pages in it, and 
 believe me. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 Hal W. Trovillion, 
 Editor The Herrin News. 
 
 WILLIAMS ACCEPTS TERMS 
 OUTLINED 
 
 Metropolis, 111., 
 May 10, '25. 
 Friend Trovillion: 
 
 God bless you, friend. Thanks for the 
 fine letter and generous check. Your 
 words inspire me and as I read the letter 
 I prayed as I never have before for power 
 to present Christ as a savior of love, hope, 
 cheer and good will. 
 
 God is going to have the victory there. 
 Thank God there are men like you who 
 love Him and help extend His kingdom. 
 
 My manager "Doc" Waddell will call 
 when he gets there. I will see you soon. 
 Your, friend 
 
 Howard S. Williams. 
 
20 Persuading God Back To Herrin 
 
 HOME BANK UNDERWRITES 
 WILLIAMS 
 
 (Williams' home bank vouched for his sincerity when it learned 
 of his coming to Henin through The News.) 
 
 CITIZENS BANK 
 
 Capital $100,000.00 
 
 Hattiesburg, Miss. May 10, 1925. 
 Editor of The Herrin News, 
 Herrin, 111. 
 Dear Sir : 
 
 Through the courtesy of some one, 1 
 have received a copy of your paper of May 
 5th, which carries the announcement of 
 the Howard Williams revival shortly to be 
 held in your city. I was glad to receive 
 the paper, and as one of Mr. Williams' 
 friends, appreciate the space you have 
 given his work. 
 
 I can unreservedly commend Mr. Wil- 
 liams to the citizens of Herrin, 111., as a 
 true and faithful servant of Christ. Your 
 most orthodox people can afford to join 
 with him in his campaign to save lost 
 souls in your city. He is sound in the 
 fundamentals of our Christian religion, 
 and preaches salvation through the blood 
 of Jesus Christ with great power. 
 
 Mr. Williams is a living example of 
 what the marvelous power of the gospel 
 of Jesus Christ can do for a sinner and I 
 sincerely trust that full co-operation will 
 be extended him by the entire Christian 
 population of your city, and I am sure that 
 under the leadership of the Spirit of God 
 he will accomplish a most noteworthy 
 work. 
 
 G. M. McWilliams, 
 
 Active Vice-Pres. 
 
Persuading God Back To Herrin 21 
 
 NEIGHBORING MINISTERS 
 APPEALED TO 
 
 (Christendom throughout southern Illinois was notified of the 
 final test that Williams and his old-time brand of religion would be 
 put to in solving one of the most complicated problems of the day 
 and here is the letter sent to all ministers in this section announcing 
 the coming of the liltle man from Mississippi by whom a miracle 
 was to be performed. These ministers to whom the letter was sent 
 were asked to urge their conference brothers in Herrin to co-operate 
 in the work.) 
 
 The Herrin News Office. 
 May the 29, '25. 
 Dear Friend : 
 
 The eyes of all Christendom throughout 
 "Egypt" are upon Herrin and Williamson 
 county — a land that many think God has 
 deserted and left to the ruins that have 
 been wreaked upon it. 
 
 But we have a bright star of hope 
 breaking through the clouds. 
 
 Layman-Evangelist Howard S. Wil- 
 liams is tackling the mighty job of our re- 
 generating. The Herrin News, which 
 was the first newspaper ever founded in 
 Herrin and the first to invite him hither- 
 ward, has faith in his ultimate success. 
 We believe that our problem is one that 
 you are interested in seeing solved, for it 
 is sectional rather than a community 
 blight. They have tried to solve it with 
 dynamite blasts, but the mute pile of 
 brick and mortar has not given us the 
 answer that all is over. They have trie'* 
 powder and bullets and the ten widows 
 and the 28 orphans made by them have 
 been no stop signals for checking our 
 troubles. Armies have come, paraded our 
 streets and armies have passed away, but 
 the community is still much upset, terribly 
 disturbed and still we stand at dagger 
 points. Only a few days ago a committee 
 
22 Persuading God Back io Herrin 
 
 went to Springfield and appealed to the 
 Governor, telling him the}' feared another 
 outburst. 
 
 They have tried and failed utterly ev- 
 ery remedy known to government, prac- 
 tically everything known in fierce w 
 fare. All these have failed. 
 
 Now comes Williams, app to in- 
 
 stitutions that rep eace on ea: 
 
 good will toward a It is the last 
 
 and fin 
 not — not at all. 
 
 You will undou 
 on this great series of meel 1 to en- 
 
 ': you to do s 
 to send you The H 
 the six 
 
 cooperation to the 
 
 I hat 
 all I 
 
 Yc : lly, 
 
 Hal W. Trovillion. 
 
 3 GETS ON THE JOB 
 
 May 24 
 
 With the Herrin high school gym pack- 
 ed to capa; -man-Evangelist How- 
 ard S. Williams stepped to the platform 
 Sunday evening in 
 
 ering candles when the electric lights fail- 
 ed and started the ball rolling in a six 
 weeks campaign for the redemption of 
 Herrin. It is the biggest undertaking he 
 or any other minister of the gospel o- 
 tackled in America. No other community 
 
Persuading God Back To Herrin 23 
 
 under the stars and stripes finds itself to- 
 day in the predicament that Herrin and 
 Williamson county are in — spiritually, 
 legally, socially and from practically every 
 angle known to civilization. 
 
 Williams had been before the audience 
 scarcely five minutes, before the most du- 
 bious made up their minds that he was a 
 man big enough, brave enough, cunning 
 enough for the job — that he had the nerve, 
 the power and the love to overcome all 
 the obstacles that have already and may 
 continue to be put in the way of his suc- 
 cess. He is the sort of man who can turn 
 the lemons they toss him into a cool, sweet, 
 smiling drink, and he can catch them, 
 seed them, juice them as fast as they are 
 pitched him. And he will bring ultimate 
 triumph out of the religious disaster that 
 has befallen this prodigal community. 
 
 All of the Protestant ministers of the 
 city were there — all save Rev. Story of 
 the Christian church. No one appeared 
 to represent or speak for him. Not one 
 spoke in behalf of the congregation he 
 leads. 
 
 Rev. Lee for the Baptist made a faithful 
 promise that "we will do what we can to 
 make this meeting a success/' 
 
 Rev. Glotfelty of the Methodist pledged 
 them ONE HUNDRED PERCENT. 
 
 Rev. Meeker of the Presbyterian 
 church, who has been untiring in his ef- 
 forts to bring the Williams meetings here, 
 assured the party that he and his congre- 
 gation would co-operate to the fullest ex- 
 tent. 
 
 In behalf of the city, Mayor Marshall 
 
24 Persuading God Back To Herrin 
 
 McCormack welcomed the party and told 
 them that Herrin needed the services of 
 Williams and that the city would lend 
 whatever aid it could to the complete suc- 
 cess of the campaign. 
 
 Manager John Marlow, of the Hippo- 
 drome and Annex Theatres, has placed the 
 Annex theatre at the full disposal of the 
 party for their noon-day meetings. 
 
 The committees are working fine. 
 
 The city is waking up. 
 
 The co-operation from everywhere is 
 most beautiful and reflects the opinion 
 that Christian charity and helpfulness is 
 not an entire lost art in this old town that 
 has been accused and many times guilty of 
 every crime under the sun. The pull- 
 backs are very very rare and remind us 
 that the Herrin of the Reign of Terror 
 period is gradually moving aside for the 
 old Herrin of years ago when man loved 
 his neighbor and all was well with the 
 world and God was in His Heaven. 
 
 We have every reason to believe that 
 Williams will do a world of good here. If 
 he can only get us back to some of the 
 simple observances of civilized life, his 
 coming will have been a wonderful thing. 
 If he can take the gun out of hip pockets 
 and put in place a clean handkerchief, he 
 will have bettered the community bounte- 
 ously. If he can remove the grouchy 
 frown from the faces of people we meet 
 on the street and place thereon a kindly 
 smile — exterminate hate, plant love; get 
 men to thinking about saving life rather 
 than taking it away. There's a world of 
 little things that he can and will do, for 
 
Persuading God Back To Herrin 25 
 
 he's starting in the right way along the 
 right road and we're staking our reputa- 
 tion on him finishing the job. 
 
 For he's dead in earnest — knows what 
 he's about and where he's headed for and 
 the world stands aside to let such a man 
 pass who knows where he is going. 
 
 Success — a big bounding success to you 
 Williams. 
 
 A GOOD WOMAN INTERESTED 
 
 (The open-letter invitation sent to Williams was published far 
 and wide. Letters like this one, commending and encouraging, came 
 in from all sections of the United States. This particular one is il- 
 lustrative of the earnest interest shown by a nearby Christian worker, 
 Mrs. Mitchell, a prominent Methodist District official of Carbondale, 
 Illinois.) 
 
 Carbondale, 111. 
 May 14, 1925. 
 Mr. Hal W. Trovillion, 
 Herrin, 111. 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 At noon today I found in my mail a 
 clipping from your paper that was read 
 with great interest, and I thank you for 
 giving me the privilege of reading it. 
 Congratulations to you for finding the 
 Holy Grail for your city. To me you have 
 found the golden key that will unlock the 
 door of new opportunity, and the position 
 which you hold as editor of The Herrin 
 News, will play no small part in making a 
 very different city of Herrin. 
 
 Dr. Mitchell and I both are from Wil- 
 liamson County, and both are much in- 
 terested in letting the world see that good 
 can come out of and be maintained in that 
 section of the State. We know there are 
 as many good people with high ideals in 
 that county as in any other county of the 
 
26 Persuading God Back To Herrin 
 
 state. We also know that "Bloody Wil- 
 liamson" was written by a man who did 
 not hesitate to put into it sensational 
 things for commercial purposes solely. 
 
 We stand ready to co-operate with the 
 evangelist and all good people who want 
 to give the Lord right of way in their 
 hearts and lives. 
 
 In this great society which it is my 
 pleasure to represent, I have repeatedly 
 said nothing but the Old Time Religion 
 will make things right; and have recom- 
 mended to our women over Southern Illi- 
 nois in this our Carbondale District, to 
 keep a Deaconess in Herrin or Marion who 
 would show those people the Christ by her 
 daily life, teach them how to live. A doz- 
 en years ago we tried to get that through 
 but were told the time was not ripe, money 
 is not at hand, or some other excuse. 
 There has been a deep conviction in my 
 heart that if we had done so then these 
 awful things would not have occured. 
 
 There is such a misunderstanding be- 
 tween foreigners and our people. We 
 must show them Christ in us, and Dr. E. 
 Stanley Jones has just said, "we must Be 
 Christ like and give ourselves that we may 
 win them." 
 
 Very sincerely, 
 
 Adella B. Mitchell. 
 
 CHURCH PUBLICATION PRAISES 
 EFFORT 
 
 (The Northwestern Christian Advocate, the most widely read 
 Methodist publication in the Mid West, contained the following com- 
 ment upon the coming of Williams into Herrin.) 
 
 Everybody knows Herrin, Illinois. It 
 has had advertising enough, of a sort. But 
 
Persuading God Back To Herrin 27 
 
 some of the citizens are not happy. One 
 of them, the editor of The News, the 
 town's oldest newspaper, has written to an 
 evangelist, asking him to come to Herrin 
 and preach what he calls the "Old Time 
 Religion." 
 
 Says Editor Trovillion: "We have 
 endured for a long spell now a spurious 
 brand of religion, a kind of 'Hell Bent for 
 Heaven' sort, that teaches that God is 
 hate instead of love — that God is a God of 
 vengeance. The 'not' has been dropped 
 from all the Commandments and some- 
 one has inspired our people to kill, to bear 
 false witness, etc., etc. Instead of obey- 
 ing the injunction of 'keeping the Com- 
 mandments' we have broken them, broken 
 nearly all of them, over and over again." 
 
 But an important condition is pointed 
 out. "If your Bible has all the pages in 
 it — if the Commandments are there intact, 
 if Paul's great essay on love is there, if 
 the Sermon on the Mount is there, and if 
 you preach these things — come to Herrin 
 posthaste for here you are needed — needed 
 more than any missionary was ever need- 
 ed in Abyssinia, more than Livingstone 
 was needed in Darkest Africa." 
 
 And then the editor tells what Herrin 
 needs and he hopes for: "If you can ac- 
 complish only a few little things you will 
 have done great good to Herrin — make us 
 believe that God is love — that we should 
 really love our neighbors not hate them 
 nor carry guns to kill them with; if you 
 can only get people who have known each 
 other for ten and twenty years to simply 
 greet one another when they pass on the 
 
28 Persuading God Back To Herrin 
 
 streets with a brief 'good morning/ surely 
 you will have accomplished a thing which 
 we have all failed to bring about with long 
 and patient effort." 
 
 For a layman, editor of a secular news- 
 paper in a hate-cursed prejudice-ridden 
 community, this citizen of Herrin has 
 made a diagnosis at once accurate and 
 courageous. 
 
 Herrin is not the only sinner among Il- 
 linois cities. She has had the misfortune 
 to be a storm center of turbulent and 
 mighty passions, but the conditions for 
 similar outbreaks may be found in many 
 other communities. 
 
 And it is futile to expect that compro- 
 mise will cure the evil, or that truces can 
 be made to last. "There is no end to 
 strife/' Only as the way of strife is 
 abandoned and another way chosen can a 
 troubled city find peace. 
 
 It is the way which leads from fear to 
 love, from strife to fellowship, from the 
 Hymn of Hate to the Sermon on the Mount 
 — the way of Christ's obedience. 
 
 Which is an old story, and may seem 
 commonplace. It has one modest but suf- 
 ficient credential — it works. 
 
 COMMERCIAL WRITER DISCOVERS 
 HERRIN 
 
 (Lester S. Cclby, publicity representative of the Illinois Chamber 
 of Commerce, who was touring Illinois advertising the Illinois Products 
 Exposition which is to be held in Chicago, October 8th to 17th next, 
 passed through Williamson County and his observations given in part 
 below reveal that he discovered quite a different country than the 
 stranger would expect to run onto from reading newspaper reports that 
 have for the past eighteen months been broadcasted from ocean to 
 ocean in America. Mr. Colby hit Herrin just as it was bowing its 
 head in prayer for the highnoon prayer meetings that Howard S. 
 Williams' party held daily.) 
 
 Herrin prayed. It was noon when I 
 
Persuading God Back To Herrin 29 
 
 arrived in Herrin and the sight I saw 
 amazed me. Herrin stood with bowed 
 head. 1 had never dreamed of Herrin as 
 prayerful. Herrin, Marion, Williamson 
 county — somehow that is not the picture. 
 I would have been less surprised to smell 
 powder smoke, see gutters stained red. 
 Such is reputation. 
 
 In the restaurant hung a placard : 
 
 THIS PLACE WILL BE CLOSED AT NOON FOR 
 PRAYER 
 
 In other business houses, all through 
 the city, I found many, many similar 
 signs. One, in a barber shop, bore the 
 mute words : 
 
 "For what shall it profit a man if he 
 gain the whole world though he loseth his 
 own soul." 
 
 So this was Herrin ! This "Bloody Wil- 
 liamson county !" I pinched myself and 
 discovered that I was awake. I saw post- 
 ers everywhere announcing that Howard 
 S. Williams, layman evangelist, the 
 "Mississippi Thunderbolt," was holding a 
 series of revival meetings in Herrin. 
 
 And Herrin, they tell me, is hitting the 
 sawdust trail to salvation. So I ask what 
 sort of countryside is this — Herrin, Mar- 
 ion, Williamson County. 
 
 Williamson county has bank deposits of 
 about $14,500,000. Of this money $5,- 
 500,000 is in Marion banks, $4,500,000 in 
 Herrin banks and the rest scattered 
 through the smaller communities. Rec- 
 ords of 42 years show that Williamson 
 county has produced more coal in that 
 time than any other Illinois county, the 
 
30 Persuading God Back To Herrin 
 
 total 169,338.888 tons. Franklin county., 
 next, on the north is fourth with 135,969,- 
 
 446. 
 
 PERSUADING GOD BACK TO HERRIN 
 
 (Editorial in The Herrin News, issue of July 10, 
 1925) 
 
 Howard S. Williams will close his 
 evangelistic campaign in Herrin Sunday 
 evening. It has been the greatest relig- 
 ious awakening that this section of Illinois 
 has ever had. Success has crowned his 
 efforts to turn the people of this misdi- 
 rected community back to the Cross of 
 Jesus. And it is quite a different symbol 
 from the one that has burned for the last 
 eighteen months on these broad and fair 
 prairies. 
 
 A little later on when all the truth can 
 be told, when time has set things aright, 
 when the bitterness of the fight shall have 
 been forgotten, and we hope when all shall 
 have been forgiven for the terrible crimes 
 committed here there will be a history 
 written about Herrin — Herrin that was 
 so much in the spot light of 1924 and 
 1925. Someone will pen the final para- 
 graph which will seek its permanent place 
 in the chronicles of the world. And when 
 it comes to giving credit for the pioneer 
 work of guiding us back to normal, usher- 
 ing in the era of good feeling which al- 
 ways follows a social and political up- 
 heavel such as has been ours, the name of 
 Howard S. Williams, the little layman- 
 editor-evangelist from Mississippi, will 
 come in for big mention. It may be truth- 
 fully said of him that he contributed all 
 
Persuading God Back To Herrin 31 
 
 the earnest of his entire heart and soui 
 to heal the running raw wounds he found 
 upon his advent to this city. History will 
 characterize him as the man who persuad- 
 ed God back to Herrin. That's a mighty 
 strong statement to utter, but not a bit 
 sacrilegious. For if God was anywhere 
 about when we were grabbing at one an- 
 others throats a few months ago, we don't 
 know where He was hiding. He wasn't in 
 the House of God, that's certain, for from 
 out of these very places came many accus- 
 ed of the killings just the same as those 
 who hailed from the by-ways and high- 
 ways of the county. 
 
 Modern history does not reveal a com- 
 munity so completely God-forsaken as was 
 Herrin and Williamson county before Wil- 
 liams came. This was a wilderness of 
 hate, a veritable jungle of jealousy. Old 
 friends would not speak with one another. 
 Everybody seemed crazed. God might 
 have been in His heaven all the time but 
 no one was pointing to him there and it 
 was not at all well with the world we liv- 
 ed in here, neither was it safe as the ten 
 widows and twenty-eight orphans who 
 now bear witness. Into this seething 
 mess of human ills ventured Williams, 
 knowingly, and warned that he was walk- 
 ing into a real hornets' nest. But he 
 courageously ventured forth and with a 
 single message — a simple three word 
 message that we had all heard over and 
 over again, but all had forgotten its sig- 
 nificance : 
 
 GOD IS LOVE. 
 
 And he didn't say it with perfunctory 
 
32 Persuading God Back To Herrin 
 
 They Were Strangers Both 
 
 Their Mission Was to Solve the Community 
 Problems 
 
 THE STARTER 
 
 S. GLENN YOUNG 
 who tackled the task with a gun 
 
Persuading God Back To Herrin 33 
 
 And We Took Them In 
 
 Each Worked in His Own Way This Task to 
 Perform 
 
 THE FINISHER 
 
 HOWARD S. WILLIAMS 
 who finished the job with the old Bible 
 
34 Persuading God Back To Herrin 
 
 lip movement, but he uttered it with all 
 his strength and heart and soul. No won- 
 der the people heard him as they did of 
 old the Master, believing in him. He led 
 them to a rediscovery of a great religious 
 principle — it was the beginning and the 
 end of it all. 
 
 If there is one thing above all others 
 that impresses one with this man from 
 Mississippi, it is that he is deadly in 
 earnest. He has none of the charlatan 
 about him, is not the salesman type of 
 evangelist, but with him it's the most ser- 
 ious matter in the world. A man on the 
 street the other day put it well in his 
 
 rough observation when he remarked 
 
 "that fellow Williams would go to hell to 
 save a soul." And we think that he would 
 almost risk his life in the task. 
 
 Williams has done a world of good for 
 Herrin and Williamson county two geo- 
 graphical units that to the outside world 
 mean "Mob Madness." If you don't 
 agree with us, get in your machine some 
 pretty day and motor out in any direction 
 about a hundred miles. No matter where 
 you stop, whether at a cross roads oil 
 station, beside a field where a boy is 
 plowing, at the garage at night, at a res- 
 taurant, a hot dog stand or newspaper 
 office, no matter where— just you tell 
 them where you hail from and then watch 
 that condescending expression come over 
 their face and listen for the final apole- 
 getic remark, "well, I guess that there are 
 SOME nice people there." 
 
 We hope we can live it down. But it 
 doesn't matter what the outside world 
 
Persuading God Back To Herrin 35 
 
 thinks about us as much as it does what 
 we think of one another. For it is with 
 one another that we must get along if we 
 are to endure as a peaceful and prosperous 
 community that we once were. Get- 
 ting along with one another is what Wil- 
 liams has been driving home to us. He 
 scored the trouble stirer, the agitator. 
 His simple recipe for getting along was 
 again the often repeated three word mes- 
 sage: 
 
 LOVE ONE ANOTHER. 
 
 And if there is a single parting sentence 
 of all the six weeks preaching he has done 
 at the tabernacle that should stick in the 
 memory of every man, woman and child 
 that heard him, it should be this one — 
 LOVE ONE ANOTHER. If we but prac- 
 tice this, we may hopefully expect no more 
 Herrin spread over the front pages of the 
 newspapers that hold us up before the na- 
 tions as the meanest city on the globe. 
 
 The co-operation given Williams in it- 
 self proves that we are all anxious to 
 usher in an era of good feeling, the for- 
 getting and forgiving period where we 
 bury the hatchet as it is sometimes called. 
 There are signs that w^e are at least ap- 
 proaching the starting point. For no one 
 has labored harder to set us off on the 
 pleasant voyage than this man Williams. 
 No single event in all of Herrin's tempes- 
 tuous career was given as complete a right 
 of way. as that accorded the Williams 
 evangelistic party. They operated on 
 clear track orders and nothing got in their 
 way. Practically every business house in 
 the city for the past six weeks has been 
 
36 Persuading God Back To Herrin 
 
 closing up from 11:30 to 12 o'clock noon 
 for the mid-day prayer meetings, many of 
 which were held in the principal places of 
 business. In the very room where S. 
 Glenn Young and Deputy Sheriff Ora 
 Thomas staged their final and fatal battle 
 hangs from a coat rack on the spot where 
 Young fell a big poster advertising the 
 Williams meetings. And this historical 
 little cigar store which is known all over 
 the land by the many pictures published of 
 it opened its doors at noon along with 
 many other places for a noontime prayer 
 meeting. 
 
 The newspapers too did their level best 
 to help Williams, for he was one of their 
 fellows, a former successful Hattiesburg, 
 Miss., newspaper publisher. Xo single 
 topic ever before made a two column 
 place on the front page for six consecutive 
 weeks in all of the twenty years that The 
 Herrin News, the city's first paper, has 
 been published. Williams' meetings were 
 given carte blanche and Dear Old Doc 
 Waddle, who used to dope out the press 
 matter for the John Robinson's Shows and 
 who today probably knows more newspa- 
 per men than any other in the nation, cov- 
 ered the meeting and the press took his 
 stuff, as he wanted to call it, right from 
 his graphic pen. 
 
 The preachers of Herrin co-operated 
 splendidly, save just one, Rev. Story, 
 pastor of the Christian church. 'His ex- 
 cuse was that his people had concluded 
 not to join in. However most all of them 
 attended the meetings regularly and his 
 own family came often. Every other min- 
 
Persuading God Back To Herrin 37 
 
 ister in the entire county was in the meet- 
 ing giving assistance from time to time. 
 
 But now that Williams is soon to leave, 
 the problem is ours again to preserve our- 
 selves. He has preached peace and good 
 will toward all men, for it was the soul of 
 man that he was concerned with, not the 
 occupation nor the previous condition of 
 the man. He loved us for our future, 
 not for our past. And as long as the 
 things he urged upon us abide just that 
 long will we go ahead peaceably. There 
 cannot be any denying the fact we had 
 drifted far at sea. There can be no dis- 
 puting it either that false beacon lights 
 had lured us into dangerous straights and 
 on to disaster. It is also undeniable, and 
 history will so record the fact that tho 
 very institutions that should have been 
 life-saving stations, were not manned, the 
 crew was not on the job. Slowly but 
 surely our ship went down. It was not 
 only a breakdown of the law that many 
 still contend caused it all, it was partly a 
 religious collapse of the entire community. 
 But we are now set well back on the road, 
 the church houses are rechristened once 
 more as the House of God, and we hope 
 they will be used as such and that all will 
 stay put right. Williams has handed us 
 an accurate compass, and believing in the 
 brotherhood of man, the fatherhood of 
 God and with that compass pointed to the 
 star of Bethlehem and with our eyes on 
 a cross that proclaims a Jesus we may 
 hope for a bon voyage back to that far 
 distant land where still dwell the sane and 
 sensible people of modern civilization. 
 
38 Persuading God Back To Herrin 
 
 COMMENTS FROM THE PRESS 
 
 1,000 BAD MEN IN HERRIN TAMED 
 BY EVANGELIST 
 
 (This account of the dramatic close of the Williams' meetings 
 was written by Wilbur Forrest, correspondent en chief for the Paris, 
 France, edition of the New York Herald Tribune. He was a war cor- 
 respondent assigned to France sometime ago and his ability as a news- 
 gatherer ?nd correspondent attracted the attention of the Herald Trib- 
 une and at the close of the World War, he was placed in charge of 
 the correspondents in the Paris office of that paper. Coming to the 
 States this summer for a brief vacation, he was given two assign- 
 ments as he journeyed to the Middle West. One was to stop off at 
 Detroit and interview Henry Ford, the other to come on to Herrin and 
 cover the close of th° Williams' meetings. Both tasks he did well.) 
 
 With upward of a thousand souls, including 
 gunmen, bootleggers, feudists, gamblers and other 
 bad characters, converted and tied to the doctrine 
 of brotherly love, the Rev. Howard S. Williams, of 
 Mississippi, editor, evangelist, left Herrin today. 
 after a series of revival services. 
 
 "Bloody Herrin," known the world over for its 
 battles betw r een opposing factions, is as calm and 
 peaceful as any city of its size in Illinois. The 
 Rev. Mr. Williams, w r ho departed for Chicago for 
 a period of rest, took with him the thanks of che 
 leading citizens of the town, who credit his 
 rough-and-ready theology with doing the hitherto 
 impossible in bringing men, who a short time ago 
 were carrying guns and threatening to take life, 
 into friendly handshakes, with a bond of Christ- 
 ianity between them. 
 
 Old-Time Religion Wins 
 
 Mr. Williams is a lay evangelist, who preaches 
 the old-time religion. His converts include 
 Protestants and Catholics, and among his most 
 hearty supporters have been the Jewish men of 
 the town. 
 
 Among his converts were J. O. Reagan, A. F. 
 Yates and J. H. Capps, avowed feudists, who 
 promised to lay down their automatics and ac- 
 
Persuading God Back To Herrin 39 
 
 cept religion. The most notable conversion was 
 Edward Hartwell, right-hand man and bodyguard 
 of Sheriff George Galligan. Hartwell is going in- 
 to some other business. 
 
 Galligan has not hit the trail, but has come 
 to Herrin to attend revivals. On his last visit 
 Evangelist Williams asked 5,000 people in his 
 tabernacle to recognize the Sheriff as the symbol 
 of law and order in Williamson County. Several 
 hundred, including bad men who had sworn to 
 "get" him, rushed over and shook the Sheriff's 
 hands. 
 
 Others who have forsaken sin for Christ are 
 Don Childers, who, crying like a child, admitted 
 before thousands at the tabernacle that he was a 
 gun toter. 
 
 Credits Higher Agency 
 
 Mr. Williams credits his great success in Her- 
 rin to something higher than man's ability. 
 Fundamentally, sin was responsible for the ills of 
 Herrin, just the same as elsewhere, he told the 
 Herald Tribune before his departure. Herrin is 
 no different from any other city, he holds, except 
 that possibly men here let hate and jealousy run 
 riot. 
 
 "Humanly speaking, I would not dara to try 
 to place the blame for Herrin on any individual 
 or organization," he said. "It was simply that sin 
 was there and had to be eradicated before the 
 town could be cleaned up. There is only one 
 antidote for sin. That is Christ." 
 
 Evangelist Williams, former Associated Press 
 correspondent and editor of a small newspaper in 
 Mississippi, was converted by Gypsy Smith, Jr., 
 two and a half years ago. For the last eighteen 
 months he has been exhorting people to leave the 
 paths of sin. 
 
 "I have thought it right to go out in the world 
 
40 Persuading God Back To Herrin 
 
 and sell Christ to others/' he said. "I am a 
 salesman of Christ and a salesman must know his 
 goods. Here in Herrin, during the last few 
 weeks,, hundreds who have hated one another, 
 dozens who have been drunkards and adulterers, 
 scores who have been bootleggers and pistol- 
 toters, craps-shooters and booze-hounds have hit 
 the trail. God's laws, with His divine help, have 
 conclusively proven that a power greater than 
 human power is absolutely essential for the re- 
 generation. 
 
 Holds Dry Laws Futile 
 
 "Reformation can never precede regeneration, 
 There must be deeper motives to quit drinking 
 booze than man's laws. If the United States gov- 
 ernment would spend 10 per cent of the money 
 now engaged in chasing bootleggers to ereut 
 gospel tents and put evangelists in the field, they 
 could settle this liquor problem within the next 
 twelve months. I have seen at least one hundred 
 bootleggers concerted in my tabernacles during 
 the last eighteen months and the first thing they 
 do is to go out and lead others to accept Christ." 
 
 Getting back to how he cleaned up Herrin, the 
 evangelist added: 
 
 "When I first came here, I asked them night 
 after night to read the thirteenth chapter of First 
 Corinthians. That's the great love chapter, 
 wherein Paul says that if a man hasn't love he is 
 as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. I have 
 tried here to hit the love notes all the way 
 through, at the same time condemning sin with- 
 out fear or favor." 
 
 Riotous Nightmare Ended 
 
 The hideous nightmare of massacres, factional 
 gun-fighting between union and non-union forces, 
 elements of wet and dry, Ku Klux and anti- Ku 
 Klux, since 1922 is now forgotten history, leading 
 
Persuading God Back To Herrin 41 
 
 citizens of Herrin said today. According to Mayor 
 Marshall MacCormack, former Ku Klux leader, 
 more than one hundred gunmen, bootleggers ani 
 all-around bad men have folded their tents and 
 slunk away for good under the glaring spotlight 
 of vigorous Christianity, which Williams brought 
 to Herrin, beginning six weeks ago. 
 
 "History will characterize Williams as the man 
 who persuaded God back to Herrin," Hal W. Tro- 
 villion, Illinois state official and Herrin editor, 
 said. "That's a mighty strong statement to utter, 
 but not a bit sacrilegious. For, if God was any- 
 where about when we were grabbing at one an 
 other's throats a few months ago, we don't know 
 where he was hiding. He wasn't in Herrin 
 churches — that's certain — for from out of these 
 places came many accused of killings." 
 Wilson Classmate as Aid 
 
 Much credit for bringing the hard-hitting 
 Mississippi evangelist to Herrin goes to the Rev. 
 John Meeker, graduate of the Princeton Theo- 
 logical School and friend and one-time classmate 
 of Woodrow Wilson. Meeker was Herrin's one 
 preacher who remained aloof from Klan and anti- 
 Klan troubles culminating in the slaying of Dep- 
 uty Sheriff Ora Thomas and S. Glenn Young, 
 Klan leader, last January. 
 
 Williams then was holding revivals at Cairo, 
 111., and Meeker made overtures to bring him to 
 Herrin. Other Protestant ministers declined to 
 support the movement, but, when the evangelist 
 finally came, they all were present to hear him, 
 except the minister of the Herrin Christian 
 Church, who has steadfastly refused to support 
 the Williams brand of non-sectarian soul-saving. 
 
 The Christian congregation consequently held 
 a meeting to decide whether their minister should 
 be allowed to remain with them. 
 
42 Persuading God Back To Herrin 
 
 Herrin Reborn, Say Citizens 
 
 Whether the results of Evangelist Williams' 
 clean-up here will endure is the interesting ques- 
 tion. Most of Herrin's leading citizens witn 
 whom the Herald Tribune correspondent talked 
 believe Herrin's troubles are over. A few weeks 
 ago the community was a jungle of hatred and 
 antagonism. Old friends ignored one another on 
 the streets. Uncompromising feudism was in the 
 air. Men were for or against one another, witn 
 no middle ground. About thirty widows and or- 
 phans and many graves in the Herrin Cemetery 
 told the story of a sort of earthly, hell-fire and 
 damnation atmosphere in which the community 
 was suffering. There was no medium with which 
 to bring opposing feudists together. Although 
 many were tired of the fight, they had to go on. 
 
 Then came Williams. That is the story or 
 Herrin's revival. A nervy little Southern lay 
 preacher told Herrin's gunmen where to head in. 
 He did it with his coat off, with fists flailing tne 
 air and without a pistol strapped to his hip. Her- 
 rin's bad eggs wilted and hit the trail. Others 
 saw the handwriting on the wall and slunk away. 
 
 Whether the converts will lose their new founl 
 religion or others will return to bring mob mad- 
 ness and death back to Herrin is now the ques- 
 tion, but the average citizen here thinks nor. 
 Herrin is born again, they say, and all credit 
 goes to the former Mississippi editor, who has 
 the reputation of being willing to go to hell to 
 save a soul. 
 
 Klan Organization "Through" 
 
 His fame has spread until St. Louis has beck- 
 oned him to save souls in that city in a great 
 tabernacle built and supported by more than a 
 hundred churches. But saving Herrin from her- 
 self with a two-fisted doctrine of love one another 
 
Persuading Gcd Back To Herrin 43 
 
 will probably stand as the Mississippi lay evange- 
 list's greatest feat. Anyway, without mentioi 
 the term Ku Kiux Klan once in his noonday meet- 
 ings and night revivals, he has succeeded in 
 putting the Herrin Kluckers out of business. A 
 few days ago Herrin's Klan newspaper filed a 
 petition in bankruptcy and converted members 
 of the Klan now admit that their local orgr. 
 tion is virtually through. 
 
 Figuratively, he has taken the guns out of 
 Herrin's hip pockets and replaced th< 
 clea:. is. He I 
 
 on the faces of : grouchy 
 
 frowns . ;. Such is the result that th-e 
 
 outside observer sees out of Williams' camp- 
 Perhaps any 
 
 but the el-s 12,000 citizens 
 
 ready to erect a monu: 
 him all the credit. 
 
 WILLIAMS TO INVADE HERRIN 
 
 (Throughout all of ' 
 newspaper in 
 
 did the News-Democrat of Belleville, Illinois, edited and published by 
 Fred J. Kern, its sole owner. His editorials were absolutely fearless 
 and he dared to 
 
 Illinois country journalism has i than Editor Kern. He 
 
 belongs rightly among that galaxy of that grand profession of the 
 ante bellum days when the editorial column thundered louder than 
 any other page of the newspaper. This article is published with no 
 intended malice, ! 
 
 style of its author who and pens mercilessly what his 
 
 discerning gye beholds of injustice and wrong-doing.) 
 
 The orgy of bloodshed in the city of Herrin 
 will be followed by a real, honest-to-goodness, re- 
 ligious revival. 
 
 Evangelist Howard S. Williams has struck his 
 tent right in the middle of the city, which was 
 wrecked by the Ku Klux Klan, to save the sal- 
 vage. 
 
 We know Williams well and have watch' 
 career for years. 
 
44 Persuading God Back To Herrin 
 
 He is a real follower of the Lowly Xazarene 
 and preaches the gospel as he finds it in the Good 
 Book, instead of the K. K. K. Manual of Arms. 
 
 Evangelist Williams knows that the religion of 
 Jesus is a religion of love, of liberality and char- 
 ity, of magnanimity and forgiveness, of broad- 
 mindedness and common sense and forbearance, 
 high above factions and feuds, all pervading as 
 the atmosphere, and illimitable in its immensity, 
 like the universe, itself. 
 
 He preaches from the Sermon on the Mount 
 and uses the Golden Rule as his text. 
 
 He believes in the Lord's Prayer and observes 
 the Ten Commandments. 
 
 You can imagine what P. R. Glotfelty, the 
 Methodist preacher; I. E. Lee, the Baptist preach- 
 er; B. E. Green, the total immersionist from 
 Coal Bank, and J. E. Story, the great reformer 
 and moral sky-pilot, think of a minister who ex- 
 pounds a religion, and clings to a faith like that. 
 
 They know that Williams is going to put a 
 crimp into their calculations. 
 
 The only Protestant preacher in Herrin who is 
 sympathetic with Evangelist Williams, is Rev. 
 Meeker, of the Presbyterian Church, who has 
 kept aloof from Ku Klux skull-duggery, bullyragg- 
 ing and criminality. 
 
 Rev. Meeker is an exponent of real Christian- 
 ity, real religion, real humanity and has the same 
 message for the people which Williams carries. 
 
 He is first a good man, and. therefore, a good 
 preacher. 
 
 He loves his fellowman and preaches the gos- 
 pel of love which permeates the life and the 
 morals and the message of Jesus. 
 
 The beauty of it is that the fanatical Ku Klux 
 preachers will no more be able to keep their con- 
 gregations from flocking to the tent of Williams, 
 
Persuading God Back To Herrin 45 
 
 than they could if St. Paul came back and visited 
 Herrin and preached the gospel of our Lord un- 
 der the sheltering roof of Williams' tent. 
 
 Evangelist Williams is a great orator, capable 
 himself, and through his own eloquence, to draw 
 a big crowd, but besides that he is a thoroughbred 
 and knows the game. 
 
 He is utterly without fear. 
 
 He has no obligations to discharge, except to 
 himself, and to his Divine Master. 
 
 He's going to tell some very unwelcome truths 
 in Herrin so far as the old Ku Klux crowd is con- 
 cerned. 
 
 Christ stood for peace on earth, good-will to- 
 wards men — the very opposite of what Kluxism 
 represents. 
 
 He stood for humanity and mercy and kind- 
 ness. 
 
 Williams tells that story. 
 
 He tells it in simple, but blistering and wither- 
 ing and burning words when guilty consciences 
 are within ear-shot reach. 
 
 He does not beat the devil around the bush. 
 
 He talks straight from the shoulder and calls 
 a spade a spade. 
 
 He doesn't believe that the badge of Christian- 
 ity is a loaded automatic on the hip, nor the 
 mission of good Christians, midnight marauding, 
 or condemning, hounding and persecuting even 
 sinners. 
 
 "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and un- 
 to God what is God's" is another one of the cor- 
 nerstones of religion which Evangelist Williams 
 preaches. 
 
 He doesn't believe in holding court down in 
 the Creek Bottoms under the disguise of masks, 
 without giving the accused a show for his white 
 alley, and following this travesty on justice with 
 
46 Persuading God Back To Herrin 
 
 tarring and featherings, black-snake whippings, 
 raidings, barn-burnings and house-burnings, in 
 short incendiarism and murder. 
 
 He believes that the government in our repub- 
 lic is big enough and strong enough to make and 
 enforce all necessary laws, and that in the final 
 analysis, the vital issue is not government admin 
 istered by the self-elect and the unco good, but 
 for self-government itself— government of, by and 
 for the people; government by the majority; self- 
 government; self-determination, and not g^rern- 
 ment by and through the tyranny and despotism 
 and blood-thirst and usurpation of the infamous 
 and damnable and brutal Ku Klux Klan. 
 
 Williams has a good organization, and his 
 meetings in Herrin are bound to be a success, in 
 spite of the hostility and the covert opposition of 
 the Ku Klux Bible-pounder gang. 
 
 A Herrin Real Estate man told us, yesterday, 
 that there are at the present time, one hundred 
 and sixty-one vacant houses in the city of Her- 
 rin, and that he himself let out twp of them yes- 
 terday with free rent to be able to hold his in- 
 surance. 
 
 Business is prostrate and stagnant, and indus 
 try ruined— a blight has been brought on the com- 
 munity as if through the visitation of pestilence— 
 by the Ku Klux preachers of Herrin, and their 
 gang of Socialistic and Bolshevistic haters and 
 destructionists. 
 
 It takes a man like Evangelist Williams to lift 
 the curse and to put some real hell-fire under 
 their tails. 
 
 We sincerely hope that he will succeed in 
 throwing the fear of God into the craven souls 
 of even the recreant Ku Klux preachers. 
 Herrin will come back! 
 It's too good a town, and even the Ku Klux 
 
Persuading God Back To Herrin 47 
 
 conspiracy can't hold a town like Herrin down 
 forever. 
 
 Even the persecuted and hounded and much 
 misrepresented and much abused Sheriff George 
 Galligan has surprised them all by coming back, 
 and is now fully re-established at the Marion 
 Jail as the "High Sheriff" of Williamson County. 
 He was made the goat for the crimes and the dis- 
 turbance initiated and perpetrated by the Ku Klux 
 gang. 
 
 Galligan had done all he could to save Wil- 
 liamson County from the pestilential effects of 
 the orgy of Ku Klux extravagance and destruction 
 and disgrace. 
 
 On the one hand the money of the county was 
 wasted and the country thrown hopelessly into 
 debt, and the rights of the taxpayers were abso- 
 lutely and indecently disregarded and ignored by 
 the Ku Klux County Board, but Galligan was de- 
 nied funds for the smallest necessities of his de- 
 partment. 
 
 When he left the jail on his involuntary exile, 
 he left window shades and curtains which he had 
 brought from his own home at Herrin and install 
 ed in the jail to save expense to the taxpayers of 
 of Williamson County. 
 
 These were not the best curtains and window 
 shades, but they were good enough for poor peo- 
 ple, from the loins of which George Galligan 
 .springs. 
 
 They were good enough for George Galligan at 
 his home. 
 
 They ought to have been good enougn for 
 poor, old bankrupt Williamson County. 
 
 Simply to show that their impecuniosity and 
 cheese-paring with Galligan was due to Ku Klux 
 hatred of Galligan when the Klan took over the 
 jaiL with their Klan Board of Supervisors, headed 
 
48 Persuading God Back To Herrin 
 
 at that time by the former Cyclops Sam Stearns, 
 after Galligan's exile, it was immediately decided 
 to doll the thing up as it was not good enough for 
 the Klan officers and Klan loafers. 
 
 Mack Garrison, the Assistant Supervisor un- 
 der Stearns— the supreme tightwad of Williamson 
 County— thought that the jail was too untidy. 
 
 In fact the whole County Klan Board decided 
 to buy new curtains and window shades, and thus 
 was the jail redecorated. 
 
 The new curtains will stay in the jail, as Sher- 
 iff Galligan came in on them so suddenly that 
 they did not have time to move them. 
 
 During Galligan's absence the he-nurse, Camp- 
 bell, turned his profession to official scrub-woman 
 of the jail. . 
 
 His pay was allowed him by the County Board, 
 with the exception of the price of a pistol which 
 he had bought and never paid for, and for which 
 he was sued, and the judgment rendered against 
 him turned over to the County Board and the 
 debt deducted from his salary. 
 
 Campbell spent most of his time while scrub- 
 bing the jail looking for the blood of Slim Far- 
 mer, who the Klan said had been murdered by 
 George Galligan, and his body burned in the jail 
 furnace. 
 
 In order to get something on Galligan and to 
 frame up on him, and to get a chance to indict 
 him and railroad the man to the penitentiary, the 
 midnight marauders dug up graves in the ceme- 
 teries of the county, looking for the body of Slim 
 Farmer. 
 
 This well-known fact can easily be verified, 
 for Slim Farmer is in the land of the living, halo 
 and hearty and on the job. 
 
 While all this hubbub and search for Farmer 
 was on, the latter was in East St. Louis with his 
 
Persuading God Back To Herrin 49 
 
 friends, sipping cold steins in a soft drink parlor, 
 where we saw him time and again when he was 
 supposed to be under the sod. 
 
 This search for Farmer, while he was miles 
 away from Herrin, giving the searchers the horse 
 laugh, is typical of the many searches that John 
 Ford, Carl Neilson, Harold Crain, John Smith, 
 Charlie Cargle, Tommy Thornton, Jackie Rowe 
 and S. Glenn Fowler have made for the Shelton 
 boys, when they knew full well that they were 
 many miles away. 
 
 None of this crowd ever searched for them, 
 while they were in Herrin and out in the open. 
 
 Tom Kearns is ranting around trying to call 
 the County Board to oust Sheriff Galligan. 
 
 Tom has shot his rocket and is only playing 
 with the stick. 
 
 He would be the greatest political leader in 
 Williamson County, if he had a following. 
 
 He has lost his following. 
 
 He is like the unhorsed king in Shakespeare's 
 play, who, waving his arms, shouted frantically, 
 "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!" 
 
 Tom would look better perched on top of a 
 mule, right now, particularly a white one. 
 
 He and Boswell are having as weighty con- 
 ferences as General Grant and Sherman and 
 Thomas and Sheridan used to have, in the Civil 
 War, but they are all coming to nothing. 
 
 The best laid plans of mice and men ga~g aft 
 aglee. 
 
 Their power has been broken. 
 
 Their wad is shot. 
 
 Their pitcher went so often to water until it 
 got broken. 
 
 No besheeted and behooded Ku Klux gangsters 
 are at their listening posts in Herrin, anymore. 
 
50 Persuading God Back To Herrin 
 
 Even the Ku Klux preachers are huddled un- 
 der cover. 
 
 Shame-faced, they sneak to their gospel-mills 
 to preach their dull sermons. 
 
 Their singing hasn't got the same ring to it. 
 
 They look haggard, and their ears are getting 
 larger and longer day by day. 
 
 There is no use in talking! 
 
 The Rev. Williams' evangelistic campaign is 
 going to be a howling success, and the Ku Klux 
 sky-pilots of Herrin will know it before he gets 
 through with them. 
 
 He'll tell them where to head in at. 
 
 He'll teach them a trick or two. 
 
 He'll show them how to respect the rights of 
 their fellowmen, and how to revere and worship 
 God without making nuisances out of themselves. 
 
 Williams is a trump, himself, and holds a win- 
 ning hand! 
 
 He is a real Christian with both feet on the 
 earth, and still retaining human sympathies and 
 human traits, but he's not green-eyed, not en- 
 vious, not jealous, not full of hate, not full of 
 scorn, not full of persecution, mania, and not full 
 of murder lust. 
 
 "TOWN THAT GOD FORGOT" HAS A 
 FAITHFUL EDITOR 
 
 (Scores of country newspapers editorialized on the efforts of The, 
 Herrin News to try the old time religion as the final remedy to save 
 Herrin to civilization.. This editorial is from. The Patriot, published 
 at Carrollton, Illinois, and is only one of hundreds of country news- 
 papers from Maine to California that made similar comment.) 
 
 The town of Herrin has been given a great 
 deal of publicity of the sensational sort. As Jong 
 as its streets were echoing the tread of a mob 
 and soaked in the blood of mob victims, sensa- 
 tional newspapers cleared their first pages for 
 the story of Herrin's shame. 
 
Persuading God Back To Herrin 51 
 
 But when an honest effort is made to bring 
 order out of chaos, the sensational press has lit- 
 tle or no space to tell the story. News of that 
 sort doesn't appeal to them — too tame. If told 
 at all, it is tucked away in some obscure corner 
 
 The letter which Editor Hal W. Trovillion of 
 The Herrin News addressed to Evangelist Wil- 
 liams recently was a good news story, but we fail- 
 ed to see it on the first page of any city daily. 
 
 Editor Trovillion's letter was an S. O. S. call 
 for the evangelization of a town that, to quote his 
 own words, "many people think God has forgot- 
 ten." And he added to that phrase, "Sometimes 
 I am nearly persuaded to believe there is a bit of 
 truth in it." 
 
 The editor goes on to say that in twenty years 
 he has never known a time when Herrin was 
 more athirst for an old time religion. "We hav3 
 endured for a long spell a spurious brand of re- 
 ligion that teaches that God is hate instead of 
 love. The 'not' has been dropped from the Com- 
 mandments, and we have broken them — broken 
 nearly all of them over and over again. 
 
 "If your Bible has all the pages in it," he 
 continues, "if all the Commandments are there 
 intact, if Paul's great essay on love is there, if 
 the Sermon on the Mount is there, and you preach 
 these things, come on to Herrin posthaste, for 
 here you are needed, indeed more than any mis- 
 sionary ever was needed in Abyssinia, more than 
 Livingstone was needed in darkest Africa." 
 
 With that letter Editor Trovillion enclosed his 
 personal check for $50 and promised further fi- 
 nancial assistance as well as the support of his 
 paper, if the evangelist would make the effort to 
 convince Herrin that there is a God of love, and 
 not of hate. 
 
52 Persuading God Back To Herrin 
 
 Even the town which God has forgotten is not 
 forsaken by the editor of the home newspaper. 
 
 STIRRING HERRIN 
 
 (Daily Freeman- Journal, Webster City, Iowa) 
 
 There is a series of revival meetings being car- 
 ried on in Herrin, 111., by Rev. Howard S. Wil- 
 liams, who is meeting with wonderful success. 
 Perhaps the conquest now being made in the 
 name of the Lord will prove more effective than 
 any heretofore carried on in the name of the law. 
 The power of old time religion is still strong and 
 when the right man presents it in the right way 
 and at the right time results are usually satisfac- 
 tory. 
 
 A short time ago the editor of The Herrin 
 News wrote Evangelist Williams, urging him to 
 come to Herrin and open a campaign against vice, 
 insisting that the religion of our fathers was the 
 only thing that could redeem the wicked town. 
 
 No evangelist guided by the right spirit could 
 turn down such an appeal as that. Rev. Wil- 
 liams responded and is now in the midst of a 
 campaign of the revival of religion in Herrin, the 
 kind our grandfathers believed in and preached 
 and the kind that always make men better if they 
 listen and heed. When they used to sing in the 
 little brown church in the vale that "The Old 
 Time Religion is Good Enough for Me" they 
 meant it, and Rev. Williams seems to have gotten 
 hold of the hearts of the people of Herrin, and 
 the old time gospel presented in the old time 
 way seems to be doing the work in the old time 
 fashion. A recent Herrin dispatch says: 
 
 Herrin put another foot forward in her peace 
 movement today when the 5,000 who filled Rev. 
 Williams' revival tabernacle last night came for- 
 
Persuading God Back To Herrin 53 
 
 ward and extended their hand of friendship to 
 Sheriff Geo. Galligan. 
 
 Galligan, hitherto a bitter anti-klansman and 
 the center of klan and anti-klan strife, was pres- 
 ent with his deputies and other county officers, 
 the occasion being official night. 
 
 Tears stood in the sheriff's eyes as friends and 
 foes alike all extended to him their hands in fel- 
 lowship. 
 
 The evangelist, Howard S. Williams, of Hat- 
 tiesburg, Miss., is being credited as the "man who 
 is saving Herrin." His meeting will continue for 
 two weeks. 
 
 That is very encouraging and reassuring. The 
 love of Jesus Christ will bring Herrin out of her 
 degradation if the people will only welcome the 
 word and practice the precepts of the greatest 
 teacher in all the history of the world. 
 
 THE TORONTO (CANADA) GLOBE 
 
 (Issue July 18, 1925) 
 
 One of the most remarkable transformations of 
 a community that has taken place in recent years 
 through the preaching of the Gospel is that which 
 has been reported from the town of Herrin, Illi- 
 nois. For some 18 months Herrin had the un- 
 enviable notoriety of being, perhaps, the worst 
 place on the American Continent, where gunfights 
 and murders were the common order of the day. 
 Now all has been changed through the simple 
 preaching of the Cross of Christ by Evangelist 
 Howard S. Williams. In an article, "Persuading 
 God Back to Herrin," The Herrin News tells 
 the story of the transformation that has come 
 over the community. Through the preaching of 
 Williams some 700 were converted. 
 
54 Persuading God Back To Herrin 
 
 RELIGION AND ADVERTISING 
 
 (Chicago Herald-Examiner) 
 
 Herrin, the shootingest town in the United 
 States; Herrin, which made its county famous 
 as "Bloody Williamson," has just gone through 
 a religious revival. A little minister from Mis 
 sippi has concluded a seven-weeks campaign for 
 souls, with meetings attended by more than 160,- 
 000 people, and in which some 400 are announced 
 as having hit the trail to conviction of sin 
 to repentance. 
 
 During the revival practically every place of 
 business in Herrin closed from 11:30 to noon for 
 the mid-day prayer-meetings, many of which 
 ■ held in the stores. A poster advertising the 
 meetings hung over the spot where S. Glenn 
 Young and Deputy Sheriff Thomas shot it out. 
 The newspapers of Herrin made the revival first- 
 page stuff every day for six weeks. Every 
 church in the county, except one, sent its minis- 
 ters to share in the united struggle for souls. 
 
 "Modern history", says The Herrin News edi- 
 torially, "does not reveal a community so com 
 pletely God-forsaken as was Herrin and William- 
 son County" before the revival. "If God was any- 
 where about when we were grabbing at one an- 
 other's throats a few months ago, we don't know 
 where He was hiding." 
 
 But the revival, says The News, has change j 
 all that. "History will characterize the leader ol 
 the revival as 'The man who persuaded God back 
 to Herrin'." 
 
 'What the permanent results of the revival 
 will be, who can say? The Herrin News, again, 
 sums it up when it says, "The problem is ours 
 again to preserve ourselves." Into the realm of 
 prophecy we do not here venture. Herrin has a 
 
Persuading God Back To Herrin 55 
 
 job on its hands, as Chicago has, but it is Her- 
 rin's job, not Chicago's. 
 
 The interesting thing, to the on-looker, is the 
 relation of religious zeal to advertising. The in 
 formation about the Herrin revival has been sent 
 out under the auspices of the business men of 
 Herrin. Compare that fact with the other, that 
 the Business Men's Association of Dayton, Tenn , 
 raised $5,000 to advertise the Scopes trial, now 
 going on in that hitherto unnoticed burg. 
 
 The note of the Scopes trial is intolerance. 
 The Tennessee law declares, in effect, "The chil- 
 dren of this state may not listen to any doctrine 
 in which the majority of the Legislature does not 
 believe." The note of the Herrin revival was tol- 
 erance. "God is love. Love one another. For- 
 give and forget. Believe, all of you, in the father- 
 hood of God and the brotherhood of man." Says 
 the evangelist, "Herrin's sin was the sin of hate. 
 I preached only the religion of love." 
 
 Here you have two opposing views of religion; 
 but both, as we say, widely advertised. Emotion 
 is energy. Emotion in religion is energy that is 
 good for business. The question both of the per- 
 manence of the emotion and of its ultimate in 
 fluence for good or bad is, as we have just noted, 
 individual. But, if religion is to be used for ad 
 vertising purposes, we must say we prefer ths 
 Herrin brand of love to the Dayton brand of in- 
 tolerance. 
 
 THE REFORMATION OF HERRIN 
 
 (The Literary Digest, July 25, 1925) 
 "Bloody" Herrin has laid away its smoking re- 
 volvers and reformed. The fact has not been as 
 widely heralded as were Herrin's private killings, 
 feuds, riots and massacres, which some months 
 ago made the seat of Williamson County notorious 
 
56 Persuading God Back To Herrin 
 
 throughout the world. The first news of the re- 
 formation was conveyed in an Associated Press 
 dispatch, which tells us that Herrin has abandon- 
 ed old ways for new and is building peace on the 
 foundation of the Golden Rule. It is worthy of 
 note that it is a former Associated Press corres- 
 pondent who was the human agent in the trans- 
 formation. Members of a legislative committee 
 visiting the Illinois city found, we are told, the 
 population "happy and peaceable, the old grudges 
 forgotten and the old hatreds buried in a spirit 
 of recognition engendered in daily noonday 
 prayer-meetings in the city's largest down-town 
 theater." The committee arrived shortly before 
 noon, and found every store closed. In many 
 shop windows was displayed this sign: "This 
 place closes daily for the men's noonday prayer- 
 meeting. Annex Theater, 11:30 to 12 noon." 
 Says the dispatch further: 
 
 Few persons were seen on the streets and 
 business was at a standstill while proprietors, 
 clerks and salespeople attended the services. 
 
 "At the meeting the legislators found men who 
 could pray only in a foreign tongue standing 
 shoulder to shoulder with the townsfolk who once 
 were armed against them. The legislators are 
 convinced the city has returned to the ways of 
 peace, that the Golden Rule has replaced the blue 
 steel pistol as the arbiter of honor." 
 
 The credit for this admittedly remarkable 
 reformation is given to Howard S. Williams, a 
 former Associated Press correspondent and editor 
 of a small newspaper in Mississippi. He was 
 converted by Gipsy Smith, Jr., two and a half 
 years ago. He has just finished putting Herriu 
 back on its feet, and, according to Wilbur Forrest, 
 staff correspondent of the New York Herald 
 Tribune, took with him on his return home the 
 
Persuading God Back To Herrin 57 
 
 thanks of the leading citizens of the town, "who 
 credit his rough-and-ready theology with doing 
 the hitherto impossible in bringing men who a 
 short time ago were carrying guns and threaten- 
 ing to take life, into friendly handshakes, with a 
 bond of Christianity between them. ,, Mr. Wil- 
 liams is, we are told, a lay evangelist who 
 preaches the old-time religion. His converts are 
 said to include Protestants and Catholics, and 
 among his most hearty supporters were Jews. 
 Gunmen, bootleggers and others of the ilk gener- 
 ally known as "bad men" were persuaded to lay 
 down their arms, and when Mr. Williams asked 
 them to recognize the sheriff as the symbol of law 
 and order in Williamson County, several hundred 
 of them who had sworn to "get" him rushed over 
 and shook the sheriff's hands. 
 
 And Herrin's leading citizens believe that he 
 succeeded. According to Mr. Forrest they believe 
 that "the hideous nightmare of massacres, fac- 
 tional gun-fighting between union and non-union 
 forces, elements of wet and dry, Ku Klux ana 
 anti-Ku Klux, since 1923, is forgotten history." 
 The correspondent writes: 
 
 "His fame has spread until St. Louis has beck- 
 oned him to save souls in that city in a great 
 tabernacle built and supported by more than a 
 hundred churches. But saving Herrin from her- 
 self with a two-fisted doctrine of love one another 
 will probably stand as the Mississippi lay evange- 
 list's greatest feat. Anyway, without mentioning 
 the term Ku Klux Klan once in his noonday meet- 
 ings and night revivals, he has succeeded in put- 
 ting the Herrin Kluckers out of business. A few 
 days ago Herrin's Klan newspaper filed a petition 
 in bankruptcy and converted members of the Klan 
 now admit that locally it is virtually through. 
 "Figuratively, he has taken the guns out of 
 
58 Persuading God Back To Herrin 
 
 Herrin's hip-pockets and replaced them with clean 
 handkerchiefs. He has put a kindly smile on the 
 faces of people who have worn grouchy frowns 
 for years. Such is the result that the outside ob- 
 server sees out of Williams' campaign. Perhaps 
 any other evangelist might have done it, but most 
 of Herrin's 12,000 citizens are ready to erect a 
 monument to Williams and give him all the 
 credit." 
 
 Of these is the editor of The Herrin News. 
 Hal W. Trovillion who writes in his paper that 
 history will characterize the Mississippi evange- 
 list as ''the man who persuaded God back to Her- 
 rin." We read that the cooperation — all the 
 churches save one cooperated in the reform move- 
 ment — proves that all the citizens are anxious to 
 usher in an era of good feeling. Touching on the 
 late situation, Mr. Trovillion writes: 
 
 "It was not only a breakdown of the law that 
 many still contend caused it all, it was partly a 
 religious collapse of the entire community. But 
 we are now set well back on the road, the church 
 houses are rechristened once more as the House 
 of God, and we hope they will be used as such, 
 and that all will stay put right. Williams has 
 handed us an accurate compass, and believing in 
 the brotherhood of man, the fatherhood of God 
 and with that compass pointed to the star of 
 Bethlehem and with our eyes on a cross that pro- 
 claims a Jesus, we may hope for a bon voyage 
 back to that far-distant land where still dwell the 
 sane and sensible people of modern civilization. * 
 
 A CORRESPONDENCE 
 
 (William Mitchell, a retired educator, at one time editor of tne 
 Tacoma, (Wash.) Ledger, now residing at Guelph, Ontario, Canada, 
 read in The New York Herald Tribune which reproduced in full the 
 editorial that recently appeared in The Herrin News summing up the 
 Williams' evangelistic meetings in Herrin, and writes the following 
 
Persuading God Back To Herrin 59 
 
 timely comment on The B 
 the issue of Ai 
 
 The remarkable reformation which has just 
 swept the city of Herrin as the result of the six 
 weeks campaign of Evangelist Williams is one 
 more proof that the Gospel of Christ is still the 
 power of God unto Salvation and not merely of 
 the individual soul, but of whole communities. 
 We are apt to think of the gospel as ' a purely 
 spiritual message for the soul. Assuredly it is 
 that; such a message as the soul had never listen- 
 ed to before;, and which, through ages, has 
 brought to millions of hearts priceless treasures 
 of strength and comfort. But the extraordinary 
 thing is that our modern preachers, with the New 
 Testament before them, have missed the other 
 side of the matter; have missed the significance 
 of the primitive church as a social movement. 
 
 The early disciples believed not only in the 
 regeneration of the individual soul, but in the re- 
 generation of the whole world-system. Religion 
 to them — and it was the old-time religion — held as 
 one of its prime factors, a social revolutionary 
 element. It meant a reversal of the old time 
 evils, or reversal of the way in which men should 
 live and work with each other. That the golden 
 law of love must take the place of the iaw of 
 hatred and strife to carry on the world and bind 
 the children of men together in the bonds of 
 brotherhood. 
 
 It is the habit of the skeptical mind to doubt 
 when it hears of whole communities coming un- 
 der the power and influence of the gospel. 
 Charles Darwin, the great scientist, is surely an 
 impartial witness. He says in his "Journal of 
 Researches" Chap. XVIII, that on his first visit 
 to the Island of Tahiti he found an awful con- 
 dition of things. "Human Sacrifices, the power" 
 
60 Persuading God Back To Herrin 
 
 of an idolatrous priesthood, a system of profligacy 
 unparalled in any other part of the world, in- 
 fanticide, bloody wars, where the conquerors spar- 
 ed neither women nor children." When twenty 
 years later he visited Tahiti he says he found 
 "That all these things have been abolished, and 
 that dishonesty, intemperance and licentiousness 
 have been greatly reduced by the introduction of 
 Christianity." 
 
 When people talk about "The Old Time Re- 
 ligon," unless they mean the Religion that Christ 
 taught, it is a misnomer. It is taking the bogus 
 goods and putting the genuine trade-mark on 
 them. It is not old enough. We are all familiar 
 with the song, usually pealed out in lusty tones: 
 ''Give me the old-time religion, 
 It's good enough for me! 
 It was good enough for Moses, 
 It was good enough for father, 
 It was good enough for mother, 
 And it's good enough for me!" 
 The person who sings that song is usually 
 thinking of the religion that was familiar to him 
 as a boy and which ten to one was the religion of 
 the sect he was brought up in. And which very 
 likely has very little resemblance to the religion 
 of the Master. 
 
 In the great Protestant Reformation, Erasmus 
 said, "Back to Christ"; Luther said, "Back to St. 
 Paul." Had Erasmus possessed Luther's courage, 
 his self-regardlessness and his strong sense of the 
 divine imperative, he might have led a greater re- 
 formation, but he shrank from such a task and left 
 the field to the other. To this we owe the sor- 
 rowful fact that Lutheranism, instead of being the 
 symbol of a great social regeneration, became a 
 mere religious sect, hard and fact. 
 
 This thing of manicuring the morals of the 
 
Persuading God Back To Herrin 61 
 
 people is a dismal failure. You may prune and 
 poultice the cancer, but the roots are still there. 
 Christ was right of course. "Except a man be 
 born from above", in a larger and broader sense 
 than those words are usually understood. Instead 
 of taking the Kingdom of God in the sense of a 
 life in Heaven above, we ought to take it, as 
 Christ meant it, in the sense of a reign of Saints, 
 a renovated and perfected human society on 
 earth, the ideal society of the future. Humanity 
 cannot reach its ideal while it lacks this. "Ex- 
 cept a man be born from above, he cannot have 
 part in the society of the future." 
 
 Father Taylor, the famous Boston Sailor 
 Preacher was right. Here is a passage from one 
 of his sermons, in a style that nobody but a sailor 
 could understand, a style, however, that every 
 sailor could comprehend: 
 
 "You are dead in trespass and sins, and buried 
 too, down in the lower hold amongst the ballast, 
 and you can't get out, for there is a ton of sin on 
 the main hatch. You shin up the stanchions and 
 try to get it open, but you can't. You rig a pur- 
 chase. You get your handspikes, capstan bars 
 and watch tackles, but they are no good. You 
 can't start it. Then you begin to sing out for 
 help. You hail all the saints you think are on 
 deck, but they can't help you. At last you hail 
 Jesus Christ. He comes straight along. All He 
 wanted was to be asked. He just claps His 
 shoulder to that ton of sin, and off it rolls, and 
 then he says 'Shipmates come out!' well, if you 
 don't come out, its all your own fault." 
 
 Let us remember too to give honor to whom 
 honor is due. In much of the preaching today 
 this great truth is ignored. The phrase "Persuad- 
 ing God back to Herrin" is eminently appropriate 
 For the source and fountainhead of the blessings 
 
62 Persuading God Back To Herrin 
 
 of the Christian religion is the heart of God. God 
 so loved the world that He sent Jesus. Jesus 
 said "I did not come of My own accord, I wa3 
 sent These doctrines that I am proclaiming to 
 you are not Mine, they are the doctrines of Him 
 who sent Me." After all, true religion is the life 
 of God in the soul of man. If this great and con- 
 straining truth finds a positive lodgement in the 
 hearts of the people of Herrin the future happi- 
 ness and prosperity of the city are assured.