100 years ago in Spokane: Church of Truth sends ‘thought waves’ for peace

From our archives, 100 years ago

About 200 people at the Church of Truth in Spokane stood and dispatched silent “thought waves” for peace.

The Rev. H.E. Mills, assistant pastor, said he believed the audience could “radiate the consciousness of world peace.”

The Rev. A.C. Grier, the head pastor, said he believed strongly in the principle of nonresistance. In fact, he believed in it so strongly that he applied the principle in his own home and his “house hasn’t been locked in 10 years.”

Rev. Grier spoke strongly in opposition to “national preparedness,” a term increasingly used by those who favored military intervention in the raging European war. He read verses from the Bible advocating peace, and a dozen people in the congregation also recited verses on the same theme.

The assistant pastor said he had sent his thought “blessings” on the subject of peace to the European rulers.

From the jewelry beat: Four diamond rings lost by Miss Florence Robertson were returned by a man who found them in a jitney, a for-hire vehicle, where she had apparently dropped them.

He didn’t give his name and would not accept a reward. The man said he read about Miss Robertson’s loss in the paper and realized the diamonds were hers.

She said she had been “so nervous and overwrought” over the loss that “I was almost ready to scream!”