World War I 100 Years Ago: Nov. 10-16

From The Indianapolis News, Friday, November 16: Charles E. Rush, librarian of the Indianapolis Public Library, announced that the library’s three copies of The Book of Truths and Facts by Fritz Von Frantzius will be withdrawn from general circulation after it had been denounced as “treasonable,” “disloyal” and “seditious.” Col. Russell B. Harrison, secretary of the Marion County Council of Defense, sent a letter calling for the book’s removal because of its exaltation of German “kultur” and German aspirations. Rush said the book would remain in the library’s collection for the benefit of “students, general readers and all normal persons” who wish to trace “the development of the present war.” The librarian also stated, “No public library in the United States can be censured justly by the United States government for collecting material on both sides of the war.”