GILT-EDGED ETHICS.

Evening Post, Volume LXVI, Issue 152, 24 December 1903, Page 7

GILT-EDGED ETHICS.

DOWIE, JI/nIOR. ON THE REAL ZION. Recent cable messages from New York stated that official receivers had seized Uowie's Zion property, valued at £4,000,000, at tho instance of certain creditors, under an order of the Federal Court. Dr. Dowie'a liabilities were said to amount to £145,000. Zion City was also reported to be on tho verge of starvation, owing to the luck of fuel. In tho light of these statement*, eomo remarks mado to a London reporter by Dowio'.s son are of aoine intercut. Tho paper that publishes tho report heads it "Yankee Fairy Tales," a title "which, rocent happenings fully iuatify ; "Zion City, although but little over two years old, i* in a flourishing condition/ said Dowie, jnnr. " Tho statement that my father founded it, purely its a business propo&rttou is & li«. Our aeseta at the present time are worth 20,0u0,000 dollars (£4,v-jO,UW sterling). Twonty-fivo per cent, of the inhabitants of Zion City do not do anything'; they simply live on their investments. Ninety-llvo per cent, of tho people own their own homes. " Dr. Dowie holds tho title to tho estate, which comprises ten square miles of valuable land, forty-two miles north of Chicago, with a' lake frontage ; but be gives the nooplo 1110 yoars leases, <so that praotically the peoplo own everything. " Zion City has not a single publichouse, and doctors are not allowed in it. A man who smokes in the street ia locked up and fined £4, and tho fine is tho some if he smokes in his own house. " Wo httvo a largo amount of English capital invested in Zion City industries. I can recall three persons alone whose combined interests represent £50,000. A well-known lady living in London has £30,000 invested in the stocks of our lace company, and there aro many others. "Thi3 does not necessarily mean that shareholders ore convert* to Zion. It is a business proposition if -'an investor can get an 8-per-cent. stock instead of on English stock paying 2$ per cent Our soourities never fluctuate; they aro backed by large assets ; tho (share* aro non-assess-able, and their redemption at par is fixed. l L " Our bank shares pay 9 per cent ; land and investment shares, 8 por cent ; lace industries, 9 per cent ; geueral stores, 8 per cent ; fresh food supply, 8 per cent ; sugar and confection association, 6 per cent ; and building and manufacturing shares, 7 per cent, with 20 per cent of tho surplus profits. " Our lace industry is particularly prosporous. It was bogun in 1901, and now occupies a splendid building, with five acres of floor spuce. We have more orders at present than we can fill. Mr. Fothergill, a well-known Nottingham lnco manufacturer, who went through our factory recently, declared it was the finest in the world. When it is eularged we shall bo able to undersell the Nottingham factories in Nottingham. "All matters of legal difference in tho city are referred to a Court of Arbitration, and there has boon but one criminal caso in the city since ita foundation. Wo have a tabernacle holding 7600 people, four churches, no theatres, and no bars, a big athletio association, and many large buildings. We are not ascetics j our church is a plain, straightforward, orthodox Christianity, with an unorthodox manner of operation. "Divine healing is not the greatest principle of tho church. We preach tho doctrine of repentance and practical reparation. But wo believe that God never created sickness ; He wanted man to be well and strong. " W» do not believo th'afc wo are all free and «qual. Wo believo in co-oporation, but not .communism— at least, not of the pocket-book. '" , "Tho Illinois city will always bo tho centre of our religious work, but wo plan to have a Zion City near every important capital m. Europe. We intend building ono in China as soon as tho political situation chances. We have about ISOO con-