HOW BUSINESS BEAT RELIGION

Evening Star, Issue 12989, 7 December 1906, Page 8

HOW BUSINESS BEAT RELIGION

OR THE RISE AND FALL OF DOWTEXSM. [Hr Jauks Osmax-1 " I have dreamed of Zion, all my days. When but a. little fellow 1 aw a sacred citv afar off. and I have never lest sight of *iu Now it is a part of me.*’ In these words, which axe not without therr simply jxtthors. John Alexander Dowio last month explained to an unsympathetic Federal tho feeding that was in his weary old heart toward Zion City, tho scene of his irrcatcai triuaiph. the witness of hj» lowest fall. Along tho shore of Lake Michigan, forty mihs north of Chicago, Dowie founded Zion on New Years Day, 1901, as the holj Mecca of the Christian Catholic Church. To-day it is a flourishing industrial community of some 8.000 t>ouls, and it is gaining strength by leaps and bounds as fast as the hampering bonds of aro removed and a chance to grow is afforded. For irbdustn.il Ztou_ U to be greatest monument. Whether )ik> church shall live or die, his city cannot fail to endure. It must wax strong .ind prosper, because the religions fakir Urn liuilt it, far-sighted iti temporal inatUMS. gave it industries that have created a l:etijig place for themselves in the markers of Northern Illinois. I; was onlv the fulfilment of a natural law pini-. thcoo busiwass enterprhes should cxxne to assom© the foremost position in their community. When this happened, religion simply had to take a hack seat. This is the story of Zion, and Hundentaliy the etorv of Dowie

But it must not- be thought for one moment that the fall of tho prophet moans fie fail of his city. Quite tho reverse is true. The great light between Dowje and Wilbur Glenn Vohva. was not over who should be general overseer of the church, bat as to who should control the lace facioekc, who should direct the policy of the bonk, and who should hold in trust the voet properties in the bizarre settlement on the Lake County prairies. The ultimate struggle was one of business, not one of religion. Men must eat before they can pray. Most curious of all the curious things in the Uf© history of the truculent little Scotchman was this very fact. That a one-man church should have had existence in any shape after the one man bad been proven a staffed prophet aid cast Tnrro outer darkness wo* such an aljsurdity as to amount to a contradiction hi terms. It was Hamlet with Hamlet left- out with a vengeance. “L’etot, e’est moi !” said Louts XIV. of France.

“I am Zson!“ said Powie on die -witness stand, in all simplicity and earnestness. And so he was. From him cam© the Chris lian Catholic Church, and in him it was embodied. Ho could not understand how there could be any Zion -without him Put there was. There were factories, banks, stores, hotels, newspapers, and the thou-Kind-and-onc things that make up the commcrcial life of a community. John Alexander had fathered all thi-, it is true, but it was now such a lusty child that it could get along admirably without its parent. Therefore there was Zion with John Alexander left out.

In founding his “sacred city"’ Powie went at things with the business astuteness which he showed in so marked a degree throughout the long struggle for recognition in Chicago. He says of this work; “In carrying out my Zkm City idea. I chose my site on the prairies north of Chicago. I knew that land speculators would ai caico take advantage of me ; f they got one whisper of my scheme. So I bought the property, 7,628 acres of t, through a third party, and I had every foot of it in my possession before anyone cko knew of it. I fixed the price of land in Zion myself. I paid 250d0l an acre for it, and after laying it out I placed upon it a minimum price of o.OOOdol an acre, and did not dispose of it under that figure."’ These values would give a tidy little profit on an investment of 1,500,00Cu0l —the sum which Powie is authoritatively stated to have invesied in his land deal. There were further elements of gain in the fact that none of the land was actually sold. All of

it was merely rented to tie faithful Zionites for 1,100 years, with a large lump routal paid in advance. And nowhere on the town or county records of the United States is filed a more unique leare form than that in uso at Zion City. It contained a ■‘joker” cancellation clause, which was cunningly inserted and overlooked by tha signers. One of its more stringent provisions follows; —“The premises shall never be need for a slaughter-house, distillery, saloon, bier garden, tobacco store, opium joint, theatre, gambling establishment, dance ball, circus, drug store, office of a practising physician or surgeon, place for selling pork, or secret .society meetingplace.” People flocked in from ail directions to sign these ridiculous leases at exorbitant rents, just as they flocked in seven years earlier to give outrageous tithes to the man that bullied them and called them insulting names. Zion's plans were announced with a great flare of trumpets, and the true Yankee audacity of the idea, coupled with its appeal to tho paragraphers sense of humor, gave the prophet more advertising than any other real estate dealer could have obtained at thirty cents an agato lino. Dowie announced that Ziou was to be a

“dream city." He gave tho thoroughfares high-sounding Biblical titles like Zebukm ovonue, Abraham, Jacob, and Moses .street-,. He built his residence and gave it the grandiose name of Shiloh House. The hotel he christened Zion Hospice. But basin os stepped in here, and kept religion from taking any further stops toward the “ dreamland ” idea. The necessity for immediate construction, in order that tho people of the new commu nity might haves houses in which to live and work, forced Dowie to build a " boom city” of common, every-day pine wood There was no time for the construction of • -;p!anndcs, broad driveways, marble temples, or wide-spreading stone palaces. Z'.-in looks more like Dawson City than Mecca or Jerusalem. Almost its polo claim In d : gnity is the bigness of its communal Imildings. The hespice is over I,oooft in length, and seats 1,000 people in its dining pom. The tabernacle rears its.high, barn!ike roof over an audience of 6,000 wor-.-'nippers. The lace factory has a floor space <if four acres. At tho feet of these mon--.ters cluster tho one and twostorev dwell-

: ng-houses of Zion, the flat “general store.” id- bvufc, and tire printing offices. T/cok:;g from the railroad depot, you would think that yon were landing in an Ok! i iioma settlement.

Yet there was money and real comm. :■ iLU value in this most ostentatiously u !: giocs city. Three years later, when .[<; ir. Alexander went through his brief and unnecessary receiver 4xip, court officials apjrraised the property at 25,000,000d01. And this took no count of the Christian Catholic Church, which might justly be considered ,-i “franchise” asset, nor of John Alexander Dowie, the greatest advertising medium known to the middle West.

Having gotten the dream city well under way, and held a “grand opening” July 1. 1901, Dowie decided that there must be more advertising. Incidentally he needed new spiritual authority wherewith to cope with the growing industrial power in his kingdom. As a happy means of combining those two necessaries, he hit upon the siheme of proclaiming that he was in truth fbe third prophet Elijah, sent to earth to amremnoe the second coming of Christ. Tho overseer made this modevt announcement at a “ Lord's day ” service in the auditorium during the closing months of 1901. He eolemnlv read from the fifth verse of the fourth chapter of Malachi. where the prophet says: “Behold. I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the coming of the great and ternhle day of the Lord.” Then ha quoted the Gcspel of St. Matthew, where Jesus says that John the Baptist is the second Elijah. This naturally made Dowie “Elijah m.,” a title trhicb was given him with adoring eartieetnesß bv the poor dupes that had entrusted then - entire lives to his keeping. Later Dowie added the words “ The Restorer ” to his name, ae a sign that be bad bcaaae for the “ living, on of hands.” Ha

had to do this in order to provide binreclf with an immediate divine purpose. He b:i made the Zion City. leases nm for I.IOC veins, and was logically forced to admit that tho second coming of the Messia! could not- occur before that sacred period had elapsed. As the Restorer he intended to pans the timo until tho arrival of the millennium in curing any sick folks whe had sufficient money to pay for his services. Where Dowie got the money lot .tire building of Zion he hast tokl in open court.

* 4 I had a penny or two when I started in 3900. I got out*of Chicago just in time to escape paying taxes, and I invested 90,000d0l in tho purchase of tho lace fattones. This money come from the bequests which were mado to me year in and year out by the devoted men and women of Zion. I cannot remember a year when I did not receive irthoritajici** and legacies. I think it lias never been le s than IO.OOCduI. and it has repeated!} reached 250.000d0l in n s’ngle twelvemonth I never consented to taking any money or property in trust. If 1 took it in thin waj it would bother both Zion, and its over seer. So I always had it given mo outlight. Then there was other money that eanio in from the Zion enterprises. In ten years, according to my enemies, I aecumu a red 10.000.OOOdol; according to mv friends. 20,000.000d01.*

One y.*au!d think lliat oven Elijah the sp. r.dthiiti would have been satisfied with a pile of thee proportions. But Voliva’b examination of his books last April brought out tho fact that extorsive “subscriptions had been taken for tho upbuilding of Zion, and that through all this there had nir grail. ;u> fai and cheerful as thiU. of the Fennsyivanij. Rail toad Company’s employee*. Of 608.400d0l subscribed for the Bank of Zion, only 400.000d0l had beer, devoted to that purpose. In the same way. only 220.000d0l out of 257.000d0l lutd beer devoted to the manufacturing plantu. A total of 5.578.459d0l wa* for tie cstabli Iwueut of the Zion industries, a.m; nobody knows to this day how largo a pro portion of this huge fund went where it ought to have gone. There was even moaner graft in the pit" ful «i*o of M:t> Martha WiUan, u woman who left lier husband in order to follow Dowie. Mrs Wihou was denied the right of insuring bar little. Zion City home, on the ground*; 1-hat i: was not right “to uambfe on tho LurdV will.*’ The lious<* burred to the ground one night, and tinwoman and her two young children wen left destitute. Touched by her sad pligtn. the simple Zion folk raised 2,000d0l fo» her by popular* subscription. This* money was paid to ** the church,” and not one cent of it was afterwords paid out to the wojjpan for whom it was given. Tlic WHcase caused the fiist intense wave of hatred for Dowie to spring up in the community, but no word of plot 6t against tho prophet was raised by the /ionites or by Mrs Wikon herself.

Nor was there open protest against the eccentric hut ever terrible ’Lige, during the years from 1902 to 1905, although in this (s-riod occurred some of his most picturesque and unreasonable performances. In 1903 tho famous “invasion of New A r ork” was planned and carried to its flat conclusion. Dowie started this pilgrimage one Sunday morning by placing an empty flour barrel on the platform of tho Zion City tab,made and telling tiro faithful that ; t must ha filed with United States currcncy in order to bring redemption to "wineswilling, pork -eating ” Gotham. After an luiur of bullying oratory the barrel was half-filled with silver and greenbacks, and th' Rostorer took the day’s receipts to Shiloh House. Here ho arranged for the renting of the Afodisoar Square Garden for one week, and immediately thereafter he cl sounded on tho metropolis with eight special trains carrying 3.000 Zionites. Dowio never knew why his host made such a total failure in its attack on Now York. He himself, drosod in tho 1,200<I«1 raiment of Elijah, ranted and raved at morning, noon, and night revivals, the robed choir did venders, and tho Zion guard got into fights enough to please the most exacting. But all in vain. And the reason for it. I think, was b.st expressed in a conversation between two typical voung New ’) ork clerks, wlrich I was priv-;cn-c<i to overhear on a Broadway car. Go in’ to see Dowio to-night?” asked

“Sure,” replied tite other. “I iiour it’s a , pretty good shov.” 15ig. carcliss, heartless New York looked upon the Chicago Mo e» merely as a theutri cal attraction, and r.o.liing more. It was a meat intelligent and accurate sizing up of the situation, and it put any thought ot a religious regeneration safely and coldly out of the bounds of the possible. Dowie went bock homo cursing Now York in rather more picturesque and effective terras than he had ever before invented.

This little jaunt cost Zion tho small sum of 500,000301. It did not bankrupt the citv. because the people wore even then beginning to fool the prosperity of tho manufacturing plants. Furthermore, it can bo .-aid of the Christian Catholic Church that it encourages thrift and frugality, not onlv bv handing over most of the spare cash to the general overseer, but also by forbidding expensive vices and instilling the simple life into its devotees. But tho New York invasion did what Dowie had done for years past It used up all the working capital of the community. Creditors became alarmed, the courts wore appealed to, and Zion was throwni into tho hands of receivers. It stayed there about six weeks, at tremendous cest to the community, and then Dowio scraped together enough “bequests” to icttlo the difficulty. He did this so easily that many of those cloie to him have been unkind enough to kiv that the whole receivership was nothing more than a scheme of the general overseer to earn free advertising, first ut> a martyr, and then as a financial Napoleon who rescued his people from the bankruptcy court.

Dowie s great extravagance the following vear was tho European tour. He went abroad, he announced, to see the King of England and the crowned heads of the Continent. In Ixindon he at once lot it become known in certain channc-Js lliat he was willing to pay 25,000d0l to meet Edwire!. Alisa Agnes Alunro, a famous Scot eh singer, introduced the prophet to Ear 1 Epencer, who consented to sound the King on the subject. Edward refused point blank to receive Elijah, and the whole scheme fell through. To .Miss Manro. however. Dowie is said to have given 5,000d0l for her efforts in his behalf, together -with u 1,200d0l harp.

Not satisfied with this little dfebtutenunt. John Alexander proceeded to give to various ffomeu who took his fancy huge blocks of stock in the Zion industries. He ;i',n distributed twenty-dollar gold pieces in s.-rvants, and engaged the most expen-

dvr- rooms in the Hotel Cecil. Through England and Scotland he preached the l-.-.-nliar gospel of his church, exciting riot: .v. ivwberc- He went on to Australia, hi turner liome, and was given such a warn nc-t-piiou that he was glad to conn; liui-i----with a whole skin.

Once in Zion CS.ty again, tlio prop!-.,-took tlie next ecclesiastical step. He ] i\; claimed himself not only Elijah 111., tin ihstorer, but also the “First Apostle” of the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church : snd the ready acceptance of this new gloiy on the part of his flock convinced him tint he was as safe in Lis mastership over them o? over before.

Secure in this belief, John Alexander plunged into a life that seems to skip over the intervening centuries and align itself with the careers of the decadent Roman emperors. Expert accountants ha.ve put at 2,529,000d0l the sum of money which the prophet squandered during this happy period. As' a beginning, Dowie surrounded himself with every luxury, both in the administration building and at Shiloh House. The latter he furnished at a cost of 65,000d01. His table service alone was valued at 4,510d01, the table itself at 2,750d01, the twenty-four chairs at 1,620d01, and the sideboard at 1,200d01. In the hall stood an SOOdol “ grandfather’s clock.” The administration building contained the famous I,SOOdol table and the 60,000d0l library. The books were housed in fancy cases costing 4,000d01, and on top of them was another elaborate clock, which the advocate of the simple Hie' had picked no for 300dol. iTo be conttnneaJ