Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 December 1903 — BECEIVER FOR ZION. [ARTICLE]

BECEIVER FOR ZION.

DOWIE AND Htß MUNICIPALITY CALLED BANKRUPT. Federal Court Pate Caatodleno la Churns of All the Property of "Bitjob the Heeterer”—Towa le Pelaed— Defeadaat Alienee He Ie Solvent. What looked to the outside world liko the end of the economic experiment of John Alexander Dowie at Zion City, 111., but what Dowie himself declared to be only the glancing blow of malicious enemies came Tuesday afternoon when Judge C. C. Kohlsaat of the United States District Court in Chicago ordered him to appear before him on Dec. J 1 and show cause why he should not be adjudged a bankrupt. Receivers were appointed immediately and at 10 o’clock Tuesday night they took Zion City and ail its industrial enterprises into custody. The order of the court was read to Dowie himself, a custodian was placed at Shiloh cottage, and the surrender both of his own papers and those at the bank was insisted upon. Frederick M. Blount, cashier of the Chicago National Bank, aud Albert Dean Currier, of the law firm of Boutell, Currier & Freeman, were named as the receivers. The court action took place at 6 o’clock. By 8 o'clock they had qualified by filing their bonds for 8100,000 and were on their way to Zion City with a heavy escort of United States marshals, constables and lawyers. Email Debts Cause Crisis. Three creditors, with a total of claims to only $1,169, forced Dowie into the hands of a receiver. They were the H. B. Smith Machine Company, of Smithviile, N. J., with a claim of $401; Elizabeth McCrimmon, of Batavia, 111., wilh a claim of $669; and Meyer & Wenthe, of Chicago, with a claim of SIOO. The attorneys for these three creditors were obliged to appear twice before ’Judge Kohlsaat before he would grant their petition. Early in the afternoon he held that Dowie should be notified before such action was taken. At the second hearing, however, the argument was made that such n notice would act against the rights of the creditors, giving Dowie a chance to conceal assets. The appointment, accordingly, was made.

Dowie knew that the receivers and their aids were coming, however, an hour before they arrived. He talked over the long distance telephone to Chicago, saying he would take no step in opposition to the officers of the law, though he considered the court action an outrage. "This is not law,” he said. "This is a midnight marauding party.” He declared that Zion City was thoroughly solvent, that all claims presented would be paid, and that his attorneys would appear in court to get relief from the receivership. “We will take action the first thing in the morning,” he said, vitriolically, “to rid ourselves of these bandits.” The lawsuits of the last month against him—the joint causes of tho present disaster —he characterized as “wicked, and malicious, and shameful actions, brought to produce a ruinous condition.” The debts of Zion, he asserted, did not reach one-fifteenth of Its assets. Has Re Reached Hia Waterloo? “The public, however, without questioning the assumption that the assets of Zion far outbalanced its debts, will believe that Dowie and Dowieism have reached the field of their Waterloo,” said one of the attorneys in the case. “The lack of cash is the insurmountable obstacle to the restoration of the community to sound financial standing. The property itself, however valuable, cannot be turned profitably into money. Only money can pay Dowie’s debts to the satisfaction of his shrong of creditors. That the city of Zion can be kept intact under the powers of receivership is impossible.” Overseer Jane Dowie is abroad and thus one source of advice and comfort Is lacking to Dowie. Rumors have been current for a month that most of the tangible assets of Zion, outside of real estate, went along with her, and are now outside the jurisdiction of American courts. Attorney Jacob Newman, for the plaintiffs in the present case, Intimated that this might be true. Dowie intends to go abroad the first of the year. The Yew York trip of the restoration host looms np as the Moscow in the career of this Napoleon of religion. The defeat there was not only religious but financial. The failure aroused the distrust of Dowie’s creditors. Within a month after his return nearly forty suite were filed against him.