Daily News from New York, New York • 125

SUNDAY NEWS, DECEMBER 1, 1929 Mrs. DOWIE -i'JM VOLIVA Founder's Widow Returns To Zion to Check Poiver Of Millionaire Preacher 7C II" fa By DOUGLAS CAMERON. GOD will be left waiting1, while His self-appointed apostles fight over the dotted line. For twenty-two years religion has been a paying business for Wilbur Glenn Voliva, 59-year-old overseer and Its- 4- owner of Zion City, 111. Now the elderly widow of John Alexander Dowie, predecessor of Voliva, whose religious successes were submerged by his business failures, is ready to make Yoliva's business her business.

And if matters make it necessary, religion will just have to pardon these two leaders for a few minutes (By t'nderwooti 1 Rev. Thomas H. el ton and him wife. He won criminal libel verdict of 1 cent from Voliva He began by cutting nearly IMA jew rt ti $160,000 off the church payroll. Thus he made powerful enemies at the start.

Upon his first sermon in Dowie's pulpit, he took from his clothes every bit of jewelry he owned. He placed his watch, scarfpin, cuff links on the pulpit. His people interpreted this as a call to sacrifice. They responded 'til it hurt. But the affairs of the denomina (By Pacifli It Atlantic) Wilbur Glenn Voliva NEW? ohoto) J.

Hamilton Lewis (Py I'nilcrffiw Judge C. C. Edwards The Rev. Mr. ohva is in his counting house counting out his city government, his stores, his factories, his radio station, his subjects and his church.

Jane Dowie, Widow of the founder of the Christian Catholic Apostolic church, is returning to Zion to conduct services in Bethseda house, headquarters of the independent group of 100 who oppose Voliva. She is inaugurating a campaign to control Zion City for her late husband. The rise and fall of Dowie is a well-known tale in old Chicago. The amazing rise of Wilbur Voliva is just as well known to new Chicago. The fall of Voliva if there Is a fall may be brought about by Dowie's widow.

Dowie' Name Was a Byword. Back in the '90s Dowie's name was a byword in Chicago and mid-western homes. He was a commanding, powerful preacher. His words and his "divine healing" drew thousands to his side. He prayed.

The lame walked. The blind saw. Dowie dreamed of Zion, international headquarters for his church. With the little money he could scrape together he bought a tract on the shores of lake Michigan, halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee. There he took his band of followers to live in seclusion from the world's wickedness.

The first town structure was a huge tabernacle. The crutches and bandages of the cured were its chief ornaments. The second was this hue sign at the side of the railroad station: NO INTOXICATING LIQUOR, NO TOBACCO. NO PROFANITY, NO VULGARITY IN THIS CITY UNDER PENALTY. It is still there.

Zion is that kind of a town. Now we come to Voliva. A product of the middle west, he held pastorates at Linden, I'rbana, 111., Albany, N. and Washington Court Home. O.

tion were too far gone. They were thrown into the courts. A receiver was appointed. Voliva, stripped of everything by his enemies, was removed as an active factor in the business of Zion City. The Zionites didn't reckon that, without the religious leadership of a Dowie or the business acumen of a Voliva, they couldn't hang together.

A less courageous mortal might have returned to Chicago and some other pulpit. Not so Voliva. He rented a tent, pitched it on the outskirts of the immaculate little city, hired a brass band, and ran busses from his former headquarters to the tent, where he gave religious solace to all who wanted it. It was an expensive proposition. And he had only eighty-three pennies in his threadbare pockets But within three Sundays he had $3,000.

The money went back into his work. He boasted that the day would come when he would own every one of Zion's 6,500 acres. It did! A year or so after the boast, he had enough money to buy Shiloh Tabernacle in Zion City. Then he bought the general store. He awarded himself a salary of $100 a month.

He ruled his city with an iron hand. One family after another came to the strange community, until the population was over 6,000. He established industries for them. He owned the industries. He built homes for them.

He owned the homes. His bakery products were sold in forty-six states. His printing and publishing plant contained 40,000 worth of presses. His department store did a huge business. His --Li Voliva as he looked early in his career.

1 Aegoi'iritefi Prep Photo Mrs. Wilbur Voliva Mrs. Alexander Dowie candy factory was profitable. He had a lace manufacturing plant. He bought everything he didn't own in the town for a cash total of 950,000.

He announced that the world was flat, that the law of gravity was a fallacy, and that the sun was only a few miles away from Zion City. He is still offering S5.000 to anyone who can prove to him that the world isn't flat. Since he owns the Zion school system and pays superintendent and teachers, they agree with him, and so the children are taught that the world is flat. He never really forgets the church. It brings in $1,000 a day.

Each year he holds a Feast of the Tabernacles. He superintends the dry cleaning of souls at the rate of one a minute. Repentance is business-like and practical. Confession and reparation are conducted along the lines of an exchange desk in a department store. What Voliva Said To Repentant Deacon.

On One Occasion a fnrmer Anofmn 1 cent fine for Voliva. Thus tha case ended. Delighted with the decree, ha continued in his own sweet way. In 192.1 a Voliva adherent was He even made money on his ''state within a state" by the inauguration of a speed trap and fining Wisconsin and Illinois appointed postmaster of Zion City. Down came the Stars and Stripes trouble, particularly in the case of the Rev.

Thomas H. Nelson. The Rev. Mr. Nelson was the pastor of Grace Missionary church in Zion City.

Voliva, by pulpit billboard and pamphlet, called Nelson "a foolish old goat." And Voliva's followers men, women and children stood on the sidewalks when Nelson passed, and calling the n.an of God "Billy Goat!" Voliva also decorated Nelson with such endearing terms as "infernal old scoundrel, old blatherskite, mildewed chestnut, wild man from the federal building. Up went the Voliva flag. But public opinion and general threats from out side the town forced him to restore the nation's banner. Voliva had had similar trouble in 1914, when he insisted on fly Then he heard Dowie preach. Like thousands of others he came under the spell of this man hailed as a prophet.

Young Voliva withdrew from his church and joined Dowie's following. Dowie ordained him. Voliva was elected an elder of the church in Zion City. Dowie worked with both hands end both eyes on his Bible. But Voliva made religion fay.

Dowie sent Voliva to Chicago to hold meetings there. Voliva's success was so phenomenal that Dowie sent him to Cincinnati, where Dowie's progress had been less marked. Here, too, Voliva succeeded. Dowie had more dreams. He would spread his religion outside of the United States.

So he sent Voliva to Australia to perk up interest there. Voliva's touch was Midaslike. His converts threw gold from their pockets. While Voliva coined money in faraway Australia. Dowie lost it in Zion City.

The church was slipping financially. Dowie was slipping mentally and physically. The denomination was in a state of chaos. Dowie recalled Voliva and made him deputy general overseer of Zion City, second only to himself. Dowie died in 1907.

Voliva took up his task. 1 of the church wrote that he had run away from Zion City to New York in 1905 to httor -f of Borneo, old bum, noisy old wind bag, tomcat, and more of the drivers who exceeded a fifteen-mile speed limit. Thus he grew to be the richest religious leader in the annals of any sect. His town is a peculiarly fiat little place. It gives the impression of a small white city low white bungalows, low white stores, wide white streets, and the huge white tabernacle.

The lives of the residents revolve around the church. There are no speakeasies in Voliva's town. One may not drink. There are no cigar stores. One may not smoke.

The barber shop is still man's sanctuary. Women may not bob their hair. There are no doctors nor hospitals. The residents trust to divine healing. There are no jazz bands nor dance halls.

One may not dance. In a short while Voliva was allowing himself $240 a month, the best house in town, and a few ec same. tunes. After 17 years, with plenty of the world's goods in his trust company, he repented. "Come back to Zion City and brina vour iij State's Attorney A.

V. Smith secured an injunction keeping Vo liva from announcing his thoughts It was on the same day that S.500 ing his flag above the stars ana Stripes. At that time a delegation from Fort Sheridan led an invasion on Zion City and forcibly lowered the cult's emblem. Next Voliva decided to have his own radio station so that the world might hear hts words. It cost more than $20,000 to install.

WCBD was no small station. It was one of the most powerful in the country. It could be heard by every state in the Union. Pastors complained about the ministerially owned apparatus. But no man can be stopped from preaching his own sermons.

Nearby residents com-(Continued on pagt 26) were snrtven. Voliva used his -niilnif cot. what he wanted tn Ho billboards. If he wished to call on billboards. Then the enterprising minister hired a plane and bombed his citizens with pamphlets.

Nelson took his criminal slander suit against Voliva to court. Judge Claire C. Edwards of Waukegan, 111., found Voliva guilty. But an appeal before Judge Jacob Hopkins in a Chicago court brought a some member of the town a so-and-so, up went a billboard announcing in blnr lr onrt ti UWb that member was a so-and-so. centricities.

Of course it got him into.