The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-01-03
ZION CITY.
As Seen by a Recent Afro -Ameri-
 cam Visitor.

l
 What does John Alexander Dowie stand for? There are good and suffi- cient reasons why Aro-Americans gen. erally should ask the same question and get an answer to it, if they can When I was in Chicago recently in company with Dr. Washington for the purpose of attending the great Baptist convention there, at which Dr. Wash ington was to make an address, he suggested that we should spend day at ion City, and, Zas the suggestion was congenial to me, I consented. So, early, one morning, in company with Dr. Washington, MT. A. E. Manning of the Indianapolis World" and MT. S.. Laing Williams of Chicago. I board ed a Northwestern train for Zion City, which is thirty-siX miles from Chicago. Zion City is only about five years old, It is in many respects a magic city. It is certainly surprising city. The stranger in the gates stumbles upon surprises from the time he leaves the train at the station until he takes it again. The surprises are of all sorts, the first and most startling of all being that Zion City, is nothing like the pie lures of 1t printed in the newspapers. It Is a city all in a class by itself in more ways than one, and particularly in that. it is the only Christian city which ever entered, or expect to en- ter again, unless I go back there More than this, it is the only city I ever en- tered which is governed by the Chris tian spirit that should rule in the gov- ernment of all cities, and especially in that of Chicago. It is easy to say this and to feel this without being Zionite or subscribing to some of the methods which undelie MT. Dowie's progagan- da; but as he is the architect of his idea, and Is succeeding with it in his own way and to his own satisfaction am willing to accept him and his idea at the value he places on himself and size him up accordingly.
 In the first place, Zion City covers a very large area. The site is a very de- sirable and picturesque one, though it's topography is entirely flat and with out arboriculture, a characteristic pe- culiar to that section If the country, which the landscape artist is striving to overcome in the future. There are ten thousand people in Zion City. The city is incorporated and has all of the machinery of municipal government but 1t does not appear to need, it for tn people are Christian in character and conduct and have small use for the machinery of the law It has a great big bank, loan association, a news paer, commercial printery of vast proportions, the largest lace factory in the United States, candy factory, cheese factory, all sorts of factories and stores, for Zion City is an indus trial hive, where every one works and has all of the living comforts that a person can reasonably desire or need; there are no drones; 1t has a tabern- acle where 7,500 people can worship at one, and choir of 1,4O0 voices, led by MT. Wilson, and Afro-American born in Brooklyn there is well-regulated public school system, with an attend ance of 2,500 children, and college, under the management of Princeton graduate There are several high class hotels -hospics) in the city, where the best sort of food and cooking can be obtained at half the price paid for the same sort or service in Chicago, New l York, or other large cities, and large number of the inhabitants of the city reside in these hotels against the time when they set up home establishments of their own. It is very convenient and comofrtable way of living, if you like that sort of living.
 The land of Zion City belongs to the corporation in perpetuity. None of 1t 1 is sold in fee simple, but is subject to reversion to the corporation on lease of something over thousand years This is done, Judge Barnes informed me, in order that the Zion corporation could always control and regulate the affairs of the community along the line laid down by the founder. No intoxi- cants, no tobacco, no profanity, no im- morality are tolerated in the corporate limits of Zion City. Violators of the rules, or any of them, high and low alike, are made to get out of the city at once and go to Chicago, or other munippal sink-holes of iniquity. The moral atmosphere of the whole city is singularly pure and invigorating. i Cleanliness is everywhere noticeable in street and persons. I never saw so much cleanliness. It seemed to me to be an unwritten law of the place. Ev- erybody gets living wages and besides paying the usual taxes to maintain the corporation gives a little of his earn ings to sustain and propagate the idea underlying the government. Peace be unto you" is the invariable form of sal utation, and all of the industrial de- partments of the work begin the la bors of the day with prayer and Bible and song service.
 Now, what does the Zion City idea stand for?
 ! 1. It is a Christian Socialist experi- ment pure and simple
 g. It stands for the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man in the broadest sense,an d there is no hypoc- risy about the teaching or the enforce ment of the idea in the evryday life of the people. The equality of all men is recognized and enforced as principle, white and black and yellow people all standing on the same footing, as l saw it and was given to understand it.
 B. It is a business proposition, con- ducted on Christian principles, and could be studied to great advantage by our captains of industry in their re- ] lations to their army of employees. | sr1,o~o a, ,,o ror,,a vary htph-clas ss men