The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-07-28


of which was subdivided and laid out IN
park and residence property, provision be.
ing made for manufacturing sites, that
the grantees of building lots erected
pie: that Dowie constructed schoolhouses
and college buildings at cost OF several
hundred thousand dollars and taberna-
Gle seating 1900 people, and that lace
factory, soap works and other industrial
enterprises were established to give en-
ployment to the inhabitants of Zion CITY,
who were practically all members OF the
church The financing of this scheme
was accomplished in part by moneys re-
ceived from purchasers of lots under
llOO-year leases, but a large part OF the
capital was morey contributed 10 Do"ie
by pers ons outside of Zion City.
Dowe Quoted.
Dowie's testimony respecting the origin
OF the property and his relation TO 1t then
quoted as follows:
osity of good people throughout the world.
| have looked upon the estate as the re-
suit largely of my own good sense, under
God. The money came in the form or con-
tributions from the same common source
the people all over the world-moStly
outside of Zion City. | believe the prop
erty to be completely mine, TO do with as
| please and that no human being mas
any claim or interest in it. consider,
however, that the way | got the property
and the way in which L have itbndS me
absolutely, when | have ceased to control
it, to put it in, trust in ,perpetuity for the
Christian Catholic Apostolic church, 50
that it shall go down to generations to do
good in that line, with the exception Oh
21a per cent which | think is fair for my
self and my family. l did think . Der
cent, but / have reduced it to Pr and am
somewhat inclined TO reduce it still more
Agreements Worthless.
After calling attention to the fact that,
Granger were in plain violation of the
spirit and intent of DOwieS power OF
attorney to VoliVa, which, the court holds,
both Voliva and Granger well knew, the
court said:
LAS between Dowie, Voliva and Gran
ger these instruments were mere waste
paper.
The court then traced Dowies church
career, beginning in Australia, down to
his work IN Zion City, and found that
Dowie had for many years been III re
ceipt of large revenuei which he deVot-
ed to church and charity purposes that
the amounts received by HIM aggregated
in some years 1000; that DOwie had
not sought to amaSS private fortune, out
that he engaged in secular occupation IT
aid of the propagation of his religious
doctrine as DOwie expressed it, for cod
and humanity.
The court then says:
1T is Well-recOgnized principle u
equity that where person accepts money
in property to be used by him for the
benefit of some other person or persons,
or for the advancement of some lawful
enterprise, such money or property con-
StituteS a trust estate.
Intention of Contributions.
The inquiry then is. Did these offerings
come to DoWie for his private purposes
or did the contributors intend that the
funds should be devoted to charitable or
religious purposes? If for any other pur-
pose than the purely personal benefit oil
Dowie, the estate Is trust. 1t Is the
duty of the court to get at the substance
of the thing, and in ascertaning the pur-
pose of the gift the court is not limited 10
an inspection of documents or other specl-
fic declarations of the parties made al the
time If their relation is one OF cOnfl-
dence. or if who receives the money is IN
a position of influence over him WHO
gives the money, as, Tor instance, III the
person receiving the money IS the adVO-
cate of a religious falth, ana Dy WOru anu
attitude and environment induces con-
VictiOn in the minds OF large NUMBERS OF
people that as tn lnStrumehIantN OF III
vine authority II can ana does feIeNe
physical ills and is clothed with power
to exert an influence upon the spiritual
welfare of men and women who thereupoH
give him of their lands and goods, surely
the motive of such gift ought not long TO
remain a matter of OOubt IN the mlndS OF
rational men The fact that such contr-
buttons came to him in the form OF
checks and currency, through the maui
and express, the contributor omittlng 10
require the execution OF FORMAL declara-
ton of trust, does not tend to dlVeSt the
transactions of their real character. 1t is
lust as if the contributor, sitting In d
church pew. had placed the funds on the
collection plate passed to him by a dea-
con Surely, in such a case. the court
would not decree that the parson might
put the money i'm his pocket on the alleged
score of no agreement TO the contrary,
merely because the contributor had failed
to arise in his place and obtain pledSe
Of trusteeshiP from the pulpit
DowIe's Claim inconsistent.
eft would be difficult to conceive of any
thing more inherently inconsistent than
DOWie's claim of private ownership and
his admission of trust obligation Tor the
spiritual welfare of generations UNBORN:
He saws it is his own property, ana yet
he considers that because of the way he
got il he is absolutely bound to turn IL
over tO his successor in perpetulty Tor the
church. Now, If he is TO have success
or. that necessarily implies his own repre-
sentative capacity, for the individual man
can have no successor. And If he is TO
pass it on TO his successor. how can he be
at liberty to dispose Of it otherwise IN his
lifetime?
IF. during his lifetime, he came to di-
vide it up among his followers, or part
with it to some other use, as ne may II
it were his private fortune; MS ADMITTED
ALLEGATION to future generations would, by
his own act, thus be made Impossible or
fuIfiIIment. obviously the theory adj
vanced in his behalf is not sound.
After quoting from Dowie's official pub
Iication. Leaves of Headings, to show that
for six or seven years Dowie had declared
in the churc hand through the paper that
he was a trustee of the estate. 80 per
cent of which, he asserted, belonged to
Zion as a whole" the court quotes
codicif' to Dowie's will executed in Au-
gust, 1893, as follows:
Trust Obligation.
'''The remaining nineteen-twentieths of
said estate in my name, which L hold ana
have held in trust in said church, | do
lnl,ol,,r ,ri,-e deuiSa aud hennpafh TO my