The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-05-20
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HASkIN. Director.
Washington, D. G.
A CITY OF THE FUTURE.


town forty miles from Chicago may
fairly be taken as a vision of the fu-
ture in America. While the nation at
large has made only a beginning in
the conquest of vice by abolishing
alcohol more or less completely, and
making a few vague threats against
tobacco, Zion City, ever since its
foundation, has prohibited not only
tobacco and liquor, but also pool
rooms, movies, and various other de-
vices which tend to distract the mind
of man from righteousness and saliva
ton. AS Zion is, so are the proud
cities of Chicago and New York to be-
come. Zion City may fairly be called
the moral model and capital OF
America.
Most of US. who are thirty years old
or more, remember the days when
John Alexander Dowie founded Zion
City, and in 1908 led the hosts of his
faith to New York to regenerate the
fallen city. In 1906 Dowie was sus,
pended from the church ne had
founded. He was charged with mis-
use OF investments, tyranny, polyga-
nous tendencies. and some other
things Since then, the public at large
has heard comparatively little OF Zion
City, but it still lives and thrfves I'M
der the leadership of Wilbur Glenn
Voliva who has succeeded to the post
of general overseer of Zion. ne is re-
Sarded as an excellent business man
and n powerful exhorter with spe-
cial gift of invective. The town manu-
features lace good, electrical supplies
office, milling and baking supplies
and candy. At the last census it had
a population of nearly five thousand.
Good Morals and Bad Roads.
The moral perfection of Zion City is
generally admitted and admired, but
it has a certain physical imperfection
which has recently brought it into con-
fIict with many of its neighbors. ms
imperfection is the mile and half OF
highway which passes thru the city. 1t
is a part of the road from Chicago to
Milwaukee. which is an excellent road
everywhere except along this stretch
thru the town of the Golden Rule.
There it is as the roads of a century
ago, full of bumps, hollows, and deep
and treacherous mud holes
The motorists who pass thru Zion
are bitterly resentful of this road.
They have even talked of boycotting
the Zion City industries unless the
roads are repaired.
The feeling against the road thru
Zion has reached the point where it
can only be expressed adequately IN
the same strong language that Noliva
uses in the pulpit.
Ayear ago the general wrath of the
nois state legislature in the form of
resolution introduced by Mr.. Shurtleff,
calling for an investigation of Wilbur
Glenn Noliva and the Christian Cath
Ole Apostolic church. On April % of
this year the Illinois supreme court de-
ctded that such n investigation was
illegal. and this was regarded by the
Zionists as a great victory over the
devil.
Licked the Legislature.
The Saturday afternoon after this
triumph was the occasion of a great
celebration. There was a parade thru
the streets, with much singing and
shouting and waving of American flags
and the blue, white and yellow Zionist
flags huge volume of sound made
by horns, drums. human voices and
the beating of tin pans, rose to the
heavens over Zion.
This last celebration of the Zionists
is also the occasion for a little rejoic-
ing among. the motorists. There are
rumors that now that Voliva has tri-
umphed over Satan and Mr.. Shurtleff,
he will improve the roads just to show
that there are no hard feelings. 1t is
even said he intimated, when the in
vestlgation seemed imminent, that if
he were spared the expense of being
Investigated he might be better able to
afford to make his thorofares more
seemly. Citizens of Zion, when ques-
toned about this. give various an
sWers One said that the roads could
not yet be improved because there was
not enough money in the town treas
ury Another said that work was
about to be begun upon the roads. God
willing, because at last the town could
afford it. Still another seemed to
think that the state had better pay for
the improvements, since the roads
were mainly used by outsiders who
ad GA.T
atmosphere of the village. But the
general feeling is that the supreme
court decision has brought a double
blessing to humanity in these parts:
1t has defeated the devil and made
certain smooth thorofare to Mil
waukee.
Only Chimneys Smoke.
If this is the case Zion will probably
be visited by greater number of tour
lists in the future. These tourists
should take warning. When they en-
ter Zion they had better mind their
P's and Q's. II they are caught smok-
ing pipes. cigars or cigarets, or chew
ing tobacco, they will be arrested and
fined twenty-five dollars each. and
the fact that they are American citi-
zens will be no protection. And as for
having alcoholic beverages concealed
about them-the sad fate of the two
trucks from Milwaukee is too well
known to be repeated here. But it
Will be repeated as warning, never
theless. These two trucks, careening>
over the troubled terrain of Zion,
aroused the suspicious of an officer of
the law. They were stopped, their
contents were Investigated, and beer
was found-gallons and gallons of
beer bound for wicked Chicago! 1t
was all promptly emptied in the sew
ers of Zion and the devil suffered an
other knockout blow.
Zion is town of little frame houses
and a row of small stores. The Zion
Home, a hotel. is huge yellow edi-
flee, and the administration building
opposite is of the same hue. The
home of the late John Alexander
Dowie is the most prtentious dwelling
in the place. 1t is of bright red brick
with many angles and sharp projec-
tions. Its beetling and irregular roof
or vivid green tiles is decorated in
zigzag design of raw brown and yell