1917 Watchtower Bible Student Schism - A2Z.org

Aoorrlr 1% 19V . HARVBST
oo:s), and had left the Tabernndc clothad u
with him. They d d thay bdimd Brohr Johnson wu
clothed when he left the prerence of the PEin (8- &&st right; aqo hur brother took no alder whatover he
1 . He ared Brother Butherford to %e Ma d$&b he certarn 1
hand m W c e of him to ark that-and ghat be cauld ron. Do ou know Lhrt thd whole of the week brt2re
not keep hb haads ofi ahe work berc Broth* hchet- bat they cepe from me ever). let* (hrt -6 nrth
ford wired back that hir work in London, bh8t b his the exception of thoas few which happened to come in
my own name. I wu not dlowrd to rce a letter and
work, was finished m b that he nu to return
to America immediately. ke wued 80 ui in the
office that Brother Johnson', work here was finished, and
that Ce had no further authodty t ,~ represent the Society
in my wa , ad that we rhould rhip h ~m back to America
i-ediateb. Easier said thin done. Brother Rutherford'r
posrtion war' this, that a man who would rend such
a mbleginm u he sent waa not in a fit condition of mind
to represent the Society, so he asked him to return. and
bid tu cancel my work and return hrm.
"Brother Johnson come back frm Livupool, and was
quiet for rome &TI, accepting thla He called it a retback.
but beliered f could' not last very loag, for Brother
Rutfrerford could ace hie, Brother Jahnsodr, poqition.
He came back to London the weekend the Comm~ssion
rat All that weekend he was compuatively quiet, but he
came to the conclusion on the Saturdry night that he
would not attend the Commission because he said it had
no authority, and he being the "Steward," was ruperior
to it, and he repudiated it and denied i!s authority., Then
he said he would require the rame hnd of cancellation
of his papers-that is, realeb papers ruch as had been
given him when he received his commission as the Society'r
accredited representative.
"A little lrtu he denied that Brother Rutherford had
any authority, and that hais election to office was illegal.
He wu continually going rtep by step denying every
%fiEZ%
and every authority. In the home he re-
CWBI, and it Ieil to me, ar representing the
Prer-t, to tell hi that .while he stayed in the house
awaiting his return to America, he could rtay as an honored
gueat for his worKr rake, but that he mun keep
his hands off the management. He had raid he would not.
and furthermore declared in that reefs the Wednesday
after the Commission had one home, that his purpose
was to come back in this &arch the following Sunday,
and, b use hir own words, h those elden which he had
rfiia mme reeb before, toze out of office awn the
brethren whom you had elected to office, whore names
had been on the letter which brought to much trouble to
the Church Now I told hi I rhould resist him in this,
md I told him too &at he would find no favor with you
in what he dib but he raid the type dearly rhowed that
it had to be.done, but when he uw I wu determined
he aot do it, he went back to look at the type and
mid it rhowed rometbing different, and he would be content
for the time being. However, the following weekend
he came out in full rebellion against Brother Rutherford,
deelarktq there waa no President of THZ WAKE
Tom, that hu elecbon was illegal, and that he intended
to taka fuu coatrol of the British work. This was nothin
Iar tbra rebellion, as I, told him. We received an-
08- td- aigned not only by Brother Rutherford,
brtt by Tru WATCE Town S m raying that all Brother
Jdnw'r =%ties of every kind in this country were
t.nccfied. There could be no clearer authority. Here was
.Brother fohn#ri rending cablegrams and ~etting no reply
what-, where- -my cablegrams were .being anawered
remluly 4 quickly. That put division in our house,
for h atat to extremes. He did not like my opposition.
1 hd 0th- purse but to o pose him. There was no
nua for tbkmg that Ta $*rca Tom which ia the
official journal of the Society, was in league'with rome
conspiracy in America, or that there was something
wrong there; $ere waa no reoson to b.+ieve that Tra WAICH
Tom told he% or that the authonher had been careless
in their work when they elected Brother Rubherford
President. He disobeyed all instructions. Then he took
his hst rtep Qat he could take in this way, and I have
to tell you that a fortnight ago on Monday he dismissed
me from the office. He dismissed me quite a dozen
times, and when he found I would not go, he ruspended
me. It did not make much difference personallo. only the
unfortunate part of the matter w;ls that there were rome
in the house and office who were reeing things from
Brother Johnson's point of view, and Brother Housden
and three othu brethren in the office were co-operating
y showed rnme #plp&thy dtL ~ l c t h e 3 S
fkey handled business they did mot know &but. hey
kept me from the telephone, and when I wanted to telephone
they wou,ld neither let me, nor my recretary use it,
and also would not allow meria er to come through to
my o6cc Meantime, Brother johnson was trying to .
get the money we had at the Bank He was persuaded
m his own mind he aid, and certainly he reem'ed to haye
persuaded those wi.+ hi that it was in the very best
rntererta of the Brrbsh work that he rhould control the
money, and of vital interest to the work that I rhould
be gotten out of the way. How he found that out. I don't
know; I expect it wu by rome type he raw. .He perruadcd
the brethrea with him that this was the right thing, and
they acted on it. A row thing indeed. Well, .I am
very glad to tell you that three of the brethren who acted
with him, one after another came to ree their mistake,
and they came very humbly expressing their sorrow to
me for the treatment they measured out to me, and for
their attitude towards the work.
"We are beginding to gct the work into shape again
now, but there ha.:, been a real set back to it which has
caused some fluttering about the country wondering what
is happening. Meantime .Brother Johnson put an action'
la the High Court to restrain me and those associated
with me, from handling THE WATCH TOW= money. Why
he wanted this for .himself he best knows, I don't, but
he tried hard to get at what money there was, a matter
of about $1500. Owing to the formalities of the law
.there are already cosb amounting to about L150. That
was to get me out of the work particularly, and to get
himself rmtrlled in care of the British branab in face of
all the evidence against him.
'Now Brother Johnson's action is repudiated by
Brother Rutherford for two reasons. First,. that he was
never charged with rucb work as he took upon himself.
Brother Rutherford tells me in a letter I received a .day
or two ago, that it'wu well understood when they mote
out those credentials, with the gold real which you saw
on them, that it was in order for him to get a better passport
into this country, and Brother Johnson fully underrtood
this. andflot at a11 to interfere with the British
work Brother Rutherford uid that Brother Johnson
knew this, and 1 would rather believe Brother Rutherford
than Brother Johnson. Besides, Brother Rutherford's
repudiation of Brother Johnron is rince he rent the foolish
cablegram, and because it rhowed that he was not in
a fit mental condition to represent the Society, or indeed,
anybody else.
'Well now, brethren, this ir why Brother ohnron has
not appeared before you. He will not appear ere, or anywhere
else as representing the Society. It cannot be under
ruch conditions. It is one of the most awful things we
.have had in the whole pf 8he Harrwt work, and I bee no
other explanation of rt than thih Brother Rutherford
ruggested that Brother Johnroa fiw lost his Mmce of
mind. and coupled with this an inordinate value of himrelf
in the Brdah work He bu had thoughts irr his
mind for a long time before ha to Britain which
ermbled theae th.inga -to act quk& upon him, but in
charity to him we wiIl say that it wrr owing to a weak
rtate of mind because of a strain ha had. To say we are
row is a poor thing. The chid hoMe is, so far as we
are concerned, that there has been work done in the
ae~tts and minds of +he brethren whI4 is bound to hurt
them for some time to come.
"Brother Rutherford, in his letter to me, sends a me$rage
to the congregation. He ups how he is that
Brother Johnaon took the course he had to, and yet how
he feels that all these things ,have been allowed of the
Lord in order to do any work that the Lord may have,
The Commission made their report to America about the
work, and when that report has been considered and we
have heard, then there will be tomething more to say
relative to the reationship of Brotherr Shurn and Crawford
in the office. In the meantime Brother Ru&erford
rays, after rending his love to the Congregation: 11 have
I