It has always been a business: Miracle Wheat Investigation highlights WT Finances in 1911

by ILoveTTATT2 8 Replies latest jw friends

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  ILoveTTATT2

  I am still not done with the Miracle Wheat article... there's just so much information to process! I already did the summary, and the new information that I have doesn't change my conclusion: The entire scandal happened because Russell was very gullible and didn't check with Government agencies to see if the wheat was legitimate or not. He went into a business venture on which he knew nothing about.
  
  Here's some interesting stats about the finances of the Watchtower back in 1911:
  
  It received, from the sale of books and donations, $150,000. This is equivalent to $3.7M in 2016 dollars. Recent data showed that the Society received around $1B in revenue in the US per year. So their growth per year has been around 5.4% FOR 105 YEARS!

  The sale of "miracle wheat" lasted only about 3 months, because the Eagle's reporting effectively put an end to it. In three months they sold $1800. If they had lasted a year, they would have sold $7200 of it. So the "miracle wheat" would have added around 5% growth in the WT business... In a sense, it doubled the growth of all of the pioneers, publishers, etc... combined!
  
  I have growing suspicions that a lot in the case actually had to do with Rutherford, not Russell.
  
  It was Rutherford's "baby", and I think that he made Russell file the suit against the Eagle.
  
  The evidence for this hypothesis of mine will come soon.
  
  The
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  smiddy

  I look forward to more of your revelations ILoveTTATT2

  smiddy
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  OrphanCrow

  Ilove: So their growth per year has been around 5.4% FOR 105 YEARS!

  Well, not really.

  The average inflation rate for the past 100 years has been about 3.22%.

  That will eat up some of that 'growth'.
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  ILoveTTATT2

  That includes inflation... I compared 3.7M in 2016 dollars vs 1B in 2016 dollars.
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  OrphanCrow

  Ah...

  Okay...carry on.

  :)
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  under the radar

  I appreciate your doing all this work and then sharing it with us. It's very interesting from a historical standpoint.

  It's possible that Russell himself was entirely sincere and guileless in promoting Miracle Wheat, but it undermines the claim that his organization was somehow especially selected by God and being directed by Holy Spirit. Good intentions of kind-hearted people are no proof that what they teach is actually true, regardless of how strongly held their beliefs are. If God was really directing an organization, it simply wouldn't make silly mistakes like this.
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  Listener

  Ilovettatt, how much more there is to this story other than what was printed in their magazines is probably a mystery. There also appears to be something about miracle rye as well.
  I don't think they were being very honest about a brother called John Bonnet and his farm.http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/52873/secret-corporations
  
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  ILoveTTATT2

  Hi Listener,

  how much more there is to this story other than what was printed in their magazines is probably a mystery.

  There are USDA reports, there are newspaper reports, other sources besides the Watchtower and its publications.

  I don't think they were being very honest about a brother called John Bonnet and his farm.

  No, they were not. One has to remember that besides Russell, there were other people involved in this whole fiasco: Rutherford, Bonnet, Van Amburgh, K.B. Stoner, the USDA, the Brooklyn Eagle, the judges, etc.

  There's so much more to the story than just the wheat, there is legal stupidity (Rutherford not knowing the definition of "libel" in the US), there is greed and a get-rich-quick scheme (again, Rutherford probably saw the money in it, used Russell's gullibility)...

  There's so much info, that is why it has taken me so long to write it up.
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  Listener

  I'm looking forward to reading it, also the timing of things.