Seems those four directors voted to give Rutherford full control as President. Then, once they saw he was going to be a tyrant, they wanted to repeal the bylaws and restore the sharing of authority amongst the members of the board. They didn't even want him to stop being President of the Society, they just wanted to go back to what the gameplan was based on C.T. Russell's will, which was for the 7-member board of directors to make decisions together. Rutherford used his legal knowledge to have it declared that they weren't legally members of the board of directors at all, then gave them the boot and put his own people on the board so he'd have no one who would challenge him on anything.
Aha, thanks sd-7, full control. That is what I've been thinking since last October. Rutherford had full control of what went in the publications. He had full control when in 1919 Jesus supposedly appointed the FDS.
So that nonsense that "there have always been anointed brothers at world headquarters" and "when these work together to provide spiritual food they become the FDS", which is on the annual meeting report on jw.org, is nothing more than a smokescreen to cover up the fact that as you elegantly put it Rutherford was the one who had FULL CONTROL of the publications. There was no governing body. Rutherford was the one "on hand" back then, so basically he was the first "faithful and discreet slave".
And then as Cedars expertly pointed out the apostolic succession principle ensures that once he had that office, all his heirs and successors inherited it too. It just took them 93/4 years to figure that out.
Alec.
