I have just read about the litigation period, when there was a schism between the Board of Directors and the Board of Trustees. The question was: who was to lead? A startling question and most unfortunate.
It was just following the end of World War One. The brilliant, dedicated, indefatigable, erudite, witty, well-connected, cosmopolitan Mr Dixon was Editor of The Christian Science Monitor. Canham describes his writing as "historically exact, literarily rich, politically shrewd" - see page 173. But Mr Dixon was a law unto himself, which is not how Mrs Eddy had laid out the structure of her church.
There was limbo for a couple of years. Staff left. Circulation plummeted from a high exceeding 100,000 down to a low of just 17,500. Ultimately the court decided for all time in favour of the rule of law. In the case of the Christian Science organisation, this meant that the Church Manual gave ultimate authority to the Board of Directors.
The choice, then, by the Board of Directors, of a new Editor in 1922 was astute and timely. Willis J. Abbot was a veteran newspaperman.
The work of restoration was underway. In retrospect it was like a resurrection. Canham writes that "Under Mr. Abbot's editorship, and with the support of the entire Christian Science movement, the Monitor's circulation began steadily to return to its pre-First World War figures, and ultimately ...excel them. By 1924, only two years after the paper had been returned to loyal hands, its circulation again exceeded 100,000. At the end of the decade it had reached 130,000." (see page 183.)
It is noteworthy that "the entire CS movement" was involved in this work of rebuilding and restoration.
Julie Swannell
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