Beth Sarim - Occupation

Occupation

Rutherford moved into Beth Sarim in early 1930 and served as caretaker of the property awaiting the resurrection of the "princes". Newspapers of the time reported on Rutherford's lavish lifestyle, which included a 16-cylinder Fisher Fleetwood Cadillac coupe. The residence was cited by Olin R. Moyle, former legal counsel for Jehovah's Witnesses, in a letter to Rutherford in 1939, as one of the examples of "the difference between the accommodations furnished to you, and your personal attendants, compared with those furnished to some of your brethren." Walter F. Salter, former manager of the Canadian branch of the Watch Tower Society, also criticized Rutherford's use of Beth Sarim. A reply to Salter's criticisms of Rutherford was published in the May 2, 1937 Golden Age, with a photocopy of a letter from W.E. Van Amburgh, Secretary-Treasurer of the Watch Tower Society, stating:

Not one cent of the funds of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society went into the construction of the home in San Diego where Judge Rutherford does his winter work. It was the gift of friends. I did not know of the existence of the house until I read of it in The Golden Age. Not one cent of the funds of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society went into either of the Cadillac cars used by Rutherford at San Diego and Brooklyn. They were the gift of friends.

The magazine Consolation (successor to The Golden Age) explained that Beth Sarim served as Rutherford's winter headquarters:

For twelve winters Judge Rutherford and his office force occupied Beth Sarim. It was not used as a place of ease or vacationing, but was used as a winter workshop; the books from Vindication, Book One down to and including Children were written there, as well as many Watchtower articles and booklets. The executive instructions for branches all over the earth also were transmitted from Beth-Sarim during the Judge's presence there. At Beth Sarim, Judge Rutherford completed the 1942 Yearbook material as his last work before his death. He dictated this material from his dying bed.