Religion: Dewhirst and Taxes

In Detroit last week the startled Appeal Board of the Michigan Tax Commission was confronted with a jungle-like black beard. Hiding behind it was Judge Harry Thomas Dewhirst, head of the famed House of David. Male members of this U. S. cult neither shave nor trim their locks, eat no flesh, in the stout belief that thus they will be among the 144,000 elect when Gabriel blows his horn. Judge Dewhirst, rich onetime California jurist, bearded the Appeal Board to beg his sect off from Michigan's unemployment-compensation taxes. He admitted his colony was in business, but protested against the tax on the ground that the House of David is "religious, charitable and educational." The Board was impressed by his appearance but reserved decision.

Judge Dewhirst revealed that the House of David, never very large, had dwindled somewhat in recent years. It has 171 members, who pool their possessions, employ some 70 other people on occasion. Like many another eccentric sect, it has a rival, and in its native Benton Harbor, Mich.—the House of David "As Reorganized by Mary Purnell," widow of its founder "King Benjamin." Mary Purnell specializes in tourist cabins, tourist-trade souvenirs. Judge Dewhirst runs the four famed House of David baseball teams, spry outfits all, a fruit-packing plant, his own tourist cabins and a cocktail room. He has paid some social security taxes to the Government, but unwillingly, plans to appeal in the courts.