브루클린 데일리 이글지 1911년 3월 22일자 기사에 따르면,

러셀은 기적의 밀이라고 불리는 밀 종자로 인해서 부당한 이득을 취했다는 이유로 고소를 당했는데

이 밀종자는 버지니아 주 핀캐슬에 사는 K.B. 스토너라는 사람이 찾아냈다고 주장한 것이다.

러셀은 이 밀을 부쉘 당 60달러에 판매했는데 이 가격은 당시 평균 시세보다 훨씬 비싼 가격이었다.

1912년과 1913년 사이에 이글지는 러셀의 사기에 대해서 계속 기사를 올린 바 있다.  러셀은 이글지를

명예훼손으로 고소했으나 패소하였다.  정부의 전문가가 이 기적의 밀을 조사했는데 정부의 테스트에서

이 밀은 질이 낮은 것으로 판명되었다. 재판이 열리기 전에 이글지는 재판에서 러셀 목사의 이단 교단은

돈을 모으기 위한 사기에 불과함을 보여줄 것이라고 공언하였다.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Taze_Russell


'Miracle Wheat'

Miracle wheat (Triticum turgidum var. mirabile)
On March 22, 1911, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that Russell was accused of gaining profit from a strain of wheat named "Miracle Wheat" by K.B. Stoner of Fincastle, Virginia, who claimed to have discovered this strain. Russell sold the wheat for $60 per bushel, far above the average cost of wheat at the time. Throughout 1912 and 1913, the Eagle continued to report on Russell's alleged fraud. Russell sued the Eagle for libel, but lost. A government expert investigated the "Miracle Wheat" and said it "was low in the Government tests". Prior to entering the court, the Eagle declared that "at the trial it will show that "Pastor" Russell's religious cult is nothing more than a money-making scheme."[87] Russell defended himself publicly, and in writing, claiming that the wheat was donated to the Watch Tower Society. He said that although sold for $1 per pound, Mr. Stoner allegedly routinely sold it for a $1.25 per pound. Russell claimed to have no financial connection to the wheat, and said that no one claimed a refund although he had offered one for up to a year later for any who were dissatisfied with their purchase.[88] In 1975, the Watch Tower Society stated that gross receipts from the "Miracle Wheat" fundraiser totaled "about $1800" (current value $49,000), of which "Russell himself did not get a penny". It also said that "the Society itself made no claim for the wheat on its own knowledge and the money received went as a donation into Christian missionary work."[89]

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