This passage is taken from page 274 of the book, “Pastor C.T. Russell: Messenger of Millennial Hope” which you can find by clicking this link.
Already in 1907, Pastor Russell had executed his Last Will and Testament, which was amended slightly the following year and once more in 1910. Even earlier he had donated his considerable fortune, the copyrights of his books and all his personal possessions
to the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, the parent organization which directed the work of the movement. The greater part of the five-page Will was, therefore, devoted to detailed instructions as to how he desired the work of the ministry to be conducted after his decease.
It was commonly under stood that in his life time the Pastor was filling the Scriptural office of “that Wise and Faithful Servant” and “the Seventh Messenger” to the church, for which there was no successor. Therefore, it was imperative for him to outline in detail how he desired the work to be directed in the event of his departure.
The Watch Tower journal, which dealt with the foundational matters of faith, doctrine and Christian living, was the primary concern addressed in his Will. In the Pastor’s mind, it was important
that the publication be placed under the supervision of not just one individual, but collectively in the hands of a group of competent brethren. Accordingly, he directed that a self-perpetuating Editorial Committee of five, the names of whom he supplied along with possible alternates, be set up to have full charge of the religious aspect of the work.
Only incidental reference was made to the Watch Tower corporation, which he considered the necessary legal arm to carry on the business end of the work. For that purpose, he had already stipulated in its Charter that it would be under the supervision of a Board of Directors consisting of seven members. These were to have full control of the affairs of the corporation, with the officers selected by the Board and responsible to it. It was under stood by all that only in the Pastor’s life time would the President of the corporation (Pastor Russell) be able to appoint (technically, to elect) the Board of Directors, in that he was its founder and controlled the necessary voting shares to per form this responsibility.
Thus it was expressly to prevent any “spirit of ambition or pride or head ship” from developing after his demise that these safeguards were planned, both for the corporation and the journal, and specified in his Will and other documents. Both in letter and in spirit, it was obvious that the Pastor did not desire nor anticipate that any one individual would succeed him or be placed in charge of the work. But how differently would the actual events unfold from what he had purposed! In the words of two observers close to the scene of action in those days:
“To have even surmised that there was an incipient apostasy in the midst of the directorate of the corporate structure … was unthinkable. Yet, there it was, already to be revealed almost as soon as Pastor Russell had left these earthly scenes.”
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