General Conference Bulletin, vol. 5

GENERAL CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS. Twenty-second Meeting

W. T. Knox

FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 1903, 2 P. M.

W. T. Knox in the chair. GCB April 13, 1903, page 186.4

After the opening hymns, Nos. 1203 and 1244, Elder W. H. Thurston invoked the blessing of God upon the Conference. GCB April 13, 1903, page 186.5

The minutes on page 135 of the “Bulletin” were corrected by striking out the line. “The motion prevailed,” in the middle column, beneath the record of the motion and second for the adoption of the resolutions respecting the Southern publishing work. GCB April 13, 1903, page 186.6

These resolutions were then taken up as the order of business. GCB April 13, 1903, page 186.7

C. P. Bollman: The resolutions speak of the necessity of the Southern publishing house. It is scarcely necessary even to refer to this after what was said in the Conference a morning or two ago by Sister White, because she stated plainly that she was shown by the Lord that the publishing house should be established in Nashville. Of course that settles that matter. What I wish to speak about particularly is the fact set forth in the second paragraph, “The plant of the Southern Publishing Association is not as it now stands adequate to do the work economically.” I might state very briefly a few facts. The house has no stamping press (for stamping the lettering on book covers) and no sewing-machine. We have to send our books into the city to have them stamped, and it costs two or three times as much as it ought. So also with getting books sewed. GCB April 13, 1903, page 186.8

The publishing house is without a press adequate to do color or fine register work. We have to go to town, and again pay large prices. Now some changes have been made, as Brother Butler told you the other day. Brother J. N. Nelson, from the Review and Herald Office, is now down there as manager, and he is doing the very best he can, cutting off every expense that he regards as unnecessary. But there is a good spirit of cooperation in the office to help Brother Nelson to turn the tide in favor of the publishing house. Brother Nelson finds himself handicapped by being without facilities. And a working capital is also needed, as paper and supplies must be bought in making books. GCB April 13, 1903, page 186.9

Now I do not think it is necessary that I should dwell upon these things; just simply a statement of facts makes a more powerful plea than anything I could possibly say. The resolution asks that this Conference give its moral support and active cooperation to the Southern Union Conference in raising $10,000 to complete the equipment of that office, and to furnish adequate working capital in order that it may go forward in its work. I believe there is a disposition here to do that. Just how this shall be done is not for me to say; but it will go a long way in helping to do it for this Conference to give its sanction to this movement, and endorse this, and express that confidence in the management of the publishing house, and say by your votes that this sum is needed, and ask your people to assist in raising this sum. GCB April 13, 1903, page 186.10

The Chair: If there is no objection, we will let the resolutions take their usual order, and let the secretary read the first one. GCB April 13, 1903, page 186.11

The secretary read the first resolution:— GCB April 13, 1903, page 186.12

“Resolved, That we give the Southern Union Conference our moral support and active cooperation in making an appeal to our people in America to raise a fund of $10,000 to complete the equipment of the Nashville office, and to provide that office necessary working capital.” GCB April 13, 1903, page 186.13

N. P. Nelson: I would like to ask a question. We have heard much about our offices not being justified in doing commercial work. Are we now to equip the Southern office to do this kind of work? GCB April 13, 1903, page 186.14

W. C. White: The fact has been made plain to us by experience and by counsel that, when we establish a center of influence in a new place, we are to come in contact with the people in just as many ways as we can in a way to do them good, and that we are not to build up walls about us to cut us off from contact with the people. Therefore, when we establish in a new place, and we have facilities and men which can do some commercial work to advantage, it is right for us to do it well, and show that Christian principles can be brought into commercial enterprises; but that is all secondary to something else. Our first effort is to print and to circulate present truth and get the people to read and believe and to live it. GCB April 13, 1903, page 186.15

Now the Nashville building is a large, roomy office. It was built very inexpensively, and the work has been planned on a scale not only to furnish for the Southern states especially publications required for those, but also to do a certain amount of printing of juvenile children’s books. Now the facilities are not complete, and the work is in such a position that there is loss because of a lack of some facilities, but more because there is a lack of regular work. It is my conviction that it is within the power of the General Conference Committee to arrange with our publishing institutions to assign to the Nashville office such a volume of tract and pamphlet work as to enable it to utilize its present facilities to their utmost capacity, and thus bring the office at once into a paying position. Then shall they have the means with which to own small stocks of tracts? or shall they have to go in debt for every increase that they make along the denominational lines? GCB April 13, 1903, page 186.16

We hope that by putting out scores of colporters and canvassers the volume of our book work will largely increase; that the tract work by these means will largely increase; that with the management which has been secured for the office already, with work which can easily be turned into its hands if our publishing houses will listen to the counsel of the General Conference Committee, I see no reason why we may not expect the Nashville office not only to pay its way, but to make small gains, to assist in the accumulation of the funds required for the ownership of a good stock of religious tracts and pamphlets, and such books as are specially needed in the South, and some to send abroad elsewhere. GCB April 13, 1903, page 186.17

S. H. Lane: I should like to ask, Is this ten thousand dollars to be devoted to more equipment? or is it to pay the indebtedness of the Southern Publishing Association? It seems to me that, unless the equipment could be made to pay not only interest on the money, but more, it would be better to raise $10,000 and get out of debt, rather than to raise $10,000 and put in machinery and run the risk of getting out of debt, and, perhaps, in order to do so, having to take commercial work. GCB April 13, 1903, page 187.1

C. P. Bollman: The greater part of this indebtedness is something that is not demanded. The money is not money that is going to be called out right away; so they are not debts that are pressing. They are virtually loans on long time to the association. It would be better, we believe, to allow those debts that are not pressing, some of them without interest, to continue, and to pay a small rate of interest on some of them, rather than to lose having the use of the capital by paying them, leaving nothing to do with. Help is necessary in order to make what we have profitable. GCB April 13, 1903, page 187.2

G. G. Rupert: In view of what has been said concerning the establishment of the publishing house in Nashville, the only objection that I see to this request is that it is too small. I do not believe the request is sufficient to put it in the condition that it ought to be in. I believe that, while they need this sum for operation, yet, as we are trying to get other institutions out of debt, and get them on a firm basis, why not begin with this one the same.—get it up to where it ought to be as an institution, to do the work that God has called it to do? I am sure that we as a people can put it where God would want it, and let it go on its mission, and keep out of debt from this time forward. GCB April 13, 1903, page 187.3

The Chair: Are there any further remarks on this recommendation? GCB April 13, 1903, page 187.4

(Elder Butler was called.) GCB April 13, 1903, page 187.5

The Chair: Elder Butler is called. GCB April 13, 1903, page 187.6

Geo. I. Butler: I presume that the brethren can realize that I feel considerably interested in this matter. I have held the office of president of the Southern Publishing Association for about a year now, and we have had difficult problems to contend with. It is said that when a woman has a large family of children, and one of them is sick and very feeble, and she is up night and day with it, she always loves that child a little better than the rest of them. Just so it has been with me in my connection with the publishing association at Nashville. It seemed that there was a good prospect for it to die, when I came over here to California, and tried to get help from one whom we knew was interested in our work. Under such circumstances, it may be readily seen that, after trying for a good long year, and meeting all kinds of difficulties, I would most likely feel like doing my utmost in a critical time like this. We feel the importance of having our literature for the field published in such a city as Nashville. GCB April 13, 1903, page 187.7

And this is not all, dear friends, why we are interested in that work; because the servant of the Lord, who has been here and spoken to you just a day or two since, in a way that I should suppose did interest all of your minds—and I know it did touch many of your hearts, from what you said in public—because she has said just as strongly as ever she has written that the Lord was in the establishment of that office, and that the whole people ought to sustain the office, and that the two old, established offices, the Signs and the Review and Herald, ought to help that office. We do not believe that this thing is going to die a natural death, or anything of the kind. No; we expect that it is going to triumph gloriously. I well remember when we had no sign of such a building as is now occupied by the “Signs of the Times” close by us here. And I remember that people had little faith in the starting of another paper; they thought it would injure the “Review and Herald;” they did not take much stock in multiplying institutions. But we went to work; the Lord said that a publishing house ought to be built up here, and that our people should rally to its support, but it proved a difficult task to get them to do this. And I am not afraid to say that the difficulties encountered in the beginning by the Signs Office were far greater than those we down in the South have to face to-day over the Southern Publishing Association. When we go by the Pacific Press building to-day, and see those great presses running, we learn not to despise the day of small things. The same God who spoke about it being our duty to build up that office has spoken about the Southern Publishing Association. And I believe the publishing work in the Southern field is not going to be circumscribed within small quarters, but that it will advance and do a great work. GCB April 13, 1903, page 187.8

There has been a great deal said about our running behind in the office. Well, we have run behind. So did the Signs of the Times and the Review and Herald; for years they did not begin to pay their way, until it came gradually, and this has been the experience of all the publishing houses. All of them had to start in the same way. But we will not blame our brethren for the past. Leaving the things that are behind, let us now press forward to the things that are before. And so, all united, we shall see things move in the great Southern field. GCB April 13, 1903, page 187.9

The question was called, and the secretary read the next resolution, relating to the sending of canvassers into the South. GCB April 13, 1903, page 187.10

J. B. Blosser spoke to the second resolution, and the question was called. GCB April 13, 1903, page 187.11

The Chair put the motion to adopt this series of resolutions. The motion prevailed. GCB April 13, 1903, page 187.12

W. A. McCutchen: I move that the recommendations reported by the committee, on page 135, be taken up and considered at this time. GCB April 13, 1903, page 187.13

G. G. Rupert: I second the motion. GCB April 13, 1903, page 187.14

The secretary read the first item:— GCB April 13, 1903, page 187.15

“15. We recommend, That five thousand dollars ($5,000) of the General Conference Association indebtedness apportioned to the Southwestern Union Conference, on account of Keene Academy, be remitted, leaving five thousand dollars as the amount to be paid to the General Conference Association.” GCB April 13, 1903, page 187.16

W. A. McCutchen: I wish to offer an amendment to this, making the first sum mentioned $7,000 instead of $5,000, leaving $3,000 as the amount to be paid to the General Conference Association. GCB April 13, 1903, page 187.17

T. W. Field: I second the motion. GCB April 13, 1903, page 188.1

The Chair: It is open for remarks. GCB April 13, 1903, page 188.2

W. A. McCutchen: In the first place, it has been the common understanding in our district that $7,000 was the amount to be remitted, or, rather, that $3,000 was the amount asked to be paid by that Union Conference to the General Conference Association. GCB April 13, 1903, page 188.3

We went to the people with the “Object Lessons” work to raise this money. It was distinctly told the people all through the field, all over our conferences, that this was to be a supreme effort put forth to lift every dollar of the indebtedness, to raise the whole amount of the debt, and that they would not be asked any more, that we would not come before them any more with any request for a debt of any kind hereafter; that we were going to keep out of debt. That was the real fact, and the people took hold with good heart and good faith to raise the amount. It is true, by short crops and other reverses, we have not raised the whole amount, but largely so. Now, when we find that there has been a misunderstanding, and some of us there must go back to the people again to raise the amount, or else resort to some other means of raising this, I confess that we feel very much perplexed to know what to do and how to do it. GCB April 13, 1903, page 188.4

C. McReynolds: The people in the state of Texas alone undertook to build the Keene Academy. The General Conference promised to build and pay for a dormitory if the Texas people would build the academy. They went forward and built the academy, and the General Conference built the dormitory. Six years ago, at the General Conference at College View, there was an appropriation of $3,000 voted to Keene Academy. Now all of that, both that appropriation and the money that was invested in that dormitory, was charged up to that enterprise, and amounts, as reported by Brother Lane, to $5,000. That is all that the General Conference has ever put into it. Now the request is made to pay back every dollar of that to the General Conference Association. It seems to me that that is hardly just the thing to do. I am in favor of the amendment. GCB April 13, 1903, page 188.5

G. G. Rupert: I have no wish to say much about this matter. I undertook the “Object Lessons” campaign, and so carried the report all through the Union Conference that there was an indebtedness of $3,000 due the General Conference Association. I believe it will be far better that the understanding, whether there was a mistake in it or not, should be carried out for the benefit of the cause in that Union Conference. I want to say a word in behalf of the Keene Academy and the people there. They have done nobly. I know of no place in my experience that the immediate vicinity has labored harder to bring up our institutions than Keene. Outside of the school and its enterprises, which have been a burden to them, they have invested $5,000 in the sanitarium work; and they have struggled and labored most earnestly in that village to maintain these institutions, and I have had a deep interest and sympathy for them. I believe there is no people anywhere around that will be more willing to bear their share. I hope this amendment will carry, and I believe, if it does, and liberality is shown toward them, you will find it coming back to you in other ways, and you will be glad that you have done so. GCB April 13, 1903, page 188.6

S. H. Lane: I have no disposition, and I can feel that I can truthfully say that the association has no disposition, whatever even to request anything which would not be correct. A splendid people live in Texas. They are benevolent almost to a fault. They were owing some $7,000, but have reduced it to less than $3,000, though their quota is not all sold. And no more energetic people can be found in the United States of America than those who live in Oklahoma. They have sold their quota quite largely, and, should they finish that quota, should Texas finish her quota, should Arkansas (a state so fruitful last fall that money went into the state by the thousands and the millions) finish their quota, there would be money in the hands of the district to pay every dollar they owe, if they pay the General Conference Association $5,000. GCB April 13, 1903, page 188.7

I knew that there was this difference of opinion as to the apportionment. We began to correspond, and from the very first I supposed it was the $10,000, and I was surprised when I learned that it was the $3,000; and then I thought I might be mistaken, and I did not press them. I would not press them now. Why?—Because you will lose more by pressing them than by dealing liberally. GCB April 13, 1903, page 188.8

But, brethren, there is another side to this question. What constitutes the General Conference Association to-day? (Delegates: We do.) The General Conference Association, after the payment of all these sums, will be $100,000 in debt. Who is going to pay it? (Voices: We will help you.) Very well, if you are all agreed to that, I am through with this speech just now. Will you do it in Texas? I should like to see these brethren say, “Yes, sir; we will sell our whole quota of books, and pay the whole thing bank.” It is an easy idea to think that the General Conference Association is rich, and that all you have to do is to milk awhile, and get the cream. If everybody would try to help the General Conference Association, instead of seeing how much they could get out of the General Conference Association, the cause would soon be in a prosperous condition. Although the $3,000 proposition will probably carry, I hope that the $2,000 will come on top of it. I know that this would greatly cheer and encourage the hearts of everybody connected with this matter. GCB April 13, 1903, page 188.9

Question was called, and the motion to amend was put, and prevailed. GCB April 13, 1903, page 188.10

The Chair: The secretary will please read the next recommendation. GCB April 13, 1903, page 188.11

Secretary (reading): “16. We recommend, That all conferences and mission fields recognize the tithe as the inheritance of God’s ministers, and that an allowance be granted from the tithe to properly support sick or aged laborers, also the dependent widows and orphans of those removed by death.” GCB April 13, 1903, page 188.12

R. A. Underwood: I know of some cases—I could mention them—of our brethren who have died, fallen at their post, leaving widows and children. These widows and orphans have struggled for years, some of them, under most trying circumstances, with sickness and death in their families; and they have received no help. Sometimes ministers have been moved about over the world until they break down in a field where they have labored but a little while, perhaps in some poor conference that does not see why it should assume support for the little time it has received service. It seems to me that the General Conference itself has some responsibility under this resolution. GCB April 13, 1903, page 188.13

A. G. Haughey: I do not want to be understood as not favoring the support of the ministry, but I must confess that I believe that, if a minister is no longer able to do ministerial work, he should be supported, but not from the tithe, I believe a special fund should be created for that purpose. I believe this according to the last chapter of volume 7 of the Testimonies. GCB April 13, 1903, page 188.14

D. E. Lindsey: I am heartily in favor of this recommendation. Some provision of this kind should have been made years ago. I can not see why a man should cease to be a priest when he gets old, or why he should cease to be a minister of the gospel when he gets old. I believe the tithe is the proper fund to care for the Lord’s ministry. GCB April 13, 1903, page 189.1

A. G. Daniells: I have felt very keenly that as a denomination we ought to take a stand on this question, and have a general understanding arrived at, so that there will be no question anywhere in the world regarding what shall be done in such cases. We started in two years ago, with a committee, to study out some plan. I was on that committee, and I tried to study out a plan for a fund. I studied and studied what kind of a tax we could put on the preachers, or on the people, or on institutions, to create a fund. But, after I got around the best I could, I fell back on the tithe as the inheritance of God’s ambassadors. (Many voices: Amen.) So I abandoned the idea of creating a fund. I am quite aware of what Brother Haughey has referred to. But that does not preclude this idea of the tithe being that fund. Before this Conference opened, I presented the matter to the General Conference Committee when Sister White was present; and I said that after studying this the best I knew how during the two years. I had fallen upon this as the only plan that I could see that would be workable, and Sister White gave her unqualified approval and assent to that idea. Now I feel anxious that we shall take this up in our Union Conferences all over this world, and have it well understood by all the Seventh-day Adventists in the world, that the tithe is the inheritance of the ambassadors of God, and that they can throw their lives into this work, and can devote their donations to this work, and can wear themselves out, and they have an inheritance laid up with God’s people. I do not want to lay up money in a bank or possess a foot of land in this world until I get a share of Abraham’s inheritance. And there are many who share that feeling. I am looking to see God’s work finished before I die or get too old to labor. But I want to see this understanding prevail as to broken workers who have thrown their all into service. GCB April 13, 1903, page 189.2

And further: When a minister dies, what about his widow and his children who have not a competency left? I say that the conference to whose service his life has been devoted should see that that dependent widow and those children should be cared for just as though that ambassador of God was living and working. He has put all his means in, and his life into that work, and he has an inheritance laid up there for his wife and children. Just as far as consistent we should assist the widow and the children to earn a living; and if this is made possible in a reasonable and proper way, let the assistance drop. GCB April 13, 1903, page 189.3

And when we do it, our brethren and sisters will be pleased. They love our ministers; they are loyal; they will do it. I believe, brethren, that when our people hear that we take this action to care for our ministers, and that we plan to send our tithes as far as possible into new fields, leaving them to carry on the work in their immediate vicinities, we shall appeal to them to pay a full tithe in stronger language than we can in any other way. GCB April 13, 1903, page 189.4

Another thought: I believe it should be taught all the time that every minister should be an earnest, zealous, wide-awake minister, to receive the tithe; that a minister must throw his life into the work; he must aspire to something; he must study; he must be a strenuous worker and liver in this cause. And if he is careless, if he does not take hold and work, and devote himself, he is not worthy to receive the tithe while he is still living even; but the true minister who is deserving of the tithe while he is well and alive is the man who is deserving of it when he is sick, and whose wife and children deserve it when he is dead. GCB April 13, 1903, page 189.5

H. Shultz: The priest’s wife and children ate of the same things that he did, and got it from the tithe. The families of our ministers should live of that which the ministers live of. That is God’s plan. We see many of them falling around us, and at our General Conferences we pass resolutions that we show our sympathy for those that remain. I have heard it said time and again. Sympathy does not amount to anything without something in your hands to help. That is the way to sympathize with those that are in need. GCB April 13, 1903, page 189.6

An amendment prevailed to insert the word “dependent,” as a safeguard, making it read, “dependent widows and orphans.” GCB April 13, 1903, page 189.7

The series of recommendations was then voted upon, as amended, and carried. GCB April 13, 1903, page 189.8

The Publication Committee presented its report, which was made the special order at the next meeting. GCB April 13, 1903, page 189.9

The Committee on Plans made a further partial report, being Recommendations 17 to 30, which will be printed in the minutes of the meeting which passed upon the report. GCB April 13, 1903, page 189.10

Meeting adjourned to 7 P. M., April 11. GCB April 13, 1903, page 189.11

W. T. KNOX, Chairman.
H. E. OSBORNE, Secretary.