General Conference Bulletin, vol. 4

MICHIGAN SANITARIUM AND BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION

J. H. KELLOGG

Fourth Meeting, April 16, 3 P. M.

DR. J. H. KELLOGG in the chair.

Prayer by Elder C. Santee. GCB April 18, 1901, page 312.28

The Chair: This is a meeting of the Michigan Sanitarium and Benevolent Association. The principal business before us this afternoon is to consider some of the interests of this branch of the work that have not yet been fully considered. One matter of importance is the situation of our employees. I presume it is known to the members of this association that the employees of the Sanitarium and the students of the training school for nurses have no home in which to live. They are tucked away in corners all about the town. I presume if many of the parents who are sending their young people here for instruction, education, and training, knew the circumstances under which they would be placed in coming to Battle Creek, if they knew that they were to be sent off to rooms in a cottage half a mile away from the Sanitarium, and never coming under the shelter of its roof except during hours, and for meetings, they would have some little hesitancy about sending them here. GCB April 18, 1901, page 312.29

Some years ago the trustees erected a building for the accommodation of the young ladies, a portion of whom are attending the training school. This building will hold about 200. We have about 400 young ladies in the employ of the institution, and in the training school; and the building will hold only half of these. We have no dormitory for the young men. These are put about in cottages, and we are hiring some 80 cottages. The Sanitarium has been paying rent on these continuously for the last six or seven years. During the winter time the number of cottages is sometimes reduced as low as 60; but in the summer time it is always 80, sometimes more; and the rental amounts to between $4,000 and $5,000 a year. Now $5,000 a year would pay five-percent interest on $100,000; and that amount would provide splendid dormitories, which would amply accommodate all our students, and all the members of our family, who are now living about in very uncomfortable quarters. GCB April 18, 1901, page 313.1

It is not a very wholesome thing for a young woman to work in our bathrooms, perspiring freely, and then after a hasty cool bath, to clothe herself, and go right out in zero weather, or that which is ten degrees below zero, to a room half a mile away, and into a cold room, in an unheated cottage. It is perhaps nine or ten o’clock in the night, or three or five o’clock in the morning. There is a damp bed to get into,—not a very friendly prospect. It is a cold sort of reception. It seemed to me a heartless and cruel thing, and I could not endure it any longer. GCB April 18, 1901, page 313.2

Mrs. Kellogg and I talked the matter over last fall, and we made up our minds that we would do what we could to help the students, so we moved out of our house and gave it over to them, and are now living in a little cottage, crowded up as closely as can be. We gave up our house to be used for a dormitory, and our house has sheltered between thirty and forty of the students of our medical college all winter. I only wish it were large enough to take in as many more. We are going to stay in our cottage and leave our house to be used as a dormitory until some provision is made by which our helpers can have reasonable care. GCB April 18, 1901, page 313.3

Our medical students sometimes fail in health; they get cold, and break down in health, because of the uncomfortable and improper conditions to which they are exposed, while they are studying hard, night and day, to earn the money with which to support them as they are going through school. It seems to me the time has come when we ought to make better provision for our help. I have not been in favor of erecting buildings; but I think it would be a proper thing for this meeting to entertain a motion, that the trustees of the Michigan Sanitarium and Benevolent Association should negotiate with the trustees of Battle Creek College for the purchase of one or more of their dormitories. This is in view of the fact that there is an effort being made to remove the College to a more suitable location. GCB April 18, 1901, page 313.4

S. H. Lane: I move that we ask the trustees of this association to negotiate with the College board to purchase the whole plant. GCB April 18, 1901, page 313.5

F. D. Starri and R. R. Kennedy (at the same time); I second the motion. GCB April 18, 1901, page 313.6

J. O. Corliss: I second the motion. GCB April 18, 1901, page 313.7

The Chair: Elder Lane’s motion? GCB April 18, 1901, page 313.8

J. O. Corliss: Yes, sir. GCB April 18, 1901, page 313.9

R. F. Andrews: I second that motion. GCB April 18, 1901, page 313.10

The Chair: I think the motion has been seconded three times. I would like to have you consider whether this motion is made in the interests of the Sanitarium or the College. I am bound to say that I do not doubt at all that the Sanitarium will be able to fill up every single bit of room that these buildings offer. Nevertheless, they must be paid for; and it is quite a serious question where so much money will come from. The Sanitarium has no bank account sufficient to justify such a purchase as this at the present time. We have a debt amounting to a little more than $200,000. To purchase the College I suppose would take $100,000 cash. Where will you get the money? If you are ready to raise the money, it will be a splendid thing to do. If you have some way by which the money can be furnished to the trustees, it certainly would be a fine thing to do. That ought to be considered in connection with this motion. Are you ready for the question? GCB April 18, 1901, page 313.11

A little delay. GCB April 18, 1901, page 313.12

The Chair: Are you ready for the question. I will put it. All in favor, please raise the hand, that you may be counted. All opposed, raise the hand. There is one hand in opposition. GCB April 18, 1901, page 313.13

The Chair: It is carried. GCB April 18, 1901, page 313.14

J. D. Gowell: I move that we give the whole audience an opportunity of expressing themselves on this question. GCB April 18, 1901, page 313.15

O. A. Olsen: I second the motion. GCB April 18, 1901, page 313.16

The Chair: The question is that the entire audience be given an opportunity to express themselves on this question. The question before the house is that the trustees of the Sanitarium shall negotiate with the trustees of Battle Creek College for the purchase of the entire plant and all the buildings. I understand a motion has been passed in this house, and has been voted upon favorably by the entire audience, recommending that Battle Creek College shall be removed to some other locality. Is that the case? GCB April 18, 1901, page 313.17

Voices: Yes, sir. GCB April 18, 1901, page 313.18

The Chair: The buildings must be disposed of in some way; and I set before you the needs of the Sanitarium. The question now before us is whether it would be a proper thing for the trustees of this association to negotiate with the trustees of the College with reference to the purchase of its buildings. And it is asked that this question shall be submitted to the entire audience. Are you ready for the question. All in favor of this question raise the hand. I see a forest of hands. All opposed, raise the hand. I do not see a single hand. One hand that was raised before has apparently been converted. That shows the influence of a great majority. It is distinctly understood here that this association has not made any proposition to Battle Creek College trustees to purchase its property. It has not agreed to purchase its property. It is simply recommended here that the trustees of the Sanitarium shall negotiate with the trustees of the College with reference to the purchase of the property; and of course there will have to be some inducements made, and a proper price put upon it. GCB April 18, 1901, page 313.19

I wish to present another question here. Seven years ago the trustees of the Sanitarium proposed to the incorporators of the American Medical Missionary College that if they would organize a college, the Sanitarium would be responsible for the running expenses. Since that time the Sanitarium has been paying the salaries of the teachers, and paying its running expenses, and paying largely for the outfit of the College. There was a gift of some $2,000 or $3,000; I think all told some $3,000 or $4,000 has been received for the College at different times. In addition to this, all that has been received and paid out for the support of the College, and the carrying on of the College has been paid from the regular funds of the earnings of the Battle Creek Sanitarium. This expense has amounted to a large sum; it figured up last year to about $50,000 and this year the expense must be somewhere about $60,000. This is quite a large sum. GCB April 18, 1901, page 313.20

The Medical College owns some property at the present time. The property which was donated by the Wessels Brothers represented, by the branch sanitarium in Chicago, was given by the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association, to the American Medical Missionary College. All the running expenses, however, have been paid for by the Sanitarium, by this association, through its trustees. The trustees would like to know what is your pleasure in relation to this matter,—whether you approve of what has been done, and whether the Sanitarium should continue in this beneficence, or whether something different should be done? Is there anything to be said upon this question? Have you any resolution to offer? GCB April 18, 1901, page 314.1

W. T. Knox: I have a resolution here I would like to present:— GCB April 18, 1901, page 314.2

“Resolved. That we indorse and commend the action of the trustees in promoting the interests of the American Medical Missionary College, and in the use of funds for the payment of the salaries of the teachers and incidental expenses, and we recommend that they continue this until other arrangements are made for the running expenses of the school, on condition that the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association will make suitable effort to secure funds for an adequate building.” GCB April 18, 1901, page 314.3

O. A. Olsen: I am much interested in this measure, and I am much interested in the work of the American Medical Missionary College. I think that the reports we have heard with reference to that work during this meeting fully sustain the effort that was made in organizing it and putting it to work, and the efforts and the labor for the support of it. We can all see, from the work which has been done, and what there is yet to be done, that this is an institution, which must be nurtured, supported encouraged, and helped forward in its glorious work. Therefore, I am in hearty favor of this resolution, and second its adoption. GCB April 18, 1901, page 314.4

J. H. Kellogg: It is moved and seconded that this resolution which you have heard, shall be adopted. Allow me to say just this word. To-day at the Sanitarium, just before coming to this meeting, I was called into one of the offices of the Sanitarium, and to my astonishment, I met the wife of one of the leading surgeons of Chicago, one of the principal surgeons that I was talking about here. To my still greater surprise, the lady said, “I thought you had a very interesting meeting yesterday afternoon. If you had called on me, I would like to have made a speech.” This lady is one of the leading society ladies of Chicago, and a member of the great Chicago women’s club, and one of the most influential women in Chicago. She has come here for a little rest, as she is tired out. She said, “I want to tell you something. The very last thing as I was leaving Chicago, my husband said to me, “This freshman class that I am teaching is the finest class I ever saw. I think it is too bad that they have such poor facilities. We are not doing justice to these young men and women who come here to give their whole lives to this work. I feel very badly about it.’” That is what he said to her privately. She said, “I would like to have got up and said that in behalf of the students.” The doctor makes his appeal not for himself. He does not ask for greater appliances for himself: but he asks in behalf of the students, and this appeal is made in behalf, not of the faculty or any of the doctors, but in behalf of the work itself. The men and women who come forward, and say, “We will give our lives for the diffusion of these principles” certainly ought to have a chance to be trained, so that their lives may be as eminently useful as possible. GCB April 18, 1901, page 314.5

Are you ready for this question? All in favor of this say, Aye. Opposed, No. It is unanimously carried. GCB April 18, 1901, page 314.6

Have we any further business? If we have no further business, a motion to adjourn sine die will be in order. GCB April 18, 1901, page 314.7

G. A. Irwin: I move that we now adjourn sine die. GCB April 18, 1901, page 314.8

This motion was seconded, after which it was put, and carried. GCB April 18, 1901, page 314.9

J. H. KELLOGG, Chairman.
GEO. W. THOMASON, Secretary.