General Conference Bulletin, vol. 4

INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL MISSIONARY AND BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION

J. H. KELLOGG

Fifth Meeting, April 16, 3:30 P. M.

J. H. KELLOGG in the chair. GCB April 18, 1901, page 314.10

The Chair: The members of the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association will please come to order. We will now have a meeting of this association. We have had three meetings, and these two meeting during these two hours will be of about the same constituency. GCB April 18, 1901, page 314.11

The question I would like to bring before this association at once is the question of our foreign medical missionary work. Very little has been said about this work at these meetings, and there seems to be little time to say much; but a large work has been begun, and there is opportunity for a much larger work. GCB April 18, 1901, page 314.12

I want to say just a word about the work in Mexico, as that work has not been fairly represented as yet. Elder D. T. Jones went to Mexico six or seven years ago, an invalid. He started to work there, and bought four blocks of land. These four blocks cost a few hundred dollars. About thirty thousand dollars has been expended in the erection of buildings on this land, and the rise in the value of the land from the improvement of the city has been so great that at the present time the land is worth more than the buildings. The land has increased in value more than fifteen times. The location happened to be in just the right spot,—in the direction in which the city would naturally grow, and the only direction in which it could grow, and right adjacent to the city wall. A parcel of about forty acres of land lay beyond the wall, and just beyond this forty acres was a large school of arts that the Catholics were putting up, besides manual training schools, quite large institutions. Elder Jones secured this open space, which lies near the sanitarium, so we now have a monopoly, not only of our four blocks, but of the forty acres. These pieces of land are already within the city limits, and the land is to-day, worth ten times what it originally cost,—probably twenty times,—so that the GCB April 18, 1901, page 314.13

Mexican Sanitarium has not really cost anything. It could be sold out to-day for a great deal more than it cost. GCB April 18, 1901, page 315.1

The work has only begun there. I got a letter a day or two ago from one of our representatives, Dr. Erkenbeck, saying that the Mexicans are coming in for treatment. The Mexicans have been taught that all the missionaries want in that country is to proselyte them from Roman Catholicism; and, being intensely Catholic, there was a very great prejudice against the work of the missionaries. But our institution is becoming popular with the Catholics. The institution is patronized by the leading Catholics. I will give you just one case. GCB April 18, 1901, page 315.2

When I was there, I had the privilege of meeting the president of a large mining college in Guadalajara. He came up to see the institution. He had heard of some of the operations that had been taking place, that we had there, and the wonderful recoveries of some of our patients, and he came up with a bevy of gentlemen to see the institution, and he wanted especially to see the operating room. When we told him we had no operating room, but simply an ordinary chamber to do our operations in, he was very much surprised. He did not see how it was possible to perform operations in anything but a very elaborate operating room. GCB April 18, 1901, page 315.3

The priests there have an intense hatred of our institution; the archbishops and bishops have denounced it in the churches and Catholic press of the city. They have sent out circulars against it, and they have done everything they possibly could to destroy the work; but it has grown and prospered, notwithstanding; and this last year it has succeeded in paying all the running expenses, and sixty per cent of the salaries expected by the employees. That is doing very well. I wish to say that the employees there are working on the plan that if the institution does not make their salaries, they will not have their salaries, but simply take what they can get. It is a self-supporting mission, and the doctors and nurses have a low salary; but if the institution does not do well, they do not get their salary. If they clear enough to pay them half, they take half; and if the institution earns the whole, they will then get the whole. If they do not get it all this year, perhaps next year they will do better, and then they will get it. They are working on that self-sacrificing plan. It is carried on in a self-sacrificing way. I was down there one day at our dispensary, and no patients came in. I was there to see how many there were, for usually the dispensary was full of patients; but on this day no patients came in. I went to the door, and just across the road, opposite the door, stood a Catholic priest with his long gown on I glanced up the street, and saw two or three people put their heads around the corner and dodge back. They saw the priest, and they did not dare come. He was standing there to keep the people away from the mission. He stood there staring at me, and I looked at him. We stood thus for about fifteen minutes, then he slowly walked off down the street, and not more than five minutes after he had gone, the people came flocking in from all sorts of hiding places, and in ten minutes the mission was full. GCB April 18, 1901, page 315.4

That is the way our work started. As I said, there is an intense hatred there toward our work. But a priest fell sick with rheumatism. He was treated by one doctor after another, and finally was treated by the leading doctor in Guadalajara, the president of the medical college. This doctor treated him for several months, but the patient kept steadily growing worse. By and by the doctor said, “I do not think you will ever get well; you will have to die.” GCB April 18, 1901, page 315.5

“No,” he said, “I am going to the Sanitario Americano.” GCB April 18, 1901, page 315.6

That is what they call our sanitarium,—“The American Sanitarium.” GCB April 18, 1901, page 315.7

“Oh, you must not go there; you had better go to hell than go there.” GCB April 18, 1901, page 315.8

“Well,” he said, “I would rather not.” So he was carried over to the sanitarium,—and in three days afterward that dying man was walking down the street, healed, and you can imagine the reception that he met with, all over the city. That was a triumph of true principles, and it was God blessing the work. Such things have happened more than once, and so they have come to attract the attention of the people. GCB April 18, 1901, page 315.9

Now the Medical Missionary Board has voted to send two physicians, a man and his wife, down there to help them. There is a great opening for medical missionary work in every large city of Mexico. I wish that every member of this association might go down there, and see what a wonderful people they are,—there are ten to twelve million people there, and you will never find a more kindly disposed people in the world. They are an intelligent, and really lovable people. They are ready to receive the truth whenever they see what it is. There are men there all over the country who are seekers after truth; and as they get free from the yoke which superstition and Roman Catholicism have placed upon them, and by which they have been held in intellectual bondage, they are reaching out after the truth, and calling for help. And it is strange that our great country, with its Bibles and free schools, and religious freedom—lying right next door to this poor heathen country, should be so slow in reaching out a helping hand for this great multitude. Mexico looks at the United States as a child looks at its fortunate neighbor. The United States was the first republic, Mexico was the next one. There has been a great battle for freedom fought there, and they have won. There is religious liberty there, except so far as the yoke which has been placed upon the intellect by the priests interferes with religious freedom. But they are ready to have religious freedom. GCB April 18, 1901, page 315.10

This association has not been very active in promoting medical missionary work during the last few years. There has not been a sufficiently good understanding so that this association could have a free hand in doing what it would like to do. There has been a lack of proper arrangement by which this association has lacked the power to forward the work in foreign fields where it is especially needed. Nevertheless the mission fields in foreign lands have been gradually dropping into our hands, so that now they are nearly all in the hands of this association. Now, I want to make this suggestion: That as the General Conference has voted to allow the Medical Missionary Association to elect six members to represent the work on the Executive Committee of the Conference, this association authorize the board of trustees of this association to turn over to the General Conference all the medical missionary work in foreign fields, with the understanding that the General Conference will organize a board or committee in which the medical missionary interests will be properly represented. GCB April 18, 1901, page 315.11

O. A. Olsen: It has always been my belief that this work is one in all its parts and in all parts of the field. I have had a deep interest in this medical missionary work and in its development, and it has been a matter of great sadness to me that it has not had as cordial co-operation as it ought to have had. But the Lord is working in this Conference in a marvelous manner, and I am glad to see this spirit of unity and harmony and co-operation coming in, and I believe that the suggestion made by Dr. Kellogg is just what ought to be done, and I rise to make this as my motion. GCB April 18, 1901, page 315.12

The motion was seconded. GCB April 18, 1901, page 316.1

The Chair: It has been moved and seconded that the medical missionary work in foreign fields be turned over to the Executive Committee of the General Conference, with the understanding that a committee shall be appointed which shall be so organized that it shall properly represent the medical missionary work as well as the evangelical work. GCB April 18, 1901, page 316.2

This will really be a joint committee as far as the work is concerned, and I wish to say that such a committee has been wished for and longed for and prayed for and argued for by the Medical Missionary Board for the last four years. I am not saying that any one is at fault because we have not had such a committee. The fact that the Foreign Mission Board was in New York, and that the Medical Missionary Board was here, made it a very difficult thing for the Foreign Mission Board to see its way clear to arrange for such a committee. I want to say that there has not been a call for a physician or a call for a nurse that has not been met, but every physician and every nurse that has been called for has been sent, so that as far as the work is concerned the Medical Missionary Board has sought to forward it in every way it could, and the Foreign Mission Board has sought to encourage the Medical Missionary work as far as its funds would permit. But here is an opportunity in which the work can be carried on by this joint committee and the board at home be entirely relieved of this foreign missionary work, which ought to be carried by a single committee. GCB April 18, 1901, page 316.3

The motion was carried. GCB April 18, 1901, page 316.4

W. T. Knox: I would like to present a matter with reference to the Spokane institution. GCB April 18, 1901, page 316.5

The constituency of the Upper Columbia Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association consists of 21 members, 7 elected for 1 year, 7 for 2 years, 7 for 3 years. The names of the 7 expiring this year are: F. B. Steen, C. H. Lansing, A. A. G. Christiansen, S. A. Miller, S. A. S. A. Anderson, W. M. Fee, J. R. Leadsworth. GCB April 18, 1901, page 316.6

I move that the following-named persons be nominated for three years: F. B. Steen, C. H. Lansing, J. G. Smith, S. A. Miller, W. M. Fee, J. R. Leadsworth; also that W. C. Young be nominated to fill the vacancy made by the resignation of G. F. Haffner. GCB April 18, 1901, page 316.7

The Chair: It has been moved and seconded that this recommendation be accepted, and the persons named be nominated for election by the body at Spokane. In order to bind our different sanitariums together, the Medical Missionary Board has devised this plan, that instead of creating an entirely independent corporation wherever a sanitarium is organized, as at Spokane, etc., that there shall be auxiliary associations established, tied to this central body. And there are two knots that are tied: One is that the persons elected to these V1 offices are nominated by this association at its biennial or annual meetings, and elected by its elective body. And no person can be a member of the elective body of one of these smaller institutions unless he is nominated by this body for that purpose. Then the board of trustees, in some instances at any rate, are nominated by this body, the Medical Missionary Board. So there are two great ties. It is impossible for these institutions to exist without this body, and to maintain their corporate life without this corporation. It is just like two cog-wheels, one working right into the other. GCB April 18, 1901, page 316.8

This prevents the possibility of an auxiliary association seceding. It is important that this should be done. because when a new sanitarium is started, the old Sanitarium here at Battle Creek divides its reputation, and its patent foods, franchises for the carrying on of the food business are supplied, and various other matters of financial value are turned over to them. There are various patents employed in connection with our sanitarium inventions, etc., that are patented. These are all turned over free to any association that organizes itself in such a way that it never can be turned over to a selfish interest. The purpose is to keep the association forever doing what it sets out to do, and to keep it in line with this association, so that it can not get away. That is the whole purpose of this arrangement. GCB April 18, 1901, page 316.9

In harmony with this arrangement, these names are given here, so that they can be nominated by this association for election by the elective body of the corporation of the Spokane Sanitarium. Are you ready for the question? All in favor of this motion, say, Aye. Opposed, No. GCB April 18, 1901, page 316.10

Carried. GCB April 18, 1901, page 316.11

The Chair: The reason I have explained so fully in reference to the matter is because I want to ask this body to take a vote adopting this mode of procedure, and recommending that it shall be continued, and that all the sanitariums organized and incorporated shall be incorporated on a similar plan, so that they shall be tied to this body, and thus prevent their starting off on a tangent, and becoming absorbed into any purely local or selfish interest. It seems to me that this is very important. GCB April 18, 1901, page 316.12

You know how it is with your Conferences. One of your local Conferences may secede, and if so, it would carry off all the property of the denomination in it. GCB April 18, 1901, page 316.13

You are organizing Union Conferences at the present time, and propose to consolidate and unify your work. The International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association started out on that plan from the beginning so to organize these sanitariums that they would be forever joined to this institution, and be daughters of this association, and all tied together in a sisterhood of sanitariums, not one of which could possibly get away, and carry off its property and franchises with it. It seems to me this is proper. Have you any motion to make with reference to this action on the part of the board of trustees? If we should allow every sanitarium or any little local interest, any Conference or church, to get together and organize a sanitarium, and call themselves after the Battle Creek Sanitarium, and after the name of this denomination, and give out to the world that they we are doing at Battle Creek and all the other sanitariums, you can readily see they might build a personal interest which some man would carry off sometime. It is highly important that these financial interests should be guarded. GCB April 18, 1901, page 316.14

In the case of a church organization, nobody can make any money out of it. In the case of a tract society, no one will make any money out of it. But in the case of a sanitarium it is very different, because sometimes money can be made out of a sanitarium; and in the case of the food business, it can be made a very lucrative business at times, as can other things connected with these enterprises. You can readily see that it is important that there should be no temptation placed before selfish men to divert these things into some personal interest or selfish plan. Can not we pass some resolution approving of this plan, asking the Medical Missionary Board to see to it that all the sanitariums organized and carried on as auxiliaries and under the name of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, shall be connected with this association by the method which has been explained to you here, or by some other method which is equally efficient. I submit this proposition to you. GCB April 18, 1901, page 316.15

Dr. O. M. Hayward: I believe this is a wise plan, and I make a motion that it is the sense of this body that this plan be adopted universally. GCB April 18, 1901, page 317.1

E. J. Hibbard: I second the motion. GCB April 18, 1901, page 317.2

The Chair: All in favor of this motion please raise the hand. All opposed by the same sign. [There was a very small vote on the question.] Will you not please vote, one way or the other? I would like to see a full vote on this. I have sometimes observed that when a large body or a General Conference has passed a resolution, afterward you will sometimes find a man somewhere who is working right contrary to that resolution. He has no business to do so, unless he goes against the whole organization. Yet that man will say, “Well, I did not vote in favor of it,” and because he did not vote in favor of it, he feels entirely excused from any recognition of it. I do not believe in that way of doing things. You ought to vote for it or against it. GCB April 18, 1901, page 317.3

A Voice: Who has a right to vote? GCB April 18, 1901, page 317.4

The Chair: Every man who is a president of a State Conference, or a member of the General Conference Committee, and every person who has paid a thousand dollars into the funds of this association, and every person who has been elected to membership as a delegate from a sanitarium or a medical mission. GCB April 18, 1901, page 317.5

A Voice: Does this motion mean to include sanitariums in foreign fields? GCB April 18, 1901, page 317.6

The Chair: Yes, sir, every person who has a delegate’s certificate, or has paid a thousand dollars into the funds of this association, every person who is a president of a Seventh-day Adventist Conference, or a member of the General Conference Committee—those are the people who have a right to vote. GCB April 18, 1901, page 317.7

J. W. Watt: We have not heard the motion over this way at all. GCB April 18, 1901, page 317.8

The Chair: The motion is that the plan that has been explained to you for the incorporation of local sanitariums, so that they shall be inseparably connected with this body, and can not be turned into a private enterprise or interest, or be dissolved and the money returned to the original donors, but be kept in line with this association, which represents the whole denomination. The purpose of the motion is to authorize the Medical Missionary Board in taking such steps as are necessary to secure that result, and the carrying out of the plan that has been outlined. GCB April 18, 1901, page 317.9

C. P. Bollman: There were a large number of persons nominated here two years ago and elected as members of this body. GCB April 18, 1901, page 317.10

The Chair: No, that was the Michigan Sanitarium and Benevolent Association, and this is the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association. GCB April 18, 1901, page 317.11

F. M. Wilcox: I favor this move, from the fact that while it brings about an affiliation between these local interests with the general interests, it gives to each of these local interests independent government of the constituency for each one of these sanitariums, as has been done in the case of Nebraska, South Lancaster, and Spokane, it gives practically independent government on the field of those who are there locally, while at the same time it affiliates and connects it with the general work in a way to prevent any such departure as has been indicated here to-day. GCB April 18, 1901, page 317.12

The Chair: All in favor of this motion please raise the hand. Everybody who has an opinion, please vote. [The vote was quite full.] All opposed. It is carried unanimously. I am very glad to see this vote taken. It will back up the Medical Missionary Board and make it feel a little stronger in carrying out this principle. There are other matters that should be presented here. Has anyone else a resolution on this question? If so, please come right forward. GCB April 18, 1901, page 317.13

Dr. O. M. Hayward: I have a few resolutions to present. I hope you will think of them, and talk about them, and do something for us in the South. We want your help and co-operation, because then we want, by the help of the Lord, to do a good work down there. We are bound to have training schools: bound to have missions; bound to push this work in the Southern field, and we want your help. Following are the resolutions:— GCB April 18, 1901, page 317.14

“1. Resolved, That it is the sense of this body that active and immediate steps be taken to advance and encourage our medical missionary work in the territory of the Southern Union Conference. GCB April 18, 1901, page 317.15

“2. Resolved, That we recommend and authorize the creation of a medical missionary organization for the Southern field to be incorporated and known as ‘The Southern Sanitarium and Benevolent Association;’ that this association be organized on such a plan as will secure and insure the perfect co-operation of the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association and the Southern Union Conference; that the headquarters of this Southern Sanitarium and Benevolent Association be established at Graysville, Tenn. GCB April 18, 1901, page 317.16

“3. Resolved, That the objects of the Southern Sanitarium and Benevolent Association be the same as those of the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association and its auxiliary organizations in different parts of the world. GCB April 18, 1901, page 317.17

“4. Resolved, That we recommend and encourage the establishment at the earliest date consistent with existing conditions of two medical missionary nurses’ training schools,—one for white people at Graysville, Tenn., and one for colored students at Nashville, Tenn., that what is necessary to the success of these enterprises be sent as soon as possible; and that the standards of these schools with reference to missionary basis, entrance requirements, and courses of study be those adopted by the schools already established under the direction of the Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association.” GCB April 18, 1901, page 317.18

The Chair: Is there a motion with reference to these resolutions? GCB April 18, 1901, page 317.19

O. A. Olsen: I move their adoption. GCB April 18, 1901, page 317.20

The motion was seconded, and carried unanimously. GCB April 18, 1901, page 317.21

The Chair: I would like to say a word regarding the missionary declaration. I would like to have the sense of this body on the question. When a nurse comes to a sanitarium, should he be asked to declare his intention to be a missionary before he is received as a student? Has anyone a resolution upon this question? GCB April 18, 1901, page 317.22

Dr. J. M. Craig: This declaration is one that has been published for years in the announcements of the Sanitarium Medical Missionary Training School for nurses. I believe that identically the same declaration is required of medical students before being admitted to the Medical College. The recommendation is as follows:— GCB April 18, 1901, page 317.23

“We recommend, That all applicants for admission to any of the medical missionary training schools, under the supervision of this association, be required, before entering the same, to make the following— GCB April 18, 1901, page 318.1