The Story of our Health Message

CHAPTER 30 PURCHASE OF LOMA LINDA PROPERTY

EARLY in May, 1905, Mrs. White, with other delegates, was en route to the General Conference session, to be held in Washington, D.C. During the brief time their train was standing in Los Angeles, some members of the committee who had just visited Loma Linda told her of the offer that had just been made, in which the price of the property had been reduced to $40,000. She was deeply interested and requested to be kept informed as to developments. SHM 347.1

It would be hard to conceive of a situation in which it was more difficult to secure prompt action in a matter of this kind. The leading officers of the Southern California Conference were then in attendance at the General Conference 3,000 miles distant. Less than a month before this there had been a change in the leadership of the local conference, and the incoming president had been strictly enjoined that it was expected of him that he should work most earnestly to relieve the financial situation in the field. Having just come from another conference, he was not familiar with the background of messages regarding sanitarium work in southern California. The Glendale Sanitarium had been opened very recently, and there were still many calls for means to help get it started. Added to all this there was the conviction on the part of the General Conference administration, reflected in the union and local conferences, that the creation of further indebtedness must stop. SHM 347.2