The Story of our Health Message

A Study of Costs

Now some were again questioning seriously the “aim of furnishing a complete course for physicians.” One member feared that “the advancement made was not carrying the people with it.” The treasurer of the General Conference said that he “felt that our finances are now beyond the grasp of the denomination, and asked, What is the future of Loma Linda?” “Perhaps,” said another, we “made a mistake in going ahead and establishing a full medical school, when we were conducting a medical missionary school successfully. The instruction has called for a medical school. We are in a situation that we must get out of, but we must get out of right.” This perplexed speaker “thought it was time for prayer.” SHM 393.1

A committee was appointed, and it later reported on the comparative annual cost of a three-year course and a five-year course. And so the matter of giving the complete medical course once again hung in the balance for a few days, while the difficulties were faced and rehearsed. One thoughtful speaker, recognizing that the great objective was to man the mission fields at home and abroad with recruits with a medical missionary training, seriously raised a question as to whether those who might be graduated as professional doctors would make the gospel teaching first in their work, or whether they would follow more professional lines. The answer to this vital question was then, as it is now, the true measure by which the great sacrifices made by the members of the church are worth while. SHM 393.2

At length, in the last evening session, after six days of study, a resolution was introduced by the president of the General Conference, calling for the appointment of a commission to “examine into the entire workings” of the institution at Loma Linda and the prospects of recognition of the work done there. One of their duties was “to study carefully the instruction that has been given with reference to the establishment of the institution.” This commission was to do its work and report later, but it was decided in the meantime to conduct the “fourth and fifth years of the medical course” in Los Angeles. Minutes of Board of Trustees of the College of Medical Evangelists, October 21-27, 1913. SHM 394.1