The Story of our Health Message

Friends Join the Ketterings

The next problem was one of informing friends of their plans and enlisting their assistance in providing funds for their portion of the project, the second block of one hundred beds. Mr. Kettering felt that to see is to believe and therefore arranged to take three airplane loads of his friends from Dayton—industrialists, bankers, and leading citizens—to the Hinsdale Sanitarium and Hospital and show them a representative Adventist hospital in operation. In this group was one physician. SHM 421.1

The management arranged an extensive guided tour of the plant, and the group followed their guides through offices and operating rooms, laboratories and laundries. But the one physician did not make the tour. He elected rather to spend his day in the physicians’ lounge interrogating the attending staff as they came and went. This physician later reported to the Dayton Medical Society that he questioned the attending physicians as to how Adventists operated hospitals, the care they gave, their standards, ideals, and restrictions. He reported that without exception the non-Adventist physicians with whom he talked in Hinsdale responded that they preferred to have their patients in the Adventist hospital for three reasons: the cleanliness of the institution, the completeness of the equipment, and the dedication of the nurses and workers. SHM 421.2

After the delegation had returned to Dayton, in due time a meeting was called and the financial leaders of the community were invited. Here Mr. Kettering first presented his offer to increase his original hundred-bed project by one hundred beds if the leaders of finance and the captains of industry in Dayton would contribute enough for a block of one hundred beds also. SHM 421.3

After Mr. Kettering had finished speaking, the president of National Cash Register Company and a vice-president of General Motors spoke, inviting those gathered to contribute to the project. At the end of the room was placed an easel with pages similar to a Sabbath School Picture Roll. The first few pages told of the need of Dayton for more hospital facilities, the next few pages revealed Mr. and Mrs. Kettering’s offer, and the last pages told of Seventh-day Adventist medical work around the world. This presentation was prepared by the Public Relations Department of the National Cash Register Company without the knowledge of the leadership of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. SHM 421.4

It was an impressive and a sobering experience to listen to the president of the National Cash Register Company and a vice-president of General Motors describe to their friends the selfless service of Seventh-day Adventist medical workers around the world, and ask their friends to contribute one and a half million dollars for the erection and equipping of a hospital in their community, to be given without strings to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In approximately twenty minutes this amount was subscribed. SHM 422.1