p. 18 | Twenty-Ninth Meeting

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Jun 10, 1909

Twenty-Ninth Meeting

May 31, 10:30 A. M.

Elder A. G. Daniells in the chair.

Prayer by W. M. Healey.

J. O. Corliss: I notice that there has come to us in the last day or two one from Indiana, who has sat in our councils year after year and session after session of the General Conference, but because of illness he was not elected as a delegate to this Conference. I would like to see him an honorary delegate to this body, and permitted to take part in its deliberations. I refer to Elder W. J. Stone. I move, Mr. Chairman, that he be received as an honorary member of the delegation.

The motion was seconded and carried.

Elder S. M. Butler was seated as a delegate from the Columbia Union Conference.

A. G. Daniells: The Conference closed yesterday leaving some unfinished business pending the report of the committee on plans. It closed with Resolution 23. The first item for this morning is No. 24.

Resolution 24 (on preparation of our publications) was then read, and question called, the resolution being voted without discussion.

Resolution 25 was then read:—

25. We approve, Of the action of several of our publishing houses in paying a tithe into the treasury of the General Conference, and we invite all the publishing houses in the United States to follow their example.

A. R. Ogden: Why not include other institutions, such as sanitariums and possibly some of our higher schools and colleges, that are having a net earning, especially sanitariums?

E. R. Palmer: It was thought best in preparing this resolution not to complicate the question too much by introducing many institutions that fill a variety of fields. Our larger publishing houses operate in the general field, sending their products to all parts. The publishing houses occupy a general field that some other institutions do not. Although I am in personal sympathy with the suggestion that other institutions pay tithe into the General Conference treasury for the support of their several departments of work, yet we thought it best not to introduce that into this resolution.

W. W. Prescott: May I ask why it would not be proper for publishing houses outside the United States to pay tithe in their respective fields?

E. R. Palmer: It was thought by the committee that it would be proper for them to pay tithe in their respective fields, and not into the General Conference treasury, but rather in the fields in which they operate, which are usually quite circumscribed.

W. W. Prescott: I move as an amendment that the publishing houses outside the United States be invited to pay a tithe to the union conference treasury in their respective fields.

The motion was seconded.

L. R. Conradi: I should like to know what we are to do where we have a publishing house operating perhaps in two or three unions at the same time, as the Hamburg House. That house has paid tithe before it has been voted. We have given thousands of dollars to help our schools and other institutions, but to-day we are operating in two unions, and soon will be in three unions. Our institution tithe has been going in a different way, building up an educational center, getting out literature in eighteen different languages. Now suppose we should give it to the union treasury for them to spend it in another way. Would that be the intent of the motion? The literature ought to be increased in the same languages, and extended to twenty-five or fifty more.

C. H. Jones: The Pacific Press Publishing Association has already adopted the plan of paying tithe of their net income. It has been divided among the union conferences comprising our constituency, the Pacific, the North Pacific, the Central, and Canadian, in proportion to the amount of business that has been done in each one of those conferences. This resolution would change that, providing that this tithe be paid to the General Conference instead of the unions.

I. A. Ford: In our field, the South, the various union conferences, at least two of them, are not quite self-supporting, yet they are supporting missionary secretaries who are devoting their time to building up the circulation of literature. We tried to adopt the plan of paying tithe, and the question in my mind is, Would it not be in our field better to pay this tithe to these union conferences to provide funds with which to support the missionary secretaries?

L. R. Conradi: I want to say another thing. Now, for example, here is the German Union. That union to-day supports itself fully and gives of its offerings quite an amount of money to the countries abroad. The publishing house, on the other hand, is giving far more than the tithe right along, and at the present time is willing to help in the Levant field. It has established a work in the Russian Union. Now it expects to help the General Conference in starting the work in the Levant field, perhaps sending you every year an amount much more than the tithe. Would you think it better for the Hamburg house to pay that money to the German Union to-day, which is self-supporting, or help you where you have such calls as are made upon you to-day in getting out the publications in the other countries. It is not the question of paying tithe, because we are giving more than that, but it is the principle of paying that tithe to the respective union, which has of itself sufficient money.

W. W. Prescott: What I am speaking of is the principle of institutional tithe-paying—whether it should be recognized, or whether the institutions should be allowed to control their own funds. If the institutions are allowed freedom to control their own funds, the Review and Herald could certainly find abundant ways in which it could use its tithe.

H. W. Cottrell: In addition to what Brother C. H. Jones has said pertaining to the action the Pacific Press has taken relative to tithe-paying, I wish to add that it accompanied the tithe with the suggestion that these several unions use this money in the promotion of publishing work. They would not do it in their field, but without this resolution, it would naturally go from these unions into the General Conference treasury. There is where it would land anyhow, and it seems to me that the resolution, so far as it pertains to publishing houses that are already paying tithe, is altogether out of order.

J. O. Corliss: I would very much desire to see the principle enunciated here that would be a help in our churches.

C. F. McVagh: I do not believe that there is a moral obligation resting upon institutions that belong to the cause to pay tithe as a moral obligation rests upon the individual to pay tithe. Yet I do believe in the principle of our publishing houses paying tithe, and I would like to see some uniform system provided.

T. F. Byington: I would like to say, simply for information, that the International Publishing House (College View) has paid tithe on what profit it has made into the Central Union Conference. This resolution would simply change the place where we pay to the General Conference.

W. C. White: If I am correctly informed by the men who are conducting the foreign houses, they are turning over to the union conferences a tithe of all of their earnings, and considerable more than the tithe, and that is disposed of by the union conferences. In such instances I think we might follow that proverb which says, “Let well enough alone.”

L. R. Conradi: When we started our Hamburg publishing house, we had no stock company, and we did no outside printing. It was started then as a union affair. We had no printing house board to control matters; but whenever the year closed, the union conference committee met, and they disposed every year of the earnings of the institution. They have given thousands of dollars to get out

the publications in all these various languages. Now to-day we are not arguing on the amendment against the principle of paying tithe, nor against the principle that some one else than the publishing house should dispose of the tithe, because our publishing house does not dispose of the tithe; the union conference committee does it, and we are perfectly willing, as a house, to give that tithe to the sub-treasury of the General Conference, and give two tithes, willingly and gladly, only we do not see much gain in distributing it among unions which are already self-supporting.

Dr. D. H. Kress: This same matter was up in Australia several years ago, and I think the way we left it there, instead of calling it a tithe, each institution gave an offering equal to the tithe, to be used as tithe.

H. Shultz: I believe in the tithing system straight. I believe that it is right that our institutions pay tithe just as well as individuals.

E. R. Palmer: I think we shall do well to leave out of the resolution references to the tithe paid by our publishing houses in foreign conferences.

W. W. Prescott: I am perfectly willing to accept the suggestion that the tithe be paid to the sub-treasury. I understand, if this amendment is defeated, that it pronounces that our institutions are not under obligations to pay tithe.

M. C. Wilcox: It seems to me that it could not be so understood. Our foreign institutions are meeting perplexities and problems that we do not have to meet at all. It seems to me it would be better to leave the foreign field alone, and deal with the field at home.

The Chairman: The question is on the amendment, which the secretary will read.

The Secretary [reading]: Insert the words, ‘and invite the publishing houses abroad to pay a tithe, those in Europe to the General Conference sub-treasury, in other lands to their respective union treasuries.’

M. A. Altman: It seems as if the principle might be carried out by simply striking out the phrase, ‘in the United States,’ and have it read, ‘we invite all the publishing houses to follow their example.’ That would do away with the other conditions.

Chairman: I should like to ask Brother Irwin to take the chair for a moment, so I may say a word on this.

[G. A. Irwin takes the chair.]

A. G. Daniells: Now, brethren, our departments have come to be very large factors in this cause. They are operated at heavy expense, and we can not help it. Some of us on the General Conference Committee have regretted greatly the expenditure required in operating them. But as we have looked out over the field, and have seen the details of work multiplying, and have found how utterly impossible it would be for a few men to deal with these, we have said, We must go on and foster these departments, and make them strong. I have all the time felt that these departments—the publishing, the educational, the medical—ought to pass to the general treasury something in return for the expense and effort made in their behalf. I believe the day will come when each one of these departments will pass on to the general treasury all that is required to carry on the work of those departments. Now may I ask how this money that is passed by the Pacific Press to the union conferences ever reaches our treasury?

H. W. Cottrell: The Press has not paid this tithe until this year; and it is only recently that we received this, and I suppose it has not yet been forwarded. You will get it, every dollar of it, from the Pacific Union, anyway.

A. G. Daniells: Well, that explains it. What I have said relates to all the departments. The Sabbath-school, of course, brings large returns to the general treasury. We have endeavored to have the Missionary Volunteer Department return to the General Conference all that has been necessary to operate it, and I am glad to say that it has done that. Now when we send out our medical workers to visit our sanitariums, to lecture in the field, to attend Chautauquas, and to work in behalf of the national campaigns for prohibition, it costs a great deal of money; and yet the General Conference, so far as I know, gets not one dollar from the medical department anywhere to meet this large general expense. Now we work hard to foster the interests of our sanitariums, to supply men, and to help young men and young women to get their degrees to practise in different places where they are needed; and yet our sanitariums, up to this time, have not returned to the General Conference anything, so far as I know, to meet this expense. Some day it will be done, I am sure, and then it will relieve the general administration of this burden.

[A. G. Daniells takes the chair.]

W. W. Prescott: I like Brother Altman’s suggestion. I would like to make his suggestion my motion,—to strike out from the resolution the words, ‘in the United States.’

The Chairman: The amendment, then, has been changed to read, ‘we invite all the publishing houses to follow their example.’ This is the only question before us, as I understand it.

H. R. Salisbury: I want to make one final plea before this comes to a vote, that the resolution be left just as it is here printed. I want to speak from the standpoint of one on this side of the water who has been on the other side. For six years I was a member of the board of one of our European publishing houses, and what they did on that board was done on other boards. At the end of the fiscal year, we took our net profits, and said to our brethren, the union conference committee, Here is our money for you to do with it what you please. That is done in Great Britain, and is done at the Hamburg house; the whole money is taken over and handed to the denominational administration, and they do with it what seems best to them. Now they have done that for years. They have not given a tithe; they have given everything; and now because we bring in a resolution here that our houses in the United States shall give merely a tithe, and that it shall be used partly in fostering our publishing interests in mission fields, why should we by resolution ask our European institutions to give a tithe, when they have been giving, and still want to give, everything? Why not let the resolution remain as it is printed here?

S. G. Haughey (North England): I am heartily in favor of the recommendation as the proposed amendment reads, which would provide for our British publishing house to pay a tithe to the General Conference to help on with its work.

L. R. Conradi: I have no question about the amendment as it has been proposed. So far as we know, the tithe does not go to the respective unions, but to the General Conference.

I. H. Evans: I think the delegates might be interested to know something of the interest the General Conference Committee takes in trying to foster the publishing work throughout the world. We maintain our publishing department staff here in the home office, which is but a small part of the expense. Last year we called Professor Caviness from Mexico to the Pacific Press Office at Mountain View, kept him there, paid him a salary for many months, and met his transportation both ways; and in return he gave his exclusive time to the translation and production of literature. Other men on the Pacific Coast were paid by the General Conference for their time while they were producing literature to be printed by our publishing houses for circulation abroad. We are carrying not only in this, but in other lands, a continual heavy expense, in order to get out literature that our publishing houses may print, and that our people may have to circulate to get the truth before the world. It seems only just and reasonable that the publishing houses that are built by the donations, not of the individuals in the locality where they are erected, and located, but by the contributions of our people throughout the world,—that these publishing houses, after they have become factors in the denominational work so that they have a net profit, should turn around and help to maintain and support the work that the General Conference is trying to carry forward throughout the world. It was our General Conference that erected the printing house in Hamburg. It was our people who built the Pacific Press. It was not the constituency to-day of the Review and Herald that erected that printing plant. Seventh-day Adventists all over this land and in many places in the world, had just as much to do in erecting the Review and Herald, and have made just as great sacrifices in maintaining it, as have those who to-day are officially connected with it. Why, then, if the denomination is called upon to maintain an institution, is it not proper to say that the general organization having the administration of affairs throughout the world, should receive from these institutions a tithe of their net earnings? We have many enterprises that must be fostered and built up. There is China, with 435,000,000 people. The General Conference must establish a printing plant in that country, and get out literature for those people, at a tremendous expense, and with no prospect of a net profit. Should not these older institutions now contribute to the establishment of our printing work in China, in Japan, and Korea? And as soon as they get their finances in good condition, these publishing houses, I believe, should do more than pay a tithe; they ought to become a strong contributing agency in the establishment of our publishing work in heathen lands. I believe in this amendment. I believe in the principle. I believe it will be helpful to an institution to pay a tithe on its net gain. I do not believe it ought to be considered a donation. I believe that if these institutions will pay a good, fair, open tithe, it will beget

courage in the hearts of those who are toiling and working on small wage in these institutions. I believe that the delegates here want this resolution passed as amended, that there may be a unity throughout the world, and that we may all work together in pushing the publishing work in heathen lands.

The amendment to strike out the words ‘in the United States,’ leaving it a recommendation that all the publishing houses pay tithe to the General Conference, was then voted on and carried.

The next resolution was read as follows:—

‘26. We further recommend, That this tithe be used by the General Conference in meeting the expenses of the General Conference Publishing Department, and for fostering our publishing interests in mission fields.’

J. O. Corliss: I believe that the General Conference has a perfect right to use its tithe in any legitimate way that it sees fit, without being instructed by this body. I do not believe that we should go into details as to how this should be used.

Andrew Nelson: Isn’t this the General Conference saying what it shall do with its tithe?

Elder Shultz: I believe that this tithe belongs to the General Conference and to its treasury. Those in charge of the treasury will certainly know what to do with the money.

E. R. Palmer: I fail to see the force of these arguments against the resolution. It appears to me that the resolution teaches the opposite of what is expressed in the objection. Every dollar that comes into the General Conference treasury must be put out under the instruction of the General Conference Committee and its officers here acting for the Committee. The General Conference Committee simply operates between sessions for this body. The General Conference Committee certainly has not greater authority in saying how the tithe shall be used than this body. Therefore it appears to me that it is proper for us to state that the tithe should be used in this way, for the building up of the publishing work in the foreign missions.

S. G. Haughey: I would like to say that I think the General Conference Committee are much better able to tell, as circumstances and needs arise, where this money should go than this body of men.

S. W. Nellis: As the tithe is the Lord’s, and the spirit of prophecy has told us just how that tithe should be used,—merely for the great evangelical work and the support of the gospel ministry,—I am in favor of striking this out.

The motion to strike out Resolution 26 was then voted upon and carried.

The next resolution was read:

Whereas, A question has arisen concerning the advisability of organizing a General Conference Department to take charge of the periodical and home tract and missionary work; and,—

Whereas, We believe that confusion would result from the circulation of literature being directed by two departments operating through the same general offices, and through the same field; therefore,—

27. We recommend, That the periodical and home and tract and missionary work continue, as in the past, under the direction of the Publishing Department, and that the General, union, and local conferences unite in making the necessary provision for conducting more thoroughly and aggressively these neglected lines of work.

S. N. Haskell: Perhaps I do not understand this resolution; but if I do understand it, the view that I take of it is that it will be detrimental to the work. Notice what it says: ‘That the periodical and home tract and missionary work continue, as in the past, under the direction of the Publishing Department, and that the General, union, and local conferences unite in making the necessary provision for conducting more thoroughly and aggressively these neglected lines of work.’ Then this department not only excludes a general tract and missionary department here at home, at Washington, but excludes it in every conference in the country. Now, the question in my mind would be this: What was the tract society when it was so strong and accomplishing so much? It was simply an organization to distribute literature. Now, if we exclude this entirely, it is simply limiting the work.

The difficulty is this: You know that the strength of the missionary work is a spirit of sacrifice, not of making money. It is the giving away of books, tracts, etc., getting them into the hands of the people. Publishing houses have to make some money. But you never can inspire in any man or woman the spirit of sacrifice unless it exists in your own heart. If you ask a man to give, you must give yourself; you must place yourself upon a level with the person that gives the money. And when he sees that you have a spirit of sacrifice, that it is not a money-making concern with you, but that it is for the purpose of scattering our truth-filled literature, then the mind of that person is affected to do the same thing. But the publishing houses are on more of a commercial basis. When the tract societies were organized, I remember a man came to me and said, ‘As long as you work on this line of giving the truth to the people, you may put me down for fifty dollars a year. I will give that to help on your missionary work.’ So I think that the whole resolution is wrong.

Furthermore, notice how it is worded: ‘We recommend, That the periodical and home tract and missionary work continue, as in the past.’ Well, if the past has been all right, why legislate upon it?

A. T. Robinson: This people, as we all know, is pre-eminently a missionary people. The mission of this people is not the publishing work, it is not primarily to circulate literature. This people has undertaken a gigantic task, which, to my mind, is divided into four great natural divisions. I will mention them in the order in which they have been developed,—the evangelical, the publishing, the medical, and the educational. All the other subdivisions grow out of these divisions. These departments will be successful in the accomplishment of the work for which they were created, just in proportion as they are actuated by the true missionary spirit. The Publishing Department is, to my mind, a part of the machinery with which is connected the motive power that makes this message go to all parts of the world.

Now suppose that the Missionary Department was turned over to the Medical Department. What would be the result? We should have an abnormal development. And we would not have to go very far back in the history of this denomination for an illustration, when the Medical Department tried to capture and run the work of the denomination. I believe the result would be similar if the missionary work of the denomination is made the department of any other department.

I was never more glad than I was four years ago at the General Conference when the note was sounded all through the Conference of returning to the old-time missionary spirit and work. It seems to me, Brother Chairman, that the Missionary Department ought to be pre-eminently the department of all departments, and it ought to be the work of the Missionary Department to push the circulation of our literature in every possible way. But there are other lines of work that ought to be pushed. I think the preamble of this resolution is misleading. It recognizes the circulation of literature as missionary work. I am glad Elder Haskell brought that out.

I know that one objection will be brought against this, and I am going to refer to it. That is, the thing has been tried. There was a Missionary Department created, and the one in charge of that found this difficulty, that there was a conflict in attempting the circulation of our literature through two departments. Now I think the reason for that is very simple. When you put a publishing man at the head of the missionary work, one who has been a publishing man all his life and has put all his efforts in that direction, of course he will run the Missionary Department in that direction.

But I believe that there ought to be a General Conference Missionary Department. It may be objected that my speech is not constructive. It seems to me that there ought to be first some destructive work on this resolution. I believe in my soul that there ought to be a Missionary Department that would reach out to the ends of the earth, and push every department of this work.

What is going to be the result of this General Conference in our home conferences? Some of us have been trying to organize the missionary work during the last four years, and God has blessed the efforts. We have missionary secretaries, the best men that can be found, giving their whole time and study and effort to getting our people to work. But when the proceedings of this General Conference are carried home, and they find that that department is legislated out of existence, and there is no missionary department of the General Conference, shall we tell them, That is all right, the Publishing Department will direct our home missionary work? I do not believe in this resolution, and I only wish that I were able to make it as clear to your minds as it is to me. I hope this resolution will not pass.

W. C. White: By both of these speakers there seems to have been presented to us a lack of distinction between the publishing house and the Publishing Department. Both have spoken as if this resolution called for this work to be instituted and directed by the publishing house. I want to call attention to the fact that there is a distinction. The publishing house is a factory. Our factories, thank God, have gotten rid of commercial work, and are conducted by earnest men with a missionary spirit, who want the publications to be of service to the church. Our Publishing Department is a totally different institution or organization from the publishing house. The Publishing Department is made up of representative men in all parts of the field,—men chosen by the General Conference or its Executive Committee.

Now if we create a department called the General Missionary Department, and it is to do the work of the church, what in the world is the church for? What use have we for it? What is its organization going to do for the time and trouble that we spend in keeping it up? It seems to me that the principle laid down in 1901, that the church is the missionary society, and the missionary society is the church, is the principle which gives strength to our work to-day.

E. R. Palmer: I will say but little, because Brother White has said many things that I had in mind to mention. I believe that I am in perfect harmony with the outline of what the church ought to do, and the great work that is before us as a church, in missionary lines, as outlined by Brethren Haskell and Robinson. The Publishing Department is not an association of publishing houses, to use our people for building up commercial interests. It is rather an association of our people, in churches, in conferences, in unions, and in the General Conference, for the prosecution of the work of circulating our literature; and our publishing houses are the printers to supply the goods with which to do the work. The Publishing Department, in the General Conference, and in the union, and in the States, and in the church, is not built upon a publishing house organization; it is evangelical in its every fiber, there being only representation enough in the Publishing Department that the publishing house interests may be properly considered in counsel.

There is no question that has come before us more prominently during the executive work of the past four years than how to lift the Publishing Department out of that condition into which it seemed to have fallen through the neglect of our evangelical work to build up the circulation of literature properly. It seemed to be understood to be a commercial work, managed by the publishing houses, using the people for building up their interests, instead of an organization of the people using the publishing house for furnishing the supplies and helping the evangelical work.

Therefore, resolutions have been passed from time to time, by the General Conference body, by the Publishing Department, placing all the responsibility and the organization of this work in the hands of the people themselves, and in the hands of the evangelical work, reaching from the church to the General Conference.

Brethren, if you place the work of our Publishing Department upon a commercial basis, managed by our publishing houses, for their interests, you take every spark of life out of it. Our Publishing Department can not exist upon that basis. The church at work is the substrata of all our efforts. You take away the church from us, you take away the people in the conferences from us, and we have nothing to do. Our publishing houses in themselves are nothing. Because we carry the name, the Publishing Department, is no indication that we are a commercial institution. If we are not the old-fashioned tract and missionary society, as it was first organized by the venerable man upon the stand [Elder Haskell], organizing our churches, and doing the work, then our Publishing Department is nothing, and should be wiped from off the slate, and another organized to take its place.

Now when you come to the proposition of dividing that organized work under two heads, where two organizations direct the work in the church, in the State, in the union, in the publishing house, you draw a line through a work which is one in itself, just as distinctly as if this Conference were to draw a dividing line between our colleges, and put them under one department, and the intermediate schools and all the church-schools under another department.

Now, Brother Chairman, pardon me for taking this much time; but I do plead for our publishing work, that no section of it shall be considered built upon the publishing houses, or be considered commercial. We are evangelical or we are nothing; and we want our canvassers, our periodical workers, we want all our workers circulating our literature, to work on the basis of an evangelical organization, but to include our publishing houses in counsel, to the end that we may co-operate with them perfectly in the selling of literature and in the supplying of goods.

A. T. Robinson: I would like to inquire of Brother Palmer if this resolution recognizes the circulation of our literature, and the circulation of our literature alone, as the missionary work of this denomination.

E. R. Palmer: The resolution does not purport to cover other lines of missionary work outside the circulation of literature. It does plead for a oneness of the work in circulating literature, subscription books, periodicals, forty-per-cent books, trade books, tracts, leaflets, from the General Conference organization down through to the church, as one work. This resolution deals with a question that has been before us for months, which the president of the General Conference and the committee on plans have asked should be presented in this way for discussion, to decide whether we should have two departments for conducting this work, or one. Therefore we plead for action by this Conference concerning this question.

A. G. Daniells: I wish to ask Elder Irwin to take the chair while I make an explanation. I see that the situation is not understood. For six months or more there has been before the General Conference Committee the idea of establishing another department called the Home Missionary Department. The object sought in suggesting that new department has been to foster missionary activity in all our churches throughout the country. How shall we get at it? Well, we have talked of creating a department to foster that activity. There has been objection to that. It has been argued that the Publishing Department itself ought to be evangelical, Christian, and Christian enough in spirit, in motive, and in activity to do that work instead of creating another department to do it. Now I have been perplexed, and suggested that it be brought to the committee on plans, and have some discussion by this Conference. This resolution comes before us, and says, No, do not create another department for that purpose, but use the Publishing Department, not the printing houses, but the Publishing Department we have to foster and develop missionary activity in the circulation of our literature throughout the field. That is the question that is before us.

The time for adjournment having already passed, the meeting adjourned without action on this resolution.