Reporting Camp Meetings by Earle A. Rowell

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 17, 1915

Reporting Camp Meetings

By Earle A. Rowell

In 1907 and 1908 I was employed by the Western Washington Conference to report the camp meetings to the newspapers. In 1909 we had our camp meeting in Tacoma, Wash. Several days of the meeting had passed, with good interest on the part of those not of our faith, and the papers were taking a generous interest in our reports,—seeming glad indeed to get them,—when I read in the “Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. VI, pages 36, 37, these words:—

“We must take every justifiable means of bringing the light before the people. Let the press be utilized, and let every advertising agency be employed that will call attention to the work. This should not be regarded as non-essential. On every street corner you may see placards and notices calling attention to various things that are going on, some of them of the most objectionable character; and shall those who have the light of life be satisfied with feeble efforts to call the attention of the masses to the truth? . . . As far as practicable, let the important discourses given at our camp meetings be published in the newspapers. Thus the truth which was placed before a limited number may find access to many minds; and where the truth has been misrepresented, the people will have an opportunity of knowing just what the minister said.”

The more I read this passage, the more important seemed the call to have the message presented more fully in the newspapers. The spirit of prophecy said it could be done. But how? I had handed in only a few notes at two camp meetings. This constituted my sole experience in the newspaper work. Our denomination had not previously looked to the newspapers for publicity. There was no precedent to guide.

However, the impression that a whole page could be secured free in a daily would not leave me; so I showed the above passage from the Testimonies to Elder S. W. Nellis (recently deceased), president of the conference, and he immediately consented to aid in every possible manner to secure a page of the paper.

I went to the editor of the Tacoma Ledger and said to him: “You know that we have a city of tents within your larger city. Also we have visitors not only from all over the State but several from various parts of the United States, and even from far-off India and China and other parts of the distant world. We purpose to give a full-page account, well illustrated, of this camp meeting, and interviews with these visitors, to one of Tacoma’s daily papers. We are giving you the first opportunity to secure it.”

The eagerness with which this paper seized the opportunity was a surprise to us. We ordered and paid for 1,200 copies of the Sunday edition in which the page was to appear. We planned to sell them to our people to use among friends who would not read our tracts, but who would be likely to read the truth if printed in a newspaper.

Then came the task of writing up what we wanted to have printed. Several were delegated to help, and finally an article of about four thousand words, covering every important doctrine, was presented.

It was all printed without the change of a word, and the editor told me that he found it marvelously interesting. Five o’clock, Sunday morning, the last day of camp meeting, the 1,200 papers were on the ground. They cost us two and one-half cents each, and we sold them for an average of three and one-half cents. The whole 1,200 were sold in the one day, with a profit to the conference of about twelve dollars. Thus it was found possible to get a full-page account of our truth in the daily papers at an actual profit to us. It can readily be understood that it means a great deal to our cause in any locality to secure a full-page write-up in the daily paper of the belief and work of Seventh-day Adventists. EARLE A. ROWELL.