p. 21 | Twenty-Fourth Meeting

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jun 1, 1905

Twenty-Fourth Meeting

By Arthur G. Daniells; William A. Spicer

THE twenty-fourth meeting was called at 2:30 P. M., May 25; A. G. Daniells in the chair.

Prayer was offered by J. L. Shaw.

The minutes of the previous meeting were read.

J. L. Shaw, of India, was called upon to present the topic, “The Debt of Our Schools to Foreign Missions.” He said, in brief:—

The message is to go to the world. We owe it to all peoples. And the schools are to train the workers. The strongest equipment is needed by the worker in the new mission fields. Skilled labor is wanted. It is for our schools to raise the standard of preparation for service. The history of a century of missions shows that the most signal successes have been achieved in the mission fields by men well trained—men who were good students, who dedicated all their gifts and ability to God’s service. They have mastered languages and produced literature.

The fields need also men who know how to work with their hands. No one can tell just what kind of work will be called for. The industrial features of our schools are most important and helpful. The more things a missionary knows how to do, the better.

Not only ability of the mind and of the hand is needed, but culture of the heart as well. The Christless millions must learn the love and the salvation of God from the missionary, and he must have the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit in his life. It is to bring all these requirements into the student’s life that our schools are working, a high and holy vocation.

F. W. Field, of Japan, spoke further on the same topic. It is not so much specialists that are needed as men with an all-round experience. Love for souls and a well-grounded Christian experience are fundamental requisites. Men are needed who will stick by the work in hand until something moves, without letting go and without turning back. This stamp of character should be imparted by the thorough training in our schools.

J. W. Lawhead was called upon to present the following paper:—

Manual Training and Finance

In a strictly technical sense, we could hardly speak of our schools as offering manual training; and yet the expression has been used to designate certain departments of manual labor which have grown up in our various schools within the last few years; and it is in this accommodated sense that it is here used.

These departments are still in their infancy, and very much remains to be learned concerning their management, but they have existed long enough to establish some facts, and it is hoped that a free discussion by this body of this important feature of our schools will be a means of great benefit. Actual experience has demonstrated that much and lasting good results from these various lines of work, and it may be interesting to know that every one of our leading denominational schools in this country has introduced manual training in two or more forms, and from every school come words of appreciation and of praise for the results obtained. It is also a fact that a student does not necessarily lose in any other particular while gaining in this, for careful and continued observation and a comparison of results have demonstrated that the average young man can spend several hours daily in manual work, and at the same time pursue as many studies, and gain as high a record of scholarship, as he would if he did no labor whatever. And, indeed, better results might be confidently expected in the course of several years’ study, because of increased physical strength and health.

Did time permit, it would be interesting to trace the results of manual training in the lives of those who have taken it, and to strive to determine its relative value in rational education; but such a treatment would necessarily be somewhat lengthy, and would pertain more to a gathering of school men than to such a body as this. One point, however, ought to be mentioned, and that is the powerful influence exercised by it in the formation of a right and well-balanced character; and as our schools exist for this very purpose, everything which will tend toward its realization should be carefully fostered by the denomination.

In former years the question of expense involved in conducting these departments has been regarded as a sufficient reason for looking with disfavor upon the whole scheme; but happily this sentiment is subsiding, and it is to be hoped that careful, conservative, businesslike methods will be so employed as to make these departments self-sustaining. In the meantime do not let us lose sight of the fact that while the balance-sheet may show a loss, yet there is in an indirect way a gain, a financial gain, for by this means several, and perhaps many, students have been permitted to be in school; and usually this class of student is the most earnest, and consequently the most valuable, worker and representative of his school.

My own experience with the problems growing out of manual training has been largely confined to one school; and that, too, a school which did not offer as many lines as some others; but the subject was so fairly and earnestly treated by both Faculty and Board that some light was gained, and corresponding advancement made. It was a recognized fact that the school paid its students more for labor rendered than it would have cost to hire other workmen, but the school could afford to do it, for money paid to student laborers came back from them, thus making up on tuition all that was lost in the manual training departments. And at the end of five years of earnest study and effort in this direction, the school had advanced from a financial condition involving an annual deficit of about two thousand dollars to the more favored state of paying all current expenses, including interest amounting to several hundred dollars annually. If impressions received from other schools are correct, some of them are having a similar experience in being able to operate with less loss than formerly when means of labor were not offered the students, and when the schools practically shut out a large and promising class who are now in training, and whose presence is a help, both financially and spiritually, as well as a promise for the future. And it is largely through this class of youth that the school receives its greatest benefit, because a young man who desires an education sufficiently to work for it is usually very much in earnest in whatever he may undertake, and brings this disposition into the preparation of every lesson and school exercise. The influence of one such student is felt throughout the entire school; and the same influence for good is felt after the young man enters the field of his life-work, where he is looked upon as a product of the school from which he obtained his education, and hence becomes a living advertisement for the institution.

Manual training is of direct and positive value to every student, not simply as a means of earning a little money, but rather as an uplifting influence on heart and mind, whose effect and full value can not be measured to-day, nor in time itself, but in the eternal ages.

Finance

The problem of how to finance our schools successfully is an old one, which has been discussed from time to time for years, and still it presents itself on almost every such occasion as this, which seems to indicate that the question is unsettled, or is one of vital importance, or perhaps both. And if a discussion of these problems at this time will in any degree help in their solution, every school man will welcome such discussion, as we have to deal continually with these conditions and their results. The record of our school finances is in large part a sorry one, as it is too often a record of loss in operating expenses, which has amounted in the aggregate to many thousands of dollars. And not only has money been lost, but disappointment

and heart ache have been felt by many of those who have sacrificed so heavily to enable the denomination to establish these schools, and this feeling of disappointment has led, in many instances, directly to distrust and lack of support thus largely increasing the perplexity of the managers.

In the last several years a determined effort has been made by the denomination to free these institutions from the burden of debt; and we are all rejoiced because of the success attending this movement; but shall we stop here and be content? How was this tremendous burden of debt contracted?—In two ways: first, by borrowing money to found the schools, and next by operating them at a loss, and borrowing more means to cover these losses. If our operating plans are not changed, it is altogether possible that this debt-contracting process may continue. Are we willing that this shall be the case?—Most certainly not. Then is it not time for the denomination to settle this question by demanding that our schools shall not run year after year at a loss? Let us determine this point first of all, and then address ourselves to the best means for the accomplishment of the desired end.

Our schools are supported almost wholly by tuition fees, and at the very threshold of this question we are confronted with the fact that our tuition rates are low, in fact, too low in some instances to maintain a high standard of efficiency throughout the schools. While these low rates have been prompted by the very best motives, yet the fact remains that the schools are crippled thereby, and the teachers are unable to do for their pupils all they ought to do, or all the student has a right to expect. Libraries, laboratories, and appliances of every kind should be supplied and maintained, in order to give a satisfactory technical training, but this has been impossible with the low tuition rate which has sometimes prevailed; and this condition has, in turn, served to keep away from the schools some who would otherwise have attended. And this is the very class of students whom we should attract and draw to our schools, for the denomination needs talented and capable men as much as the world needs them; and could these youth be educated under Christian influences, and where the spirit of our message prevails, there is every reason to believe they would consecrate themselves to God and his work as truly and fully as do others. Our educational work has been established for a definite purpose. It has a specific mission, and therefore it should reach all classes, for God’s work needs them all. But this low tuition rate has made it impossible to provide facilities for doing the grade of work which should be done, and the result has been that many of our young people are seeking an education in other schools. Thus it will be seen that the low tuition has not appreciably raised the attendance, while it has undoubtedly swelled the deficit materially. But this is not the most regrettable feature of this unfortunate system of management under which many of our young workers have been educated, and from which some, and possibly many, may have imbibed wrong ideas of financial policy and management. These young men are now beginning to come into places of responsibility; and if they have not seen the most scrupulous handling of funds, with a horror of institutional debt and a determined purpose to avoid it, they may have received an unintentional education which will in some measure mar their usefulness in bearing financial responsibility. Therefore this system seems to wrong the entire denomination in a manner that is almost vital, and to call for an early adjustment of these rates in such form as to secure an income sufficient to meet all reasonable demands upon the schools.

It is not intended to suggest that our worthy youth of limited means be forgotten or neglected in our planning; but on the contrary, let the most careful attention be given to provide work for the students, whereby those who desire can earn a portion of their expenses while in school. In this way provision may be made for all classes without the risk of a wrong object-lesson or of injury to the school or the denominational interests. Just what can be best introduced into the various schools is a problem to be solved by each separate institution, but we may here state the broad, general principle that our young workers are entitled to a right education, and that with the denomination rests the responsibility for demanding that this education shall be sufficiently broad and comprehensive to include the mental, moral, physical, and financial features.

Talk by Sister White

At this point Sister E. C. White spoke to the conference on the high calling of God set before teachers and students. “Giving all diligence,” we are to add to faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance. Temperance, simple living in all things, will be a blessing to students. A pleasant, kindly voice, the youth should remember, will sweeten the atmosphere. Self-control is the lesson to be learned. We need to cultivate patience, godliness, and add to this brotherly kindness, and then charity. We may educate ourselves to be like the Master in spirit. With these things we shall not be barren or unfruitful in the knowledge of God. He that lacketh these things is blind and can not see afar off, as the text says. Not careless speech and unkind speech are to be heard. As students read these things and study them, the light of heaven will shine into the heart. Then how can they help reflecting the light in pleasant, cheerful faces and kindly ways?

Here is our life insurance policy—in the words, “If ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” The heavenly angels are watching, and the holy oil is imparted from the two olive branches. If we study under the assurance of the great and precious promises, and hold fast the faith, we have our life policy, the certificate of the right to the tree of life, and to enter in through the gates into the city. Self-control, manliness, and thoroughness are the traits of character to be cultivated.

Teachers and students and all were encouraged to trust God and look to the Word and to the promises of God. We are to believe God, and not to look at feeling. As we cast our helpless souls upon the Lord Jesus, we may praise him day by day and claim the victory.

Following this talk, a short time was devoted to testimonies. Brother J. L. Prescott spoke of his conversion in 1838, under the influence of the advent truth, and of his experience in the movement of 1843-44. He was reminded by the spirit of this conference of the spirit in the meetings of 1844. He rejoiced in the advancement of the message and the evidence that the work is to be finished in this generation that has been hearing the message.

Others followed with testimonies of thankfulness to God.

In order to give place to legal meetings, adjourned to this date, May 25, the meeting adjourned for a time.

A. G. DANIELLS, Chairman, W. A. SPICER, Secretary.