A Surprising Announcement Concerning Battle Creek College
By Editor
We are in receipt of the “twenty-sixth annual calendar of Battle Creek College,” from which we learn that “the Board of Trustees have decided to re-open the College for regular sessions, Sept. 23, 1903.” In view of this announcement it may be proper to call attention to some facts pertaining to the recent history of this institution. This can perhaps best be done by quoting from an extended statement relating to the transfer of the property of Battle Creek College, which appeared in the REVIEW of May 26, 1903. Inasmuch as this statement was signed by three members of the Board of Trustees, A. T. Jones, J. H. Kellogg, and P. T. Magan, the same Board which now announces the re-opening of the College, it may certainly be regarded as setting forth an impartial view of the matter in question. It surely makes it clear that it was the distinct understanding on the part of the Board of Trustees, the General Conference delegation, and the people assembled that Battle Creek College was to be closed, the property sold for other purposes, and the institution was to be moved to a place more suitable for the conduct of educational work in harmony with the instruction given in the Testimonies. The statement contains the following paragraphs:— For some time previously to the General Conference of 1901, the Testimonies had directed that the Battle Creek College should be removed from the city to a country place, and the College Board had been planning for such a change [Italics ours], and for the sale of the Battle Creek College property. After much counseling together it was agreed that the property should be bought by the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association for the use of the American Medical Missionary College. . . . Negotiations had proceeded thus far when the General Conference met in Battle Creek in 1901. In that General Conference the question was brought up and considered in open session before the crowded assembly in the Tabernacle. At that time—April 12—among other things on this subject Sister White said:— “The light that has been given me is that Battle Creek has not the best influence over the students in our school. There is altogether too congested a state of things. The school, although it will mean a fewer number of students, ought to be moved out of Battle Creek. Get an extensive tract of land, and there begin the work which I entreated should be commenced before our school was established here,—to get out of the city to the place where the students would not see things to remark upon and criticize; where they would not see the wayward course of this one and that one, but would settle down to diligent study. . . . God wants the school to be taken out of Battle Creek. . . . [Italics ours.]” “Some may be stirred about the transfer of the school from Battle Creek, but they need not be. This move is in accord with God’s design for the school before the institution was established; but man could not see how this could be done. There were many who said that the school must be in Battle Creek. Now we say that it must be somewhere else. The best thing that can be done is to dispose of the school buildings here as soon as possible. Begin at once to look for a place where the school can be conducted on right lines.” After a brief report of the discussion in the conference concerning the sale of “Christ’s Object Lessons” for the benefit of the schools, the statement proceeds:— At this point A. T. Jones spoke as president of the Seventh-day Adventist Educational Society, as follows:— “You heard the word directly—and it needs no explanation and no sanction—that we should get the College out of Battle Creek, and that we should sell the buildings and grounds in Battle Creek just as soon as possible.” He further said: “This is enough. Why should we hesitate or delay any longer? The International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association is ready to enter into arrangements to take the property at one hundred and six thousand dollars. This will pay all the debts, and leave the College with about twenty-six thousand dollars with which to plant itself in another place. [Italics ours.] Now I ask, first, all you who are members of the Board of Trustees of the Battle Creek College who are present and are in favor of taking advantage of this arrangement, and accepting this offer, and thus moving Battle Creek College out of this city according to the instruction given [Italics ours], to please rise to your feet.” The vote was unanimous. Then Elder Jones said to the stockholders: “Will all you who are stockholders of Battle Creek College, who are present, who are in favor of this movement, and who indorse this action of the Board, which has already been taken, please rise to your feet?” This vote was also unanimous. Then as the whole General Conference delegation was present, Elder Jones said to them: “All the General Conference delegation who approve of this transaction will please rise to their feet.” And “the vote to carry out the instruction was unanimous.” Then in addition to all this, since there were present a large number of people of the denomination from almost all sections of the country, the question was extended to all these, so that the voice of the whole denomination, as nearly as it could ever be possible to obtain it, could be had upon the question. Elder Jones, therefore, addressed the whole assembly, and asked all those who agreed to the arrangements in view, and who indorsed the movement, also to rise to their feet. This was also unanimous: so that neither by the Board, nor by the stockholders, nor by the General Conference delegation, nor by the whole congregation, which was largely representative of the whole denomination, was there a single opposing vote, nor dissenting voice. See General Conference Bulletin, 1901, pages 213-219. In the summer of 1901 the personal property of Battle Creek College was removed to Berrien Springs, Mich., where land had been purchased for educational purposes, and an institution was opened which was advertised as “Emmanuel Missionary College, Successor to Battle Creek College.” A legal corporation had been formed with a Board of Trustees, of which A. T. Jones was president and P. T. Magan, secretary. In the first annual calendar issued by this Board of Trustees we find the following statements in explanation of the opening of the institution:— In 1874 Battle Creek College, the oldest educational institution under the supervision of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination, was opened at Battle Creek, Mich. . . . After a useful life of twenty-seven years, the plant, consisting of the College building and two dormitories, was sold, and is to be used by the American Medical Missionary College. . . . Realizing that the change is not a sign of death, but of life, those who have regarded Battle Creek College as their alma mater will find their interest extended to the newborn institution, and it, with its new surroundings, must lean heavily for support upon those who in times past have shown their loyalty to the cause of education. Under the heading, “Result of Change,” the following statement is made in regard to the removal of the institution from Battle Creek:— The fact that this training-school has left the city, that it has recognized agricultural pursuits as the foremost of all industries, and that all the teachers in Emmanuel Missionary College take an active part in the manual training, will5exert a strong influence over other educational institutions, and will do much toward shaping their policy. In the face of what was done by the Trustees of Battle Creek College in closing the work of the institution in Battle Creek, and re-establishing its work in another place in order that the principles of Christian education might have the opportunity for application, we are astonished to read in the new calendar the statement by the same Trustees that “at this time [1901] the organization of the Emmanuel Missionary College at Berrien Springs, Mich., transferred a large part of the teaching force of the school and most of the students to that new educational center.” The natural inference from this statement would be that the Trustees did not regard the change in 1901 as the closing of the College, but that simply a slight interruption in its regular work. Furthermore, an appeal has been made to our people to donate of their means in order to pay the debt upon the Battle Creek College property so that it might be turned over for the use of the American Medical Missionary College. It has never been hinted that the Trustees of Battle Creek College proposed to re-open that institution in these same buildings under the authority of the same charter and under the direction of the same Board of Trustees, who are still in the eyes of the law the Trustees of the Seventh-day Adventist Educational Society, although the property has been sold to another corporation by action of the court, and there are no longer any shareholders who can have any voice in the conduct of the institution. Under all these circumstances we can but regard the re-opening of Battle Creek College as an ill-advised move which will tend to confuse the minds of this people concerning the steps which have been taken under the counsel of the spirit of prophecy, and which will be likely to lead to many misunderstandings in the future.