A Plan for Meeting the Financial Burdens of Our Schools and Sanitariums
By Arthur G. Daniells
The meetings of the General Conference Committee just held at Mountain View and Loma Linda, Cal., may be placed in the list of the most encouraging and profitable meetings of the committee since the last General Conference. The main reason for holding these meetings was to give the financial interests of our institutions careful study, and to formulate plans for placing them on a good, substantial basis. This great, perplexing problem has existed since the day we began the institutional work of our cause, but it has never reached a satisfactory solution. We have been more successful in our9efforts to place what may be termed our regular evangelical work on a satisfactory basis of support. In the early days of our history we were led to recognize the tithe of our income as the true source of the support of the ministry. In our endeavor to carry forward the work in all lands, we have found it necessary to supplement the income derived from the tithe with offerings, and we have succeeded in formulating and carrying out a plan for the accomplishment of this purpose which is as regular, definite, and certain as the tithing system. That plan is for every member to give fifteen cents every week to the cause of home and foreign missions. The plan is a success, and furnishes a definite, substantial basis for carrying forward our evangelical work. This relieves all connected with that phase of the cause from undue anxiety. Of course, there is always the need of more means, but those who are charged with the administration of affairs know quite definitely what they are to receive, and, therefore, what they can plan to expend; and those in the field of activity in both home and foreign lands need give little thought to the question of support. Nowhere can there be found a system of gospel finance superior to this. If some arrangement as definite and workable could be adopted for the erection, equipment, and maintenance of our institutions, without placing upon them a heavy burden of debt, great relief and blessing would come to our cause. This is the problem we are most earnestly endeavoring to solve. We believe this end can be reached, and we believe that a long step was taken in that direction at the Mountain View council. The arrangement agreed upon by the committee to submit to the coming General Conference for approval was this:— Recommendations to the General Conference in Session
Whereas, It is more clearly revealed, with each passing year, that schools, sanitariums, and publishing houses are most helpful and necessary facilities for the rapid and efficient carrying forward of the work of God throughout the world; and— Whereas, These institutions can accomplish their purpose only to the extent that they are understood, appreciated, and supported by our people; and— Realizing, That in the establishment and maintenance of the institutions we now have, there has not been given the careful study, the efficient management, and the proper financial support they should have had; therefore, be it— Resolved, That we take these institutions, with their workers and their great interests and needs, more fully upon our hearts and into our plans and fostering care than heretofore; and, further,— That we commend to the study, the interest, and the support of our people everywhere the schools, sanitariums, and publishing houses among us. Resolved, That we adopt the following arrangement for removing the present liabilities of these institutions, and for maintaining them without creating further indebtedness:— The standard of offerings to missions to be raised from 15 cents to 20 cents a week per member in the United States and Canada, and that 25 per cent of the total amount thus raised be devoted to the liquidation of the liabilities of all training-schools, and those academies, intermediate schools, and sanitariums whose liabilities equal or exceed 25 per cent of their assets. Recommend, That the carrying out of this plan be governed by the following provisions:— 1. That the entire amount received on the Twenty-cent-a-week Fund be kept intact, and remitted to the General Conference treasury. 2. That the 25 per cent to be devoted to the liquidation of the liabilities of the schools and sanitariums shall be divided annually, by the General Conference Committee, among the institutions, on the pro rata basis of their indebtedness. 3. That in the apportionment, due consideration be given to the conditions prevailing in each institution as to its financial situation, earnings, available assets that can be realized upon without detriment to the work, annuity contracts, etc., a complete report and financial statement being rendered each year to the General Conference by the institutions. 4. In case the total amount raised falls short of the 20 cents a member, so as to interfere with the operations of our foreign mission enterprises, the shortage shall be deducted from the relief fund rather than from the foreign funds. 5. That each institution receiving appropriations from this fund shall apply the full amount it shall receive to the liquidation of its liabilities. 6. That an institution sharing the benefits of this fund shall not by any means add to its present indebtedness either by buildings, by equipment, or in its operations. 7. That for the enlargement, repairs, equipment, or loss in operating, the needed funds shall be raised by direct gifts from the people. 8. Where it is demonstrated that an institution can not maintain itself without increasing its liabilities or encroaching upon the proposed relief fund, such institution shall, upon the advice of the General Conference Committee and the union conference in which it is located, be closed, and its assets be disposed of to the best advantage, or diverted to other denominational use. 9. That failure on the part of any institution to comply with these provisions shall debar it from receiving the benefits of this plan. 10. That there be appointed a finance commission of three members, men having experience that will enable them to give counsel regarding training-schools, sanitariums, and publishing-house enterprises, to counsel with the management of each institution regarding its affairs, and to make recommendations as to plans of operation, this commission to report to the General Conference Committee; that this commission shall take the place of the recently appointed committee on institutional finance, its members to devote their whole time to the work, the salary and expense of the members to be met from the 25-per-cent institutional fund before its distribution. 11. That this plan go into effect July 1, 1913. The limits of this article prohibit the extended statement we should like to make regarding this plan. May we request our people to give the outline most careful study? First of all, it is recognized that we should all give the interests, the needs, and the great purposes of our institutions more careful study, and take them more fully into our plans and fostering care. These institutions are designed to be of great service to the cause generally and to individuals in particular, and they are rendering, in a measure at least, that service. The good they are doing in all parts of the world can never be fully known until it is revealed in the world to come. Let us, then, give them our most earnest prayers and hearty support. But the great feature of the plan under consideration is the provision for the payment of the debts of the institutions we now have. This is necessary in order to place them on a desirable and prosperous basis. The way it is proposed to do this is made plain in the recommendation. It is to raise the weekly offerings of our people from fifteen to twenty cents a member, and to appropriate twenty-five per cent, or one fourth, of the full amount of that sum to our schools and sanitariums carrying an indebtedness of one fourth or more of their assets. If this plan is carried out fully, it will, during the next seven or eight years, wipe out the entire indebtedness of all the schools and sanitariums that are now entitled to draw from this fund. It should be remembered that in paying these obligations we shall not be throwing our money away. We shall not be making up some great loss sustained by wild speculation in stocks, mines, patents, etc. When we have paid these debts, we shall have in our possession far more than full value for every dollar we pay. The material value—the land, buildings, and equipment—will be worth more than the sum we shall now have to raise. To this must be added what may be termed the good will. These institutions are not dead, abandoned enterprises. The schools are filled with our young people, who are being instructed and trained for life's duties by Christian teachers. They are being led to fear God and to reverence the Bible. By ties that can never be broken they are being bound to the cause we love, and to which we want them to give their lives. But this is not all. These same schools have already sent hundreds of our young men and women into all parts of the world to live, and labor, and die, if need154be, to win the lost to Christ. What should we do to-day without this great army of intelligent, consecrated workers? They stand at the head of union and local conferences, colleges and academies, publishing houses and sanitariums. They edit our papers, superintend our mission fields, preach the message in every land, compose the faculties in our schools and sanitariums, do the work in our publishing houses and conference offices, and a great, energetic army is doing valiant service in carrying our message-filled literature to the homes of millions of people. All this, and yet more, we have now, and shall still have after we shall have paid the dollars these institutions are now owing. Are such assets worth what it will cost to free them from the burden of debt that rests upon them? — Yes, and a thousand times more. These institutions form an essential and inseparable part of our great world-wide missionary enterprise. They are the nurseries of the great field we are to work. From them are being transplanted fruit-bearers to all lands. How could we ever carry out our great missionary program the Lord has given us without these institutions? In the mission fields we are establishing schools and sanitariums for the training of the young natives for service. We count these institutions a part of our missionary enterprise. Our schools at this end are furnishing the teachers, nurses, and doctors necessary to do the work in the institutions at that end. We believe this plan for freeing our schools and sanitariums from debt will meet with a glad response from our people everywhere. It is feasible and possible. It can be carried out. The splendid response of our people last year to the call to raise their gifts from ten cents to fifteen cents a week shows what can be done. We came short only twelve thousand dollars of increasing our gifts five cents a week for every member in the United States and Canada. And now to help our institutions we can spring the offering another five cents. Our people of large means can, and will, give thousands. Other features of the plan for placing our institutions upon a sound financial basis will be noticed next week.