Institutional Finance by William T. Knox

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Feb 13, 1913

Institutional Finance

By William T. Knox

In previous articles, we have seen that the Lord has provided a financial system for the dissemination of the gospel, which, when fully adopted by his people, will furnish ample means for the support of the evangelical work in both so-called Christian and heathen lands. There is, however, another phase of our denominational work that has thus far not been considered in these articles.

Early in our history, we were led to establish schools for the education of our youth and the training of workers, publishing houses for the rapid dissemination of the truths of the message, and sanitariums for the care of the sick, and the teaching of correct principles of living. This institutional phase of our work has rapidly grown until to-day we have 86 colleges and academies, 28 publishing houses, and 74 sanitariums, with 3,160 men and women engaged in operating them. These institutions carry an investment of over $6,500,000, and are important factors in our work. Their successful operation means prosperity to the denomination, and will give a great impetus to the evangelical work. On the other hand, their financial embarrassment must interfere with that which is the real object of our existence,—the saving of souls. Established for the furtherance of the message, and so intimately connected with the evangelical work, we must conclude that if right financial principles are followed in their creation and operation, we shall not only be able to avoid financial embarrassment in them, but they will prove a source of great strength to our world-wide work. If, on the other hand, wrong financial policies are followed, we must expect, with the magnitude our institutional work has attained, that instead of being a help, they will become a menace to the denomination.

This phase of our denominational finance, therefore, merits our most careful consideration. It has come to be recognized that the denomination really stands back of our regularly organized institutions. The question of establishing a school, sanitarium, or publishing house, should, therefore, not rest with a few men, nor even with a local conference, for it may affect the entire denomination, and its creation is a subject for wider consideration than can be given by those in the immediate locality where it is proposed to establish it. Early in our history instruction was given on this point:—

The medical branch of the work is the most difficult work now before us. I have received letters from presidents of conferences and from men of property, and have also had interviews with these brethren in reference to establishing health institutions in different States. I can not encourage this, after a careful consideration of the cause of God in every branch. I have brought to their minds the difficulties that we have had to meet in the institutions already established,—the discouragements which have come in, as there was such a lack of piety, of principle, of unswerving integrity, of well-balanced minds, of unselfish interests, of men who were wholly consecrated to God. Men of this character are the only ones who should have controlling power in our institutions.

I have been shown that the matter of establishing and conducting denominational and health institutions should come under the supervision of the General Conference. Such institutions should be established only after careful and prayerful consultation, and when it is decided to be essential for the advancement of the work of Bible hygiene and temperance for the good of suffering humanity. The strange movements which have been made in reference to the planning and establishing of sanitariums have not been in the order of God.—Unpublished Manuscript.

The establishment of health institutions is too important a matter to be left to the management of a few interested individuals. If the enterprise is under the control of the General Conference, the way is open for deliberate counsel, and careful consideration of the matter and its relation to the great whole; and after it is undertaken, there will be a united force to give it influence and standing. This will contribute largely to its success. Under such management, a class of workers could be enlisted which otherwise could not be secured; and thus the enterprise would prosper when it would prove a failure in ordinary hands; and, furthermore, there must be an authority to guard such an institution, so that persons who are not qualified may not be allowed to grasp responsibilities, through selfish ambitions in their professional lines as physicians.—Id. A failure to heed this instruction has brought much embarrassment. In some instances it has placed institutions

concerned, which eventually falls upon the people, and reacts upon the evangelical work of the denomination.

With the expansion of our work, the field has been divided into union conferences, whose officers and committees have the oversight of the work in the fields in which they operate. The local conferences should not feel free to establish a work that may affect the union conference, without obtaining counsel from the larger body; for while the work under consideration may promise benefit to some locality, its general effect might prove detrimental. Where its influence, financial or otherwise, would extend beyond the bounds of the union, counsel should be sought of the General Conference. Wisdom will warrant us even further than this, for as it is the people who must furnish the money for the establishment of the proposed institution, and also its support, it is due to them that their judgment and wishes should be obtained before launching the enterprise, or involving the constituency.

The world to-day is seeking in all its enterprises to eliminate competition. Without endeavoring to discuss the merits of the question in general, it is evident that there can be no excuse found for this denomination’s creating and maintaining institutions that enter into ruinous competition with one another; for while the argument is advanced that competition in commercial enterprises incites to excellency of service and is the life of trade, in denominational work the opposite effect is obtained. In our schools it results in meager facilities, inadequate faculties, and an attendance insufficient to properly support these institutions. What is needed, is a proper distribution of our schools, and a determining of the scope of work and the sphere of influence of each, so that each will become a unit contributing its share to making up a strong and efficient educational system, capable of suitably supplying the necessities of the denomination, and giving promise of securing a patronage and support commensurate with the facilities supplied.

What has been stated of our educational institutions can, in the main, be also said of our sanitariums and publishing houses. Competition should not in any sense enter into their operation. The nature of their work, with a common object for all, calls for the very closest cooperation. We are living in a time that demands the very best attainable from any line of service. Much more important, we are engaged in a work that calls for an excellency of attainment beyond the human. If, therefore, we discern anywhere in any phase of our institutional work unsatisfactory results, or financial conditions that threaten to embarrass the work; if any of our colleges or academies continually fail to secure proper attendance by reason of insufficient constituency, or because of a lack of suitable equipment, with the inevitable accompanying low standard of work; if after careful consideration, it develops that these conditions are chronic and result from an overcrowded and undesirable competition, it should be recognized that a change is called for, a change that may perhaps be attained by a readjustment as to the extent of work to be done, limiting it to fewer grades, or by a readjustment of territorial lines. It may even be necessary to discontinue some schools entirely. Better that, if the case is hopeless, than to continue for an indefinite number of years unsatisfactory service and financial loss.

As a denomination, we should be far better served, and therefore occupy a much better position educationally, with fewer strong and well-equipped colleges, doing a high grade of work, with class-rooms and dormitories well filled, and a faculty of the very best teachers obtainable, than to have a greater number of so-called colleges, none of them enjoying the patronage they should have, nor attaining the educational standard our work and needs demand.

W. T. KNOX.