Visit to California and Items of Interest
By George I. Butler
As the California camp-meeting at Oakland came later than any in the North Pacific Union Conference, and as I had invitations from the presidents of the Pacific Union and California conferences to be present, I concluded to take my homeward journey through that State. The expense was but little more, and I desired to visit that interesting State, where many old friends reside, and many interesting features of the causes are to be met. The Oakland camp-meeting was in many respects a peculiar meeting to me. Though nominally not a business meeting, as the election of officers occurs next winter, yet much important business was done in it. The Northern California Conference has become the largest and most important conference in the whole cause of present truth. California as a whole State has nearly seven thousand Sabbath-keepers. But since Southern California has been organized into a separate conference, with nearly two thousand members, Northern California is left with upward of four thousand members. For many years in this cause Michigan stood as our leading conference; but things have occurred which have changed these conditions. Michigan has been divided into four divisions, three of them conferences. Washington has become the headquarters of our work. California has been pushing ahead. Large numbers of our church-members have moved there. The Pacific Press has always been a wide-awake, aggressive institution, and various causes have existed to make the work on the Pacific Coast prominent. California has been fortunate in having large, well-equipped sanitariums. People of wealth have been liberal, and the conference is strong financially. The tithe for the support of the ministry has ranged somewhere from sixty thousand to eighty thousand dollars annually. This year fourteen tents have been running in the field of the North California Conference, and several hundred have accepted the truth. All true Seventh-day Adventists will rejoice in this prosperity; but of course such prominence brings with it a weight of responsibility. We all have a right to expect great things of California in the direction of helpfulness in this grand cause. I stated above that the Oakland camp-meeting was in some respects peculiar. As all know, a large number of believers live in the vicinity of Oakland. On the Sabbath the great tent would be packed full of Sabbath-keepers from all the surrounding country. On other days through the week it was hardly ever half full, and a portion of the time not more than two or three hundred met at the most. Of course it would hardly be reasonable to expect so many on other days as on the Sabbath; but in so large a conference of believers it quite surprised me to see so few, not as many as in meetings of much smaller conferences. As I remembered the few laborers in the Southern conferences, and contrasted them with the plethora of laborers here, I could not but wish there was greater equality. In large portions of California the truth has been preached over and over, while in the South comparatively few have heard it at all. One very live question in California was the place for the conference school. Healdsburg was formerly the educational center. For wise reasons doubtless, that has ceased to be such. Much searching has been done to find an ideal locality for such an institution. A little while before the Oakland meeting an ideal place was found some eight miles from the sanitarium at St. Helena, a description of which Elder S. N. Haskell gave last week. All who know of the two places unanimously agreed that this last is far superior to the Sonoma property. The Lord knew best. How precious to serve a God who knows all things, and directs his humble servants in paths better than they know. Having paid a personal visit to this location, the writer knows whereof he speaks. Doubtless by this time the school is in progress, under the direction of Prof. C. W. Irwin. Here will be an excellent opportunity for pupils to attend who can find a chance to pay for their schooling by working their way through school, thus obtaining a valuable experience of a practical nature with book education. Here there will be no opportunity to run about in the city, and thus learn evil things, as in city schools. Thus the school problem for California is solved, and the Lord's hand has been manifested through it all. The conference council gladly accepted this outcome. Sister E. G. White, though very much wearied by her recent Eastern trip, spent a day or two at the meeting, and briefly and clearly testified to the desirability of securing this ideal locality. She had visited the place herself and was delighted with it. Besides this important item, other matters received attention. A large number of books were sold to our people for distribution in missionary work. The religious meetings were seasons of interest. Revival meetings were held, and a goodly number were converted and baptized. Elder G. A. Irwin was present during the early part of the meeting, and labored with his accustomed energy. One feature of his labor at this, and at the Northern meetings when he participated ought to be mentioned. In each of these he took considerable time in giving instruction in regard to the Testimonies. Excellent instruction it was indeed, just such as our people need everywhere. Before Elder Irwin left for the East, he did not forget to lay before the brethren and sisters the great needs of the foreign missionary work. There were comparatively few present, and they had been having other calls for means. About two thousand dollars in pledges was raised. This was indeed a very small amount to be raised from such a strong conference. I felt sorry to see the effort close with such a result, so on the last Sunday of the meeting I made another effort. It was about nine o'clock in the morning. The people were weary, and very few present. They had given for various other objects. However, about one thousand dollars more was subscribed. It was my happy privilege in coming homeward to stop briefly in Los Angeles and Loma Linda. Brother E. E. Andross went with me to see the Glendale Sanitarium,—a fine sanitarium in a beautiful locality. Los Angeles is a growing city of some two hundred fifty thousand population. A continuous stream of tourists pour into this section to spend the winter each year, making it an important point for a large sanitarium. Our people have excellent vegetarian restaurants in Los Angeles, where seventeen hundred persons are fed each day. I spent two or three days here, stopping over Sabbath, and speaking twice to the inmates of our sanitarium. It is an interesting place, and to the best of our knowledge is doing an excellent work. Through the kindness of Brother Brante, I was permitted to take a fifty-mile ride in his automobile through Riverside and Redlands, famous centers for the orange industry. Probably there are no other places where can be seen in one body such an immense number of orange trees. In a solid square of twenty or thirty miles at Riverside, it seemed like a solid body of orange groves. Beautiful drives were seen in every direction. The whole section of country from Los Angeles to Loma Linda, some sixty miles, seems to be the paradise of orange-growing. Steam and electric railroads run in all directions. Multitudes of people come, go, and reside through this region. The servant of the Lord has taken a very deep interest in this section of California. She has felt that where such a concourse of intelligent people visit, congregate, and live, opportunities must be afforded to enable them to become acquainted with our work. Our sanitariums afford such opportunities. These institutions are in every way suitable for such a purpose. This was the first time I had ever seen this section, and I was most happily surprised by what I saw. Southern California is indeed a place of great interest. The efforts made in that section have borne fruit. Several hundred Sabbath-keepers have made that their home, and others are coming in. What I have said is a very meager statement of what might be said. My trip homeward ended October 2. It has been an interesting trip to me, and I trust of some profit to others.