The Washington Training College
By A. G. Daniells
WE are printing in this number of the Review the Articles of Incorporation and the By-laws of the “Washington Training College.” We have now launched in legal form the Review and Herald Publishing Association, the General Conference Corporation, the Washington (D. C.) Sanitarium Association, and the Washington Training College. The articles of incorporation and by-laws of each have been published for examination and use by our people. We have found the District of Columbia Acts for Corporations very favorable indeed for our purposes, and feel exceedingly pleased with the arrangements we have been permitted to make. Each one of the four corporations we have formed here is a necessity in order to properly advance our work. Each has a definite purpose and place, and all are now active in aggressive work. The buildings of the Washington Training College are being erected as rapidly as our staff of willing workers is able to do the work. The gentlemen’s dormitory is now well under way, the foundation of the dining-hall is laid, and excavating for the ladies’ dormitory is in progress. It is not the intention of the Board to attempt to erect the College hall this year. These school buildings have been planned to accommodate from one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and fifty persons. Each of the dormitories will accommodate forty-two students, and the lodging rooms over the dining-room will care for fifteen or twenty. This provides for about one hundred boarding students. The dining-room will seat one hundred and fifty, and the College chapel will have a seating capacity of about two hundred. If our present prosperity continues, we shall soon be able to print views of the buildings now being erected, and with them we shall give dimensions. We are glad to be able to tell our people who are so cheerfully sending in donations for the Washington work, that since beginning to build we have been wonderfully favored by the providence of God. We find that the sand in Sligo Creek, which runs through our tract of land, is just what we require for building purposes, and there is an abundant supply. Were we obliged to drive several miles to some sand-bank, or have the sand brought to the station by train, and then pay for the sand itself, we would realize a great difference in expense. We find also a good supply of suitable stone on our land for foundations and cement work. To all appearances, we shall be able to secure all we shall need of this material without going off our own ground. This is a very great saving in expense. But what seems to us the most remarkable providence in this department of our work is the great reduction at which we are able to purchase our lumber. Owing to the enormous quantities of lumber shipped to this section after the Baltimore fire, the market was greatly oversupplied. The lumber-yards and wharves were crowded; heavy wharfage dues, interest, etc., were levied; sales at ordinary prices could not be effected rapidly enough to relieve the situation, and as a consequence, prices dropped. We were ready to begin operations, and by offering cash, were able to purchase the finest lumber on the market at a saving of from three to ten dollars per thousand feet. As we required hundreds of thousands of feet, this means much to us. This is as helpful to our work as so much cash. From what has been presented regarding the size and plans of our buildings, our brethren will see that we are not establishing a large school at this place. We have a number of schools in other places, and we must provide educational facilities in other lands. It would be folly to establish a large institution at Washington that would cause us to injure other schools in order to meet its capacity. We have no desire to draw large numbers of young people to this place. Much study has been given by the school board to the definite purpose for which the Washington Training College is established, and the character of the work it should do. Space will not permit of a full statement of these considerations in this article, but they will be set forth from time to time. The directors feel very keenly the need of arranging for thorough, efficient work to be done in this school. Our work must not be superficial, nor one-sided. Extremes should be avoided. A practical, well-balanced, thorough education must be given our young people, in order to send them into the world capable of doing efficient work as ministers, teachers, physicians, Bible workers, and nurses. While we are warned by the spirit of prophecy against the usual long courses and the unnecessary features of popular education, we are not encouraged to cheapen our educational work by adopting superficial, one-sided, or ill-balanced methods. A Seventh-day Adventist training-school should be the synonym of piety, earnestness, culture, and efficiency.