As the time draws near for the collection which is to be taken up the first Sabbath in February to aid the new enterprise in College View, the International Publishing Association, we wish again to call the attention of our people to this new center of light. With this article we furnish an illustration which will give the readers some idea of the appearance of our new printing plant. The full length of the building is sixty-eight feet, and the full width is forty feet.
OFFICES OF THE INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
As we enter the main entrance in front, we come into a hall from which a wide stairway leads to the second story. On the right is a door which opens into the business office. This has a large window in front, and one on the side. It is nicely adapted to its purpose, and will be occupied by the persons who have charge of the circulation department, and also by the bookkeeper.
Immediately back of this room is the storeroom for our finished stock, and next to that is a room intended for a mailing and shipping department. The location of the stock-room, between the general office and the mailing and shipping room, makes this part of our plant very convenient. The last-mentioned room is large enough also to accommodate a wire stitching machine, which we have already purchased, and a book trimmer, which we intend to put in. This room opens to the west into the folding department, and to the north into the pressroom.
The pressroom is large and convenient, about twenty-two by twenty-eight feet. Here will be located the No. 1 Miehle press which we have already ordered, also a small job-press, and a large paper-cutter. In this room we have also installed an electric-light dynamo of sufficient power for eighty lights. We also expect to have place in this room for our raw stock.
From the pressroom we can enter the folding and type room, a large, well-lighted room built on to the main part on the west side. This room is sixteen by fifty feet, has a large window in front, an ordinary window in the rear, and five half windows on the west side, besides three skylights. This is one of the most pleasant rooms in the whole establishment. Over twenty typesetters and folders can be accommodated here. This room also opens from the front hall.
Going up-stairs, we find on the east side three commodious rooms which constitute the three editorial departments of this institution. Opening from the front and back rooms are small rooms which may be used by assistants or stenographers, or for other purposes. The front suite is occupied by the German editor and his assistants, the middle room by the Swedish editor, and the rear rooms by the Danish editor. These rooms may all be entered from the small hall at the head of the stairs, and may, if necessary, be used together by opening the doors between them.
On the whole, we think we have succeeded in remodeling the old building we bought for nine hundred dollars (the price was $1,150, but Brother Schee donated two hundred and fifty dollars to the association) into a very convenient and pleasant printing plant. The expense has been rather more than we at first expected; but all completed, with a good furnace in the basement, with a gasoline engine, and an efficient electric-light system and other necessary additions to the building, the cost will not exceed three thousand dollars for the whole plant. We have endeavored to use the utmost economy consistent with time and labor-saving convenience.
So far we have been able to pay all our expenses, and have avoided going in debt for anything. Our German and Scandinavian brethren and sisters have nobly helped us. It is wholly from their contributions that we to-day are supplied with the type we need to set all our foreign papers, with a stitcher and large paper-cutter, and other necessary things, as well as with the building in its present stage of completion. When the fire swept away the Review and Herald plant in Battle Creek, Mich., we stood entirely bereft of everything, and with scarcely a dollar to our credit; but as soon as our foreign brethren learned the situation, they responded liberally, and they are still manifesting the same liberal interest in our work. We praise God for what has already been done, and we hope to see this work grow and become a powerful factor in the closing work of the third angel's message. We yet have to pay for the press, which will be installed this month, and this will take two thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars. We also have a payment to meet by the first of April on the stock of foreign books we have purchased from the Review and Herald. Thus our brethren and sisters will see that we need the means we expect to receive from the collection on the first Sabbath in February. We hope all our church elders have taken this matter under due consideration, and have already announced this collection, so that all our brethren and sisters may be prepared to donate liberally to this worthy enterprise.
We hear nowadays a great deal about foreign missions, and many appeals are published from time to time to aid mission work in foreign countries. But is it not a fact that we have a large foreign mission field right here in our own country? We may talk of the work in Sweden, and donate to help further our work in that country, but we have a Sweden in America, as there are about as many Scandinavians in this country as there are Swedes in Sweden. The same can be said in regard to Danes and Norwegians. When we speak of the German work, we must remember that this country has Germans by the tens of millions. In one State alone, Wisconsin, seventy-six per cent of the population is German, and a very large share of these can not be reached through any other means than publications in their own language. This is true of all nationalities. While we are interesting ourselves for foreign mission work in other countries, let us also remember our foreign mission work in this country. Many of us have foreigners for our next-door neighbors. Are we doing anything to enlighten these regarding the truths of the third angel's message?19
The new printing plant in College View is established for the express purpose of devoting its entire energies to extend the cause of present truth among the foreign elements of this country. We need your prayers for its success. We need your assistance in means to get started on a solid basis. We further need your co-operation in the dissemination of our literature. All the agents in the country who are selling books treating on the different phases of the third angel's message should remember this plant as well as our English publishing houses, and whenever they come in contact with foreigners, endeavor to sell them the books, pamphlets, and tracts that we already have in the languages spoken by them. Our foreign agents should do the same with regard to English-speaking people. Thus no one need be passed by. We can all co-operate to further the work in all its branches among all nationalities of this country.
With these remarks, together with the description we have given of our new printing plant, we wish to remind our people everywhere of the collection to be taken up the first Sabbath in February, and trust all will then be prepared to give liberally for the upbuilding of this important branch of the work of God.
