Closing the Plant Recommended

As if the addition of this third publishing house were not sufficient to test our faith, we soon received further instruction that the Lord was not pleased that our presses were being used in printing for commercial enterprises. We were told that they should be used entirely in the production of literature filled with God’s saving message for these last days. It seemed that if this counsel were obeyed, it would be necessary to draw covers over half our presses, and to discharge half the employees in the printing offices. It is not strange that some were tempted to feel that these two messages, coming at the time of a great slump in the publishing work, could not be divinely inspired.AGP 324.2

At the end of a year’s endeavor, I went to Nashville to attend the first annual meeting of the new publishing house. I was staggered to learn, from the balance sheet, that there had been a loss of $12,000,—a sum equal to what had been invested in the enterprise, and which had been secured by donations from our brethren in the Northern States. We all expressed great sorrow over this large deficit, but were assured by those in charge that there was a better prospect for the coming year.AGP 324.3

But these hopes were not realized. At the end of a second year, there was another loss amounting to a thousand dollars a month,—or a total of $24,000 for the two years. To add to our perplexity, the third year passed by with but very slight improvement over the preceding two. For a long time, I kept these three balance sheets on my desk as a souvenir of unsuccessful management, distressing experience, and our terrible feelings.AGP 324.4

The General Conference Committee in Battle Creek was seriously alarmed, and justly so. They appointed a commission, of which I was one, to go to Nashville to investigate the situation, and bring in recommendations regarding the future of theAGP 324.5

enterprise. As we looked over the plant and the prospects for the future, we could see nothing ahead but continued loss and trouble. But it was evident that these losses simply could not continue indefinitely. So we drew up a recommendation that the equipment be sold to a junk dealer and that the house be used as a book depository or distributing agency for the Southern field, for books printed at the Review and Herald and Pacific Press offices. It seemed to us that all the printing of our denominational literature that would ever be required in North America could be done by these two houses.AGP 325.1

We faced a difficulty. Mrs. White had given us the counsel that led to the establishing of the Southern Publishing Association. As we rehearsed the sorry experience that had followed our attempt to follow the counsel of the spirit of prophecy, the suggestion came to us that reference might have been made to circulation, and not to printing of literature in the Southern field. This was our attempt to reconcile our confidence in the messages coming through Mrs. White with our understanding of good business sense. We made ourselves believe that it was our misinterpretation of the counsel that was at fault, not the instruction itself. Then, too, there was definite instruction to the effect that we were not to create heavy debts for our people to pay off.AGP 325.2