Times of Volume Seven
vii
a large shipping center. In the case of the Sabbath School Association,
Oakland, California, was a center convenient to its officers. The reli-
gious liberty work was headed up in Chicago, Illinois, and the medical
missionary work at Battle Creek, Michigan
.
It is not difficult to see that the denomination in its natural devel-
opment had outgrown the original provisions of 1863. Some change
must needs be made. The General Conference Committee consisted of
twelve members, four of whom were residents in Battle Creek. How
could these few men care for the rapidly growing work, now world-
wide in its scope? All the local conferences and missions around the
world, outside of the Australasian and European Union Conferences,
were instructed to look directly to the General Conference for leader-
ship. It is little wonder that the needs of some fields were neglected,
or that in some cases the management lacked efficiency. Perplexities
multiplied as certain branches of the work were seemingly getting out
of hand as they grew disproportionately and forged ahead within the
independent organizational lines of their own creating
.
Such were the circumstances in April, 1901, when Ellen G. White,
recently returned from Australia to the United States, spoke at the
opening meeting of the General Conference session. She called for a
thorough reorganization of the work, especially stressing the need for
a distribution of responsibilities. While the need had been apparent,
how to grapple with the situation had been a perplexing problem.
Now, with the call to action, and with men of vision and faith to
lead out, the work of the General Conference was reorganized. First,
the Union Conference plan, which had been inaugurated in Australia
and followed in Europe, was adopted. This relieved the General
Conference administration of many details which could and should
[5]
be cared for locally. Second, the groundwork was laid to bring the
various autonomous organizations of the denomination, such as the
publishing, medical, sabbath school, and educational work, into the
general conference administration as departments. Third, the General
Conference Committee was greatly enlarged and made representative
of the whole world field and all branches of the work
.
Some phases of the work of the General Conference were reorga-
nized rather quickly. The Sabbath School, educational, and religious
liberty departments were soon brought into being. For other branches
it took time, and in some cases it was not until disaster struck that