216
The Publishing Ministry
It is a fact that you and B and C exerted an influence that warped
the plans of the Review and Herald and brought oppression into the
book work. Wrong principles were brought in which resulted in your
separation from the office. That which you are now prepared to charge
on to the Review and Herald is largely the result of your own actions.
The scheme to pay higher wages [
At the Review and Herald
] to a
few men, brought in by you and your associates, was entirely contrary
to the principles that had heretofore been practiced in the institution.
This matter has been clearly presented to me. In the assemblies
your voice was the most urgent and determined to carry out the plans
for giving a few men higher wages, and to pay a low wage to a large
number who worked with just as much fidelity as those claiming higher
wages....
I charge you in the name of Christ to withdraw your suit, for you
are wounding Christ by dishonoring His cause. Quite as justly could
a suit be brought against you for formulating plans that lessened the
power of the Review office to do the work that ought to have been done
in sustaining missionaries in the field. Consider the fruit of your own
doing, the carrying out of plans that spoiled the record of the institution.
Your voice has done much to bring about wrong schemes.—
Letter
227, 1905
.
A Union Formed to Obtain Higher Wages—In view of the large
work that is to be done, our laborers should be willing to work for a
reasonable wage. Even if you could obtain large wages, you should
consider the example of Christ in coming to our world and living a
life of self-denial. Just at this time it means very much what wages are
demanded by the workers. If you require and receive a large wage, the
[249]
door is thrown open for others to do the same. It was the demand for
large wages among the workers at Battle Creek that helped to spoil the
spirit of the work there.... The cause of present truth was founded in
self-denial and self-sacrifice. This selfish, grasping spirit is entirely
opposed to its principles. It is like the deadly leprosy, which in time
will disease the whole body. I am afraid of it. We need to take heed
lest we outgrow the simple, self-sacrificing spirit that marked our work
in its early years.—
Selected Messages 2:197
.
Meeting an Emergency With Less Wages—If, when cramped
for means, you let your competent workers go, to set up business for
themselves, you will in a short time wish you had them back. The