lions who had had little opportunity to hear the message, struggled on with a very few workers and a tithe entirely inadequate to the requirements of the field.

By this it is not meant, of course, that the General Conference took action calling upon the local conferences to hand over their tithe to be used in these needy fields; but the principle involved in this wider distribution of the denominational funds was plainly set forth and its reasonableness acknowledged.

A third achievement of the Conference of 1901 was the adoption of the plan of organizing groups of conferences, as union conferences, each under a union president, who should have supervision of all the conferences in his union, and preside over representative gatherings of delegates at proper times, when the immediate affairs of the union would be considered. This plan relieved the General Conference at its biennial sessions, and the General Conference Committee between sessions, of a large amount of work of a more or less local character, at the same time providing by means of the union gatherings for prompt and careful consideration of all the needs of the section.

The full importance of this move was not realized at the time. It not only relieved the members of the General Conference Committee of a large amount of administrative detail, but it placed responsibility upon a larger number of men throughout the country, who were thus brought into close relations with the general work.

A. G. Daniells, president of the Australasian Division, was elected to succeed G. A. Irwin as head of the General Conference, and it fell to him to carry out the reforms inaugurated at this Conference, Elder Irwin accepting a call to take charge of the work in Australasia. W. A. Spicer, who had succeeded D. A. Robinson as superintendent of the Indian Mission, was called to the secretaryship of the General Conference, his place in India being taken by J. L. Shaw.

The Conference of 1903, held in Oakland, Calif., was a remarkable meeting in its way, but perhaps its most important

achievement was in supplementing the work done in 1901. Action was taken outlining a plan for reorganizing institutions so as to bring them fully under the control of the denomination. The forward movement in behalf of foreign fields inaugurated at the Conference of 1901 was greatly strengthened, and the General Conference departments, which had been foreshadowed in the general plans adopted at the earlier Conference, were carried through to organization.

It was in the years immediately following this Conference that the first health institution founded by this people, the Battle Creek Sanitarium, passed out of the control of the denomination, to the sorrow and regret of its best friends and wellwishers. It was painful to see this institution cut off from the advent movement with which it had been connected from its humble beginnings nearly forty years before; but as matters stood, it seemed to those immediately concerned that either the

movement or the institution would have to change if the two were to work together harmoniously. In fact, as the situation developed, it became apparent to the General Conference Committee that some of the medical workers were not in full sympathy with the fundamental teachings of the denomination. Under these circumstances those who occupied positions of responsibility could not consistently encourage the young people of the denomination to go to Battle Creek to receive their training.

While this unfortunate situation was developing in Battle Creek, our other health institutions and the medical workers connected with them throughout the world were more or less in perplexity. It was a time when men considered their relation to the reform work represented by the Adventist people as a whole, and made their decisions on principle. With few exceptions the physicians and nurses took their stand with the denomination, and loyally supported the Medical Department, which was in due time organized on the same basis as the other departments. They co-operated also in such an adjustment of the question of ownership of the various medical institutions as would bring them strictly under denominational control, and make it impossible for a sanitarium founded by the denomination to take itself out of the hands of the organization.

One of the far-reaching decisions made at the Conference of 1903, was that the General Conference offices be removed from Battle Creek, Mich., to some favorable place for its work in the Atlantic States." The removal of the headquarters of the Review and Herald Publishing Association, which had lost its main building by fire, Dec. 30, 1902, was likewise suggested. Both these important moves were rapidly effected.

The committee appointed to secure a location for the General Conference offices spent some time in looking at sites in the neighborhood of New York City and in other parts of the East, but found nothing favorable till they began prospecting in the vicinity of Washington, D. C. A beautiful plot of land of some fifty acres, lying in the town of Takoma Park, about eight miles north of the Capitol, was at length secured, at the merely nominal price of $6,000. On this ideal site were erected in due time buildings for a sanitarium and a college. Smaller building sites were also secured in that portion of the town lying within the District, about a mile nearer the Capitol, on which the General Conference administrative building and the office of the Review and Herald Publishing Association were erected.

On moving to Washington, D. C., in 1903, this building, 222 North Capitol St., was occupied until the permanent office in Takoma Park was erected.

The removal to Washington was in harmony with the instruction given through the spirit of prophecy,- that the headquarters of the work should be in the more populous East. Many years before, the cause had moved West and grown into strength. The eastward move of the General Conference and the Review and Herald office seemed to the people a signal of advance, and brought courage and hope. In the new location a freer field was found for the full development of the new policies which the delegates of the 1903 Conference had marked out for it.

When the search for the new location began, the spirit of prophecy had given no definite counsel as to the exact place. But while the committee on location were still at their task, messages began to come, urging attention to the advantages of the national capital as headquarters for our work. As the brethren considered these counsels, all felt assurance in selecting the various sites for the Ceneral Conference and publishing, educational, and sanitarium interests in Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. On the removal, much was said by the national press in approval of the foresight shown by our denomination in choosing the national capital as its headquarters. The results have fully justified the counsels given.