Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1903-05-28

was established thirty-seven years ago by a
little cotere OF earnest men possessed of mu-
tual purposes and sympathetic enthusiasms
There is more than little in the work as then
entered upon to suggest the famous Brook
Farm experiment OF IS4I, but the experiment
which, down in Connecticut more than sixty
years ago resulted in financial failure, bringing
disappointment to Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Amos Bronson Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne,
George Ripley, Charles A. Dana, William
Henry Charming, and others of its members,
has in Battle Creek, Michigan, in this later
period, resulted in success so pronounced as to
make its methods and its theories the accepted
standards OF institutions of its kind throughout
the world. -
GREAT MISSIONARY TRAINING SCHOOL.
An important public purpose fulfilled by the
Battle Creek Sanitarum and one which gives
1t especial value to Michigan and our neigh
boring States, is the service il has rendered as
training school for physicians and nurses.
Michigan is proud of its great University at
Ann Arbor, and the hundreds of thousands of
dollars annually required to meet the expenses
OF that great educational institution are cheer
fully paid from the pockets of the people in
order that its great work may be continued and
Its progress encouraged. Yet il can hardly be
said that less value has come to our State from
an institution such as the Battle Creek SAM
tarium, which has sent out over one thousand
nurses and physicians, trained and equipped
not only through demonstrations of the labora-
tory and discussions in the class room, but by
anxious days and nights of careful and con-
scientious service in the practical battle against
death and disease. The Sanitarium nurses
training school was organized in 1884 and has
grown to be the largest training school for
nurses in the world. All these nurses and
physicians have been trained to go out as mis-
sionaries into the dark places of the earth, de-
voting their lives to the service of God and
humanity.
a GREAT SELF-SUPPoRTING CHARITY.
In another respect has the Battle Creek
Sanitarium proved to be most desirable State
institution. When the institutions books were
examined in March of last year by an official
committee representing the Business Mems As
ISOLATION and the Board of Aldermen of Battle
Creek, who desired to possess direct informa-
ton touching its past work, they found that
SIo3,o47 had been expended by the institu-
tion within the preceding three years, the period
included in their examination, in behalf OF
charity patients persons from our own State
and from other States who needed the skill,
treatment, and care provided at the SAM
tarium, yet who had not means with which to
make recompense. 1t was stated by the com
mittee, which was composed of bookkeeping
experts and practical business men of the
highest reputation that the expenditures for
charity referred to, often amounting TO over
$4,000 year, did not include surgical fees or
concessions on account of treatment, nor any
of the ordinary dispensations of charity, com
mon alike to individuals and to institutions
where circumstances permit.
The committee further found and reported
that the salaries paid at this institution would
have seemed ridiculousy inadequate had il
not been for the fact that financial compensa-
ton seemed to form but minor part of the
physicians, and the nurses with their work.
The spirit which gave birth to the institution
and which has made it of world wide influence
and value seems yet to fully control the work
and service of every official and every assist
ant The Sanitariums philanthropic disburse-
ments, amounting to more than $4,000, and
the unusual work in that direction which it is
constantly doing, has been done in great part
as result of self-sacrhce on the part of the
doctors, nurses, managers, and many OF the
ordinary employees of the institution. The
salaries of the physicians are actually less
than the compensation OF locomotive en-
gineer and in many instances skilled ply
scans receive less than the hire OF a common
laborer. The compensation of a nurse is less
than that OF district school-teacher, and il is
stated that there are those among the ply
slcians and managers who have served faith.
fully for many years without any monetary
compensation whatever.
stand the sympathes and the relations which
suggest such sacrifices and secure such results
But II that be true, he might also fail to com
prehend the original and helpful elements in
the treatment of disease, in the establishment
of valuable theories of living and of life, and
in the development and the dissemination OF
principles through the Battle Creek SAM
tarium, which all the world acknowledges as
valuable, even though all the world may not
fully understand or accept them.
The fact that this work has for more than
third of a century been conducted in a
broad and liberal spirit, defined by its charter
as strictly non-sectarian and undenomina-
tional, devoted in the truest sense to the pub
lie interest, and the marvellous growth which
the years have witnessed, attest the value
of the ideal toward which the promoters of
this enterprise are striving, and command the
respect of all those who are interested in
human welfare and progress.
OFFICIAL RECOGNITION.
1t is because of the relations of the Battle
Greek Sanitarium to the interests and progress
OF Michigan and to our entire country, as
herein stated and as herein further suggested,
that the dedication of the Sanitarium build
ing on May 81 is deemed an event worthy of
State recognition and of Statewide interest.
1t is because of these things that the governor
of Michigan has invited the governors and
officials OF other States to attend the dedica-
tory exercises; and it is because of the great
work the institution is doing and is seeking to
do that Governor Bliss, Senator Burrows, Con-
gresham Gardner, and other gentlemen dis
tinguished in official and professional circles
in our own and from other States, have
accepted invitations to participate in an event
which splendidly marks the progress thus far
attained in unique work, and gives fitting
promise tor future worthy of a past so
deserving OF commentator and encourage
ment. PERRY +. Powers.