Autobiography of HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG
Volume II
1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1987
Herbert W. Armstrong 1892-1986
Table of Contents
Chapter 40 First Vision of Worldwide Work THE "lean years" continued through 1938 and the succeeding decade. It was a constant struggle and hardship. Growth seemed so very slow. Yet, viewed today in retrospect, expansion has been consistently rapid. Occasional setbacks were discouraging. But the forgings ahead were far greater than the slips backward.
By June, 1938 -- four and a half years after The Plain Truth started as a mimeographed "magazine" the first two printed editions finally had been produced. Old files, more recently examined, have shown that the May-June, 1938, number was not actually the first, but the second edition to come off a real printing press. And they were only eight-page editions. Until then all issues had been ground out on a hand-fed, hand-cranked, antiquated neostyle, ancestor of the mimeograph.
But the expense of producing those two printed issues threw us into a financial hole again. So back to the frail old neostyle we went, hand-producing a combined July-August, 1938, issue, which finally was mailed July 28 that year.
New Facilities Needed
As the work expanded, through 1938 and into 1939, a few items of new equipment became an imperative need. I do not mean convenient wants -- but absolutely necessary needs.
According to usual office standards, we might have thought we needed a better office, with sunlight and ventilation. We might have thought modern steel filing cabinets were a need. I was still using cardboard cartons, obtained free at the grocery store, as receptacles for keeping correspondence files. We might have thought that office desks to work on, if only secondhand, were needed. But we were able to work, these years, on a few old tables we found in our little, stuffy, $5-per-month office room.
But when the old antiquated neostyle finally was wearing out -- about to lie down and cease functioning because of old age -- and we were still obliged to crank out The Plain Truth by hand on this piece of primitive mechanism, then a new mimeograph became an absolute need -- or else The Plain Truth had to cease publication and die a natural death along with the neostyle.
So it was that on February 4, 1939 -- five years after the first issue of The Plain Truth -- a letter to our few co-workers said: "I will have to tell you that we are VERY SERIOUSLY IN NEED of a new mimeograph machine. The present one is about worn out, and we are producing this issue of The Plain Truth under difficulties. I can get a very good used mimeograph, almost new, one capable of turning out the large amount of work that is necessary in this office, and [that] will last for several years, for $65. There is not one cent available for the mimeograph, unless some of our friends can send in a special and additional offering just for this purpose."
By April 5, 1939, a letter to co-workers found in an old file says: "At last, after many unavoidable delays, we are sending you The Plain Truth. This issue goes to about one thousand NEW READERS. It is still mimeographed, because we have not enough funds to print it, as we did two issues last year. It is a tremendous task, and nearly all the work is done by Mrs. Armstrong, our daughter Beverly who is office secretary, and myself."
In spite of inside office, lack of light or ventilation, lack of desks, filing cabinets and office equipment, the work was GROWING! The Plain Truth circulation was growing. We were not able to get it out every month. There were seven issues in 1938. The June number was only the third during 1939. It was issued as often as there was enough money for paper, ink and postage. Yet already this little mimeographed "magazine" was being read by a few thousand people -- and a hundred thousand were hearing on radio every week the very gospel Christ Himself preached -- besides there were almost continuous evangelistic campaigns reaching hundreds.
The few dimes, quarters, and dollars were producing fruits that were to last for eternity!
But now our old secondhand car was about to lie down and die of old age and much use.
Near the bottom of this letter of April 5, 1939, I find this: "Another serious need is a new car. The present one, five years old, is in the Albany garage for lack of a $50 repair bill. We are totally dependent on our car to transport the six of us (self and singers) to Portland and back for the Sunday broadcasts. We have to drive 600 miles every week -- 2,500 miles a month in Gods work. The present car won't hold out longer. We are doing the very best we can with what we have to do with."
This referred to the 1934-model used Graham car we had purchased as a result of Mrs. Starkey's letter sent out December 21, 1937. But we were not to be able to get another car until 1941. That old Graham blew connecting rods every few thousand miles. But it was destined to suffer some real punishment, with weekly trips to Seattle, before we could replace it!
God has promised to supply all our NEED. But during these years it was surely bare need, not wants -- and the needs were not always as great as they appeared to us.
How many of our readers, today, realize how much more than bare needs you are enjoying? Not many have had to struggle along with real bare needs, as we did through those lean years!
European Union and War Predicted
The February-March, 1939, issue of The Plain Truth contained another article on the resurrection of the Roman Empire to come. We have warned our radio listeners of this prophesied event since the first year we were on the air -- 1934. We have shouted this prophecy ever since 1934 in The Plain Truth. This issue carried a full-page map, which I sketched and traced an the mimeograph stencil, showing the territory of the original Roman Empire.
This map included four of the sea gates that control sea -- access to this entire territory. The article stressed the fulfillment of the prophecy of Genesis 22:17 and 24:60, showing how the U.S.A. and Britain were to possess the sea gates of enemy nations. This was part of the national dominance promised Abraham for his descendants. But the article also pointed out that our peoples, since receiving this Birthright inheritance have turned from our God -- our national sins have increased -- and God is going to have to punish our nations at the hand of this coming resurrected Roman Empire, with invasion, captivity, and slavery. These four vital sea gates, the article explained, must be taken from Britain before the "beast" power -- revived Roman Empire -- can rise. Britain, since, has lost Suez and exercises no real control over the other three.
This tremendous prophecy was fulfilled, in the form of the insignificant "sixth head of the beast," by Mussolini very shortly after this article appeared. But the all-important seventh and last "head" is being formed, today, before our very eyes! It is rising out of the Common Market in Europe -- out of which ten nations or groupings of nations will ultimately combine to form a new European Union!
During March and April, 1939, about 1,000 new requests were received for annual subscriptions to The Plain Truth! The work was GROWING!
The August issue of The Plain Truth, 1939, contained an article captioned: "World War May Come Within Six Weeks." The war started September 1.
In an article in the November, 1939, Plain Truth on "The European War," a paragraph or two may be of interest:
"Finally, remember this war is merely a resumption of the world war. It is not, so far as present events are concerned, directly and specifically mentioned in the Bible prophecies at all. But undoubtedly it is paving the way for prophesied events.
"One of two things may happen: 1) the Allies may go on to smash Hitler, possibly with the help of either or both of the United States or Italy; 2) Italy might yet come in on the side of Germany -- the battle sector shifting at once to the Mediterranean, especially Egypt (the Suez canal gate), and Palestine (as described with maps in the February-March Plain Truth)."
The uphill struggle -- climbing constantly in growth of the work in spite of inadequate facilities and financial backing -- continued into the year 1940 and throughout the decade of the forties.
The March, 1940, Plain Truth was the first since November, 1939. It was still mimeographed. The circulation was 2,000 copies. More than 100,000 people were listening to the message weekly. Expenses were being held to $300 per month -- including our family living of less than $85 per month.
Boys Growing Up
Meanwhile, our four children were growing up. The two girls now were twenty and twenty-two. The boys ten and eleven -- Dick almost twelve. For the boys, this, I believe, is the happiest age ever enjoyed by any person. Surely nothing to compare is experienced by girls.
I remember so well when I was eleven. My only sister, Mabel, died that year in an attack of spinal meningitis, at age nine. However, a year later my brother Dwight Leslie and his twin sister Mary Lucile were born. During those years, with other boys of the same age, I took up wrestling -- these were the days of our "heroes" Frank Gotch and "Farmer" Burns; we went swimming, skating in the winter, sledding. We dug caves. We had white mice and ferrets, and probably we stuck frogs in our pockets. I rode a bicycle everywhere.
At eleven and twelve a boy has few responsibilities -- devotes himself primarily to "fun" -- and yet, he does not altogether take a vacation from disappointments, humiliation and painful suffering. His problems are far more serious to him than they are to Dad or Mom or other grown-ups.
I have recounted how our younger son had given me a big kiss -- and when I asked what he was after now, he replied that was for picking out for him the best mother in the world. Only I didn't "pick her out" -- we both have always known, somehow, that God chose us for each other. But if our boys had "the best Mom in the world" she was best, except for just one or two things.
For one thing, our sons had a mother who wanted them to swim -- only she did not want them to go near the water until after they had learned how to swim. This problem was far more serious to young growing boys than Mother ever knew.
During the summer of 1940 we were returning to Eugene on the McKenzie Highway along the swift-flowing McKenzie River. The boys wanted to do some fishing. Finally, after much pleading, we stopped at a country store, bought a small roll of fishing line, a few hooks, and a bottle of salmon eggs.
Our elder daughter, Beverly, and her fiance, Jimmy Gott, were with us, and Jim cut two big "fishing poles" from a willow tree and tied the line to each of them.
From here on, I will let my younger son recount for you in his own words the humiliating experience he and his brother Dick suffered -- all because of the "best Mom in the world."
"We were on the way returning to Eugene from a trip, I believe to Blemis' home, or else up to Belknap Springs -- but at any rate, up the McKenzie Highway.
"Dick and I (I mostly, I believe) pleaded and pleaded, and finally, we stopped at a country store, and bought a small roll of fishing line, a few hooks, and a bottle of salmon eggs.
("Bev and Jim were along, I remember definitely because Jim cut us two big club-like 'fishing poles' and tied the line to each of them.)
"So -- we were carefully herded over the rocks, with deep pools swirling around through undercut areas, to the brink of the mighty rushing McKenzie at one of its fastest, deepest points.
"Having known only a little about fishing -- I did know you had to get the bait down to where the fish were. We had no split shot or weights, no leaders on our lines, no reels, so casting was impossible.
"Mom picked out the spot where it was SAFEST -- instead of letting us go where we thought we might find a fish. There we sat, with sour expressions on our faces, with the short line, a tiny gold single-egg hook and a bright red salmon egg-skipping frantically along the top of the gigantic rush of tons of blue-white water, on the edge of one of the fastest and deepest rapids along the McKenzie!
"There wasn't the faintest, remotest chance of ever ratching a trout under those conditions -- and we both knew it -- but at least, we were SAFE!"
No Hallucinations
On April 2, 1940, I had to write co-workers: "The only way I have managed to keep the work going has been my personal sacrifice -- taking money intended for our family living, letting my family suffer. One of my daughters has had to stop school. We are about to lose our home. We have gone without badly needed clothing. I could tell you more, but do not want to talk about ourselves -- our heavenly Father knows. We are willing and glad to make any sacrifice. BUT THE POINT IS, WE HAVE NOW COME TO THE END, UNLESS SUBSTANTIAL HELP COMES AT ONCE. The work cannot be held up by this method of personal sacrifice any longer. As long as it was only us who suffered, I said nothing. But now the Lord's WORK will stop unless substantial help comes quickly. For the work's sake I must appeal to our helpers. I would starve, before I would ask one cent as charity for myself. But I'm willing to humiliate myself in any way for the gospel's sake."
During the early years of this ministry, as I have noted before, no illusions of grandeur flooded my mind. I had no grandiose visions of conducting a great earth girding work reaching many millions on all continents. If anyone had then suggested that this work would grow to even a tenth its present scope and power, I would have regarded it as an empty pipe-dream.
This work has not grown to its present proportions because I planned it that way -- but because GOD planned it, expanded it, empowered it.
I was not without vision. When the broadcast first started, in January, 1934, I did envision a work reaching the entire Willamette Valley and probably Portland. After we reached Portland, I did envision going on to cover Seattle, and the entire Pacific Northwest. As the work grew, the vision for the future expanded with it. But this ministry was not started with any hallucinations, spawned in self-pride, vanity and egotism, as did a few ne'er-do-wells who have come to me, announcing: "Mr. Armstrong, I have come to announce to you that I am Elijah that was prophesied to come;" or "Mr. Armstrong, God has shown me in a dream that I am to be your right-hand man and soon to take your place."
All self-important vanity had been knocked out of me by the successive business reverses, being knocked down repeatedly, and made for years to bite the dust of poverty and humiliation. But I had come to receive a new confidence. It was based on faith in CHRIST -- not in self. It was the faith of Christ, which God had given as one of the gifts of His Spirit.
First Vision of Worldwide Scope
But in May, 1940, God had begun to bring into my mind a glimpse of the future worldwide destiny of this work, for the first time. We could not know, then, whether World War II, already under way in Europe, would continue on into Armageddon and the END of the world. We could not know, then, that God would grant another recess in the world war -- and for the very purpose of allowing this WORK OF GOD to fulfill Matthew 24:14 in preaching and publishing Christ's gospel of God's KINGDOM to all the world as a witness, just before the END of this world and the coming of Christ!
But the sense of imminence of the END -- combined with the knowledge that this very message must first be proclaimed -- inspired a letter to co-workers dated May 23, 1940, which asked, in part:
"Dear CO-WORKERS: We enter, now, the most CRUCIAL period of our co-labors together in the powerful proclaiming of the gospel. The ZERO HOUR has struck! Whatever is to be done, we must do quickly. Soon we shall not be permitted to carry on this great work .... But now, as never before, people WILL HEAR! People are STUNNED by the war events in Europe! Everywhere, people ... are now beginning to realize the Bible prophecies are being fulfilled -- that we are in the VERY LAST DAYS! ... NOW is the time when Jesus said 'this gospel of the kingdom' -- the good news of the coming government BY JESUS CHRIST, the kingdom OF GOD -- 'shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the END come'!"
For the first time, I saw the real meaning of that prophecy. I knew of no other preaching of this very gospel. Nowhere else was this prophecy being fulfilled I saw, now, that THIS MESSAGE was to go worldwide -- to ALL NATIONS. I did not yet envision that this very work would be used of God in its accomplishment. But I did now see clearly that we should step up our energies and as far as it was GOD's will to use us in this fulfillment, expand the work.
I began, much more intensely than before, to focus attention on expanding the broadcast into Seattle. Almost a year before I had taken a trip to Seattle to explore the possibilities of obtaining a good time on a radio station. But no door opened then. And, in 1939 it was financially impossible.
A Heart-touching Sacrifice
The Seattle broadcasting was started by an unusual sacrifice made by a man and wife in Clarke County, Washington, listeners over KWJJ. This family had lost all they had in the great drought of 1934 and 1935. They then migrated from South Dakota and had made a down payment on a small farm a few miles outside Vancouver, Washington. The man and a son had managed to build the outside shell of a house. The siding was not yet on. A second floor had been partially laid -- just the subflooring. There was no stairway as yet -- and no partitions either upstairs or down -- just one large room on each floor. The children slept upstairs, gaining access by climbing up a ladder.
This man had, over two or three years' time, saved up $40 over and above bare family expenses and getting this much of a home built. The $40 was saved to buy lumber for the partitions for separate rooms in their house.
When these people heard we were trying to get started on the air in Seattle, they sent me that $40, explaining how they had saved it, and for what purpose. Since we were driving to Portland every week for the broadcast, I drove out to their little farm to return the money.
"I just couldn't take this money," I said, "when you have struggled so long to save it so you could have a home to live in."
Tears filled the woman's eyes. She shook her head, refused to accept the money back. "Mr. Armstrong," she said, "of course it would be nice for us to get up partitions and have separate rooms -- but that is not an absolute NEED. We just could not use this money for a temporary material home, when it will help get Christ's message of a home for all eternity in God's kingdom to many thousands of people!"
I realized, then, that it was really GOD's WILL that this money be used for His gospel -- and that these people were actually receiving a spiritual blessing in giving it that far outweighed the material benefit of using it for themselves. Incidentally, these people were blessed materially after that, and it was not too long until their house was completed, after all. Jesus Christ said, seek first the kingdom of God -- the spiritual values and the material THINGS shall be ADDED. God always does add them!
On the Air in SEATTLE!
When I sent out a letter to co-workers telling of this sacrifice, and the NEED to get on the air in Seattle, there was a surprising response. We received one day in the mail the largest sum we had ever received -- $100, for broadcasting in Seattle. It took our breath!
But, a few days later, two more $100 sums came, three contributed $50 each, and several sent in single dollars.
And so, finally, three long years after the broadcast expanded from Eugene into Portland, it now leaped into Seattle!
From Seattle, I mimeographed a new co-workers' Bulletin, the second such Bulletin in new form and dress, dated September 17, 1940. The leading caption stated the news: "NOW ON THE AIR IN SEATTLE!"
The program started there Sunday, September 15th, over 1,000-watt station KRSC -- twice the power of our Portland station, KWJJ -- and serving a larger population.
The exciting story of how we finally were enabled to add the Seattle area to those of Portland and Eugene in the broadcasting work was told in this Bulletin, and can best be told here in a condensation of that Bulletin: There was a subhead, "How God Has Answered PRAYER."
Then: "I want to tell our family of co-workers some of the inside story of our finally getting on the air here in Seattle. I want you to know something of the problem we had to solve, the difficulties in our path, and how God went before us, answered prayer, and worked out everything so perfectly.
Answered Prayer
"Radio stations, especially in Seattle, do not want religious programs on their stations. I learned that a year ago when I was up here. I knew nothing but prayer could open the way for us, but I had faith God wanted us to speak His Word faithfully in this Seattle district, and I know He would not fail us.
"Mrs. Armstrong and I arrived in Seattle late Wednesday afternoon. I did not feel we could afford the high cost of one of the five larger 5.000-watt stations here. This reduced our possibilities to two stations. One, KRSC, has never taken religious programs, and its owner gave me no encouragement when I saw him a year ago. The other station, same power, was throwing all religious programs off their station, didn't want any more, and the price was just double what we pay in Portland.
"It looked discouraging. But I decided to see the owner of KRSC again. He auditioned one of our programs. He became interested, said we had a splendid program that would attract a large listening audience. However, he would not take any outside religious program unless approved by the Seattle Council of Churches. He then called their secretary by telephone to his office to hear one of our programs auditioned. This man was well impressed with our program and also with The Plain Truth, which he carefully examined. It happened that he was familiar with the truth of our national identity in the House of Israel, and he was glad to see this truth published in the Plain Truth magazine.
"So the owner sidetracked a 4 o'clock Sunday afternoon news broadcast so we could have the same time we have over KWJJ in Portland, and then made me a rate just $1.40 more per broadcast than we pay KWJJ! Since this station has double the power of KWJJ, and is the highest class independent station in Seattle, I'm sure you'll realize how fortunate we were.
"There is but one explanation. God Himself worked it all out. It is surely an answer to prayer. Mrs. Armstrong and I will remain here until after next Sunday's broadcast, which I want to conduct in person; then we shall return home. While here, we are broadcasting by transcription from KWJJ. When we return home we will send transcribed broadcasts to Seattle."
The next subhead in this Bulletin was captioned: "LOS ANGELES NEXT!"
The vision of the mission to which God had called us, and in which the living Christ was using us, now expanded. World events made it clear.
The Bulletin continued: "The Lord willing, we hope now to add a radio station in LOS ANGELES next. Such a station would add a QUARTER OF A MILLION people to those now hearing the true gospel of the kingdom.
"As I wrote in the last Bulletin, GOD's TIME HAS COME for this last warning message to go -- and to go to the millions, with great POWER! The whole world is IN ARMS! God now calls us, His children, TO ARMS! THE WARNING MUST GO!"
Chapter 41 Impact on Pacific Northwest Now that the broadcast had started in Seattle, the work began rapidly to take on new life.
Up until this time, it certainly bore no resemblance to what would be expected by most people to be the very WORK OF GOD. How could anything have had such humble and crude beginnings? Did anything ever start smaller? Looking back on those years now, I am, myself, astonished! It surely couldn't have happened. Yet, it did!
With Man -- Impossible!
What man could start out, without money, without support or backing, without any car and having to walk or hitchhike, on his own, with an unpopular message to which people were hostile, and expect to get that message preached and published to the millions on all continents around the world?
With man, it certainly is IMPOSSIBLE! But I was not looking to people for support -- I was relying on GOD! There is a Scripture that says, "With man it is impossible, but with GOD all things are possible!"
And that is the answer! Through the years I have encountered a few individuals who thought they had a vision to "preach Christ" and started out on their own, without backing, to do it. Some have gotten out some kind of mimeographed literature, or even managed to have a "tract" or two printed. But none I knew of ever grew. All soon gave up. Their work lacked the inspiration, the "spark," the vital "something" to make it tick -- and GROW! The answer, of course, is that the POWER OF GOD was lacking. They were, in true fact, on their own! Christ had never called or sent them. They were not speaking His Word faithfully! Without His guidance and the dynamic power of His Spirit, their work soon came to naught.
The only reason this work survived -- and grew -- is that I was not, after all, "on my own."
Pitifully small as this effort was during those first few years -- still it was, though assuredly not then apparent, the very WORK OF THE LIVING GOD. The divinely imparted dynamic spark was in it. People have asked, in recent years, what makes this now great work "tick." The vital energy and life that the living CHRIST has imparted is what makes it tick!
The Difference
The things God does through man must always start small -- usually the very smallest -- but they grow big, until they become the biggest. Jesus compared this to the proverbial mustard seed.
Today, for example [as this second volume goes to press], there are [nearly five] billion people populating the earth. God started this -- with one man, out of whom he made one woman. The nations of Israel, Judah, the numerous Arabs, all started with one man -- Abraham. The only true religion started with one man -- Jesus Christ! Ultimately those born of God through Him will fill the earth.
This work certainly had no professional appearance in those days, although there must have been power in the broadcasts -- they had the ring of sincerity and the truth the listeners had not heard before. And The Plain Truth, though crude in appearance, nevertheless reflected the years of professional writing experience. Mistakes were made. This was due to the human element. It was the guidance and power of God injected into it that gave it its real impetus -- but God was using a mighty imperfect human instrument, and so human limitations entered into the picture too. These caused some of the setbacks, and God allowed others to test and refine and help perfect the instrument He was using.
I know of evangelists who have been skyrocketed suddenly to fame before vast audiences. They started out big and quickly became celebrities acclaimed by millions. But they were started out by organizations of MEN. It was organized religion which pumped into their great stadiums, coliseums, supertents or vast auditoriums the multithousand crowds. And all such world-famous evangelists must preach only what is allowed by the denominations or churches who back them, and must refrain from preaching anything contrary to their doctrines.
Suppose, for example, such an evangelist backed by the conservative fundamentalist -- evangelical denominations should tell his audience the Bible commands them to keep the seventh-day Sabbath. Suppose a "big-time" evangelist with so-called "Pentecostal" backing in his giant circus tent should shout to his thousands that "speaking in tongues" is not the "Bible evidence" of "the baptism of the Holy Spirit." Immediately they would be branded HERETICS. Immediately they would lose their organized backing; they would be plunged into "disgrace."
But such men come and they go. Their work is foredoomed to die. If they are backed by men, supported by organized men, they must become the willing TOOL of such organizations. But when one is truly called and chosen of God, he must become wholly yielded to God as God's servant, and he must speak God's Word faithfully, else GOD's support is withdrawn. What a difference!
Redoubling Growth
Jesus Christ said, "Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up" (Matt. 15:13). Again, "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it" (Psalm 127:1). But, David was inspired to say (Moffatt translation): "Though I must pass through the thick of trouble, thou wilt preserve me: ... The Eternal intervenes on my behalf; ... thou wilt not drop the work thou hast begun" (Psalm 138:7-8). That PROMISE of God has sustained me through the years of opposition, persecution and trouble. God is still keeping that promise, and He will perpetually!
Looking back, now, over the actual physical circumstances, conditions, and happenings of those years, it seems utterly incredible that a work started in such a humble, crude manner without any visible backing could have survived, let alone continued to grow at the pace of 30 percent a year.
Of course this work did not double in size every day, every week, or even every year. But doubling in number of people reached, in number of precious lives converted, in radio power, and in scope of operation every two years and seven and a half months is, after all, a very rapid and almost unheard-of rate of growth. And that rate of redoubling continued nearly thirty years!
Plain Truth Printed at Last
If this work had the appearance, those first seven struggling years, of the pitifully insignificant and hopeless effort of an individual striving desperately "on his own," it began now rapidly to take on the appearance of a more substantial operation. Those with spiritual discernment began to recognize it for what it was -- the true WORK OF GOD.
A limited fund had been raised to start the broadcast on KRSC, in Seattle.
In preparation for this, a part of this special fund had been used to have the Plain Truth issue for August-September, 1940, printed! This was the first printed number since the May-June, 1938, number.
But at last, with this August-September, 1940, number, The Plain Truth graduated permanently from the handmade mimeographed class! Along with the other phases of the work, The Plain Truth was growing up!
It "grew up" only to a most humble start as a printed magazine, however. This issue, and the few to follow, were printed on a very low-cost yellow paper we had used for years for the mimeographed editions. It was only eight pages. And it was issued only bimonthly. On page 4, under the masthead box, appeared this notice: "This is the first issue of The Plain Truth since May. There was no June or July number this year. For the immediate future we hope to be able, the Lord willing, to publish one number each two months. Later we hope to be able to send you an issue every month, and to enlarge The Plain Truth to sixteen pages, just double the present size. Constant improvement is our goal."
That improvement came slowly through the years -- but the effort was never relinquished, and gradually the improvement did come.
Many months later, it did double to 16 pages. Circulation doubled and redoubled. After years as a 16-page magazine, it went to twenty-four and then to thirty-two pages. In publishing that first regular printed issue of The Plain Truth, an additional 500 copies were printed in anticipation of the first two months' response from the new Seattle broadcast.
Amazing Seattle Response
The broadcast had started on KRSC, in Seattle, September 15, 1940. By November 1 the receipt of mail from listeners was mounting rapidly. More than 500 requests for copies came from the first four or five broadcasts. The co-workers' Bulletin dated November 1 reported the subscription list of The Plain Truth had reached 3,000. We still had to keep the mailing list by handwriting, or typing, and in this manner personally address every copy. This required volunteer labor and several days' time. Mail response now indicated a listening audience of 150,000 with the three radio stations.
Although requests for The Plain Truth exceeded 500 the first five weeks from the Seattle station, there were, of course, very few contributions -- especially when none were in any way solicited. Nevertheless, for the encouragement of older co-workers, this November 1 Bulletin stated: "Offerings are just beginning, now, to come from listeners to KRSC, our Seattle station. First, $1. Then, later, another dollar; then $6 the next week $8 so far." It was now costing nearly $100 per issue to publish and mail out The Plain Truth.
In this issue of the co-workers' Bulletin (sent only to those who had become voluntary regular contributors), excerpts from several letters from listeners were reproduced -- seventeen of those from the Seattle station, and nine from the Portland station.
Portions of some of those letters are illuminating. Here are just a few:
"FROM SEATTLE: 'Am enclosing $1 to help a little in your God-given work. How I wish it could be more, but when I can possibly, will send more. Received the copy of The Plain Truth a few days ago .... I have wondered many times when these Scriptures would be revealed, and by whom; but God knew, and He has given the wisdom to one He can trust. You have my prayers.' " This letter accompanied the second dollar received from the program on the Seattle station. Jesus Christ said His sheep hear His voice. They recognize His message. They catch the difference instantly. Some of these letters came from people who discerned that this, indeed, was Christ's own gospel -- very different from that the world had heard.
"FROM BINGEN, WASHINGTON: 'Will you please send a copy of The Plain Truth. I thank God for men who tell the truth about His plan of salvation. There are only too few in this time of great need.' "
"FROM DEEP RIVER, WASH.: 'We listen to your broadcast every Sunday, and would like to receive the magazine .... I realize you do not ask for money, but I am enclosing $1 to help in God's work.' "
"FROM INDIANOLA, WASH.: 'The portion of your sermon, delivered over the radio yesterday, that I heard was most enlightening and constructive, and I should appreciate having you send me The Plain Truth. These certainly are the kind of biblical explanations that the world needs today.' "
Yes, some who hear the World Tomorrow program do recognize it as God's very own message, and it has been the generally unpreached truth of God's Word, and the power of His Spirit that has given this work life, and vitality, and caused it to grow from smallest beginnings!
Now just two or three portions of letters from listeners over KWJJ, Portland. These, too, are significant:
"FROM OREGON CITY: 'I received your message today and with tears streaming from my eyes, thanked our heavenly Father that the way had been opened for your Seattle broadcast.' "
"FROM LA CENTER, WASH.: 'I enjoy your broadcast so much, and regret when I have to miss one. I feel lifted, and see more light after listening. God is certainly with you in every word that you say -- one can just feel His presence. I would appreciate a copy of The Plain Truth, please.' "
"FROM PORTLAND: 'In your last broadcast you mentioned that the public might not approve your words. From your own teachings, your concern is to preach the TRUTH, just as you have been doing .... The LORD approves. That is enough. The Plain Truth is most excellent .... This old world is now in the critical time when we need a pilot to show us whither we are headed. You are doing a great job. I know you are giving the truth to those who never heard it, and probably never would, who will not go to the present-day church and who hold the church to be a hypocritical racket. But they listen to you. Keep up the good work.' "
Atheists Converted
This Bulletin carried a subhead on page 5: "Even Atheists Being Converted." It said: "Yes, even ATHEISTS those who have convinced themselves there is no God .... Seldom, if ever, have you heard of atheists being converted. Yet I know definitely of at least two who have been changed from death to life, through this work of which you are a vital part. Both are active co-workers now."
One was a young mother, prominent in the Communist Party. The facts in her case have been covered previously in the Autobiography. The second was a young man in Vancouver, Washington. I reported, in this Bulletin: "Last February 16, we received this letter the first we had ever heard of this young man:
"'Dear Mr. Armstrong: I started listening to your broadcasts in September, 1938, and since that time I have been coming to my senses. In other words, you have been the medium through which God has acted to blast away my atheistic ideas, false conceptions and idiotic philosophies. This, to me, is a modern miracle, for I have long considered myself impregnable to what seemed to be the greatest myth of all time -- God and the Bible .... I've been listening for a long time to various pastors, ministers and preachers, if only for the malicious pleasure of finding fault with what they say. The first time I tuned on you, I was stuck. Then I started thinking -- probably for the first time in years. Then I started regretting. I didn't deserve it, but found the door open when I knocked. It's marvelous how much different one's attitude is when it is taken from a spiritual angle. All things seem different. It's something God only can do for a person. I wish you could reach a much larger audience, and I'm praying for the time when you can.' "
This man, some time after writing this letter -- yet this was prior to going on the air in Seattle -- attended meetings I was holding in Vancouver (Washington), and was baptized shortly after this Bulletin went out November 1, 1940. His prayer for the expansion of the work -- along with many other prayers -- was answered, and he became a valuable instrument of God, collaborating with me in God's work. He was a nationally known artist. For many years Plain Truth readers read his Bible Story, which rendered the story -- thread of the Bible in plain, simple, dynamically interesting language. This man was Basil Wolverton. The letter quoted above was the first I ever heard from him. It gives evidence of some of the "fruit" God was producing through this work, even in those pioneer days.
This November 1, 1940, Bulletin ended with these words: "ON TO LOS ANGELES is our slogan now!" Yes, the work was growing up!
Christmas Slump
But immediately we encountered another obstacle threatening the work. The Christmas shopping season was upon us. Always December had been our toughest month to weather through. So many co-workers became so occupied with Christmas shopping, trading gifts back and forth among friends and relatives, many forgot and neglected any gift for Christ, whose birthday they supposed they were celebrating. I was forced to remind our co-workers of this in the next Bulletin, dated December 6, or see the entire work stop. It explained:
"The Seattle broadcast has had to start just as we come to the Christmas shopping season. Each year it seems that two-thirds or more of all our co-workers forget the Lord's work entirely through December. Brethren, the tithe is THE LORD'S for His work! Here we are, in the most serious hours of all earth's history! We are told in the Scriptures to preach the gospel, to keep at it, in season and out of season! This is the END-time, when Jesus said this gospel of the kingdom must go to all the world for a witness, just before the end comes! ... This message must not stop! Surely proclaiming God's message and the salvation of souls must come first -- material gifts second!"
It seems that with the results of that letter we did struggle through. Meanwhile the listening audience, and the Plain Truth circulation, continued to enlarge.
By mid-February, 1941, circulation of The Plain Truth had climbed to 4,000 copies. Mail response now indicated a weekly listening audience of 150,000 or more. Letters were coming from all classes of people -- women, laboring men, farmers, office workers, and also from business and professional men.
Suicide Prevented
In early February, 1941, we received a letter from a man who said he was on the point of committing suicide in his discouragement, when by accident -- or, as he himself suggested, intervention of God -- he heard the broadcast of February 9. He wrote that this message got through to him -- made him realize that what he needed was not suicide, but CHRIST! He wrote a heart-touching appeal to help him find his Savior and salvation. He was, of course, given personal help.
More and more, evidence piled up demonstrating the power of God working and energizing His work through us.
In the Bulletin of February 14, 1941, the following appeared:
"ANNOUNCEMENT: "Mrs. Armstrong and I announce that our daughter Beverly is to be married to Mr. James A. Gott of Eugene, on Friday morning, February 28, at ten o'clock, in the little church at the end of West Eighth Avenue, in Eugene.
"Beverly is the soprano in the Radio Church quartette, whose beautiful singing is so familiar to our radio audiences."
During this week of February 23, an exciting event had happened. We had purchased our first "almost new" car, taking delivery the night before the wedding.
First New Car
Somewhere around November, 1940, station KRSC in Seattle had switched our time from 4 p.m., which was the same time we aired on KWJJ, Portland, to 8:30 Sunday mornings. At first I suffered keen disappointment, feeling it would mean a smaller audience. But it proved a blessing in disguise. The listening audience picked up faster than ever.
Best of all, it made possible for me to drive to Seattle to put the program on live, instead of sending transcriptions. In those days our transcriptions had to be recorded in almost amateur manner on inferior equipment in Eugene. The "live" broadcasts made possible news reporting, and analysis of the very latest news, hot off the radio station teletypes, explaining the prophetic meaning with the Bible.
We were still limping along every Saturday afternoon and night the entire 320-mile drive from Eugene to Seattle in our old 1934 Graham. Constantly we had connecting rod trouble.
For many months this arduous routine was continued. I usually arrived in Seattle about 1 a.m., Sunday morning. I remember well tuning in Seattle's powerful 50,000-watt station KIRO, which I could hear on the car radio the entire distance from Portland to Seattle. How I wished we might broadcast over such a powerful station! But we couldn't afford it -- then. God later allowed us not only to afford it, but opened time for us on that splendid station twice daily.
The grueling routine of those weekend trips lasted, I believe, until the spring of 1942. Arriving at my hotel -- one of the newer but smaller ones -- a service was provided whereby the garage, a block down the street, came after my car upon arrival. After a very few hours sleep I was awakened at 5 a.m. -- showered, shaved, dressed, and down to the all-night fountain in the corner drug store, where I bought the morning paper and hurriedly checked through it for prophetic news while drinking a glass of orange juice and a cup of coffee.
Then I hurried back to my briefcase and portable typewriter, and started rapping out script for the broadcast. In those days, even before the United States entered the war, security precautions required that every word be presented in script form -- one copy for the station announcer, one from which I was to speak. I did not dare deviate from the script.
I had to have the half-hour script completed promptly at 8 a.m., when I dashed down, checked out of the hotel, and found my car waiting for me at the hotel entrance. Arriving at KRSC at 8:15, I had fifteen minutes in which to hand over the station copy of the script to the announcer, scan quickly the news teletape for any last-minute bulletins of significance I had not found in the morning paper, and clip it and write out any comment on my portable typewriter. At exactly 8:30, the familiar "GREETINGS, Friends!" was going out on the air. At 9 o'clock I leaped into my car, stopped off at the old "Half-Way House" midway to Tacoma, for breakfast, then continued the tiresome jaunt, with a state 50-mile-per-hour speed limit, on the old horse-and-buggy winding highway to Portland. Stopping off at Chehalis for lunch, I usually arrived in Portland about 3 p.m., with one hour to again check teletapes for last-minute news. Then, on the air over KWJJ at 4. Off at 4:30. Arriving in Eugene at 7:30 I would find the little church filled with a Sunday night audience. Then an evangelistic sermon and, usually, preaching every night through the week, working daytime's in the office answering letters, writing The Plain Truth, or out making calls on people needing help, people interested, holding private Bible studies, etc. It was a grind.
From the time I started driving to Seattle, I had to put the old Graham in the repair garage regularly every week. Finally, by February, 1941, it was costing me $18 per week on the average for repairs, and then, on Monday, February 24, the garage owner told me:
"Mr. Armstrong, this car is not going to hold together for another single trip to Seattle. You've got a connecting-rod and a bearing situation that won't get you there and back. It will cost $110 to fix it. The blue-book value of your car, even after you spend that $110, is now only $105 -- so your car is now worth $5 less than nothing, actually. If ever you intend to trade this old hulk in, it's a matter of right now -- or never!" But I could not afford a new car!
Anyway, I went over to the DeSoto dealer, to see what could be done. The dealer himself showed me a car -- the most beautiful car, I thought, I had ever seen! "We've had this car in here six weeks," he said. "My wife has used it six weeks as her personal car. It's just barely broken in -- has 1,700 miles."
"But I can't afford such a car," I said. "You can afford this one," he replied, confidently. "Because my wife drove it that 1,700 miles, I can make you a deal you can afford. Come, take a ride in it."
With assurance I was not obligated, I got in. It certainly was different than the old Graham! We drove out to our house, and I persuaded Mrs. Armstrong to get in for a short ride. She was very skeptical. She knew it was beyond our reach.
While we were gone, another man had appraised the old Graham. On our return, he handed a slip of paper to the dealer. He offered several hundred dollars for the old car -- which I had just learned was worth $5 less than nothing. Anyway, it came to within $50 of making the down payment, and he offered me the car on $40 per month payments. That was much less than I was now having to spend on repairs. But I could not meet the $50 cash payment. "Look, Mr. Armstrong -- I want you to have this car. Can you get me $10 cash before the end of the week, and the other $40 before the end of the month? I'll let the regular $40 monthly payments begin May 1. Now can you meet that? I simply insist on having some cash before you take the car -- if only $10."
Yes, I could do that. Actually, it was not going to increase expenses, but reduce them. It was providential!
And so, as it worked out, I got the $10 in to him on Thursday evening and took delivery of the car. And that car turned out to be, actually, the best car I have ever owned, even to this day. Those 1941 DeSotos were great cars.
The next morning, I married my own daughter -- to Mr. James A. Gott. After the wedding, they rode with Mrs. Armstrong and me in the new car to Seattle. There was just one way Mrs. Armstrong and I figured we could give them a honeymoon. The nicest short trip we knew for such an event was the boat trip from Seattle to Victoria, B.C. In those days they were running the very fine ships, the Princess Marguerite, and the Princess Kathleen -- later, I believe, destroyed in the war.
We regretted having to intrude ourselves into their honeymoon as far as Seattle, but it was the only way we could afford it at all. I had to be in Seattle by Sunday morning for the broadcast. Jimmy was able to get off from work only the two days, Friday and Monday. By going with us to Seattle, they had their transportation for that distance without cost.
We stopped overnight at Chehalis, arriving early next morning at the boat docks in Seattle. They arrived back Sunday night. We drove back to Eugene Monday. Having that almost -- new car made it a wonderful trip. That was once that a slightly used car was everything the dealer claimed!
Chapter 42 On the Air in Los Angeles! BY MID-MAY, 1941, the weekly listening audience, over the three stations in Eugene and Portland and in Seattle, had grown to a quarter of a million people.
That seemed a huge audience. Indeed, it was a huge audience. The work of God, having been started so very small was, as stated before, growing up.
The circulation of The Plain Truth had gone up to 5,000 copies.
We had started on the air in Seattle, on 1,000-watt KRSC, on September 15, 1940. By February, 1941, the mail response indicated a listening audience of more than 150,000. Beginning with the issue of August-September, 1940, The Plain Truth had "grown up" from a mimeographed paper to a sixteen-page printed magazine, bimonthly. By mid-May we were receiving between 200 and 300 letters from radio listeners every week, and mailing out 5,000 copies of The Plain Truth.
Office Outgrown
Now we experienced "growing pains" in real earnest. Now we really did have a tremendous problem on our hands.
It was becoming an utter impossibility to continue handling this volume of mail, and a 5,000-name mailing list, and mailing out the 5,000 copies, without equipment in that unventilated inside office room.
For seven years we had struggled to build this work from nothing to its 1941 size, without equipment. We had paid $5-per-month rent for this small inside room. It was without windows, without ventilation, except for two transoms. One transom opened into the hallway. The other opened into a large adjoining room where labor union meetings were held. The only ventilation we received through this transom was stale tobacco smoke from the preceding night's union meetings. We were able to work in this office room only about two hours at a time without going outdoors for air. It was not a healthful place to work.
We had no modern office equipment, not even a desk. There were a few shelves along one wall. We had no mailing equipment. The 5,000 names on the mailing list had to be kept by handwriting or typing. Each issue, the 5,000 copies of The Plain Truth had to be hand rolled into thin paper wrappers, stamped, addressed either by hand, or by myself on the one and only secondhand typewriter.
After going on KRSC in Seattle, this became an impossible task for Mrs. Armstrong and me, without help. Twice we had one girl or woman helping in the office, but now we had to ask several church brethren for volunteer help to come to the office to address wrappers, and help us roll them and stamp for mailing.
Then on May 14, 1941, a wonderful thing happened. A larger, sun-lit office became available to us. It was in the old I.O.O.F. Building in Eugene, on the third floor, rear northeast corner. There was an inner corner room, and a double-size outer room opening off the hallway. I could not afford to rent both rooms, but the building manager offered to let me have the inner corner office for $10 per month. He also said we could use the larger outer office part time, if necessary, until we could afford to rent the whole thing. A much larger adjoining room was available for future rental, when need and finance arrived.
This office had nice large windows -- sunlight -- fresh air. Let me tell you right here, I never was so grateful for sunlight and fresh air in all my life. I had never before realized how thankful we should be for sunlight and fresh air. That is one blessing most people have, but usually take for granted without any thanksgiving! How about you?
I now managed to buy an office desk -- after seven years. That same desk was used in the television program in 1955, seen by hundreds of thousands, coast to coast. I continued to use it as my desk, after moving the headquarters of the work to Pasadena, until 1955 or 1956. It is still doing service for one of God's ministers.
Our First Equipment
This desk was the very beginning of necessary equipment to administer the work of God. We had been forced to wait seven years for it.
About the time of moving to this larger office, I managed to buy an antiquated, secondhand, foot-operated addressing machine. With it we installed the first beginning of the Elliott system of stencils for the mailing list. These stencils are cut on a typewriter, or machine very similar to a typewriter.
That old foot-operated addressing machine made so much noise that the tenants on the floor below complained vigorously. Perhaps our many employees today working in the large, modern, air-conditioned mailing room may utter a momentary prayer of gratitude to the Great God who has provided them with the very finest and most efficient equipment the world affords.
I do not remember, now, what I paid for that ancient addressing machine. I believe we still have it stored somewhere around the Ambassador College campus. Perhaps we should get out some of this ancient crude equipment and form a museum of our own! It probably cost all of $10 or $15 -- we could not have afforded more, then. I'm sure many of our employees would laugh at it, today. But it was no laughing matter, then. We struggled along seven years to have it. And I very sincerely THANKED GOD for it!
Think of just the two of us -- with at times the help of a girl who knew no shorthand and could not use a typewriter -- handling and answering an average of 250 letters a week, besides all the other things Mrs. Armstrong and I had to do! Then having to call in a half dozen church brethren for volunteer help in addressing 5,000 copies of The Plain Truth BY HAND. And in those days we had to paste 1-cent stamps on every copy. Mrs. Armstrong had to cook paste of flour and water at home and bring it to the office to paste those wrappers.
About the time we moved to this new office, I managed to employ a secretary. I believe she started at $10 per week. Also, I now purchased my first filing cabinet. It was a heavy cardboard cabinet reinforced at corners and edges with very thin metal.
If anyone doubts that this work started the very smallest, let him realize we had to wait seven years for this cardboard file cabinet -- and then we could afford ONLY THE ONE. How many modern steel filing cabinets do we have TODAY? I simply don't know -- but it must be hundreds -- not only at Pasadena headquarters, in many different buildings on the campus, and in dozens and scores of offices around the world.
This great work of God not only started small. It grew very gradually. There was no mushroom growth.
Writing these things makes me realize HOW GRATEFUL we should be -- HOW MUCH we have to THANK GOD for! And all this God has done without requests for money on the air, or in any of our literature -- all of which is given FREE, upon request.
New Consciousness of Mission
About this time God impressed on my mind His real meaning of the prophecies in Ezekiel 33:1-19, and 3:17-21. The true significance of the entire book of Ezekiel had been revealed for some time. But now, suddenly, it took on immediate and specific and personal significance.
I had seen that Ezekiel was a prophet with a message for the FUTURE. He himself was in the captivity of the House of JUDAH -- the Jews. But he was not set a prophet with a message to these people. The original nation Israel had been divided after the death of Solomon into two nations. The northern kingdom of TEN TRIBES had its capital, not at Jerusalem, but at Samaria. It was called THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL -- not Judah. The kingdom of Israel had been invaded and conquered by King Shalmaneser of Assyria about 120 to 135 years before the Jewish captivity by Babylon.
The people of the House of Israel had been up-rooted from their homes, their farms and cities, and taken to the southern shores of the Caspian Sea. Buy by the time of the Babylonish captivity of Judah, in Ezekiel's day, some of the House of Israel had migrated northwest to northwestern Europe and the British Isles.
Ezekiel was made a prophet to this nation -- not the nation of Judah among whose captives he lived. His message was a warning of INVASION and TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF THE NATION'S CITIES. That invasion was for the far future. The prophecy came more than 120 years after Israel already had been invaded and conquered.
God did not say, "Warn the people where you are." He said: "Son of man, I SEND THEE TO" the House of Israel. God said: "go" from where Ezekiel was, with JUDAH -- "GO, get thee UNTO THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL."
But Ezekiel did not go. HE COULDN'T! He was a CAPTIVE of the Chaldeans. And no such gigantic military invasion has ever befallen the kingdom of ISRAEL since Ezekiel's prophecy was written! The prophecies of the Bible are nearly all DUAL. They have a two-fold fulfillment -- the one, often in Old Testament times, a type of the second, in these end-time days. The Assyrian captivity, more than a century before the prophecy was the type. The warning is for our day!
Again, there is a story-flow -- a time-sequence running through the book of Ezekiel. Other portions of the book show the prophecies pertain to the time shortly prior to the Second Coming of Christ. The 40th chapter to the end of the book deals with millennial events, yet future.
So now I saw Ezekiel was set a WATCHMAN -- to watch international conditions as well as God's prophecies and when this invasion is preparing, and near, shortly prior to Christ's coming to RULE THE WORLD, the watchman is to WARN the people who had migrated, in Ezekiel's day, to northwestern Europe and the British Isles! But Ezekiel never carried that warning! It was not for HIS TIME! He was used merely to write it! It now became plain to me that God was to use a modern 20th-century "Ezekiel" to shout this WARNING.
The realization flashed to my mind with terrific impact that in WORLD WAR II -- already then under way -- America being then drawn closer to participation -- that I could see this "sword" of WAR coming! I looked around. NO ONE had ever sounded this warning! No one was then sounding it! I saw numerous prophecies showing how terribly God is going to punish North America and the British Commonwealth people for our apostasy from Him. I saw our sins, individually and nationally, fast increasing!
The conviction came. IF God opened doors for the MASS-PROCLAMATION of His gospel, and of this warning, nationwide, I would walk through those doors and proclaim God's message faithfully, as long as He gave me guidance, power, and the means.
I had no illusions that I was chosen to be the "modern Ezekiel" to proclaim this message. But I did know that no one was sounding this alarm. I did plainly see this sword of destruction and punishment coming. I knew the time was near. Perhaps, with World War II well under way, it was even then upon us. We could not, then, foresee that God would grant another recess period in the series of world wars before the final round to end at "Armageddon."
And I did see, plainly, that God said: "IF the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned" that God would require the blood of the people -- and now whole peoples -- at the watchman's hand!
That was a stern warning to me. At least I was one of the watchmen who did see it coming! God had already placed the broadcasting facilities of three radio stations at my disposal. A quarter of a million people now heard my voice weekly. Possibly ten or fifteen thousand people read the 5,000 copies of The Plain Truth .
Of course I had been sounding this warning all along -- but only in the Pacific Northwest. Now I began to see that God intended to send it to ALL ISRAEL. And He had revealed to me that that meant, today, the United States, the British Commonwealth, and the nations of northwestern Europe. The idea of my being used, personally, in reaching Britain and these other countries did not yet take sharp focus in my mind. But I did now, for the first time, begin to think actively and definitely about this work expanding to the entire United States!
Door Opens to Reach NATION
God works out His purposes on His definite time schedule. This vision of urgency to warn the whole nation and renewed sense of mission came just when God was ready to OPEN DOORS NATIONALLY!
In June that year-1941 -- Mrs. Armstrong's sister and a friend were planning a trip to Detroit to take delivery on a new car. Somehow the suggestion came for Mrs. Armstrong and me -- with them -- to drive our new car as far as Chicago.
Immediately it flashed to my mind that in Des Moines, Iowa, where I had been born and reared, was an exclusive-channel 50,000-watt radio station, WHO. In those days I could tune it in any night out on the Pacific Coast. Only eight stations had exclusive channels -- no other station on the continent on their channels. For our purpose, I knew that WHO was then the most valuable and desirable station in all the United States for our purpose -- located not far from the geographical center of the nation.
Normally, I knew our chances of obtaining time on such a high prestige station were exactly nil. But then I remembered my uncle, Frank Armstrong, youngest brother of my father. For years he had been the leading advertising man in the state of Iowa. Perhaps his influence might help swing open the mighty door of WHO. Of course, we could not afford to buy time on so powerful a station -- but I would see about it, anyway.
Let me say, here, for the benefit of those not familiar with the radio-television field, there is a vast difference in 50,000-watt stations. Some 50,000-watt stations have far less coverage than others. The quality of equipment, the location of the transmitter, and other factors make all the difference. But WHO was -- and is -- one of the very top prestige stations. Its signal was phenomenal. Today, there are many more stations on the air as then. Today, none of these big stations reaches out like they did then.
So we drove our new DeSoto car to Chicago, where the girls took a bus to Detroit. Then we stopped at Des Moines on the return trip.
I had not seen my uncle for fifteen years. We had arranged by telephone to have a family get-together at the home of my cousin -- his daughter -- and her husband, in Indianola, a county seat town thirty miles south of Des Moines.
I suppose we were all a little surprised to observe the change that had taken place in the appearance of each of us -- after fifteen years.
We visited old friends of both my wife and myself around Indianola and Des Moines for a few days.
While there, my uncle called the general manager of WHO on the telephone, told him about me, and asked him to see me. After I explained about our program, he said he could clear a late Sunday night time, at 11 p.m., except for one Sunday night, each month. The owner of WHO was Col. B. J. Palmer owner of the Palmer Chiropractic Institute at Davenport, Iowa. Col. Palmer reserved the time of 11 to 11:30 p.m. on one Sunday night of each month for a personal talk by himself. Mr. Mailand, the station's manager, offered me the other three or four Sunday nights at this same hour, at the very low cost, for so powerful a station, of a little over $60 per half hour.
This was a tremendous opportunity -- but it was still beyond our reach. I told Mr. Mailand we were not yet ready for it, but hoped to be by the following year. I had felt we ought to go on a Los Angeles station first, anyway. But now, definitely, our vision expanded to broadcasting nationally, as soon as we could grow to it.
Los Angeles Door Opens
We had planned to swing by Los Angeles on our way home to investigate possibilities on radio stations there.
If Portland and Seattle radio stations had been hostile to programming religious broadcasts, I found Los Angeles even more so -- although there were a large number of religious programs on the air in Los Angeles.
Station KNX, the powerful 50,000-watt CBS outlet, carried Dr. Maclennan of the Hollywood Presbyterian Church, John Mathews, who billed himself as "the Shepherd of the air" and Charles E. Fuller of "The Old Fashioned Revival Hour." I had listened quite regularly to all three, since KNX came in like a local station at night in Eugene.
But I did not even contact KNX. I knew it was completely beyond our financial ability. To me, in those days, these three radio broadcasters on KNX were real "Big Time." On the human level they seemed to me as giants, and I as a dwarf, so low beside them I would not have presumed to encroach on their valuable time by attempting to meet and shake hands with them. Yet, on the spiritual plane. I realized that God had given me a message that was not being preached, anywhere, except on our program. But I felt very unimportant in my own eyes.
I found stations in Los Angeles closing their doors on religious broadcasts. Yet, when I went over to KMTR (it is now KLAC), I found the manager, Mr. Ken Tinkham friendly. He told me the station was cutting down on religious programs, though the station still carried several. It was only a 1,000-watt station, but Mr. Tinkham explained how the transmitter was directly over an underground river, which had the rather freak effect of giving their signal a power equal to about 40,000 watts. Underground river or not, I found it true that the station then had a better signal than any station in Los Angeles, except the 50,000-watt stations. It was heard like a local station in San Diego, 120 miles away, and even in Bakersfield, which is over the mountains.
As we talked, I could sense Mr. Tinkham warming up to Mrs. Armstrong and me. Finally, he said he would try, later, to open up a Sunday morning time for me. I had told him we were not yet ready to go on the air in Los Angeles.
An Eighteen -- Day Fast
The long strain of building the work through seven and a half years, without facilities or financial resources, had been taking its toll physically. I had been losing sleep. The constant driving on high tension to keep up with the growing work had told on my nerves. The weekly trips of 650 miles to Seattle and back added to the grind.
So, on returning to Eugene, Mrs. Armstrong and I with our boys, went over on the Oregon coast to one of the little-frequented beaches, and rented a small cabin. There I went on an eighteen-day fast for both physical and spiritual recharging. An unfit man cannot accomplish much. I returned to the new office in Eugene, August 12, 1941, refreshed and renewed, with new vigor. With the KMTR and the WHO doors standing ajar, just waiting to open to us, there was now redoubled incentive to push forward.
First Airplane Flight
By December of that year, I decided to ease the strain of those long drives to Seattle -- at least part of the time. Consequently on Saturday night, December 6, I left my car in Portland, and took the train to Seattle. I had found that the overnight train arrived in Seattle in time for the 8:30 broadcast at KRSC, if it was on time.
But on that particular Sunday morning, the train was late. But by getting off at Tacoma, and hiring a taxicab, I was able to arrive on time.
I had found that I could take a plane leaving Seattle somewhere around noon, getting me back to Portland in time for the 4 p.m. broadcast on KWJJ. This was the first time in my life I had ever been up in an airplane.
I shall never forget that night. About fifteen minutes after takeoff, I noticed the captain near the passenger cabin. He knelt beside the passengers in the front seats, and in low tones spoke to them. Then he repeated this to those in the second row. My curiosity was aroused.
When he came to me, he said he had just received word over the plane's radio that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor that morning, December 7 -- that the United States Navy fleet stationed there had been knocked out. The captain had spoken so quietly to prevent any excitement of hysteria on the plane. THAT MEANT WAR!
The United States, it flashed to my mind, was now drawn into World War II!
Arriving in Portland, I jumped into a cab and got to the radio studio as quickly as possible. I purchased the extra newspapers being sold on the streets. I carefully scanned the teletapes of latest news at the radio station. Out came my portable typewriter. A new broadcast was dashed off.
At 4 p.m. I went on the air with one of the red-hottest broadcasts of my life. I knew that all of my listeners probably knew, already, of the Pearl Harbor "day of infamy." I merely reported the very latest few items of news, then went into an explanation of the MEANING of it IN BIBLICAL PROPHECY. This was one of the exciting incidents of my life.
From that point on, my broadcasts took on more and more the nature of news analysis of the war. Listener interest increased now that the United States was in the war.
Music Dropped from Program
It was now, more than ever, that my twenty years' experience in the newspaper and magazine field profited the work. Not only did I have long experience in recognizing significant news, and in processes of analysis (of news as well as of business and merchandising conditions), but now, with a fourteen-year accumulation of biblical knowledge and understanding of prophecies, resulting from these years of intense and concentrated (as well as consecrated) study, I was able to produce radio programs that carried even greater public interest than those of the network news analysts.
At this time news reporting and news analysis constituted by far the number one listener interest on radio. A number of nationally famous news commentators and analysts gained the public spotlight -- such men as Elmer Davis, H.V. Kaltenborn, Raymond Gram Swing, Edward R. Murrow, Eric Sevareid and others just to name a few.
But these men knew nothing of biblical prophecy. Not knowing the real purpose being worked out here below, they did not grasp the true significance on the world of the future, of the news they were analyzing. They did not know where it was leading.
On the other hand, none of the ministers broadcasting religious programs had the newspaper and analytic background, nor, I may add, the true understanding of the prophecies, to connect that entire third of the Bible with the war events.
Putting the two together -- factual knowledge and analysis of war events, with biblical prophecies -- put at my disposal a powerful interest-compelling message.
Radio station managers recognized this. At the time, they welcomed and encouraged it. They began to suggest dropping off the music. I have mentioned before that when the program started, the first Sunday in 1934, it was not called The World Tomorrow, but Radio Church of God. It was, actually, the format of a typical church service condensed into a half hour. Only, instead of taking up most of the time with music, announcements, and special events with a fifteen-minute sermon, out of a service an hour and fifteen to thirty minutes long, I did get in a twenty-three- to twenty-six-minute sermon on a twenty-nine-and-a-half-minute program.
We started with our opening theme, then a lively two-verse hymn -- never more than two verses on the air -- then a short prayer with hummed music background, announcements, a short anthemette, then the sermon, then reminder of announcements about The Plain Truth, and sign-off over closing theme music.
But we noticed that not more than one in a couple thousand letters ever mentioned the music. What evoked interest, and brought response, was the MESSAGE.
At first I was both reluctant and afraid to drop the music. So I experimented by reducing it. No harm resulted. There was no lessening in the response or expressed interest. I reduced it still more. Finally, it was eliminated altogether. We found, as radio station managers had recommended, that our program attracted and held a much larger interest when it started off with analysis of world events and the MEANING, as revealed in biblical prophecy.
I Meet Future Son-in-Law
Shortly prior to our summer trip to Chicago and Los Angeles in 1941, our younger daughter had become engaged to Vern R. Mattson, a University of Oregon student. He had joined the Marines and at the time we reached Los Angeles was in boot camp in San Diego. Dorothy was then working in the office with the one secretary we had then employed. She insisted on coming to Los Angeles while we were there, to visit Vern.
When she arrived, it was necessary for Mrs. Armstrong to take the train back to Eugene, to help keep up the work in the office.
I drove Dorothy down to San Diego. It was the first time I had ever met Vern Mattson. I was not sure I approved of the engagement. When he came to the car, he virtually ignored me. I made some embarrassed comment in an effort to be friendly.
"Look, I'm not marrying you, I'm going to marry your daughter!" he snapped.
Mr. Mattson may be surprised when he reads this. He probably doesn't remember it now. He didn't really mean to be rude -- he was in Marine boot camp -- and it has the reputation of being REAL TOUGH. He was being put through the paces without being spared, and his nerves were taut. Actually, as I learned later, he is one of the most friendly men I ever knew.
I found him to be tall -- six feet three -- blond, and, as Dorothy insisted, the handsomest man in the world. But with his boot camp haircut and baggy garb, he did not appear quite that handsome -- to me. The war was to enforce a delay in their marriage for a few years and when, after having been in the 1st Division U.S. Marines at Guadalcanal, then in an Australian hospital, back to America and Officers' School because of his outstanding war record, and commissioned a second lieutenant, with grades at the top of his class, the war finally was behind him. I do not want to get ahead of the story at this juncture, but later on -- for some twelve to thirteen years -- Mr. Mattson served as Controller of Ambassador College, and Business Manager of the Radio Church of God, in charge of business and financial affairs.
At Last -- LOS ANGELES!
After boot camp, Vern was sent back to Quantico, Virginia, for final training for overseas fighting. In April, 1942, Dorothy received word the Marines were shipping out. Vern didn't know where, but thought likely they would sail through the Panama Canal, with some possibility of a very brief stopover at San Diego, Los Angeles or San Francisco.
Immediately Dorothy demanded I take her to Los Angeles to be on hand if there was a brief landing at one of these three ports. Vern would not be able to get word to her until they landed. There might not be over twenty-four hours-or even less. It would be impossible for her to reach any one of these ports in time from Eugene.
Of course, I could not leave the work for any such trip, which might last for several weeks. But, on checking over the state of the work, I felt we could now, at last, dare to take the step of starting on the air in Los Angeles. To do this I needed to be there in person, and put on the broadcasts live, until we were well established in Southern California.
So with Dorothy I drove to Hollywood, since KMTR was located in Hollywood. We rented a small apartment within walking distance of the station. Mr. Tinkham managed to clear good time for us -- 9:30 Sunday mornings. The time had come to drop the church-service type program altogether. Since the original broadcast name, Radio Church of God, did not invite a listening from nonchurchgoers whom we wished primarily to reach, and since in the world's language the message of the true gospel -- the kingdom of God -- is about tomorrow's world, I adopted the broadcast name The World Tomorrow!
And so, mid-April, 1942, The World Tomorrow went on the air in Hollywood. In Hollywood I was able to do several things to make the program more professional. I was able to obtain the services of a big-time network announcer to put us on and take us off the air.
Although I used four or five different announcers in the next few years, I think the very first one was perhaps the best known of all -- Art Gilmore. He was coast-to-coast announcer on such CBS shows as Sam Spade, Stars over Hollywood, and, I believe by that time, Amos and Andy, besides several others. Since 1947, Art Gilmore has been on The World Tomorrow as our announcer, and millions worldwide will hear his voice at the beginning and the sign-off of the program except some of the foreign overseas stations. We still believe his is the best radio voice in America to precede our program. He also does the announcing on our TV programs. Our readers may be glad to know that Mr. Gilmore is a fine, upstanding, sincere and high-principled man.
Another reason for going to Hollywood was that Hollywood was radio headquarters for the nation. Most of the top-rated network shows originated there. As a result, I could get a quality of recording for our electrical transcription discs there I had never been able to obtain in Eugene. We had now reached the stage where the amateurish, home-made type of transcriptions I was able to have recorded in Eugene would no longer be acceptable on stations like KMTR or WHO. In Hollywood I could obtain the very finest professional recordings.
While in Hollywood, I recorded the Sunday programs for the Pacific Northwest stations either Thursday nights or Friday mornings, drove to the airport (then at Burbank) and got them off by air-express. These top-level professional recordings, with a nationally known network announcer, and the program name, The World Tomorrow, elevated our radio program, at last, to top quality professional level.
Chapter 43 Impact of Daily Radio! WE WERE now ON THE AIR -- IN HOLLYWOOD! The radio station KMTR (now KLAC) had the very desirable wavelength of 570 kilocycles on the radio dial. This, combined with exceptional and unusual mechanical and transmitter advantages gave it a daytime signal almost equal to the average 50,000-watt station.
The mail response from listeners was at least double that of any of the three stations already used in the Pacific Northwest.
And Now -- DAILY Broadcasting!
Within about two weeks a new opportunity came. When Mr. Tinkham called me to his office and offered it I didn't know whether to regard it as an opportunity or a temptation to disaster.
One of the leading Los Angeles radio ministers, Dr. Clem Davies, had been using two half-hour periods on KMTR daily, at 5:30 in the evening, and a morning half-hour. He was now changing to one program daily at the more expensive time of around 7:30 in the evening.
Mr. Tinkham offered me the 5:30 p.m. time Mondays through Saturdays, in addition to the 9:30 Sunday morning half-hour. The cost would be nearly six times the amount per week I was already paying KMTR. It had been a big leap ahead, in expenditures, as well as in numbers reached, to take on the Sunday broadcasting in the Los Angeles area.
The thought of meeting this tremendous additional increase in expenses was staggering. Where would the money come from? There was no time to send letters to co-workers to see whether they would -- or even could -- pledge enough to guarantee this mountainous increase in expenses. I had to grab that open time within twenty-four hours or lose it.
Our readers will remember that I had learned the costly lesson back in the period from November, 1934, to late in 1936. The door of KXL, Portland, had opened. We then were on only one station, our original KORE, Eugene. But instead of recognizing that the living Christ, who heads God's work, had opened this door and expected me to walk through in FAITH, I wanted to rely on pledges from PEOPLE. When our brethren and co-workers pledged only half enough, I was afraid to incur the obligation. Christ did not open that door before me again for two whole years!
Now He had opened another door. To me, at that time, this was a stupendous door. It probably meant at least doubling the entire expenses of the whole work Ħn one sudden jump! And I had to pay each week in advance. too!
I telephoned Mrs. Armstrong at the office in Eugene. The total balance we had in the bank at the moment was exactly the amount of one week's daily broadcasting.
Well, even if it was our last dollar, God had supplied TODAY'S need for this colossal opportunity He had opened to us! Jesus' sample prayer teaches us to ask "Give us this day our daily bread." God does not often give us today our need for next year -- though He tells us elsewhere it is right for us to lay up in the summer for the winter's need, and even to lay up ahead for our children and grandchildren.
But I had learned the lesson at great price. This decision took courage. It took faith. God had opened now the biggest door so far. He had supplied the immediate need of that particular day.
I walked promptly through that door IN FAITH Blind faith! I could not see where the money for second week's daily broadcasting could come from. How could our income for the whole work suddenly double.
I decided that was GOD's problem and responsibility. I committed it to Him, and wrote out a check for every dollar we had in the bank. Now we were on the air, in southern California, seven days a week! That was by far the most tremendous leap ahead!
Tremendous Response
But, miracle of miracles! -- for once in our experience, the impact of this early evening DAILY broadcasting was as tremendous as the test of faith had been! Not once did I ask for contributions on the air, just as I had refused to do from the first broadcast in 1934. And the mailing address for free literature and The Plain Truth, offered on each program, was then Box 111, Eugene, Oregon.
Not only was there an immediate tremendous increase in mail from listeners -- there was a corresponding increase in tithes and offerings arriving in Eugene.
The first week rolled by quickly. On the day the second week's advance-payment for radio time was due, I telephoned our office in Eugene. The money for the second week's broadcasting was in the bank! And, a week later, there was enough for the third -- and then the fourth, and on and on! God continued, week by week, to supply the NEED!
This daily broadcasting was a new experience. At that time I had always spoken on the air from written script. During those war years it was required. To write the script for a half-hour broadcast, including the study and research for material, occupied my entire time.
It now became daily routine. Early in the morning, each day, I started getting the broadcast material assembled and outlined -- then putting it on the typewriter. Around 4:30 in the afternoon I pulled the last sheet of paper from the typewriter. Then the walk of a mile or so to the radio station, and on the air at 5:30.
Once a week -- it was Thursday evenings -- after the daily program, I went to a restaurant for dinner, checking the evening newspapers and the weekly news magazines for war news I could use -- then, whipping together an outline of the material, I went on to the recording studio to record the Sunday program for the three Pacific Northwest stations. Then a drive to the Burbank airport to put the large transcription discs into the air-express office.
It was a grind. But it was doubling the size, scope and power of God's work, and that was a rewarding thrill.
Week after week this routine continued. As the weeks passed, no word came from Vern Mattson. We learned later that the 1st Division Marines had sailed through the Panama Canal and straight through the Pacific to Guadalcanal, where they made their spectacular landing in the very first offensive, driving the Japanese back from the vast Pacific empire they had captured.
Training a Son
As soon as school was out in early June, Mrs. Armstrong called me on the telephone from Eugene.
"I'm sending Dick down to you on the next train," she said. "He's grown too big for me to punish, and I simply can't manage him any more."
Dick was then thirteen, and only about four months from reaching fourteen. He was sprouting up.
Two problems had presented themselves with our two sons. Ted (Garner Ted, but we always called him Ted) had always been a "little fellow" -- short for his age. Dick had been of normal height for his age. But our readers will remember that Mrs. Armstrong, over my protest, had insisted on starting the two boys in the first grade in school together. I had finally acquiesced to this. Ted had always been, as a small boy, a favorite with his women teachers.
Because Ted, sixteen months younger, had always basked in the limelight -- "stolen the show" so to speak -- Dick had developed an oversized inferiority complex. Here he was, sprouting up to a full man's height, almost fourteen, but seriously lacking in confidence.
From the moment Mrs. Armstrong said she was shipping Dick down to me, I knew I had to find a way to help him overcome his inferiority complex.
I decided on a definite plan. About the second day he was with us in Hollywood -- after showing him around Hollywood to some extent -- I asked him if he would not like to go over and see a boyhood friend, John Haeber, who lived in Hawthorne, south of Los Angeles. The Haebers' had spent a lot of time in Oregon, and our boys had become acquainted with John, about their age.
Next morning early I gave Dick enough money for car fare to Hawthorne and back.
"Well, Dad, I don't know the way. How shall I go?" Dick asked.
"Dick," I said, "you have to begin right now learning to be self-reliant and finding your own way around. You already have the Haebers' street address. Learn to 'carry a message to Garcia' on your own. I'm too busy getting the broadcast ready to tell you. Here's car fare. You're on your own. Find your own way. And be back here in time for dinner. Good-bye, son."
What went on in Dick's mind at that moment I never knew. But I opened the door, he went out, and he was on his own. Somehow, he worked out his problem. He arrived at the Haebers', and was back in time for dinner. That was the beginning of my program for him.
A few days later I asked him if he would like to spend the day out at the beach -- at Santa Monica and Oceanside. I gave him carfare. Again, I gave him no directions whatever, but told him to find his own way.
He was a little late returning. Somehow, he had lost his return carfare in the sand. I do not remember now how he managed getting back to Hollywood -- but he worked his own way out of his predicament without telephoning me for help. He lacked even the price of a telephone call, anyway.
A little later he mentioned going to the zoo. I didn't know where the zoo was, but gave him permission to go -- again on his own.
Dick was learning self-reliance. He was developing initiative. He was finding his own way around. I planned to have Mrs. Armstrong and Ted come down before we ended our summer and returned to Oregon. One last thing remained in my plan before they came. I took Dick two or three times boating on the lagoons in MacArthur and Echo parks, taught him how to use the motorboats rented out there.
Now I was ready for Dick's final exam in his course in self-reliance, and overcoming a feeling of inferiority to Ted.
Filling the Biltmore
Dr. Clem Davies, whose time I had taken over on KMTR, had been holding regular Sunday services at the Biltmore Theater, largest in downtown Los Angeles. About the time he relinquished the 5:30 evening time for the better 7:30 time, a dramatic or comedy show starring George Jessel was opening at the Biltmore.
This had forced Mr. Davies out of the Biltmore, and he had moved his Sunday services to an auditorium at the Ambassador Hotel.
Along in early July, probably close to the 10th, I heard that the Jessel show was ending its engagement and moving on to San Francisco. Immediately I went to the office of the manager of the theater.
The last Jessel performance was to be Saturday night. Would the theater be available on next Sunday?
"Why, yes, the theater will be available," he said, "but you couldn't afford to rent it."
"How do you know I couldn't?" I demanded. "How much will it cost?"
"Now look, Mr. Armstrong," he persisted. "Dr. Davies had been holding services here a long time. It took him years to build up a good-sized audience. He took up three collections at every service -- and he just barely took in enough to pay the rent. You've only been on the air down here about three months. You haven't had time to build up a fraction of Dr. Davies' following yet. Even if you took up four collections in your service, you'd never get enough to pay for it -- and besides, I'd have to have the entire rent in advance. You haven't been on the air down here long enough yet to fill a big auditorium like the Biltmore."
"Well, that's what I'd like to find out," I replied. "And I will not take up any collections at all! But how can I tell whether I can afford it, unless you tell me the amount of the rental?"
I think it was $175. And it was already Wednesday, late afternoon.
I told him I would be back with the decision in a few moments. The Biltmore Theater occupies one corner of the large block occupied otherwise by the large Biltmore Hotel. I went to the hotel lobby and called Mrs. Armstrong at our office in Eugene by long distance telephone. Once again, we had just enough money in the bank to pay this rental in advance, and the price of postal cards for the Los Angeles mailing list.
I dictated over the telephone an announcement to our secretary, instructing them at the Eugene office to have the announcement mimeographed on the cards, all addressed to those on the Southern California mailing list, and get them in one big package into the air-express office addressed to me, yet that same evening. It was then only about fifteen minutes before closing time at the post office.
I dashed back into the theater lobby and up to the manager's office and wrote him out a check for the following Sunday's rental.
In those days, because of the war and fear of Japanese bombing, we were having blackouts every night. I had been advised that people in Los Angeles would not come out to a religious service at night. Theatergoers would attend the theater for night performances -- but for some reason people were afraid to attend a religious service at night. It merely demonstrated where people's hearts and interests were.
So the meeting had to be held on Sunday afternoon -- I believe the time was 3 p.m.
Next day, Thursday, the large package of printed and addressed postcards arrived. I took them to the Hollywood post office. There was a vigorous protest about letting me mail them there. I had not bought the cards there. That post office lost the credit for the sale of the post cards, and objected to having the expense of handling charged to them. But I explained our emergency, and there was no other way I could have done it. They finally took them.
Then on my program, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings, I announced the Sunday afternoon meeting at the Biltmore -- and finally, again, on Sunday morning. People received the postcard announcements Friday and Saturday.
After the Sunday morning broadcast, Dick, Dorothy and I went back to our apartment very tense. Would enough people come to look like a fair-sized audience, or would the small crowd simply look LOST in that big theatre seating about 1,900 people?
"Oh BOY!" Dick had exclaimed excitedly, as soon as he had heard I had rented the Biltmore Theater. "I'm going to sit in a BOX! I've always wanted to sit in a box in a theatre. Now my Dad has rented the whole theater. Oh BOY! I'm going to sit in a box at last!"
We took a streetcar to the theatre, arriving about 2:15. A few blocks away I noticed the streets were unusually crowded with people -- especially for Sunday afternoon in downtown Los Angeles. I wondered what was going on!
We soon found out. It seemed all those people were going in one direction -- toward the Biltmore Theater!
I thought it best that I not get involved in a handshaking experience until after the service, because I still had to prepare the sermon. So I went in through the rear stage door, while Dick and Dorothy entered by the lobby entrance.
I learned later what happened. All of Dr. Davies' former ushers were on hand, and it seemed they had gotten divided somehow into two divisions. There was no one in charge, and there was a dispute over which group of ushers was taking over. Confusion reigned.
Dick's experience in self-reliance and initiative now paid off. Immediately he -- not yet fourteen -- took charge. He called all the ushers to one side.
"I'm Dick Armstrong," he told them, "and I'm taking charge here."
Then he snapped out orders. He said he would use all the ushers, since the crowds were literally streaming in -- and each would do whatever he assigned. He then, without any previous experience, organized the two groups, assigned stations to each man, directed everything, and from that moment there was order.
It had never occurred to me we would have a crowd large enough to need ushers -- and I would certainly not have known where to turn to obtain ushers, anyway. But God worked that out, supplied the needed ushers, and used Dick to restore quick order and system.
No Collections
Although I had never taken up any collections in any public evangelistic service -- and have not to this day, and never shall -- I did have two things done hurriedly on Thursday and Friday of that week. I had a sign painter turn out large lobby signs for the theater, and I had two wooden boxes made, about the size of a shoe box, with a slot in the top of each. These were placed at each end of the inner lobby of the theater by Dick -- one side, and not in the direct path of the exits from the inner aisles.
Actually, Dick did get to sit in his box -- but by the time service was to begin, all the boxes were crowded full. Nevertheless, he went into a box, told them who he was, and the people managed to squeeze a little closer and make room for one more.
The first floor and the balcony were packed solid, and the second balcony half or more than half filled. The attendance was 1,750!
I had decided to conduct the service just like a broadcast -- precisely on time! At precisely 5 seconds before 3 p.m., I walked briskly to the pulpit in the center of the stage, arriving at the pulpit at 3 o'clock to the second. Before I could say a word, I was surprised by an uproarious burst of applause. I had never seen or heard anything like that at a religious meeting. But I learned later that this was common practice in Los Angeles, and ministers are commonly called "doctor" whether they possess any such degree or not. Up in the second balcony there was the blowing of a foghorn. A well-known Los Angeles character, who went along barefoot and with long, flowing white hair and, I believe, in a white robe, whom I heard called "Father Time," had come in. But there were no others of that type.
As soon as the applause died down, I started with the usual, "GREETINGS, FRIENDS!" -- then another burst of laughing applause. I said, rapidly, that although I loved to sing hymns as much as any of them, that right now we were in a WAR, prophecy was being rapidly fulfilled, and I had things of too great importance to say to take up time with either singing, or taking up collections. I said that I knew some would be disappointed if they could not leave an offering, and for those who wanted to, there were the two offering boxes in the rear lobby -- but that they would not see them unless they went out of the usual path to find them -- that we never took up collections, never asked for contributions either in such services, nor over the air.
Then I got immediately into my message, and closed the service right on the exact second -- I think it had been announced to close at 4:15 -- just as the broadcasts have to end precisely on the second.
Later, when we opened the two offering boxes, what do you suppose we found? Yes, I think you guessed it! Exactly, to the penny, the precise amount of the expense of hiring the theater, extra cost of janitor and electrician, the lobby signs, and the postcard announcements. That is, to the penny. THERE WAS EXACTLY ONE CENT MORE THAN THIS EXACT AMOUNT!
Dick's "Final Exam"
We engaged the Biltmore for the following two Sundays. We decided, for those two Sundays, to hold TWO services each Sunday afternoon. I'm not sure, now, of the exact time, but I think the first service started at 1:30, ending at 2:45, and the second service started at 3:30, ending at 4:45.
It was planned to have Mrs. Armstrong and young Garner Ted, then twelve and a half years of age, come down in time for the final Biltmore service, and our whole family would drive back together.
At each of these two services at the Biltmore, total attendance was estimated at 2,000. There were 1,300 or 1,400 at each service, with several who attended the first service coming back for the second. For this reason I preached different sermons at each service.
But I had another motive in getting Ted down to Hollywood before returning to Eugene. I needed his presence for Dick's "final exam" in snapping him out of feeling inferior to Ted.
Our office secretary and her husband drove them down in our car, which I had left at home when we left in April. They were there three or four days, and it seems we started back to Oregon on July 31, after the final Biltmore service.
When they arrived, I explained to Dick that he would have to take Ted in tow.
"Now remember, Dick," I briefed him, "Ted is not as old as you, and he's never been to Hollywood before. He'll be pretty green. I want you to look after him -- take him places -- show him Hollywood and Los Angeles. Take him boating on the lake in Echo Park, but don't let him handle the boat -- he wouldn't know how." During those few days, Dick was the complete leader. For the first time in his life he was made to realize that he was not inferior, but LEADER over Ted.
Dick passed this "final exam" with flying colors and a grade of "A." The feeling of being inferior to Ted was gone. And, it did no harm to Ted, for he did not realize, then, what was being done. However, it was some time after this that Ted went into his intensive "muscle-building" program.
But Dick was still human. And it is human to go from one extreme to the other. Once back in Eugene, far from feeling whipped and inferior, Dick now was suddenly a "big shot."
It was a glamorous thing to have been in Hollywood. Dick had spent most of the summer there. The other boys had not been there.
So now I had to go to work on him again, and get him back in the "middle of the road." And with God's help this was achieved, and later he came to have the supreme confidence that is FAITH IN GOD rather than confidence in self, and to have full assurance, yet in humility. That is a difficult state for any human to attain -- but one of the supreme right goals of life!
Chapter 44 Work Leaps Ahead -- World Tomorrow Heard Nationwide THE YEAR 1942 was by far our biggest year of progress up to that date. The response to daily broadcasting on station KMTR (now KLAC) was an eye-opener to me. The effectiveness appeared to be more than seven times that of the once-a-week program. Response was immediate. And even though no request for contributions ever was made, voluntary contributions were sufficient, from the very first week, to pay the multiplied expense.
But after the three Sunday afternoon evangelistic meetings held at the large Biltmore Theater in downtown Los Angeles, the last three Sundays of July, it was necessary to return to Eugene, Oregon.
At that juncture I had to drop off the daily weeknight broadcasting. Recording facilities in Eugene were not adequate to carry on a seven-programs-per-week schedule from our home office in Eugene. Yet I had learned by this experience the tremendous POWER and impact of daily broadcasting.
Planning Expansion
Back in Eugene, after almost four months in Hollywood, our co-worker list had grown to at least double. In other words, twice as many or more were now co-workers with me, supporting God's work regularly with their tithes and offerings.
Although I was unable, because of lack of facilities, to continue the daily broadcasting at that time, it was most gratifying to be able to now make a big expansion in other directions.
As related earlier, that superpower station WHO, Des Moines, had offered me time. On our trip to Des Moines and Chicago, the summer of 1941, this tremendous opportunity had opened.
Of course, in 1941, this giant WHO was still completely beyond our reach. But by early August, 1942, with our income doubled, and with the very low rate offered by the Manager of WHO, I felt ready to take this leap.
Before going to Des Moines, I decided to reinforce our radio coverage of the Pacific Northwest. Station KGA, Spokane, had offered us time at the early Sunday morning time of 8 a.m. In Seattle, station KRSC had moved us to the earlier time of 8 a.m. from the better time of 8:30. Once again I employed the old Postal Telegraph lines for a network broadcast between Seattle and Spokane. We called it the Liberty Network.
I overlooked mentioning that, before leaving Hollywood, I had arranged to release the program Sunday mornings over station KFMB, San Diego. At that time the old KMTR signal was so strong in San Diego, more than 100 miles distant, that KFMB was able to pick the program out of the air and rebroadcast it at the same hour, 9:30 a.m.
And so now, with coverage on the Pacific Coast over stations in San Diego, Hollywood, Eugene, Portland, Seattle and Spokane, I took the train to Des Moines, Iowa.
And now NATIONAL!
On Sunday night, 11 p.m., August 30, 1942, for the first time in my life I was speaking, from the studios of WHO, to a nationwide audience! I have before me, now, the script of that program.
The announcer's voice -- recorded, and I think it was the voice of famous network announcer Art Gilmore, as it is today -- heard in all parts of the nation, was saying:
"The WORLD TOMORROW! At this same time every Sunday, Herbert W. Armstrong analyzes today's world news, with the prophecies of The WORLD TOMORROW!"
And then, for the first time heard nationally: "GREETINGS, Friends! We enter the fourth year of this war next Tuesday. We entered the ninth week of the supreme CRISIS of the war today! In all probability the ultimate outcome is being determined right now on the Russian front!"
And then followed an outline of Hitler's "Thousand-Year Plan" for world rule by German Nazis. On this very first program heard nationally the coming UNITED STATES OF EUROPE was proclaimed. By that time it was already becoming apparent to me that Hitler would be defeated, and that this resurrected ROMAN EMPIRE would precipitate a third and final World War, at a later time after another recess between wars.
Then, in that first nationwide program, GOD'S Thousand-Year Plan was explained from the Bible -- the coming millennium! Hitler's plan was indeed a satanic and clever counterfeit, aimed at producing diametrically opposite results. Where Christ's millennial rule shall bring freedom and happiness, Hitler's would have produced slavery. Where Christ's reign shall give eternal life to multitudes, Hitler's would have brought torturous DEATH to enslaved millions.
Twelve-Page Plain Truth
Before going to Des Moines to begin the broadcasting over WHO, I had written and turned over to the printers in Eugene the articles for the August-September issue of The Plain Truth. We were not up to twelve pages, although it still was coming out bimonthly.
The leading article in that number revealed the amazing Japanese plan for conquering the United States. It was based on a Japanese Mein Kampf, called the Tanaka Memorial. This plan had been in process of development for three hundred years -- growing out of an ancient document dated May 18, 1592. The great national hero of Japan, Hideyoshi, had set forth in this document the great national plan for world empire and setting the Mikado on the throne to rule the world.
This had been a Japanese national dream for three centuries. Then on July 25, Baron Tanaka, then Premier, presented The Tanaka Memorial as a definite blueprint for world conquest to the Mikado. This led directly to the bombing of Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941. It was based on the religious conviction that the Mikado is the direct descendant of the Mother of Heaven. Being, therefore, the SON of Heaven, the Emperor had to be established on the throne of the world to show that he is GOD. Thus even the Japanese attack had vital significance as another counterfeit of CHRIST'S GOSPEL of the kingdom of God -- and of Jesus Christ as the true SON of GOD, who is to RULE THE WORLD!
An article captioned "The WAR, at the Moment" said this: "We entered the supreme CRISIS of this war the first of July. It came with the launching of Hitler's supreme gamble for the Russian Caucasus .... The situation is this: We do not have to WIN the war this year, but Hitler does! United States power is mounting fast. It is only a matter of perhaps ten to twelve more weeks until this nation shall be able to hurl such crushing power against the Axis that, with this power steadily increasing, the ultimate outcome will be assured, with victory for the Democracies .... It might, even then, take us until 1945 to end it, but the outcome would be predetermined .... From now on Axis power cannot increase, while Allied power will ....
"And so it is A RACE AGAINST TIME .... The Germans, to win, must win before we get set with the power we shall have by approximately November 1st. They must knock Russia out of the war. They must take Suez and drive the British out of the Mediterranean and the Near East. They must be ready to turn west, against the British Isles, without fear of attack from behind, free to hurl their WHOLE POWER against Britain in one supreme final victory, before we can launch the much-talked-of offensive against Hitler's Europe .... Hitler staked everything on his death-gamble that he could knock out Russia before the Allies can open the second European front."
There, in summary, was the analysis of the war as of August, 1942, as reported in The Plain Truth. Looking back in retrospect, the analysis was accurate. Hitler did take too big a gamble. United States' might did turn the tide before the end of the year. And it did take until the spring of 1945, just as predicted, to END it!
Now POWERFUL Pressures
The work of God was now really beginning to "go places"! The message for which Jesus Christ was crucified -- the message the world has rejected ever since -- was for the first time being heard in every state in the Union!
But if God now was granting us to grow in power, He also allowed the persecution, opposition, and pressures aimed at STOPPING God's work to increase in power. Never before had we felt any truly MAJOR-power opposition. But now we did.
Along about the end of January, 1943, I received notice of cancellation from radio station WHO. I was in Hollywood at the time, broadcasting daily again for a few weeks on KMTR.
Consternation seized me. To be thrown off WHO at this stage might prove fatal to the whole work. Even though the charge they made for time was exceedingly low for such a station -- because of my uncle's local influence, I had been given a local rate -- and a religious rate at that, which was, as I remember, just half of the local commercial rate -- yet it seemed very large to us at the time. After five months we had spent quite a sum of money, for us at that time, as an investment in WHO broadcasting. We had not been on long enough, as yet, with only three programs a month, to have established the financial support from new co-workers hearing the program on WHO. Remember, we made no request, even indirectly, for financial support over the air. Nor was there any in the free literature we sent to listeners.
The WHO broadcast, our most costly so far, was being supported by Pacific Coast co-workers. It was not paying it's own way -- yet.
Immediately I obtained train reservations for Des Moines. Then I wrote out a letter addressed to WHO listeners who had written me in response to the program. In the letter I told our listeners what had happened, and asked them, if they wanted the World Tomorrow program to continue on the station, to write the station and tell them how they felt. Then I dictated the letter to my secretary in Eugene by long-distance telephone, and asked her to mimeograph it and mail immediately to the entire WHO mailing list.
Tremendous Response
That list had mounted and multiplied into many thousands. By this time we had received letters from all forty-eight states.
I remember one WHO broadcast in particular. I had recorded it at the Studio & Artists recording studios at Columbia Square, Hollywood, on a Thursday night. I had been overworked, losing sleep, and was tired. I was not up to usual broadcasting form that night. I knew it, and felt very badly about it. I tried, but for a half hour of speaking into the microphone it just seemed the usual spontaneous enthusiasm wasn't there.
"Mr. Armstrong," said the owner of the recording studio after I finished, "you ought to remember that WHO is a very important station. You ought to take it more seriously. This broadcast we just recorded was not good enough. You usually do better."
Now I felt worse. I knew only too well how poor it was. But I had tried. I had done the best I could. I just was too tired to be at my best. But there was no time to do it over. I had to rush it to the airport.
But what I had lacked in that program, God more than made up. That Sunday night God caused the weather to be extraordinarily cold -- all over the continent. In Iowa it was one of those twenty-below-zero nights, without wind -- cold and still! That is the kind of weather in which radio waves radiate with extraordinary sharpness. That very "poor" broadcast, as we thought when recording it, heard at 11 p.m. in the Central time zones, at midnight in the East, brought a total of TWENTY-TWO HUNDRED letters -- 2,200!
I think that was some kind of a national record for response to a half-hour speech starting at 11 p.m. on one station only! That one program brought mail from every state in the Union!
After that phenomenal record-breaking response, my sorrow over having thought I did poor work was turned to real JOY!
Well, that was a record! It will give the reader some idea of the way the mailing list had grown from WHO broadcasts.
Many thousands of letters went out from Eugene to these listeners the same day I dictated the letter by telephone.
Door Stays Open
A few days later I arrived in Des Moines. The cancellation had come, not from Mr. Mailand, but from the sales manager. So I went first to his office.
He stared at me. "Are you the man who has been flooding this station with all these thousands of letters of protest against canceling your program?" he demanded -- somewhat angrily, I thought.
"Why, I suppose so," I replied, rather startled. "Is that wrong?"
"Wrong? Why, man, don't you know that showering such a downpour of 'inspired' mail on any radio station is the very last way to influence the station? That kind of mail has no influence on us at all -- but it is a mighty big NUISANCE!"
"Well, I didn't realize that," I replied. "I thought you'd want to know how our program was being received by listeners. I surely didn't mean any offense."
"Well, let me tell you, Mr. Armstrong, I certainly learned that lesson! A while back we were appearing before the Federal Communications Commission in Washington. Before I went down there, we put out an appeal on the air for our listeners to write to the FCC. They did! And the officials of the FCC didn't like it."
"Well," I asked, "if I had to learn by experience, the same as you, and if you made the same mistake I did, then do you think you ought to blame me?"
He had to laugh at that. Nevertheless I found I was really on the spot -- and in trouble. I had not met this sales manager before. Because my uncle had known the general manager and arranged an appointment for me, I had transacted business with him. I saw immediately that this sales manager was a very able and competent man for that job -- undoubtedly very valuable to the station. But he did not like our program. He didn't say why. And I rather guessed that he felt I had taken matters over his head in going to the general manager of the station. Further, he explained that very powerful pressure had been brought on him from New York against selling time commercially for religious programming.
We went into Mr. Mailand's office. I learned that Mr. Mailand did like the program, and sat up Sunday nights until 11:30 so he could hear it. He was on my side, but his sales manager, a very aggressive man, was insistent the program go off.
I then explained to the two men our own position -- how we were a very small church in Eugene, Oregon, and how hundreds of people, mostly very poor people on the West Coast, had made great sacrifice to finance our broadcasting on this powerful station heard nationally.
"Mr. Mailand," I said, "I signed a year's contract with you. All these co-workers have backed me in good faith. I signed the contract in good faith. I believed that you signed it also in good faith, and that when you opened the door of this great station to us, and signed a contract to keep it open for a year, that WE COULD RELY ON YOUR WORD BEING GOOD. All these co-workers have backed me for five and one-half months feeling that, in due time, a sufficient number of interested listeners would voluntarily join them as co-workers backing this work financially to make the broadcasting to all the rest of the nation self-supporting. You know we never request contributions over the air, or in any literature. If you cancel now, YOU WILL CAUSE VERY GREAT INJURY TO US! You have given us a YEAR'S contract in which we trusted, and have taken this hard-earned money contributed by all these poor people -- and now threaten cancellation BEFORE we have had a chance to be on long enough to relieve those people of this burden. If you had told us you'd keep the door open only five and one-half months, we surely never would have signed the contract or started -- or have spent any money with you. Would you want to INJURE a Church by breaking your contract?"
"Well, Mr. Armstrong, of course we wouldn't. The way you put it, you make it mighty hard for me. Would you mind if Mr. B. (the sales manager) and I talk this over privately a few moments, to see what we can do?"
I was shown to a reception room outside. I was alone there, and quickly knelt before a chair and appealed to the God of Heaven. He had opened this giant DOOR. He had said no man can shut doors he opens. I asked Him to intervene and save His work.
When I was called back to Mr. Mailand's office, I was able to talk to him alone. He explained that he had opened that time and signed the contract in perfect good faith -- that he liked our program and was himself one of our interested listeners -- that he certainly didn't want to do us any injury -- but on the other hand, he didn't want to lose a very able and valuable sales manager.
"Mr. Armstrong," he said, "if we compromise by letting you fill out your contract and complete the year, will that give you time enough to become thoroughly established, and possibly to get on other stations that will maintain your coverage?"
Well, of course, I could not be sure, but it certainly would be a lot better than stopping the broadcast right then.
"Well, if I leave The World Tomorrow on the station until the year's contract is finished, will you agree to go off then?"
There was nothing else I could do -- I certainly had no contract beyond that time. Reluctantly I had to agree to this -- and actually it was a tremendous victory, after all.
We Go on WOAI
I have mentioned that there were, at that time, only eight stations in all America that enjoyed absolutely exclusive channels. One other, which by its location I felt might have a better chance of being heard nationally than most, was 50,000-watt WOAI of San Antonio, Texas.
From my hotel I immediately called Mr. Hugh Halff, manager of WOAI. Did he have 11 p.m. Sunday nights open -- could he clear it if he found the program acceptable? He could, but would have to know more about the program and audition it.
I caught the next train for San Antonio. I think Mr. Halff might have called Mr. Mailand, when I told him we were on WHO. Anyway, he had no objection to the program after listening to a transcribed broadcast, and the doors of WOAI swung open to us. The expense of adding this station six and one-half months before going off WHO gave us a tight squeeze, but it seemed imperative that we get our listeners established to listening to WOAI before we went off WHO and lost them altogether.
And so, although through the years, the individual doors of some radio stations have closed to us, the general giant DOOR of TV, radio and the printing press has never closed -- just as Christ has said that NO MAN CAN SHUT IT!
And every apparent setback has proved like the cocking of a gun -- it actually results in shooting us ahead faster than ever!
There probably are no finer, higher-prestige radio stations in the United States than WHO and WOAI, and today the World Tomorrow telecast is also heard on many of the most powerful stations in the world.
Chapter 45 More Opposition -- More Growth! I HAD GONE on WOAI sooner than we were financially ready. But when it became definite we could not continue on WHO after August 23 of that year, I felt it imperative that we become established on another station of such wide coverage so that our listeners would know where to find the program.
I thought we would, at last, be free from this kind of persecution and opposition. But we were not -- have never been since -- never will be, in this world, as long as we remain faithful in proclaiming Christ's own true gospel in its purity and in power! "All who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution," says the sure Word of God.
And from what source does persecution usually come? Jesus Christ was our example. He was persecuted. And from what source? Mostly from the source of organized religion! His true message from God was different from the doctrines and ways of the organized religion controlled by Pharisees, Sadducees, and their ilk. They had strayed from, and perverted, the doctrines and ways God had given them. But their false teachings and customs were well established in the religious tradition of the time. They accused Jesus of being a false prophet, a deceiver, a heretic and of being subversive to Caesar's government.
It is hard to realize, but it is true -- there are the modern Pharisees today, and they are organized. They, too, incredible though it may seem to some, maintain a well-established religious tradition which has, long before the living generation, departed far from the true gospel and the teachings and practices of Jesus Christ, the original apostles, and the original true Church of God! Human nature has not changed. The same hostility seizes them, toward Christ's truth, that inspired religious leaders to accuse, persecute, and to crucify Jesus Christ!
But, did you ever notice that God's ministers who faithfully proclaim His truth in the power of His Holy Spirit do not resort to personalities, do not impute motives or attempt to discredit specific persons, do not belittle or ridicule? Nor do we, either on the air, or in print, knowingly or intentionally say anything derogatory about any person, organization or group. True, Jesus Himself did tell the Pharisees in presence of others that they were hypocrites, liars, false leaders -- He told his listeners what they were, and warned against following their false ways. But He was always straightforward and sincere, never using the psychological trickery of implication, designed to falsely discredit or belittle.
Anyway, the insidious forces of persecution followed us to WOAI. But the station liked the program -- the leading businessmen of San Antonio liked it, and made me an honorary life member of the Businessmen's Bible Class (not denominational, though men of many denominations belonged) -- and the program remained on WOAI until after we obtained the earlier and prime time of 8 p.m. on the 100,000-watt clear-channel XELO. We had started on XELO in 1944, and continued on WOAI until some time during 1945.
Meanwhile, God had been moving to increase the radio power in the Pacific Northwest.
Portland Power Increase
During 1941, 1942 and 1943 I had been holding evangelistic services in the Chamber of Commerce auditorium in downtown Seattle, and also a few services in Everett, Washington. A small church had been formed there. Several local members in Seattle and Everett made it possible to release The World Tomorrow over the more powerful KVI, with studios then in Tacoma. This was a 5,000-watt station, but with its dial spot at 570, and its transmitter on an island in Puget Sound, KVI had a signal about equal to 25,000 watts at a higher frequency and average transmitter location. We did not drop KRSC, but used both stations by means of our Liberty Network wire at 8:30, Sunday mornings.
It must have been early winter, 1942-43, that I had taken a trip to Des Moines to put the program on WHO "live." It was necessary to do this frequently, on so important a station. Returning I stopped off briefly in Denver. We were not ready to expand on additional stations as yet, but I was then beginning to lay the groundwork for future expansion by making contacts with management's of stations we might desire to add later.
I called at the offices of the ABC network station, KVOD, 5,000-watts. I believe the executive I contacted was the vice president. In any event, he was having a busy day with conferences, and was very abrupt in telling me bluntly they would clear no time for religious programming.
I never had been in the habit of taking a flat turndown, without a hearing, as the saying is, "sitting down." I came back at him with all the force and salesmanship I had ever had in my former advertising days.
I explained how different The World Tomorrow is from any other "religious" program, and demanded that he audition a program. Reluctantly, he consented, but offered no hope.
I had to return to my hotel room to obtain transcription discs, telling him I would return in ten minutes. I walked rapidly -- almost ran -- to the hotel. On the way I realized, belatedly, why I had met with such a negative reception. I had failed to take this call on KVOD up with the One I was working for. It had long before become custom to pray before any call or conference of any import, asking God's direction, wisdom, and to give me favor in the eyes of the man with whom I had to deal.
Christ's Commission is "Go ye into all the world" with His message. To go to the world with the gospel necessitates dealing with the world, and with some of its business organizations. Therefore God's servant ought to seek not only divine guidance in such dealing -- but also, since God is able to make even our enemies at peace with us, to ask for favor with such people as we must deal. In all my years of experience, God has never failed to grant this request!
But this time, in my eagerness, I had gotten ahead of God. I had gone "on my own," without asking for either guidance, or favor.
And right here perhaps I may give the reader an example of what God's Word means by the admonition: "Pray without ceasing," or, as Jesus said, to "pray always." He means we must be continually in a spirit of prayer. And he means to pray, constantly, over even little things that arise.
As I half walked -- half ran -- I prayed. There was no opportunity to kneel -- nor was there, now, time. I prayed as a walked. I asked God to forgive me for negligence in not asking Him before I called. Then I asked Him, now, to change this man's attitude to one of favor toward me and toward the program. And I believed, and expected to receive it!
Returning to the KVOD offices, I found this official smiling. He introduced me to a couple other men. We went into an audition room. The discs were given to a technician who took them into an adjoining control room. Ordinarily, with a religious program, radio station men would listen to perhaps five or six minutes, then signal to cut it off. In those days of "electrical transcription" our half-hour program was put on two large discs, with fifteen minutes on each disc. In airing, the second disc was started so smoothly the listening audience never knew there was a change of records. I hardly dared hope that, after reaching the end of the first fifteen-minute disc, they would ask to hear the other. But the program was gripping their interest. The operator did not expect to play the second disc, but they signalled him to put it on. No one said a word. They just listened, intently.
When the half-hour program was ended, the only word spoken was "We can clear the time 8 to 8:30 Sunday mornings for you."
By now I was not timid -- I was confident! "No, 8 a.m. is too early on Sunday mornings," I said, "We have found 8:30 is O.K., but 8 o'clock is too early."
"But we air our star news program at 8:30," was the reply. "We couldn't move that."
By now I was superconfident. "NO," I came back, "I won't accept 8 a.m. on Sundays. It has to be 8:30 or nothing."
He weakened and agreed. Then it was that I learned that one of the men in the room was not a local Denver man, but a station representative who had just bought an interest in station KXL in Portland.
Now it happened that, after we had gone off KXL -- and the reader will remember it had been a small 100-watt station on which we first started in Portland, going later on 500-watt KWJJ -- that KXL, under new ownership, had gone to the increased power of 10,000-watts, at the splendid low dial spot of 750 kilocycles. I had tried to get on that station, but had been unable. Desperately I wanted on KXL.
This man was on his way out to Portland. At once I told him of our desire to go on KXL. But now I was in the driver's seat, and knew it -- for these men had been really impressed -- so I demanded 8:30 a.m. or nothing. He agreed. I was to contact him in Portland about three days later. We could not afford to go up to the more expensive KXL in Portland, and go on KVOD too -- so I had to postpone KVOD.
The sequel is that actually we did go on KVOD, many years later.
Chapter 46 A Talk to San Antonio Businessmen ABOUT February 1, 1943, the World Tomorrow program started on the powerful WOAI in San Antonio. Later that year, after we had been on the station a few months, I went again to San Antonio to put the program on the station "live." It must have been the next night, Monday, that I held my first meeting in Texas.
This was announced on the air over WOAI on Sunday night. I had engaged a banquet -- or lecture -- hall on the ground floor of the St. Anthony Hotel. Every seat was filled. Several businessmen and their wives came.
On another occasion Mrs. Armstrong and I traveled to San Antonio, and on the Sunday night broadcast I announced we would be holding "Open House" through the following afternoon and evening in our hotel suite. It was encouraging and inspiring to receive a continuous stream of new Texas friends -- some coming just to meet us -- others with problems for counseling.
I was invited to speak before the Businessmen's Bible Class of San Antonio. It was nondenominational, and met in a club room of a leading hotel for coffee and a short service before the Sunday School hour. Those who were members of various denominations proceeded on to their own Sunday Schools or church services after this earlier Bible class.
As I wrote the above paragraph, I supposed this talk to the Businessmen's Bible Class was a little later that same year -- 1943. But I remembered that I have with me the abbreviated notes from which I spoke to that class of businessmen. I am a little surprised to find it dated Sunday morning, November 9, 1944, toward the close of the war. So I am now getting ahead of myself by more than a year.
However, I felt our readers might like to read, now, a very brief summary of what I said to these business-men on that occasion. Remember, this was only about a half year before the end of the war.
Talk to Businessmen
First I read from the 127th Psalm, verse 1: "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it." "That," I said to that class, "is a basic truth that applies to human activities generally -- building a house for a home, building a city, a nation, or a business. We are prone to take things for granted -- even this WAR, as well as the economic system in which we find ourselves. We've been in the war about three years now -- we've gotten used to it. You've been in this system of business quite a while -- and naturally take it for granted.
"But there is tremendous significance to world events right now! They are fraught with meaning far deeper than realized. Let's look at it from the standpoint of BUSINESS. Basic and far-reaching changes are occurring in the industrial, distribution, and commercial structure as a direct result of the war -- and changes have been shaping during the past forty years unrealized by most businessmen.
"Back in the years 1912-1915 I was making surveys of business conditions for a national magazine, which brought these changes into bold relief. This country was founded on the basis of decentralization. Today there is a rapid shift toward centralization in all fields -- not only business, but government. But even in those years the little man in business was being squeezed out.
"The big headache then, in retail circles, was the encroachments of the giant mail-order houses; and chain stores were beginning rapid development. World War I put impetus to the centralization trend. As an aftermath of that war the flash depression of 1920 shook America, economic collapse rumbled through forty other nations, finally producing our Great Depression of 1929-1936. All this time the MACHINE AGE was developing rapidly in America, making possible three to thirty times the output per man-hour as compared to hand labor. There was sufficient raw material in the ground to have provided luxury for all the people.
"Yet no economic utopia came. Instead, we've had troubles, wars, depressions. WHY? Unequal division of the proceeds of production is the reason. The profit system has been selfishly exercised!
Capital and Labor
"First, capital and management, being greedy, retained most of the increased wealth of mass machine production. Labor was not given its rightful share. Read the prophecy of this, in James 5:1-5: 'Come now, you rich men, weep and shriek over your impending miseries! You have been storing up treasure in the very last days ....See, the wages of which you have defrauded the workmen who mowed your fields [or worked in your factories] call out ....' Verses 2 and 3 show the final fate yet to come on businessmen guilty of this unfair practice.
"But, second, organizers appeared and began to organize labor, with the equally wrong philosophy that capital and management is the enemy of labor, and that by organization LABOR ought to exact more than its fair share.
"Meanwhile, World War 1 spawned the Soviet power dedicated to overthrowing every other nation, government, and economic system and ruling the world with atheistic Communism. Now we are fighting to stop the Nazi onslaught to conquer and rule the world with National Socialism. It all adds up to WORLD REVOLUTION -- CHAOS -- DESTRUCTION! They are producing the robot bomb and the rocket bomb -- and working on constantly more powerful destructive forces. Mankind cannot stop! Mankind has now gone past the point of NO RETURN! Man will plunge on fanatically toward DESTRUCTION, unless God Almighty intervenes -- which He PROMISES TO DO!
"WHAT'S WRONG?" "God did not build this world's house! Therefore they labor in VAIN that struggle to build it. They are reaping DESTRUCTION. This world is not of God's making. It is basically WRONG! It is built on principles diametrically opposite to those RIGHT principles and laws set in motion by the living GOD.
"The basis of God's law is LOVE. It is love toward God, and love toward neighbor. This is the principle of "GIVE" and "SERVE," not of "get" and "BE SERVED." This world's business is based on the foundation of competition. The competitive system is the relentless effort to take from competitors -- to get the best of a deal.
"Also, the SYSTEM underlying the world's whole civilization is based on concentration in CITIES. We are now beginning to see the destruction of cities. They are not built on God's pattern. God says He will destroy them -- tear them down!" (Micah 5:14 and Isaiah 14:16-17 were quoted and expounded as prophecies, among many others, foretelling this.)
"God set apart 6,000 years to allow mankind to make their own choices -- go their own ways -- to write in human EXPERIENCE the lesson that only GOD's WAYS can bring us the happiness, prosperity and joy we all want."
I then explained a little of God's economic laws, and gave a glimpse into the world tomorrow when Christ puts down this world's systems and establishes the WORLD RULE of the KINGDOM OF GOD.
The talk seemed to be well received, and I was presented with a card conferring honorary life membership of the Businessmen's Bible Class of San Antonio.
Also I notice, on the back of the paper on which my notes were written, the following, which I remember one of the men of the class wrote there for me: "A city is an artificial development of an imperfect distribution system."
The Work Grows
By late August 1943, our year's contract with station WHO was completed. We had then had six and one-half months of broadcasting on WOAI, in addition to WHO. By this time most of our regular WHO listeners knew that The World Tomorrow could be heard on WOAI, so that going off WHO gave us no noticeable setback or loss of audience. However, at the time we went off WHO, or just before, I decided to put the program on one of the two leading local stations in Des Moines. Station KRNT had opened a forty-five-minute earlier time, at 10:15 p.m. Sunday nights. This was a 5,000-watt station.
Also, station KMA, a 5,000-watt station at Shenandoah, Iowa, had gained a reputation for having a very wide and responsive audience. This station cleared the same time -- l0:15 Sunday nights.
About this time, a smaller station, KNET, in Palestine, Texas, solicited the program. It was so unusual to have a radio station actually come to us with an offer of time, that I took it -- at 9:30, Sunday mornings.
And so it was that the November-December issue of The Plain Truth, for 1943, listed a log of ten stations.
However, the three smaller stations, KRNT, KMA, and KNET, gave local coverage only, and we were not big enough yet to carry them long enough to make them voluntarily self-supporting. Remember, we never solicited contributions from the public -- either over the air, or in any of our literature, which was always all FREE. After one or two years, these stations were dropped.
Coming into the year of 1944, Bulletins in old files show that mail response and other methods of checking indicated the radio audience had grown to between a half and three-quarters of a million in the war years. That was a big jump from our small and humble start ten years before.
The circulation of The Plain Truth had climbed to 35,000 copies, now reaching every state and province in English-speaking North America.
From the approximately $5 cost of printing the first issue of The Plain Truth, the printing cost in ten years had mounted to $1,000 per issue.
A short decade before, just starting in 1934, our cost of radio time was $2.50 per week. In early 1944 it had soared to one hundred times the original cost -- an expenditure of $250 per week.
Fierce Wolves Enter
It was during these years -- 1943 and 1944 -- that we encountered another experience to teach us that the Apostle Paul was prophetically inspired of GOD when he warned the elders and ministers of the Church of God at Ephesus: "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy [Spirit] hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore, watch ..." (Acts 20:28-31). The Moffatt translation renders it "fierce wolves."
During those years I made occasional visits to Hollywood to resume daily broadcasting for a period of two to six weeks each time, on station KMTR. Also, when there, I continued holding Sunday afternoon services frequently at the Biltmore Theater or other large halls in Los Angeles. A former minister frequently called at the studio. He continually assured me that he certainly did fully accept and agree with everything I was preaching. As time went on, we became well acquainted.
I shall not mention this man's name. He has been dead many years now, anyway. As a result of the broadcasting, The Plain Truth, and the personal meetings, a number of people were baptized in Los Angeles, and I formed them into a small local church. There were twenty-three at the start. I made this former preacher pastor of the tiny flock. This, I believe, was in the autumn of 1943.
Also our work paid his expenses up to Eugene, Oregon, and return, to assist me in an annual fall festival of meetings we were holding in our little church building in Eugene. This man had good personality, was friendly, flattered parents about their babies and children, and seemed well liked.
A year later I found the little "church" I had gathered together and turned over to his shepherding had disintegrated. I tried to follow up some of the people, but those I was able to contact had formed an extreme dislike for this "pastor" and refused to attend his services. Nevertheless, he came once again in the fall of 1944 to Eugene for our fall festival.
I have mentioned before that the Sunday night evangelistic services held beginning late 1941 in Seattle and Everett, and personal work Mrs. Armstrong and I did in that area, had raised up a small church group, which met in Everett. They purchased a fairly old small church building there. These Seattle and Everett people seemed to like the minister from Los Angeles, and during the 1944 festival, attended by this entire group as well as our local Oregon people, he succeeded in worming his way into their affections.
His wife, we learned just prior to this festival, had been supporting him. She told Mrs. Armstrong that he would condescend to water the lawn with the hose, provided he could SIT while holding the hose! Apparently she had given him an ultimatum to get a job preaching and support her, or she was going to refuse to support him longer. She had been professionally employed at rather good salary. So this man went on up to Everett, Washington, to become the pastor.
No sooner had he ingratiated himself in the affections of the "sheep" than he began "devouring" them. It began appearing he did not believe very much of the BIBLE truths I had been preaching, after all. One thing he had firmly believed -- before going to Everett -- was the biblical teaching on tithing. This Everett group were all tithers. They averaged considerably better incomes than the others who were co-workers with me, supporting God's work. In fact, about 25 percent of the entire income of the work was being supplied by them.
But, once established in Everett as their local pastor, this man did a reverse-twist in his doctrinal beliefs. Suddenly he did not believe in tithing any more. The proportionately big lump of income that kept God's work alive suddenly stopped. By now, of course, I only received news from there indirectly, perhaps not 100 percent accurately, but the indication was that the new "pastor" did another reverse-twist, and did once again revive the tithing system among these people -- only this time it all went to him.
When this large portion of the financial support for the nationwide work was cut off, we suffered no pangs of consternation or fear. We did pray and commit the problem to the HEAD of our work, the living Jesus Christ. And, somehow, the income for God's work did not drop. It kept right on climbing -- just as if we had never lost the Everett income.
This experience did cause Mrs. Armstrong and me real sorrow to see those we had come to love so dearly -- among whom we had labored diligently for approximately three years -- fall by the wayside -- cutting them selves off from GOD's PRECIOUS WORK and thus from His true Church, which is His instrument carrying on God's work.
Chapter 47 Severe Financial Crisis We were running behind in paying radio bills for station time. We were threatened with being forced off the air -- having this whole work stop. Co-workers had failed to rise to meet this financial emergency. We had reached the point of desperation. If co-workers could not, or would not, make sufficient sacrifice to save the work, Mrs. Armstrong and I had to -- even if it took our all! This work always has been a work of FAITH -- relying on GOD. But God supplies needs through human instruments whose hearts are willing.
For eight years we had been making monthly payments on a small and very modest house, while we struggled along with financial burdens in general. It had been purchased as Church property, while still in the depression years when property values were at lowest levels. The purchase price had been $1,900, with $190 down.
One of the Church members had put up the $190 as a loan, to be paid back by Mrs. Armstrong and me. Although the property was deeded to four of the Trustees of the Church -- my name among them -- as officers of and trustees for the Church, the understanding was that I should repay the down payment, and meet the monthly payments of $17.10 per month. This was approximately the amount we had paid as rental before making it a purchase -- and far less, by the year 1944, than paying rent. However, the Church board had agreed that, if I was able to keep up the payments, the property was to be deeded over to Mrs. Armstrong and me when paid out.
We had repainted and decorated the house not long before, and improved the property. Meanwhile, property values had risen. So the property was worth considerably more than we had paid, back in 1936.
In the dire predicament of the work, there seemed no other solution. We decided we had to give up our home, sell it, and put the money in the work. The three other trustees agreed to the sale, to save the work. We listed it with a real estate broker.
In February it was sold -- at a real sacrifice according to current real estate values, though for quite a little more than the original purchase price.
The Work SAVED!
There was a March-April number of The Plain Truth. 25,000 copies of the booklet United States and Britain in Prophecy were printed. We stayed on the air! The work was, for the time, saved!
We were able to stay on in the house a few more months. But during the summer of 1944 we had to vacate. From that time, we had no home to live in until July, 1947, when we moved to Pasadena, California.
Our two daughters were married before we left our Eugene home -- our younger daughter, Dorothy, very shortly before, on July 22, 1944; our elder daughter, Beverly, earlier, as recorded previously.
Living Without a Home
After we vacated our home in Eugene, we were not able to find a house to rent. The housing shortage was still acute in Eugene -- had been since 1936.
At that time -- 1936 -- we had been renting for about a year the house we bought. We had been forced to buy it! The company that owned it gave us notice to vacate, at that time, saying the property was to be sold. They owned many houses and were putting them all on the market for sale. The salesman, in 1936, had grinned and said, "You'd better find a way to turn this into a purchase or you'll have no place to live. You won't be able to find a place for rent, anywhere!"
We had first searched the city with the proverbial fine-tooth comb -- and found the salesman did, literally, have us "over a barrel." But we found a way to make the purchase, as described above.
But now, eight years later, we had sold in order to save the work. We were out on the street, so to speak, and we found the rental situation was still the same.
So we put the small amount of furniture we possessed into storage, and moved into a motor court. Because of the housing shortage, motels and auto cabins were limiting guests to transients, and a three-day stay as a maximum.
Now began the troublesome, irksome, frustrating experience of having to move from one auto court to another every three days. In a very few instances we were able to stay for a week or two, but not many.
After we had, with our two boys, made the rounds of all the motels several times, the owners got to know us. Then they began to inform us that they had to keep their rooms open for transient guests, and since we were not transients, they began to refuse to take us again.
Fatherly Advice Backfires
It was while we were living in one of these motels that I noticed our two sons, then about ages fifteen and sixteen, each for the first time smoking a cigarette. How was I going to handle this situation? If I tried authoritatively to command them never to smoke again, I was afraid they would then smoke anyway, and the more -- but in secret.
I thought I had a better way. At the time, it really seemed to me to be a foolproof way that couldn't fail.
I called the two boys into our one-room motel, and sitting on a bed, had a "man to man" talk with them.
"Boys," I said, "I could order you to stop smoking. I could try to stop you by force, but that would not build character in YOU. So I prefer to let you make your OWN decisions.
"But I want you to THINK about this problem, and get all the facts, before you make your decisions -- for the result may affect your entire lives, and I don't want you to make a mistake. Now, if cigarette smoking is beneficial -- really GOOD for you, and will help you to do good to others -- then I'm sure God would want you to take up smoking, and so would I. But if it is BAD for you, harmful, then I feel you won't want to do it, and will stop right now, before you smoke a second one and develop a HABIT that's mighty hard to break."
You see, I myself still had a lesson to learn. These boys were still carnal-unconverted. In effect, I was actually saying the same thing to them, in principle, that God said to Adam and Eve. God allowed them to make their own decisions about taking the forbidden fruit.
"Now, boys," I continued, "here is what I want you to do. I want you first to check up -- get the facts -- get the TRUTH -- and get it from the voice of experience! I want you to make a SURVEY, just as I have made many fact-finding surveys in business in the past. I want you to approach 100 experienced smokers -- men of middle age or older who have smoked for many years, and have the habit. Tell each of these men you are a couple of young men who have thought of taking up smoking, but you want to know whether you ought to, or not. Ask each of these experienced smokers, who have had the habit for years, whether, as a result of his years of actual EXPERIENCE, he advises you to take up the habit, or leave it alone."
"Oh, Dad," chimed in young Garner Ted, age fifteen, "we don't need to make any such survey. I know right now, every one of them would tell us not to do it."
I felt secure. I felt sure, after that, that my boys would not start smoking.
Now GOD, in putting the proposition of the forbidden fruit up to Adam and Eve, Knew better! He knew humans will choose the wrong -- even when some know it is wrong!
Yes, God knew well, in advance, which choice Adam and Eve probably would make. He knew, too, that YOU -- every one of you reading this autobiography -- would probably do what you realized was wrong -- ALL would sin! Nevertheless, God left every human mortal FREE to make his own choice. Not one of us ever had to sin! We just did -- of our own volition -- and we often KNEW we were doing wrong!
Well, other boys smoked. People, like sheep, follow others -- seem to lack the courage to go against the crowd. Yes, my boys did start smoking -- and I was terribly disappointed, wondering where my clever "psychology" had failed to work. Psychologists need to know a little more than most of them know about HUMAN NATURE!
Both boys, later on, came to themselves, and realized how cigarette smoking, among many other "minor vices," is, after all, NOT GOOD! Both had to undergo a terrific struggle with SELF to break the habit later on. But they both conquered the habit, instead of letting it conquer them.
Moving into a Rooming House
Finally, after many months moving from one motor court to another -- still unable to rent a house -- we did find two upstairs bedrooms in a rooming house for rent. The one and only upstairs bathroom was shared with other roomers. These rooms were about six or seven blocks from our office.
We found it necessary to eat our meals out, at restaurants. This was neither good for our health nor our pocketbooks. With growing boys, reaching, now, from fifteen on up to eighteen, this was no right kind of family life! In fact it was not FAMILY LIFE at all! But for the time, we had to put up with it. One thing may be said in our favor. We did not complain, through all these years. We knew we were being given trials for our development.
But we had tremendous blessings spiritually. We rejoiced and were happy. We knew well that we deserved NOTHING! Yet we were privileged to be used in GOD's WORK! That blessing outweighed all material acquisitions and enjoyments possessed by all the rich people of the earth combined! We thanked God for trials and tests -- and for always carrying us through, and seeing every problem solved. Scores of times we thanked God that our trials and hardships had been physical and financial. My heart was no longer set on material acquisition. I had come to know its worthlessness. Instead, God had literally lavished upon us the TRUE riches -- the spiritual blessings!
Electrical Transcriptions
March 24, 1944, I sent out a co-worker Bulletin from Hollywood. I was en route to San Antonio, Texas, for one or two live broadcasts over WOAI, and then to Des Moines, Iowa, for a special three weeks' daily broadcasting over station KSO, 5,000 watts. In those days most of the programs had to be aired by means of electrical transcription. The programs were recorded on large-size semisoft acetate phonograph discs -- fifteen inches in diameter. Each disc recorded fifteen minutes -- or half of our thirty-minute program. The quality was not equal to the present tape recording.
Nevertheless, we made every effort to provide stations with the best quality we could. Most of the recording was being done in Portland, where there was one professional recording studio. We felt that the recording obtained there was a shade inferior to that of the best recording studios in Hollywood -- the nation's broadcasting capital. Frequently I made trips, through those years, to Hollywood in order to get as many programs as possible recorded where the very top quality of transcriptions was available.
Often, however, in traveling, the program was recorded in other cities -- San Francisco, New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Des Moines.
But in those days the Federal Communications Commission, the government supervising agency, enforced the rule that announcers must always tell the listeners that the program came via "electrical transcriptions," or was "transcribed." And when this was announced, listeners universally felt they were listening to a "canned" program -- a mere record -- not an actual live person. For this reason, especially on our large 50,000-watt stations, we felt -- and so did the stations -- that it was necessary that I visit these stations in person and do the programs "live" as frequently as possible. This necessitated a great deal of traveling.
At Hollywood on this particular visit in March, 1944, I learned of a new coast-to-coast network in process of being formed -- to be known as Associated Broadcasting Corporation -- or, for short, the ABC network. I received information that this new network was going to be willing to accept religious programming. At that time, only Mutual was selling any time for religious programming, and the word was that even Mutual was soon going to throw off all religious programs. I was hoping that we might be able to go on the new ABC network. We were beginning to envision constantly bigger and bigger things as the living Christ expanded His work.
Meanwhile, we had virtually outgrown the facilities of the local printing company in Eugene for publishing The Plain Truth. I was beginning to check with the largest printing and publishing establishments in Los Angeles. This, and the need for top-quality recording to be obtained only in Hollywood, brought to my mind, about this time, the first thoughts of the approaching necessity of moving our headquarters to Southern California.
We Go on a 100,000-watt Station
In early August of that year, Mrs. Armstrong and I spent two weeks in fasting, as we did nearly every summer, at a cabin on the Oregon coast beach, near Waldport. Returning, refreshed, I heard of the possibility of securing a good night time on a superpower 100,000-watt station, XELO, at Juarez, Mexico -- just across the river from El Paso, Texas.
This station had twice the power of any station in the United States, had an exclusive clear channel -- no other station on the North American continent at that time on its wave-length -- 800 on the radio dial.
We returned from the beach about August 20. The following Sunday night, after the Sunday morning broadcast, live, over KXL, I was once again on the train for San Francisco, Hollywood, and El Paso.
At El Paso, I learned that this station had good coverage in every state, and even into Canada, after dark. It was managed by two men, partners. One, Mr. Don Howard, I contacted in El Paso. He was interested in opening a time for The World Tomorrow, but I found it necessary to travel on to Del Rio, Texas, to consult his partner, Mr. Walter Wilson, before anything final was arranged.
Walter Wilson knew all the "ropes" in the matter of operating border radio stations, just beyond the American border, with a superpower that could reach a national audience over the United States.
I was not very happy about the company I was going to have to keep on this Mexican station -- programming that never would have been acceptable on most United States stations -- and religious programs of a nature I most certainly did not want to be identified with.
Nevertheless, knowing The World Tomorrow was a program of highest quality, and yet of power and tremendous listener -- appeal, these partners offered me the prime, most desirable time of 8 p.m., every Sunday night. We had been forced to take the very poor listening time of 11 p.m. over any large United States station -- and we were able to be, then, on only the one -- WOAI. This BEST time on XELO was going to cost quite a little more, but I know we would have many times the audience at 8 p.m., and 800 on the dial, that we had at 11 p.m. after most people had gone to bed. So I took the plunge.
Fantastic Response
Immediately the mail response was fantastic. Never did it equal the more than 2,000 letters from a single broadcast we had once received from a program on WHO, but it was sensationally heavy, and continued steady and increasing. Plain Truth circulation rose steadily.
More and more I was having to contemplate moving our headquarters to the Los Angeles area.
By winter, 1944, and perhaps about January, 1945, I was trying out an early-evening nightly broadcast on XELO, using discs recorded at KMTR, Hollywood, while doing live series of fifteen-minute programs on that station. I had frequently, since July, 1942, gone to Hollywood for about three weeks' continuous daily broadcasting of fifteen-minute programs.
However, these fifteen-minute programs never seemed to bring a large response. It was becoming evident that our type program was a full half-hour program. It was much easier to hold a listening radio audience to the World Tomorrow -- type program for a full half hour than a short fifteen minutes.
These try-out fifteen-minute programs on XELO were aired, I believe, at 6 p.m. But after available recordings were exhausted, this series was discontinued -- until we could afford to go on every night with a full half hour.
Chapter 48 Historic San Francisco Conference -- The United Nations Is Born THIS Autobiography began with the year 1892. This chronicle of events has now covered almost fifty-three years, and we have come to the tremendous year of 1945. What a fateful year of world history that was!
The Fateful Year
To say nothing of what developed in the very work of God that year, look at these pivotal world events of 1945:
February 3-11 -- The Yalta Summit Conference between President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Premier Joseph Stalin-at which the Western powers were outmaneuvered into giving all, and getting nothing.
April 12 -- President Roosevelt died at Warm Springs, Georgia, and Vice President Harry S. Truman was sworn in as President of the United States.
Notice, now, how in quick succession, in this one fatal month, three of the world's top figures were erased from world power. The year 1945 was a pivotal turning point of world history -- these men went -- the war went -- a NEW AGE, the nuclear age, was born.
April 28 -- Only sixteen days after Mr. Roosevelt passed from the world scene, Benito Mussolini was executed, after having been captured by partisans at Dongo, Italy, as he was trying to flee across the border into Switzerland. His body was strung up, upside down, in extreme disgrace.
April 29-30 -- Adolf Hitler was blotted out of this world's history, presumedly a suicide in his bunker underground beside the Chancellery in Berlin.
So notice -- these three of the five world leaders, were all removed from world leadership during the same month -- the fateful month of April, 1945.
Man's LAST HOPE of saving this world also began -- doomed to failure -- during that crucial month of April, 1945, at San Francisco. I was there.
But before we pass on to a more specific description of these tremendous events, let me impress upon the reader a truism we too often overlook. In February that year three of the world's top leaders met at Yalta. Two months later, the three of them were removed from power -- their voices silenced, their activities ceased. It is TRUE -- you never Know what an hour may bring forth!
But to finish the listing of tremendous events of that one year:
April 25 -- The great San Francisco Conference opened, at which leaders of forty-six nations formed and adopted a Charter for the United Nations. May 7, 1945 -- Germany signed unconditional surrender, ending World War II in Europe.
July 17-August 2 -- Potsdam Conference in Germany, a summit conference with President Truman, Prime Minister Churchill, and Joseph Stalin -- at which once again, the Western powers gave all and Stalin took all.
August 6 -- First atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, destroying the city, and terrifying the world with sudden knowledge of the NUCLEAR AGE.
August 9 -- Second atomic bomb exploded on Nagasaki, Japan, destroying that city.
August 14 -- Japan surrendered -- END of World War II -- with the world now looking fearfully toward a nuclear World War III.
September 2 -- Formal ceremony of surrender by Japan to General MacArthur on board the U.S.S. Missouri.
WHAT a chronicle of world events for one single year! Civilization's LAST HOPE
It was less than two weeks after the sudden death of President Roosevelt. The war was not yet over in Europe, but German resistance was crumbling fast. The nations outside the German-Italian-Japanese axis were planning a UNITED NATIONS ORGANIZATION, which was expected to end all wars -- make future wars impossible.
A great conference was set to convene at San Francisco on April 25. This conference of nations was to draw up and adopt a Charter for this world organization of nations.
I decided it was advisable that I attend. Practically every hotel room in San Francisco was booked in advance before the world even heard the news of the Conference. But I had a few useful connections and was able to arrange a reservation for Mrs. Armstrong and myself for the duration of the Conference.
As editor and publisher of The Plain Truth, I was able to obtain full press credentials from the State Department, as a fully accredited press representative, and also associate press credentials for Mrs. Armstrong.
At the opening plenary session, on April 25, we were sitting in the forefront of the press gallery of the grand and famous San Francisco Civic Opera House. The seat next to us was occupied by one of the best known network newscasters.
We sat through a round of formal speeches. Secretary of State Stettinius for the United States, Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden for Great Britain, and one or two others delivered very serious speeches.
They said that we were gathered there, charged with the grave responsibility of producing a world organization that was civilization's LAST HOPE! They assured the delegates assembled that the survival of mankind depended on what they should do there.
I wondered whether they realized how true their words really were-so far as man's efforts to survive are concerned. Or was it merely window dressing, to be printed in the newspapers to impress the public?
Only STRIFE -- Not Peace
Here were the world leaders, except for the Axis powers. They freely confessed -- they put oratorical emphasis on the fact -- that this world is DOOMED, unless the nations of the world can find a common ground for PEACE. The world had tried the Peace Conference of The Hague, the Pact of Paris, the League of Nations. Now it was going to try an organization of UNITED NATIONS.
The League of Nations failed, because it had NO TEETH in it. Only a world organization, or world government, wielding military power stronger than any nation bent on disturbing world peace, could PREVENT AN OTHER WORLD WAR!
So here, on the floor below us, under the same roof with us, were the leaders of the world's nations, trying once again to bring about world peace by human effort and organization! Truly, it was a spectacle!
The speeches certainly painted the grim picture. These men knew this was the world's last hope!
But what happened? At every turn, Mr. Molotov and the Russians balked, opposed, blocked, fought.
A few days after the Conference opened, a press conference had been scheduled for Secretary of State Stettinius. It was held in a special conference room in another building. Mr. Stettinius was some thirty or forty-five minutes late in arriving. Well he came in, his face was white with fury. He literally blazed with indignation. He had been delayed by the Russian Molotov, in a meeting of leaders of the few major powers, which should have ended some time before this news conference was scheduled to begin. He explained to the newsmen how Molotov had blocked every move, fought and opposed every plan or suggestion, deliberately antagonized the other leaders, and started an intentional war of nerves.
I think that up until that moment the leaders of the United States government had naïvely believed that the Soviet Union was really our ally. President Roosevelt had felt that he could "convert" Stalin, by kindness -- by giving him everything he wanted -- by appeasing him. During the war I was not allowed to tell the public, over the air, the truth about Soviet plans, or to say anything that was not complimentary about them. I was given to understand this was "policy" which had gone out from the White House. More than once I witnessed to my shame, in newsreel theaters, a mild and restrained clapping when President Roosevelt's pictures were flashed on the screen -- and then, when Stalin's picture was shown, wild applause, shouting, foot-stomping shook the theater!
Even before Potsdam -- when General Patton's forces were starting their drive toward Berlin after the Channel-crossing -- academic psychologists convinced the Administration at Washington that the allies owed it to Russia to remove Russian fears of future German aggression by giving the Communists most of Eastern Europe. That is why General Patton's forces were halted on the drive toward Berlin and forced to draw back from territory already conquered!
The Dispatch That Never Came
It was about this time, possibly March, 1945, that I was waiting to go on the air one Sunday morning in the KXL studios in Portland. Broadcast time was 8:30 a.m. General Patton's forces were making good progress toward Germany on the west. Russian forces on the east had, the day before, come within a calculated half day of crossing the border into Germany. The first invasion into Germany itself would be big news. Customarily I covered the war news, with an analysis according to prophecy, on each program during those war years. It was already between 5 and 5:30 p.m. -- or even an hour later -- at the eastern front.
Arriving at the radio studios, I anxiously scanned the news teletype for a dispatch stating that German soil had been occupied by the Russian forces. No such dispatch had come in. I arranged with the station announcer to check every few minutes, and if the news came in on the tape, before my program ended, to shear it off and bring it in to me so I could put it on the air.
But no such news came. Not that half hour. Not that day. Not for many weeks!
WHY? The Soviet rulers did not want to plow immediately through for a quick knockout of Germany. Instead, they left adequate forces just outside the German border and sent their invading divisions on south to conquer and occupy such eastern Europe countries as Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Albania, setting the Russian boot on those lands, as conquered satellite countries, before bringing the war to an end.
At the same time, the Kremlin, with the help of the theoretical psychologists, prevailed on Washington to send orders through to General Eisenhower to pull General Patton back -- to prevent ending the war until the Soviets had occupied all the east European satellite countries!
Sometimes, I wonder how gullible statesmen and heads of government can get! I continually pray: "Thy kingdom come, THY will be done on earth, as it is in heaven." Well, we are, with this revision of the Autobiography, forty-one years closer to that happy world tomorrow than we were then!
The Strutting Molotov
But if the American Secretary of State had been altruistic about the Communists being converted -- or being then, or ever becoming, our friends, Mr. Stettinius certainly was disillusioned how! He literally blazed with anger, after the closed-door conference with Molotov! This I saw, and heard, in that press conference.
One morning -- whether the first morning of the first plenary session or later, I do not now remember -- Mrs. Armstrong and I arrived early at the Opera House to get a close-up view of the celebrity statesmen arriving. One of the first was Mr. Anthony Eden of Great Britain. Quite a crowd was gathered in front of the Opera House. Police guards kept a passageway up the middle of the crowd cleared, from the curb where the delegates stepped out of their cars on arrival. Mrs. Armstrong and I were standing very near the curb, just one or two steps up, off the sidewalk, and directly in front.
Mr. Eden stepped out of his car, smiled, took off his hat and waved warmly and in a most friendly manner to the crowd.
News cameramen rushed to him. "Will you pose for us, Mr. Eden?" they asked. Smilingly he nodded. The cameramen decided they would like him on the very spot where Mrs. Armstrong and I were standing. Would we kindly move to the other side, just long enough for the "shot"? Sir Anthony smilingly thanked us, and stood while flashbulbs flashed, then briskly walked on up the steps and into the Opera House.
A little later, three big, shiny black Cadillacs pulled up to the curb. Out of the first and third of these cars sprang a dozen or more Russian bodyguards. They promptly and rather rudely pushed all of us back farther, to widen the path through the crowd up the steps to the Opera House entrance. Then, quickly behind them, out leaped about six more bodyguards from the middle car.
Last of all, out strutted Foreign Minister Molotov of Russia. Six or eight of the bodyguards completely surrounded him, and as he walked stiffly and haughtily up the steps, no smile or nod to anybody, more and more of his bodyguards closed in around him, marching up the steps with him.
WHAT A CONTRAST, between the British and the Russian foreign ministers! Mr. Molotov's haughty behavior made Mr. Anthony Eden all the more well-liked by all of us there.
Mrs. Armstrong whispered to me, "Isn't Mr. Anthony Eden a handsome man?" I asserted -- and added that so was Mr. Stettinius.
During the Conference, I attended a few other press conferences held by outstanding delegates. Mr. Molotov gave one press conference, and I attended. It was stiff and formal. He spoke through an interpreter. He made himself thoroughly disliked and detested by all. We saw quite a little of him during that month-long Conference -- more than we enjoyed.
Meeting the Sheik
Very much in the news at the Conference were the Arab delegates, always noticeable by their flowing robes. They were headed by Sheik Hafiz Wabba of Saudi Arabia. I arranged for a private conference with him. We spent an hour together in his suite in the Fairmont Hotel and became good friends.
The sheik was in charge of all Arab negotiations on the Jewish-Arab controversy over Palestine. He explained to me, thoroughly, the Arab view, and why they felt the Jews had no rights whatever in Palestine. Of course, I also interviewed Jewish delegates, who gave me their side of the story. Each side had a most logical and convincing story.
I wondered if the Arab people themselves knew and believed they are the descendants of Ishmael, son of Abraham through Sarah's handmaid Hagar. I asked him. He did not mention Ishmael's name, but he said,
"Oh yes, Abram [he pronounced it A-brahm, with accent on last syllable] is our ancestor. We are children of Abram."
The sheik spoke very good English. Mrs. Armstrong and I met him again, in 1947, in London, where he invited us to a royal reception to be presented to a former king of Arabia, then the Crown Prince. And again, in 1956, in Cairo, he and his wife came to our hotel and spent an afternoon with us. These contacts will be described when we come to those years in the Autobiography.
I had another interesting full-hour's private conference with Mr. Constanin Fotich, former foreign secretary of Yugoslavia, who gave me a firsthand description of what happened in the Communist invasion of that country -- and how farm owners had their farms taken from them.
One press conference attended was held by the former head of Latvia, or Estonia, or Lithuania -- I forget which, but believe it was the latter of these three countries the Soviets had gobbled up. He gave us a lurid description of the Communist takeover.
On one occasion I chanced to meet the Admiral of the Chinese navy. He represented Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist China. This was before the Communist takeover. The admiral was a gentlemanly sort. I met him in the elevator of the Mark Hopkins Hotel. He was in a glamor uniform -- not even the Arabs in their flowing robes were more glamorous. On the uniform about every color of the rainbow was somewhere represented. There was only one unusual thing about the presence of the admiral of the Chinese navy -- Nationalist China had no navy! Not a single warship! That may be one reason all the glamor was concentrated on the admiral's uniform.
A High Pontifical Mass
Also, during our stay in San Francisco I myself spoke a couple of times -- not before Conference delegates, but in halls before local radio listeners.
We also attended a Roman Catholic High Pontifical Mass held in the general civic area of the Conference, and attended by many hundreds of delegates. It was presided over by the San Francisco Archbishop, and the address was delivered by Bishop Hunt, of Salt Lake City, one of the two outstanding Catholic radio ministers at the time. Mr. Hunt was a powerful speaker, and his speech to those delegates -- important officials and heads of state of many nations -- actually carried prophetic significance.
He built his address around Psalm 127:1: "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it." He stressed the seriousness of the world condition -- how this effort to unite nations for peace was man's LAST CHANCE. These delegates were trying to build a "house" -- a union of nations. Unless the Roman Catholic Church was put at the head of it -- for of course he assumed that Church was the Lord's sole instrument on earth -- it was doomed to failure. Since they claim the Pope is in place of Christ on earth -- what he really meant was that no move to associate or combine nations together can succeed unless headed and ruled by the Pope. It was prophetic, because this is precisely what PROPHECY says will happen in the new European Union, now emerging in Europe, to resurrect the Roman Empire!
Chapter 49 World War II Ends -- Atomic Age Begins! ATTENDING the San Francisco Conference, I spoke on Wednesday night, May 9, at the auditorium in Native Sons' Building, to an audience of listeners to The World Tomorrow.
What I said that night might be of some interest, in the light of subsequent events. I still have my notes on file. Here is a brief summary:
"This San Francisco Conference is the greatest, most important conference of heads of nations held in world history. Here the top statesmen of the whole world are gathered. And WHY? To build a HIGH TOWER -- a super WORLD ORGANIZATION -- man's nearest approach toward WORLD GOVERNMENT -- an armed organization, with the power of armed force to guarantee world peace. But since world leaders do not know the WAY to peace, it cannot succeed.
"The war is over, in Europe -- or is it? We need to wake up and realize that right now is the most dangerous moment in United States national history, instead of assuming we now have peace!
"Men plan, here, to preserve the PEACE of the world. What most do not know is that the Germans have their plans for winning the BATTLE of the peace. Yes, I said BATTLE of the peace. That's a kind of battle we Americans don't know. We know only one kind of war. We have never lost a war -- that is, a military war; but we have never WON a conference, where leaders of other nations outfox us in the BATTLE for the peace.
"We don't understand German thoroughness. From the very start of World War II, they have considered the possibility of losing this second round, as they did the first -- and they have carefully, methodically planned, in such eventuality, the third round -- World War III! Hitler has lost. This round of war, in Europe, is over. And the Nazis have now gone UNDERGROUND. In France and Norway they learned how effectively an organized UNDERGROUND can hamper occupation and control of a country. Paris was liberated by the French UNDERGROUND -- and allied armies. Now a Nazi underground is methodically planned. They plan to COME BACK and to win on the third try.
"The Bible foretells that third round -- and it spells DOOM for us, as God's punishment, because we, as a nation, have forsaken Him and His ways! The third round is termed, in prophecy, an invasion by "BABYLON" -- a resurrected Roman Empire -- a European Union. I have been proclaiming that since 1927. For a while I thought Hitler might organize it -- especially when he tied up with the Roman Mussolini. It wasn't done in this second World War. It will be done and provoke the third!
"This Nazi underground will introduce a new kind of internal warfare and sabotage, to divide and conquer! It will stir race hatred, class prejudice, strife among ourselves, religious bigotry while professing to champion religious tolerance especially toward the religion of the coming United States of Europe.
"Even at this conference, classes and races are demanding their 'rights.' This conference, and the United Nations Organization it is forming, must solve three problems to succeed. First, Big Three unity; second, the serious problem of what to do with Germany to prevent World War III; and third, solve the world's injustices against smaller nations, and the growth and tactics of Communism toward world domination. Can it succeed?
"These world leaders here in San Francisco are trying to build a HIGH TOWER of world organization to produce and preserve PEACE. Can it succeed? Listen to God's Word: 'Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it' (Ps. 127:1). Again, Christ said (Matt. 15:13), 'Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.'" (This first quoted before Bishop Hunt used it, at the Pontifical High Mass.)
"The Lord God is not building this house. These men have not sought His guidance. Their deliberations were not opened by prayer, but by a moment of SILENCE! The heavenly Father in heaven is not planting it. It shall, therefore, be rooted up!
"Once before, men started to build a high TOWER to reach to the heaven of world domination. And God Almighty intervened and broke up their building (Gen. 10:8-11, and 11:1-9). In the end, God Almighty will have to intervene with force, to break up what will grow out of this effort of nations to assemble themselves together -- without GOD!"
Today, Many Years Later
How prophetic those words were! They are proving true -- because they were based on the prophecies of God! This United Nations organization started the IDEA -- planted it in men's minds -- of uniting nations together. It paved the way for the prophesied resurrection of the Roman Empire -- by a United States of EUROPE. Today there is talk of a South American "Common Market," and even a Southeast Asian "Common Market." Uniting nations together is in the air.
Before concluding events of the San Francisco Conference, one amusing little incident comes to mind. Mrs. Armstrong and I were having lunch one day in the Mark Hopkins Hotel. I noticed Walter Winchell, the New York newsman and broadcaster, rise from a table with two or three other men. At the hat rack, just inside the entrance of the dining room, I saw him pick up my hat and put it on. But it didn't fit apparently, for he removed it, looked at it, then put it back and found his own.
Deep-Sea Fishing -- War's END?
After the UNO (as it then was called) Conference at San Francisco, we returned to the office in Eugene, Oregon. But by August the need of another period of fasting and rejuvenation physically was again imperative. In August we went, once again, to the Oregon coast, for a two-weeks' rest and opportunity to catch up on writing, while fasting in a cottage on the beach.
We started on Monday, August 6. Passing through Corvallis, seat of Oregon State College, we picked up a newspaper EXTRA. It was filled with sensational news. The first ATOMIC BOMB had been dropped that day on Hiroshima, Japan!
The newspaper was literally filled with sensational news and facts about nuclear fission. It was the first news to be given to the public about the perfection of ATOMIC ENERGY.
WE HAD ENTERED A NEW AGE! -- the ATOMIC Age! We were somewhat filled with awe! We knew this heralded the speeding up of events to bring this world to its END -- and usher in the better WORLD TOMORROW!
On Thursday of that week, August 9, news came over radio of the wiping out of Japan's second city, Nagasaki, by the second atom bomb. The crescendo of events was becoming terrific!
The following Tuesday, August 14, I took our two sons, Richard David and Garner Ted, then ages sixteen and fifteen (Dick was almost seventeen), deep-sea fishing for salmon, off the coast of Depoe Bay. It was the first experience of the kind for all three of us. In fact it was my only such experience. Mrs. Armstrong, who has a tendency to become seasick easily, remained ashore at Depoe Bay.
At this point, as well as at Newport and other points, regular deep-sea fishing boats make regular excursion trips, lasting perhaps a couple of hours, taking a number of paying passengers on each trip. Proper equipment for salmon fishing is provided, with attendants to instruct and help the passenger "fishermen."
As we reached a good distance from land, lines were thrown out, and several if not all passengers began to bring in salmon, caught on the hook. These small fishing boats rock and roll (but not like Elvis Presley) considerably. Soon both Dick and Ted were feeding the fishes instead of pulling them in. I never told them, but I almost did as well. I did feel a little woozy, but managed by strenuous mental concentration to avoid contributing to the food supply of the hungry fishes.
In spite of their seasickness, the boys each got a nice large salmon, as did I -- I believe one was the limit for each passenger. In any event, the fish were easily worth the small fare for the trip.
As we drew close to land, the boats sailing under a bridge on the Coast Highway into a lagoon harbor, we saw Mrs. Armstrong standing on the bridge, waving her arms vigorously and trying to shout something to us. We could not hear until we approached closer to the bridge, but we knew well what she was trying to say -- word had just been flashed over radio of Japan's surrender -- the END of WORLD WAR II!
I had received the news of the start of the war -- that is, of United States participation -- on December 7, 1941, while up in the air on my first airplane night. And now that war was finally ended while I was on my first sailing on an ocean -- the war in the PACIFIC sector ending while I was on the Pacific!
We took our fine fresh salmon to our cabin at Yakone beach. Mrs. Armstrong canned two of them, and one of them provided meals for us and guests. Mrs. Armstrong's girlhood high school chum and family were visiting us. Mrs. Armstrong served us baked fresh salmon in hot poured butter. It was delicious!
A New AGE Dawns!
Returning refreshed, with recharged energy, to the office in Eugene, I issued a special Bulletin for our co-workers. It summarized the momentous stage of history through which we were passing. It gave something of the "feel" of world events, as they appeared at that time.
I think it will be interesting, and pertinent, to quote here a few excerpts from that Bulletin:
"Since I last wrote you, May 28 from San Francisco we have lived through the most momentous events of world history. At that time, we had entered the period which has been the most vital PIVOT in American and world history. President Roosevelt had died. The military war had ended in Europe. Mussolini had been ignominiously put to death and buried ....
"But even greater news has followed. World War II has come to its final end, and as I write, General MacArthur is preparing to go into and occupy Japan at the head of the most impressive display of military might ever beheld by mortal man -- on land, on the sea, in the air. This is planned in order dramatically to convince the Japanese they have been completely whipped.
"But the most important news of all is the announcement, with the actual horrifying demonstration, of the atomic bomb and the age of atomic power. This, say scientists, will at once completely revolutionize both peace-time life and warfare upon earth.
"Within the past 400 years the world has passed through the age of exploration, and then the machine age. Now we suddenly find ourselves plunged headlong, without warning, into a new, totally unexplored AGE OF ATOMIC POWER. Adjectives have been exhausted in an attempt to describe the staggering magnitude of this thing. It's a NEW AGE -- but one destined to be of extremely SHORT DURATION. It's an age fraught with horrifying, imagination -- defying possibilities. Yet it's an age which at once opens to us marvelous new opportunities -- and a most STUNNING challenge and RESPONSIBILITY in the work of Almighty GOD!
"Thousands of years ago men started the terrible scourge of war with elementary weapons -- knives, swords, slingshots, bows and arrows. As a prominent military analyst expressed it, the most effective military weapons are those which can be used to strike at the enemy in the quickest time, at the longest distance, and with the most destructive power.
"And now, as World War II came to an end, the WEAPONS OF THE FUTURE put in an appearance -- jet propulsion and rocket weapons, carrying missiles still faster and farther.
"And then, the tremendous CLIMAX! The best-kept secret of the war -- the ATOMIC BOMB, suddenly perfected, and just TWO of these indescribable weapons of destruction and death dropped upon Japan, bringing the war to a sudden END!"
At Last -- DAILY Broadcasting
Also it was announced, in this Bulletin of August 27, 1945, that, beginning October 1, the World Tomorrow program was to be broadcasted six nights a week, at the prime listening time of 8 p.m., at 800 on the radio dial, over the superpower 100,000-watt station XELO, Juarez, Mexico.
That station, then having an exclusive channel over the North American continent, could then be heard in virtually every state.
This was by far the biggest leap ahead of God's work, so far!
After this tremendous impact of nightly broadcasting got under way, the number of listeners of God's truth increased faster than ever.
Then, on the heels of this, GOD OPENED ANOTHER STILL BIGGER DOOR! Station XEG, with 150,000 watts, making it the most powerful voice reaching over the United States, opened its mighty doors -- and at the prime listening time of 8 p.m., Central standard time, and also six nights a week! I do not, at the moment, seem to find records in the old files showing the exact date, but I believe we started on this station on October 1, 1945.
Apparently the additional expense of this tremendously powerful broadcasting, suddenly multiplying broadcasting effectiveness many times over, had prevented the publishing of an edition of The Plain Truth for three or four months. I do not find a copy in the files until March-April, 1946, after starting this powerful program. And that issue is Volume XI, Number l -- the first issue printed that year.
But circulation of The Plain Truth had taken a big flight upward. It is printed on the front cover, "Circulation, 75,000 this issue."
Chapter 50 A Momentous Year AS THE years sped along, each seemed to usher in more important developments than any preceding year in God's work. 1945 was a momentous year! -- but, for the work, 1946 was even more important.
Actually, 1946 was the year of BEGINNINGS, as an organized major national and worldwide work.
This was the year in which our own printing department was started.
This was the first year in which the full impact was felt of three superpower radio stations, blanketing the entire United States and reaching even Canada and Alaska.
The was the first year in which we had the impact of six-nights-a-week broadcasting, at an early prime listening hour, coast to coast.
This was the year in which the first baptizing tour was taken. It covered the four corners of the United States, and much of the middle sections of the country besides.
And this was the year in which the founding of Ambassador College was conceived, planned, and the first block of property for the new campus acquired in Pasadena. This college was to be the means of training of the growing personnel for the fast-expanding organized work.
Now notice the startling significance in the fact this all happened in this particular year!
The "Magic Number" Twelve
Looking back in retrospect, it is truly amazing to recall how many things, lifting this almost obscure minor effort to the dynamic worldwide FORCE God's work is becoming today, had their beginnings in 1946.
I have remarked before how certain numbers have significant meaning in God's plan. Six is the number of MAN and materialism. Seven is GOD'S number of perfection and completion. God made the material creation in six days. MAN was created the sixth day. But God completed the first week, and perfected it by creation of His Sabbath, on the seventh day. That seventh day typified the completed and perfect SPIRITUAL creation.
Thus God set apart six millennia for MAN to be allowed rejection of God's government, and to write the lesson of human rebellion, to be followed by the seventh millennium in which God will perfect and complete His SPIRITUAL creation.
But twelve is God's number of spiritual organizational BEGINNINGS. God's promises pertain to Abraham's children. His children began with the twelve sons of Jacob. God began His organized nation on earth with TWELVE tribes. Christ BEGAN His Church with TWELVE apostles.
But TWELVE is the number of organizational beginnings, not first beginnings. God started off the human race with ONE man, Adam. The first human "father of the multitude" that shall be converted and inherit salvation was the ONE man, Abraham (Gen. 17:5); and this same one man is the human "father of the faithful" (Rom. 4:16). The actual first beginning of the Church of God was the ONE man, Jesus Christ. But the organizational beginning was through the collective Body of Christ, empowered by the same Spirit, starting with the TWELVE.
This present last-warning work of God, officially, was started by the little Church of God in Eugene, Oregon. Yet I was the pastor and leader of that little Church, and most original members of that time showed little interest, and took no real part, in the work. To all practical effects, it started with one man, with the help of my wife -- and, of course, a handful of co-workers.
The first conception of The Plain Truth had come in 1927. I had made actual dummies of the magazine that year. But it was only after seven years that the dream came to reality and completion as a fact. Even then it was a crude, home-produced, mimeographed "magazine." For the first seven years, from then, this whole work remained a crude, unprofessional, struggling little work. After seven years, the magazine became a printed publication, the work moved into a daylight, efficient office, we began to acquire some office equipment, and the work took on a more perfected and professional appearance.
But the year 1946 was TWELVE years after God's work began. And it was in 1946 that the vision of Ambassador College, the BEGINNING of the organizational activity of this great work first was placed in my mind. But it was by no planning of mine that this first BEGINNING of an enlarged, world-girding, ORGANIZED work first entered my mind -- and that the property for its beginning was purchased that year. The truth is, I never so much as realized that this all happened TWELVE years after the first starting of the work, until researching material for this Autobiography! But see now what happened in 1946!
START of Business and Printing Departments
During these first twelve years, there was no such thing as a business office to handle the finances. Through those years I, myself, was business manager of the work, as well as editor, printer, office boy and everything but windowwasher (there were no windows the first seven years).
But an organizational operation could not operate worldwide, as God's work does today, without a department of business administration.
We didn't know it at the time, but the first manager of the business office, in charge of handling all monies, paying all bills, keeping all financial records, and making all but the very top-level financial decisions (which I still must make), in regard to budgets, requisitions for purchases, etc., joined the "organization" (if it could then have been called that) in mid-February, 1946.
This was my son-in-law, Vern R. Mattson, husband of our younger daughter Dorothy. They had been married in our little church in Eugene in July, 1944. He was on brief furlough from the Marines after returning from the Marines' engagement at Guadalcanal, and having been in an Australian hospital. After their marriage, due to his record in action, he had been sent back to Quantico, to Officers' Training Camp. He graduated from officers' school with highest grades and honors, at the head of his class, and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant. He had been discharged finally from service in November, 1945.
In February he joined our small but growing staff, to become office manager. For some two to four weeks he did ordinary office work, working in every department, to learn our system -- and making suggestions for improvements, preparatory to taking over the office management.
At that time we had a forelady, a secretary to me, one woman reading and channeling incoming mail, one girl cutting stencils for new names on the mailing list, three girls filing at the mailing-list cabinets, and two girls in the "co-worker department," keeping card records of all people contributing to the support of the work, with amounts and dates.
Later, after moving the headquarters to Pasadena, in 1947, Mr. Mattson became business manager of the work and controller of the college. His department developed into a sizable operation, with a competent staff.
The first START of our own printing department came about under unusual circumstances, by late May.
In early March, 1946, our other son-in-law, Jimmy (James A. Gott), husband of our elder daughter Beverly, met with a serious accident. He had been working in the Oregon woods east of Eugene for a lumber company. This was dangerous work. Employment was somewhat spasmodic. The pay was good -- when they worked. We were glad, therefore, when he was transferred to a more steady and "safe" job, in the mill.
But it was on this "safe" inside mill job that the accident happened. Jimmy was working on the edger. At the time he was wearing a glove, which caught on the teeth of the feed-roll. The spinning feed-roll gouged out the whole back of his left hand, even shearing thin the tendons and severing one or two.
He was in the hospital some six weeks or more. During the war, the doctors had learned to do some remarkable feats of plastic surgery on injured soldiers. A plastic surgeon, by binding the back of Jimmy's hand to his abdomen, grafted new flesh and skin from the abdomen onto the back of his hand. The operation restored most, but not complete, use of the hand.
We didn't want to see Jimmy go back either to the woods or the sawmill. At this time the Davidson offset printing machine was brought to my attention. I sought further details, obtained circulars and catalogs. The company offered special training to teach men to use the equipment. I found we could purchase this equipment on terms.
I took the printed matter and illustrations about it to Jimmy in the hospital.
"How would you like to get into the printing business?" I asked. "I think the time has come to start out our own printing department. I don't have in mind printing The Plain Truth ourselves, but we need many more booklets than we can afford to have printed at commercial printing establishments. I think this offset method of printing, in a department of our own, will pay for itself in a year's time or less. I was thinking you could learn this type of printing in a short time, and it would be a STEADY job, and a safe one. I can't pay you as much as you make in the woods -- when you have work there, but this would be steady, and you'd make more per year than you have been making."
Jim liked the idea immediately. He read up on the Davidson literature, and by the time he was released from the hospital he was enthusiastic over it.
The equipment was installed in a room in the basement of the IOOF building in Eugene, and with a factory instructor teaching Jim the first few days, our printing department got under way late in May.
My Mother's Eightieth Birthday
My mother reached her eightieth birthday April 21, 1946. Although the biblical instruction of God shows that only pagans celebrated birthdays, and Mrs. Armstrong and I have not done so since learning this truth, my sister, who lived in Portland, was of a religious denomination that does follow this custom. She had planned a celebration for Mother at her home, and it was up to me to get Mother there.
My mother had never flown on a plane. I can remember very well, as a boy, hearing her use the expression often: "I could no more do thus and so than I could fly." I decided it was time she began to fly -- and she was quite willing.
So, at Eugene airport, we boarded a United Airlines plane for Portland. I took "movies" of her walking out to the plane, ascending the steps, and standing on the platform in the door of the plane, waving. At Portland, I left the plane first, to take pictures or her getting off. In the doorway she waved, with a sort of triumphant smile that reminded me of the supposed expression of a cat that had just swallowed a canary. She flew frequently after that. My sister and husband were there to meet us.
It seemed that eighty was a very ripe old age -- one that deserved honoring. But God granted my mother an additional fifteen and a half years after that -- fifteen and a half years of enjoying life abundantly. In September, 1961, recovering from a deep-seated cold and semipneumonia condition, sometimes called "the old people's friend," she simply seemed to lack the physical strength to continue recovery. In midafternoon, she smiled, said she felt a little tired, and thought she would lie back in her easy reclining chair and take a nap. She went to sleep, and, a half hour or so later, simply stopped breathing.
Only the preceding afternoon she had smiled at one of our favorite little jokes. I said, as I had done many times before, teasing her a little, "Mother, you're the best mother I ever had." As usual, though a little weaker and more tired than usual, she smiled and replied, "Herbert, you're one of the best sons I ever had."
No one grieved, though she was greatly missed. She had lived to the fine old age of ninety-five and a half, enjoying life to the last day. She simply went to sleep happily -- no pain, no suffering, just peaceful, restful SLEEP. She will awaken, in the next second of her consciousness, in the resurrection of LIFE. Instead of grieving, we gratefully thanked God for giving her long life, in the happiness of the knowledge of His WAY, always loving her Savior.
She often talked of her joy the day I was born -- for I was her firstborn. She bore me, and for Jesus Christ I baptized her.
But I have gotten fifteen and a half years ahead of the story. Back, now, to the spring of 1946. Back, now, to that year of organizational BEGINNINGS, when God's work began emerging from virtually a minor one-man work into a highly organized major worldwide power and influence.
The "Shirttail Shoot"
The first meeting of the Security Council of the new United Nations was scheduled to begin on March 25, 1946, at Hunter College in New York. And that marked the beginning of the END of man's efforts to rule the world.
The General Assembly of the United Nations was merely a debating body -- a sounding board for rival propaganda. Only the Security Council was supposed to have the real power. If ever men were to be able to bring about PEACE on earth, this Security Council was their sole and last hope.
I decided to cover this first session of the Security Council in person for The Plain Truth and the World Tomorrow radio program. It was my first coast-to-coast night.
This night was made in a series of hops in the best air service of the time -- DC-3s, or the equivalent. My first hop started from Portland.
I do not now remember whether I have ever told on myself about a certain proclivity. I think I have pretty well overcome it now, but I had not in 1946. I had developed a habit of always catching a train, bus, or plane at the very last minute. I suppose this tendency had been influenced as a boy, when parents, uncles and aunts always felt they had to arrive at the depot at least an hour or more before departure time for a train. This seemed to me a foolish waste of time.
Through the years I had caught many a train on the run, after it had started. My wife had a name for this habitual last-second dash. She called it a "shirttail shoot." She never approved of it. She preferred to waste the hour of waiting, rather than waste the following hour calming jangled nerves. I'm afraid I pampered and petted the habit somewhat, before I finally determined to overcome it.
Often, through my life, I had not been able to accomplish things I set out to do on the original planned schedule. Sometimes goals or objectives were reached a whole year later than original schedules. But I took comfort and courage in being able to say: " ... but I always arrived" -- and, even if late, I could always say, "Mission Accomplished!"
It was a fault -- and it has been overcome -- but I always insisted it was better to have set the goal and to have achieved it, even a day or a month or a year late than never to have tried in the first place; or having set the goal, to have started out with a flourish and then to have given up and quit.
I do now strive, with every pressure, to completed projects and to accomplish various objectives on time.
GOD DOES THINGS ON TIME! God is never a single second late. It took me years to learn that lesson, and I pass the experience on to you for what it is worth.
First Security Council Session
But on March 23, 1946, I had not yet overcome the last-second-dash tendency. Even when I started out on time, something always happened along the way, seemed, to necessitate that final leap for the departing train -- or, in this instance, plane.
I decided to drive the car to Portland airport. On this occasion, I believe we started in time. But we encountered tire trouble -- or car trouble of some nature -- along the way. After an enforced stop at a garage, it became doubtful whether I could reach Portland in time. Mrs. Armstrong went along to see me off on the plane, and both of our sons, one of whom drove the car back to Eugene.
It was a wild, nerve-shattering ride in the rain the remaining seventy-some miles. I don't think Mrs. Armstrong ever forgot it. But, as usual, I arrived at the airport at the last split second.
Sometimes we need to reflect back on events such as this. We need to remind ourselves of the swift pace at which this world is traveling. This transcontinental night was not flown nonstop in four hours in a big jet plane -- as thousands fly the distance every day now. The best available then was this little two-prop DC-3. We made stops at Pendleton, Oregon; Pocatello, Idaho; Salt Lake City, Utah; Cheyenne, Wyoming; Denver, Colorado; Omaha, Nebraska; Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan; Washington, D.C.; and New York La Guardia Airport. This flight lasted all night and next day, arriving in the evening.
However, during that very week I was in New York, air transportation took a big leap ahead. The larger DC-4s were inaugurated. On my return night, to Los Angeles, I enjoyed the thrill of what seemed then like a huge DC-4, with stops only at Washington, D.C., Nashville, Dallas, El Paso, and Los Angeles. It was an overnight hop!
As we flew over Manhattan after takeoff, it was 9 p.m. We arrived at Burbank Airport around 6:30 a.m. I shall never forget the exhilarating sensation I felt, walking up Hollywood Boulevard before 7 a.m. -- before many people were out on the street, and thinking, "And only 9 o'clock last night I was looking down on the lights of New York!"
I thought of my first trip to the West Coast in 1924, in a Model-T Ford -- eighteen arduous days from Des Moines, Iowa -- just a little over half way across the United States. And now, only twenty-two years later, I had come all the way from New York just overnight! It seemed to me we were living in a tremendous age!
But think what has happened since then. Next came the DC-6s, and the 3-tailed Constellations; then the still larger DC-GBs; then the DC-7s, when we felt planes had reached the ultimate. But soon even that model was improved and enlarged into the DC-7Bs, and rivaling it was the Super Constellation. But then a little later we were gasping for breath when the 707 jets occurred.
I was a passenger on the first overnight jet flight from Los Angeles to New York -- leaving Los Angeles International Airport about 1:30 a.m., after midnight, arriving in New York early morning.
And now there is the giant 747, besides the DC-10, and, in Europe, the manufacture of the SST! I suppose we soon shall be leaving New York in rocket planes, arriving in Los Angeles before we start, due to the three-hour difference in time. Already, with this time differential, jet planes arrive in Los Angeles only about three hours after leaving London, England, on polar nights!
Yes, time flashes past -- and it is LATER THAN WE THINK! But back, now, to New York, where I arrived the evening of March 24, 1946. Next morning I took the subway out to Hunter College. I had full access to the press room set up for the opening sessions of the Security Council, because of my press card from the State Department.
But, in these first deliberations of the BIG POWERS who were members of the Security Council, I found no moves toward peace, but only a continuation of the bickering, accusing, and struggle for selfish advantage I had witnessed at the San Francisco Conference.
Special Dispatch from the Security Council
The very START of the United Nations is summarized in the special dispatch I filed in the press room, sent by wire to Eugene, Oregon, and published on page 7 of the March-April Plain Truth of that year. It was short, so I reproduced it here:
"UNO Security Council, New York. Special: As Secretary of State Byrnes said in opening the first meeting of the Security Council of the United Nations Organization today: 'This is a moment of great importance in the history of the world. With this meeting the Security Council of the UNO begins to function permanently and continuously.'
"I write this from the press room of this temporary headquarters of the Security Council. The session begins today as all such conferences do, with speeches by important personages. Press men and women are milling around in the press room here, writing and filing, for their papers, thousands of words, reporting names and happenings.
"But what is being said in these opening speeches; and what is being sent out from here to be read in newspapers throughout the world is not of itself important.
"What is important is what is going on in the mind of Joseph Stalin, over in Moscow, Russia!
"What is important is what is still in the minds of multiple millions of Germans poisoned by Goebbels' propaganda, and for which poison our occupation forces have no cure!
"The world's LAST HOPE of preventing atomic annihilation lies IN HARMONY! in this vital Security Council of the UNO. BUT THERE IS NO REAL HARMONY!
"An open break on the Iranian dispute this week would bomb UNO out of useful existence, make immediately imperative the British-American alliance advocated by Mr. Churchill and possibly lead to imminent war.
"Russia is not ready for another war now. Consequently the Iranian dispute will have been worked out in some way before you read these lines.
"The Security Council will continue to function for the present. But that does not mean the kind of harmonious unity between the Big Three IMPERATIVE FOR PREVENTION OF ATOMIC WAR!
"In the minds and hearts of the principals here, and in Moscow, London and Washington, there is not that kind of unity. THERE CAN NEVER BE PERMANENT WORLD PEACE UNTIL NATIONS AND THEIR LEADERS LEARN THE WAY TO PEACE. THAT WAY THEY DO NOT KNOW AND WILL NOT CONSIDER!
"There is a beehive of activity here though this conference is on a much smaller scale than the San Francisco Conference, a year ago: frankly, it all reminds me of the adages 'much ado about nothing' and 'tempest in a teapot.'
"The WAY to permanent peace I DO NOT FIND HERE! "But what I do find here is the way men and nations will insist upon following until the entire Babylonish world order finally topples to a self-imposed oblivion.
"AND THAT DAY IS NOT FAR OFF! IT'S LATER THAN WE THINK!" Work Outgrows Eugene
Even before this flight to New York to cover the Security Council opening, it had become painfully apparent that the work had outgrown Eugene, Oregon. We had started daily broadcasting, six nights a week, nationwide, on the two most powerful radio stations covering the United States. The program, beginning October 1, 1945, had gone daily on 100,000-watt XELO, Juarez, Mexico, just across the Rio Grande River from El Paso, Texas, at 8 p.m. on the clock (Mountain time) and 800 on the radio dial six nights a week. At the same time we had gone on 150,000-watt XEG, Monterrey, Mexico, six nights a week at 8 p.m. Central standard time. Also the program started simultaneously on our first 50,000-watt West-Coast station, XERB, just south of San Diego, at 9 p.m., Sunday nights only. This station was heard from Mexico to Alaska up and down the coast, and reaching as far as Montana and Alberta.
I should mention here that none of these stations have more than a fraction of the effective coverage today that they had then, even though the power remains the same. The number of radio stations in the United States has increased rapidly, until there are several times as many now as then. For example, in Eugene, Oregon there was one station then. These hundreds of additional stations, on all frequencies up and down the radio dial, cut in tremendously on the superpower stations, so that they do not reach out as far or as effectively as they did in 1945 and 1946.
After October 1, 1945, when this superpower national-coverage nightly broadcasting began, our office staff at Eugene increased rapidly. The one office we had first occupied in the IOOF building expanded to four, with six times our original space, including one large general workroom. By this time I had an office manager in charge of the general workroom, and about nine girls. We had acquired equipment for mailing. Through the years, this type of equipment has been stepped up gradually, a step at a time.
Originally, the mailing list was handwritten on two sheets of paper. The first few years Mrs. Armstrong kept this list. All copies of The Plain Truth were addressed by hand. Then, about the time we moved into the IOOF building, we picked up an antiquated, second-hand, foot-powered addressing machine, with which we could use the Elliott stencils.
These stencils were cut on a typewriter. But by the end of 1945 we had our first Elliott addressing machine. Later, as the work continued to grow, we stepped up to the Addressograph system, with metal plates. Today, of course, we keep our mailing list on IBM computer.
However, I was confronted not only with the problem of getting 75,000 copies of the magazine printed each issue, having outgrown local commercial printing facilities, but also with the problem of recording six half-hour programs each week.
By this time I was going to Portland for recording. I was having to spend an average of three days each week in Portland, away from my office. Even this meant recording two half-hour programs each day that I was in Portland. This was too strenuous an assignment, as a regular grind. When more than one half-hour of full speech is recorded in a day, the quality and effectiveness of the second one suffers. There is bound to be a physical let down in the second program.
For a while, I avoided spending half the week in Portland by installing a regular telephone broadcast line, connecting my office with the recording studio in Portland. But this was not satisfactory.
Radio headquarters for the United States was Hollywood, with New York a sort of secondary headquarters. The best-equipped major recording studios were all in Hollywood and New York. It was becoming more and more necessary to have the recording done in Hollywood. So, by December, 1945, I was making trips as often as possible to Hollywood to do the recording, and to look for a location to move our headquarters.
Searching a Location in Pasadena
At first, I thought only of moving our office to the Los Angeles area, accessible to Hollywood, and to the larger printing establishments in Los Angeles for adequate facilities for printing The Plain Truth. The idea of a college didn't strike my mind until 1946.
Of all places, however, that Mrs. Armstrong and I did not want to live, Hollywood headed the list. Neither did we want to live in Los Angeles. It was too large a city, and we regarded it as the spawning ground of crackpot religions. We did not want to be identified with it.
So, needing to be accessible to both Hollywood and Los Angeles, yet desiring to live in neither, we turned to Pasadena.
We had first visited Pasadena in 1941. We knew it was totally different from either Hollywood or Los Angeles -- or Beverly Hills. Pasadena was a cultural city, conservative, and a city of homeowners.
It must have been in December, 1945, while in Hollywood for recording, that I began making a series of arduous, patience -- trying trips to Pasadena in search of office space and a place to live. At this time we had no home, as explained previously. We had lived in various motels in Eugene, and later in a rooming house.
Day after day I "tramped" afoot all over Pasadena, looking for a suitable location. Nothing suitable seemed to open. I would return to my hotel room in Hollywood at night dog-tired.
Idea of College Germinates
As the weeks and months sped by, an idea was begotten in my mind. As the work was growing, the need of additional trained help was becoming more and more apparent.
Up to this time I had been holding nightly evangelistic campaigns in various towns and cities in Oregon and Washington. Nearly always there had been enough converts to organize a small church group. But there was no minister to pastor the little flock. Not one of them lasted longer than six months. I had to realize that sheep cannot endure without a shepherd.
In Eugene, one of the four larger churches conducted a school for training ministers. It became headquarters for a new denomination. I had noticed that once they established new small church groups here and there, their little churches continued to hold together and grow. They had ministers available to pastor each new church raised up. They had a school for training ministers.
If necessity is the mother of invention, perhaps God created the necessity to get through my thick skull the realization that God wanted a college of His own for the training of His ministers, as well as other trained personnel that soon would be required for His rapidly growing work.
What KIND of College?
And so it came about that, by the time of my flight to New York in late March, 1946, I was well aware of the need for a college. And I knew that college must be located in Pasadena, California.
As I thought and planned -- and prayed for wisdom and guidance -- the kind of school to be established gradually took shape in my mind. It must not be a "Bible School" or a theological seminary. There was a vital REASON!
The one profession no man is free to choose for himself is Christ's ministry. The true ministers of Jesus Christ are CHOSEN BY HIM -- just as He chose His original apostles. Jesus said: "Ye have not chosen met but I have chosen you, and ordained you" (John 15:16). I had learned, by observation and experience of others, that invariably if God does call a man to His ministry, that man will try to run from it -- as Jonah did. I did the same, myself. But, if a man decides for himself that he wants to be a minister, invariably time and the fruits demonstrate that Christ never called him.
The students in this school must not come with the expectation of becoming a minister. Again, specialized BIBLE instruction alone would not be enough. In today's world of wide diffusion of education, only an educated ministry can adequately represent Jesus Christ.
The type of college soon became crystal clear. It must be a LIBERAL ARTS college, offering a general cultural education, with biblical and theological training offered as ONE of several major courses. And then there could be a Graduate School of Theology for those who, after four years of undergraduate work, appeared as possible or probable future ministers chosen by the living CHRIST.
Also, because we would need trained girls and women in the work, and because most effective development of character, personality, poise, and true culture is better achieved by social contact of both sexes, it became plain that the college must be coeducational, admitting girls as well as men.
With all this in mind, I planned to fly from New York to Los Angeles.
And that explains my cross-country flight to Los Angeles in one of the very first DC-45, about the first of April, 1946. Arriving early that morning in Hollywood, I telephoned Mrs. Armstrong at Eugene, and we decided she would catch a plane that same day and join me in Los Angeles. That night is one of the reasons she gave up flying, except when it was absolutely necessary. She had suffered a severe case of airsickness.
In Search of a COLLEGE Location
By that time I knew there had to be a liberal arts college. I knew what kind of college. I knew what its basic policies must be.
What I then had in mind was a small college of one building. There was no idea of beautiful campus grounds. The beautiful, spacious, magnificently landscaped campuses we now have were of GOD's planning, not mine.
But I did not yet know CHRIST'S mind as to what constituted a suitable location. My conception was merely a building with three or four classrooms, and a small auditorium or assembly room. Of course there had to be office space for our growing mailing office. There was no thought, then, about dormitory space or housing.
After Mrs. Armstrong joined me, we remained for some two or three weeks recording the daily program in Hollywood studios, and spending all available time searching for a location in Pasadena.
It was a long, arduous, tiresome search day after day. Finally, I found a vacant lot west of the arroyo that seemed somewhat near my conception of a suitable location. It was in a residence section, where two streets joined like the base of a V at an intersection. This lot was triangular in shape, rather rounded at the base of the V. It contained perhaps a third of an acre of ground. I envisioned a triangular, V-shaped building to be erected on this lot. The idea of spacious campus grounds simply did not occur to me.
With this concept in mind, I consulted two architects in Hollywood who worked in partnership. They designed preliminary sketches of the building I had in mind. When laid out on paper, the building occupied nearly the whole of the lot, leaving room only for a small patio.
We returned to Eugene, Oregon, with the problem of how to manage the purchase of the ground, and the financing of construction. This problem proved to be a real headache. We had the money for neither. The income for the work must have been between $50,000 and $75,000 per year at that time, but operational expenses of the broadcasting and publishing work had a habit of keeping equal with, and always trying to run ahead of income.
In June we returned to Hollywood, accompanied this time by our two sons. Dick was then approaching eighteen, and Ted was sixteen. I began to feel we needed more ground. I continued the daily trips to Pasadena. Finally I found a vacant plot of some four or five lots -- perhaps 250 feet by about 100 feet, on California Street, on a corner. This site would at least make possible a larger patio.
I made preliminary plans to buy it. The money was not on hand at the moment. But I planned to set aside a definite amount each week, until enough for a down payment would accumulate. I hoped to have this within three months.
The First Baptizing Tour
Meanwhile, scores of letters had been received from radio listeners coast to coast requesting baptism. There were requests from all over the South, the Middle West, and even Florida. You've heard people speak of things tugging at their hearts. If ever anything tugged at our hearts these appeals did. Mrs. Armstrong and I felt they could be deferred no longer.
So we had planned a nationwide tour to visit these people personally and baptize all who were found ready. We were still driving our 1941 DeSoto. It was one of the best cars ever manufactured in America, but it was now more than five years old. While recording in Hollywood, and searching further in Pasadena, we left the car for about a week in a Hollywood garage for a complete overhaul.
Meanwhile, I spent many hours in our hotel room sorting out many scores of electrical transcription discs that had been broadcast six months or more previously, for repeat broadcast during the weeks of our tour. These had to be sent to the stations so that the program would continue daily until our return to Eugene, when I would resume recording new programs.
I felt that by our return from the baptizing tour we might have enough accumulated in a special fund for a down payment on this Pasadena plot of ground. The hope was that we would be able to pay off the balance within a year, and then, with the ground paid for, obtain a loan with a mortgage on the ground for construction of the college building.
We started the baptizing tour one evening, so that we could drive through the heat of the desert to Las Vegas during the cooler hours of the night. It must have been near 2 a.m. when we arrived in Las Vegas. The car was now in good shape mechanically, even though five and a half years old -- it was in good shape, that is, all except the tires.
Perhaps many of our readers will remember the scarcity -- almost nonexistence of good tires after those war years. Our tires were mostly recaps. The rubber supply had been largely shut off during the war, and the tire makers had turned to synthetics. They were not yet perfected in quality as they are today.
I think it was the next day out of Las Vegas we began having our tire troubles. Time after time we had blowouts. At one filling station a dealer sold us a recap tire that lasted just long enough to get us far enough away that we could not afford to turn back and demand a replacement. Finally, at a town in Texas, we found a man, whom I believe I baptized, who had ration coupons or some kind of priority for two or three new tires, which he insisted we take, at his sacrifice. After this we had little tire trouble.
Bathtub Baptizing
I think a few of the unique experiences of that first baptizing tour are worth recording.
Some time before this, I had obtained in Eugene a lightweight rubber wader's suit. The soles of the feet were of heavier rubber, and the suit came up to the body almost to the armpits. I used this rubber suit for baptizing. In nearly all cases we were able to find a local stream, or small lake suitable for the baptizing ceremony.
One night we had been delayed by previous visits by some hours in reaching Lake Charles, Louisiana. It was rather late in the evening -- perhaps 10 o'clock -- when we arrived. We had made appointment by letter to meet a number of people at this home. They were all patiently waiting when we arrived. But there was no available river or lake for baptizing. I do not remember the details specifically. But I seem to remember that there had been rains, and there was swamp water, and it was positively unsafe -- either because of snakes or poisonous matter in the water.
I do remember these people said there simply was no available water anywhere for baptizing. The idea of using the bathtub was suggested. I had never done this, or heard of it -- but the requirement was enough water to "bury" the candidate in the "watery grave," and so I decided the bathtub could serve in the absence of anything else. It was a struggle to get the candidates completely "buried" in the water, but I succeeded.
We had to forego baptizing one man in Florida altogether. He said the swamp waters in the area were so dangerous he would not risk his life going into them. There was no bathtub!
On this tour we zigzagged up and down, going north from New Orleans through Mississippi as far as Memphis, back down through Alabama, into western Florida, up the Atlantic Coast through Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, into Washington, D.C., New York, and as far as Portland, Maine. Then across New Hampshire and Vermont, and up to Montreal, Canada.
Then on to Ottawa and Toronto, with a side-tour by boat to Niagara Falls and return. Then across Canada to Windsor and Detroit. On to Chicago, Des Moines, then again south into Oklahoma, then west through Kansas and back to Canon City, Colorado, where I had held the evangelistic campaign a year or two before. Then northwest across the Rockies and on to Eugene, Oregon.
Led to GOD'S Location
By November, in 1946, I had again gone to Hollywood for recording, and was again making trips over to Pasadena in search for a location for the college.
I had not been able to save out the weekly amounts planned to accumulate a fund for the purchase of the site I then had in mind. And by this time I had learned that, being a nonprofit church, and not a commercial business, it would be impossible for us to borrow the money to construct a college building, even if we had the ground already paid for.
It seemed every door for opening the college was slammed shut in my face. Yet I knew God was leading me to start a college that would be His college. There was no doubt whatsoever of that!
It was discouraging. It was frustrating! But I was determined not to give up. One real estate broker I had contacted in my search was a Mrs. McCormick. Her husband had been a real estate broker, and after his death she carried on the business. I had found her to be an intelligent and experienced businesswoman in her field, who at the same time remained every whit a lady of culture and refinement. In going the rounds of real estate agents, I chanced to drop in once again at her office.
"Oh, Mr. Armstrong," she said, "I'm glad you dropped in. I have a property I'd like to show you. It isn't quite what you have in mind, but I think it might be worth your while to take a look at it."
I was taken to a small mansion of some eighteen rooms, on Grove Street just off of South Orange Grove Boulevard -- Pasadena's "millionaire row" residence street. This was a two and a quarter acre place known as the "McCormick estate" -- because it had been built by a Mr. Fowler who was vice-president of the International Harvester Corporation, and Mrs. Fowler was the daughter of the founder of International Harvester, Cyrus McCormick.
The property was on a hillside. It had been magnificently landscaped, although it appeared not to have been maintained in good condition for a few years. Beside the main building, there was a four-car garage with two servants' apartments. To the east of these buildings was a beautifully contoured slope to a balustrade, and then a six-foot drop of ornamental concrete retaining wall under the balustrade, dropping to a long, level space known as "the lower gardens." This space was headed by an ornate concrete tempietto, and ended at the other end with a large square pool and a classic pergola.
I could not see how we could use the building which had been a residence, or the large garage, but it did seem that the lower level space might become the building site for the classroom building I had in mind.
Of course, this space was well grown up in weeds, but I knew we could clear that. Also there were two other fountains at either side of the tempietto, and built in as part of it.
But the price was $100,000, and the owner, a Dr. B., whom I will not name for reasons that will be obvious, wanted cash. I shook my head. Indeed it was not quite what I had had in mind!
The next day, however, I began thinking it over. The thought occurred to me that it might be possible to use the big house as a classroom building. After all, I remembered suddenly that it was not designed in residential character, but was a concrete building with flat roof, architecturally of institutional appearance rather than residential.
Of course I didn't have the $100,000 cash. Nevertheless, I called Mrs. McCormick on the telephone, suggested this possibility, and asked if I could inspect the property once more, viewing it from this new and different angle.
She arranged another inspection with Dr. B. I could see on this visit -- I had hardly taken notice of the inside of the building on the first visit -- that the large living room, about twenty-seven by thirty feet, could make a good library room, and even serve as an assembly room. The adjoining large dining room could serve as an additional library room. A small office room off the entrance hall could serve as a small classroom for ten or twelve students.
Upstairs there were three large bedrooms, of adequate size for classrooms seating from thirty to sixty-five or more students, besides other smaller rooms. There was a small three-room penthouse above.
Then I inspected the garage building again. The main garage room, intended to accommodate four automobiles (it had originally been horse stables, but had been rebuilt into a four-car garage and servant apartment building), was even larger than our main larger office room in Eugene, Oregon, used as the mailing room. The apartment rooms to the rear could house our printing department. That left a small office in front, and the living apartments on the second floor could supply the other administrative offices.
For the first time I began to envision GOD's type of college location. Here were beautiful grounds to provide a small but, once cleared of weeds and relandscaped, magnificent campus with beautiful and majestic trees -- palms, deodars, magnolias and other fine specimens.
I asked the two Hollywood architects to inspect the property. "Why," they exclaimed, "here is your college, already built, and with a small but outstandingly beautiful campus."
The Proposition
I telephoned a boyhood Sunday school friend at that time, Dr. Walter Homan, dean of student personnel at San Francisco State College. I had previously consulted him about the founding of a college. I described this property to him.
"Providential!" he exclaimed, "It sounds positively providential!"
I telephoned Mrs. Armstrong to come to Hollywood immediately, to have her opinion. She, too, felt it was just the place -- and, if we outgrew it, perhaps adjoining estates could be some day acquired.
But how could we make the purchase without any money? That, you may be sure, was the REAL problem, now. Besides, I was not yet convinced in my own mind this was the location God had selected.
An idea came to my mind. It was already mid-November. The first college term would not start until the next September -- ten months away. Why not submit a proposition whereby we would start making the largest possible monthly payments, but not take possession until nine payments had been made, by the following July 1. That would give time to prepare for a September opening.
I asked Mrs. McCormick who was the best attorney in Pasadena for the handling of a property transaction. She recommended Judge Russell Morton. I arranged an appointment and went to his office.
Judge Morton recommended, under the circumstances, that a lease-and-option contract would be more attractive as an offer to the owner. I had suggested that we would make monthly payments of $1,000 per month. That was certainly a maximum ambitious monthly payment for me to offer, in our financial circumstances.
But 1 percent per month was rather common practice, and I feared any smaller offer would not even be considered. If this was where God wanted us, I felt I could rely on Him to increase the income enough to cover it.
Judge Morton suggested we draw up a contract providing for taking occupancy the following July 1, continuing on a lease rental basis until the end of twenty-five months. Then the $25,000 so far paid would become the down payment on the purchase, and we would then exercise our option, be given the deed to the property, giving Dr. B. a trust deed until fully paid.
The "Catch" in the Deal
The proposition was drawn up in legal form, and I gave it to Mrs. McCormick to present to Dr. B., with my check for the first $1,000.
Then I prayed earnestly. I asked God to reveal His will respecting His college by causing Dr. B. to accept if that were God's will, but to cause him to reject it, if this was not the place God had chosen for His college. I realized there did not appear to be any chance in a thousand that a man who wanted $100,000 cash would let his property go for only $1,000 per month, with no down payment at the start whatever -- and taking two whole years and one additional month to build up a 25 percent down payment.
I was not at all sure this was the place God wanted us -- and yet it had begun to look more and more like the finest place we could possibly have. But I knew God would cause it to fall into our hands if that were His will.
I did not hear any answer for two or three days. Then Mrs. McCormick told me she had the contract all signed, sealed, and delivered! The date was November 27, 1946.
For the moment I was elated, grateful, thankful! But what I didn't know was that apparently Dr. B. had no intention of ever letting us get possession. He was not a medical doctor. He was a doctor of law.
As time went along, it became evident that when July 1, 1947, arrived, Dr. B. had no intention of letting us gain possession. It appeared that his intention was to keep the $9,000 and keep the property too.
Chapter 51 Planning a New-Type College -- in U.S. and Europe WHEN THE idea of founding a college to provide the future trained personnel for the expanding work was first conceived, I thought immediately of my brother-in-law, Walter E. Dillon. My wife's brother had been a life-long educator. Those who have read the Autobiography from the beginning will remember the episode of the oratorical contests at Simpson College, in Iowa, back in 1922-1924. I had worked with him in oratory, when he was a college freshman. He won the state contest. Walter and I had been closer together, from that time, than with our own brothers.
He held a Master's degree in education from the University of Oregon, and had done additional work toward a Ph.D., or an Ed.D. He had started teaching school upon graduating from college, later becoming a principal, and finally principal of the largest public school in Oregon outside the city of Portland. Thus he had had considerable executive and administrative school experience, in addition to being a natural-born and experienced teacher. He was thoroughly familiar with college and university life, methods and procedures. He had the technical experience for academic organization I lacked.
Choosing a President
Immediately when the conception of the college entered my mind, I had contacted my brother-in-law, asking if he would join me in the venture, as president of the college. "I hardly think I could do that," was his first response. "I don't know much about the Bible. Administering a religious college, I'm afraid, is altogether out of my line."
"But this is not to be a Bible school, or religious college," I quickly explained. "It is to be a straight liberal arts college, although it will offer a course -- as one of the majors -- in Bible and theology. You won't need to have theological experience. Do you think I would be able to teach that course?"
"I think you have more Bible knowledge and understanding than anybody on earth," he smiled. "You know, I think we'd make a good team in getting this college started. With your business experience and ability, your religious knowledge and experience, and my academic experience -- well, I'll think about it."
He did think about it. Often we talked about it. Of course it was a weighty decision for him to make -- he had been established since his own college days in Oregon. Finally he decided he would come to Pasadena to help me get the new college started.
Before presenting the lease-option contract as an offer to Dr. B., Mr. Dillon had come to Pasadena to inspect the property and help me decide whether this was the right location. He had been immediately enthusiastic over it.
So now that we had the first segment of the future campus under contract, preparations began in earnest for organizing the thousand and one things required before it could swing open its doors as a going educational institution.
Special Magazine Edition
The very first thing to be done was to produce a special edition of The Plain Truth. The problem of recruiting students had been brought up by Mr. Dillon. That is a major problem of colleges and universities.
"The Plain Truth and the broadcast will provide us with students," I had explained.
The first thing to do was to let people know about it. The Plain Truth was still an eight-page bimonthly. The next issue was to be the January-February, 1947, number. With it we went up to sixteen pages. I made this a very special, more attractive edition. For the first time, it had a front cover, instead of starting the lead article on the cover. It showed a picture of the entrance to the new college-to-be. The center spread -- pages 8 and 9 -- had a large four-column picture showing a portion of the new campus. The article announcing the new college began on that page, with a four-column headline; "And now ... our own NEW COLLEGE!"
The article explained that "an amazing new setup has come into our hands that is unique, and, we believe, without parallel! Prospective students learning of the unusual program are thrilled!"
Policies were announced. The article said: "AMBASSADOR offers superior advantages in location, beauty of campus, nature of courses of study, high academic standards ... advantages in our special recreational and social program, cultural advantages, physical education, as well as in religious instruction.
"AMBASSADOR is to be a general liberal arts institution -- not a Bible school, ministers' college, or theological seminary. It will fit students for all walks of life, offering a general and practical basic education ....There is no other college like AMBASSADOR. It is, in a sense, a revolutionary new-type college ... a forward-looking, progressive institution built on soundest principles, having highest goals and objectives, yet employing the best of proved methods of administration, and maintaining highest academic standards."
The reader will be interested in a little further explanation of the college, which appeared in that article.
"But why should we establish and conduct a college in connection with this, God's work?" the article continued. "The reasons are concrete and vital.. .. The work has grown to a scope where called, consecrated, properly educated and specially trained assistants, ministers and evangelists to follow up this work in the field, have become an imperative need. The time has come when we must lay definite plans for carrying the gospel of the Kingdom of God into all nations, in many languages! Never, until now, could we foresee just how this was to be done. But the time has come; God has given the answer, and moved miraculously to open the way before us. The only answer was a COLLEGE of our own!"
But why, then, was this not to be a Bible school or theological seminary?
The article, continuing, explained that: "Yet, the active ministry is different from every other profession in one very important respect. No man ever should enter it of his own volition .... A true minister of Jesus Christ must be specially called of God. And how may we know whether one is really called? Experience has shown human nature to be such that most who think that they are called are mistaken, and those who really are called invariably try to run from the calling! Jesus gave us the only test.' By their fruits,' He said, 'ye shall KNOW.' But the fruits are worked out by experience, and that requires time. For that very reason, our college cannot be a ministerial college -- though it is being designed so that, should we be fortunate enough to find one out of twenty really and truly called to the ministry, that one will have been prepared and properly trained .... These considerations led naturally to the policy of making AMBASSADOR a general liberal arts institution for all young men and women, regardless of future vocation, occupation or profession."
The article continued to show what is wrong with this world's education today -- what has happened to it -- how it has drifted into materialism. It showed that the revelation of God -- in the Bible -- is the very FOUNDATION of all true knowledge -- the right approach to knowledge -- the concept through which to view and explain what is seen, measured and observed. But in this world's education, the false theory of evolution has been substituted as that basic concept and foundation. The article concluded with detailed, but brief, facts about the new college -- its location, courses offered, tuition.
Planning College in Europe
It may come as a surprise to many readers, but the conception of a second college abroad actually was generated in late December, 1946, or early January, 1947.
I had gone back to Pasadena at the end of December, 1946. On New Year's eve, I spent the night as Dr. B.'s guest, in the building still occupied by him and his sister, which was to become Ambassador College. In these days Dr. B. was very friendly. About 4:30 a.m., New Year's day, I was awakened by crowds trudging up the hill in front of the building, carrying blankets, camp-chairs, and stools.
The world-famous Tournament of Roses parade starts each year just one block south, on Orange Grove Boulevard. This first of our college buildings is only a half block east of Orange Grove boulevard.
This was my first opportunity to see the fabulous Rose Parade. I found the excitement of the throngs lining up along the parade course, beginning on South Orange Grove, and then making a right turn into Colorado Street -- the main business street of Pasadena -- was even more exciting than the parade -- if possible. In order to secure an advantageous position along the curb and parkway, vast throngs begin to assemble long before daylight.
It was during this visit that the idea of the second college in Europe came about. It was during a conversation with Dr. B. I was quite concerned about our future foreign language courses. I knew we had to have people trained in many languages, to get the gospel to all nations. I felt the average foreign language course, as taught in most colleges, inadequate. I wanted our young people to be taught to speak these languages as the natives of those countries do -- without a foreign accent. This was almost impossible, as taught in an American classroom. I felt students needed to actually live in these foreign countries, learning the languages there.
I knew, of course, that Switzerland is peculiar in that it has no one native language of its own. In northern Switzerland the official language is German. In central and western Switzerland, French is the official language; and in southeastern Switzerland it is Italian. Yet I knew most Swiss people speak all three, and a very large portion speak English beside.
In Switzerland, children are taught the official language of their district from birth. Then at age six most children start to learn a second language, and at age ten or twelve, a third -- and often one or two more later.
As we were discussing this situation, Dr. B. mentioned that he had a very close personal friend, a Madame Helene Bieber, of German birth, the widow of a very wealthy Frenchman, who owned the newest, finest, most modern villa in southeastern Switzerland at Lugano. Mme. Bieber, he said, had lost all her money during the war. It had been in Paris banks, and had been confiscated when the Germans occupied Paris. She had some money in New York banks, but wartime regulations, not yet released, apparently tied it up and prevented transmission of it to Switzerland. She was left with this ultramodern and super elegant five-story villa, facing on beautiful Lake Lugano, yet without funds even to employ a single servant.
"She still has all her fine clothes, dozens of mink wraps and coats, and her villa, but no money," Dr. B. explained. "Since you would not want to start your college over there for about three or four years, I believe you could effect a purchase -- if you can stretch to it -- on a basis similar to the one between you and me on this property here. You could begin making payments now, which would provide her with an income to live on. She could continue living in her villa for the next three or four years, with an income -- sort of eating her cake and having it, too, these first few years. Then, when you take possession and start your school, you will have a very sizable payment made on the purchase. By that time she will have her money from the New York banks, and will continue to receive regular sizable monthly payments from you for a few more years.
"I think she might be willing to make such a deal -- and it would make it possible for you to acquire your second college without capital -- just monthly payments, beginning now."
I was intrigued. I did not realize that the "good doctor" actually had designs on marrying the rich widow -- surmising that she probably would also get her money from the Paris banks some day -- and that he probably had no more thought of allowing us to actually ever gain possession of the Lake Lugano villa than he did of allowing us to actually gain possession of this property in Pasadena!
I thought over the idea for some time. Finally, along about the tenth of February, 1947 -- or a day or two later -- I talked to Dr. B. on the telephone from Pasadena about the Switzerland idea further. He suggested we go over and see it. He offered to go along. We decided to go immediately. There was a sailing of the Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth from New York on February 19. Dr. B. said he would meet me aboard ship.
There was no time to obtain passport or steamer reservations before leaving the West Coast. Dr. B. already had his passport. Under regular routine it required thirty days to obtain one by mail from Oregon. But I knew the Press Officer of the State Department, and felt confident he would be able to get my passport issued immediately, at Washington.
Mrs. Armstrong and I had discussed the matter of her accompanying me. But there not only was the added expense, she had such fear of the water, she felt afraid to sail.
As a young girl her grandmother, born in England, had told her of a terrible shipwreck on her voyage to America. The grandmother was twelve years of age, when her widowed mother, with her eleven children, sailed to America. Some distance off the banks of Newfoundland, the sailing vessel was torn apart by a hurricane. Six of the children, lashed to a mast, were picked up by another vessel -- but the mother and five children were drowned. Hearing the vivid, stark details of this tragedy while a very young girl had put fear of the ocean into my wife's mind. So she had decided not to sail with me to Europe.
Accordingly, on February 12, after my telephone conversation with Dr. B., I procured round-trip tickets and Pullman reservations to New York for myself alone.
I had decided to make the trip to New York this time via Portland, Seattle, and on the crack train of the Great Northern Railway -- the "Empire Builder" -- to Chicago, thence on the B & 0 line to Washington, D.C., then to New York. The cost and time was the same as going straight east from Portland on the Union Pacific.
Chapter 52 Our First Trip Abroad IT WAS the morning of February 14, 1947. At that very moment, the Shasta Limited was approaching the station at Eugene, Oregon.
Mrs. Armstrong, Mrs. Annie Mann (a later hostess of girls' student residences at the college in Pasadena), and I were in my office. I had my hat and coat on, my suitcase packed and beside me and was throwing last-minute papers into my briefcase.
Suddenly Mrs. Armstrong exclaimed, "I've decided I want to go with you!"
Mrs. Armstrong's "Shirttail Shoot"
"Well, this is a nice time to make up your mind," I said. "You couldn't possibly get ready in time, now."
"Oh yes I can!" she replied. "Grab your suitcase and typewriter, and let's hurry!"
We dashed to the elevator. On the street below, one of our sons was waiting at the wheel of the car.
"Drive over to our rooms! HURRY!" I said. "Mother's decided to go with me."
At the time, the reader will remember, we were living in two upstairs rooms in a rooming house about five or six blocks from the office. We had sold our home nearly two years before. The work had needed the money.
We were whisked, as only a seventeen-year-old boy can whisk an automobile around corners on two wheels, to our rooming house. We dashed upstairs. Mrs. Armstrong first threw her suitcase out of the closet, asking Mrs. Mann to throw her clothes into it while she pulled them down off hangers and literally threw them out of the closet. In less than two minutes she had dresses, suits, and other things out of dresser drawers, thrown and jammed into her suitcase.
We dashed back downstairs, and the car careened around corners, pulling up to the depot about one minute before the train pulled out. Eugene was a division point on the railroad, and the train stayed there ten minutes while they changed engines and crews. But the train had pulled into the station just about the moment we were coming down the elevator of the office building.
I told my sons to put our luggage on the train, while I dashed across the waiting room floor to the ticket office, and asked for a one-way ticket to Portland. There was not time, now, to procure tickets to New York and return for my wife.
Many, many times I had made what my wife termed "shirttail shoots" for trains. This is one time she herself was guilty.
But the "shirttail shoot" was not over, yet. I now had to pick up her round-trip ticket to New York, when we changed trains at Portland. We had twelve minutes between trains at Portland. But, as usual in those days, there was a long line standing queued before each ticket window. At the very last second, I finally obtained her tickets, caught the train as it was starting.
We arrived in Seattle in the afternoon, and that evening started the long ride from Seattle. It was a rough, jerky ride across the states of Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin, into Illinois at Chicago. Our Pullman berth must have been at one end of the car, immediately over the wheels, where the riding is much more rough. It was even rougher on the B & 0 all-night ride into Washington, D.C.
How NOT to Plan Your Trip Abroad
Now ensued a series of exciting events which give the reader an example of how NOT to plan your trip abroad.
Arriving in Washington in the morning, we first checked in at the Statler Hotel. Before applying for passports, it was necessary to obtain passport photos of ourselves. We found a leading photograph studio in the hotel. The photographer tried to sell us a dozen larger photographs along with the passport photos.
I had not had my photograph taken for many years. I had never allowed my picture to be reproduced in The Plain Truth or any of our literature. I had, for years, even dodged and avoided all camera shots, except a few to be kept within the family. But just prior to this I had received a letter from a radio listener that convinced me I had been wrong.
This listener asked me what I had to hide. He asked me what I would think of a minister if I dropped in at his church, and the pastor hid behind the pulpit while he preached. Would I not think he had something to hide? Would I not become suspicious? He said character is written on one's face, and he always liked to see the faces of those he listened to. Of course, this was not possible on radio but, at least, he said, I ought to let listeners see my picture.
The thought came of using one of these photographs to reprint, but I was still hesitant about printing it in The Plain Truth. The photographer made a proposition. Why not place a bulk order for 500? He would make us a very special low price for such an order. He did it all the time, he said, for Congressmen and government officials, who thus sent these photographs to constituents.
So, it occurred to me it might be preferable to send real photographs to just those few who personally requested and wanted them, rather than publishing my picture for all readers to see. We placed an order, I believe, for some 400 of me and 100 of Mrs. Armstrong since most requests we had received were, naturally, for mine. Actually, I think we found later that we should have ordered them just the other way around, for there was a far bigger demand for my wife's picture than the supply. After our return from abroad, these were mailed out to those who had personally requested them.
Next I went to the State Department, but the press officer could not be seen until afternoon. Then I went to the ticket office of the Cunard Line, owners of the great ship the Queen Elizabeth. They had one cabin left, space for two, cabin class, on this particular sailing but that was the only space on the ship. We wanted to return mid-March. But there was no space whatever available on the west-bound voyage until August. I was told there might be some chance of a cancellation in the next two days, before sailing. The agent agreed to telephone their New York office, and I could contact them there, after arriving in New York. I purchased the ticket for the cabin on the east-bound passage.
In the afternoon I waited a long while in the office of the State Department Press Officer until he returned, about 4:30 p.m. He was glad to see me again, and immediately called the passport office across the street, asking them to process my passport at once. It was a few moments before closing time when we arrived at the passport office.
They told me our passports would be ready in the morning. I happened to show them my State Department credential card which I carried.
"If you had just shown us that," I was told, "we would have put through your passports earlier in the day, and you could have had them before now."
It was necessary to obtain visas to cross France, and to enter Switzerland, as well as to enter England.
The next morning, February 18, after obtaining the passports, we visited both the Swiss and French embassies, and had their visas stamped in the passports. However, we learned that the British visa had to be obtained in New York.
We had another very rough ride that afternoon on the train to New York -- rougher than the others before
Arriving in New York, we went to the Ambassador Hotel, where I customarily stopped when in New York. I had wired ahead for a reservation the day before leaving Eugene. But even then my telegram had not arrived in time. The hotel was booked up solid.
"Mr. Armstrong," the desk clerk said, "we certainly try to take care of our regular guests, but we're simply filled up, and booked ahead for about two weeks. But we have arranged a room for you and Mrs. Armstrong in another very good hotel just a couple of blocks away. We were also unable to accommodate your United States Senator from Oregon. You'll see Senator Wayne Morse sitting over there across the lobby."
I was acquainted with Senator Morse. He had been dean of the law school of the University of Oregon, in Eugene, before his election to the Senate. Mrs. Armstrong and I walked across the lobby, and chatted with the Senator a few moments, then went on to the other hotel.
Immediately upon reaching our room, I telephoned the Cunard Line to see if a cancellation had turned up on the return voyage, sailing from Southampton March 15.
"Mr. Armstrong," said the man at the Cunard office, "I would say that your chances are absolutely hopeless. We are booked solid for all our ships -- and so are all other steamship lines -- until the middle of August. More than that, we have several hundred others on the waiting list -- all ahead of you. There's absolutely no chance of so many cancellations that we can fill all of those ahead of you before tomorrow's sailing. "
Hopeless or not, I do not give up easily. I determined to call the Cunard office again next morning.
But let me say right here, all this experience is an example of how not to plan your trip abroad -- on a moment's notice, without passport, steamer or plane reservation, visas, or other preparations. Start planning at least a month ahead.
Out-Determining John Bull
Next morning I telephoned the Cunard office again. The same voice answered at their reservation office. It was the same story.
"I told you, Mr. Armstrong, there's no chance whatever," he said.
But I kept on talking. Soon we got into quite a conversation. I was telling him about a branch college in Europe. The idea was something new in education. He became interested, and so I kept on talking. After a while he said, "Would you excuse me a moment? I have to take a call on the other phone. I'll be right back."
In just about fifty seconds his voice came back. "What lucky star were you born under, Mr. Armstrong?" he asked. "Talk about miracles! Do you know what that call was? It was a man cancelling a cabin on the March 15 sailing from Southampton, and just because you're on the phone at this moment, I'm going to forget all those other applications on the waiting list ahead of you, and let you have it!"
It was no "lucky star," but it probably was a miracle! Mrs. Armstrong and I walked hurriedly over to the closest subway station on Lexington Avenue, and caught the first express train to downtown Wall Street, and hurried over to the Cunard office, where we procured our return passage on the Queen Elizabeth. Without it, we knew we would not be able to obtain British visas, or even to board ship that night.
The actual sailing was set for about 5 a.m. next morning, but all passengers had to be aboard ship by 11 p.m. that same night, Wednesday, February 19.
Immediately we took a subway back uptown, and went to the British visa office in Rockefeller Center on 5th Avenue. A line was queued before the visa window. I waited in line. Finally reaching the window, I was told that no visas could be issued in less than thirty days' time. I could file my application now, but the visa could not be issued for thirty days.
"But I must have this visa immediately, today!" I said, "Look, here is our ticket on the Queen Elizabeth. We have to be aboard ship before 11 o'clock tonight.'
"That makes no difference, sir," replied the clerk. "We require thirty days to issue a visa. You Americans are always trying to do things in a hurry. But you are in a British office now, and we don't rush things through in such a mad manner."
"This may be a British office, but you're in AMERICA, now, Mister," I returned. "And here, we do things the AMERICAN way. I have tickets to board the Queen Elizabeth tonight, and we are going to board it!"
"My dear sir," the clerk said politely, "we British are quite determined, you know. Would you please step aside, now. You are holding up this queue."
"Well now," I smiled, "you may be Johnny Bull, and you may have bulldog determination, and stubbornness, but right now, I'm more determined. I will not move from here until you stamp the visa in my passport. If you want to make room for those behind me, just stamp it, here."
"But I simply have to clear the way for the others behind you. Would you continue talking, then, to one of the officers at one of the desks behind me, so I can get to the others?"
"That depends," I said. "Is the man at the desk behind you your superior? Does he have more authority to issue a visa than you?"
Assured that he did have superior authority, I agreed that if this officer would come to the window and agree to let me inside the gate to see him, I would leave the window and continue with the man higher up.
He asked me why I had not sent in my application thirty days earlier. I explained that this was an emergency trip, planned suddenly only six days before, out on the West Coast. I explained how we had picked up passports on the run, as it were, and how miraculously space on the ship had opened up, and we had all the other required visas. Now all we needed was the British visa, so we could land at Southampton and pass through England on the way to Switzerland and return.
But he, too, was stubborn. He refused to issue the visa short of thirty days. It seemed very unjust. If he was determined, I was more determined. I kept talking.
"Mr. Armstrong," he said, finally, "I simply must ask you to please excuse me. I have much work to do."
"I will not leave until you stamp the visa on our passports," I said with finality. "Well then." he compromised, "will you leave now and come back at 3:30 this afternoon?"
The office closed at 4 p.m. "Will you promise to see me then, if I do?" I asked. He promised, and Mrs. Armstrong and I left. Promptly at 3:30 p.m. we returned. But this man avoided even looking our way. I stood at the gate, waiting. He did not keep his promise. He refused even to glance my way, and I was unable to open the gate and go to him.
Finally, at five minutes to four, he walked into another room. A moment later, another man, who sat at another desk, after cleaning up his desk to leave for the day, saw me waiting at the gate. He came to the gate, asking if there was something I wanted before the closing time.
"Yes indeed," I replied. "Mr. Blank asked me to return at this time for my visa. We are boarding the Queen Elizabeth tonight. But Mr. Blank just went into another room, and didn't seem to know I was here."
"Oh, I'll take care of it for him, then," he smiled. "Will you step in?" We walked over to his desk, and he stamped visas in our passports. I got out quickly, before Mr. Blank returned.
The Floating City
With nerves almost shattered, we walked up the gangplank of the Queen Elizabeth about 9 o'clock that night, looking forward to five quiet days aboard ship.
But there was no quiet until after 11 p.m., when all visitors had to leave the ship. The letters Mrs. Armstrong and I wrote our children tell the story:
Wednesday Night, 11:39 p.m. February 19, 1947
Hello, kids!
We are on board -- mail leaves in ten minutes -- must be brief. Visitors all have just left, This is the largest passenger liner ever built -- tremendous! It's been like an exaggerated movie premier -- mobs throng all over -- fourteen decks -- blocks and blocks long -- everyone dressed up -- many in evening clothes -- everyone happy -- crowd surrounding Mischa Auer getting autographs (he's going to Europe on the Queen) -- now it's quieting down. This ship carries 3,500 passengers -- a city floating! One gets lost on it.
At last we're really going to England-Europe! We have a nice small private stateroom to ourselves.
Dick and Ted, prove you are grown up and worthy of being trusted and taking responsibility. That's the way to get more privileges. Ted dress warm. That's all the time I have.
Keep the home fires burning. They say there's no coal for fires in England or Europe. We'll probably freeze and starve -- but here we go!
Love, Dad Dearest Children all of you,
It's a quarter of midnight. We are aboard and lack a whole lot of having seen the ship. It's immense. We are going to bed.
Ted if only I knew you were taking care of yourself I would be much happier. You must not go out in a "T" shirt when you are accustomed to a sweater. Now take care of yourself.
I can't realize that I'm at last going to see England. I've always wanted to. This is a beautiful ship. We'll get pictures of it.
We wish we could see all of you. We send a world of love to our dear family.
Mother The Queen Elizabeth was 1,031 feet long -- almost a quarter mile. It had fourteen decks; its gross tonnage was 83,673 tons -- about double that of a large battle-ship; it carried 3,500 passengers.
I was much amused at a cockney elevator operator aboard ship. Of course, actually the ship did not have elevators -- the British call them "lifts." In calling out the various decks, he would say: " 'C' Deck next -- 'C' for Charlie." Then, " 'R' Deck next -- 'R' for Restaurant." Then, " 'B' next -- 'B' for Bertie." Then, " 'I' Deck next -- 'I' for Albert."
We had the smoothest crossing ever experienced by members of the crew -- so some of them told us. We had prayed for it. Nevertheless, Mrs. Armstrong spent two days in bed with seasickness.
Aboard ship, at the reservations office, reservations were made for us at the Dorchester in London. At Southampton, the boat train to London was waiting in the Customs shed at the docks. I had obtained Pullman car reservations. This does not mean sleeping cars in England -- just first -- class coaches. The tickets had been obtained at the reservations window aboard ship. In the Customs shed, an officer examined our tickets, and told me we were in Car 'I'. So we walked almost the length of the train, past cars 'C', 'D', 'E', and on down to 'I'. Then we learned that we had encountered another cockney -- and we had to trudge back to car 'A'.
Arriving London
We docked at Southampton on Tuesday, February 25. Thursday morning, the twenty-seventh, a reporter from the Daily Graphic called on the telephone and asked for an interview. He arrived at 12:30, so I invited him to lunch in the Dorchester Grill Room. The idea of a college with one unit in America, and one in Europe, with a number of qualifying students transferring from the one on scholarship to the other was a new idea in education.
"A wonderful idea," he exclaimed. I did not get to see his story in the paper about it, since we left early the next morning for the Continent.
Our first real look at London was on Wednesday morning, February 26. In some respects it was like a dream. To us, it was a different world. Some of our first impressions were recorded in letters to our children. Here are brief excerpts:
From Mrs. Armstrong: written Wednesday: "It's so different here in London. Cabs, buses, everything -- never saw such a conglomeration of buildings, so many twists and turns in the streets. We went to Somerset House today. I thought I would look up Grandma's birth record, but couldn't find it. However, I don't know just the year or place of her birth. We have a nice room, but cold. Lights all go off and elevators (pardon me -- "lifts") stop running from 9 until noon, and from 2 to 4 p.m. Scarcely any heat in the coldest winter England has had since 1840, around two years before Grandma was born. The sun shone brightly today -- first time since five weeks ago. We've seen Buckingham Palace, Parliament buildings, etc. -- of course, so far only a very small part of London, for we slept till almost noon." We had not arrived in London until after midnight.
A portion of my letter, written same day: "Dear Kids all, at home: We have spent our first day in old London town. As mother told you, because of a strike. and due to coal shortage, we were kept on board the Queen Elizabeth until 7:30 last night. Our train didn't get started until 9 p.m. We almost froze. We're almost freezing now. The temperature in the hotel room and lobby is about fifty-five degrees. It's a different world. Old buildings -- many in ruins, all originally nearly white, and of stone, now almost black-coal smoke."
Attending Royal Reception
Just before noon on Thursday, I received a telephone call from the private secretary to "His Excellency, the Ambassador and Plenipotentiary Extraordinary of Saudi Arabia, Sheik Hafiz Wabba." She said that His Excellency had heard that I was in London -- I had an hour's interview with him at the San Francisco Conference, in 1945 -- and wished to extend a very special personal invitation for Mrs. Armstrong and me to attend a royal reception to be held that evening in the ballroom of our hotel, the Dorchester.
I wondered how the sheik had come to know we were in London. Then I remembered that the day before I had seen some Arab officials in their flowing robes in the lobby of the hotel. I had gone to the reception desk to inquire whether Sheik Hafiz Wabba was in the hotel. He was not, but I was informed that he did frequently come to the hotel. I had mentioned that I knew him. I supposed the reception office had made our presence known to the sheik.
This royal reception was in honor of H.R.H., the Crown Prince, Emir Saud. He later became King Saud of Saudi Arabia. The Sheik's secretary said that His Excellency would like to have another chat with me, and this reception would be the only opportunity, since he was leaving with the Crown Prince the next morning.
We had planned to leave London for Zurich that afternoon. We had an appointment to meet Dr. B., and Madame Helene Bieber in Zurich that evening. When I expressed regret at being unable to attend, due to this appointment in Zurich, the secretary urged me to postpone the Zurich appointment and stay over for the reception. It would be, she said, the most glamorous and important social event held in England since the war, and again reminded me it was the only opportunity for another interview with the sheik.
I said that I would telephone Dr. B. in Zurich, and if I could postpone our appointment, I would call her back. The appointment was postponed, and I notified the ambassador's secretary. A little later a specially engraved invitation arrived at our apartment by private messenger.
Perhaps excerpts from a letter written to the family at home immediately after returning from the reception will best describe the experience. This is what I wrote:
"Just this second we returned from the royal reception held by Sheil Hafiz Wabba and H.R.H. Emir Saud, the Crown Prince of Arabia. It was very colorful. About 200 invited guests -- earls, dukes with their monocles and flashing decorations, admirals, commodores, dozens of ambassadors -- we saw those from Turkey, Chile, Albania, etc. We entered in couples. A brightly uniformed page announced each couple in a very loud voice, as 'Lord and Lady so and so, ''Admiral and Mrs. so and so, ''The Turkish Ambassador,' and so on. We were announced as 'Mr. and Mrs. Herbert W. Armstrong.'
"The Arabs, in their flowing robes, stood in the receiving line. Mother advanced first, then I -- since this was the customary way. First we were greeted by His Excellency Sheik Hafiz Wabba. In turn he introduced us to the tall and very handsome crown prince, whom they addressed as 'Your Royal Highness.' Then the remaining five or six top Arab officials. Then the crowd mingled around, munching on tiny sandwiches, French pastries, while being served tea. The dress was not formal. The people over here have been through a war, in a way we Americans have no conception, and they simply don't have many fine clothes over here right now. There were very few in evening clothes. The clothes of several were becoming a bit threadbare. Yet the titled ones wore their glittering decorations. Mother was the nicest-looking woman there.
"We had a very nice, brief, private talk with the sheik, and got a statement for my article on the Palestine situation for the next Plain Truth.
"We were seated at a table, when the royal party approached. Immediately we arose, and took seats at another table. The Crown Prince sat at the table we had vacated, but before doing so smiled and motioned for us to be seated beside him at the table. He does not speak a word of English. I felt we should not accept his invitation, since it was apparent that table was intended for the royal party. He was merely trying to be cordial. Twice he smilingly motioned a welcome to us, but I smilingly and apologetically shook my head and refrained."
That Crown Prince later became the king, when his father, old King Ibn Saud, died. That experience was the first time we had ever come into personal contact with royalty.
While I was writing the above, Mrs. Armstrong was writing the following about the reception:
"We just returned to our room from the royal reception. I felt just like Little Lord Fauntleroy. It was all so interesting. We were announced in a thundering voice to all. Presented to Sheik Hafiz Wabba (His Excellency), who in turn presented us to the Crown Prince (His Royal Highness), and on down the receiving line. We were among the lords and ladies, dukes and earls, and admirals and ambassadors of many countries. They are all just folks. We were so interested in it all -- tables everywhere -- you could sit or not. In the center of the ballroom were large banquet tables with different kinds of food and drinks. One just walked up anywhere and helped himself. There was beautiful music -- violins and piano. The Palestinian announcer for the BBC branch there introduced himself to me and then to two ladies, and I later introduced him to Dad.
"It's March 1 now;" (this part evidently written later) "I'm all packed. We leave soon for France. It's bitter cold, no heat at all in the rooms. I fill the bathtub with hot water and get in until heated through, and then jump into bed. Last night the maid brought me a stone hot water bottle that kept me warm. Poor Britain is suffering even worse, it seems, than during the war. Everything but water is rationed."
And Now -- the Continent
The evening of the first of March 1 was writing a letter with my portable typewriter on my lap, in my upper berth in a compartment on the sleeping car of a French train from Calais, bound for Zurich. Mrs. Armstrong occupied the lower berth. This is part of what I wrote:
"Here we are in France. Just boarded this train a half hour ago. It's now dark. At 4:30 this afternoon we were on a boat crossing the English Channel, and the sun not far from the horizon sinking in the west. I looked at my larger watch, which is still set Eugene time, and it was 8:30 a.m. I did a little quick calculating and discovered that at that hour, you were looking at the same sun, same distance from the horizon, rising in the east, while we were looking at it setting in the west. We are one-third way around the earth from you. In other words, you people are walking almost upside down. I know you are, because one of us is, and it isn't us over here.
"Calais is quite a little town. We've seen many bombed and
shattered buildings. OUR bombs probably did that. The Nazis had
this town. Seems strange, like a dream, to think we are actually
over here where the war was fought, in territory that was
occupied by the Germans. I don't see any Germans here now. The
people here are French. And I mean FRENCH! At the dock and depot,
which are joined together, the officers or attendants, or
whatever they were, had typical French caps, like French army
officers, and flowing capes. The porters, seeking opportunity to
carry luggage for the tips, yelled out, 'Porteur! Porteur!
Porteur!" with accent on the last syllable -- or equally on both.
The train porters can't speak a word of English. They say 'Oui!'
(pronounced "It's now 8:45 p.m. Just at that last paragraph we were
called to dinner. A Frenchman walks through the cars ringing a
cute little bell. We weren't sure it was a call to dinner, or
whether there was even a dining car on the train. We were in the
rear car, so we started forward. After going through all the
sleepers, and about four day coaches (European type, six to a
compartment), we came to what looked like the baggage car,
decided there was no diner and turned back. Two cars back a
porter stopped us. He couldn't understand us; we couldn't
understand him. We tried by motions to make him understand we
were looking for the dining car -- if any. Mother suddenly
remembered that the word 'cafe' is a French word, but probably we
didn't pronounce it the French way -- at least he didn't
understand. I pointed to my mouth, then my stomach, and finally a
light dawned on his face, and a smile. He pointed back up front.
We opened the baggage car door and found it was a diner. We sat
by two Englishmen, one of whom travels over this railroad every
two weeks or so, and speaks French. He steered us through the
meal. First a waiter came by and served something supposed to be
soup. (Right here Mother says we are entering Amiens -- this town
figured prominently in the war -- remember?) After the soup,
another waiter came along with a great big dish of spaghetti,
with meat balls stuffed in deviled half-eggs. There is no
water -- unfit to drink. Everyone drinks red wine. The Englishman
told us we could have fried chicken, not too bad, at extra cost,
but by that time we had eaten enough spaghetti. Then a course of
potatoes, then 'ice cream,' made with, apparently, water and skim
milk. I paid in English money, about 14 shillings and some odd
pence.
"Wish you could see this funny French sleeping car. These
French cars are larger than the British -- about the size of an
American car. We had to climb up a steep ladder to get on the
train. It's rather crude compared to our Pullmans still, not too
bad. Altogether different, though. Seems funny to us. We have a
private compartment. There are no sections -- all private rooms. It
has private wash basin, but no toilet. All use the same public
toilet -- both men and women.
"Mother has seen some of those French farms we've heard
of -- house and barn for livestock all in one building. The ground
is covered with snow -- has been, all over, since we landed at
Southampton. We are to arrive at Basel about 8:10 a.m. There are
no railroad folders, timetables, or maps. Those are luxuries only
Americans enjoy."
I have quoted the letter at some length. Most books or
articles about foreign travel do not mention many of these little
things that an American notices on his first trip abroad. I felt
those reading this Autobiography might find it interesting.
The Vision of the Future
A portion of a letter written on the train next morning may be
interesting -- and prophetic:
"The English tell us that we Americans are just now starting
to go through the stage of development they did 200 years
ago -- that we are that far behind the times. They really think
they are ahead of us! They are smugly ahead of what they suppose
us to be -- yet they know nothing of America, actually. I was
particularly impressed by their pride. They feel they are
superior, morally, to all people of the earth. Yet it is quite
apparent that their morals have hit a toboggan slide since the
war! They are surely a long way from realizing their sins,
nationally and individually, and of repenting of them -- and they
don't even dream, and would never believe, that they are to be
punished and conquered, and then rescued from slavery by Christ
at His Second Coming -- so as to bring them to salvation. In some
manner, I know now that I must warn them, and will, but it will
be difficult -- no use of radio there, as it's government owned and
operated. YET, THEY MUST BE WARNED.
"I think it can be done by purchase of advertising space in
newspapers and magazines, getting people to write for The Plain
Truth. I've been making plans, while in London, for our coming
campaign to reach England. The newspaper reporter said the
advertising idea could be used. We will have to either send Plain
Truths across, or have them printed in England, which is what we
undoubtedly will do -- a European edition. The college over here
will probably become a European headquarters for carrying on our
work all over Europe. WE MUST REACH EUROPE AND ENGLAND, as well
as America! Our work is just STARTING! I see, more and more, why
we have been simply led into taking this trip, and why the way
opened so miraculously and suddenly before us at every turn.
Before the coming atomic war, we have much work to do."
As I wrote then, the prophecy has been fulfilled. The
college was established some years later than I then expected -- it
was established in Bricket Wood, near London, instead of in
Switzerland.
General Eisenhower and Channel Invasion
On Thursday, February 27, I had written this to our children at
home: ' ... Today I tried to purchase a pair of gloves. It is cold,
around freezing, and will be colder in mountainous Switzerland. I
walked almost the length of Bond Street, stopping in all men's
clothing shops on the right side of the street proceeding north,
and on the west side of the street returning south back to
Piccadilly. Finally, at the last store, I found a pair of dark
tan kid gloves. I engaged the shopkeeper in conversation. Why
were gloves so scarce, in so cold a winter?
"He explained that a large percent of everything
manufactured in Britain is exported. I asked why. 'Because,' the
merchant replied, 'England would starve otherwise. We must import
nearly all our food, and we can't get a credit exchange to enable
us to buy food in foreign countries unless we export to those
countries an equal value in manufactured products.' You can buy
'made in England' gloves, luggage, leather goods, china, woolens,
etc., easier in the United States than here.
"After finally finding a shop that had a pair, I didn't get
my gloves after all. After he had removed the price tag, he
couldn't let me have them because I had no ration book.
"This morning we finally spotted some lemons in a fruit and
vegetable shop. My liver really needed some citrus juice, after
the kind of food we had been getting. Quite a crowd was queued up
before the stand. After standing in line ten or fifteen minutes,
I asked for a dozen lemons. The woman asked for my ration book.
No ration coupons, no lemons! -- and only l/2 pound to a customer,
then! I'm starving for fruits, juices, and leafy vegetables. You
don't realize what we have to be thankful for, on America's
Pacific Coast. We have the best of everything in the world -- and
yet we grumble? What we are seeing here is next best. Every other
country (except Switzerland) is worse right now.
"As we were leaving the lobby of the hotel this evening, the
hall porter, who looks more like an impressive, important
business executive, told us this hotel (The Dorchester) was Gen.
Eisenhower's headquarters prior to the Channel Invasion.
Marshall, Patton, Bradley, and all our top generals stayed here.
They were all well liked. This porter saw a lot of them, talked
to them, and arranged many things for them. He said they were
quiet, but simply oozed with personality, and he rated Eisenhower
as the ablest, strongest personality of all, even over Marshall,
and thinks he is one of the strongest men in the world ....
"Do you know, the Channel Invasion that defeated Germany
might have been planned in this very hotel! It could have been in
this very room where I'm writing. When the invasion zero hour
came, the porter said Eisenhower and all other top military men
came down one morning smiling and happy, and said they were off
for a two or three day rest in the country. They were good
actors -- appeared happy. They said they could throw off all
restraint and heavy responsibility a few days, and get in some
needed rest and a vacation in the country. They were not a bit
tensed up. No one suspected a thing. They didn't check out of the
hotel. They left their things in their rooms. If any Nazi spies
were in the hotel, they would have been thrown completely off.
Then next morning -- BANG! The great invasion smash was on -- and
doom for Hitler! No one in this hotel suspected anything was up."
Chapter 53
Impressions of Switzerland and France
WHAT a difference between France and Switzerland! On the
French train, no breakfast was served that Sunday morning, March
2, 1947. The reason: the train was running two or three hours
late. Our sleeping car had been scheduled to be transferred to a
Swiss train at Basel in time for breakfast.
We Arrive in Switzerland
Our French train finally dragged itself up to the depot at Basel,
Switzerland. The minute we crossed from France into Switzerland,
everything suddenly seemed refreshingly different? France was
then in a state of lethargy and discouragement. People in
Switzerland appeared more alert, better dressed, cleaner. The
French, so soon after the war, seemed whipped, beaten, run down.
Our car was hooked onto the Swiss train at Basel. There was
a light, airy, clean Swiss dining car on the train. After
Immigration and Customs officials went through the train, we
finally made up for the lost breakfast with the best meal since
we had left the U.S.
Dr. B. was stopping at the Hotel Storchen in Zurich and had
made reservations at this hotel for us. Arriving in Switzerland's
largest city, we took a taxi to this hotel. I did not have any
Swiss money, so I asked the taxi driver to come into the lobby
with me, where I transferred $20 into Swiss francs, out of which
I paid the taxi fare. Dr. B. happened to be out somewhere with
Madame Helene Bieber, who was staying at another hotel. Mme.
Bieber, the reader will remember, was the owner of the newest and
finest villa in southeastern Switzerland, Heleneum, on Lake
Lugano, in Lugano-Castagnola.
Switzerland, by the way, was at that time so much more
prosperous than France because Switzerland was not involved in
the war. Switzerland had profited from both sides. The Marshall
Plan and United States' billions of gift dollars had not yet put
France in her present state of Common Market prosperity.
An hour or so after our arrival at the hotel in Zurich, we
located Dr. B. and Mme. Bieber. We joined them at tea in one of
our hotel lounge rooms and were presented to the owner of
Heleneum. She was accompanied by her big full-blooded chow dog
"Mipom."
Next afternoon we were riding through the Gotthard tunnel
through the Gotthard Pass. It and the Brenner Pass are the only
two passes for travel between Germany and Italy. During the war,
the Swiss managed to remain neutral and hold the Germans off from
invading them. They did this by threatening to blow up the
Gotthard tunnel, and destroy these two passes if the Germans
attacked. That is how this little nation of Switzerland held
powerful Nazi Germany at bay.
We found the lofty Alps all that had been claimed for
them -- breathtaking -- MAGNIFICENT!
At Zurich, we noticed that the style of architecture was
almost wholly German. But the minute we emerged from the tunnel,
on the Italian side, the architectural design was all Italian.
The same would, of course, be true of the French-speaking
area.
Yet there is really no language barrier between these three
sections of Switzerland. Customarily, babies and children are
taught the official language of their section until age six. Then
Swiss children are taught a second language beginning at six
years of age, and a third language at about age ten or twelve.
Most better educated Swiss speak four or more languages.
I Am Not the Boss
At Lugano we inspected what was the object of our whole trip -- the
site of a possible future Ambassador College in Europe.
Often I have to stop and realize how many proofs we have
been given that we have been called to the work of GOD -- that
neither I nor any man plans and guides it.
It is not our work, but GOD's and the living Jesus Christ is
HEAD of His Church and the real Director of this work. He has not
allowed it to be of my planning.
Christ, through the Holy Spirit, said to the prophets and
teachers of the Church at Antioch, during fasting and prayer,
"Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have
called them." Saul's name was then changed to Paul. He and
Barnabas were ordained apostles. They were called to GOD'S WORK.
They did not choose it as a profession -- Christ first struck down
Saul with blindness, converted and called him. Christ ordered his
ordination for THIS WORK.
But even though the Apostle Paul was put in charge of God's
work to the Gentiles, Paul was not allowed to plan it or make the
real decisions.
In A.D. 50, Paul and Silas, "After they were come to Mysia
[western part of Asia Minor -- Turkey today], they assayed to go
into Bithynia, but the Spirit [of
Jesus] suffered them not" (Acts 16:7).
Paul planned to go EAST, along the north shores of what is
Turkey today. But Jesus Christ, HEAD of His Church and God's
work, planned otherwise! By a vision at night, the resurrected
living CHRIST showed Paul that they were to go the very OPPOSITE
direction, carrying the gospel for the first time to the
continent of EUROPE!
This was a MOST IMPORTANT decision. In obedience to orders
from Christ, by this vision, Paul and Silas went immediately into
Macedonia IN EUROPE, holding their first meeting at Philippi
(Acts 16:7-13).
In like manner, on this trip to Lugano, I tried to plan to
start operation of GOD'S WORK for these last years either
immediately, or within three years IN EUROPE and to establish a
branch Ambassador College in Lugano. That was MY planning and
intention -- just as Paul's was to travel east into Bithynia.
Here is what I wrote to those at home, from Lugano, on March
3, 1947: "I have decided DEFINITELY and FINALLY on the Swiss
branch of Ambassador. The idea is right. But the PLACE is still
open for investigation."
But I was to learn, later, that CHRIST had decided
DEFINITELY and FINALLY otherwise! He had decided that the great
DOOR of radio would open for me to preach His Gospel to EUROPE on
the first Monday in 1953. And His COLLEGE for Europe was to open
later -- SEVEN years later; in 1960 -- and in ENGLAND just outside
London, not in Switzerland!
In ways that often seem astounding, CHRIST shows repeatedly
that it is HE who is guiding and directing this great worldwide
work of God!
Inspecting Potential College Site
I was much impressed with Lugano. On Tuesday evening I wrote:
"Dear Family at Home:
"Today we have seen Lugano! Partly. And what a place it is!
It's all so different -- so strange. It's ITALY with Swiss
prosperity. A BEAUTIFUL, prosperous Italy. It's the most
intriguing place we ever saw. It's certainly OLD-WORLD. It's the
perfect place for the European unit of Ambassador College."
So I thought. But CHRIST thought otherwise!
Mme. Bieber remained in Zurich until Tuesday. We did not
have an opportunity to inspect Heleneum until Thursday. That
evening I wrote to my brother-in-law, Walter E. Dillon, who was
to be the first president of Ambassador College at Pasadena.
This, in part, is what I reported to him:
"We have been here since Monday night. Tuesday we took a
boat trip down the lake, east, to the very end of Lake Lugano.
About two miles east of here is the Italian border. Most of our
boat trip was in Italy. We were within five miles of the place
where they shot Mussolini. He was caught trying to get across the
frontier into Switzerland, and they say he was heading for
Lugano. I talked to a man who was then a Swiss Army captain, in
charge of the frontier at that point. He knew Mussolini, talked
to him. Mussolini was caught at Dongo.
"The trip on the lake was a life-time experience. The
majestic Swiss Alps rise on either side. The Alps really surpass
our Cascades, or the Rockies -- even the Canadian Rockies. Just now
they are snow-covered -- look as if they are miles high, in
fantastic shapes. Lugano is the Swiss Riviera. It's different
from our mountain or lake scenery. The very atmosphere is
different.
"What I started to write tonight is this: This afternoon,
for the first time, we saw what we have come 9,000 miles to
see -- 'Helelleum' -- the possible future seat in Europe of
AMBASSADOR COLLEGE ....We were invited to 4 o'clock tea. On
arrival, we stepped into the most beautiful and elegant interior
we had ever seen. It far surpasses what we expected! It is the
ideal home for Ambassador College in Europe. It is adequately
designed to house forty or fifty students, besides supplying six
classrooms, library, lounge, and dining hall. Its atmosphere
would automatically breed culture, poise and refinement into
students. Mme. Bieber appears to want us to have it. She thought
the kind of deal we have discussed very splendid. She knows
little about business, and probably will be guided by her lawyer.
But it's the only way she can eat her cake and have it too -- that
is, sell it, live off the income from the sale, and still live IN
it for the next three or four years. And it's the only way we can
purchase such a property without the capital for a large down
payment. We make it during these three years while she would
retain possession. I have made every check. I am now convinced we
must have our European branch. Switzerland appears the only place
for it."
Better Things Opened Later
So, you see, I was planning for it -- but Jesus Christ was planning
otherwise -- and HE, not I, guides and directs GOD'S WORK. In HIS
due time, He opened the DOOR (see II Cor. 2:12-13) for His
END-TIME work of our day to start in Europe.
And, the living CHRIST did open miraculously and
unexpectedly what we ourselves had never planned -- His Ambassador
College overseas. He opened in England a place we never dreamed
of finding -- not merely one building with mere residential-size
grounds, but several buildings, with magnificent gardens and
landscaping, spacious grounds, and a total of approximately 200
acres! And instead of a maximum of forty or fifty students, we
had the capacity for many more.
Surely GOD's WAYS ARE BEST! How happy and GRATEFUL I am that
Christ Jesus does not leave the real master planning of His great
work to me. My ideas would not have been best -- but what HE plans
is always just right. It is a wonderful thing to KNOW we have the
SECURITY -- Of GOD'S GUIDANCE. It's a wonderful feeling of absolute
trust, faith and confidence, with no worries!
Leaving Switzerland
We left Lugano with Heleneum still uncertain, but hoping to close
the deal by mail later.
We traveled by train from Lugano to Geneva on the following
Sunday, then back to Bern where we caught the night sleeper for
Paris. In purchasing our tickets, I noticed we had only twenty
minutes to make a connection at Bern. Based on American
experience, I was a little uneasy.
"Suppose our train is late arriving in Bern tonight," I
suggested. "Is twenty minutes sufficient time for that
connection?"
"SIR!" came the indignant response from the ticket agent. "A
Swiss train is never late! You can set your watch by it!"
There is another saying Swiss people like to quote "It's
impossible to get a bad meal in Switzerland." We have since eaten
in many restaurants and hotels in Switzerland, and have never
been served an unsatisfactory meal. There is a third saying in
Switzerland: "We raise our children from the bottom up." And they
are well-behaved!
En route from Lugano, our electric-driven train retraced our
route through the Gotthard tunnel, but turned westward to Bern
some distance north of the tunnel. On the train I opened my
portable typewriter and here is part of what I wrote to our
children at home:
"Here we are again in the world-famous Gotthard tunnel -- the
pass high in the Alps between Italy and the north of Europe. It's
a Sunday morning, 8:07 a.m. For two hours we have been thrilling
to the most marvelous scenery! Yet it's only 11:07 Saturday night
in Oregon. Seems funny. It's been daylight two hours, here. Yet
you may not have gone to bed yet last night!
"Now we are headed back toward home, speeding northward
through these awesome, spectacular Alps. An hour and a half ago I
got some good color movies (I hope) of the pinkish rising sun
shining on the snowcapped peaks of the Alps, still darkish gray
of dawn below -- only the sun-drenched peaks illuminated with a
yellowish pink.
"Now we have emerged from the tunnel, on the German side.
There is much more snow. All limbs of trees covered with snow.
It's fantastically beautiful. Mother exclaims that this is the
most beautiful scenery in the world. She will hardly let me
write. 'O LOOK, Herbert!' she keeps exclaiming. 'You can write
some other time. But LOOK, now, LOOK! Those trees on that
mountainside are green, underneath, but they're WHITE, now! Isn't
it EXCITING? O, come over here, quick! Oh, you're so
provoking -- it's too late, now we've passed it! etc. How CAN A MAN
WRITE? Ha! Ha! In the middle of that sentence I got some
marvelous camera shots. (I hope). However, no matter how good
they come out the pictures won't show it to you. You have to be
here and EXPERIENCE it!"
At Bern we changed trains, and continued south from there to
Geneva, arriving about noon or somewhat before. I remember we
were especially impressed with the baby carriages, or "prams."
Thousands of people out walking on a beautiful Sunday afternoon,
many pushing these elegant baby carriages.
Also we were impressed with young people on dates. It seems
the American young people have LOST the art of dating. The
automobile has changed everything. But in Switzerland, instead of
the degenerating custom of driving out on a lonely and secluded
road to "neck" and arouse passions while minds were dulled, or
letting their minds drift in a ready-made daydream in a darkened
motion picture theater, hundreds of couples were seen sauntering
afoot along the two sides of the lake, which in downtown Geneva
narrows like a river -- with many bridges across at each block.
We saw the League of Nations buildings. We found Geneva a
clean, beautiful city. It, too, offered many advantages as a
potential seat for a European branch of Ambassador College.
It was late afternoon or evening when we took a train and
returned to Bern. I had telephoned long distance to a man in the
educational division at the U.S. Embassy in Bern. He met us at
the railway station. I spent the twenty minutes layover
discussing educational advantages of a branch college in
Switzerland. (Yes, our Swiss train was precisely ON TIME!)
First Visit to Paris
Our sleeping car delivered us to Paris in the early morning.
Everybody has heard of the beauty of Paris. We were introduced to
it, so it seemed to us, by way of the back door -- entering through
a dilapidated blighted area. It was a drizzly, dreary morning.
The railroad station though which we entered was in an
unattractive wholesale district.
I checked our luggage, expecting to leave it there until
boarding the noon train to London. I walked up to the ticket
window to purchase 12 o'clock tickets to London, which would
leave us time to see Paris until noon.
The mademoiselle ticket agent could not understand a word I
said. After some five minutes of trying to speak by gestures, she
sent for a man from the other side of the railway station. He
could speak English.
"These foreigners can't even speak plain English," I
exclaimed to my wife. She reminded me that we were the
foreigners! That realization gave a funny feeling.
The English-speaking man explained that the train to London
departed from a different station. Paris has several railroad
stations. So we were obliged to return straightway to the
checkroom and reclaim our bags. Our obliging French friend said
he would help us into a taxicab. He asked Mrs. Armstrong to wait
inside and watch our luggage. I found that getting a cab on a
rainy morning in Paris in 1947 was not like a big-city American
depot, where one finds dozens of cabs lined up and waiting, as
rapidly as incoming passengers can be piled into them. In fact, I
learned that finding a taxi in Paris on a rainy morning is a
superb accomplishment -- if one can do it!
Taxi Hunting in Paris
Fifteen long minutes dragged by at the taxi entrance, and not a
cab in sight, except those with passengers, and one or two whose
drivers shrugged their shoulders, saying "Nothing doing!" in
French motions. My French friend asked me to wait there and ran
bare-headed out into the street. In five minutes he returned,
shaking his head. Another fifteen minutes. Then again he left,
saying he'd go over on the boulevard, a block away, in search of
a taxi. He explained that the Nazis didn't leave them many cabs
in good repair, and besides, depleted the petrol supply. So
taxicabs were a scarce commodity at that time. As time slipped
by, Mrs. Armstrong and I were becoming more and more hungry.
There had been no diner on our train. Finally, at 9 a.m., our
friend came back triumphantly in a taxi. We wanted the cab until
noon, but this driver was soon due in at his garage. He would
have time only to drive us to the George V hotel for breakfast.
Breakfast took a whole hour. Service came with great
flourish, much style, and very leisurely. We ordered orange
juice, toast and coffee. The waiter brought four oranges to his
service table, and started laboriously squeezing them on a little
hand lemon-squeezer. Then he served the two small glasses to a
couple of ladies at an adjoining table. Then he walked to the
kitchen and returned in no time at all with our "orange juice"
which was NOT orange juice but some sort of artificial orange
crush, with artificial flavor and sugar and water. The toast was
cold, dry, packaged melba toast. The coffee was black, strong and
bitter -- no milk or cream. The cost was 400 francs -- $4.00.
Foreigners Seeing Paris
After another ten minutes delay the English-speaking doorman got
us a taxi. The driver could not speak a word of our foreign
language. I asked the hotel doorman to instruct him that we
wanted to see the Eiffel Tower, the Champs Elysées, stop at a
shop to purchase an umbrella for Mrs. Armstrong, who had left
hers at Lugano, and then to our railway station.
At the Eiffel Tower, even in cloudy rain, I got one good
picture with my Plaubel-Makina German camera -- only picture I was
able to take in Paris. We saw many ornate and beautiful
buildings, though they were dark and dirty, and gloomy in the
rain -- much gorgeous statuary. The driver drove around and around
in the shopping district but all stores were closed. It was a
Catholic holiday. He did find one small shop open. But their
ladies' umbrellas were a new style with long handles, and Mrs.
Armstrong was afraid one would look freakish in America, so she
didn't buy one. (When we returned to New York, we found all
stores selling the same style there!).By now we had to go
straight to our railroad station. I tried to instruct the driver,
but he couldn't understand. I tried to tell him our train left at
noon, by pointing to 12 o'clock on my watch. He immediately
smiled knowingly, nodding his head that he understood -- and drove
us in fifteen or twenty minutes to a jewelry store -- which, of
course, was closed! I tried to make him understand I'd like to
buy some film for my camera -- and he drove us to a photographer's
studio. Somehow, in desperation, I finally got through to him
that we wanted to go immediately to the railway station, where he
deposited us at 11:30 a.m.
We boarded the famous crack Golden Arrow for London.
Chapter 54
Mid-Atlantic Hurricane!
STREAKING northward on the crack Paris-London Golden Arrow,
we saw much of the desolate ruins left by the war that had ended
only a year and a half before.
In America, we had heard and read about the war daily. We
had seen pictures and newsreels. But now my wife and I were
there, where it happened. Here was the actual devastation of war
all around us. Now it suddenly became real!
The Marshall Plan and American dollars had not yet made
progress toward restoration. Europe was laid waste, many of its
cities in ruins. Almost no one believed, then, that Europe could
ever rise again. Yet I had been persistently proclaiming for two
years, over the air and in The Plain Truth, that Germany would
once again come to economic and military power, heading a
ten-nation resurrection of the Roman Empire.
Desolate, Hopeless Europe
Have we forgotten what bleeding, war-torn, disheartened Europe
was like, immediately after World War II? That is, all but
prosperous Switzerland. Switzerland kept out of the war, by means
described previously. Switzerland did business with both sides
and prospered during the war years.
We need to be reminded of the condition of prostrate Europe
before United States dollars went to the rescue. These dollars
did a sensational pump-priming job. German and Dutch industry did
a phenomenal job of rebuilding. Then the Common Market produced
the almost unbelievable prosperity that is Western Europe's
today.
I was seriously impressed with this wretched post-war
condition in France and Italy. From Lugano I had written our
family at home:
"This afternoon we were in Italy. Took a boat trip down the
lake, east, to the end of Lake Lugano. Half way we crossed the
Swiss-Italian frontier. Immediately we noticed a difference. The
style of architecture was much the same all Italian but as soon
as we were on the Italian side, everything was run-down,
dilapidated, gone to rot and ruin.
"There are seven or eight little towns along the lake shore,
and the boat is like an interurban railway by which people from
all those towns come to Lugano to shop. We docked at every town.
The Italians were so very shabbily dressed. Some of the women had
no shoes -- they wore a sort of flat wooden sandal, strapped to
their feet with string or ribbon. Most of the Italians looked
defeated, hopeless.
"Once they were a proud, prosperous, world-ruling people.
But ancient Rome became prosperous, as the United States is
today. Then they went in for soft, luxurious living, idleness and
ease, entertainment, lax morals.
"Rome fell.
"The United States is starting that same toboggan slide to
DOOM, today.
"This afternoon, along the five or six Italian towns where
we docked, we saw the result of going the way of ancient Rome. We
saw their 20th Century descendants, poor people one looks on with
pity. Yet the Italians are emotional, and Mussolini took
advantage of them, played on their emotions, whipped them up to a
fanatical frenzy for Fascism. Then Hitler took them over. Then
the Allies invaded the peninsula. And now they are a dejected,
discouraged, helpless, hopeless people! Even worse than the
French we saw."
And Mrs. Armstrong wrote this about our boat trip:
"Italy is in terrible shape. We were up and down the shores
of Lake Lugano, in Italy. It was a cold day in winter, but women,
old and young, were on the lake shore on their knees leaning over
into the water, washing clothes in the cold lake water on flat
boards not washboards -- no soap, just pounding and rubbing, some
using a brush on their sheets, men's pants, sweaters and
everything -- big baskets of clothes, grey and dingy looking. They
hung them along the lake front or on buildings,
balconies -- anywhere.''
Back in London
Arriving back in London, I found letters and reports from the
office in Eugene, Oregon, awaiting me. The news from the office
was not good. Receipt of money was way down. The office was in a
tight financial squeeze.
I wrote the office staff: "Since receiving your letters and
reports today, I have had to decide we will not, at this time,
obligate the work to payments on 'Heleneum,' the villa we went to
Lugano to see. Madame Bieber is anxious to sell it to us on the
terms we had in mind when we came over. I received a letter from
her here this morning, enclosing a complete list (in German
language) of the rooms on every floor, and assuring me she would
send a blueprint of floor plans if I still wanted them, which I
do .... It is offered to us at a fraction of its cost (it is a
replica of the 'Petite Trianon' at Versailles) and on terms we
could handle, once out of this financial slump, with about 8
percent increase over present income. There is no down payment
whatever required. Just monthly payments three or four years,
before we take possession -- while she still lives there ....God
will direct us and show us His will, and His selection, in due
time.
"I have been shown a fine large building (large for us, that
is) -- right on this fabulous Park Lane boulevard, just a half
block from our hotel -- The Dorchester here in London. I am advised
that the price is very low, right now. It was used as the
officers' club by United States Army officers during the war. I
was advised that we very likely could purchase, with use permit
for a college, and very likely get local support for such a
college here that would pay half the costs, because Britain is
now very anxious to encourage everything she can in good
relationships with the United States. They feel here that an
American college in London, sending American students here to
study, would bring here some of our very best young men who will
become leaders, and would better international relations between
the two countries.
"If it were not for the foreign language angle, I believe I
would prefer to have it here .... It might ultimately work out
that we would have TWO European units -- one in London, one in
Switzerland. We are the first to have the vision of such a
college. It is something entirely new in the world of education.
It's something BIG! It will be accomplished. But it will take
time. I know we are being led by the hand of God into things
never before done. They will be done, and in time -- and there is
not too much time."
How PROPHETIC were those words, written March 13, 1947!
` God did guide and lead -- not the way I then planned. But He
did, in His due time, which was the year 1960, establish His
college overseas. He did not establish it in Switzerland, but on
the outskirts of London. NOT in that fine but very old stone
building in congested downtown London, but just outside, in the
scenic Green Belt, with a 180-acre campus, beautiful and colorful
gardens and lawns, adequate buildings. The building on Park Lane
was finally torn down in 1962 -- probably to be replaced with a
modern skyscraper.
A Prophetic Occurrence
In view of an event that occurred March 10, 1963, it becomes
pertinent to quote another paragraph from the above letter to our
office staff, written March 13, 1947 from London:
"But after visiting Geneva, we are somewhat in favor, now,
of Geneva as the seat of the European unit of AMBASSADOR. The
city and buildings are more beautiful at Geneva, but the natural
surrounding scenery and mountains are more beautiful at Lugano.
Both are on lakes. Geneva is the number one education center,
with great libraries, the large university, and it is a world
political capital in international affairs. We will never find
another place as modern and elegant as 'Heleneum' but for
extracurricular advantages, great libraries, and international
atmosphere, and a center for world affairs, Geneva would be
preferable."
Was that, by coincidence, prophetic?
On March 10, 1963, I gave our French Department approval for
signing a five-year lease for a suite of offices in Geneva!
Mr. Dibar Apartian, at the time of this writing, is
professor of French language at Ambassador College in Pasadena.
Also he is director of the French work, and the voice on the air
of the French-language version of The World Tomorrow. Our French
Department is now well organized, with offices and a staff at our
headquarters Pasadena campus, and also an office and
French-speaking staff at the college in England.
Many of our booklets have been translated into French. And,
of course, we have a full-color French language edition of The
Plain Truth.
Sir Henry's Gripe
Our 1947 trip to London, Lugano, Geneva and Paris did pave the
way for important developments that have followed.
In the lobby of our hotel in London, The Dorchester, I met a
baronet -- a "Sir Henry," though I do not remember his family name.
He was indignant at us Americans, and candidly told me so. That
morning, the London papers carried a story of Herbert Hoover's
recommendation that the United States appropriate a few hundred
million dollars to feed starving Germans.
"Why, hang it, Sir," he sputtered in exasperation, "they
ought to use those millions to feed us starving Britons before
they feed those Germans who caused all this starvation. Do you
know, sir, what I get to eat for breakfast? I haven't been able
to get an egg for six months, and just two little slices of bacon
a week. The nearest we can come to eggs is some kind of dried
powdered synthetic stuff, sir! And it isn't fit to eat! We get
almost no fruit, or fresh vegetables, or milk, butter, or sugar."
Sir Henry may have been griping, but we found this
allegation true. Actually we ourselves fared better than English
titled people in their homes. Leading hotels and restaurants were
allowed to serve more and better food than was obtainable by
private citizens. But even so we subsisted primarily on potatoes
and cauliflower at every meal, along with soups thickened with
flour but no milk, and a limited amount of fish.
Spencer-Jones -- Guide Extraordinary
On Tuesday, after returning to London, we spent an eventful day
on a tour, afoot, of the royal and government sections of London.
We had been standing that morning before the entrance gate
to Whitehall Palace, watching the mounted King's Guards. A guide
came up to us and began to give us an interesting explanation. He
showed us his credentials as an accredited guide. Spencer-Jones
was a real character! We decided to engage his services, for a
foot tour beginning at two that afternoon.
He met us at the entrance of The Dorchester. After three
hours of seeing some of the most interesting things of our lives,
he asked so little for his services I paid him double, and then
wondered if I had not underpaid him. He knew his London and
British history.
He took us through places closed to the public. He seemed to
know all the guards and officials, and they would smile and let
us through. He told us that the then Queen Mother, Queen Mary,
knew him, and always gave him a smiling, friendly nod when he
passed her. He had acted as guide over this same tour to General
Eisenhower, and at the end of their tour he said the General said
to him, "I wish I had your memory, Spencer-Jones." We could
understand why. He gave us a whole college education on British
history.
On our tour we walked through the court of what had been the
palace of Britain's kings 400 years before. It was so dirty and
shabby I asked why they didn't clean the place up.
"Oh that would never do, Sir!" the guide assured me. "We are
proud of its age, Sir, and it must be left just as it was 400
years ago. But it's very beautiful inside, Sir."
Spencer-Jones' wife and two daughters were killed one
morning at 11 a.m. in a daylight raid by German bombers during
the war. But he wanted no pity. He was proud.
"Imagine," he said, "a dark night, a complete black-out, a
thousand planes screaming overhead, bombs exploding like
deafening thunder here and there around you, the incessant fire
of our antiaircraft, guns, and people screaming. I've walked
right past here," he said at one point, "and watched hundreds of
planes overhead -- Germans desperately trying to bomb this royal
and government section -- our boys up there shooting them down. A
Nazi parachuted right into that tree you see there, Sir, and
would have been torn to bits by the women who rushed at him, but
the guards reached him first and took him prisoner. Dozens of
planes crashed right in this park, Sir!"
This guide lived in a humble "pensioner's home." He drew a
pittance of a pension from World War I. His clothes were worn and
frayed.
But Spencer-Jones was English, and the English are PROUD. He
asked if I would convey one message from him to America. This was
his message: "Tell America, please, DON'T EVER EXPRESS ANY PITY
FOR US BECAUSE WE'VE GONE THROUGH A WAR AND ARE NOW HAVING A HARD
TIME. THAT, WE JUST COULDN'T STAND, SIR!" He had lost home,
family and prosperity. But he still had his pride!
Mid-Atlantic Hurricane!
We sailed from Southampton on the return voyage, again on the
mighty Queen Elizabeth, at 4:30 in the afternoon of March 15.
On our eastbound crossing, we had prayed for a calm sea.
Stewards and stewardesses had told us it was the smoothest
crossing in their memory -- and in mid-February at that. But
somehow we must have taken calm crossings for granted by the time
of our return voyage. At least we neglected any petitions to the
God who controls the weather. And we learned a lesson!
In the early afternoon of Tuesday, March 18, I wrote the
following from the middle of the Atlantic:
"Dear Everybody at Home: What a sea! Today we're seeing
something you never see at home -- a real rough sea in the middle
of the Atlantic. Mother isn't seeing any of it. This is her third
day confined to bed. A rough sea greatly encourages her penchant
for sea-sickness. We've had three days of choppy sea, but today
the waves are far bigger and higher than before.
"This great Lady (the Queen Elizabeth), who is no lady,
lurches, and heaves, and tosses back and forth, and groans and
literally SHUDDERS! The doors and walls creak. Out on deck the
high gale whistles and screams! And the great giant waves sink
way down the depth of the ground from a fifteen-story building on
port side, as the giant ship swings and dips over to starboard,
and then we roll back to port side just as a massive wave swells
up alongside, it seems only two stories below.
"It's a SENSATION -- but, unfortunately, one of those things
one must experience, and cannot be really understood by a word's
eye view. So you won't really know what I mean. Right this second
this ship is shuddering like a dying man. She groans, and then
amid her rolling, swaying motion just shivers, and shakes, and
shudders -- and then sways on! A while ago 'Her Majesty' got to
heaving more than usual, and I rushed to the aft main deck, just
as she sank way down. Then the rear deck tossed high, and a wave
that seemed as high as a ten-story building rolled over and broke
into a beautiful white spray, dropping like a cloudburst on the
deck. In the excitement I shot the last ten feet of movie film. I
think I caught the most spectacular film of all -- waves rolling
like mountain peaks -- then the break -- and the stiff gale blows
spray like boiling steam.
"Most of the ocean is dark muddy green in color -- almost
black, but covered with white caps as these gigantic waves break
about every 780 or 800 feet. Then, in the wake of the ship is a
trail of light, bright, turquoise-blue in the sunlight -- when the
sun flashes its brilliant rays down between clouds.
"It's real stormy weather -- yet there's no rain today, though
there was yesterday and Sunday. But, in spite of the intermittent
sunshine playing hide-and-seek behind spotty billowy clouds, we
are today heading into the stiffest gale so far. And, although I
hope I have shot some more or less thrilling pictures of it,
you'll never know what I mean. No picture can give you the third
dimension -- the feel -- the motion -- the lurch and sway, the sounds,
and the EXPERIENCE of it. Poor Mother! She's experiencing it in
seasickness, but not seeing any of it! They say we won't dock in
New York until Friday
or Saturday, now. We've had to slow down to five or six knots."
But the worst was yet to come -- and I had not realized, when
the above was written, that we were in a hurricane! Actually I
did not realize how serious the storm was until we docked in New
York, as I shall explain below. But the storm became more wild
toward evening. Early next morning I added a postscript to the
above letter. Here are excerpts from it:
Storm Worsens
"Mid-Atlantic, Wednesday a.m., March 19, 1947. Dear Folks at
Home: Just a little early morning P.S. to yesterday's letter
about the storm. Yesterday, toward evening, the sea became
wildest and most thrillingly exciting. Finally there were
tremendous swells, about 1,500 feet apart, farther than the
length of this ship that is 1,031 feet. They became like mountain
ridges. Sinking down in between the towering ridges the sea was
like smooth valleys. The gale was so stiff that, while the
'valleys' in between liquid peaks or ridges were quite smooth,
yet spray was being whipped along like a sandstorm on the desert.
It actually looked more like a desert sandstorm than a sea -- in
between peaks, that is.
"The sea seemed wildest about dusk. I had shot all my movie
film, but I still had seven shots left on the Plaubel-Makina. It
was becoming too dark for most cameras, and I was thankful for
the f.2.9 Makina. There was quite a little haze, too -- and the
fierce gale raised a continuous spray above the water surface
(like a sandstorm). So I used a haze filter, opened the shutter
all the way, set it down to 1/25 of a second. My light-meter
showed the necessity of this, although I should have liked to
have taken these shots at 1/200th of a second. I hope the
fast-whipping spray doesn't turn out to be a blur." (These
pictures were developed by Associated Press, New York,
immediately on landing.)
"At times it seemed the stern of the ship lifted fifty or
seventy-five feet out of the water. As I stood on one of the aft
decks, as low as we were allowed to go, it seemed we sank way
down into the water, then lifted up clear out of the water as the
prow plunged down. After some time, I decided I had all the good
pictures possible to get. I had closed up the camera, and started
back inside, when, suddenly, the deck below seemed to leave my
feet, as if I were left in mid-air. It was a sensation!
The Climax
"Instantly I realized we were taking another of those superdips.
As soon as I could get traction under my feet, I rushed back
outside on the deck at the stern to catch the thrill of the next
dip. We usually got about three in succession before those
extreme tilts dissipated themselves. This had been the most
sudden and extreme dip I had experienced, so I tried frantically
to pull out the tin shutter in front of the film pack and get the
camera set for action as I ran. In the excitement I failed to get
the camera set and adjusted in time, but I did reach the open
deck in time to SEE the one most thrilling dip of all!
"It was the sight of a lifetime! The stern of the gigantic
ship rose high above the water, as the prow plunged down into it.
Then we on aft deck seemed to lunge down deep into the water,
just as a huge liquid mountain peak rolled up behind us. It
seemed almost as if the ship were about to stand straight up in
the water -- we on the bottom, the bow pointing straight up to the
sky. Of course, we didn't sink quite that far down -- but we
experienced the sensation of being about to do so. A big portion
of that stupendous wave rolled up behind us, broke, sprayed up
into the air like an explosion, and came like an avalanche full
force down upon the lower deck just below us at the complete
stern of the ship! Then the flood of water rolled off the
far-stern deck like the torrent of a river, as once again we
mounted up toward the sky.
Mrs. Armstrong Collapses
"For an hour I kept running intermittently down to our cabin on
"C" deck to urge Mother to come up and see the thrilling sight. I
knew that in an hour it would be too dark to see it, and it might
be the last chance in our lifetime to witness anything like it. I
was more excited now than she was on the train ride through the
Swiss Alps. I learned later it was the angriest, most furious sea
in twenty years -- with the highest waves and greatest swells, and
mountain-peak waves forming a jagged and uneven horizon as far as
the eye could see! Every now and then -- perhaps a half
mile -- perhaps three or four miles away -- a great aqua-peak would
suddenly rise up, towering above all else on the horizon, only to
sink rhythmically back down again.
"The sea was almost half WHITE with the white caps in
sandstorm effect in the screaming gale -- half, ugly dark
green-brown, almost black, forming the most weird and fantastic
shapes as giant waves surged up toward high heaven, broke, then
sprayed down to sink below other heaving waves surging up in
front of them. I was as excited as a twelve-year-old boy!
"I guess a stewardess outside our cabin door overheard my
almost frantic urging of Mother to try to come above with me to
see the exciting spectacle, and she must have thought there was
going to be domestic trouble if she didn't get Mother up there.
Anyway, she went into our cabin, and took the covers off Mother
and insistently marched her out to the lift, and on up to the
main deck lounge.
"But there Mother almost completely collapsed. The
stewardess (all stewardesses are trained nurses) finally found me
and brought me to Mother, slumped over in a chair, pale-white.
Together we got her back to our cabin and to bed. It was just
after this that the above-described most exciting scene occurred.
In Mortal Danger
"The motors of the ship were stopped down to around six knots. I
did not realize until after the above-described incidents that
the big ship actually was in danger. We were in desperate danger!
I was told then, at late dusk last evening, that the ship might
break in two, in the middle, if the full speed were put on, or
if, at any time, Captain Ford failed to keep the ship headed
straight into the wind in that furious storm. Regardless of
direction, we had to keep headed straight into it. It was the
worst storm the Queen ever fought through.
"When I learned from a steward that we were actually in
mortal danger, I went to our cabin and prayed. Suddenly I
remembered how we had failed to ask for God's protection on this
voyage. Now I realized we were in the plight described in the
107th Psalm, verses 23 through 30:
'They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in
great waters; these see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in
the deep. For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which
lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven, they
go down again to the depths; their soul is melted because of
trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man,
and are at their wit's end. Then they cry unto the Lord in their
trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh
the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are
they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their
desired haven. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his
goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children Of men!'
"So now I prayed, in real earnest -- and also in real FAITH. I
knew that those words of God were not idle words -- they were the
very PROMISE of Almighty GOD. He is no respecter of persons. Here
was the largest ship, so far as we know, ever built by man -- in
mortal DANGER!
"Until now, I had looked on the whole thing as an exciting
experience to be enjoyed. Now I was sobered. I knew the eyes of
God were on that great ship and its thousands of passengers. I
knew that if I asked Him to do what He promised in that 107th
Psalm, He would do it. He is no respecter of persons. Those lives
on that ship were as precious to Him as any.
"So Mrs. Armstrong and I very soberly and earnestly prayed
to the Eternal to calm the storm. We claimed this Psalm as His
PROMISE that He would. We thanked Him for doing it. After that we
had a good night's sleep.
"So I awoke early this morning, and before breakfast I went
up on the main deck to see a calm sea! Not yet completely, but
relatively calm and quiet. It was cloudy and began to rain while
I was up on deck. The rolling movement of the ship is now caused
by the forward motion -- the motors are now opened full blast, and
we are plunging full speed ahead. What a changed ocean from last
night! No whitecaps this morning, except those created by this
floating city."
Safe in New York
We had smooth sailing the rest of the way. The big Queen arrived
in New York two days late. When we docked, excited newsmen were
allowed to come on board before anyone could disembark.
I attended the news conference in Captain Ford's quarters.
The captain said it was a "storm of hurricane force," and the
worst of his entire life's experience. It was BIG NEWS. The
world's largest ship had been in mortal danger.
I had the only good camera shots of the storm. The
Associated Press men asked if they could have the films,
promising to develop them immediately and turn them over to me,
with prints, the next morning.
Mrs. Armstrong and I were allowed to disembark from the ship
immediately, ahead of other passengers, with the AP men and
Customs waved us through with very scant inspection, on learning
that the AP wanted to get our pictures by wirephoto to all papers
coast to coast immediately. I left the film-pack at Associated
Press headquarters.
Next morning I returned to Associated Press offices. An
angry official said that some "dumb cluck" around there had
mislaid or misfiled my films, until too late to get them into
print while it was still fresh news. He apologized profusely, and
handed me the films and prints.
So they were never published in the newspapers across the
United States, after all.
Chapter 55
Strategy to Gain Possession
-- Birth Pangs of the College
THE Queen Elizabeth docked in New York on March 21, 1947. It
was good to be back on solid ground.
We returned to Eugene, Oregon, March 25. Immediately I
plunged into preparations for establishing the new Ambassador
College in Pasadena. All thought of the European branch of the
college was of necessity shelved for the time being. The
financial situation dictated that.
Appointing a President
I have recounted, earlier, how I had first approached my wife's
brother, Walter E. Dillon, as prospective president of the
college, when the conviction to found the college was first
conceived.
At first mention, he had only laughed.
"Me become president of a Bible college?" he had exclaimed.
"Why, I know almost nothing about the Bible. That would be out of
my field."
But I had hastened to explain that Ambassador was not to be
a Bible college," but a straight coeducational LIBERAL ARTS
institution.
"Do you think I could teach the theological classes?" I had
asked.
"Why, I think you know more about the Bible than anyone
living," he replied.
When I explained that there would be a course in theology,
along with other usual liberal arts courses, and that I would
personally teach the Bible classes, the whole idea began to make
sense to Walter.
"You see," I explained, "you are an educator -- I am not.
You've devoted your life to education. You are head of the
largest school in Oregon, outside Portland. You have a master's
degree from the University of Oregon, with work toward a Ph.D.
You are familiar with academic requirements, organization, and
procedures. You are an experienced academic administrator. You
have proved your ability to direct teachers. In these things I am
not experienced. I will organize and teach the Bible courses, but
I need you to help me plan and organize the college as a whole,
and supervise the academic administration. you've had the
academic experience. I've had the business experience. Don't you
think we'd make a good team?"
"I certainly do," he replied, after hearing my explanation.
We talked over all the details, and policy plans generally.
I explained that I was bent on founding a NEW KlND of college,
consistent with tried and sound organizational and administrative
practice. Ambassador, I said with emphasis, was not to be a
rubber stamp. I was well aware that colleges had fallen into a
dangerous drift of materialism. He agreed. I also realized that
mass-production, assembly-line education in universities of five
to forty thousand students resulted in loss of personality
development and much that is vital in student training. To this
he also agreed.
The Foundational Philosophy
I explained how the Bible is, actually, the divine Maker's
instruction book He has sent along with His product -- the human
individual. It reveals the PURPOSE of life -- the purpose for which
the human mind and body was designed and brought into being -- the
directions for operating this human mechanism so that it will
perform as it was designed to do, and fulfill its intended
purpose, reaching its intended goal.
In other words, that the Bible is the very FOUNDATION of all
knowledge -- the basic concept as an APPROACH to the acquisition of
ALL KNOWLEDGE -- whether academic, scientific, historic,
philosophical or otherwise. The Bible provides the missing
dimension in education. Therefore, it must be the BASIS for all
academic courses.
The Bible does not contain all knowledge -- it is the
foundation of all knowledge. It is the starting point in man's
quest for knowledge, and equips man to BUILD on that foundation.
The Bible, alone of all books or sources of knowing, REVEALS
basic PURPOSES. It alone reveals the inexorable, yet invisible
LAWS that regulate cause and effect, action and reaction -- that
govern all relationships -- that produce happiness, peace,
well-being, prosperity. The Bible is a guide-book of vital
principles, to be applied to circumstances, conditions, and
problems.
God has equipped man with eyes with which to see; ears with
which to hear; hands with which to work; minds with which to
reason, think, plan, design, make decisions, and will to act on
those decisions. Man has capacity to explore, investigate,
observe, measure. God enabled man to invent telescopes,
microscopes, test-tubes and laboratories. Man, of himself, is
enabled to acquire much knowledge. But without the BASIC
knowledge -- that FOUNDATION of all knowledge, revealed only in the
Bible -- man goes off on erroneous tangents in his effort to
explain what he discovers.
Only in the BIBLE can he learn the real PURPOSE being worked
out here below. Only through this revelation from GOD can he know
the real meaning of life -- what, exactly, man is -- or THE WAY to
such desired blessings as peace, happiness, abundant living -- the
spiritual values.
The biblical revelation provides man with the true concept
through which to view and explain what he can observe.
HOW Ambassador Was to Be Different
But the educational institutions of this world have rejected this
FOUNDATION of knowledge. They have built an educational structure
on a false foundation. They left God, and His revelation, out of
their knowledge. They have built a complicated and false system
composed of a perverted mixture of truth and error.
Ambassador College was to correct these ills and perversions
in modern education. That was to be its basic policy.
The board of trustees of the Radio Church of God, of which I
was chairman, would set all policies until the college could be
incorporated in its own name with its own board of trustees.
Until that time, it would be operated as an activity of the Radio
Church of God. Mr. Dillon would administer these policies.
To this he agreed. But I was to learn later that, not
possessing a real grasp or understanding of the Bible, he
apparently never did really comprehend what I meant by this basic
concept of education.
Mr. Dillon was the product of this world's education. He was
imbued with its concepts. He never did quite grasp the real
meaning of my continuous emphasizing that Ambassador College was
definitely not to be a "rubber-stamp college." I assumed he was
in complete harmony with our basic purpose. I feel sure he
thought he was.
Had I, too, been indoctrinated with the prevailing
educational concepts, there would be no Ambassador Colleges
today -- but God saw to it that I came up through different
channels.
Starting Active Preparations
The special January, 1947, number of The Plain Truth, announcing
the future college in Pasadena, brought applications from both
prospective faculty members and students.
One application came from Dr. Hawley Otis Taylor. He was
chairman emeritus of the department of physics at Wheaton
College. Dr. Taylor had a Ph.D. from Cornell University; had
taught at Cornell, Harvard, and MIT; had been a consultant of the
Navy in the war; had been a member of the U.S. Bureau of
Standards. His scientific publications were voluminous. And he
was a professed Christian.
This all seemed too good to be true!
Dr. Taylor had reached Wheaton's retirement age -- seventy. He
had once lived in Pasadena and wanted to spend his retirement
years here. He felt he had several active years of service left,
and Ambassador College offered the opportunity to add his salary
here to his retirement pay from Wheaton. After due
correspondence, and, I believe, a personal interview in Pasadena,
we appointed Dr. Taylor dean of instruction and registrar of the
new college.
Other applications arrived. Mr. Dillon and I were anxious to
get on the job in Pasadena immediately. The very next morning,
early, after our return from Europe, he and I started the long
drive from Eugene to Pasadena.
We stopped off at a small town in southern Oregon to
interview a woman, a Dr. Enid Smith, teaching English in a high
school. She had Ph.D. degrees from two universities. One was from
Columbia University -- the other from the University of Oregon. had
received an application from her. We hired her as our first
instructor in English.
We Buy New Home
We arrived Pasadena Thursday night, March 27. Things now were
moving into high gear. Friday morning I contacted Mrs. C.J.
McCormick, the real estate broker through whom the purchase of
the college property had been made. I had been looking at a
number of places, before the trip abroad, for a home. She had
said she would try to have a few places lined up for me to
inspect on my return from Europe.
She said she had three places for me to see, which she felt
might fit the requirements. Chief requirement was the fact that I
lacked even enough money for a down payment. We were going to
have to manage to purchase a place, as we had the college, with
no down payment.
Mr. Dillon went with me. The first place she showed us was
an ill-arranged, two-story Spanish home.
I didn't like the second place. The third place was three
miles from the college, in the California Institute of Technology
district. At first glance from the street, I said: "That place
exactly reflects the character of Mrs. Armstrong. She'd like it."
But on the entrance sidewalk, I stopped.
"Look, Mrs. McCormick," I said. "It's no use looking at this
place. It's the most homelike-looking place I've seen -- but we
could never afford a place like this. What we're looking for is a
small, modest-type house -- something inexpensive. This place is
sufficiently modest in appearance, but it's too big."
"Mr. Armstrong," she promptly replied, "this is the only
kind of place you can afford. That's why all three of these
places I had chosen to show you are larger places. You can't
afford to buy a small place. If it is a new tract place, the
company selling it will demand a down payment which you don't
have. If it's an older place lived in by the owner, such people
are selling because they need the money, and they would have to
have a sizable down payment. These people are financially
well-to-do. They don't need the money. If they like you and Mrs.
Armstrong, and you like the property, they can afford to let you
have it without a down payment.
"These people love their home. The only reason they want to
sell it is that Mrs. Williams is unable physically to walk up and
down stairs any longer, and doctors have told her she must move
to a place of one floor only. They have found a lovely one-story
place in South Pasadena. They paid cash for it. I've already
briefed them on your financial position, and how you are starting
a cultural college, and that you are people of the character that
would take the best of care of this property. That's important to
them. They do love this place, and want to be sure the family
moving in will take the best care of it."
We went on inside.
The home reflected character and charm. It seemed even more
homelike inside than out. It was a fourteen-room house, fourteen
years old, but of quality construction and had been well
maintained. It was a frame colonial house, two stories, and a
half-basement of three rooms in clean, excellent condition.
We examined the construction from underneath, in the
basement. It was substantial. Mr. Dillon had spent a summer
selling real estate. He had learned how to appraise the quality
and value of a house.
"This place," he whispered to me, "is so desirable that if
you don't buy it, I will. Don't ever let this place get away from
you."
Of course I wanted Mrs. Armstrong to see it. And the
Williams wanted to see her, before deciding whether to sell to
us. After we left, I called my wife long distance. She had just
an hour to catch the evening train for Los Angeles. The next
evening she arrived -- or, more probably, it was Sunday evening.
On Monday morning I took her out to see it. It was
love-at-first-sight with her. It had seemed to me that this home
and my wife simply belonged together. It was just her type -- her
character. It had quality, charm, character. Yet it had
simplicity. It was not a showplace, not ostentatious. Just quiet,
modest, with charm, beauty and character. The Williams, we
learned later in the day, fell in love at first sight with Mrs.
Armstrong. Immediately they felt she was the woman who would take
good care of the place.
Mrs. McCormick contacted us in the early afternoon. "It's
like a miracle," she said. "They want you to have it. They will
sell to you at just half the price the property has been listed
for, for over a year. They will sell it to you on quarterly
payments, no down payment, no interest, and will give you
possession and the deed, taking a trust deed (mortgage), in
ninety days when the second payment is made."
We couldn't believe our ears! I did some quick figuring. We
had been living in motels, forced to eat at restaurants. The
money we were spending at restaurants for ourselves and two sons
was almost exactly the amount of the payments. Mrs. Armstrong is
a very economical cook, when we could have a home where she could
do the cooking. With her management over grocery buying, I
figured the food would cost no more than we were spending for
motel rent.
In other words, IT WAS GOING TO COST US ABSOLUTELY NOTHING
to step into this beautiful home and start owning it! It would
involve no increase in our cost of living!
I went immediately to the office of Judge Russell Morton,
our attorney, asking him to draw up the agreement. When I told
him the terms, he looked at me with a strange look.
"I never heard of such a deal," he said. "Why, I ought to
refuse to write up the agreement! That's the second important
property that has come to you without even a down payment.
He did write up the agreement, and the next day, Tuesday,
April 1, 1947, the Williams, Mrs. Armstrong and I, signed, and I
gave them a check for the first quarterly payment. We were to
have possession and the deed July 1, the same day we were to take
possession of the college property.
First College Office
Mr. Dillon was anxious to get into an office, and get started
with the preliminary work of organizing the new college.
There were the two buildings on this original property we
had purchased for the college. One was the present library, which
we then called "the college," for the simple reason that it
housed all classrooms, library, music department,
assembly-everything, except business office. And, besides this
was the former garage. It was a four-car garage, with apartments
occupying the second floor and each end of the ground floor, and
filled with tenants. We managed a deal, at a premium cost, by
which the people in the apartment at the rear upstairs and the
rear downstairs vacated. The center of the downstairs, garage
space for four cars, already was vacant. The building originally
had been stables -- way back in B.C. years -- before cars!
In the rear ground-floor room, later to become our printing
shop until 1958, we opened the first Ambassador College office.
We purchased desks and office equipment and supplies. Mr. Dillon
employed a secretary -- a Miss Ruth Klicker. He began work of
planning a curriculum.
One day he said a man had walked in, while I was out, and
applied for the job of professor of French. He was Professor
Emile Mauler-Hiennecey, French-born and educated, with degrees
from a university in Paris. He had moved to New Orleans and done
private French tutoring, and in recent years had lived in
Pasadena, He had taught in high schools, and continued private
tutoring. Mr. Dillon wanted me to interview the professor -- even
then a year or two past seventy.
After my interview, we appointed him our first instructor in
French.
We employed two other women teachers -- Mrs. Genevieve F.
Payne, with an M.A. from Colorado University, and graduate work
in history at other universities, as instructor in history and
Spanish; and Miss Lucille Hoover, with a B.M. from Chicago
Musical College and considerable additional study in America and
abroad, as head of our music department.
And then, about June 20, after Mr. Dillon had gone to New
York to study at Columbia for the summer, Mrs. Lucy H. Martin
came in for an interview. She was an experienced librarian -- had
served on the staff of the Library of Congress at the nation's
capital. I did not know until later that she had degrees in music
equal to or higher than Miss Hoover. I employed her as librarian.
It was then a part-time job. She was teaching in another private
school in Pasadena.
We also appointed a Mr. Krauss, with an M.S. from the
University of Southern California, who had been officer in charge
of the Navy physical fitness program, as director of physical
education.
All in all, we felt our new college faculty rated very well
in degrees and previous experience. I had wanted Mr. Dillon to
earn a Ph.D. from Columbia University. He already had graduate
credits from the University of Oregon. So he and his wife
departed, about mid-June, for New York City for summer work
toward his degree.
Dr. B. Balks
After signing the papers for purchase of our new home on April 1,
1947, I began to think about how we would furnish such a large
house. Of course we had some furniture in storage in Eugene,
Oregon. But most of it was old and worn, and there was not enough
to furnish even a small part of our new home.
The main building we had purchased, as "the college
building" from Dr. B., had always been used as a large residence.
It was, however, more institutional than residential in
appearance. Dr. B. and his elderly sister were living in it. The
building was completely furnished. Most of the furniture and
furnishings were somewhat old, but of the character usually found
in larger mansions. He probably had bought it all second-hand at
one of the auction markets. We were not going to be able to use
this furniture in the college, when we turned the rooms into
classrooms.
I approached Dr. B. about moving the furniture and
furnishings to our new home on July 1. Immediately he refused.
For tax reasons, he had itemized the purchase price, segregating
the furnishings from the real property. By placing a higher value
on the furnishings, he avoided a portion of the capital-gains tax
on the real estate.
But the wily, scheming Dr. B. suggested that, for a separate
cash payment, he would agree to removal of the furniture. I think
his price was $2,000, to apply on the last two months' rental on
the twenty-five-month lease. The reader will remember that we
purchased this first college property on a lease-and-option
basis. We were to pay $1,000 per month rent on a
twenty-five-month lease. At the end of twenty-five months, the
$25,000 thus paid was to become the down payment on the purchase.
The contract included an option to purchase at that time, with
the $25,000 down payment thus accumulated, and $1,000 payments
per month, plus interest.
So Judge Morton drew up a legal contract, by which, as a
result of advancing this last two-months' rental under the lease
part of the contract, Dr. B. agreed we might move the furniture
and furnishings to our new home address but to no other location.
We became convinced before July 1, however, that Dr. B. had
no intention of ever giving us possession of the property. Our
contract called for nine months' rental payments at $1,000 per
month, before possession. After this $9,000 had been paid, we
were to take possession.
It had been a real headache of a problem to raise that extra
$2,000. It probably took some thirty days, but I think it was
managed by mid-May. But as July 1 approached, Judge Morton, his
associate attorney, Mr. Wannamaker, and I had become convinced
that Dr. B. did not intend to give possession -- that his intention
was to keep the money we had paid -- which now would be $11,000 by
July 1, and to keep the property too! We went into a huddle at
the law offices about strategy for peacefully taking possession.
Dr. B. had always made me a welcome guest, personally. Mrs.
Armstrong and I had spent the night there on New Year's eve, so
we could view the 1947 Tournament of Roses parade. This
world-famous parade starts just one block south of this property,
on South Orange Grove Boulevard -- and this original property is
less than a half block off Orange Grove.
We worked out a strategy.
So on the morning of July 1, Mrs. Armstrong, our two sons
and I parked our car, filled with our luggage, a block away -- out
of sight from the Dr. B. building. Then I walked over to the
front door and rang the bell. Dr. B. came to the door, and, as I
suspected, looked carefully to see that no luggage or other
members of the family had come with me. Seeing no one, he allowed
me to step inside, as I had so frequently done.
We went inside and chatted. Nothing was said about our
taking possession. Then, after about ten minutes, the front
doorbell rang. I beat Dr. B. to the door, opened it, and before
Dr. B. grasped what had happened, in walked Mrs. Armstrong, and
our sons, carrying our luggage. We were inside. But so was Dr. B.
and his sister!
We took over two bedrooms. We planned that not more than one
or two of us would ever leave the building at one time -- always
keeping at least two of us inside, to admit any who left.
Some two weeks went by. Dr. B. and his sister made no move
to leave. We were in. But so were they -- and they seemed to have
no intention of moving out or turning over possession.
Of course, he was violating his signed agreement. We could
possibly have taken it to court and forced them out. But that was
the last thing we wanted to do. We wanted to keep the peace.
So we had another strategy conference at the attorneys'
offices. We remembered the legal paper he had signed agreeing to
removal of the furniture and furnishings to our new home on or
after July 1.
It was decided to inform Dr. B. we had set a date for
removing the furniture, and that on that date, set about three
days ahead, house movers would come and remove the beds on which
they were sleeping -- and in fact all, except the one Mrs.
Armstrong and I were using. Dr. B. protested, when I informed
him.
"I have a piece of paper here," I said, "which you signed,
which says these beds are going to be moved on that date. You
have three days to get your own things packed, and to vacate and
turn complete possession over to us. I don't want to have to
resort to legal means or force."
"Oh, well," he answered gruffly and angrily, "All right! All
right! We'll get out!"
The strategy worked. We had possession. But Dr. B. still
thought he was not beaten. He still thought he could outsmart us
and keep the property. We were to learn that, when the time came
to exercise our option to turn it into a purchase, in December,
1948.
Chapter 56
A Supreme Crisis! -- Now Forced to "Fold Up"?
NOW CAME the real troubles! We reached the crossroads. This
was to be the real test. Ahead, now, was the possible transition
from a small, struggling, virtually one-man work to a major scale
organization exerting a powerful influence on humanity the world
around! Ambassador College was to provide the only possible
means. It was to be the recruiting and training center,
integrating into effective organization those whom God would call
to surround me -- to become this Christ-led and Spirit-powered
organism.
But lying in wait, poised to spring at us in satanic fury,
was a succession of such seemingly insurmountable obstacles,
diabolical plots, persecutions and oppositions as I never dreamed
of facing. As I think back now, I realize, as I did not then, how
these efforts to thwart the founding of the college seemed to
come from all directions -- and from within as well as without. Yet
in actual fact all were instigated from one source -- the same that
had always sought to destroy the work of God.
It seemed, however, as if the irresistible FORCE met head-on
with the immovable obstruction.
"The $30,000 Headache"
The wily Dr. B., possessing the highest law degrees in the land,
and living by his wits had tried to prevent giving us possession
of "the college" on July 1, 1947. We called the building that is
now the library "the college" in those days.
Then, in August, the city building inspectors came around to
inspect our proposed college building. Dr. B. had assured me it
was of solid concrete, fireproof construction. I had had it
examined by two architects. They, too, said it was a solid
concrete building. But the building inspectors bored inside the
outer layer of hard concrete. It was a frame building, after all.
It did not come up to codes to qualify as a classroom building!
They slapped on us what proved to be -- as we then called
it -- a $30,000 headache. That's a real costly headache!
Before we could be given official occupancy for a college
building, they informed us, all walls and ceilings must be torn
out and replaced with one-hour-fire resistant construction!
Once we began tearing out walls, the inspector condemned all
the electric wiring system and the plumbing pipes. New electric
conduits were required throughout, and all new plumbing pipes!
I engaged a contractor, highly recommended by our next-door
neighbor who then owned "Mayfair," later to become our first
girls' student residence. The contractor agreed to do the job -- on
$4,000 weekly progress payments.
But where was I to get the $4,000 per week, on top of
regular operating expenses? Our income at the time was perhaps
$2,500 per week -- all obligated in advance for the operational
expenditures of the work. Now I had, somehow, to raise an
additional $4,000 per week!
I sent out a desperate emergency letter to church brethren
and co-workers. I made personal long-distance calls to those I
felt might be able to help with larger sums.
A peanut and watermelon farmer in Texas sent in most of his
life savings -- a few thousand dollars. His education had been
neglected. It was now too late for him, but he wanted to help
others still young enough to obtain the higher education he
lacked.
A doctor in Missouri sent a few thousand dollars, and then
more later. He later became a trustee of Ambassador College, and
the first director of its Bible Correspondence Course. Although
he had had nine years of college education and a doctor's degree,
he came to Ambassador and earned an additional master of arts
degree, in theology.
A radio listener I had never known before, in northern
California, mortgaged his own new home for $5,000 and loaned it
to me -- without security. I was six months past the allotted year
in paying it all back, but I made a business deal with his
mortgagee, paying him a cash bonus, to extend the time six months
on the unpaid balance.
The final week, early October, the contractor came up with a
$12,000 bill and demanded immediate payment. I had planned for
only $4,000, and had gone through a dozen nightmares to raise
that. The pressure was almost unbearable.
Everyone -- except my wife and I -- knew the college had "folded
up" -- before it even opened its doors to students. And, of course,
the living HEAD of His Church, Jesus Christ, knew it hadn't!
How I finally raised that additional $8,000 within a few
days' time, I don't remember, now. I think that was the week when
this $5,000 loan came in. But, somehow, God saw us through.
The Lesson in Faith
It became almost impossible to sleep nights. I never lost
faith -- really. I never doubted the outcome. Yet I had not yet
learned the total, implicit, trusting faith that can RELAX and
leave it quietly in God's hands. I was under terrific strain. It
was literally multiple nightmares condensed into a super ONE!
On one occasion, I almost snapped. I weakened to the extent
that I actually prayed, one night, that God would let me die
through the night, and relieve me from the almost unbearable
agony. But next morning, I was deeply repentant for that, and
prayed earnestly for God's forgiveness. Twice I did give up, on
going to bed at night. But next morning was another day, and I
bounced back, repentant for having given up -- if only momentarily.
Yet this "$30,000 headache" was only the beginning of
troubles. Others were yet to come -- from within and from without.
It was not until early 1949 that things eased up. By then I had
come to the place that I had to pray in final desperation for
"six months' grace" from this constant harassment. I humbly asked
God to consider that I was human, with human weaknesses, and
PLEASE to give me six months' rest from the terrible ordeal.
He did. And during that respite I finally learned how to
RELAX in faith, and shift the weighty BURDEN of it over onto
CHRIST! And, at least up to the time of this writing, God has
enabled me not only to trust Him for the final outcome, but to
let faith remove the strain of anxiety.
When troubles or emergencies arise, we should be
tremendously concerned! We should not take these things lightly
or nonchalantly. We should be "on our toes" to Do whatever is our
part, but trusting God in relaxed FAITH to guide us and to do His
part which we cannot do for ourselves. We should be freed from
destructive strain and worry.
This lesson of faith does not come easily. Sometimes it is
achieved only through punishing experience. We need to learn that
God does not do all things for us. He does many things in, and
through us. We have our part to do. But there are some things we
cannot do, and which we must rely on Him to do, wholly, for us.
It takes wisdom to know which is which.
We had received some forty applications for prospective
college students. But this reconstruction program had delayed the
college opening. I had been compelled to notify all applicants
that I would advise them when we finally were ready to open.
College Finally Opens
Ambassador College did finally swing open its big front door to
students October 8, 1947. But by that time nearly all applicants
had gone elsewhere. Besides our son Dick (Richard David), there
was only Raymond C. Cole, who came down from Oregon where his
family had been in the Church for years; Herman L. Hoeh, who came
from Santa Rosa, California; and Miss Betty Bates from Tulsa,
Oklahoma -- four pioneer students -- with a faculty of eight.
Did ever a college start so small? Or with a ratio of two
professors to each student? But the things of God, through human
instruments, always start the smallest, and grow to become the
BIGGEST!
Ambassador College had started! It was not born without
agonizing birth pangs! But, as a mother is soon over the pangs of
childbirth, so we are not suffering them today.
Yet the trials and troubles, oppositions and satanic plots
to stop the college and the work, did not end on October 8, 1947!
Even the worst was yet to come!
But in the end, even Satan will be forced to bow to the
TRUTH that GOD's purpose STANDS that Satan can do no more than
God allows -- and that, though Satan's power is far greater than
that of us humans, God's power is infinitely greater than
Satan's.
God has said HIS GOSPEL SHALL BE PREACHED AND PUBLISHED IN
ALL THE WORLD! Satan has tried to prevent it. Had this not been
the very WORK OF GOD, it would have been stopped long ago. But
the living CHRIST has said He would open the DOOR for the
proclaiming of this message, and that NO MAN can shut it!
In His power and strength HIS WORK continues to GO FORWARD!!
Chapter 57
Surviving the First Year of Ambassador College
WOULD you really say it was a college that finally swung
open its door to students the eighth of October, 1947? There were
only four students!
There were no dormitories -- no place for students to be in
residence on the original little "campus" of one and
three-quarter acres. We had some books and encyclopedias on
shelves in the one room that served as music room, assembly room,
library, study room and lounge -- but no real college library.
There was no gymnasium, no track or athletic field.
WHY Smallest Beginning
I suppose many people would laugh at the idea of dignifying that
by the name "college." But there is a reason why it had to begin
that small.
When the Great God, Creator and Ruler of the vast universe,
does something by Himself, He demonstrates His supreme power by
doing it in a stupendous awe inspiring manner. But when it is
actually God who is doing something through humans, it must start
the smallest. Like the grain of mustard seed, the smallest of
herbs, which grows to become the largest, God's works through
humans must start the smallest -- but they grow, and grow, and
grow, until they become the biggest!
Had Ambassador College started big, with several hundred or
a few thousand students, a great campus filled with large college
buildings -- an administration building, classroom buildings,
laboratories, music conservatory, large ornate auditorium,
gymnasium, a fine quarter-mile track and football field, a large
library building with 500,000 volumes, dormitories, dining
halls -- everything complete, then I could certainly have no faith
in accepting it as God's college.
Ambassador started in a building that had been a private
residence. True, it had been built in an architectural design
more institutional than residential in appearance. But it had
been a residence. Then there was the garage. As I mentioned
before, it had been originally stables -- way back in the years
B.C. -- before cars. It had later been converted into a four-car
garage, with apartments upstairs and apartment rooms at both
ends.
We had turned some of the living rooms into business
offices, and the central garage space into our general mailing
room for the radio work. Our small printing shop, with a Davidson
duplicating machine, occupied the rear ground-floor room. We
called this building the administration building. Since then it
has undergone successive remodelings, and served as the
administration building until our modern new four story
administration building was completed in 1969.
And, again, I have explained before that God's number for
organized beginnings is TWELVE. His original beginnings always
start with ONE MAN. God started the human family with one man,
Adam. His nation Israel started from the one man, Abraham. That
nation's government and leadership started with the one man,
Moses. The Church of God and God's WORK started with the one man,
Jesus Christ.
But God's own nation on earth had its organized beginning
through the TWELVE tribes. The Church had its organized beginning
with TWELVE apostles.
God started the original planning and founding of His
college through myself. I had no help from our church in Eugene.
The members were too poor to give financial aid. One or two
offered disapproval and criticism. But, on that morning of
October 8, 1947, the actual organized beginning of the college
numbered TWELVE persons in total -- four students, eight faculty
members, myself included. The property had been purchased, as
previously explained, TWELVE years after the start of the work.
No Dorms
We had no facilities for housing students. Our own son, Richard
David (Dick), lived with us in our new home (new to us, that is).
Betty Bates had rented a room out in the east end of Pasadena,
some five miles from the college. She used the city bus service
for transportation. The other two students, Raymond Cole and
Herman Hoeh, rented a room together some two and a half miles
from the college. They used less expensive transportation -- shoe
leather. They managed to prepare their own food, somehow, in
their room.
Those pioneer students had to "rough it" in a way I am sure
our students of today do not realize. They certainly did not live
in luxury. We did manage to employ these pioneer students for
part-time work, at $40 per month. But they had to pay $31.50
room-rent-per each! In order to have enough to eat, they often
picked lamb's-quarter -- in place of spinach -- where it grew along
certain sparsely settled streets and in vacant lots, then
prepared it after returning home from school. Many times, they
simply went hungry. They were more hungry for an education than
for physical food.
Yet they never mentioned any of this, and I didn't learn of
it myself until much later.
They heard talk from others about "when this thing folds
up." But there was no thought of the college "folding up" in
their minds -- nor in mine. They had faith. They were there for a
purpose! It was a mighty serious purpose! It was the one goal of
their lives, and they concentrated on it and worked at it with
all their energies!
The part-time work these pioneer students did was janitor
work.
Opposition from Within
Previously I have mentioned the opposition faced in getting the
college started. There had been plans, plots, and schemes to stop
the broadcast work before it started, and to kill it after it
started. Not from lay members, either at Eugene or up in the
Willamette Valley -- but from jealous and coveting ministers. There
were "temptations" to drop it -- offers of something
"better" -- financially. Only these didn't really tempt me. There
had been seemingly insurmountable obstacles to hurdle over.
But there now was opposition, whether intentional from those
who brought it or not, from within the faculty.
Remember, I had set out to found a NEW KIND of
college -- God's college. Not a Bible school. Not a "religious"
school. A straight liberal arts co-educational institution -- but
Based on God's revealed knowledge actuated by God's Spirit.
But where was I to find teachers and college professors, at
the university level, who taught courses on the very FOUNDATION
of God's revealed knowledge? Such instructors simply did not
exist. I had to start with those reared and schooled in this
world's type of education.
And I have explained before how educators, long ago -- from
the days of Nimrod -- from the days of Plato who founded the
curricular system -- from the days of the University of Paris which
started the present universities in the 12th century -- had not
retained God in their knowledge. The world had inherited
education, not from God's teachings, but from PAGANISM.
Since I could do no other, I was forced to choose
instructors trained in the prevailing system of education. But I
sought those of outstanding qualifications and adequate degrees.
I wanted the best!
There was the woman professor of English. She had at least
two Ph.D. - some eight degrees altogether. This surely sounded like
the best. She had taught many years in India. I did not know,
when Mr. Dillon and I employed her, that she was saturated with
eastern philosophies and occultism. As time went on, it became
evident that our English professor was not at all in harmony with
the real objectives of Ambassador College.
Later on in the year we learned that Professor
Mauler-Hiennecey did not really believe in God, but had strong
agnostic views. However, he was a lovable old fellow, and a very
fine French teacher, as well as a good instructor in Spanish.
Under him my son Dick learned to speak French without even an
accent. When he went to France, in 1952, he was accepted often as
a native Frenchman.
We found M. Mauler-Hiennecey to be pleasant, friendly,
kind-hearted. He was with us several years, but finally resigned.
But, he was then getting pretty old. We did love him, and he
rendered service for some six years.
But in Dr. Taylor I felt we had a sympathetic Christian
believer. Dr. Taylor, in spite of his illustrious academic
record, which included faculty membership at such institutions as
Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cornell, and
Wheaton, strongly professed Christianity.
It had seemed too good to be true. The application I had
received for a professorship on the Ambassador College faculty
from a man of Dr. Hawley Otis Taylor's record in education and
science appeared positively providential.
In today's world of materialistic higher education and
science, God has been virtually thrown out the window. The Bible
has been relegated disdainfully to the scrapheap of medieval
superstition.
Of course much if not most of the doctrines of traditional
Christianity might well be put in the category of superstition.
I should have known Dr. Taylor's Christianity was this
traditional variety. But somehow I didn't realize this until
after he arrived in Pasadena.
It seemed indeed a rarity to find a man of Dr. Taylor's
illustrious scientific status professing fundamentalist
Christianity. And I was overjoyed. Dr. Taylor was appointed, as
previously explained, as dean of instruction, and registrar.
Before the college was scarcely more than started, I was
somewhat disillusioned. I soon learned that Dr. Taylor's
religious beliefs were, indeed, those of traditional
"Christianity." Of course, he was sincere and unalterably
confirmed in his convictions.
These basic differences of belief produced a certain
friction, but later were resolved in a spirit of happy
cooperation.
Bible Course Minimized
In planning the curriculum, class schedules, and the purely
academic matters of the college, I left arrangements in the hands
of Mr. Dillon and Dr. Taylor. In preparation of the college
catalog, I wrote merely the introductory pages describing the
kind of college, leaving all technical data, description of
courses, curriculum, credits required, to Mr. Dillon and Dr.
Taylor. I was not experienced in curricula-planning.
The catalog was not printed until after classes were
started. But after they were actually in progress, and class
schedules set, I discovered to my great dismay that my own Course
in theology -- the real foundation course of the college -- had been
reduced to a two-hour minor subject!
By then classes were under way. All students' schedules were
fixed -- all records set. It was too late to change them -- for that
year.
Sensing this undercurrent of hostility within the teaching
staff, I immediately decreed that faculty members, as well as
students, must attend all my classes. I taught entirely by the
lecture method. I did this, not so much as a retaliatory measure,
but as a means of getting the new college off to a start as the
very kind of college God was
Since the BIBLE is the very foundation of all knowledge, I
was determined to see that this approach to knowledge permeated
the entire institution. This class provided me with a forum as a
sounding board. It enabled me to keep constantly before both
students and faculty the biblical FOUNDATION of knowledge, and
the scriptural approach to understanding.
I was quite conscious of the materialistic educational
backgrounds of faculty members. I was well aware of the
evolutionary concepts most of them had imbibed. I kept my
lectures on a reasonably dignified plane, and I constantly used
the four gospels to demonstrate that the current teaching of
traditional Christianity was at total variance with the inspired
record.
I took great pains to make my lectures so rational and
factual as to leave no room for refutation. And none was voiced!
I was reminded of a church service I had conducted back in
Eugene, Oregon, a few years before, when a converted former
atheist brought an atheist friend. After my service she asked her
visiting guest what she thought of the sermon.
"Well," the visitor answered curtly, "I can't refute his
statements, but I'm simply not interested in accepting them."
No one knows better than I that it is impossible to cram
truth down unwilling and obstinate throats. But I did want the
satisfaction of making the truth SO PLAIN that faculty members
had but two choices -- to accept it, or deliberately reject it in
which case it became a witness against them, for which they alone
were responsible, and for which they would answer in the
judgment.
I have been called merely to proclaim Christ's message as a
witness. I am not sent to force conversion on the world, but to
be a witness of the TRUTH, made plain, to those willing to
receive it. And, of course I realized that unwilling minds can
shut the door from allowing it to enter. I am sure that first
school year was a bit uncomfortable to some of the faculty
members attending my lectures.
But it did establish the educational FOUNDATION for
Ambassador College. And it became very convincing to all four
students!
At the beginning of the second year I compromised. I saw to
it that the theological courses were three-hour majors that
year -- that is, three hour long class periods per week. One of
them I designated as my own forum period, at which attendance of
all faculty members was required. The faculty was excused from
further attendance at the other two periods from that time
onward.
I was determined that the AMBASSADOR POLICY was going to be
inculcated thoroughly in faculty and students alike. Ambassador
was to be God's college -- not another rubber stamp of the
educational institutions of this world! But, with a faculty
trained in this world's scholarship, I found that it required
determined dominance on my part, plus vigilance, to assure it.
By the third year, I felt sufficient progress had been made
to this end that I could safely dispense with the requirement for
faculty attendance at biblical lectures. Besides the three hours
per week in theology, however, I continued the forum one hour a
week, which continues to this day, attended by students and
faculty alike.
The Broadcast Dilemma
But now, back to the main thread of the story. The most traumatic
crisis of all was to come in the second school year.
This "$30,000 headache" I have described, in being forced to
convert our main college building into a fireproof structure,
played havoc with our financial situation generally. I was forced
to get farther behind with our big radio station.
We had been forced to drop off XELO, the 150,000 watt
clear-channel station at Juarez, Mexico, altogether. We had been
on both XELO and XEG, the other superpowered 150,000-watt
station. In those days these two stations could be heard over
most of the United States, and even in central Canada. They had
built a tremendous audience for us.
While the cost, per half hour, seemed very high to us, it
was only half to two-thirds as much as many major-city
50,000-watt stations in the United States. And although the
listening audience to those stations was not a concentrated
metropolitan audience such as major-city American stations enjoy,
it spread over most of the United States. The total audience, in
those days, was much larger than that of any United States
station.
We had means of checking and arriving at a close estimate of
the number of listeners. I was able to say, then, that every
radio dollar reached 2,000 people with a powerful half-hour
message!
We can't make that claim any more. Already at that time,
1947-1948, more and more small radio stations were being
licensed. Where there had been one small 100-watt station in
Eugene, Oregon, in 1934 when we started, there were, in 1961,
some five or six, and at least two of them 5,000-watt stations.
The number of radio stations multiplied all over the country, in
small towns and in major cities. Power increased also. And all
this brought more and more interference over the airwaves,
constantly reducing the coverage and clarity of signal of such
superpowered stations as XELO and XEG.
Up until March, 1948, we were on XEG at 8 p.m. nightly
except Saturdays, and 5:30 a.m. daily except Sunday. This was our
only southern and midwestern coverage, but it was the most
powerful and effective single station existing for a widespread
coverage of all that vast area. In addition, we were then using
five stations on the Pacific Coast -- XERB, 50,000 watts, Sunday
only, Saturday and Sunday coverage in Portland, and Sunday only
in Seattle. What a far cry that was from the television and radio
coverage of today!
But, before the close of 1947 we were getting further and
further behind in paying our bills with XEG. The management told
me very pointedly that they were not in business for the purpose
of financing the start of a college for me. If we were going to
use our money to operate the college instead of paying their
bills, we would have to go off the air.
It was a frustrating dilemma. I knew God had opened the way
for the college. I knew the Eternal wanted the college. I knew
the work of God could not continue to grow without the college.
But I knew also God wanted us on the air. He had called me
to proclaim Christ's gospel.
Thrown off the Air!
Of course it will be easy for the "armchair quarterbacks" to say
that the college should not have been started under these
circumstances. Plenty of them did say that. Anyway, I was now
into this dilemma, and I had to face it.
Of course I prayed -- continually and fervently. But if God
had had a better way, perhaps He found my head so thick He
couldn't get it through to me any faster. Now, however, I asked
for deliverance out of the trouble. And it came -- later!
By the first of March XEG carried out their threat to throw
us off. They allowed the program to stay on Sunday nights, only,
provided I began to make progress in paying off the back
indebtedness, and that this progress be continued.
Other bills were pressing. I was being hounded on every side
for money by creditors. Many around me continued to harp about
"when this thing folds up." But I was determined it was not going
to fold up!
We were off XEG with the week-night broadcasts until the
following October. Somehow, we weathered the storm.
Loyalty of Co-Workers
One very precious lesson was learned by that experience. Our
family of co-workers who regularly support God's work with their
tithes and voluntary offerings, remained loyal, even though we
were off the air except for Sunday nights. I had learned that it
was the every night broadcasting that was really effective and
resultful. One might have expected that the money to support the
work would have stopped when the listeners no longer received the
broadcast.
But they had accepted Christ's teaching from my voice, that
it is more blessed to GIVE than to receive. Their hearts, as well
as their tithes and contributions, were in the work of God. When
they no longer received the broadcast, they DID NOT STOP GIVING!
There was scarcely any lag in the income. But the expenses were
greatly lessened.
This allowed us to make progress in paying the accumulated
XEG bill sufficient to induce them to put us back on the air in
October that year, 1948. Nevertheless, it was a harassing spring,
summer, and fall -- and the frightful agony of it rose to a climax
by October and November.
We had been forced to get behind even with the faculty
payroll. Now of course that was a thing regarded among teachers
generally as the unpardonable sin of an educational institution.
One particular teacher tried to injure us legally.
But the Labor Relations Board -- or whoever it was that the
matter came before -- allowed us to distribute the back pay over
several months of time. So that attempt to put the college out of
business failed.
It surely is needless to say, however, that experiences of
this kind were a living nightmare to endure.
Reducing to Half-Time
During the summer of 1948 I was faced with a frightful situation
and a tough decision. Everyone seemed to think I ought to simply
give up, close the college down, and try to build back up the
broadcasting work. But somehow I knew God wanted neither dropped.
I had supreme and abiding FAITH that He would see us through.
True, I had not yet learned to have relaxed faith. I continued to
allow the strain of this situation to punish me. The following
year I was to learn the secret of relaxed faith -- but I will come
to that in due course.
After counsel, meditation, prayer, and much thinking, I made
the decision of what to do. I decided to reduce the college
schedule to half-time for one year. I could only pay
half-salaries. And I could not continue to pay all of those. We
would have to suffer through one year with a pruned-down faculty.
Just one of our women teachers remained with us -- and she is
still loyally with us today -- Mrs. Lucy H. Martin. Of course Mr.
Dillon remained on, and Dr. Taylor and Professor
Mauler-Hiennecey. I found that Mrs. Martin was well qualified to
teach English.
And then Mrs. Martin really surprised me.
"Perhaps I had not made it clear to you before," she said,
"but I happen to have degrees in music just as high as the former
teacher -- and I can make them higher by going on, during summer
vacations, to complete work at Juilliard [America's
highest-ranking musical college in New York], for my master's
degree in music. I'LL be happy to take over the music department
if you'd like, besides teaching English and being librarian."
And so we started the second year of Ambassador College on
half-schedule, with classes only three days a week. It was that
or let the college die.
Three New Students Arrive
No effort had been made to recruit any additional students, due
to this situation. However, one student showed up -- a fellow from
Wisconsin, named Kenneth C. Herrmann.
A very few weeks after the 1948-49 school year had started,
the front doorbell of our home rang one morning while I was
shaving. My wife told me that two young radio listeners from
Arkansas were there to see me. I hurried down.
They introduced themselves as Marion and Raymond McNair.
They had been working in the apple harvest up in Washington, but
wanted to swing by Pasadena and see me on the way home.
We had a nice talk, and I was surprised to learn how much
they knew about the Bible. I was intensely interested in hearing
of their experience leading to this biblical knowledge, and how
they came to listen to The World Tomorrow.
These boys had not had Sunday school or other religious
training. They had never been taught anything about immortal
souls, or going to heaven when one dies. Their very first
religious training began with the Bible. They studied it daily
before they were teenagers.
Some years later, they happened to hear a religious
broadcast on the radio. "Why," they exclaimed in surprise, "that
fellow is not preaching what's in the Bible! He's telling people
just the opposite of what the Bible says!"
This aroused them to tune to other religious programs on
their radio set. They were astonished and disillusioned! It
seemed that all the "radio preachers" were preaching a
"Christianity" that was very contrary to the Christianity of
Christ, of Paul, and of the apostles which they had been
receiving out of their Bible!
Then one day they heard a program coming in from a Mexican
station. They were startled in happy surprise.
"Why," they exclaimed, "that fellow is preaching exactly
what we have been getting out of the Bible!" That program was The
World Tomorrow! They became steady listeners.
This experience was just one more example of what I have
always said: Give a Bible to someone who has never had any
religious teaching, and let him study it diligently, without any
of the popular teachings of "Christianity," and he will believe
precisely what is proclaimed on The World Tomorrow. Yet those who
do believe and proclaim the PLAIN TRUTHS of the BIBLE will be
branded today as "false prophets."
"Well, I hope you boys will come to Ambassador College when
you've finished high school," I said.
"Oh, we're older than we look!" came the quick answer.
"We've already graduated from high school."
"Well, how does it happen you're not in Ambassador College,
then?" I asked.
"Well, we supposed we couldn't afford it," they replied.
"Well, look!" I said. "This is Friday morning. Can you boys
find a part-time job before tonight?" I explained that college
was in session only three days a week.
"Yes, Sir, we can," came the immediate and decisive answer.
"Well, you go find that job, and report to Ambassador
College Monday morning," I said.
They left. And they did find jobs.
Today Mr. Raymond F. McNair is an ordained minister and
Deputy Chancellor of the Pasadena campus of Ambassador College.
Crisis with Dr. B. Approaches
I have previously explained the difficulties we experienced in
dealing with Dr. B., from whom we purchased the college property.
He had continued to harass us. He never had intended to let us
obtain permanent possession of the property. But, as the fall and
winter of 1948 approached, with the college now in its second
school year, the wily Dr. B. had still one more card to play-his
trump card!
We had been off the air in our daily broadcasting from March
until October. We had been forced to operate the college on a
half-time schedule for this second school year. We had been all
but knocked out.
But there were a number of conditions that now loomed as the
supreme crisis of all.
While we had paid the $25,000 as rent (to be converted into
a $25,000 down payment via the lease option), we had, of course,
paid no interest. Neither had we paid the taxes or insurance.
These accumulated amounts were all to come due on December 27,
1948. They amounted to several thousand dollars. Taxes had to be
paid, retroactive for the twenty-five months. Also interest on
the unpaid balance, starting at $100,000, less $1,000 each month
for the twenty-five months. Insurance for the twenty-five months
also became due in one lump December 27.
HOW, in our strained circumstances, were we going to raise
that large sum of money by December 27? It was a frightening
dilemma.
A MIRACLE Happens
Altogether it was going to require something like $17,000. It
seemed an insurmountable obstacle.
I began making plans for every means that I could think of
that might help raise that money. But I realized fully that
nothing I could plan or do could accomplish that apparently
unattainable goal. I knew I had to rely on God. Nothing but a
miracle could now save God's college.
Somehow, I knew we would be delivered from this
crisis -- though I could not see how. I relied primarily on
fervent, continuous prayer. I decided to do everything I could
plan or think of, and then trust God with the result.
It must have been along about early November that our
auditor, Mr. Bolivar O'Rear, and I, found it necessary to make a
trip to Washington, D.C., to apply for a tax-exempt status as a
nonprofit corporation. Mr. O'Rear had been an attorney in
Washington for several years. While there, we had one long
conference with a former friend of his -- an attorney -- in this
lawyer's office. He was sympathetic in trying to help us come up
with ideas that might raise the necessary funds.
Of course, I had written a letter to all our active
co-workers acquainting them with our great problem and spoken of
it to our radio audience.
Then, suddenly, about November 25, a miracle really did
happen!
About $3,000 came in, through the mail, in one day. Our
normal daily income for the work in those days was about $500.
The $3,000 that came in one day was like a fortune being rained
down from heaven.
The next day, to our utter amazement, another $3,000 came
in. And then the next -- and the next -- and the next. This almost
dumbfounding downpour of money continued until December 15. Our
total income for that December exceeded $50,000! We could hardly
believe it!
WHY did it come in? We could not account for it on the basis
of anything we had done. No plans or ideas or efforts of ours had
brought it. There was only one explanation -- GOD SENT IT!
It seemed like God had sent us a great deal more than we
needed! But we were soon to see that He had not. The college
could not have been saved, had there been less. It turned out we
needed considerably more money by December 27 than we had
realized. Dr. B. had a $17,000 mortgage on the property that he
had to pay off in order to transfer the deed to us. He was
several years behind in paying taxes. Under the circumstances,
the way he acted -- and considering that he was planning to prevent
allowing us to exercise our option -- unless we had some $15,000 to
$20,000 to temporarily loan him, IN ADDITION to the money we had
to pay him, he could have beaten us and we should have lost the
property, after all!
But God knew precisely what we NEEDED -- and He SENT IT!
Dr. B. Holds Out
We still owed a few thousand dollars in back teachers' salaries
we had as yet been unable to pay. By December 15, when we were
assured of having enough money to pay off Dr. B., we paid these
back salaries. And I was human enough to enjoy paying FIRST those
who had been loyal and were still with us -- even though we did
send out the checks to the others later that same day!
We took no chances on coming up late in paying off Dr. B. We
put the full amount due him in escrow on December 15. But he made
no move whatever toward signing the papers for the transaction.
As the days passed, and it began to appear that he was going
to try to avoid signing, we began to take action. Through the
escrow company we learned that there was a mortgage against the
property. It was past due -- long past due. I contacted the man who
held the mortgage. I told him the situation.
He was sympathetic.
"If Dr. B. refuses to sign, and tries to block our
exercising the option," I asked, "will you be willing to SELL
that mortgage to us?"
"Yes, I certainly will," he said. "And I'll tell you what
you can then do. Since he is so far in arrears with unpaid taxes,
once you own the mortgage, you can foreclose and take the
property away from him."
I did not want to take the property in that manner. But it
was reassuring to know that God had now put me in position to do
so.
Finally, Dr. B. said he would sign if we would loan him a
few thousand dollars, in addition to the money we had deposited
to pay accumulated interest, taxes, and insurance. We arranged to
do this, and then pay him $750 per month in payments instead of
the full $1,000, for the next year or two -- until in this manner
he had paid us back.
Dr. B. thereupon signed -- but he was still tricky. The
property was held as a joint-tenancy between him and his aged
sister. His signature was not sufficient without his sister's
also.
FORCING Dr. B. to Sign
That year, December 27, fell on a Monday. On Wednesday, the 22nd,
we were having another conference in the office of our attorneys,
Judge Morton and Mr. Wannamaker. They suggested that Dr. B.,
knowing every trick of the law, might contend that our option had
to be exercised at least a day before December 27, in order to
have been exercised ON December 27 Probably no judge would so
interpret it, but they advised against taking chances.
Therefore, they advised that we force Dr. B., if possible,
to have his sister's signature on the papers before 1 p.m. on
Friday, the 24th, or we should start suit against him in Superior
Court promptly at 1 p.m. on Friday, withdrawing all the money out
of escrow and depositing it in the Superior Court.
They began a feverish activity of preparing the legal papers
to file suit, working late Wednesday night, and almost all of
Thursday night, to have everything ready by 1 p.m. Friday.
Friday morning came. By 11 a.m. Dr. B. had made no move to
have his sister sign. We had the papers she was to sign, and
decided to go to their home with the papers.
About noon, or a little after, on that Friday, Mr. O'Rear
and I drove out to the home of Dr. B. He claimed his sister was
upstairs in bed, too ill to be disturbed.
I knew he was not telling the truth. It was now less than an
hour before Mr. Wannamaker would be on his way to Superior Court.
The chips were down. This was the final crisis MINUTE!
"All right, Dr. B.," I said. "Either your sister signs in
the next thirty minutes, or I'll tell you what's going to happen.
I have exhausted my patience on you. I have suffered your
harassment now for two years. I'm going to end it HERE AND NOW!
"Unless I telephone my attorneys that your sister has
signed, before 1 o'clock, it will be TOO LATE -- they will be on
the way to file suit in Superior Court. All the money will be
withdrawn from escrow yet this afternoon, and placed with the
judge. We know you NEED that money to live. We will then seek for
every delay the law allows. My lawyers tell me we can delay
action on the suit for years. Meanwhile we remain in possession
of the property. The college will go right along. You will
receive NO PAYMENTS whatsoever.
"But that is not all. I have negotiated with Mr. Blank to
purchase the trust deed on this property which you owe him. I
have the money on hand to purchase it. Then, because you have
violated the terms of the mortgage, by not paying taxes, I shall
immediately FORECLOSE on you. In that manner we will take
complete ownership of the property by paying only the amount of
this mortgage. We will freeze you out completely. Once this is
done, we can withdraw our suit, and recover all the money.
"Dr. B., you are a smart lawyer. You know I can do this -- and
I WILL! It's absolutely ridiculous, but here I am now, PLEADING
with you to let us go on PAYING YOU for this property, instead of
foreclosing on you and taking it away from you -- but we are now in
position to do just that. It's almost 12:30. At 1 o'clock it will
be too late!"
Dr. B. was BEATEN!
"MARTHA!" he called at the stairway, "come on down right
away! We've got to HURRY! We have to hunt up a notary public to
witness your signature before 1 o'clock."
His sister was already dressed and ready. She had not been
in bed, or ill, as he had said. We drove quickly to a neighboring
business street and found a notary public.
At 12:30 -- just thirty minutes before our attorneys would
have left their office to file the suit -- I telephoned them that I
had the papers all signed, sealed and delivered!
And so ended Dr. B.'s efforts to have his cake and eat it
too -- that is, to take our money for the purchase of the property,
and then keep the property too!
There were a few minor harassments from him after that. Had
we ever been one day late in making any payment, he would have
filed suit to reclaim the property immediately. But we were never
a day late.
Some years later, he sold the mortgage to a bank, and long
ago it was paid out and we have owned the property, CLEAR, ever
since.
In due time both his sister, and then Dr. B., himself, died.
Ambassador College was over its first hump.
Chapter 58
Ambassador Begins To Grow!
AMBASSADOR COLLEGE had been saved. The property originally
acquired was now secured -- as long as we kept up the monthly
payments.
We were "over the first hump" in the struggle to establish
and perpetuate this forward-looking college of TOMORROW! The
nerve-shattering intense ordeals were behind us. Continuous
problems were to be encountered in the path ahead -- but we would
cross each of these bridges as we reached them.
Half-Time Operation
The decision, born of necessity, to operate the college on a
half-time schedule through the 1948-49 school year proved a
blessing in disguise. It was one of those occasional self-imposed
temporary setbacks.
This half-time operation reduced the college budget by
almost half. Together with the miraculous fifteen day in-pouring
of income in December, we were off to a comparatively good start
by January, 1949. Of course that providential downpour of funds
of the first half of December did not continue. After December
15, the financial income was back to normal.
During 1948 we had been able to print The Plain Truth only
twice, prior to September. We had gotten out an abbreviated
eight-page issue in March. But then we were put off the air on
our one BIG station, and we managed only one more -- a June
number -- prior to September.
By holding publication down to eight pages, we were able to
issue a Plain Truth every month for the remainder of that
year -- September, October, November, and December.
In 1949 I felt we should get back to the 16-page size. This
was possible only by combining the first issue as a
January-February number.
It still was a tight financial struggle through 1949 as
evidenced by the fact that I was able to print only two more
editions that entire year -- one in July, the other in November.
Part of the difficulty, however, was due to the fact that
more and more duties were demanding my time. I had no editorial
help whatever. Up until this time, and even another year or two
in the future, it had been necessary for me to do 100 percent of
the writing of The Plain Truth.
Our Second Land Purchase
During those first two school years of the college we had no
dormitory facilities. The seven students enrolled that second
year -- 1948-49 -- were obliged to rent rooms around town. But in
May, 1949, the first addition to the original two and
one-quarter-acre campus came our way.
Adjoining this original bit of campus grounds, on the north,
was the stately 28-room Tudor-style building called "Mayfair,"
with 200 feet of frontage on Terrace Drive. It added about one
and three-quarters acres, giving us a campus of four acres, with
magnificently landscaped grounds.
The Mayfair grounds were not in the most desirable
condition. Soon after acquiring them, we completely relandscaped
them. Most of the work was done by our students, using a rented
bulldozer to completely recontour the sloping grounds, bringing
them into harmony with the original plot.
For some two years Mayfair had been used as a rooming house.
Most of the tenants had leases running another year. We were able
to obtain only partial possession during 1949.
But by that autumn, after two years of rooming off campus,
our students were able to take up residence ON CAMPUS! We began
to feel like a real college!
That autumn the student enrollment increased to TWELVE. I
have said quite a little heretofore, about TWELVE being the
number of organized BEGINNINGS. For one thing, that was the first
year the college had an organized student council. The first
student body president of Ambassador College was my son Richard
David (Dick).
Among the five new students that fall was Roderick C.
Meredith. Although he was a new student with us, he was a
transfer from a college in Missouri, and consequently rated as a
sophomore.
Our men students took up residence on third floor Mayfair in
September, 1949. We were not yet prepared to feed students.
During that school year the men really "roughed it," preparing
their own meals in a dark, depressing, foreboding basement room
in Mayfair. It had been painted in a conglomeration of deep
yellow, dark green, red, and black. In a later year, that room
was modernized into a new-looking office, and served as an
editorial room for The Plain Truth for some years.
Mrs. Annie M. Mann, who had moved to Pasadena from Eugene,
Oregon, had been preappointed to become our House Mother for
girls. She had been awaiting the time when we would have girl
students and a girls' student residence. During the 1948-49
school year she and Betty Bates, our only girl student the first
three years, had roomed together off campus. Now, however, they
took up residence in one of the vacant ground-floor rooms in
Mayfair. Most of the other Mayfair rooms still were occupied by
lease-holding guests.
During 1949 we continued on our one superpower station, XEG,
the program beaming out over most of North America at 8 p.m.,
Central Standard time, seven nights a week. We had also added
another border station, XEMU, with the time of 6:30 p.m. every
night. But though this station had a splendid dial-spot, 580, it
never brought much of a response. But by November that year, the
program had gone on a good 5,000-watt Chicago station, WAIT. It
was only once a week -- 10 a.m., Sundays, but the response was
good. The rating agencies showed The World Tomorrow the second
highest rated program in Chicago during our half-hour.
During 1949 The World Tomorrow was still being heard over
only nine stations. Yet the work as a whole continued to grow
that year, its usual 30 percent over the year before.
1950 -- Still Tough Going
Although we had gotten over what I called "the first hump" by
January, 1949, the upward climb of this work of God was still
"TOUGH GOING." It was not easy. Jesus Christ never promised "easy
going."
Through 1950 I do not remember any crises so severe that the
very existence of the work hung in the balance. I had, at last,
learned the lesson of RELAXED FAITH. I no longer let the problems
we met put me under such an ordeal as I had gone through
previously.
Now I was able to cast the burdens on the living CHRIST,
meanwhile leaping to action to pray intensively for guidance, and
to energetically DO whatever was in my own power to do -- but in a
FAITH that was relaxed and confident, trusting God with the
results.
During 1950 I was able to publish only FOUR issues of The
Plain Truth -- in February, March, April, and August. As an
evidence of the tight financial squeeze of the year, all four
editions had to be reduced to a mere eight pages once again. Of
course, as stated above, part of this was due to the heavy load
on my shoulders of doing all of the writing, in addition to the
many other responsibilities, now fast increasing.
For those first three years of the college, I taught all of
the Bible and theology classes -- and that meant three classes the
third year!
And Now, FOURTH College Year
When college classes began, early September, 1950, ten new
students had enrolled. For the first time, we had a full
FOUR-YEAR COLLEGE. The first year we had only a Freshman class.
The second, a Freshman and Sophomore; and the third, we added a
Junior Class. There had been the pioneer FOUR students the first
year. There were seven the second, and twelve the third.
September, 1950, brought five new girl students. Until then,
we had had only the one girl student -- Betty Bates. Now we had six
girls and sixteen men. Now we had an enrollment of TWENTY-TWO!
And that autumn, for the first time, we had a real student
residence on the campus. Yes, the college was growing up! To
officials of any other college or university it would have seemed
still to be smaller than almost any college had ever been. But to
us, with only four the first year, and only an even dozen
students the third year, the twenty-two -- with, at last, six girl
students -- seemed like we were becoming a real college!
Now Mrs. Mann was our full-fledged House Mother, with six
girls under wing. We had brought down from Oregon a "nutritional
cook," as we called her. Now we had FULL POSSESSION, for the
first time, of Mayfair.
We had closed off the rear stairway so that it bypassed the
second floor, and proceeded from ground floor to the third. All
our men were housed that year on third-floor Mayfair. It was like
a separate building altogether from the second floor. Our six
girl students, and, in addition, the apartment we had done over
for Mrs. Mann, occupied the second floor. The ground floor was
dining and lounging.
Since we had operated on half-schedule in the 1948-49 year,
it had been made virtually impossible for students to graduate in
four years. However, by taking a heavier-than-normal load the
last two years, both Herman Hoeh and Betty Bates graduated in
June, 1951 -- completing their college work in four years.
First Graduation
That was another milestone attained. Our first commencement
exercises were held, in our beautiful Garden Theater, on the last
Friday of May, in 1951.
In order to qualify to confer degrees, the college had to be
separately incorporated, show a minimum of $50,000 invested in
college facilities, equipment, and library, and be officially
empowered by the State of California to confer degrees. This,
too, was hurdling another major milestone.
Until this time, Ambassador College had been operated as an
activity of the Radio Church of God. But by May, 1951, we had
managed to meet all of the state's requirements, and to be
approved, and empowered by the state to confer degrees.
Small as we really were, we ourselves began to feel that our
college was GROWING UP! It was a real THRILL!
Athletic Field Acquired
In November, 1950, our third property acquisition was achieved in
a rather dramatic manner.
For some time, we had had our eyes on a camellia nursery,
across Terrace Drive to the east of our original campus plot. I
had visualized it as some day becoming our athletic field.
Meanwhile, Mr. Hulett C. Merritt, the multi-millionaire
capitalist who owned the second estate north of Mayfair, had been
moving onto several properties he owned in our immediate
vicinity, a number of large old houses.
Several large houses, or frame apartment houses, along the
right-of-way then being cleared for the new Hollywood Freeway,
were being condemned. Mr. Merritt had been able to buy them at a
very low sum. For some months large-scale house movers had been
moving several of those monstrous frame structures to Pasadena,
setting them on these vacant lots. In one or two cases, the
structures had been actually cut in two, moved, and then joined
back together again.
I think that Mr. Merritt had not counted quite the total
cost. He probably obtained the houses for almost nothing. But he
was not able to simply put them down on his vacant properties for
nothing. He ran up against the very stiff Pasadena building
codes. By the time he had constructed solid foundations under
them, and brought plumbing and electric wiring and other services
up to Pasadena codes, he probably had a lot more money invested
in them than he had expected.
In any event, I learned that the owner of the camellia
nursery was receptive to selling. Immediately we almost shuddered
at the thought that possibly Mr. Merritt might purchase that plot
of ground and move more of those old houses on it -- thus wrecking
our hopes of an athletic field.
One Sunday morning I happened to be in our administration
building, and a real estate broker, who had a listing of the
camellia nursery, came in. The afternoon before, he said, he had
been informed that a $50,000 check had been deposited with
another real estate broker who also had the property listed, as
full purchase price for the nursery plot, plus four other houses
and lots. Three of the houses were over on Green Street, just
across Terrace Drive from Mr. Merritt's fabulous mansion. One was
on Camden Street to the east of Terrace Drive.
This $50,000 cash was to be put into escrow at a bank on
Monday afternoon. The real estate broker said he would like to
see the college acquire it if we were able. However, if we needed
terms, and lacked the cash, we'd have to pay a higher price, and
move fast.
"I'll pay you $60,000," I said at once, "with $5,000 now, to
go into escrow tomorrow morning, as soon as the bank opens, and
the balance on terms we can work out. Is it a deal?"
"It's a deal," he said. "I'm sure the owners will accept."
"All right then," I said, "let's move fast. I will have a
quorum of our board of trustees here in this office by 2 o'clock
this afternoon, and I'll have a $5,000 check ready. Can you have
the necessary papers drawn up to put the deal into escrow by that
time -- and can you get the owner and his wife here to sign?"
He felt sure he could.
He did. In our hurried special board meeting the transaction
was approved. The owners signed the papers with us.
Next afternoon, when the other broker went to the escrow
department with his $50,000 check, he found the property had been
bought right out from under him.
I was expecting a furious call from Mr. Merritt.
I was not disappointed.
Late that afternoon he was on the telephone. "Now you look
here, Mr. Armstrong," he said. "You're the first man that ever
got the jump on me and beat me in a business deal. I'm glad you
got that nursery property, because I know you wanted that for an
athletic field. But what in blazes do you want with these lots
down here on Green Street?"
"Why, it was simply just one complete package deal," I said.
"We had to take the whole thing to get the athletic field."
Mr. Merritt wanted me to come over to see him.
"Those fellows charged you too much for these Green Street
properties," he said. "Now I'll take them off your hands. You
paid $30,000 for them. You shouldn't have paid over $25,000. So,
tell you what I'll do. I will DONATE to your college $10,000, and
my wife will donate $10,000. We can deduct that on our income tax
report. Then you sell me those four properties for $10,000 cash.
That way you get your entire $30,000 back, and you've paid only
$30,000 for the athletic field."
"I'll consult my tax attorney," I replied, "but I'm sure the
Internal Revenue people will not approve a $20,000 deductible
donation from you, when, in actual fact, the entire $20,000
reverts back to you, in the form of this property.
But Mr. Merritt remained adamant.
This was in November, or December. Along about the following
March or April, a real estate salesman came into my office.
"I understand you own those houses down on Green Street," he
said. "Would you be willing to list them? I think maybe I could
find a buyer."
Immediately I deduced that Mr. Merritt sent him.
"No, I wouldn't sell them," I replied. "We need them for
college dormitories. And besides, if I ever sold them to anybody
it would be to our neighbor Mr. Merritt."
"Well," he said a little sheepishly, "to tell you the truth,
it was Mr. Merritt who sent me here."
For years we used those houses for men's dormitories, then
we tore them down. They were getting too old for use. Today those
properties form a beautifully landscaped entrance to our new
four-story Hall of Administration.
Chapter 59
First "Fruits" of Right Education
AFTER THE purchase of the camellia nursery, and the Green
Street properties, we felt that Ambassador College was really on
its way!
The camellia nursery would give us an athletic field. It was
small -- there would not be space for a quarter-mile track, a
stadium, or football field. But there was sufficient ground for
an eighth-mile running track, and two new tennis courts. There
was also room for the pole vault and broad jump, and space for
the high jump, and the shotput.
Then the Green Street houses could be converted into men's
dormitories. Mayfair could be made exclusively a girls' student
residence.
We felt that, with a classroom building, an administration
building, both men's and women's residences on campus, and an
athletic field, even though small, we were coming to have a
college campus.
First "FRUITS" of College
During 1950 I had been able to issue only four numbers of The
Plain Truth -- and they were all reduced to mere eight-page
numbers. I have stated before that one reason was my personal
inability to fully execute all the fast-growing responsibilities
of this expanding work in mere twenty-four-hour days.
By the autumn of 1950 I was having to teach FOUR different
classes in theology, and now three hours each class. That meant
twelve hours of teaching each week.
Up to this time I had written every word that went into The
Plain Truth. I had been doing a half-hour broadcast seven days a
week.
The early years in Eugene, Oregon, had resulted in the
raising up of several small churches in the Pacific Northwest,
through evangelistic campaigns I had conducted. But there were no
pastors to minister to those churches. Only two remained -- in
Eugene and in Portland.
All these years the broadcasting work was expanding. By the
end of 1942 it had grown to a national audience. This
necessitated my absence from Eugene and Portland much of the time
beginning with 1943, and all of the time after April, 1947, when
we moved to Pasadena.
The whole work was a one-man ministry in those years. In my
absence, attendance at Eugene dwindled from around one hundred to
about thirty. You know what the Israelites got into when God
called Moses away from them for just forty days at Mount Sinai;
the people abandoned God and made for themselves an idol.
" ... As for this Moses," they said, " ... we wot not what is
become of him." And then, in effect, "Come on, let us make an
idol god of our own to worship."
At Eugene, three would-be leaders said, in effect: "As for
this Herbert Armstrong, we wot not what has become of him. Come
on, let us make an idol god of our own to worship in the form of
a local social club, like all the worldly churches." And so even
the thirty members remaining were split into two differing camps.
The Portland and the Vancouver, Washington, churches had
consolidated into the one church at Portland. And even that had
diminished to eleven or twelve members.
A one-man ministry could not maintain several local
churches, an expanding broadcasting work, editing and writing all
the articles for a fast-growing magazine, teach four college
classes, and act as executive head of a growing college, without
something slipping backward somewhere.
But 1951 was the year that produced the first "fruits" of
the new college.
In April of that year we began the first activity toward an
enlarged Plain Truth. I was still unwilling to publish, in The
Plain Truth, articles written by students. Yet something had to
be done.
A new idea was born. The Plain Truth circulation had grown
to more than 50,000 copies, and it was too costly to publish
every month on our income of that period. That, combined with the
fact I simply could not find time to write the entire edition
every month, by myself alone, forced the new idea.
I decided to completely scrap the entire mailing list!
We would start building a new mailing list from scratch.
That would solve half the problem -- the lack of funds to publish a
sixteen-page magazine every month.
Twelve years before I had started a second magazine, called
The Good News. It was to have been a church membership organ,
edited exclusively for baptized church members. The Plain Truth
was to continue as the general magazine for as many of the
general public as would request it. But at that time -- February,
1939 -- I had been unable to continue publication of The Good News
beyond the first issue! The reason? Same reason -- lack of funds,
and inability of ONE MAN to do so much.
But now, twelve years later, I decided to bring The Good
News back to life. It would circulate, at the start, only to
co-workers whose tithes and offerings made this growing work
possible.
If we could no longer afford to offer The Plain Truth to the
entire radio audience, it seemed to me imperative that we
provide, at least, a regular monthly publication for those who
voluntarily financed God's work, and Ambassador College. And our
students could share with me the burden of writing the articles.
Consequently, in April, 1951, The Good News was reborn!
Now, for the first time, our students began to make active
contributions to the activities of this expanding work!
The New GOOD NEWS
The leading article, beginning on the front cover of the April,
1951, Good News, written by me, expressed the situation.
Here is a condensation of what it said:
Quote from that article: "A new idea is born! The Good News
is re-born!
"With the turn of the war in Korea world events speed up in
the chaotic plunge to oblivion! And beginning now, the
all-important work of God also must speed up! The pace must be
accelerated! It must expand now to dynamic WORLDWIDE ACTIVITY!
"It is later than we think!
"When God first started Ambassador College, many brethren
and co-workers lacked faith. They couldn't see God's hand in it.
Some felt your pastor's duty was solely to preach the gospel to
the world -- not realizing that one man alone can't do it all!
"They had forgotten that Jesus, Peter and Paul surrounded
themselves with specially God-called men whom they trained to
assist them in their great mission.
"Some said, 'Why, there isn't time! It will be four years
before the first students graduate, and even then they will still
be just youths without maturity or actual experience.
"But there was, and still is, enough time -- though there is
not a day to lose. The end of this age can't come until this very
gospel of the kingdom has been preached and published in all the
world as a witness to all nations(Matt. 24:3, 14).
"Students Now Ready"
"Our students have been gaining actual experience during their
college years!
"By their fruits we know they have been called of God for
their important parts in this great commission of Christ. They
are trained and ready. They are consecrated and Spirit-led.
"Already more than one hundred and fifty, brought to
repentance and conversion through this work, have been baptized
by these competent disciples (and the word 'disciple' means
student, or learner).
"It is already ably demonstrated that God made no mistake
when He started Ambassador College!
"The New Idea"
"And now, with this issue, A NEW IDEA is born. Through Ambassador
College students, The Good News is re-born! With this issue, our
students launch a new activity in Christ's ministry -- and at the
same time, a new college activity.
"It was back in February, 1939 -- twelve years ago -- that with
only Mrs. Armstrong's help, from a little stuffy inside office
without windows or ventilation in Eugene, Oregon, the first issue
of The Good News was printed -- on a second-hand mimeograph ....
"But the commission to 'feed my sheep' is second to the
great commission, 'This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached
in all the world' One man alone could not carry on a campaign of
evangelism then expanding local to national, and conduct a
personalized ministry to so many at the same time. And so no
other issues of The Good News were published -- until now.
"But now, at long last, The Good News is re-born, as one of
the first fruits of Ambassador College -- one of the evidences that
this college was necessary."
But, even with the editorial help of students, finances
permitted the publication of only four sixteen-page issues during
the remainder of 1951 -- plus one sixteen-page Plain Truth, issued
October, 1951 -- written wholly by me.
Still Struggling Upward
All this history, in retrospect, about the struggle to publish
The Plain Truth, will remind the reader, once again, that it has
been a long, hard, and persevering upward struggle to bring God's
work to its present position of worldwide activity, power, and
influence.
But back, for a moment, to this April, 1951, Good News. In
it appeared the very first article by Herman L. Hoeh we had ever
published -- and even this was not -- yet -- in The Plain Truth. Its
caption sounds, to me today, rather tame compared to many he has
written since. It was "Are Good Manners Good?" It had to do with
the right or wrong of etiquette.
The radio log shows that, at that time, The World Tomorrow
was being broadcast on only seven stations: XEG, seven nights a
week; a local Pasadena station, KALI, at 7:30 seven mornings a
week; and all others were Sunday only -- stations WAIT, Chicago;
XERB, Southern California; KXL, Portland, Oregon; KVI, Seattle;
and XENT, Mexico, just below the Texas border.
In the second issue of this reborn Good News appeared the
very first article we ever published under the by-line of
Roderick C. Meredith. It was the lead article starting on the
front cover: "College Atmosphere at Ambassador."
In the November, 1951, number, my picture appeared -- for the
first time in the eighteen years of this work. The caption at the
top of the page was "You Asked for It -- " followed by this
sub-caption: "Ten thousand of you have demanded Mr. Armstrong's
picture. For the first time in the 18 years of this work, he has
finally consented. Here are four pages of pictures of Mr. and
Mrs. Armstrong, faculty and students, and the campus of
Ambassador College." There were thirty separate pictures -- mostly
of faculty members, students, and campus scenes.
Why Picture Finally Published
I remember how it came about that my picture appeared. For many
years I had not even permitted a picture to be taken of me. If
anyone came around with a camera, I ducked, dodged, or ran. But
when Mrs. Armstrong and I went to Europe in 1947, it was
obligatory that passport photos be taken.
We had arrived in Washington, D.C., one morning. We had to
obtain passports and visas, and take the train next afternoon for
New York. We hurried, first thing that morning in Washington, to
a photograph studio for passport photos. We had to have these
before applying for passports.
Those photographs were more than four years old by November,
1951. But they were all I had, except a few camera shots I had
finally allowed to be snapped after our first college
commencement exercises on June 15 of that same year.
WHY did I refuse, prior to this time, to be "shot" by a
camera -- or to have my picture published? No scriptural reason,
certainly. It was merely my own personal feeling in the matter.
I reasoned this way: God had called me to preach His
gospel -- not show off my person. It was Christ's MESSAGE I sought
to focus attention on -- not myself. In my preconversion years I
had been vain, egotistical, conceited. I knew full well that God
had brought me low, especially in an economic way -- to crush out
the ego, and to bring humility. Consequently, from the time of
conversion, I did my best to keep down the SELF.
But WHAT, then, changed the attitude -- induced willingness to
allow pictures to be published? It was a letter I received from a
radio listener. I can't quote that letter word for word -- but it
said, in effect: "What have you got to hide, Mr. Armstrong? Why
do you refuse to let us listeners know what you look like? Are
you trying to cover up something? Suppose you attend a church
service, and the pastor HIDES behind the pulpit. Suppose he lets
the congregation hear his voice, but he hides his face. Wouldn't
you get suspicious? Wouldn't you think he was covering up
something? When I go to church, I want to SEE what the preacher
looks like, as well as to listen to his sermon. A man's character
shows in his face. Are you ashamed of yours? WHY WON'T YOU
PUBLISH YOUR PICTURE?"
THAT DID IT!
I simply could not answer that man's argument any way except
to let him -- and all our readers -- know what I looked like. So, in
this November, 1951, Good News, I came "out of hiding," so to
speak!
AT LAST! Publishing Monthly
The results of the college were beginning to show. Without it the
work never could have expanded much beyond its status in the
forties.
In 1952, for the first time in our history, we were able to
publish a sixteen-page magazine every month -- twelve full issues!
e rapid development of students -- and, now, our first
graduates -- made this possible. Ten of these issues were of The
Good News. But the June and August numbers were The Plain Truth.
The very first time that any articles, written by someone
other than myself, appeared in The Plain Truth, was the issue of
August, 1952. Reporting from London, articles were published
under the by-lines of Richard D. Armstrong and Herman L. Hoeh.
In a sense, that was the very BEGINNING of the larger,
regularly published Plain Truth of today.
The following month The Good News was published. The lead
article, starting on the front cover, was by Richard D.
Armstrong, written from Paris. This number contained also an
article written from Frankfurt, Germany, by Herman L. Hoeh.
This was the first tour abroad taken by Ambassador
graduates. It was the high-spot of Dick Armstrong's life, up to
that time.
Speaking Like a Native
For years, seeing Paris had been the great dream of my son Dick's
life. He had taken his preliminary work in the French language
while in high school at Eugene, Oregon.
One policy I had been determined to set for Ambassador
College had to do with teaching foreign languages. I wanted them
taught so thoroughly that a student would learn to speak the
language he pursued precisely as that language is spoken natively
in its own country -- without any accent whatever.
French has always been taught here by men who grew up in
France or French-speaking Switzerland. Dick took to French as a
duck takes to water.
Actually we have learned that some students have the "knack"
of adapting themselves to a foreign language. Others have no such
aptitude, and probably could never learn to speak such a language
natively -- unless they had started learning at about age six.
Under old Professor Mauler-Hiennecey, Dick became very
proficient after his four college years. It was the fulfillment
of his life's dream when, near graduation time, 1952, he learned
he was really going to be sent to Paris after graduation.
Dick still had enough "boy" in him to want to see if he
could pass himself off in France as a native Frenchman. In Paris
he bought a beret, dressed like a Frenchman, and sallied forth to
see if he would be accepted as a native.
He was! It was a great thrill to him.
Later, in 1954, Mrs. Armstrong and I were being driven by
Dick in his British Hillman-Minx car from Paris to Luxembourg to
visit our radio station there. It was a hot afternoon. Mrs.
Armstrong and I were thirsty, so we decided to stop at the next
town for a Coca-Cola. Dick drove us up to a soft-drink parlor. He
needed to fill the fuel tank with petrol, so he let us out saying
he would join after gassing up.
In the soft-drink parlor we had a terrible time making the
proprietor understand what we wanted. Coca-Cola may be
"everywhere," as their commercials and advertisements say, but
this Frenchman simply could not understand our way of saying it.
Finally I pointed to a Coca-Cola sign I found on a wall. He
nodded assent and served us.
In five or ten minutes Dick drove up, parked outside, and
strolled in. He began talking to the proprietor.
"I don't understand!" said the proprietor, in French. "You
are a Frenchman; these people seem to be your parents -- but they
are Americans; and your car is English with a British tag on it.
It's all confusing!" he exclaimed with a French shrug.
He was SURE that Dick was a Frenchman! Then how could
Americans be his parents? All this gave Dick very great
satisfaction. And me, too -- for here I had EVIDENCE that
Ambassador College taught French so students could speak it
natively, without accent!
Chapter 60
A Giant Leap to Europe!
WE NEED, now, to go back a few years, to fill in some
interesting parts of the story concerning the opening of
Ambassador College in Pasadena.
The reader will remember that a few of the church members at
Eugene opposed the founding of the college. When I signed the
lease-and-option contract to purchase the first
two-and-one-quarter-acre block of our college campus, they
screamed "Armstrong extravagance!"
SAVING by "Extravagance"
And yet, we were actually being paid $100 per month for the
privilege of becoming owner of this $100,000 estate!
Here is how it worked out. Our office staff had finally
enlarged at Eugene to a payroll of fifteen people. The office
space had expanded until we were paying $350 per month rent. Also
I was having to spend money for the broadcast line between my
office and Portland -- and also for the frequent trips then
necessary to Hollywood for recording. But, most of all, the fees
for recording were running up to several hundred dollars per
month.
When the new college was opened I went, for a few months at
first, from Pasadena to Hollywood to record the program. But
within a very short time we had remodeled the northwest corner of
the second floor of our library-classroom building into our own
radio studio. We purchased two secondhand recording lathes. My
son Dick became our first radio studio operator. We began making
our own recordings. The only cost, now, was the slight amount of
electric power, and the cost of the blank acetate discs.
The savings -- actual reductions in necessary expenditures for
operation of the broadcast work -- amounted to $1,100 per month!
That figure I do remember -- definitely!
Out of that saving we paid the $1,000 per month payments on
the property, and came out $100 per month to the good!
It was one or two years after we began doing our own
broadcast recording in our own studio that tape recording came
along. The more cumbersome electrical transcription method was
made obsolete. We purchased two good quality tape recorders at
the start. Later we installed the large top-quality Ampex
recorders -- the same equipment used in large network headquarters.
Gradually, as the number of stations increased, more and more of
these had to be added.
The radio studio served also as a classroom for students.
Plain Truth Resumed Monthly
During 1952, you will remember, for the first time in the history
of this work, we had been able to publish a sixteen-page magazine
every month. Ten of those were The Good News, which had been
introduced as a temporary stopgap, written and edited by students
as well as myself.
The radio log published in the January, 1953, issue shows
that we were by then on eleven radio stations. We had gone back
on two more of the superpower border stations -- XELO and XERB,
beside XEG. The number of stations was growing gradually. Every
phase of the work was growing.
During the year 1953 we were able to publish a 16-page
magazine every month except December. The first five issues were
all of The Good News. However, by this time Herman L. Hoeh, my
son Dick, Roderick C. Meredith and others had graduated, and had
sufficient experience writing articles that I felt there was no
need to continue The Good News as a college magazine for
co-workers, substituting for The Plain Truth, any longer.
Beginning the June number, 1953, I began once again to offer
The Plain Truth, over the air, to all listeners. I now had the
editorial help of a handful of college graduates and advanced
students. So, it might be said that the present subscription list
of The Plain Truth actually began with the issue of June, 1953.
Broadcast to Europe
But some very tremendous leaps of progress were taken with the
broadcasting program during 1953.
Beginning the first Thursday in that year, which was January
1, The World Tomorrow leaped to EUROPE. The door of the most
powerful radio station on earth swung open. The same gospel Jesus
Christ taught His disciples went to Europe with power for the
first time in eighteen and one-half centuries!
That gospel was first preached by the Apostle Peter on the
day of Pentecost, A.D. 31. Nineteen years later, A.D. 50, "A
DOOR" was opened to the Apostle Paul to preach that gospel in
Europe for the first time.
Just as a DOOR was opened for the gospel to go to Europe, in
the first century, after nineteen years, so a DOOR was opened for
the same gospel to go to Europe in our time, after nineteen
years!
For the past few years, as I now write in January, 1964, I
have been assuming we started on Radio Luxembourg on the first
MONDAY in 1953. Looking into the radio log of The Good News for
February, 1953, I am reminded that we did not get to start on the
medium wave band, known as 208, on Radio Luxembourg at that time.
That came later. We started on a long-wave band, and the time was
4:15 to 4:45 p.m., Thursdays.
The lead front-page article in that February number was
captioned "NOW ON THE AIR -- OVER ALL EUROPE!"
Another article reported that on the preceding December 20
(1952), five young ministers had been fully ordained.
Then it was reported in the next paragraph, that two more of
our young ministers "will be fully ordained following their
graduation from the college January 30, 1953."
When it was written only five had been ordained. But, before
the magazine was printed and reached its readers, the other two
also had been ordained.
Was I crazy to start a liberal arts coeducational college?
There was no fund of several million dollars for such a project.
There was no fund of even several hundred dollars. For this
purpose, there was no fund -- period! At all!
What There Was -- and Wasn't
There was no endowment. There was no sponsoring philanthropist.
There was opposition. There were obstacles. They piled up
mountain high. There were problems, seemingly unsolvable.
But there was something else. There was vision. There was
clear and definite realization of the imperative need. And there
was faith and determination; a sense of mission, a fired-up zeal
and energy that refused to be defeated or to quit.
I think most anyone would say that a man would be either
crazy or a fool to attempt to found a college under those
circumstances. It costs money to operate a college. No college
can finance its operations by income from tuitions and fees.
These pay for only a part -- and often a small part -- of the costs
of conducting a college.
State colleges and universities are financed by the taxes of
the people. Privately owned colleges are financed by large
endowments, and contributions from successful and prosperous
alumni, by foundations, and commercial or industrial corporations
who have an interest in what such colleges can do for them.
We had to pay taxes, not receive them. That is, until the
college was established, incorporated, and recognized by the
state a few years later. Then we were granted tax exemption on
properties used exclusively for college educational purposes. We
had no endowment or hope of any. We had no alumni, wealthy or
otherwise. No large business corporations had any interest in
supporting our kind of college.
We had a radio broadcast -- but that cost money. We had
nothing to sell, made no appeal for contributions. Rather we
constantly offered absolutely FREE literature. We published a
monthly magazine -- whenever funds permitted, only it was not
coming out monthly then, because funds did not permit! There was
no subscription price -- no advertising revenue.
Here we had no visible source of income. No one owed us
anything. We had no accounts receivable. We were on the giving
end, with no assurance except faith there would be anything to
give.
You might try this experiment. Go interview one hundred
college or university presidents. Briefly state the circumstances
given above. Ask each what he would think of any man who would
attempt to found a new college -- especially a man who was devoid
of any experience whatsoever as an educator -- under those
conditions. I'm quite sure every appraisal -- if each college
president did not call you a fool for even asking such a
question -- would be that such a man would be either an idiot, a
fool, or insane.
WHY the College Succeeded!
But, of course, there is one other factor. One I'm equally
certain none of these college presidents would grasp.
This is the WORK OF GOD! And the work of God required a
college.
That statement, too, would, of course, be foolishness to
such men. I knew there had to be the college or GOD'S WORK could
not grow. Therefore I knew it was God's will. And if it were His
will, I had the power of the limitless UNIVERSE back of it! I had
the assurance of FAITH!
During our first college year, early in 1948, I attended a
convention of the college and university presidents of the
nation, in Chicago. Beside general plenary sessions, there were
morning and afternoon special group meetings most days, during
the convention. I attended the meetings of the group devoted to
study and discussion of college financing -- attended mostly by
presidents, with a few controllers or business managers, of
privately owned institutions.
I already knew that most privately owned colleges faced
extreme financial difficulties. These sessions put loud emphasis
on that knowledge. Many of these college heads were desperate.
All or nearly all wanted federal government aid, and devoted most
of the discussions to ideas and methods for obtaining it. For
several sessions I remained silent and listened. In the end,
however, I think I convinced them they didn't really want
government help after all. It would mean, inevitably, government
supervision, regulation and interference as well. When
government, big business, or foundations put large chunks of
money in a college, they first assure themselves that they are
buying policy-making prerogatives. The institution is no longer
free.
Ambassador College never has, and never will, sell out to
such influences. Ambassador College is not a Bible school. The
campuses are not "religious colleges." They are straight
educational liberal arts institutions. But they are guided by
GOD'S principles as those principles apply to general cultural
education. And they rely solely on GOD ALMIGHTY, in living faith,
as their sole source of financial support! Of course, we are well
aware that, if GOD sponsors and finances us, HE is going to
insist upon directing our policies -- just as human government,
corporations, or foundations see to it that they pretty largely
direct the policies of institutions they finance. We know well
that if Ambassador College departs from GOD'S ways and policies,
God's financial sponsorship will stop forthwith.
But that's precisely the way we want it! And that is the
real reason for the miraculous, almost incredible SUCCESS of
these institutions! God Almighty will back financially -- to an
extent almost beyond human belief -- any person or institution that
will place himself or itself unreservedly and vigorously under
His direction!
Now, of course, there have been
problems -- obstacles -- oppositions -- persecutions -- setbacks. It
hasn't been EASY! God doesn't make it easy to go His way. Jesus
Christ taught us to count the cost! We have to learn that God
does most things with us, and through us as His instruments. He
only does for us what we are utterly unable to do ourselves.
We have had to fight the way through! We have had to think,
to apply ourselves energetically, to drive ourselves on to the
limit of our capacity. In this sense, God has let us do it -- He
merely directed us! But He also empowered us where necessary, and
He brought about circumstances.
God has never rained money down from heaven. While HE
financed us, He has always done it through human instruments
willingly yielded, even at great personal sacrifice, to serving
Him -- and voluntarily -- with their tithes and offerings. Yet GOD
financed us! He did it through those He could use!
That is the secret of our success. It's the way to success
for anybody and everybody -- whether individual, or group, or
organization! And it has developed not only these campuses -- it
has developed those of us -- and in constantly increasing
numbers -- who are dedicated to this great WORK OF GOD!
The College Develops
I have already covered student participation in producing The
Plain Truth and The Good News, which became its temporary
substitute, from April, 1951, through May, 1953. This was the
real firstfruits of the college in the growing WORK OF GOD.
The growth of the GOSPEL work has directly paralleled the
development of Ambassador College! Without the college, the work
of thundering Christ's GOSPEL around the whole world could not
have been possible. It could never have gone around the world.
It was the development of the college in Pasadena that made
possible the growth of the whole gospel work!
The college in Pasadena started, remember, in October, 1947
with just four pioneer students. There were eight professors and
instructors. The second college year, 1948-49, there were seven
students. That was the half-time year. It was operate half-time
or give up and quit. Never would we do the latter.
The third school year, 1949-50, there were twelve
students -- eleven men and one girl. We felt we were now large
enough to organize, for the first time, a student council. This
was our first student organization.
For the year 1950-51, there were twenty-two students. The
fifth college year, 1951-52, there were thirty-two students. The
college was growing!
First Yearbook
At the close of the 1950-51 year, the students produced their
first "annual," or "yearbook," The Envoy. It contained thirty-six
pages -- counting the cover. Of course it was pretty thin, compared
to the "annuals" of larger, older, established colleges. But it
was a beginning. Today The Envoy is one of the finest published
by any college-grade institution anywhere -- a fine book with heavy
stiff covers, and printed in full color.
Where there is life, and spirit, and constant GROWTH, small
beginnings mean only a START. It was the same with The Envoy as
with every other phase of this dynamic, fast-growing work!
The 1952 Envoy did not grow in pages, but improved in
quality. Just as The Plain Truth had its struggle through the
early years, so did the student publication, The Envoy. The 1953
book was a BIG improvement, but we had to skip 1954 altogether.
However, the 1953 edition came out with a thick, heavy cover
for the first time. It was all black and white -- that is, black
ink only. But it contained sixty pages beside cover, and was a
much improved production. The 1955 edition went to sixty-eight
pages, and improved contents, especially the photography and art
work. The 1956 Envoy continued the improvement, with seventy-six
pages, but still black and white. By 1961 it reached two hundred
pages, a much finer cover, much improved photography and design,
and we were getting into color pages.
The Foreign Language Clubs
By the 1951-52 college year, extracurricular activities were
getting organized. That year three foreign language dinner clubs
were organized. These are dinner clubs, at which no English is
spoken -- only the language of each specific club. There was the
French Club, the German Club, and the Spanish Club.
They were initiated at Ambassador College in order to give
the students of each language the experience of speaking and
hearing that language outside of class -- in actual continuous
conversation -- to help them learn to express themselves fluently
in that tongue.
We in GOD'S WORK are commissioned to proclaim Christ's
original gospel to ALL NATIONS. We knew, then, that this would
require much printed literature in various languages, as well as
called and trained ministers experienced in speaking and
broadcasting fluently, and without broken accent, in the various
languages. This training began the very first college year -- but
the language dinner clubs began in 1951.
Other languages were later added to the curriculum at
Ambassador College.
The Ambassador Clubs
In February, 1953, Mr. Jack R. Elliott, then dean of students,
asked me if I would go with him as a guest to visit a
businessman's "Toastmasters' Club." These clubs are, I believe,
worldwide. They are evening dinner speech clubs. First, several
men are called on without advance notice to stand and discuss, in
one or two minutes, some topic assigned by the "table topics
chairman." Later there are a number of prepared speeches, usually
limited to about six minutes.
Mr. Elliott wanted to introduce speech clubs into Ambassador
College activities, patterned after these clubs, but with a few
variations adapted to our needs. We saw at once the value of such
an activity at Ambassador.
In February, 1953, the first of these clubs was organized
and under way. Our adaptation was called the Ambassador Club.
Soon there were two such clubs on the Pasadena campus, then
three, then four. In 1954, there were seven at the Pasadena
campus.
These clubs have done more to develop public-speaking
ability than any other activity. They are a most effective
addition to our regular courses in public speaking. They teach
men to think on their feet, develop personality and familiarity
with world events and many important topics.
Soon the first women's club was formed. These, too, have
continued to expand. I'm quite sure they are different, at
Ambassador, than any other women's clubs. They have a very
definite effect in the cultural development of our young women.
Campus Paper
About November, 1951, the students started the first campus
paper. It is called The Portfolio. It contains college news,
personal items about students, news of the progress of the work,
and a certain sprinkling of campus fun. It gives students
training in writing.
The Portfolio started crude and small -- mimeographed. In due
time it became a real printed campus paper of quality.
Comes the Ambassador Chorale
In the college year 1951-52 we had thirty-two students. In the
spring of that year, Mr. Leon Ettinger, director of the voice
department in the school of music, decided to organize the
students into a singing group, train them secretly at his home,
and then spring the whole thing on me as a surprise!
How they all kept the secret through many weeks of
rehearsals I'll never know. But they did.
At the annual spring concert of the music
department -- consisting of piano and vocal solo numbers by
students -- the whole group stood together, and to my amazement,
sang the Fred Waring arrangement of "The Battle Hymn of the
Republic" like veterans. Actually there was not a trained singer
among them -- but they had put their whole hearts and energies into
it through many weeks.
As Mr. Ettinger later wrote about it: "At that time we
scraped the bottom of the barrel to find talent. If you could put
two notes together on an instrument or sing a little song in
tune, you were on the program. When we gathered together all our
resources, we had twelve singers for our little chorus.
"We practiced faithfully for several months, always at
Ettinger's to keep it quiet, and at last the great day arrived.
At the end of the evening Mr. Ettinger announced that a new
musical organization had been formed, called the Ambassador
Chorale; and that, with Mrs. Ettinger at the piano, they would
sing 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic,' and that they were
dedicating this first performance anywhere to Mr. Herbert W.
Armstrong. The years have smoothed away any slight imperfections,
and we only remember that it was an absolute smash."
Actually, I remember, I was overcome with surprise, rather
choked with emotion, and unable to speak.
That was the beginning of one of our outstanding activities
at Ambassador College -- the Ambassador Chorale. From that small
beginning it has grown into a musical organization that I feel
would do credit to any college or university ten to twenty times
our size.
At Last! ABC Network!
In autumn, 1953, a new door was opened -- a national radio network.
For nineteen years the vision of broadcasting coast-to-coast over
a great national network had been a dream -- and a hope. At last it
was realized!
The November, 1953, Plain Truth carried this big-type,
full-page announcement:
"And now ... ABC NETWORK!"
The article said: "GOD now opens another door -- a very great
door! Perhaps this is the greatest news we have ever been
privileged to announce! Beginning Sunday, October 25, The World
Tomorrow went on one of the great major networks, ABC,
transcontinental! This means millions of new listeners every
week. It means tremendous prestige. It means approximately ninety
additional radio stations. THINK OF IT! -- ninety additional radio
stations -- including the great basic 50,000-watt ABC stations in
New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Buffalo, and other major
cities." There followed the log of the ninety stations, taking
the remaining two thirds of the page. There was a two-page map
showing the location and area of coverage of each
station -- blanketing the United States.
Of course, this network broadcasting was Sunday only! We had
learned by experience that it was the DAILY broadcasting that was
really effective. Of course, that was impossible over a network.
But the network was a TREMENDOUS step forward.
Chapter 61
Our First Experience with Television
BY 1955 television had become the popular craze in the
United States. That year there were some forty three million
television sets in the United States. That year the manufacture
of television sets hit an all-time peak in the U.S. -- 7,800,000
sets manufactured.
Suddenly we became frightened. Almost in a panic, we decided
to make a frantic dash to put The World Tomorrow on
television -- before radio went completely dead.
Rise of Television
Television has been referred to by the term "one-eyed monster."
Millions of people spend four, six, or eight hours a day looking
into a television screen.
I first remember radio in about 1920 or 1921. I was still in
the advertising business in Chicago, then. But the primitive
radio sets of that time that come vaguely, in blurred focus, to
my memory were little "wireless" sets heard only through
earphones.
My earliest memory of radio, as it is today, however, dates
back to 1932. At that time I was advertising manager of a daily
newspaper in Astoria, Oregon. It was the very depth of the Great
Depression. It had become necessary to trade advertising space
for merchandise. Money, as a medium of exchange, was too scarce.
I had traded advertising space for a portable radio set. It was
rather large in size, for a portable. But it would receive
stations from greater distances than any I have ever had since.
When we moved back to Salem, Oregon, in February 1933, and I
reentered the ministry, I began, for the first time, to listen to
some radio religious broadcasts.
At that time I never even remotely contemplated going on the
air myself. But when I heard that time was open on our little
local station in Eugene, in October, 1933, I seized the
opportunity. That led to the broadcasting of The World Tomorrow,
starting the first Sunday in 1934.
HOW SUDDENLY have these inventions sprung up! WHAT A DOOR
Jesus Christ has opened, that HIS MESSAGE may go boldly to the
world for the first time in 18½ centuries!
Even in the year 1930 there were comparatively few radio
sets in America. But by 1934 most United States homes had radio.
And THAT VERY YEAR that we started on the
air -- 1934 -- TELEVISION WAS INVENTED!
Think of it! Television, so common everywhere today, was not
even invented until the very year The World Tomorrow STARTED ON
RADIO!
My first memory of television was at radio station KNX, the
CBS network headquarters in Hollywood, in 1942. The CBS network
was giving a rather elementary demonstration of television -- still
in the experimental stages. They then hoped to be broadcasting
television after the end of the war.
We moved into our home in Pasadena in July, 1947. There were
very few television sets in use then -- but television was in
operation on the air.
The sets at that time were mostly little nine-inch screens.
I bought one because I knew it would be developed, and felt I
needed to keep abreast of progress. If it became popular like
radio, I felt we might need to put the program on television.
At that time there was no network television. There were two
local stations in Los Angeles -- KTLA (still on), and one other,
which was then difficult to tune in at our home. The KTLA
programs were all local programs. There was local wrestling, and
other purely local programs.
The BIG shows, then, were still on radio over the national
networks. Actually the image orthicon pickup tube was not
developed until 1946 by RCA. The first network television,
transcontinental, was inaugurated September 4, 1951. By 1952 we
were getting several of the so-called BIG SHOWS, with the top
radio talent now on television, coast to coast via the networks.
With the advent of these big-time network shows, television
began to sweep the nation. In 1950 there were seventy-four
million television sets in the United States. But the one year of
1955 saw the record production of 7,800,000 sets.
We Race to Television
By 1955 the big-name network shows had all left radio for
television and were almost monopolizing nighttime entertainment
in America. The motion picture business was on the skids. The
first of the notorious big-money quiz shows, The $64,000
Question, attracted television audiences above sixty million
people.
This, and one other circumstance, conspired to give us the
jitters. We had learned that it was the EVERYNIGHT, or daily
broadcasting, seven days a week, which proved really effective.
We were spending BIG MONEY, now, on coast-to-coast network
radio -- Sunday only -- one program a week. This once-a-week radio
was not producing results commensurate with the DAILY
broadcasting over the superpower stations. At that time we were
on superpowerful WLS, Chicago, seven times per week. Also on the
equally powerful WWVA, West Virginia, and we had been for some
years broadcasting EVERY NIGHT on the superpower Mexican border
stations. The mail response from the Sunday ONLY network
broadcasting, per dollar spent, was very low by comparison with
the DAILY broadcasting on these super-power stations.
There were two reasons for that. One was the fact of the
DAILY broadcasting -- the other the fact that MOST of the ABC
stations we were using were comparatively small-powered stations.
I had found that a BIG-powered station, while it may cost two to
four times as much, will bring a mail response from ten to fifty
times greater than small stations.
But the main cause of our fears was the fear of television.
It seemed that everybody was turning to television. It began to
look like radio would soon be a thing of the past.
All these factors caused us to decide to plunge, quickly,
into television. I issued advance notice of cancellation of the
Sunday network broadcast.
Our advertising agent of that time brought in an associate,
who was some kind of production manager at the new Television
City plant of CBS, Hollywood. He was engaged as our
director-producer.
Today television is using TAPE for TV recording. But at that
time it had to be on FILM.
Suddenly I found that I was IN THE MOVIES!
So, "We're in the Movies, Now!"
The campus paper, The Portfolio, for April 21, 1955, carried a
front-page story about our sudden rush to get on television.
It stated: "The nation is going crazy over television!
Millions of viewers are sitting hunched in their TV chairs for
many hours each day. They're forgetting about God's
message -- forgetting about the rocking, reeling world they live
in -- DRUGGING their minds with lethargy.
"And so," the story continued, "the truth of God will be
THUNDERED at them right from their own TV sets!
"Mr. Armstrong announced that the first World Tomorrow
program will be seen over channel KLOR, Portland, Oregon, within
a few more weeks."
Continuing, the campus paper stated: "Planning far in
advance, Mr. Armstrong said production will begin within a very
few weeks, with other TV stations being added as fast as God
provides the way.
"The supreme, all-important turning point has been reached!
God's work must make a shift from one medium of circulation to
another. It will be no easy task."
And it certainly was NO EASY TASK!
The programs would have to be filmed at a Hollywood motion
picture studio. There would have to be "sets." First, under
direction of our producers, an artist was engaged to sketch a
picture, and draw plans for these sets. We decided on two
sketches.
First was a sort of stage, with a podium, and a large globe
of the world suspended from the ceiling, hanging in the
background. This would be emblematic of the world tomorrow! The
second stage setting would be that of a private study, with
bookcases, and an office desk. For this we used the same desk I
had used as my desk in my office in Eugene, Oregon -- and was still
using in Pasadena.
For the first set, we transported one of our semi-concert
grand Steinway pianos from the college music department.
After receiving and approving the sketches, the sets were
constructed in Hollywood. Meanwhile I began work on planning the
type of program, and the format.
As we got into production on the first three or four
programs, we began to use more and more "film stock" -- that is,
news-events motion picture film obtained from the NBC film
library in New York, to illustrate the speaking message, and
after the first few programs, we dropped all singing from the
program.
A Lion on the Campus
Our original idea for a format to put the program on the air was
to show one or two views of our magnificently landscaped campus,
as the announcer's voice announced "From the beautiful campus of
Ambassador College, in Pasadena, California, its President,
Herbert W. Armstrong, brings you the real meaning behind today's
world news, with the PROPHECIES of the WORLD TOMORROW!"
Then, as the announcer's voice moved into the words "with
the PROPHECIES of the WORLD TOMORROW," the scene was to shift to
another picture on our grounds, showing a little girl leading a
big lion and a little lamb -- as a picture (Isa. 11:6-7) of tame
animals in tomorrow's world.
Later we discarded this beginning, too. But we did start out
with it.
But HOW were we going to show an actual motion picture of a
big lion, being led by a little girl, and with a lamb alongside?
THIS HAD TO BE PHOTOGRAPHED! And there are no tame lions, TODAY.
There will be, tomorrow. But we had no time-machine to project
ourselves into the future, take motion pictures, and then come
back to the year 1955!
Immediately I thought of the famous MGM lion, so often shown
in motion pictures. Our producers were able to obtain the use of
this lion, for a fee, of course. He was big, powerful looking,
kingly. And he was almost tame -- ALMOST, but we dared not trust
that he was altogether tame!
This lion -- a real lion, in the flesh! -- was brought by his
trainers over to the Ambassador College campus, and allowed to
walk out of his cage in his big truck, and on the grounds, in
front of Mayfair, one of our girls' student residences. He surely
seemed tame. But his trainer explained that he was neither tired
nor altogether tame -- he was just LAZY!
We had to obtain a permit from the City of Pasadena to have
him there.
But, in planning this, we had to decide HOW we could
photograph a helpless lamb beside this big beast, and a little
girl leading. We decided not to risk it. Our motion-picture
producers said we could do it with trick double-photography.
The producers decided the little girl must be a professional
child actress. I think union requirements had something to do
with this. They obtained the girl and the lamb. We photographed
the lion, coached by his trainer to move slowly toward the
camera. Then, after the lion was again safely in his cage, and
with the camera securely locked in the same exact position in its
tripod, we had the little girl and the lamb walk toward the
camera, and a foot or two beside the spot where the lion had
walked. Later the film editor blended the two together, so that,
when it appeared on the TV screens in broadcast, we had the
picture of the little girl leading the ferocious lion and the
gentle little lamb.
Yes, WE WERE IN THE MOVIES, NOW!
By the time we had the first few telecasts finished, on
motion picture film, sound track and all, we managed to obtain
time on TWELVE television stations. So, once again, our organized
BEGINNING on television, like so many other beginnings, started
out with TWELVE. We didn't plan it to be twelve. It just happened
that was the number of stations, coast to coast, in the cities
and areas we wanted, which opened to us. Also, by the time we
obtained that number, we hit the limit of our budget!
Later we were on thirteen stations -- adding Hawaii -- but we
started with twelve.
Camera Jitters
I think I should record, here, something of my personal
experience in performing in front of professional motion picture
cameras.
Emphatically, I did not take to it as a duck takes to water.
Trying to preach a sermon before a cigarette-smoking
Hollywood crew of about nineteen people -- cameramen, electricians,
sound men, script girl, directors, helpers -- a full crew, with two
television cameras trained on me -- well, it proved a NIGHTMARE!
Actually, once the bright klieg lights were turned on me, I
was almost blinded, and I could see little in front of me except
blackness. The powerful lights were shining straight into my
face!
On our first day of "shooting" in the Hollywood studio, we
were scheduled to go through three whole programs on the one full
day of "shooting."
When our announcer, Art Gilmore, announced me, I walked out
to the podium. I began to try to talk. I did try! But it was no
go! Just before this I had been made nervous and a little
irritated by the fact our director brought a make-up man into my
dressing room, and announced I had to wear make-up.
"What!" I exclaimed, indignantly, "Me wear make-up? Never in
a million years!"
"You'll have to, Mr. Armstrong," replied the director
soothingly. "Everyone does who appears on motion picture film."
"Let movie actors wear all the false faces and make-up they
wish," I replied defiantly. "But I'm not a movie actor, and I
won't wear make-up."
"But, Mr. Armstrong," pursued the director, "this is only to
make you LOOK, on the television sets, perfectly natural. Your
face won't look natural, as the cameras show it, unless we do put
on make-up. We only do it to make you look as if you DID NOT have
anything on your face."
They simply were not going to start shooting until I gave
in. Finally, on promise I could try it later without make-up, I
consented to let the make-up man start chalking up my face.
But I was nettled by it. The whole thing was a totally NEW
experience to me. I felt that every one of that television crew
in the studio was naturally hostile to what I was going to say. I
decided I would talk to THEM, and challenge them as my skeptics!
Finally I did, and found afterward that, far from being hostile,
many of them were quite interested in what I had to say. They had
never heard anything like it before. But it didn't happen that
day.
A Nerve-shattering Experience
I made false start after false start. Through the morning I
struggled with it. The director tried to help me concentrate and
get going. But nothing seemed to help.
During noon hour there was no time to drive back over to
Pasadena. The producers had arranged an apartment in a nearby
bungalow-hotel for Mrs. Armstrong and me, where she could prepare
a lunch that would help quiet my nerves and leave me alert for
the afternoon's work. I had lemon juice, I remember. I also tried
to get in a brief nap.
The afternoon was no better. By day's end, we had shot and
wasted a lot of expensive film -- out of which the film editor was
able afterwards to piece together enough usable footage to make
the first half-hour telecast. I never did think it was any
good -- but it brought a huge response from listeners.
I do not now remember details of these events as well as I
do those happenings when I was a boy. But it seems to me that we
had to engage these movie crews, and the studio, for three
straight days at a time.
It was frightfully expensive. We were trying to reduce this
production expense by shooting three programs per day. I had to
have the first NINE programs all ready -- in brief notes, and other
material -- before we even started this actual production.
But that first day we salvaged just ONE program out of a
hard and nerve-shattering day's work. As I remember it, we did a
little better the second day -- I think we completed TWO programs,
and got to our quota of three on the third day.
High Cost of Television Production
I suppose most of my readers know little or nothing about the
cost of PRODUCING a half-hour television program. At that
time -- 1955 -- the average half-hour evening show on any one of the
three big networks was costing between $30,000 and $35,000 for
production. That means JUST TO PUT IT ON FILM. Then the purchase
of station time for broadcasting came extra. That, also, on a
major network, averaged about $35,000 for the half hour. Total
cost, about $70,000 for each weekly half-hour show. That is what
the sponsors of the big shows were spending.
We had estimated that, by shooting three programs per day,
we could produce The World Tomorrow for television at around $900
per program. But that was mere wishful thinking. That first
program cost over $2,500 to produce. Later we did get production
costs down to around $2,000.
Of course the heaviest item of expense on the big
entertainment shows is the high fees paid the stars. Many
television stars were paid $6,000 for their acting in just one
half-hour show. Lesser stars and supporting actors and actresses
were paid from $500 to $3,000 -- depending on how big a name they
had. Of course, they go in for very expensive "sets" -- with often
several sets for a single show.
Perhaps the lowest-cost production of all was a show like
The $64,000 Question, and similar quiz shows. There were no
stars, except the master of ceremonies, and staff members, none
of whom drew down the fabulous fees of the big stars.
We had succeeded in obtaining reasonably good times for The
World Tomorrow on a number of very fine stations. In New York we
were on the ABC network station, WABC, channel 7. The hour was
late -- 11:30 p.m. But that does not seem so late, in New York, as
it would be for viewers in Kansas City, where people go to bed
earlier. Later we switched to WPIX in New York -- a station which
had a very big viewing audience.
In Chicago we were also on the ABC network station, WBKB,
channel 7. Our time there was not so good -- 9:00 a.m. Sunday. In
Los Angeles we were on KTLA, channel 5, at 10:30 p.m.
It was impossible for our type program to obtain time during
the "PRIME TIME" hours of 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. But we did
obtain the 10:30 p.m. spot on KLZ, channel 7, Denver; KOVR,
channel 13, San Francisco-Stockton; KTNT, channel 11,
Tacoma-Seattle, Washington; KMBC, channel 9, Kansas City; KGMB,
Honolulu; and KCMC, channel 6, Texarkana.
We had even a better time, 9:30 p.m., in Portland, Oregon,
on KLOR, channel 12. Also we were on KPRC, channel 2, Houston,
Texas, and on stations in Tyler, Texas, and Hutchinson, Kansas.
Our ratings, as shown by the principal rating agencies,
showing approximate size of viewing audiences, were extremely
HIGH.
Most religious programs on television were rated, on the
regular rating systems, below one point. Ratings were 0.3, or
0.7, etc. The best known prime-time big network entertainment
shows had ratings averaging in the 20s and 30s. A rating of, say,
32, was excellent and considered well worth $70,000 to the
sponsor. It meant approximately 32 million people viewing the
program.
Programs like "Meet the Press," though probably much more
worthwhile, did not have as many listeners as Bob Hope, Jack
Benny, Red Skelton, and big-time entertainment shows. Even at our
late hour, we had a higher rating in some cities than "Meet the
Press." On stations like Portland, Seattle, and Kansas City, we
had ratings of around 10 and 11, indicating ten to twenty times
as many viewers as most religious television programs.
In Kansas City, at the time, the Steve Allen Show, then at
the height of its popularity, was shown at 9:30 p.m. and The
World Tomorrow at 10:30 p.m. -- a much poorer time. Yet we slightly
topped it in ratings.
Our mail response was big, considering the number of
stations -- only 12. It was bigger than from similar radio
broadcasts -- but television was so much more costly, we felt it
had to bring a much heavier mail response, to justify its heavier
cost. Actually, even with only twelve stations, The World
Tomorrow was being viewed by a million or more people -- perhaps
two or three million. We were delivering a dynamic message in
power to a huge audience, who were not only hearing -- but also
seeing -- for a full half-hour.
If I told you the total cost, including the production of
the master film (low-cost copies were sent out to each station)
and the charge for station time, I suppose some of our readers
would think it was EXCESSIVE extravagance. But it was not!
Stop a moment and figure. If, in 1964 you sent a message to
someone on a 4 cents (in the U.S.A.) postal card, you would never have
called that extravagance. If you sent a million postal cards to a
million people, just figure the cost -- forty thousand dollars! And
that is lowest-cost ECONOMY!
A near as I remember, without checking 30-year-old records
at our accounting department, we paid about an average of $300
per station for the half-hour broadcast -- a total of about $3,600,
plus about $2,000 for production cost -- total, NOT $40,000, as
postal cards would cost, but ONLY $5,600 -- less than one seventh
as much as those small postal cards!
Chapter 62
The Crossroads -- TV or Radio?
THE YEAR was now 1955. The World Tomorrow was on television,
coast to coast in the United States -- and in Hawaii (it was not
yet a state). But it was a harassing experience.
Actually, this whole work had reached a crossroads.
Shift to Television
I have related how, by the spring of 1955, television had made
such a leap in popularity in the United States that we became
frightened. It began to look as if radio was going dead. Unless
we shifted immediately to television, it began to appear that
this work of God would go dead.
The decision was made. We entered a crash program to get on
television -- QUICK!
But we were to learn as the weeks passed by that we were
still at the crossroads. Television was not the road to take.
Three factors became distressingly plain about television
broadcasting. The cost was greater than we were really prepared
to meet. Second, it was only a ONCE-A-WEEK telecast. And third,
this telecast was absorbing almost 100 percent of my personal
time and energy. It was a nerve-shattering experience to keep up
with the type of programming we were doing. I was having to
neglect other top-level responsibilities -- and, if this kept up,
it threatened the future growth of the entire work.
But at the same time, another factor developed. As the weeks
and months sped by, during that latter half of 1955, we began to
realize that radio was not dead, after all.
Of course, the big-time network shows had all left radio and
gone over to television. But people were still listening to
radio. We checked and found that radio sets were being sold in
greater volume than television. In 1955, about 14,500,000 radio
sets were manufactured, and 7,800,000 television sets.
Many people were beginning to buy two, three, or four radio
sets per home -- placing sets in bedrooms, kitchens and other
rooms, while the average home had only one television set.
The trend has been maintained since.
The Crossroads Solution
Yes, in the work of God in broadcasting Christ's own gospel to
the world, we had reached a crossroads.
Once-a-week network radio, paying for so many small-power
stations with only one broadcast per week, had not proved
effective. Believing television was totally replacing radio, we
had made the plunge into television. But it was too costly for
our income at that time; it was once a week only and we had
learned that we had a type program that needed to be aired daily;
we were on only thirteen television stations; it was, under the
type programming we were doing, proving too strenuous for me and
monopolizing all my time.
And, on top of all these points against continuing on
television, we were learning that RADIO WAS NOT DEAD AT ALL.
We had not gone off radio. We had canceled out the
once-a-week network, and a few of the once-a-week 50,000-watt
radio stations we were using in addition. But we were still
broadcasting The World Tomorrow on a daily basis on superpower
WLS, Chicago, WWVA, Wheeling, West Virginia, the powerful border
stations XEG, XELO and XERB, besides daily broadcasting in Los
Angeles, Portland and Seattle.
And we learned that about 99 percent of the income to pay
for all this costly television programming was coming from RADIO
listeners -- not television. Of course that was to be expected.
There is never any appeal for money on any World Tomorrow
program. There is no charge for any literature. There is no
solicitation for contributions, except to our own inner family of
co-workers who voluntarily, on their own initiative and without
original solicitation, have become co-workers.
Only an infinitesimal percent of listeners -- either radio or
television -- ever become co-workers and start sending in tithes
and offerings for this work the first few months after they begin
listening. This we well knew. We knew it would be three or four
years before any sizable number of newer viewers and listeners to
the television program would become co-workers -- for we would
never solicit this.
Truly, we had reached a crossroads decision. We had leaped
to television, but we soon learned that was not the road to go
from there.
The decision became obvious. Go back onto radio -- but
concentrate on putting The World Tomorrow on the major POWERFUL
radio stations, and ON A DAILY BASIS.
That was the road we took until the radio audience did
change listening habits.
As the weeks sped by, we found ways to improve the remaining
television programs. Our advertising agent, production director
and I flew to New York to arrange for the use of NBC film stock.
The one complete film library was owned by the National
Broadcasting Company. They had gotten the start on this even
prior to the earliest days of telecasting, and had developed a
film library so complete that other networks did not try to build
one of their own. It was less costly to rent what they wanted
from the NBC library.
We found the manager of this library very sympathetic toward
our problem. Arrangements were made so that we could have
virtually unlimited use of film stock from NBC.
Thus, if I were speaking about Hitler, the viewers would see
on the television screen pictures in motion of Hitler, while
hearing my voice. If I were talking about the alarming rise of
crime, the viewer would see motion pictures of a crime being
committed. After each of these sequences, the picture would flash
back to me, as I talked. When I read a passage of Scripture, a
portion of a page of a Bible would flash on the television
screen, with the passage I was reading underlined, and enlarged
big enough so viewers could read along with me as I read it.
Toward the end of our twenty-seven weeks of telecasting, I
began bringing certain men from the East to appear on television
with me in conversation, or as an interview. One was Montgomery
M. Green, a World War II intelligence officer in the United
States Navy. I interviewed him on the program about Russia's
super-secret weapons.
Another was Joseph Zack Kornfeder. He was an American, born
in Slovakia. Mr. Kornfeder had been a charter member of the
Communist Party in the United States. The Party sent him, in
1928, to receive special political education at the University of
Moscow. Later he became disillusioned with communism, defected,
and supplied United States officials with a great deal of
information about Communist secret plans. His wife and son were
held in Moscow as hostages, in retaliation. He gave our
television audience some startling facts about communism.
Leaving the Crossroads
But early in 1956 we left the crossroads dilemma behind. The road
to take was that of daily broadcasting on the more powerful major
radio stations in the United States.
We were still on Radio Luxembourg, world's most powerful
commercial station, at 11:30 p.m., Mondays. We were on the three
superpower bands of Radio Ceylon. From this we received
considerable mail from far-off Burma, Malaya and Singapore. Also
from India, Ceylon, and portions of eastern Africa. We were
broadcasting once a week over Radio Lourenço Marques, at the
border of the Republic of South Africa. By March, 1956, we were
broadcasting once a week over Radio Formosa.
April, 1956, saw a big improvement in The Plain Truth. It
was the first issue to come out with a real front cover. Until
then, the leading article always had started on the front cover.
That first pictorial cover was all black and white, and showed a
picture of the Library of Ambassador College. This front cover
design has been further improved since, beside adding color and a
heavier cover paper. Also that issue made another BIG jump
ahead -- it went to twenty-four pages. Until then, the Plain Truth
magazine had never gone beyond sixteen pages.
By August that year, we had made our first advance along the
new road of daily broadcasting on major radio stations. The ABC
network originating station in New York -- the 50,000-watt
WABC -- opened a daily week-night spot for The World Tomorrow. The
time was very late, 11:15 p.m., Monday through Saturday. But it
gave us one of the major big-power outlets in the United States'
biggest population center. The total listening area had a
population of some fifteen million people.
A month later we started on KARM, Sacramento, California,
with a good listening time nightly. This was the first daily
broadcasting in the central California area. By November, we were
back on the air in our original home-base city, Eugene,
Oregon -- and on the best local station, 5,000-watt KUGN, at the
prime listening time of 7:30 every night.
Also by November, 1956, we had started broadcasting in
Australia. At that time we had started on a small Australian
network of eight stations, including Sydney but none of the other
major cities. This was only once a week, at the start.
Another Plain Truth Improvement
With the February, 1957, issue, The Plain Truth made another
important advance. For the first time it came out in two colors!
In size, it continued with twenty-four pages. We were then
beginning to announce booklets in the Spanish language,
preparatory to Spanish-language broadcasting.
Progress was not rapid in adding important stations for
daily broadcasting. Daily broadcasting of a religious program had
never been done by the major top-ranking stations. It took time
to break the barriers of precedent and convince station managers
that The World Tomorrow was really top-quality programming -- and
that it was a top-rated program that would build a listening
audience, rather than lose listeners. But we were diligently
working on this new policy. By this time we had a large, more
aggressive advertising agency.
By July, 1957, we broke ice in St. Louis, Missouri, with
daily broadcasting for the first time there. We were now, also,
on the air on a network in the Philippines.
With the September number, that year, we published the first
installment of this Autobiography. At the time I expected it to
run for some six months to a year. But the response was such that
I continued the series for several years -- ultimately publishing
these volumes.
By September, 1957, The World Tomorrow took a really BIG
leap ahead. Only one more station was added at that time -- but it
was to prove our most responsive station -- the superpower WLAC,
Nashville, Tennessee. This great station cleared for us the
valuable time of 7 p.m., week nights. Then by December, 1957,
came the break-through in Denver. Station KVOD opened a good time
for The World Tomorrow -- seven nights a week.
New Policy Leaps Ahead
Beginning 1958, we added Radio Tangier International, and we were
broadcasting into Franco's Spain. We were now on Formosa's
powerful station beamed into China twice a week, and on Radio
Bangkok five times a week. Also on Radio Goa in India five times
a week. We now added Radio Okinawa, and two stations in South
America in the Spanish language, at Lima, Peru, and Montevideo,
Uruguay. At last the new broadcast policy was leaping ahead, all
around the world! By this time the radio log was taking a
one-half page in The Plain Truth.
In March, 1958, the giant Radio Luxembourg opened up to us
TWO broadcasts a week, and our British audience grew more
rapidly. During the summer and early fall of that year, daily
broadcasting was begun in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, and Springfield, Missouri. Eight more stations were
added in Australia, making sixteen -- but still once a week.
But by October, 1958, another major radio station, San
Francisco's great KGO, began broadcasting The World Tomorrow
every night.
The November, 1958, issue of The Plain Truth took another
leap ahead. With the first installment of The Bible Story by
Basil Wolverton, the magazine was enlarged from twenty-four up to
thirty-two pages.
The beginning of 1959 saw the work of God gaining momentum
fast. The World Tomorrow was now broadcast worldwide, on five
million watts of radio power weekly.
This was the 25th anniversary of this work. It was now
expanding everywhere as a major work, constantly multiplying in
power and scope. Its impact was being felt around the world. By
the end of 1959 the radio log was occupying nearly a full page in
The Plain Truth. From that time the policy of daily radio
broadcasting multiplied rapidly.
I have pursued the progress of the radio broadcasting and
the growth of The Plain Truth to the beginning of the decade of
the sixties. But this has brought us considerably beyond other
phases of this life story.
Chapter 63
First Evangelistic Campaign in British Isles
Now I should like to get back once again to the year 1952.
In recent chapters I have been covering the development of
Ambassador College, the growth of The Plain Truth, the progress
of the broadcast up to the ABC network transcontinental, on
through the television program, and the policy of daily
broadcasting.
But, after all, this is my autobiography -- the story of my
life. Of course, this great work of God into which the living
Christ plunged me actually is my life. The progress of the
college, the broadcasting, and the publishing are the activities
to which my life is devoted. But then, there is also the more
personal phase of these activities.
Getting to Europe
The second commencement at Ambassador College was held on Friday
afternoon, June 6, 1952. Our elder son, Richard David, whom we
always called Dick, received his B.A. degree that afternoon,
along with others.
Dick was a devout student of the French language, and a
great life-dream in his mind had been to travel in France and to
visit Paris. I had told him that I intended sending him there
after graduation, but somehow that seemed so impossibly distant I
don't think he ever let himself accept seriously the idea he
would really go.
Then one day in my car, probably in February 1952, driving
home from the college, I told him I was planning for him to go to
France as soon as he graduated. I remember how startled and
elated he was. For the first time, he realized that his dream of
seeing France was actually going to come true. Immediately he was
on Cloud Nine!
Then a week or so later it seemed as if the trip might have
to be called off, due to finances. But in the campus newspaper,
The Portfolio, dated March 13, 1952, the big headline across page
1 said: "Herman and Dick Will Take Trip." It had, by then, been
planned for Dick and Herman Hoeh to go together for a summer in
Britain, France, and Europe, to look into possibilities of
expanding the fast-growing work into Europe.
This story in the campus paper announced that tickets had
been purchased on a steamship line sailing from Quebec, Canada,
for Liverpool, England. Each of young men had made the trip
possible by managing to pay two thirds of the fare out of his own
pocket. Dick would take a portable tape recorder along, to send
back important interviews to be heard on the World Tomorrow
program. The graduation date had been advanced from June 8 to
June 6, so these two men could leave in time for the sailing,
June 11, for Liverpool.
Dick Drafted
Then something happened! The trip appeared to be canceled after
all! Dick received "greetings" from "Uncle Sam." He was ordered
to report for induction in the Army!
Our other men students had been given the classification of
4-D, as theological students. But Dick had not been converted
when the college started, and he had registered as a major in
electronics and in French. He had been in charge of the radio
studio when first installed. He had taken the full theological
course required of all students, but had not registered it as his
major. Consequently his Selective Service Board had not given him
the 4-D, but a deferred classification as a student.
Now he was about to graduate, his draft board sent him an
induction notice. Immediately I contacted the chairman of his
board. I learned that the matter had passed completely from this
board's jurisdiction the moment the induction notice had been
sent. During his college years Dick had been converted, baptized,
and was about to be put into the ministry full time, on
graduation. The board chairman said the board would have, under
those conditions, changed his classification to 4-D, but it was
now too late. It was out of their jurisdiction. The only possible
official who could now cancel the induction was the state
chairman of Selective Service at Sacramento.
The next day I was in Sacramento. I explained the
circumstances, and that passage had been purchased to send Dick
to France in the full-time ministry of the Church. I explained
that he was our only minister who could speak, read and write
French fluently. The Church had been waiting for his graduation
to open its work in France. Serious harm would come to the Church
if he were prevented from going.
Also I explained the unique, yet most thorough theological
training provided ministerial students at Ambassador.
On hearing the facts, the State selective headquarters not
only telephoned Pasadena to cancel Dick's induction and
reclassify him 4-D, but also sent notification to all other state
chairmen that Ambassador College in their judgment qualified
according to the meaning and intent of the Selective Service Act
as a recognized theological institution.
It was an eleventh-hour reprieve from the death of the trip
to France. Dick was to have appeared for induction the very next
morning. As it was, he was reclassified 4-D, and given draft
board approval to be absent from the United States and take the
trip to Britain and Europe.
They spent some time in London, both in educational and
theological research, and in checking every possible avenue for
expanding the work to Britain and Europe.
I do not know now whether it was in London, Paris, or at
Luxembourg, but they learned of the possibility of getting the
program on Radio Luxembourg, most powerful commercial radio
station in the world. On hearing this, I went immediately to New
York to contact the New York representative of this giant
station. And that, truly, was the beginning of getting the
gospel, which Christ Himself brought and preached, into Europe
and Britain!
While in London, they became acquainted with two brothers,
William and John Cordas-Cousins, manufacturers of machine tools,
whose sister we knew in Pasadena. In later years these brothers
were a great help to Dick in getting established, and the work
started, in London.
In Paris, where Dick spent a month of the summer, he found
that his French was very good -- without "foreign" accent. They
traveled through Germany, where they wrote articles on the
phenomenal upsurge postwar comeback of Germany. They also visited
Italy, and traveled as far as Belgrade, capital of Tito's
Yugoslavia.
Returning to Pasadena, Dick became associate instructor of
French at the college.
Radio Luxembourg Opens Door
In the fall of that year, time did finally open to us on Radio
Luxembourg. But it was altogether different from broadcasting to
an American audience. Luxembourg is a small country sandwiched in
between Germany, Belgium, and France -- and its powerful signal
heard in several other countries. Their very commercial life
depends on being careful in what NOT to allow to be said over
their powerful facilities. They allow NO political propaganda not
even any ALLUSIONS to anything political. And, in accepting
religious broadcasts, the station obviously enforces strict rules
that no offense is given to any religion or religious belief.
In speaking on biblical prophecy, dealing with today's world
events, we soon learned we had to become very familiar with their
policies, lest our analysis of today's world news be construed as
an allusion to things political.
November 22, 1952, was a historic day for us!
On that day I recorded the first broadcast for Radio
Luxembourg!
I have written many times about how Christ opened the giant
DOOR of Radio Luxembourg to proclaim HIS gospel to Europe
precisely nineteen years -- one time-cycle -- after the beginning of
the work in 1934. The door of radio first opened on the first
Sunday in 1934. Our first broadcast to Europe occurred the first
Thursday in 1953 -- the first week in January both times!
BUT WE DID NOT PLAN IT THAT WAY! GOD DID!
My November 22 recording was rejected by the station. A
second try was rejected. The third time I had finally come to
comprehend clearly the station policies -- and it was accepted! It
went on the air the first week in January, 1953!
Dick Returns to London
Our broadcasting on Radio Luxembourg, at first, was a 4:15 p.m.,
Thursday afternoon time. It was on a broadcast band that reached
almost all Europe, but did not bring a big response from England.
An English language program could be understood by only a small
minority of the people of Europe, where so many different
languages are spoken.
Nevertheless, it did bring letters from listeners. And soon
we were shifted to the 11:30 p.m. time on the well-known "208"
beamed directly over the British Isles.
Now it became necessary to make plans to handle the mail
response. Dick planned to return to London. First, we purchased a
car for him, through the British Rootes motorcar corporation.
Through their branch office in Beverly Hills, we purchased a
little compact car -- a Hillman-Minx -- to be delivered to Dick upon
arrival in London.
So, in February, 1953, Dick flew, alone, to London. There he
arranged for a London mail address, at that time known to
thousands all over Britain -- "BCM (British Crown Monomarks)
Ambassador, London, W.C.1."
He remained in London, handling the mail, until September,
when he returned to Pasadena. Old Professor Mauler-Hiennecy had
retired, and Dick now took over the French-language department at
the college.
The British Monomark office forwarded the mail direct to
Pasadena. Dick then began organizing the British and European
mailing list in our mailing office. The Plain Truth and all
requested literature had to be mailed to European listeners from
Pasadena. This was very unsatisfactory and had to be remedied as
soon as possible. But Dick was required in the classroom for that
college year, until a new French professor could be appointed.
In the spring of 1954, the British mail situation was
becoming desperate. We needed to establish an office in London.
We placed a request for a teacher of French with the teachers'
placement bureau in Los Angeles, and I appointed Dick to make the
selection.
Under most unusual circumstances Mr. Dibar K. Apartian, who
had been reared in French-speaking Geneva, and spent much time in
France, applied. Dick interviewed him.
"He's just the man we want," Dick told me. He was -- and still
is! Under Mr. Apartian the French department has grown into a big
operation. He became the "voice" of the French-language version
of The World Tomorrow. He is also editor of the French-language
Plain Truth.
On April 2, 1954, our dean, registrar, and professor of
science, Dr. Hawley Otis Taylor, died. He had completed seven
years, lacking two months, as head of the faculty at Ambassador
College. With Professor Mauler-Hiennecy also gone, our own
graduates were beginning more and more to fill up the faculty.
Dr. Taylor was seventy-seven years of age when he died. His last
seven years were devoted to helping establish the highest of
academic and scholarly standards at Ambassador.
We Revisit London
While Dick had been in Pasadena during the 1953-54 year, his
little Hillman-Minx car had been left in England with the
Cordas-Cousins brothers. In May, 1954, plans were laid for Dick
to return again to London -- this time with Roderick C. Meredith.
They sailed on the Queen Elizabeth June 16, to handle the British
and European mail and further the work overseas.
It was now time that I personally inspected that situation
abroad, where the work had now secured such a firm foothold. Mrs.
Armstrong and I sailed, August 5, 1954, on the new, fastest ship
in the world, the S.S. United States. We had now been on Radio
Luxembourg a year and a half. A large listening audience had been
built up. The mailing list had grown.
Our son Dick, with Roderick Meredith and the Cordas-Cousins
brothers, were standing on the dock at Southampton to greet Mrs.
Armstrong and me, as we debarked from the giant steamer United
States. We had made reservations at the Dorchester Hotel where we
had stayed on our 1947 visit. The Dorchester representative at
the Southampton docks arranged for transporting our steamer trunk
via the boat train to the hotel.
We loaded our hand luggage into the automobiles. I think
Roderick Meredith rode back to London with the Cousins brothers.
Mrs. Armstrong and I crowded ourselves into Dick's little
Hillman-Minx and Dick drove us to London.
A short distance out of Southampton Dick stopped at a small
teahouse where we partook of the British custom of late afternoon
tea.
Planning Meetings in England
Arriving in London I thought it well to make personal contact
with as many of our radio listeners as possible. To arrange for
booking halls for meetings, and placing some newspaper
advertising I decided to engage a London advertising agency. I
contacted the advertising managers of a couple of leading London
newspapers on Fleet Street. They recommended the Frederick
Aldridge, Ltd., agency. I contacted Mr. Philip Aldridge at the
agency offices.
This agency had handled the Billy Graham evangelistic
campaign in London, which had gained world attention. Mr.
Frederick Aldridge had handled this account, and so his brother
and partner, Mr. Philip Aldridge, was engaged as the World
Tomorrow advertising representative for Britain. He handled our
account for several years.
From our mailing list we knew our largest groupings of
listeners centered around London, Manchester, Birmingham,
Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Glasgow, Scotland. We planned
meetings in Belfast, Glasgow, Manchester, and London.
The halls were booked, beginning September 14. Then
announcements were mailed to those on the mailing list within
those areas, and announcements arranged to go out on the program
on Radio Luxembourg at the proper time.
Meanwhile we were free for other things.
My wife wanted to go to King's Lynn, north of London on the
sea, where her maternal great-grandfather had been a Methodist
minister. Dick drove us to King's Lynn in the Hillman-Minx. En
route we passed through Cambridge where we stopped for lunch. It
was interesting to have our first view of one of these famous
English universities. The various colleges scatter over most of
the city of Cambridge. We walked through one of the halls,
visited the cathedral, and enjoyed the beauty of the stretches of
lawn alongside the river bank.
Also we stopped off a short while at Ely, to visit the huge
old cathedral of Ely. It was then mostly or altogether in disuse,
and sadly in need of repair if it were to be maintained at all.
This is one of the very large cathedrals built by the Roman
Catholics during the Middle Ages, now reeking with age. It has
since undergone considerable repair. It is, of course, now one of
the Church of England cathedrals.
At King's Lynn we searched out the little Methodist church
where Mrs. Armstrong's great-grandfather had been pastor. A much
larger addition had since been added since he died more than a
century ago. We searched for his grave. Actually the graveyard
where he was buried had been destroyed, for the building of a
structure of some kind, but all the tombstones had been piled in
an adjoining lot. We were just about to