|
Merle Poirier's "A Story Revisited" (February
2005) evoked large reader response; and some of the mail opened up intriguing
possibilities. Below we share a selection of the letters, plus the gist of significant
new research.
The story of providential leading at the time of the closing
of U.S. banks in 1933, written by Emma Howell Cooper, first appeared in the
September 13, 1979, issue of the Adventist Review. It was, perhaps, the most
popular article ever published in the church paper, and we reprinted it several
times during the following 25 years. When questions recently surfaced concerning
the veracity of the Howell Cooper account, Adventist Review staffer Merle Poirier
undertook to see if essential facts of the story could be established. Unfortunately,
key records from the General Conference Treasury and banks that might have provided
critical evidence have either been destroyed or were not available.
After two years of research, Poirier prepared "A Story
Revisited." Before printing it we had a qualified historian go over the
article; he suggested only minor revisions. But the mail that came after the
article appeared has led to a story of its own.
The essential story has deep roots and, it now seems apparent,
circulates in three traditions. In the "Williams tradition," which
Howell Cooper followed, undertreasurer W. H. Williams plays the lead role. However,
especially in Australia, a "Watson tradition" prevails; here the actions
of General Conference president C. H. Watson form the centerpiece. A third tradition,
flowing from GC treasurer J. L. Shaw, seems unaware of the whole story.
In my judgment the convergence of the Williams and Watson
traditions, even though they differ in details, suggests high likelihood that
what was regarded as a providential happening occurred in March 1933. And this
is now established beyond question by Poirier's new research in C. H. Watson's
correspondence. In a series of letters, beginning March 3, 1933, Watson refers
to the banking crisis and how only "a few hours" ahead of it half
a million dollars was cabled out to different parts of the world and another
$150,000 was drawn out and placed in vaults.
Ms. Poirier put in many hours of research, most of it on
her own time.
I thank her for outstanding work on this intriguing--and inspiring--story. Published
correspondence on this article is now closed.
William G. Johnsson, Adventist Review editor
This story of God's leading we never tire of hearing. Years ago when my husband
graduated from college and was appointed to the treasury of the then South Pacific
Division he was introduced as a yard helper to Elder Watson, who lived in retirement
in Wahroonga. He heard this story directly from him. As he remembers the telling,
Elder Watson had been taken into the confidence of Elder Williams and what he
proposed to do. There is really nothing more to add to the story as it has been
told. That is exactly as my husband remembers the recounting, with the exception
that Elder Watson was indeed privy to the trip to New York but was not prepared
to keep it from the brethren for long, and that is possibly why the meeting
was called on the Sabbath evening to put everyone in the picture. God bless
you in your quest for uncovering stories of God's blessing and leadership of
His work.
Delysia Fehlberg
Cooranbong, Australia
The story on page 25 of the February NAD Review, regarding the actions
of one of the treasurers of the GC, is absolute truth as I remember that weekend.
I had deposited a check as times were tightening up. I was a new teacher at
Cedar Lake Academy. I had been a radio engineer at WEMC and then, when it was
sold, at WKZO. I had put my savings in the Edmore Bank, and used them for living.
We were stuck with what little cash we had on hand; even the
school had a very small amount of cash to help us out. The next month was a
very hard time for all of us. It was several years before our bank was able
to pay us out pro rata.
I heard the story regarding the GC finances as told by these
men themselves. Your stories of the guidance of the GC treasurer were given
in detail as I have remembered the event. I first heard it told by the man who
was led to do it by the Spirit. He disclaimed any responsibility for doing it,
but the Lord was directing! It was a marvelous heavenly directed act.
C. Fred Clarke
Norco, California
Thanks for this article.
While I won't question the sincerity of those who told the
story, stories like this need more documentation for the Review to run them
again and again.
Poirier's article would have been improved if she had noted
the fact that after the story appeared the first or second time, Williams' own
son wrote a letter to the editor of the Review largely debunking it (if my memory
is correct!). Since that time, whenever the story is rerun, I have cringed.
Since this story has been told so many times, it is certainly
worth checking out. But one treasurer's God-directed action inspires another
treasurer's unilateral action that results in all kinds of trouble. ("I
just felt it was God impressing me to extend Harris Pine's operation without
worrying about a slowdown.")
A better story might be on the president of that era, Elder
Watson. He came from a non-Adventist background and rose rapidly through the
ranks, and his skillful leadership stabilized Australia. He served the GC as
treasurer, and later as president during the Depression years. Unfortunately,
his health broke--maybe there is a story there as well.
Richard Worley
Pacific Adventist University
Papua New Guinea
How do we put this gently? Your memory in this case is mistaken. A letter
to the editor from Horace J. Shaw, son of J. L. Shaw, appeared in the Review,
November 15, 1979. The letter supported the story, describing it as "inspiring,
in spite of several puzzling circumstances and historical inaccuracies."
Shaw's concerns largely dealt with (a) his father's lack
of involvement; (b) W. H. Williams' authority to act; (c) the newspaper headline
of March 4, 1933; (d) the length of time the banks were closed; and (e) the
reason the story was not included in the elementary readers. His explanations,
though, are less than accurate. His father and Watson were not out of town as
he suggests. While they took the trip to the West as he mentions, they were
there in February, not March 1933.
Shaw correctly identifies that Williams had full authority
to act in the absence of the treasurer, although the date of his appointment
is inaccurate. The GC committee appointed Williams on October 28, 1931.
The March 4 newspaper headline did indicate that all banks
were closed on that date with the exception of Washington, D.C., banks. Shaw's
association of the headline with President Roosevelt's proclamation does not
take into account the prior closing of the banks.
Shaw points out a discrepancy in the story, which describes
banks being closed for a period of three months. Banks representing 90 percent
of the nation's funds were reopened by March 15. Many small banks, though, continued
to struggle for a much longer period, creating a cash flow problem for many
businesses, including the General Conference.
For the explanation of why the story was not included in
the Adventist elementary readers, see A Story Revisited (research document).
For Shaw's letter and further information, see additional facts.
I enjoyed Merle Poirier's article on the closure of the banks in 1933. It seems
that she researched only the United States concerning the disbursement of money
to the missions. Wouldn't it seem logical to check with the recipients of the
money at the foreign missions of that time to verify the story? They surely
would have heard of the banking crisis in the United States and would have thought
the money sent was a blessing. Even an oral tradition of such a story among
the missionaries would surely verify the truth of it. By the way, even if the
banks had opened a few days later, that does not mean they were able to send
large sums of money overseas.
Mike Klass
Keizer, Oregon
Systematic archiving did not officially begin until the 1970s at the GC.
The only records kept until that time were those that employees deemed important
to save. Overseas divisions have similar issues with records being destroyed
by well-intentioned individuals who saw no need to save "old" documents.
I appreciated your article "A Story Revisited" in
the February 2005 NAD Review and the research paper that it was excerpted
from. I am William Stone, the only grandson of J. L. Shaw. The original story,
"God Was Ready the Day the Banks Closed," caused much discussion between
my mother, Bessie Ramabai Shaw Stone, and her brother, Horace J. Shaw, when
it first appeared September 13, 1979. At the time the story occurred, my mother
was a young bride living in southern California. My uncle Horace had graduated
from Washington Missionary College in 1932, and was at the time a chauffeur
for a Mrs. Mintern and her two nurses in Europe for a year. Neither of them
had heard the story before it appeared in the 1979 Review.
Although telephone communication was not what it is today between
family members, letter writing was quite important in my family. No mention
was made in any of the letter writing of the occurrences recounted in the story.
Also, upon his return from the year in Europe, Uncle Horace
was married on July 19, 1933, just four and a half months after the banking
holiday. My mother had traveled by car to Washington, D.C., with Elder and Mrs.
A. G. Daniells in late May or early June for the wedding. (That is another story
in itself.) My mother spent nearly six weeks with her parents, and no mention
was made about the events around the banking holiday. Another item that concerned
them was that anyone who could collaborate the story firsthand had passed away.
An interesting comment by Uncle Horace about his travel in
Europe was that when he heard about the banking holiday, he went to one of our
division offices and identified himself as the son of the treasurer of the denomination.
They cashed a check for Mrs. Mintern so the group could continue their travels.
Your research paper seems to be a thorough analysis of the
events surrounding the story. You put forth the effort to collaborate the story
by searching the archives and tying in the official comments of the leaders
of our denomination.
William Stone
Newbury Park, California
This letter is in response to your "A Story Revisited." It brought
back many memories.
I was 6 years old when my parents, Ney A. and Grace E. Rice,
moved from Michigan to Takoma Park, Maryland. I grew up knowing the Longacres,
Grahams, Rogerses, Shaws, Andrewses, Boyds, Palmers, H. T. Elliott and J. A.
Stevens families, and many others. It wasn't too long after we arrived that
T. Rose Curtis and Emma Howell also arrived from Michigan, and we became good
friends.
My memory is that Emma Howell told us this story first in our
living room at home, and it was later written and published. I knew W. H. Williams,
and his daughter, and worked with his second wife, Arabella Moore-Williams,
at the General Conference.
Moore-Williams had the group working at the Department of Education
over to their house one evening, and W. H. Williams was there. Most of the women
were in the kitchen area, but the men were talking together and discussing the
experience that Emma had written about, and were asking Williams questions.
He verified the story. That would have been between 1949 and 1952.
I was in Takoma Park during the time Emma Howell was courted
by Mr. Cooper, and still kept in touch with her through the years. I have every
confidence in Emma Howell's truthfulness. Under such circumstances records are
not always kept for verification later. God has led His people through the years,
and I believe He still continues to do so if we will listen and follow.
Mrs. R. Chester Barger
Loveland, Colorado
When I read the article "A Story Revisited," one statement in the
opening paragraph caught my attention: "There are also those who have questioned
its veracity."
When I pastored the Oak Ridge Seventh-day Adventist Church
in Republican Grove, Virginia, Elder Williams' daughter, Gertrude Williams Stevens,
was a member.
There were two stories that Gertrude delighted in telling about
her father. One was that before going to the mission field, her dad, W. H. Williams,
had served as the personal secretary to Ellen White. The second was the account
of her father's banking transactions to provide financial security for every
salaried worker in the Adventist Church's mission field.
At the time of the event, March 3, 1933, Gertrude was two months
shy of her twentieth birthday, a student at Washington Missionary College, and
living at home.
Gertrude told me that her father acted alone, except for what
he believed to be the prompting of the Holy Spirit. The phone call to him from
the GC treasurer, J. L. Shaw, seems to bolster Elder Williams' account of what
happened.
Since Gertrude heard the story firsthand from her father during
family worship and in table conversation, I'm convinced it happened just the
way she remembered and recounted it.
Pastor G. Garland Day
Potomac Conference
Virginia
By the time I became aware in 1988 of Emma Howell Cooper's banking miracle story
(Review, Sept. 13, 1979) and wrote "Providence or Poppycock?"
all miraculous aspects of the story had been refuted by two short sentences
in a reader response letter to the Review (Nov. 15, 1979) by Horace Shaw,
son of General Conference treasurer J. L. Shaw: "Also, the banks were not
closed for three months. In ten days, by March 16, half the banks, representing
90 percent of the nation's funds, were reopened." That letter alone deprived
the Review of any excuse to reprint Cooper's myth as history. But three
more times?!
I am baffled that, having scrutinized my "Poppycock,"
the Review would publish a defense of Cooper's myth that appears to equate
my fact-based findings with "accusations" against the Review
and depend on so many mistakes and logical absurdities. To mention a few: (1)
Despite the March 6, 1933, Washington Post headlines provided her in
"Poppycock"--"PRESIDENT CLOSES BANKS FOR 4 DAYS"--Poirier
writes, "President Roosevelt declared an immediate and indefinite
bank holiday." (2) She proclaims Cooper's story "believable"
yet, without announcement, she changes the story she is "defending"
by (a) adding nonexistent text, (b) omitting inconvenient text, (c) disposing
of inconvenient details by "fudging," and (d) affirming (unwittingly?)
positions that contradict Cooper's central claim. Concerning the latter, Poirier
endorses the February 1, 1934, Review article by J. L. Shaw--as if
it supported Cooper! Yet Shaw, who was treasurer, wrote that the banking
transactions were (i) performed by a team of treasury officers acting
in concert, (ii) that they worked out of Takoma Park, Maryland, and that
(iii) they were dealing with a single local bank "on that fateful day."
This destroys the Williams-acting-alone-in-New York tale. (3) "Poppycock"
documents a General Conference cable to South African missions (April 6, 1933)
warning that 15 percent cutbacks would begin May 1. This implies that no one
sent even two months in advance. Ignoring that cable, Poirier substitutes innocuous
data and concludes, "This fits right in with Williams' actions in the story
particularly if he had sent April and May in advance." Massive "if
"! (4) She uses the March 3, 1933, Evening Star to document heavy
traffic on the same (March 3, 1933) evening--another modern miracle!
(5) She claims the Daily News was a morning paper that Williams
could have purchased on Sabbath (March 4, 1933) that carried bank closure headlines.
But the actual headline of that paper was not about bank closures, and its front-page
content proves that it was an evening paper--which saves Williams from
Sabbath breaking. (6) Poirier uses circular reasoning: "I don't believe
we can know which of these is correct; but if you accept the story's premise
and the supporting evidence in other aspects of the unfolding events, it is
entirely plausible that it is, in Hokama's words, 'providence,' not 'poppycock'."
In other words, if I accept the premise that my nephew is a monkey, I may confidently
conclude that I am a monkey's uncle. Since when has the banking story earned
such logical deference?
Dennis Hokama
Rosemead, California
For further explaination regarding cuts in mission appropriations during the banking crisis, see additional facts. Mr. Hokama makes a valid observation concerning the Daily News.
I would like to comment on the article "A Story Revisited."
My parents, Elder and Mrs. James T. Thompson, were missionaries in Lima, Peru,
where my father was the Peruvian Mission president, at the time of this happening.
The Williamses were friends from earlier years, when my parents were in Argentina.
We left Peru for furlough to the U.S. in April 1933. In May,
while we visited at the GC in Takoma Park, Maryland, we visited Elder and Mrs.
Williams, among other friends who were living there. Elder Williams, at that
time, shared the account of God's providential leading, the details given as
told in your story in the Review.
My father recounted to us his story of how God had prepared
the GC for the crisis through Williams. Our missionaries in South America were
able to stay on, doing the work they had been sent to do.
I would thus add my affirmation as to the veracity of this
account.
Verna M. Dixon
Portland, Oregon
I have attached a photocopy of a carbon copy from L. H. Engelbrecht's vertical
file. (Engelbrecht was my dad.) Elder C. H. Watson, president of the GC during
the 1930s, was an Australian.
When my parents lived and worked for the church in Wahroonga,
my father was greatly blessed by his association with Watson, who lived at Turramurra,
not far from the South Pacific Division office at Wahroonga. On one occasion
when my father returned from visiting with Watson--I estimate it was the late
1950s--I recall my dad telling us at our evening meal of the thrilling leading
of God's providence as told to him by Pastor Watson that day--of how God had
providentially led to ensure that there were sufficient funds to continue His
work when the banks were closed during the Depression. Our family has heard
Dad tell this story as told to him by Watson many times.
Imagine my interest when I read the February 2005 article.
I was delighted to find that Dad had recorded the events as told to him by Watson.
I hope this [attachment] is of some help to you.
Lorraine Engelbrecht Everitt
Swansea, Australia
(See Engelbrecht's letter)
Further Research:
The original research simply "unpacked" the story as Cooper wrote
it. After I published my findings, the letters from Australian readers clearly
pointed to more involvement by Watson. Additional research into Watson's 1933
correspondence uncovered letters providing
significant details.
Watson writes of the banking crisis over a period of several
months from March 3 through July 3. His letters are somewhat ambiguous in the
early days of the bank closings, but he expands the details as time passes.
By March 9, in a letter to all church leaders in North America, he refers to
"the Spirit of God that led us at the first indication of banking difficulties
to take steps." On March 12 he dictates a letter to W. A. Spicer, general
field secretary, saying that "sums were cabled to divisions as advances"
and that a withdrawal of "$130,000 in bills and place[d] in vaults a few
hours before the situation closed by all banks shutting." By March 27 he
writes three very similar letters to division presidents W. G. Turner, H. W.
Miller, and N. P. Nielsen, of the Australasian, China, and South American divisions,
respectively. Quoting from the letter to Turner: "We were fortunate here
at General Conference headquarters in anticipating the difficulty by a few hours
and in cabling out a half a million dollars to different parts of the world
so as to keep the work in the divisions going. In addition to this, we drew
out $150,000 in cash and placed it in vaults so as to keep ourselves in cash
here at headquarters. These steps have enabled us to keep going at our own paying
end without interruption, but of course, moneys of the cause have been locked
up in banks here and there and yon all over the map. This has terribly affected
our income, and what the result will be to our work we are quite unable to see"
(March 26, 1933, files of General Conference president, 1933, General Conference
Archives).
For more on this, including longer excerpts from Watson,
see C. H. Watson correspondence.
Merle Poirier
| 
