On February 15, 1917, in a specially called session of the Loma Linda College of Medical Evangelists (CME) Constituency, Dr. Newton Evans, president of the faculty announced some good news regarding the accomplishments of CME’s graduates. “The Constituency will be glad to learn that for the last two years every graduate of our medical college who had stood any state board medical examination has passed the same successfully. This is an exceptional record for a medical college, and one which speaks well for the faithful work both by our teachers and our students….”
When America entered World War I on April 6, 1917, the need to raise CME’s accreditation status with the American Medical Association increased dramatically. By May 1 Congress had passed the Conscriptive Draft Act which made most CME faculty and students eligible for military service. It also impacted premedical students across the nation who had hoped to be admitted into CME.
Meanwhile, bad press against the SDA church’s noncombatant religious conviction created prejudice in government circles. With only 3,000 physicians in sight, the United States Army projected its need for 28,000. After Dr. Percy T. Magan clarified the church’s position, Dr. Franklin H. Martin, a member of the Advisory Commission of the National Defense, became cordial and requested that CME organize a base hospital. It would be staffed entirely by Adventists and made available for overseas service.
During an emergency meeting held in Loma Linda on July 3 and 4, 1917, Magan persuaded an emergency council to discuss the denomination’s relations with the government. During this meeting the Board voted unanimously to organize a base hospital in France. Even though the Army never accepted the offer, the action changed the opinion of some government officials.
By August 1, 1917, draft boards were conscripting medical students at an alarming rate, an action that impacted every school of medicine in America.
Then, on August 30, 1917, the Provost Marshal General sent to the governors of all states details of the Supplemental Regulations governing the execution of the selective service law. In it he identified all those who could join the Enlisted Reserve Corps, including sophomore, junior, and senior student physicians and interns, all of whom had to be students or graduates of “well-recognized medical schools.” The significant words “well-recognized medical schools,” challenged CME.
Because CME still maintained a C grade with the American Medical Association, the national directive refused its students who sought exemption. Because the Army exempted schools whose graduates were accepted by 70 percent of the state examining boards and not even 50 percent recognized CME, Drs. Evans and Magan considered the situation as the most serious crisis in the College’s short history. If the School were to close under these circumstances, it would never reopen.
In an effort to win government recognition, Magan headed for Washington DC to enlist the support of Army officers, physicians, and church leaders. He then arranged for Dr. Newton Evans to bring Dr. George Hare, of Fresno, California, to a series of conferences in Chicago that lasted days. Hare, president of the American Academy of Medicine, strongly supported CME. On October 25, 1917, Magan, Evans, and Hare met with Dr. George H. Simmons, general secretary of the American Medical Association and Dr. Nathan P. Colwell, secretary of the Council on Medical Education of the AMA. Decisions made there led to another visit to Washington DC, to the office of the Surgeon General.
In the absence of the Surgeon General, a General Noble and Colonel Love agreed to exempt all CME students from active military service so that they could finish their medical education in Loma Linda, after which they would become medical officers. They based their agreement on the condition that the AMA would raise the rating of CME to the B grade. The Army decided to return CME’s drafted students subject to the pending decision by the Council on Medical Education.
When Colwell promised to conduct an inspection within two weeks, Magan bombarded his administrative colleagues in Loma Linda and Los Angles with mail and telegrams, urging them to prepare. To Fred W. Drake, the superintendent of new construction in Los Angeles, he charged: “Spare no pains to push the work on the surgery building as fast as you can and a good deal faster. Get more men, get students to help, but get that building as near completed as you can….”
He advised Alfred Shryock, MD, at Loma Linda to do his best, “to have everything at Loma Linda in apple-pie order.” He wanted the hospital records, including autopsies to be in good order, “so that nothing will be awry when he comes.”
In one of his last letters, he wrote to L. M. Bowen, the business manager at Loma Linda, and followed his instructions with a spiritual note. “The Lord has worked miracles for us thus far, and I do not want to see things fall down now through any fault of ours. You remember that expression in The Story of Prophets and Kings: ‘God can work miracles for His people only as they act their part with untiring energy. He calls for men of devotion to His work, men of moral courage, with ardent love for souls, and with a zeal that never flags. Such workers will find no task too arduous, no prospect too hopeless; they will labor on, undaunted, until apparent defeat is turned into glorious victory.’”
This emergency prompted the Board to further expand facilities in Los Angeles. On November 2, 1917, the Board voted to authorize the construction of two additional hospital buildings, administration and women’s surgery, with the understanding that the school’s rating would be raised to class B by the American Medical Association.
To be continued…