The Autobiography of Herbert W Armstrong

COPYRIGHT 19571986, 2016 PHILADELPHIA CHURCH OF GOD
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG
18921986
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION | 1
CHAPTER 1 | 9
Boyhood
CHAPTER 2 | 20
Learning Important Lessons
CHAPTER 3 | 43
Learning to Write Effective Advertisements
CHAPTER 4 | 59
Idea Man for a National Magazine
CHAPTER 5 | 78
Pioneering in Public Opinion Polls
CHAPTER 6 | 91
Discovering Rules of Success
CHAPTER 7 | 106
How to Put Resourcefulness Into Practice
CHAPTER 8 | 130
Becoming a Publishers Representative
CHAPTER 9 | 145
How I Met My Wife
CHAPTER 10 | 159
Marriage Plans Complicated by War
CHAPTER 11 | 171
Our First Child
CHAPTER 12 | 186
Depression Strikes!
CHAPTER 13 | 194
Business Disintegrates
CHAPTER 14 | 201
College Competition and Oregon or Bust
CHAPTER 15 | 222
Launching a New Business
CHAPTER 16 | 238
Researching the Bible and Darwin
CHAPTER 17 | 252
At the Crossroadsa Momentous Decision
CHAPTER 18 | 262
Learning Whether God Answers Prayers
CHAPTER 19 | 275
Trying to Convert Relatives
CHAPTER 20 | 285
The First Sermon
CHAPTER 21 | 301
The Million-Dollar Clay Business
CHAPTER 22 | 317
Astounding Answers to Prayer
CHAPTER 23 | 325
Prelude to Ministry
CHAPTER 24 | 340
Ordained to Christs Ministry
CHAPTER 25 | 356
Evangelistic Campaigns in Full Swing
CHAPTER 26 | 367
Caught in Newspaper Business Trap
CHAPTER 27 | 383
Stuck in Astoria
CHAPTER 28 | 393
Back Into the Ministry
CHAPTER 29 | 410
The Real Beginning of Present Work
CHAPTER 30 | 419
The World Tomorrow Broadcast Begins
CHAPTER 31 | 434
The Plain Truth Is Published
CHAPTER 32 | 442
Campaign Gets Under WayDespite Opposition
CHAPTER 33 | 457
Early Evangelistic Campaignsthe Trials and Tests
CHAPTER 34 | 468
Steady Growth of Work at Eugene
CHAPTER 35 | 478
Uphill All the Way
CHAPTER 36 | 495
Broadcast Work Expands
CHAPTER 37 | 504
A Costly Lesson Pays Off!
CHAPTER 38 | 508
Work GrowsDespite Hardships and Persecution
CHAPTER 39 | 517
The Plain Truth Revived!
CHAPTER 40 | 526
First Vision of Worldwide Work
CHAPTER 41 | 538
Impact on Pacific Northwest
CHAPTER 42 | 551
On the Air in Los Angeles
CHAPTER 43 | 566
Impact of Daily Radio!
CHAPTER 44 | 577
Work Leaps AheadWorld Tomorrow Heard Nationwide
CHAPTER 45 | 587
More OppositionMore Growth
CHAPTER 46 | 592
A Talk to San Antonio Businessmen
CHAPTER 47 | 600
Severe Financial Crisis
CHAPTER 48 | 610
Historic San Francisco Conferencethe United Nations Is Born
CHAPTER 49 | 619
World War II EndsAtomic Age Begins
CHAPTER 50 | 626
A Momentous Year
CHAPTER 51 | 650
Planning a New-Type Collegein U.S. and Europe!
CHAPTER 52 | 658
Our First Trip Abroad
CHAPTER 53 | 676
Impressions of Switzerland and France
CHAPTER 54 | 686
Mid-Atlantic Hurricane!
CHAPTER 55 | 699
Strategy to Gain PossessionBirth Pangs of the College
CHAPTER 56 | 711
A Supreme Crisis! Now Forced to Fold Up?
CHAPTER 57 | 716
Surviving the First Year of Ambassador College
CHAPTER 58 | 734
Ambassador Begins to Grow!
CHAPTER 59 | 742
First Fruits of Right Education
CHAPTER 60 | 751
A Giant Leap to Europe
CHAPTER 61 | 762
Our First Experience With Television
CHAPTER 62 | 773
The CrossroadsTV or Radio?
CHAPTER 63 | 780
First Evangelistic Campaign in British Isles
CHAPTER 64 | 793
First Middle East Tour
CHAPTER 65 | 808
The Holy Land
CHAPTER 66 | 824
At Last!Jerusalem
CHAPTER 67 | 839
Touring Europe by Car
CHAPTER 68 | 849
Purchasing Ambassador Hall
CHAPTER 69 | 860
Ambassador College Expands
CHAPTER 70 | 866
Tragedy Strikes Richard D. Armstrong
CHAPTER 71 | 874
25th Anniversary
CHAPTER 72 | 882
Providential Acquisition of English Campus
AFTERWORD | 889
INTRODUCTION
F ROM BEGINNINGS HUMBLE AND SMALL
without parallel, to the magnitude of todays enterprises and

worldwide impact is the story of growth unbelievable! It is
the incredible story of something never done beforenever
done this waya seemingly impossible achievement utterly
unique in the world!
By all the criteria of organizational and institutional
experience, it simply could never have happened.
Every phase of this globe-girdling Work has been something
altogether uniquea firstthe blazing of a new trail.
Ambassador College is astonishingly unique among
institutions of higher learning.
The Plain Truth magazine is utterly unique in the
publishing field.
The World Tomorrow program, viewed and heard by
millions worldwide on both television and radio, is entirely
unique in broadcasting.
And the Worldwide Church of God, behind these global
enterprises, is altogether unique on the Earthpracticing, as it
does, the revealed ways of the living Creator God, and for the first
time in 18 centuries, thundering His all-important message of
the way to world peace over all continents of the Earth.
This entire Work has belied all traditional experience. It
has reversed accepted procedures. Yet, I hasten to add, these
have not been ways of my devising!
1
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
But how did it all start?

And since this is the life story of a man, what led a man
who had been unusually successful in the world of mammon,
with his energy and drive solely directed toward self-gain and
status in the business world, to come to reverse his entire life
goal and become dedicated to the things of God? Why would a
man turn his back on material rewards and devote his life to
giving instead of getting?
How I came to receive the eye-opening shock of my life, and
in due time to be literally thrust into the very last calling and
profession I would ever have chosen, was an experience as
unique as everything done since.
Coming to the present, why do heads of statekings,
presidents, prime ministers of many governments around the
worldinvite personal meetings with a private citizen of my
status? Why do governments officially confer highest honors
on such a private alien?
I repeat, this reversing of trends, ways and procedures
has not been that of my devising. As I look back over the
years, I can only shake my head in wonderment. I have not
done these thingsno man could. I cannot take credit. Yet,
paradoxically, I have been privileged to have the leading part
in these activities.
This, truly, is one of the most incredible success stories
of our time. There is a very significant reason! For it is the
story of what the living God can doand has done through
a very average human instrument, called and chosen by
Himone whose eyes He opened to astonishing truth about
the real cause of the troubles and evils heads of governments
face, and the way to world peaceone He reduced to humble
obedience, yielded in faith and dedicated to Gods way! God
promises to prosper His own Work. And HOW GREATLY He
has blessed and prospered it! Like the grain of mustard seed,
it grewand GREW!
Ask yourself: What company, business, enterprise or
institution in this worlds ways, ever experienced a steady
growth averaging nearly 30 percent every year for decades?
This activity did!
2
Introduction
Most commercial businesses and enterprises do well to

hold about even over the years. But a growth averaging
30percent every year, regularly and steadily, for decades? It
must be a record unmatched. It meant doubling in size and
scope and power every 2 years. It meant multiplying itself
in size eight times in every eight years, 64 times every 16
years, 4,096 times in 32 years!
Most, if not all, major corporate institutions began with
sizable capital. But this worldwide Work started giving
(reversing objectives and procedures) with absolutely no
financial capital!
These globe-girding enterprises included the founding and
operation of a coed college in the field of the liberal arts and
humanities. Im sure anyone experienced in the administra-
tion of a privately owned college would say: No one could
start to build such a college without money, endowment,
government aid or grant from any foundation, making no
appeal to the public for financial support, and build such
a college, of outstanding quality and beauty with the most
modern facilities, and in so doing gain an enviable financial
status recognized by major banks in New York, Philadelphia,
Los Angeles, London and Geneva. Impossible!
But much more! In every way, Ambassador College is
unique. In magnificence of its campusin the tone and
character of its buildings and groundsthe physical setting
in which it has produced tone and character in young men and
womenAmbassador College is certainly unique in a world
where education has drifted into materialism. Ambassador
has dared to recapture the true values; to restore the most
necessary missing dimension in knowledge; to become a
cultural character-building institution, concerned with moral,
spiritual and ethical values as well as with the intellect.
It started without moneywith four students and eight
members of faculty and administration. There have been no
protest marches, no friction between students and faculty
and administration, no hippie-type students. Ambassador is
indeed unique!
These enterprises include the World Tomorrow television
3
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
and radio broadcast, aired weekly in nearly every market

throughout the English-speaking world and in numerous
other areas worldwide. There is no solicitation for financial
support. The programs are unique in the broadcasting field,
with worldwide impact on millions!
There is the Plain Trutha finest quality mass-circulation
magazine in full color in seven languages, with about 8 million
copies monthly. This, alone, would rate as big business if it
were a commercial profit-making operation. But this enter-
prise was built, starting without capital, without advertising
revenue and without subscription price income. It is indeed
unique in the publishing field.
Also there are other publications, including the Bible
correspondence course issued monthly, with scores of thou-
sands of students enrolled; the Good News magazine and a
Youth magazine. There are scientific expeditions, in asso-
ciation with the Leopoldiii Foundation for the Exploration
and Conservation of Nature. This Work, further, has been
engaged in large-scale archaeological projects in joint partic-
ipation with Hebrew University of Jerusalem and with the
Japanese government; with other institutions in Syria; as
well as cultural and humanitarian projects in Southeast Asia,
the kingdom of Jordan and in Africa.
Yes, truly, this has been Mission Impossibleaccomplished!
And still being accomplished in ever-increasing magnitude!
It has been and is, as stated above, an example of what the
living God can do, has done and is doing through human
instrumentalities yielded to Him and obedient to His ways!
I had been, over wide areas, conducting surveys on
conditions and trends. I was greatly concerned over learning
that most people are not happythe world is full of evils. But
why? My surveys revealed the worsening conditions, but not
the cause. Nor could it be found in science, nor in education,
nor in government, nor in religion.
In the autumn of 1926, my wife said she had discovered,
in the Bible, a God-ordained way of lifea way contrary
to accepted Christianity. It became controversial. I was
challenged into the most intensive study of my life.
4
Introduction
I had been born and reared of upstanding and stable

parents of a traditional orthodox Christian denomination. I
had never had any particular religious interest, and by age
18 I dropped out of Sunday school and church attendance.
I assumed, as probably do most, that the denominations
of traditional Christianity had received their beliefs and
doctrines from the Bible. I had always said, I simply cant
understand the Bible. But now I set out to prove, by the Bible,
that all these churches cant be wrong!
Soon I encountered the most astonishing shock of my life! I
was shocked to discover not only that traditional Christianity
taught contrary to the Biblethat the Christian religion,
with more adherents than any religion, did not, as I had
supposed, get its teachings from the BibleBUT that the
Bible contained teachings and revelations of facts not known
or taught by any religion.
It was amazing! I began to see plainly, in the Bible, that
what I had been taught from childhood was primarily the
very opposite of what the Bible teaches in plain language! At
first I was confused. My head was swimming! My foundations
seemed to be crumbling beneath me.
Simultaneously I was making a renewed in-depth study of
the theory of evolution. I was researching it and at the same
time the biblical claims of special creation.
Was there a God, after all? What could a man believe? It
was, for a while, a frustrating dilemma.
Gradually, as these months of 12- to 16-hour days of study
progressed, the real truth began to emerge. It didnt come
easily or quickly. It required effort, zeal, determination,
patience. And above all, a willingness to confess error when
proved, and to confess truth even against my own will.
I did find absolute proof that the Creator, God Almighty,
exists and rules the universe. I found many proofs of the
inspiration and authenticity of the Bible. And I found the
CAUSE of all this worlds ills, as well as the solution that
will be madeeven if against the resistance and opposition of
humanity! I found the missing dimension in knowledgewhat
man is, why man was put on Earththe purpose for which we
5
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
were made alive. I found the way that was set in living motion
to cause and produce peace, happiness, abundance! I found
what neither science, religion nor education has revealed
what had been overlooked, though available.
And IT ALL MADE SENSE!
I found the revealed answersrational, obvious answers
to humanitys problems, troubles and evils. Answers not found
in science, education, government nor religion! And I found
that the very gospelwhich means good NEWSbrought to
the world by Christ had for 18 centuries been rejected or
ignored by that world!
How all this came about is the story of an experience as
unique as it was heartrending and difficult to go throughfor
it became a battle against my own self and my humanmy very
human nature. In the end, I lost that battle in an unconditional
surrender. And the incredible accomplishments in which I have
been privileged to have the leading part, have been the result.
Some time ago, a leading American newsmagazine,
reviewing the frightening state of todays world, commented to
the effect that it would seem the only hope for human survival
now lies in the intervention of an unseen Strong Hand From
Someplace. What has been developed in such astonishing
manner in this Work is directly creditable to the direction,
inspiration and empowerment of that Strong Hand.
It is a historic fact that many times the unseen One has
prepared in advance those to be used as His instruments for
getting His purpose accomplished. In my personal case, looking
back in retrospect, I have felt that the advance preparation,
even from childhood, was a thrilling succession of unusual
and intriguing experiences.
Thousands have requested that I write the details of
those experiences.
Too often, it seems to me, leaders in science, in government
or other fields of activity hastily ask only, How soon can we?
instead of Should we? I did ask myself, should the story
of my life be written and published? For some time, I felt
it should not. I felt it was my responsibility to get on with
getting the job done, not to talk or write about myself.
6
Introduction
But when listeners, viewers and readers ask to know

whats back of this Workhow it started, what led to it, how
it has been doneI came to realize they have a right to know.
As a young man I read Benjamin Franklins Autobiography
three timesover a period of a few years. It had a consider-
able impact and influence on my life. I owe much to having
read it. The reading of life experiences of many other men,
whether biography or autobiography, have been of great
value and inspiration.
There was the autobiography of Bernard Baruch, biogra-
phies of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore
Roosevelt and many others.
Then there was the Apostle Paul, a man of God, who told
his life experiences, recorded in the Bible. The first four books
of the New Testament consist, primarily, of those portions of
the life story of Jesus helpful to the reader. The Old Testament
is replete with biographical sketches of the life experiences of
many menNoah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Joshua,
Samuel, David, Elijah and many others.
I came to realize that the recording of ones life experiences
can be inspiring and helpful to othersprovided there has been
something of real value in those experiences. The influence
exerted on me by personal association with numerous leaders
among men, in business, industry, education, government,
and by reading of such lives, played their part in carrying me
through an eventful life, filled with interesting, exciting and
unusual experiences. They have helped solve problems, meet
difficulties, sorrows, sufferings. They have contributed also to
successes and the joy of participating in great accomplishments.
And now, looking back on a long life well filled with
action, effort, travel, important personal meetings with the
so-called great and the near-great, many world leaders, kings,
presidents, prime ministers, educators, industrialists, heads of
great banks, scientistsa life replete with exciting events and
unusual experiencesI feel that the recording of all this might
impart some measure of inspiration and help to the reader.
For one thing, I had felt, years ago, that the story of these
experiences might be helpful and of value to my two sons.
7
Benjamin Franklin addressed his Autobiography to his son.
But there never seemed to be time to write it, just for them.
But after so many radio listeners and Plain Truth
subscribers requested the background facts, it seemed that
I owed it to them, and I decided to write it in serial form, an
installment each month, in the Plain Truth.
Consequently, the Autobiography began appearing with
the September 1957 issue.
It is my sincere hope and desire that the reader will be helped
to a richer, fuller, more abundant life by this Autobiography.
8
1
BOYHOOD
E VEN FROM EARLIEST MEMORY, LIFE
always has seemed unusual, eventful, exciting.

I was born July 31, 1892, of respected and upright parents
who were of solid Quaker stock. My ancestors had emigrated
from England to Pennsylvania with William Penn a hundred
years before the United States became a nation. My ancestry,
through a paternal great-grandmother, traces back to
Edwardi, king of England.
I first saw the light of day in a red brick two-apartment flat
on the northwest corner of East 14th and Grand Avenue, in
Des Moines, Iowa. Of course I remember absolutely nothing
of the day of my birtheven as you remember nothing of
the day you were born. But my mother always remembered
it, especially since I was her firstborn, as my father was a
firstborn son before me.
A friend in Des Moines, some years ago, jestingly remarked
that I became famous too latethe flat in which I was born
long since had been replaced by a business property.
The earliest events that linger in memory occurred when
I was 3 years of age. Our family then was living on West
Harrison Street in Des Moines, near 14th. We lived in a
modest cottage, and my fathers parents lived in a two-story
house next door. I remember scampering through the rear
side door of their house to sample the delicious apple pies my
grandmother made.
9
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Also there is still memory of my maternal great-grandfather,

Elon Hole, then between 92 and 94, often taking me up in his
armsand the tragedy that occurred when he fell down the
stairs and died from the fall. Then there was an uncle, Jesse
Hole, in my memoryalso in his 90s.
I started kindergarten at age 5. I can still hear in my mind
the mournful clang of the school bell, one block south.
Swearing Off Chewing

It was at this advanced age of 5 that I swore off chewing
tobacco. A ditch was being dug in front of our house. Of course
ditches were still being dug with shovels by hand in 1897.
This was quite exciting for a 5-year-old. I spent most of my
time out in the front yard watching. Ditch diggers in those
days universally chewed tobacco. At least these particular
diggers did.
Whats that there? I asked, as one of them whipped a plug
of tobacco out of his hip pocket and bit off a corner.
This is something good, he answered. Here, sonny, bite
off a chaw.
I accepted his generosity. I can remember distinctly strug-
gling to bite off a chaw. That plug was really tough. But
finally I got it bitten off. It didnt taste good, and seemed to
have a rather sharp bite. But I chewed it, as I saw him chew
his, and when I felt I had it well chewed, I swallowed it.
And very soon thereaftera minute or lessI swore off
chewing tobacco for life!!! I say to you truthfully, I have never
chewed since!
This was very shortly after the days of the old horse-drawn
streetcars. The new electric trolley cars had just come in
the little dinkeys. I remember them well. The conductor on
our line was Charley, and the motorman was old Bill. The
most fascinating thing in the world was to park myself up at
the front of the long side seat, on my knees, so I could look
through the glass and watch old Bill run that car. I decided
then what I was going to be when I grew up. I was going to be
a streetcar motorman. But something in later years seems to
have sidetracked that youthful ambition.
10
1 | Boyhood
I do remember, though, that my father had a different

idea of what I would be when I grew up. I was constantly
pestering him with questions. I always seemed to want to
know why? or how? I wanted to understand. At age 5 I can
remember my father saying: That youngin is always asking
so many questions hes sure to be a Philadelphia lawyer when
he grows up.
That obsession for understanding was to have great influ-
ence on founding the Plain Truth magazine and Ambassador
College in later years.
Those Important First Years

When I was 6 the family moved to Marshalltown, Iowa, where
my father entered the flour milling business.
I remember the events of those days at age 6 much better
than I do those of age 56. The mind is much more receptive,
and the memory far more retentive, in the earlier years.
Believe it or not, every baby learns and retains more the very
first year of life than any year thereafter. Each year we learn and
retain a little less than the year before. Few, however, realize
this fact. For each succeeding year, the total fund of knowledge
increases. Knowledge accumulation is additive; that of each
year is added to the fund of previous years. Writing up these
early experiences brings this forcibly to mind. Occurrences are
coming back to me in my mind now, as I write, that I have not
thought of consciously for years.
Old Century OutNew Century In

After a year or so the family moved back to Des Moines. It
was while we lived there that my brother Russell was born,
January26,1900, when I was 7.
Another milestone event that lingers vividly in memory
was the turn of the century. (Actually, the true turn of the
century was January 1, 1901.) That particular New Years
Eve was a once-in-a-lifetime event. Then and there I formed
an aversion to church watch nights on New Years Eve.
I couldnt see any fun, at 7 years, in having to sit quietly
in church from about 8 oclock until midnight, unable to get
11
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
up and play or run around, just quietly watching the old

century out and the new century in. We were only watching
the passing of a humanly calculated point of time, anyway.
I only knew that it was a droll and dismal evening for me. I
went to sleep once or twice, only to be awakened.
This new-century watch-night event occurred 26 days before
my brother Russell was born. When my little baby brother was
a few months old we moved to Union, Iowa, probably spring of
1900, where my father went into partnership in a hardware store.
The Pigeon Milk Hunt

One day I wandered into the town job-printing shop. I must have
been on one of my usual information-seeking forays, asking so
many questions that ways and means had to be thought up for
ridding the printers of the nuisance.
Say, sonny, I wonder if youd run an errand for us, asked
the printer. Run over to the grocery and ask them for a half
pint of pigeon milk.
Whats it for? I asked. Why do you want it? I always had
to understand why and how.
To grease the presses with, explained the printer.
Howll I pay for it?
Tell em to charge it, was the answer.
At the grocery store the grocer explained, Sorry, bub, were
just out of pigeon milk. They carry that now at the jewelry store.
From the jewelry store I was sent to the furniture store,
then to the drugstore, and after almost every store in town, I
went to my fathers hardware store. Dad explained that I had
been chasing all over town on a fools errand. Anyway, I added
to my store of knowledge the fact that pigeon milk is not to be
found in stores. And I didnt think it was a more foolish errand
than the one a rookie sailor was sent on when his ship was
anchored at Pearl Harbor. Older sailors sent him to a dour
commandant on shore to get the key to the flag poleand he
got thrown into the brig.
While at Union I sold the Saturday Evening Post every
week. I remember the special canvas bag with the magazine
name on the side very well.
12
1 | Boyhood
Our barn in Union was badly infested with rats. I deter-

mined to do something about it. I obtained a large cage rat
trap at the hardware store, and almost every morning I had
a number of rats in the trap.
I remember a birthday party my mother had for me on my
9th birthday, July 31, 1901, probably because a picture taken
at the party has remained in the family box of old pictures.
Back to Des Moines we moved again in 1901, in early fall,
after a year and a half in Union, this time near East 13th and
Walker. I was now in the fourth grade. We lived a short distance
from a Seventh-Day Adventist Sanitarium with a bakery shop
near the front entrance. I remember being sent often to this
bakery for special health breadprobably whole wheat. The
thing that most impressed me, however, was the impression on
my boyish mind that these Adventists must be some kind of odd
religious people, because they kept Saturday for their Sunday.
Even at that age, anything different from common custom and
general social acceptance automatically seemed strangeand
if strange, then of course it seemed wrong. Why do people
assume that the rank-and-file of people cant be wrong?
It seems most of us, unless we do stop to think a bit, are like
Mrs. ORafferty, watching her son march with the soldiers
down Broadway, just returned to New York after World Wari.
I was that proud of Dinny, she said, for, dye know, they
were all out-of-step but him.
Well, perhaps it was Dinny who was properly in stepwho
knows? The point is, we blindly assume that the majority of
people cant be wrong. But I was to learn, in later years, that
people as a whole can be wrongso terribly wrong that people
are now bringing the end of their wrongly built civilization
crashing down on their own heads.
Only, most people are still unaware of it!
When I was 11, in 1903, the automobile was in its earliest
infancymostly built like the horse-drawn carriages, hard
solid rubber tires, steered by a stick or handle rather than a
wheel. We often called them horseless carriages. My father
was always jolly, and he loved a joke. It was while we were
living in this house that he called out to us:
13
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Hurry! Come quick! Here goes a horseless carriage!

Seeing one of these early automobiles was a rare sight.
We came running to the front window. A carriage was going
by. It was a horseless carriage all right. It was drawn, not
by horses, but a pair of mules. My fathers strong bass voice
boomed forth in hearty laughter.
Wrestling became a favorite sport in those days. These were
the days of Frank Gotch, Farmer Burns, Zbysco and others,
when wrestling was a real sport and not a fakery show. Clayt
Schoonovers older brothers had set up a real wrestling mat,
and they taught us all the main holds.
I think I loved ice skating perhaps more than any other
sport, however. I had learned to take wide, sweeping strokes
in a style so that my body would sway way over, from one
side to the other, using the force of gravity to help propel me
forward. There was a rhythm and sort of sensation to it that
was thrilling.
At that time, 190203, many of the streets in the city were
as yet unpaved. The sidewalks were wood slats nailed down
on two-by-four runners, with narrow cracks between slats.
I remember this because of an incident. One day someone
dropped a dimea 10-cent pieceand it fell onto the sidewalk
and disappeared through one of the narrow cracks. Neighbors
must have spent two or three man-hour days tearing up the
sidewalks hunting that lost dime. I learned then that people
will expend far greater effort to prevent losing something
than they will to gain something. Later I used this bit of
psychology with good effect in advertising copy.
When a Boy Is 11
I have often said that the happiest year in any human life
is that of a boy at age 11. At that age a boy experiences
something, I believe, which a girl never knows. He has no
sense of responsibility to weigh him down. He has no burdens
but to have fun. Of course boys that age will do foolish things,
sometimes dangerous things. How any boy lives to adulthood
I will never knowunless there is a guardian angel watching
over and protecting each boy.
14
1 | Boyhood
Another condition of the time illustrates how recently this

world has become really modernized. The street lights in our
neighborhood were gas lights. Electricity had not yet reached
that stage of modernization in 190203. A man came by on
horseback every evening about dusk with a lighted wick on
the end of a stick, with which he reached up and lit each light.
Then, about sunup next morning he had to ride by again
turning the lights off.
During these days I did a great deal of bicycle riding, devel-
oping big calf muscles on both legs. By this time my father
had invented the air-circulating jacket idea around a furnace,
and had gone into the furnace manufacturing business, with
a small factory on East 1st or 2nd Street. I worked summer
vacations in the factory.
Our transportation, 190304, was horse and buggyand
my bicycle. Going to the factory in the morning, we had to use
the whip on the horse occasionally to keep him trotting. But
returning home in the evening, it was necessary to hold tight
rein on him. He needed no urging to trot. He seemed to know
his oats were waiting for him in our barn.
Early Religious Training

I think it is time, now, to explain what boyhood religious
training was mine.
Both my father and mother were of solid Quaker stock.
From earliest memory I was kept regularly in the Sunday
school and church services of the First Friends Church in
Des Moines.
From earliest boyhood I was in a boys class in Sunday
school, and we all sort of grew up together. I cant remember
when I first knew those boys. I guess we were all taken there
as babies together.
Anyway it was interesting, some 25 years ago, to learn
what had become of most of themfor I had drifted away from
church about age 18, and had gotten completely out of touch.
One of them had become dean of student personnel at San
Francisco State College, with a Ph.D. from Yale. I contacted
him, and he gave me considerable and valuable assistance
15
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
and counsel in founding Ambassador College in 1947.

Another, who had been perhaps my principal boyhood
chum through those early years, was a retired retail furniture
merchant, who had enlarged and successfully maintained the
retail establishment founded by his father. Another was a
successful dentist. The son of the pastor of my boyhood days
had died apparently early in life. Another had become director
of a large relief agency in the Middle East. On the whole, the
boys of that class had grown to become successful men.
The AwakeningSpark of Ambition Ignited

During the years between 12 and 16, besides school, I had
many Saturday and vacation jobs. I carried a paper route,
was errand boy for a grocery store, special delivery boy for a
dry goods store, spent one summer vacation as draftsman for
a furnace company, and there were other odd jobs.
But at age 16, during summer vacation, I obtained my first
job away from home. The job was waiting on tables in the
dining room of a semi-resort hotel in Altoona, the next town
east of Des Moines. There was an electric linean interurban
streetcarthat ran out through Altoona and on east to the
little town of Colfax. This Altoona hotel served food of a
standard that attracted many guests from Des Moines.
The owner was a single man of perhaps 45. He complimented
my work highly. Soon he began to tell me that he could see
qualities in me that were destined to carry me to large success
in life. He constantly expressed great confidence in me and
what I would be able to accomplish, if I were willing to put
forth the effort.
The effect it had on me reminds me of an experience my wife
has related which happened when she was a little girl. She was
in her fathers general store. A man came in, placed his hand
on her head, and said: Youre a pretty little girl, arent you?
Ill thank you, spoke up her mother indignantly, not to
tell my daughters they are pretty! Thats not good for them.
Promptly little Loma ran to a mirror and looked into it.
She made a discovery. She said to herself approvingly: Well
I am pretty, amnt I?
16
1 | Boyhood
I had never realized before that I possessed any abilities.

Actually I had never been a leader among boys. Most of the
time I had played with boys older than I who automatically
took the lead. But now, for the first time, I began to believe in
myself. This hotel owner aroused ambitioncreated within
me the desire to climb the ladder of successto become an
important somebody. This, of course, was vanity. But it also
was ambition for accomplishmentfor self-improvement.
And he also stimulated the will to put forth whatever effort
it would require to achieve this success. He made me realize
I would have to study, acquire knowledge and know-how, be
industrious, and exercise self-denial. Actually this flowered
into grossly overrated self-confidence and conceit. But it
impelled me to driving effort.
Lifes Turning Point

It is impossible to estimate the importance of this sudden
arousal of ambitionthis injection of an intense desire for
successthis igniting of the spark of determined energy to
achieve worthy accomplishment.
This was the turning point of my life.
Suddenly life became a whole new ball game. There had
awakened within a totally new outlook on the future.
This, I believe, is the vital ingredient that has been missing
in most human lives. Most continue through life as I was
prior to this arousal of ambition. As I have stated, up to this
point I played with boys older than I. It seemed natural for
them to assume leadership. I simply went along. The idea of
looking forward to achieving success, or an accomplishment
of any note, never intruded itself into my mind. Nor does it,
probably, in the average mind. And it was like an intrusion,
for my mind was uninterruptedly occupied only with the
interests, pleasures and enjoyments of the moment.
Suddenly all this was changed! Drastically changed!
What a tragedy the vast majority of human minds cannot
be given this hopethis desirethis ambitious expecta-
tionthis confidencein their future! The general attitude
of hopelessness for the future has spawned the modern mod
17
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
rebellionsthe hippie movementthe campus protests, riots

and violence.
Of course, as yet, at age 16, there had formulated no
definite goal to work toward, further than the general
ambition to succeed. Of what that success was to consist had
to crystallize later.
Also, so far, it was pure vanity. But it was a positive vanity,
and that might be vastly preferable to a negative, purposeless
humility. It was the first start toward later accomplishment.
Some few years later, I was considerably inspired by one
of Orison Swett Mardens inspirations books, titled, He Can
Who Thinks He Can. What a pity that there seems to be a
famine of such books today.
Returning to Des Moines, I continued as a student at North
High School. I began to spend extra hours outside of high
school at the city library, mostly in the philosophy, biography,
and business administration sections. I began to study Plato,
Socrates, Aristotle and Epictetus. It was at this time that I
first read Benjamin Franklins autobiography.
My first date with a girl took place at about this timea
date to escort a next-door neighbor girl in my class in high
school to some school function. At that stage I was pretty
much in awe of girls and felt awkward in their presence. It has
always been a puzzle to me that so many boys around that age
are afraid of girls, ill at ease before them, and yet girls seem
not to be shy or bashful in any way in the company of boys. For
the next 8 years I continued to date this girl on and off (not
what today is termed going steady, however), but never did
I put my arm around her, kiss her, or as they would say today,
neck with her. (It was called loving up in those days.)
North High had a total enrollment of only 400 then. In high
school I went out for football and for track, and played a small
amount of basketball in the gym. In football I played end or
halfback. I weighed only 135 in those days, and was too light
to make the team, but I suited up with the team in all of its
home games, usually played in the Drake University Stadium.
In track I went out for the mile run in my sophomore year
only, but never was entered in the state meet. The best time I
18
1 | Boyhood
ever made was 5 minutes flat, on the Drake track, where the
annual Drake Relays, nationally famous, are still run. Today
the worlds best milers run the mile under 4 minutes!
I was an average student in school. But in final exams I
always got grades of 95to 98percent.
But as yet there had been set no definite goal in life. At the
tender age of 16 the idea of fixing a definite objectiveof finding
the true purpose of lifeoccurs to few teenagers. Ambition had
been aroused. I was burning with desire to go somewhere in
lifeto become a success. But exactly where, or precisely what
constituted the success, had not as yet crystallized.
19
2
LEARNING
IMPORTANT
LESSONS
A T AGE 18 I FOUND A BOOK IN THE
public library, titled Choosing a Vocation. It took the reader

through a searching self-analysis and a survey of vocations,
occupations and professions to place the candidate where
he best fit.
A thorough study of this self-analysis and survey indicated
that I would probably be most successful in the profession of
journalism and advertising. And this, to me, was one of the
truly exciting, thrilling professions.
It so happened that my uncle in Des Moines, Frank
Armstrong, my fathers younger brother, was the most prom-
inent advertising man in the state. He had led the movement
of establishing AdClubs in other cities over the state, and he
was the first president of the state association.
I went to my uncle for counsel and advice. From that time,
since I had chosen his field, he practically steered my life for
the next 11 years, and I owe much to him. To me he seemed
like a sort of second Benjamin Franklin, and on the whole I felt
he had unusual insight, understanding and sound judgment.
20
The place to begin in the advertising profession, he advised,
was the want-ad department of a daily newspaper. This was
the freshman class of the advertising school of hard knocks.
It was late December 1910. Now the big question came:
Should I stay in school, and take courses in advertising and
journalism in college or university?
Well, Herbert, he counseled, that depends on you and
how much ambition and drive you have. It happens that no
college or university in the country has yet offered a course in
this profession that is worth a plug nickel.
Now I know, he continued, that nearly everybody has
the delusion that an education is something you get at
schooland higher education at the university. Its like going
to a hardware store or department store to purchase a lawn
mower. People seem to have the idea that an education is
something they have all wrapped up at the university, ready
to hand it over to you when you buy it by paying the tuition.
But it has always seemed to me that traipsing across the
doorsill of a college classroom, or sitting in an armchair, is
not putting an education into your mind. Education comes
from studyfrom booksfrom lecturesfrom contacts
from travelfrom thinking about what you see and hear and
readand from experience.
The reason we have to maintain schools and universities is
simply that most people are too lazymost lack the ambition
and persistence, the driveto procure an education outside
of schools and colleges. Most people must have someone do
their thinking and planning for them, assign lessons and
homework, and force students to study and learn by a system
of rewards and punishments in the form of grades, and finally,
a sheepskin with a degree.
Now if you have the initiative, and the will to drive yourself
to study, without these prods of rewards and penalties, you can
acquire just as complete an education outside the classrooms
as in. You can gain a much more thorough and practical knowl-
edge of the profession you have chosen outside than in. And so
far as general education is concerned, you can acquire that, if
you have the gumption and the will. I can help you choose the
21
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
proper textbooks to study in general educational areas, as well

as in advertising and journalism, and psychologywhich, by
the way, youll have to understand and use.
Actually, Herbert, he continued, a majority of corporate
heads, presidents and board chairmen of New York and
Chicago banks are primarily self-educated beyond high school
education. The doctors, dentists, scientists and technologists,
of course, went on through university.
At that time a small percent of high school graduates
went on to matriculate in college or university. Today that
condition has reversed, and as high as 90percent of high
school graduates enter the mad scramble to gain entrance
into the institutions of higher learning. Also, in 1910, a much
smaller percentage went on to graduate even from high school.
I went home and thought it over thoroughly. Ambition is
not only the desire, but the determination and the will to
achieve the desired goal. For two years ambition had burned
fiercely within me. I wanted both success and to become a
well-educated person. I knew I wanted these goals intensively
enough to drive myself to any needed extent to succeed.
I told my uncle my decision. He assigned me to one years
experience in want ads, and advised that I get a job in the
want-ad department of the Des Moines Daily Capital, then
published by Lafe Young, senior United States senator from
Iowa.
Applying Laws of Success

I didnt know, as yet, what later I came to learn were the seven
lawsor seven steps toward successbut I was starting out
with the first four of them.
Well, almost! The first law is to choose the right goal. I had
chosen my lifes goal. I thought then I had chosen carefully,
intelligently, wisely, and the right goal. I had put myself
through a thorough self-analysis and survey of professions
and occupations. I had not unthinkingly stumbled on to what-
ever job, field or occupation that was nearest me.
Most people, I have observed, are victims of circumstance.
They have given no intelligent thought to choosing where
22
2 | Learning Important Lessons
they live, what they do, or planning for the future. They have
no specific aim or goal in life. They are headed toward no
definite purpose. They are where they are by circumstance.
I was to learn later that the right goal was one I knew
nothing, as yet, about. But I had chosen the field that was to
provide the precise needed training for the right goal, when
my eyes became opened to it. I was getting the precise needed
training, education and experience.
The second law of success is educationthe specific special-
ized education and training needed for success in the chosen
goal, in addition to the general balanced education one needs
to develop the whole person.
With the determination and drive to study, and by applying
myself to the task, the course of study and training had been
laid.
And next comes good health, to which I gave much thought
and diligence. And fourth was the drive to push oneself into
getting these things done. My ambition was so strongthe
desire to succeed so intensethat I was imbued with almost
excessive drive. And on this first assignment I became a hustler.
The fifth requisite is resourcefulnessthe ability to think
a problem or obstacle throughto find a better wayto find
the solution to problemsto think about what one is doing
while he is doing it.
And my very first experience on the new job was to
demonstrate that.
I did not ask the Capital if they needed any help. That
was too negativemight have resulted in being turned down.
I went straight to the manager of the want-ad department,
told him I was entering the advertising profession and had
decided to join his staff because it offered the best opportunity
to learn and to advance. I got the job. The starting salary was
$6 per week.
I had no conception, then, that the advertising profession
was not, after all, to be my final life professionor that this
experience was merely the preliminary training needed for
the ultimate bigger job later in life.
In those days I had developed a very excessive case of
23
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
self-confidence. I was snappy, confident, self-assuredyet

sincere and, in the intent of heart, honest.
On this want-ad job I soon became known as a hustler.
On the street I hurriedwalked rapidly. I was a dynamo of
energy. Off nights I studied. Books were procured on adver-
tising, psychology, merchandising, business management
and English. All the leading trade journals were subscribed to
and diligently readprimarily Printers Ink and Advertising
& Selling, the two leading trade journals of the profession.
My uncle directed the training in learning an effective
style in writing. Constantly I studied the writing style of
Claude Hopkins, president and chief copywriter for the Lord
& Thomas Advertising agency. This man reputedly drew a
salary of $50,000 a year (big money in those days) writing
the advertising copy for Quaker Oats, Pepsodent, Palmolive,
Goodyear tires, Blue Jay Corn Plasters, Ovaltine and others.
His rapid styleunique, yet plain, simple and easy-to-read
built multimillion-dollar businesses for those firms.
Also my uncle started me reading Elbert Hubbard, with
his two magazines The Philistine and The Fraprimarily
for ideas, writing style, vocabulary. Later I was to become
personally acquainted with Elbert Hubbard.
The Goat Work

The first day in want ads I was started out, bright and early,
on a job they called the goat work, tutored by a young man
now ready to graduate from that job.
This job in the newspaper business might be compared to
boot camp in the Marines. It is a most undesirable, tough,
breaking-in job. I soon learned what it was.
We each armed ourselves with a copy of the previous nights
paper, a want-ad blank and a pencil. Then we started out
afoot. We headed up the hill on West Fourth and Fifththe
rooming-house district.
Ill stop in at a couple of rooming houses, said my
predecessor-instructor, just to show you how to do it; then
Ill go back to the office, and youre on your own.
Stepping boldly up to the first rooming house door, he rang
24
the bell. The landlady opened the door, instantly recognizing

the folded newspaper in his side pocket and the want-ad
blank in his hand.
NO! she snapped decisively, before he could say a word. I
dont want to run any want ads.
But lady, my instructor put a foot in the door being
slammed in his face, you know Mrs. Jones down in the next
block, dont you?
Never heard of her! Of course not. Neither had the boy
with me.
Well, Mrs. Jones put her ad in the Capital, and at least
a dozen men came trying to rent the room. The reason you
didnt get results is that you put your ad in the wrong paper.
But by this time the madam had managed to dislodge his
foot and slam the door.
This same procedure was repeated at the next house.
Well said my want-ad buddy, happily, that shows you
how to do it. Hope you sell a lot of ads. So longsee you at
the office.
Finding a More Effective Way

But it didnt seem that he had demonstrated how to do itbut
rather, how not to do it.
I waited until he was out of sight. I hid both the newspaper
and the want-ad blank in my inner pocket, covered with my
overcoat. Then I walked briskly up to the next rooming-
house door.
I hope you havent rented your room yet, I smiled as the
landlady opened the door. May I see it?
Why, certainly, she smiled back, opening wide the door.
I trailed her to the second-floor room. No doors were going
to be slammed in my face.
Why, I smiled, this is a delightful room, isnt it? The
landlady beamed expectantly. I whipped out the want-ad
blank and began rapidly writing.
Here! she exclaimed suspiciously. What are you doing
with that want-ad blank?
But she could not slam the front door in my face nownor
25
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
did she appear big enough to attempt throwing me out bodily.

Now look, I said calmly. This is a lovely room. Do you
know why your want ads have not rented it for you? The
want-ad solicitors have told you it was because you put it in
the wrong paper. You know thats bosh as well as I. The reason
you didnt rent your room is that you are not a professional
advertising writer!
By this time I had the want ad writtenat least two or
three times longer (and costlier) than the average.
Listen, I continued, imagine you are a young man
reading all the room-for-rent ads, looking for a room that is
going to be your home. Now think how all those other ads are
writtenthen listen to this, and think!which room would
you go to see, and rent?
I read the ad, which certainly made the room sound very
desirable. In fact, its glowing terms probably flattered her.
She just couldnt resist seeing that flowery description of her
room in print in the paper.
Why, Id certainly want to rent that room, instead of those
ordinarily described in the want ads, she replied. That does
make it sound good. She bought the adas large as three
ordinary ads.
And the ad did rent her room!
That was the first advertisement I ever wrote that was
printed. But I had already been diligently studying textbooks
on advertising writing.
Since 1958 we have been large purchasers of double-page
and full-page advertising space in several of the worlds
leading mass-circulation magazines, including, in the United
States, Life, Look, tv Guide, and around the world, double
pages in many editions of Readers Digest; half pages in
London Sunday Times; full pages, full color, Sunday Times
magazine; Hrzu in Germany; and other leading magazines
in Australia, South Africa, the Philippines and others.
The 20 years experience in the advertising and journalism
profession, starting with this first want ad, was the prepa-
ration that supplied the know-how for effective use of this
type of media, reaching a readership in excess of 150 million
26
worldwide. Results were more than gratifying. Two such

double pages in English in Readers Digest brought 20,000
new subscribers in India for the Plain Truth.
After an energetic morning I was back at the want-ad office
about 1 p.m., the deadline for getting ads to the composing
room. I had a handful of want ads.
Much-a-Welcome
Soon I thought of a faster, more pleasant way to sell more
room-for-rent ads, in less time.
The rival papers were the Register & Leader and the Daily
News. The News didnt count as a want-ad medium, but the
R&L, as we then called it, was the citys big want-ad medium.
Today the Des Moines Register is recognized by many as one
of the nations 10 great newspapers. In 1924 I was offered
the job of advertising manager of the Register, and refused
itbut thats getting ahead of the story.
The R&L printed perhaps three or four times more room-
for-rent ads than the Capital. Rooming-house landladies
had become smart. In order to prevent newspaper solicitors
annoying them on the telephone, or prospective roomers
turning them down on the phone before actually seeing the
rooms, they usually gave the street address only, in their ads.
I knew that the information office of the telephone
company indexed according to street addresses, as well as
by name, but the information operators were not supposed to
give out names or numbers for a given street address.
So I called the information office, and first engaged the
operator in a jocular conversation. After a while I persuaded
her, this once, to give me the name of the rooming-house
landlady at a certain street address.
Well much a-welcome, I said jokingly.
Oh, youre entirely welcome, she said.
No! I came back. Im not welcomeI said youre
much-a-welcome.
She was a little confused at this 18-year-old kidding.
Well, what am I supposed to say, then?
Why, youre supposed to answer, youre entirely obliged!
27
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
She had a good laugh. That joke sounds about as corny

as Iowas tall corn, nowbut it certainly got me results with
that information operator.
Next morning I called information, and said, This is
Much-a-welcome again! It brought a friendly laugh. I was,
in my self-confident assurance, a reasonably glib talker.
Somehow I managed to talk this information operator into
giving me the names and telephone numbers of every room-
for-rent want ad in the morning paper that we had not carried
the evening before.
Always I ended by saying, Much-a-welcome, and she
would laughingly reply, Oh, youre entirely obliged. Silly,
perhapsbut it got me the names and telephone numbers
I wanted. Quite a telephonic friendship was struck up with
this information operator. Often I wondered how old she
waswhat she looked like. I never knew. It did not seem
appropriate to suggest a face-to-face meeting. But this daily
morning procedure continued as long as I was on rooming
house ads.
Getting Ads by Phone

Once I had the names and telephone numbers, they were
called by phone.
Good morning. Is this Mrs. Smith? I would start off, cheerily.
While I was only a boy of 18, I had inherited a strong bass-
baritone voice from my father, even lower-pitched then than
now, and sounded quite mature on the telephone. I discovered,
even then, that I was possibly more effective audibly than
visually. Indeed, this was the first prelude training for radio
broadcasting that was to follow, beginning 24 years later.
I wonder, I would continue the telephone conversation,
if you would describe your room to me. While getting the
description, prompted by repeated questions from me, I was
rapidly writing a very descriptive want ad. Then I explained
that she had not described it well enough in the morning-
paper ad to cause anyone to really want to walk out to see
it, and told her that I was an expert ad-writer, and quickly
read the ad that would tell enough about the room to cause
28
prospective roomers to want to see it. I explained that the

reason she had not been getting results was the fact her ad
was written so inexpertly.
A large majority of these hastily written telephone ads
were sold. The rooms were usually rentedunless they failed
to live up to the description after prospective roomers called
to see them.
Soon we were carrying more room-for-rent ads than the
R&L. Whenever one of our rooming-house customers had a
vacant room, they automatically called for me on the tele-
phone, and soon rented the room again.
One of the seven laws of success, I repeat, is resourcefulness.
Also an important point I have always stressed to students in
Ambassador College is to thinkand constantly to think about
what you are doing while you are doing it! This experience in
thinking of a more effective way of selling room-for-rent want
ads might offer a helpful example to some of my readers.
My First Display Ads

It was not long until I was promoted out of the room-for-rent
columns and into the real estate section.
But first came a challenging testthe toughest of all. The
want-ad manager, a young man (older than I) named Charles
Tobin, had an ambition. He hoped to increase his salary to a
point that would enable him to wear a fresh-laundered shirt
every day. Immediately, that became one of my ambitions,
too. The assignment he gave me was to sell a special section
on the want-ad page, of single-column display ads to the
secondhand furniture dealers.
These stores were all owned by a type of men who did not
believe in advertising, and valued every penny as if it were a
million dollars. To me, this was an unpleasant task, because so
many of these stores were dirty and dusty and musty, cluttered
and ill-arrangedan unpleasant atmosphere to enter.
Here again, however, ads were sold by writing the ads and
making attractive-appearing layouts. These were the very
first display ads I ever had printed. I remember staying up
until midnight studying a book on advertising and selling
29
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
psychology. It took the combination of all the selling psychology,

attractive advertising layouts and copy, and persuasive
personality I could muster to accomplish that assignment.
But it was accomplisheda total of about a third of a page or
more, as nearly as I can now remember.
During this special number crusade, I encountered a
somewhat handicapped Jewish boy of about my age, the son
of one of these used furniture merchants. The store owner
was delighted to learn that I had some influence over his
backward boy. It seemed like a responsibility that had come
to me, to encourage him to go back to school, to study hard,
and to begin to believe that he could be a success someday,
and to start working, and fighting, even against sluggish
impulses of self, to make something of himself. For some
months I continued occasionally to drop in at this store to give
this lad another pep talk. It seemed to be doing good. I hope
the progress continued, but after about a year we lost contact.
The $2-per-Week Lesson

But after putting over this special number, I was given a
real estate beat, and the salary raised to $8 per week.
I was put on a regular beat, calling daily on a certain
number of real estate brokers to pick up their ads. Here again,
I started writing ads for them. Results were increased. More
and more the dealers on my route began using large ads in
the Capital, using less space in the R&L.
It was on this job that I became known as a hustler. I
walked at a pace that was almost a run. It was drive, drive,
drive!! all morning longuntil the 1 p.m. deadline. Then
the afternoons were spent in the office preparing form
solicitations, to which were attached clipped want ads from
the other local papers, or even those of other cities, which
were mailed out. Thus I learned to sell want ads by mail. This
knowledge landed an important job, later.
It was not long until Ivan Coolidge, then want-ad manager
over at the R&L, asked me to drop over and see him. He
offered me $10 a week if Id leave the Capital and join the
Register staff. Later on, Ivan established an advertising
30
agency of his own in Des Moines, which, I believe, gained some

prominencebut he was unfortunately cut off somewhere in
midlife by premature death.
I told Ivan I wanted to consult my uncle before giving him
my decision.
So, chuckled my Uncle Frank, with the wisdom of a Ben
Franklin, the opposition is beginning to feel the pressure, eh?
Want to hire you away from the Capitalwilling to pay $10
a week to stop the competition, are they? Well, now listen,
Herbert, a little encouragement once in a while is very helpful.
It shows you are making good. You can get some inspiration
out of it to provide incentive to keep driving yourself on. But
Ive noticed that there has been a tendency in some branches of
our family to keep shifting around all the time from one thing
to anothernever staying with one thing long enough to make
a success of it. Theres a good deal to the old adage, after all,
that a rolling stone gathers no moss. One of the great success
lessons you need to learn is persistenceto stay with a thing.
Now suppose you quit the Capital and go over to the
Register. You wouldnt learn any more about the advertising
profession over there than youre learning where you are. The
only advantage is the $2 per week. Youd probably blow that
in, and 10 years from now you wouldnt remember having
had it. I think the time has come for you to pay the $2 a week
to learn the important lesson of staying with a thing. Every
week, when you draw your $8 at the Capital, remember you
are paying the extra $2 you might be getting at the Register
as the price of that lesson, and I think youll remember it.
I had started out to spend one year in want ads at the Capital.
The temptation had come to weaken and get off that schedule.
I took my uncles advice and stayed on the schedule.
Learning Rules of Success

Thus, at the early age of 18, some of the seven important
rules of success were being learned.
The first success ruleI emphasize by repeating itis
fixing the right goal. Avoid fitting the square peg in the round
hole. I was yet to learn the real purpose of life, and the one
31
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
true supreme goal. Actually I had set out on a wrong goal

that of becoming someone important, achieving business
success and status for the purpose of making money. But at
least I had made the self-analysis and the survey of vocations
to find where I should fit within the realm of business, the
field of this goal.
At least, ambition had been kindled.
And, though little realized at the time, all this experience
was building the necessary foundation for the worldwide
activities of later life.
The second success rule is educationfitting oneself for the
achievement of the goal. I was getting, not mere impractical
and theoretical classroom book education, but the combined
education of book study at night and practical experience in
the daytime. And even here, the self-education being received
was precisely that required to properly prepare me for this
present worldwide Work of God, without which this Work
today could not have become a success.
The third rule of success is good, vigorous health. Food
plays a major part in this, and I was not to learn of the
importance of food and diet until I was 38 years old. But I had
learned the importance of sufficient exercise, deep breathing,
daily bathing and elimination, and sufficient sleep.
The fourth rule, drive, putting a constant prod on oneself,
seems to have come naturally as a result of the ambition
that had been generated at 16. There was always the sense
that I had to hurry! I was learning to plunge into a task with
dynamic energy.
The fifth, resourcefulness, or thinking about the problem at
hand, was unconsciously being developed by experience. For
example, the experience of the goat work job, and then in
finding a way to get in room-for-rent ads faster by telephone,
was an example of learning this rule by experiencethinking
through and applying initiative to a better way of solving a
problem. Most people do such a job just as they are shown,
without ever applying thought or resourcefulness to the activity.
And now, the sixth rule, perseverance, never quitting when
it appears to everyone else one has failed, was being learned
32
at the very low price of $2 per weekly lesson. In 1947, and

again in 1948, Ambassador College appeared hopelessly to
have failed. It seemed everyone else knew we had come to
the end of our rope. It has happened many times. But that
$2 per week lesson learned at 18 turned a seeming hopeless
failure into a worldwide ever-expanding success.
The seventh and most important rule I was not to learn
until much later.
The First Sidestep From the Goal

But now came a big mistake in judgment.
Humans do not learn well from experience, nor all at once.
The lesson of the forbidden fruit has not been learned by
humanity in 6,000 years. My $2 a week lesson was not really
learned until later.
As the scheduled year of training in daily newspaper want
ads drew to a close, a flattering offer came. And this time
I failed to seek out the advice of my Uncle Frank who had
wisely steered my business career thus far.
On the Daily Capital staff was a book critic, Emilie Stapp,
who edited a book review department. Her desk was on the
second floor adjacent to the want ad and display advertising
section. She had, apparently, observed my work, noted I was
energetic and produced results. She was a sister-in-law of
W.O. Finkbine, one of two millionaire brothers who owned
and operated the Green Bay Lumber Co., with lumberyards
scattered all over Iowa; the Finkbine Lumber Co., a large
lumber manufacturing company in Wiggins, Mississippi; and
operated a 17,000-acre wheat ranch in Canada.
Miss Stapp lived with her sister, Mrs. W.O. Finkbine, out
on the Avenue, as we called itmeaning the millionaire
residence street of Des Moines, West Grand Avenue. I doubt
very much that all the residents of that fabled street were
millionaires, but at least so it seemed to those of us who were
of ordinary means in Des Moines.
One day, near the end of my year at the Capital, Miss
Stapp told me she had spoken to Mr. Finkbine, and I was
being offered the job of timekeeper and paymaster at the big
33
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
lumber mill in southern Mississippi. I was first to work a

short period in the companys commissary store, managed by
her brother, whose name was Hal Stapp.
The job sounded flattering. The prospect of travel to far-off
southern Mississippi had alluring appeal. I succumbed to it,
going off on a tangent from the planned advertising career.
The First Meeting With a Millionaire

Before leaving, I was to go to the office of Mr. W.O. Finkbine for
a short talk of instruction. I shall never forget my visit to the
headquarters offices of this lumber firm. I met also Mr.E.C.
Finkbine, president of the corporation. W.O. was vice president.
It was my first experience meeting millionaires. It made an
intensive impression. I was awed. There seemed to be some-
thing in the appearance and personalities of these men that
simply radiated power. It was instantly apparent that they were
men of higher caliber than men I had knownmen of greater
ability. There was an expression of intensity which seemed to
radiate an aura of positive confident power about them, and
affected one who came within proximity of it. I could see that
they were men who had studied, used their minds continually,
dynamically and positively.
Of course I was over-impressed, due to the plastic
susceptibilities and inexperience of youth. A very few years
later I began meeting so many millionaires that they began
appearing quite ordinary, after alljust human!
I was taken into the private office of W.O. Finkbine. He
wanted to give me a little general advice before sending a
young man so far away from home. I have never forgotten
what he said.
We are going to send you down with the manager of our
Canadian interests, he said. This mans name I do not
remember now. It was early January, and he was going down
to Wiggins for a vacation, and to inspect the companys oper-
ations there, during the off-season in Canada. I had never
been farther from Des Moines than Omaha and Sioux City. It
was a thrill to look forward to the trip, first to seeing Chicago,
then the deep South.
34
First, I want to give you some advice about traveling, said

Mr. Finkbine. Most people look upon it as an extravagance to
ride in the Pullman cars on trains. They are wrong. As youre
starting on your first long trip from home, I want to impress
on you the importance of always traveling in a Pullman car,
except when you do not have the money to do so.
First of all, especially at your age, we humans are influenced
by everyone we come in contact with. On the Pullmans you
will come in contact with a more successful class of people.
This will have more influence than you can realize, now, on
your future success in life. Then, in the Pullmans it is not
only cleaner, but safer.
Now, he continued, whenever you stop at a hotel, the
same principle applies. Always stop at the leading hotel in
any city. If you want to economize, get the minimum-priced
room, but always go to the best hotel. You are among more
successful people, which will influence your own success. The
best hotels are either fireproof or more nearly soalways
saferworth the little difference, if any, in cost as insurance
against accident or fire. You are a young man, just getting
started in life. Try to throw yourself into the company of as
many successful men as possible. Study them. Try to learn
why they are successful. This will help you learn how to build
a success for yourself.
I did not disdain his advice. There have been many times in
my life when I did not have enough money to travel on Pullman
cars or stay in the best hotels. Under such circumstances, I
have traveled as I could affordand I have traveled a great
deal since that eventful day in early January 1912in fact a
goodly portion of my life has been spent in traveling, as you
will see as this autobiography progresses.
Since we moved to Pasadena, I have learned that these
Finkbine brothers later retired from business, and moved to
Pasadena. Very often, these days, I drive past the home where
W.O.Finkbine lived in retirement, and died. One lesson in life
he apparently never learned. When a man decides he already
has achieved success, and retiresquitshe never lives long.
I expect to stay in harness as long as I live.
35
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Introduction to the South

As I look back now, after a travel-filled life, on this first real
trip away from home, it seems strange that I could have been
so absolutely inexperienced in travel. But I suppose one must
be initiated, and learn, and this was my introduction to a life
of travel.
We boarded a Pullman car in Des Moines one nightmy
first experience riding in one. I think I was too excited to sleep
much, wanting to see as much of the scenery as possible
especially my first glimpse of the great Mississippi River as
we crossed it between Davenport and Rock Island.
There was a cold blizzard on our arrival in Chicago next
morning. The ground was covered with snow. We went over
to see Michigan Avenue. I was thrilled. We went through
Peacock Alley, a very long and narrow lobby, nationally
famous, in the Congress Hotel, and walked through the
tunnel under the street connecting it with the Auditorium
Hotel. I think we visited the Stock Yards, taking the first ride
in my experience on an L (elevated train).
Near midday we boarded the famous all-Pullman Panama
Limited on the Illinois Central Railroad at 12th Street Station.
Going into the diner for lunch and again for dinner was an
exciting experienceI had never seen the inside of a dining
car before. It was a new experience to learn about tipping
waiters, redcaps, porters, bellboysbut my companion was
an experienced traveler, and this initiation into the ropes of
traveling was under good tutelage. I learned fast. Night came
all too soon, and this time I slept soundly in my berth.
The next morning the train arrived in Jackson, Mississippi,
where we changed for a local train on the G. & S.I. line.
This was the strangest experience of my life up to this
time. We had left Chicago in below-zero temperature and
a blizzard. I had gone to sleep that night somewhere near
Cairo, Illinois. And now, this morning, after a brief sleep,
here it wassummer!
I had never seen southern Negroes before, and in those
days, January 1912, they were quite different from the colored
people I had known up north. (Readers will understand that in
36
those days blacks were called Negroes and colored people.)

Here in Jackson, Mississippi, it seemed that there were
more black people than white on the streets, and they were
utterly different from any people I had seen in the Northand,
for that matter, from southern blacks today. Today the blacks
of the South are comparatively well educated, on the average,
but then very few had been privileged to receive much, if
any, education. I was especially attracted to the dresses of
the black womenbright and loud colorssuch as a bright
yellow or orange, clashing with a loud purple.
Arriving in Wiggins, I found a room in town, over a mile
walk from the commissary store and the lumber mill, just
outside of town, and was quickly introduced to my job in the
store. Saturday night was the big night at the store. The mill
employees were paid Saturday evening, and thronged the
store. I was broken in immediately as soda-fountain jerker.
One of the first men I met was a Negro I shall never
forgetwhose name was Hub Evans. One of the men in the
store brought him around to me.
Hub, he said, tell Mr. Armstrong how many children
you have.
Thutty-six, suh, replied old Hub, promptly and proudly
hope t make it foty fo Ah die!
I was not merely amusedbut intensely interested. Tell
me, Hub, I responded, how many wives have you had?
Only three, suh! Hub was a proud man.
The New Job

After not more than a few weeks, I was transferred over to
the mill office as timekeeper and paymaster. Later I learned
that only a short time before, this job had been shared by
three men, and all of them men of abilityone of whom was
now the leading real-estate dealer in Wiggins, another was
now the companys bookkeeper, and the third the assistant
manager of the company.
The company was logging timber off a big tract east of
Wiggins. It had its own railroad, by which the logs were
brought into the mill. About 350 Negro men were employed,
37
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
besides various department managers and top-ranking

skilled employees, all white.
As mentioned above, Negroes of 62 years ago had received
little or no education. There was not a man of this entire force
who could write his own name. All statements were signed
with an xhis mark. This was a legal signature.
I learned at once that the black employees had to be paid
three times a daymorning, noon and night. They had never
been trained in the handling of money. Had they been paid
only once a week, they and their families would have starved
before next payday, for they were nearly always broke
before Monday morning.
But the company paid them in cash only on Saturday
night. At all other times, they were paid in trade-checks on
the commissary storegood only in trade. What a contrast
from the condition of today. This was in 1912, only some 45
to 48 years from slavery. The terrible years after the war
had done little toward giving our black people the economic,
educational and social advantages the nation owed them.
But, even though we do not yet have the civil rights problem
fully solved, the black people certainly have come a long
way! These problems require time, patience, understanding
and replacing prejudice with a love of fellow man. I am here
recording only true factual history, which should help us
understand todays problems.
A Fish out of Water

I was to learn that I was a square peg in a round hole. I
had fixed a life goal in the advertising profession, where
self-analysis had shown I fit. The glamor of getting to travel
to far-off southern Mississippi, combined with the flattery
of being offered such a job as a result of my record during
that year in want ads, had momentarily blinded me to my
previously fixed purpose. Of course, travel is an important
phase of educationso this six-month sidetracking was not
altogether wasted time.
I have mentioned that this job combined the work previously
done by three capable men, now risen to more important jobs.
38
But it was not the kind of work into which I fit. It was, as we
say, out of my line. I was a fish out of water. A square peg in
a round hole.
In order to keep up with the job, due to inadaptability and
resultant slowness, it became necessary to work nights. I
established a system. I worked alternately one night until 10,
the next until midnight, rising at 5:30 every morning. Time
had to be taken out to walk the one or two miles from my
room to the mill, and also to walk over to the boarding house
where I took meals. I kept awake on the job nights by smoking
a pipemy first habitual smoking. In just six months this
overwork and loss of sleep exacted its toll, and I was sent to
the hospital with a very severe case of typhoid fever.
Escape From Death

But during this six months in Wiggins there were a few social
events. One was a pre-World Wari encounter with a German,
in which I narrowly escaped being shot to death.
I took meals at a boarding house out near the mill. The
daughter of the landlady was an attractive southern brunette
near my age. I had a few dates with herbut, I think, quite
unlike most dating today. There was no necking as todays
youngsters call it. Indeed I had never yet kissed or had my
arms around a girl. It just wasnt done, then, on the universal
scale of these postwar years. Two world wars have brought
greater social and moral changes than most people realize
and mostly bad.
That girls name was Matti-Lee Hornsby. The few dates
I had were on Sundays, and consisted of walking and of
conversation.
That kind of date would seem pretty dull to most 19-year-
olds today, I suppose. I wonder if it isnt because they have
lost the art of interesting conversation. I have always found
that a scintillating conversation can be far more interesting
than a prefabricated daydream in a movie or before a tv
setfar more stimulating, enjoyable and beneficial than the
lust-inciting pastime called necking.
But more of the dating experiences later. I had not had
39
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
a great many dates up to this time. One thing, however,

sticks to my memorywhenever Matti-Lee became a little
provoked with me, her dark eyes flashed and she snapped
out the epithet: yankee! It was, of course, half in funbut I
found that epithet was supposed to be insulting. I had never
heard it before.
One acquaintance I made there was a young German.
He must have been about 21 at the time. His father was a
lumberman in Germany, and had sent the son to America to
study American lumber methods. He was spending some few
weeks at the Finkbine mill in Wiggins.
This German, whose name I do not remember, bragged at
length on the superiority of German products, methods and
systems. One day, in his room at the boarding house, he was
demonstrating to me the superiority of his German-made
revolver over a Colt or other American make.
In play, he pointed the revolver straight at me.
Dont point that at me! I said, dodging.
Oh, it isnt loaded, he laughed. Look, if youre afraid, Ill
point it away from you and show you.
He pointed the revolver a couple of feet to one side of me,
and pulled the trigger.
It was a very superior weapon, all right. It drilled a hole
completely through the wall of his room, and let a little round
ray of sunlight shine through from outdoors!
My German friend turned white, and trembled in confusion.
Why, he stammered in frightened embarrassment, I was
sure it wasnt loaded.
It is the gun that isnt loaded that has killed many people.
And before I leave this little digression, may I respectfully
suggest to all who read this that you teachyes, really teach
your children never, under any circumstances, to point even
a play gun at any person. The life you save may be your own!
In the Hospital
My stay in southern Mississippi was brought to a sudden and
rude halt. By summer, weakened by overwork and loss of sleep
in the desperate struggle to make good on a job I didnt belong
40
in, a tiny typhoid germ, according to medical theories, found

fertile soil. I became delirious. The mill officials, on doctors
orders, had me taken to the Southern Mississippi Infirmary at
Hattiesburg. I entered there with the most severe case in the
hospitals history. I was unconscious for two or three days.
But just to be able to stay in bed, after that six months
grind with all too little sleep seemed so good that somehow
I snapped out of it quicker, apparently, than any previous
typhoid patient at that hospital, and recovery was rapid.
One thing I want to mention here, for the benefit of a very
large portion of my readers. It isnt often considered nice to
talk about it, but constipation is called by some medical men
the mother of all diseases. A large percentage of people are
plagued with it. For some two years I had been. Cathartics
give only temporary relief. There isnt a cure in a carload.
In the hospital I was forced to fast. Daily they gave me
castor oil. Ugh! I have never taken it since, but I can taste
the nasty stuff yet! They fed me only lemon juice, and
occasionally buttermilk.
When I left the hospital the constipation was cured. Fasting,
on raw fresh fruits (no bananas), will cure it, if you will keep
it up long enough. I did not undervalue the blessing of being
rid of this thing. I appreciated it enough to be sure that I kept
regular. I have never permitted that condition to return. That
fact alone is responsible for a large part of whatever dynamic
energy I have been able to give to our great Workand for long
life. One of the seven basic rules of success is good health! I
hope this is enough said. You cant overestimate its importance.
In the hospital I was the favorite patient of practically all
the nurses. Most of them were just a few years older than
Ibut not so much that we did not enjoy a great deal of
conversation while I was convalescing. My room became a
sort of social rendezvous for the nurses. Often there would
be five or six of them in there at a time. I really enjoyed
this rest in the hospitalthe release from that frightening
responsibility of trying so desperately to keep up with a job
in which I did not belong, getting ample rest and sleep at last.
But I have always believed in the admonition: Whatsoever
41
thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might, even though I
didnt know it was in the Bible (Ecclesiastes 9:10) until much
later. I gave that job all I had. Now, in later life, there is some
satisfaction in looking back on that.
The doctors told me I would have to return back north
to protect my health. Thus, by forces outside my control, I
was jerked out of this misfit detour job, and I thought I had
learned, now, the lesson for which I sacrificed $2 a week the
year before.
Arriving back in Des Moines, Iowa, midsummer 1912, I
went this time to seek my uncles advice. Now began my real
advertising career. I think the story picks up in interest at
this point.
42
3
LEARNING TO
WRITE EFFECTIVE
ADVERTISEMENTS
T HIS DETOUR WAS MY FIRST EXPERIENCE IN
real travel. But on this job I was a total misfit.

I had now learned my lessonat least temporarily. Now I
was going to get back on the main trackthe advertising field.
Stopping off in Chicago between trains en route to Des
Moines, I went up to the Mahan Advertising Agency head-
quarters and succeeded in getting a job. But since it was still
more than two weeks before I could become active again, I
went on out to Des Moines to spend the time at home.
Hiring Myself a Job

Naturally I went almost immediately to my Uncle Franks
office.
Well, Herbert, he said approvingly, Im glad youve got
that bookkeeping fling out of your system and are ready to
get back in the advertising field where you belong.
I told him about the job with the Mahan Agency in Chicago.
No, Herbert, he said, seriously, youre not ready for agency
experience yet. Mahan is one of the major agencies, and it
43
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
would be years before youd even work up to being noticed

by any of the top men, who are the only ones over there that
could teach you anything. They wouldnt know you existed.
Besides, he continued, although faraway pastures may
look greener, often the best opportunity is right where you
are. Now it so happens that on a national magazine, right
here in Des Moines, are two men that I regard as the two best
advertising and merchandising men in the country. These
fellows really know advertising psychology. They know people,
and how to deal with them. They know merchandising and
business principles. They specialize in finding which business
methods, selling methods and advertising principles are
successful, and which are not.
They are two men over at the Merchants Trade Journal.
Its a trade journal in the retail fieldread by owners and
managers of retail storesbut they circulate among every
line of merchandising, and its the biggest trade journal in
the country, with a very large national circulation.
One of these men is R. H. Miles, who is advertising
manager, and the other is Arthur I. Boreman, manager
of their service department, which is a sort of trade-paper
advertising agency.
Why, I interrupted, I know Mr. Miles. Hes a neighbor
of ours.
Well, continued my uncle, go hire yourself a job. Dont
let them turn you down. Over there youll be in daily personal
contact with these two men. Youll learn more there than
anyplace I know. Dont forget, youre still going to school
you still have a lot to learn.
I walked briskly over to the Merchants Trade Journal offices,
and gained admittance to the advertising managers office.
Why, hello, Herbert, greeted Mr. Miles, surprised to see
me in his office.
Mr. Miles, I have decided that Im going to join your
organization, here in your advertising department. The
doctors have told me I cant start work for two more weeks.
I will report for work the first Monday in next month! This
came out real snappyvery positively.
44
3 | Learning to Write Effective Advertisements
Youyouwhat? It caught Mr. Miless breath.

I repeated my affirmative statement.
Well!!so youve just hired yourself a jobis that it?
Exactly! came the positive reply.
Well, nowjust back up a minute! Mr. Miles began to
recover. You cant come barging in here and hire yourself a job
just because youre a neighbor of mine. We havent any openings!
Oh, thats all right! Youve got two whole weeks to create
an opening, I came back promptly, in full self-assurance.
Now, look! Mr. Miles was beginning to get a little
impatient at this youthful aggressiveness. It seems you dont
understand plain English. I said, we dont need any help!
Now it was my turn to become a little nettled.
Mr. Miles, I came back, more positively than ever, Im
surprised at you. Isnt this a national magazine? Isnt this an
institution of national importance?
Yes, of course, he responded.
Well then, do you mean to tell me that an organization
of national scope and influence is not interested in finding a
way to create an opening for an ambitious, energetic young
man like me? Do you realize that you probably dont get a
chance once in several years to add to your staff a man of my
caliber, my talents and ambition and will to work! Why, you
cant afford to pass up this opportunity. Ill grow with your
organization. Of course you can create an opening! As I said,
Ill report for work the first Monday in next month.
Well, I havent the slightest idea what wed have you do,
Mr.Miles was beginning to weaken a little.
I became more confident than ever.
Oh, poppycock, Mr. Miles, I snapped, disgusted. Hand
me a copy of that lousy sheet of yours! This was commonly
used advertising terminology.
On the back cover I saw two or three small ads, want-ad
style, advertising stores for sale.
Do you call these want ads? I inquired.
Oh, we dont have a want-ad section. We only solicit display
ads. Occasionally a merchant decides to quit and sell out, and
sends in a small want ad to sell his business.
45
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Well, I happen to know that hundreds of small merchants

are going broke all the time, over the whole country. Now,
supposing you had a full page, or even two pages, of these
store-for-sale ads every month. The rate for these small ads
is a lot higher than the display rate by the page. One page
of want ads would bring in as much advertising revenue as
three or four pages of display ads, wouldnt it?
Well, yes, admitted Mr. Miles, rather reluctantly, but we
have no way of selling ads of that sort.
I was real cocky and confident by now. I can put one or
two full pages of want ads of businesses for sale in every issue
of the Journal. One thing Ive learned is how to bring in want
ads by mail. So, if I have to create my own opening, Ill report
for work the first Monday morning in next month.
Well, came a last objection, we cant pay you a very high
salary. We couldnt pay you over $10 a week.
Who said anything about salary? I rejoined. I still live
at home with the folks. Im not coming up here for the salary
I make now, but for what I can learn and the salary I will
make, later. Im hired at $10 per week, rising and extending
my hand. All I ask is that you agree to raise my salary as fast
as I earn it. See you in two weeks.
My First Display Ad
All this was along about July or August 1912. I do not
remember now, after more than 60 years, whether I was
actually put to work on building a page or two of want ads
by direct mail solicitation; but it seems, in the dim distance
of memory, that I did bring in a page or more of want ads the
first two or three issues.
In any event, I was not long on want-ad work. I was
assigned to the Service Department, directly under A. I.
Boreman. For some little time I was given routine office work,
with a certain amount of correspondence to answer. For this
work, I was given a stenographer and a Dictaphone. During
this period it was my job to break in a number of different
stenographers. As soon as a new girl became experienced
enough to be efficient, she was taken away from me, and a
46
new green girl fresh out of business college assigned to me.

It was not long until I was given the opportunity to start
writing and designing display ads. As mentioned above, this
service department was a sort of trade-journal advertising
agency. We handled the trade-paper division of the advertising
budget of manufacturers who sold through retailers. As a
rule, the larger advertising agencies were glad to relinquish
the trade-paper portion of any clients advertising. They were
primarily interested in consumer media.
I shall never forget the first ad Mr. Boreman assigned to me
to write and lay out. I have mentioned before that I had been
studying every book on advertising writing I could acquire.
I was studying books on psychology and on advertising
psychology. I had diligently read the trade journals in the
advertising fieldPrinters Ink and Advertising & Selling. I
had studied diagrams of design and layout of ads. But as yet
I had received almost no experience in actually writing the
copy and designing the layout of an ad.
I do not remember at all the nature of the commodity or
service or the name of the manufacturer whose ad I was to write.
But I shall never forget Mr. Boremans left-handed compliment
when I laid the dummy and typed copy before him.
Mm-hmmwell, Herbert, thats a pretty good ad, he
drawled slowly, examining it critically.
Now, that headline, of course, will have to be changed,
he continued. Youve used too many words. Theres nothing
in that headline that will catch the eye. The average reader
will be scanning past it to something else. You have only the
fleeting fraction of a second to stop the eye. Theres nothing in
your headline to arouse instant interest and create immediate
suspensenothing to make the reader say, Well, I never
thought of that! I want to read that! or to say, Now Ive
always wondered about that!so hell want to read on.
The headline is not displayed correctly on your layout. Not
enough white space around the headline to create contrast
between a bold, black, short headline and white space around it.
Never be afraid of wasting white space around your headlines.
Never waste white space around the text matter.
47
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Now next, continued Mr. Boreman, your major subhead

above the text matter is all wrong. You must grab attention
stop the eyein the main headline, but you must go on to
arouse interest and create suspense in the subhead if you are
to win a reading for your copy. This subhead is in the wrong
place in your layout, the wrong size and kind of type.
Now, coming to the main text matterthat opening
sentence wont do, Herbert. It should have been indicated
on the layout to be in larger type than the balance of the
text matter, and the first word should have started out with
a large initial letter. Unless this opening sentence follows
up the headings by cementing interest and arousing more
curiosity or suspense, no one is going to read past it. No, this
first sentence will have to be rewritten, just like the headlines.
Now, these smaller subheads through the text matter
dont add anything. They must create interest, make the
reader want to read whats under them. And they, too, are in
the wrong kind of type. And this text matter will all have to
be rewritten. It doesnt hold the interest, if you had created
interest in the first place. It doesnt arouse desire for this
thing youre selling. It doesnt make the readerif he ever
reads this adwant to buy this product.
And then, finally, theres no emotional ending to arouse the
reader to actionif you had first stopped his eye and gained
his attention, aroused interest, created suspense, made him
actually read through your ad, made him want what you
advertise. The signature isnt right, eitherand the border
around the ad will have to be eliminated.
But, outside of that, Herbert, he said encouragingly,
thats a pretty good ad!
No, I shall never forget that experience!
That kind of encouragement was pretty hard to takebut I
learned more about how to write an ad in that one analysis of
this first ad than many copywriters and layout men in big agen-
cies have ever learned, or ever will learn! This one experience
was well worth all the time I spent on the staff of the Merchants
Trade Journaland I was to be with them three years.
I went to work with a will, writing that ad all over. Practice
48
makes perfect. It was probably two or three years later before

I was able to write ads that actually stopped roving eyes,
grabbed instantaneous interest, created suspense, held the
readers interest throughout, convinced the reader, and then
moved him to action. It took time. But I was on the way.
Not long after returning from the South and starting with
the Merchants Trade Journal, my father went out to Idaho,
where he bought a small ranch near Weiser. The household
goods were packed and stored, ready to be moved after he
became located.
My mother, two younger brothers and sister went to the
home of one of my mothers sisters, on a farm some 25 or 30
miles south of Des Moines, for a visit. After my father was
located in Idaho, they followed and joined him there.
Learning Effective Ad-Writing

For something like a year and a half I was kept in the service
department of the Journal. There I received a most intensive
and practical basic training in the true psychological
principles of writing and designing advertisements.
It has always seemed to me that the advertising profes-
sion generally has missed the boat. Its the same in many
professions.
The admen have progressed into a system of intricate
display designs, complicated artwork and overly rhetorical
text matter which, after all, doesnt really say much or do
much to the readersif any.
Take a look through the advertising pages of a magazine
or newspaper today. Its a confused, jumbled hodgepodge
of fancy artwork, and small bits of text, artistically blocked
offusually in such a manner that no one reads it! Nothing
stands out to catch, and stop, the fleeting eye trying to get to
the next news or article headline. Nothing snatches attention
away from all surrounding matter. Theres nothing to arouse
instantaneous interest at the very point where the eye is
drawn for that fraction of a second glancenothing to hold
that interest until it creates suspense sufficient to induce a
reading of the text matter.
49
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
The ads I was trained to write, during those formative

years between ages 20 and 23, always got results. Often
they were more plain and simple in appearance than the
more fancy, artistic, highly illustrated ads around them. But
they stopped roving eyesdrew attention from surrounding
matteraroused and held interestconvinced readers, and
moved them to act! (This early training was destined to serve
a great purpose!)
Today all that early training and the years of subsequent
experience are being put into the production of full-page ads,
which are selling, not a commercial product or service for
profit, but Gods truth, without price or profit.
Overhauling and Simplifying a Vocabulary

For some two years, prior to joining the Merchants Trade
Journal staff, I had been striving diligently to acquire a
large vocabulary. Ever since I had read Elbert Hubbards
boast of possessing the largest vocabulary of any man since
Shakespeare, it had been a challenge! I was determined to
acquire a greater! To be able to pour out a torrent of big
words incomprehensible to any but the highly educated had
appealed to intellectual vanity.
Butat age 20Mr. Boreman changed all that.
When you write advertising, he explained, the purpose
is not to impress the readers with your superior vocabulary.
Your purpose is to sell goods, services or ideas! The purpose of
words is to convey thoughts, facts, ideasa message! When
98percent of the people do not understand your words, they
do not receive your message. They only become confused and
turn to something interesting. In advertising we must reach
the 98percentnot the 2percent.
Use only plain, simple words. Use words that readers of no
more than a third or fourth grade education can understand.
Try to achieve good literary quality with a large vocabulary
of common, simple words, and by the manner in which you
weave those words into the sentence structure.
Immediately my vocabulary underwent an overhauling.
Deliberately I began dropping out of my speaking and
50
writing vocabulary all the big words not in common usage.

Every person has three vocabularies: smallest of all, his
speaking vocabulary, consisting of the fund of words with
which he is able to speak readily; next larger, his writing
vocabulary; and largest, his reading or listening vocabulary.
Everyone can understand many words which he may read,
or hear spoken by others, which he could not readily use
himself in conversation.
My effort, then, became that of developing the ability to
use the largest variety of words readily comprehensible by
most people when heard or read.
But effective writing is far more than memorizing a store of
words. It is the manner in which those words are put together
in sentence structure that determines effectiveness. So I
began to study a style in writing. Immediately I set out to
develop a distinct and effective style. It had to be fast-moving,
vigorous, yet simple, interesting, making the message plain
and understandable.
All this advertising instruction was the most valuable
possible training for the real mission in life to which I was
later to be calledour worldwide enterprises of today. It was
a training such as one could never receive in any university.
It was the most practical training.
Some speakers and writers seem to think they impress
their audiences or readers by their ability to use big words
beyond the comprehension of the audience. Others succumb
to the temptation to become too scholarly, speaking over
the minds of their hearersbut never plainly into their
minds. The same rules that attract attention, arouse interest,
create suspense, win conviction and stir emotions to action in
advertising accomplish the same results in public speaking.
Another most important principleI was taught to avoid
the academic outline form of presentation. This is the
manner in which nearly all students are taught in colleges to
organize their writing or speaking. This is the one, two, three,
a), b), c) form of outline. It is orderly and precise, but dull, dry,
uninteresting to the readers.
But in writing advertising, I learned always to tell a
51
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
storyto make it interestingand to tell it in story form. That

is, first, put a question in the minds of readers they really
want answeredor make a statement that is so unusual it
either raises a question in the readers minds, or challenges
them to demand an explanation and want to read on to get
it. It must arouse instant interest. It must create suspense!
Like a mystery play, it must not tell the reader the answer
at the beginning. It must develop rapidly, lucidly, increasing
the interest, toward the final solution or answer. It must hold
the interest until the story is told.
The advertising headline should, when possible, make
people say either: Ive always wondered about that! or, I
never thought of thatsay, thats interestingI want to
know the answer!!
I learned in those early days to put a story flow into the
text of an advertisement, holding the interest of readers to
learn the answer. An ad of this nature may contain hundreds,
or even thousands, of wordsand people will be glued to it
until they have read it all.
I remember an incident that happened many years later.
This was in 1925, when I had established an advertising
service of my own in Portland, Oregon. One of my clients was
a laundry in Vancouver, Washington. I had a number of other
clients in Vancouvera retail clothing store, a jewelry store,
a large drugstore and others. One of the banks had installed
a new safety deposit department with new vaults and safety
deposit boxes. The president of the bank called me in.
Mr. Armstrong, he began, we have noticed the attrac-
tive and compelling ads you have prepared for clients here
in Vancouver, and we would like to retain your services to
prepare a short campaign to announce the opening of our
new department.
Now, he continued, apologetically, we think your ads are
finethey certainly stand outtheyre interestingbut we
have just one criticism. We think those ads you write for the
laundry are too longtoo many words. People wont read so
many words in an ad.
Well now, Mr. Jones, I replied, in the first place, your
52
advertising requires entirely different advertising treatment,

because you have a totally different advertising problem. The
laundry is up against adverse public opinion, and suspicion
in regard to supposed harmful laundry methods. Their
problem requires what we call educational advertising. It
must educate women to the true factsit must change public
opinion. This requires more wordstotally different adver-
tising treatment.
But, as to whether people ever read so many words, I
wonder if you remember an ad of a month ago, captioned, Is
Mother Worth Saving?
Why, yes! he replied quickly. Yes, I do remember that ad
very well. That was unusually interesting.
How much of it did you read?
Oh, I read all of it, he responded. It aroused my curiosity,
and I couldnt stop till I found the answer.
Well, Mr. Jones, how many other ads do you remember
reading in that same edition of the newspaper?
Whywhy he stammered, II dont remember
reading any others.
Exactly! I had won my point. That ad was the longest,
wordiest ad in that newspaperand yet its the only one you
remember reading, and you read it clear through! Moreover,
it is the longest ad I ever wrote!
Yes, he protested, but that ad was interesting!
Thats just the point, I concluded. If what you write is
sufficiently interestingif it has created suspense, and holds
the interest or even increases it as the reader is led along
through itpeople will read it all the way through, no matter
how long.
It is not a matter of how long an ad is, or how many words;
it is altogether a matter of whether you have been able to
catch readers attention, arouse their interest, and hold that
interest. How many words are there in a complete novel? Yet
the book stores sell such thick books by the millionsand
people read them clear through!
That is the principle I was taught under Mr. Boreman and
Mr.Miles, between ages 20 and 23.
53
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Applying All These Principles Now

The principles that make for effective advertising copy, which
I began learning during those three years, apply also in
broadcasting and in magazine writing, as well as in straight
advertising copy.
Let me add here that, in advertising, there are different
types of merchandising problems. The ads I wrote for the
laundry required educational advertising. They had to
reeducate the public in regard to laundry methods. They had
to remove prejudices, create confidence, change habits.
But perhaps most advertising is in the field called
convenience goods. This includes such products as toothpaste,
shaving cream or soaps, cigarettes, where popularizing a
brand name is the objective. This depends more on repetition
than on lengthy educational copy. Such ads have few words.
I have been amused by the problems confronting the writers
of cigarette ads. With the restrictions imposed by laws, there
is not much an ad writer can say about a cigarette, anyway.
I have marveled at the hundreds of millions of dollars spent
saying nothing that means anything about cigarettes. The
kick the habit commercials (1971) by the cancer society,
however, seem really to have had a message.
I was to learn, later in life, that far more people will
listen to a solid half-hour all-speech radio program applying
these principles, than will listen to a one-minute dry talk
or commercial that arouses no interest. For many years,
the World Tomorrow program has enjoyed highest ratings
of listener-interest on most stations we useand second
highest on most others. That is in comparison to all programs
in most markets around the world where we are heard. The
various editors of the Plain Truth magazine and our other
publications have received training in these same principles
in Ambassador College. And that is one reason why the Plain
Truth is so avidly read, and its circulation continues growing
so phenomenally, while other leading mass-circulation
magazines are in deep financial difficulties, and several have
gone out of publication. Plain Truth and Good News articles
and the correspondence course lessons are interestingthey
54
say something, and say it in a manner extremely easy to read!

But, to return to the story.
Mr. Miles had, perhaps, the snappiest, fastest-moving style
of copywriting I have ever read. I thought it was too fasttoo
many short, terse sentences. Long sentences tend to slow
down the reader. Short sentences tend to speed him up. But
when writing consists of nothing but a succession of overly
short, terse, staccato sentences, it becomes monotonous and
unnatural. I strove for a style that gave change of pace! A
proper balance between quick, short sentences, and occasional
longer ones.
To hold a mass readership, writing should be reasonably
crisp and lucid, not dry or slow. But a monotony of very
short, terse sentences seemed to me to lack sincerity, and
writing should, above all, be sincere!
In any event, this early training resulted in literally thou-
sands of letters during recent years from radio listeners and
readers of the Plain Truth saying that the facts are being
made more plain, more clear and understandable than they
ever heard them before! Today that early training serves and
helps millions of people all over the world!
But there is another principle in advertising even more
important than any of these. That is to be honestto stick to
the truth!
I attended many Ad Club luncheons, and even the national
Ad Club conventions, during the many years I spent in the
advertising field. From the start I was much impressed by the
Associated Advertising Clubs slogan: TRUTH in Advertising.
But do you really know how much truth there is in most
commercial advertising today? If you knew how little, youd
be shocked.
I spent 20 years in the advertising field. I got to know
advertising men. The average advertising man, preparing to
write advertising copy, searches for what ideas or statements
he might make about his product that will cause the public to
buy. It never seems to occur to most advertising men to check up
and see whether the statements or claims are true! If a certain
claim or statement about the product will sell it, the adman
55
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
grabs it and makes that claim in his copy with enthusiasm.

You will see, later in this autobiography, that when I became
a publishers representative in Chicago, I built a business on
honesty that produced confidence. The advertising agencies,
the banks and the manufacturers with whom I did business
came to know that I knew my fieldI had the facts they
neededand that I was accurate and truthful, and they
could rely on whatever I told them.
Another principle I was taught is this: A customer is
more profitable than a single sale. Win the confidence of a
customer through honesty and integrity, and many repeat
sales will come your way without selling expense.
One other ingredient is absolutely necessary, along with
telling the truth. And that is sincerity!
I Was Never Insincere

I was never insincere. True, I had swung from a sense of
inferiority, to one of supreme self-confidence.
But I was entirely sincere. Usually a bragging, conceited
young lad who is cocky, is also an insincere flippant smart
aleck. I was not. It seems I was, by nature, deeply sincere
and in earnest, and although excessively self-confident, even
snappy and cocky in manner, there was always with it a
sense of earnestness and dignity. At least I thought I was
right, and in my heart meant to be. Human nature wants to
be goodbut seldom does it want to do good. That natural
desire in one to wish to consider himself good, I suppose, led
to an attitude of sincerity.
Later, God had to take the self-confidence, conceit and
cockiness out of me. He replaced it with a different kind of
confidencean unbounded faith in God. I have far more
assurance for the future today than I had thenmany times
over. But today it is based on what God is going to donot
what I am able to do.
All these are the principles I was taught under Mr. Boreman
and Mr. Miles during the three years with the Merchants
Trade Journal. I owe them much.
In the service department of the Merchants Trade Journal
56
I was sent on occasional trips to places like Waterloo and

Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Albert Lea, Minnesota; and others,
selling ads I had prepared to manufacturers.
I remember vividly, at this point, a trip of this kind to
Waterloo. I think it was a refrigerator account. I worked
carefully on the advertising copy and layout in the hotel, then
went over to see the manufacturer. This, I believe, was the
first magazine display ad I ever sold.
What a thrill it was! As I walked from the factory back
to the hotel, I was floating on air! Ah, sweet success! It was
elation! Thrills ran all through me!
Playing With a Million Dollars

The Journal regarded a Waterloo department store merchant
as one of the best merchandisers in the nation. His name was
Paul Davis. There were two department stores in Waterloo
the James Black Co. and the Paul Davis store. The Black
store was the older, established and larger, but the Davis
company was catching up.
Then Paul Davis had a fire. His store was totally destroyed.
The next time I was in Waterloo, after his misfortune, I found
the Paul Davis store in temporary quarters in a two-story
building in the middle of a block. It was only a fraction the size
of the department store occupying a prominent corner that had
burned down. At that time, Mr. Davis said he was planning to
build a new building, larger than the Black Co. store.
But on my next visit, some six months later, there was no
sign of any new building activity.
What happened to that big new quarter-block multiple-
story building you were going to erect? I asked.
Oh, that! Mr. Davis laughed. By this time he called
himself my second Daddy. Well, Im not going to build it
for a while yet. Im having a lot of fun. I have one cool million
dollars, cash, in the bank. Its the insurance money. It was
no time at all until every manufacturer in New York knew
we had that million dollars cash. Every time a manufacturer
gets overloaded with some stock, or needs to raise some
quick money, he comes or sends a representative out here
57
to Waterloo. I am able to buy chunks of merchandise in this
manner, by sharp trading, at far less than any competitors.
Then I put on a big sale. I take a small profit, cut the price way
down, and the public simply streams into our little two-floor
store here. We have low overhead. We have a small inventory,
compared to what we carried in the bigger store. We sell fast,
turn our stock more times a year. And the secret of success is
not the total volume of sales, but turnoverthe number of
times you turn your stock a yearthe number of times you
make a profit on the same capital!
I find that money attracts money! Thats a principle of life.
Dont ever forget it! Truly, to him that hath shall be given,
and to him that hath not shall be taken away even that which
he hath! I can do things with a million dollars cash I never
dreamed could be done. Its a lot of fun. Im enjoying it! No,
Im not going to put that million into a new store building
right away. Im going to keep it in the bank, and working for
me a little while longer!
I never did forget the lessons this successful merchant,
Paul Davis, taught me.
Soon after this, I became the Idea Man of the Merchants
Trade Journal. I was sent on long trips, either to the Atlantic
Coast or to the Gulf of Mexico and back, interviewing merchants,
businessmen and chamber of commerce secretaries, looking
for ideas and material for articles in the magazine.
On one of these trips, a challenge from an angry merchant
resulted in what I believe was the pioneer experience in all
these surveys and samplings of public opinion. So far as I
know, I was the originator of such polls.
58
4
IDEA MAN
FOR A NATIONAL
MAGAZINE
M Y WIFE WAS REFLECTING ON WHAT
might have happened to us. What if we had never met, she

mused. What if we had never been brought through the
failure of our own plans? We probably never would have
found the way to abundant livingthe joys of right living!
Think how drab and dull and empty our lives might have
been! How grateful we ought to be!
WHY This Is Written

Yes, our lives have been eventful, exciting, filled with action,
effort, unusual experiences, travel. There have been problems,
reverses, chastenings, persecutions, sufferings, but there has
been success, accomplishments, happiness and joy! We have
been kept busy. We have really lived!
So, let me repeat, this autobiography is being written
in the hope that these unusual life experiences may bring
inspiration, encouragement and benefit to many.
I have been greatly influenced by the tremendous impress
on my life that resulted from a triple reading of Benjamin
59
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Franklins autobiography. After reading that, I sought to

learn by the experiences of other successful men.
And so it is in the hope that this story of my own life may be
a means of bringing to many, in inspirational and interesting
manner, the very same usable help that other biographies
brought to me, that this is written.
Learning Magazine Makeup

For one six-month period, during the first two years on the
Journal, I was given the job of making up the magazine.
That is, of taking all of the galley proofs of articles, proofs of
all the ads, and pasting them in a dummy magazine the way
each issue was to be designed.
During this six months I was given a desk out at the
Successful Farming plant in their composing room.
I learned, as the publishers of the Journal knew, that a
smaller-circulation magazine can have its publication printed
each month in the plant of a larger magazine, or some large-
operation printing establishment, at less cost than operating
its own printing plant. The reason is obvious. The presses turn
only one or two days a month on a single smaller publication.
To keep all the machinery idle, besides printers, most of the
month is to tie up capital that is not working. It doesnt pay.
This lesson was of very practical benefit in our present
activities. For years the Plain Truth has been printed by large
commercial printing plants in the United States and abroad.
Beginning about 1945 or 1946 we did operate our own small
printing shopfirst with one Davidson duplicator press, then
with two, and later with three larger, but still comparatively
small Miehle presses. They did our minor printing only
booklets, letterheads and such things.
All these earlier experiences were precisely what was
needed to build, later, the worldwide activities of today.
Coddling a Temper
One rather dramatic incident occurred at the Successful
Farming printing plant. It contains a lesson worth, I think,
the telling.
60
4 | Idea Man for a National Magazine
The foreman of the printing plant at Successful Farming

was an old experienced printer named Ed Condon. It seemed
to me that printers were, in those days at least, more profane
than any class of men. Perhaps it was because, in the days of
hand-setting all type, a printer often would pie the type
that is, it would slip out of his hand and fall in a jumbled
mass, whereupon every single letter of type would have to be
sorted out, put back into the case and then set all over again.
It was a severe test on patience. Mr.Condon not only could
cusshe also had a temper!
The only thing wrong with Mr. Condons temper was that
he made no attempt to control it. He was proud of it. He
pampered it. He bragged about it.
One day he flew off the handle at me for some reason I
no longer remember. He raved, swore, shouted, called names.
I left the composing room and returned to the Journal offices.
Mr.Boreman either went out or called him on the telephone. He
received the same treatmentonly more violently. He then went
into the office of our publisher and editor, Mr. W.J. Pilkington.
Mr. Pilkington called Mr. Charles E. Lynde, then general
manager of Successful Farming. He asked Mr. Pilkington if he
would have Mr. Boreman and me come to his office.
When we arrived, Mr. Condon was called into Mr.
Lyndes office.
Ed, said Mr. Lynde sternly, we cannot have our good
customers insulted. You may either apologize to Mr. Boreman
and Mr.Armstrong, and also give me, and them, your word of
honor that this burst of temper will never be repeated, or you
are fired on the spot.
Ed Condon humbly apologized.
May I say a word to Ed? asked Mr. Boreman.
Ed, youre a very competent printer, and a fine and likable
fellowexcept when you let loose a burst of temper. Id like
to give you a little advice as a friendfor we like you. Ive
noticed that you have bragged about that temper of yours.
Youve been proud of your ability to lose your head. Youve
nursed it along as if it were your baby you love. Youve never
tried to control it. Now a temper is a mighty good thingas
61
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
long as it is under perfect control and directed by the mind

in good judgment. When you learn to control it, then thats
something to be proud of! Youve just been proud of it in the
wrong state of action, Edthats all thats wrong.
Mr. Condon took the advicehe had to, standing in front
of his top boss. He said hed never thought of it that way, and
thanked Mr.Boreman.
Perhaps some of our readers never thought of it that way.
Mr.Boremans advice was very sound! Never let tempers get
out of control!
Becoming the Idea Man

After about 1 to 2 years of training in advertising copy
writing and layout, selling advertising space, office work in
dictating and letter-answering, and composing room makeup
with the Merchants Trade Journal, I was put on a new and
unique activity.
I have never heard of anything like it. I became the
Journals Idea Man.
This was the most unusual training and experience of all. I
was now transferred into the editorial department under Ben
R. Vardeman, associate editor. Also, on this job, I was kept
partially under supervision of Mr. Boreman.
Mr. Vardeman was a tall, dignified man who was author of a
book on the principles of retail salesmanship, and a Chautauqua
lecturer. Also, I believe, he had written a correspondence
course on retail salesmanship. He wrote most of the articles
that composed the reading content of the Journal.
The editorial and reading columns of the Journal were
devoted mainly to ideas that had been successfully used by
retail merchants in increasing sales, speeding up turnover,
reducing costs, implementing principles and methods of
business management, training of personnel, improving
public relations. Also they put emphasis on community
betterment and chamber of commerce activity.
This reading material was not written out of theoretical
imagination. The Journal maintained an Idea Man who
traveled all over the country, visiting stores in all lines,
62
discussing problems and methods with merchants, checking

on community and social conditions. The actual experiences
of successful merchants, as sought out and reported by the
Idea Man, were written up by the editors into article form
in the magazine.
I was equipped with a hotel credit letter and a large
postcard-size folding camera. The credit letter authorized me
to cash checks, or write out and draw drafts on the Merchants
Trade Journal, up to a total of $100 per week, ample in those
days to cover traveling expenses. A book of instruction in
photography was given me. I had to learn to take pictures of
a quality worth publishing.
Expense Account Troubles

I was allowed a reasonably liberal expense account, but no
extravagances or luxuries. The Journal expected their men to
stop at leading hotels, but I always took a minimum-price single
room if available. Breakfasts were nearly always taken at the
lunch counter, lunches at the coffee shop or lunch counter, but
the evening meal quite often in the hotels main dining room.
I had not been out long before I put down on my expense
account: Ice Cream Soda and Movieor whatever the
prices of those items were in those days. Mr. Vardeman was
meticulously careful of details. He frowned on these expense
items, and was about to disallow them, when Mr. Boreman
came to my rescue. He urged Mr.Vardeman to let it go, this
time, saying that he, Mr. Boreman, would write me proper
instructions about these expense items.
Next time, Herbert, Mr. Boremans letter advised, put
any little items like that down included under Miscellaneous.
So after that the occasional ice cream sodas and movies were
bulked together into one item, called Miscellaneous.
This is an incident that I had forgotten. But just at this
juncture (written February 1968), in order to refresh my
memory on one or two other incidents as I had come to the
writing of this stage of my experiences with the Journal, I
called Mr. Boreman by long-distance telephone. This expense
account incident was one of two that he remembered vividly
63
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
after all these years. He seemed to enjoy immensely reminding

me of the incident.
This incident reminds me of an experience Benjamin
Franklin related in his autobiography. During the
Revolutionary War all people were required to contribute for
the purchase of gunpowder. The Quakers of Pennsylvania
found it contrary to their doctrine and conscience to do this.
Yet they wanted to be loyal. So they solved their dilemma by
contributing money for corn, oats and other grain. The other
grain, Franklin explained with a chuckle, was gunpowder!
The other incident that Mr. Boreman recalled to my memory
was the time I discovered a most remarkable and practical
invention being used in a grocery store. It was only a few days
after I had started on my first trip. I was still pretty green
on this job of recognizing good ideas used by merchants.
It was a vegetable rack, with water dripping down slowly
over the vegetables. Now this was not only ingenious, I thought,
but a most practical idea. It attracted attention, and kept the
vegetables fresh. So I carefully took several camera shots
of it, as I remembered it. But as Mr. Boreman remembered
it, I hired a photographer to come and photograph it for me.
Enthusiastically I sent in a glowing report of my new discovery.
There was, apparently, quite a reaction in the Journal
office when this report, with pictures, reached them. It seems
that their laughter almost shook the building down. Groceries
had been using this type of vegetable rack for many years
but never having been in the grocery business, and being
new and inexperienced in my Idea job, they somehow had
escaped my attention. I thought I had made a wonderful new
discovery. This demonstrated again that most of us learn, not
by observation, but by cruel experience.
Ending Sluggishness
The first Idea Man tour took me to New York State and
back. This trip started in November 1913.
I must have visited a number of towns across Iowa and
Illinois, but the first that comes back to mind, now, is traveling
across southern Michigan. I remember staying overnight at
64
the Post Tavern in Battle Creek. My mother had been an

ardent Postum drinker, but I had never liked it. Here at the
Post companys own hotel, however, I was induced to order
their specialty, iced Postum with whipped cream. The way
they prepared it, it was so delicious I have never forgotten it.
It seems to me that Mr.C.W. Post was still alive, and that I
saw him either in the hotel lobby or in the dining room.
I remember stopping off at Ann Arbor, home of the University
of Michigan. Probably I went south from there, making stops
at Toledo, Fostoria, Upper Sandusky, Bucyrus, Mansfield,
Wooster, Massillon, Canton, Alliance and Youngstown in Ohio.
Next, I entered Pennsylvania, with Franklin as the first
stop. By this time I was feeling so sluggish, I hunted up an
osteopath in Franklin. I had occasionally taken osteopath
treatments, not as a medicine for any sickness, but more
to take the place of an athletic workout at times when I
was not getting sufficient exercise. At this time I thought a
treatment might make me more alert and help the sluggish
feeling I was having to fight.
Well now, said the osteopath, Ill be glad to give you a
treatment and take your money for it if you insist, but I can
tell you something without any charge that will do you a lot
more good. Quit eating so many eggs!
Why, I exclaimed in surprise, how did you know Ive been
eating a lot of eggs?
By your color and condition of your liver, he said.
He explained that I had a somewhat torpid liver that would
not readily assimilate an excess of eggs, corn or peanuts. Some
people seem to be able to eat eggs every morning for break-
fast without harm. I found, from this osteopaths advice and
subsequent experience, that my liver is apparently different.
I can eat eggs occasionally without harmbut I must avoid
eating them regularly. I have found that lemon juice seems
to be the antidote. Accordingly, ever since that experience
in Franklin, Pennsylvania, I have eaten sparingly of eggs,
and taken generously of lemon juice. If I may seem to have
some fair degree of energy, vitality and physical stamina, it
is largely due to being careful about diet, among other things.
65
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
I mention this because some of our readers may be suffering

from the same inert sluggishness, feeling dopey and drowsy a
good deal of the time, caused by the same kind of liver. If so,
try eliminating the eggs, corn and peanuts for a while, and
start drinking lemon juice every morning before breakfast
(without sugar).
The Niagara River Lesson

Next I went north, stopping at Oil City and Titusville in
Pennsylvania, and on to Buffalo. I spent December 25, 1913,
at Niagara Falls. I shall never forget that first visit to Niagara
Falls. There had been a silver thaw, then a refreeze. All the
trees glistened in the bright sun like millions of brilliantly
sparkling diamonds, especially over on Goat Island.
This visit to Niagara Falls allowed me to leave the
United States for the first time in my lifewalking across
International Bridge into Niagara Falls, Canada.
There was an experience on Goat Island I shall never
forget. I had walked up the island, away from the falls, some
little distance. The Niagara River is very swift at that point.
Out in the river I noticed one huge rock. It seemed like a
great, insurmountable barrier standing in the way of the
swift on-rushing waters from above-stream. To me it was
like the insurmountable barriers that frequently confront
usthat threaten to stop us in our progress. So many people
get discouraged and quit.
But not those waters!
The waters of that river swirled around the great rock,
struck it head-on and splashed over it. One way or another
the waters got past it, and hurried on to their destination
the falls, and then down the swift rapids of the river on into
Lake Ontario. The waters didnt lie down. They didnt become
discouraged. They didnt quit. They found a way around the
impassable barrier, and on to their destination.
I decided that if inanimate, mindless elements could sur
mount and find a way past obstacles, so could I. This experience
has often come back to mind when the going has gotten tough,
or when I was tempted to become discouraged and quit.
66
While at Niagara Falls I went through the Shredded Wheat

plant. They had many visitors, who were taken through the
plant on guided tours. At the end of the tour the guests are
served shredded wheat the way the factory serves it. Always
before it had tasted like straw, or a miniature bale of hay to me,
but the way they served itwith sliced bananas and rich cream,
and with a wonderful cup of coffeeit was simply delicious.
Visiting Elbert Hubbard

Having a Sunday layover in Buffalo I was able to indulge a
personal adventure and pleasure. On two or three occasions
I had met Elbert Hubbard, world-famous writer, author,
publisher and lecturer. Hubbard edited and published two
national magazines with a literary flairthe Philistine and
the Fra. He himself managed to write most of the contents.
Elbert Hubbard was no shrinking violet. He readily
admitted to possessing the largest vocabulary of any man
since Shakespeare. In his own ranking of American authors
from the days of Washington, Franklin and Jefferson, he
modestly rated himself number one. When the dictionary
contained no word to fit his need, he coined a word that did.
He wore semi-long hair, a great broad-brimmed hat and
an artists bow tie. He hobnobbed with the great and the
near-great, wrote them up in flattering rhetoricfor a price
befitting his superlatives.
He wrote A Message to Garcia, which, next to the Bible,
sold more copies than anything ever written in that day.
For a few years now, I had been reading Elbert Hubbard
regularly. I read his stuff, on my Uncle Frank Armstrongs
advice, for style, for flair, for vocabulary and for ideas in
philosophythough my uncle had cautioned me against
absorbing without question his philosophies and ideas of
religion. Hubbard was an agnostic. He seemed to possess a
deal of wisdom about men and methods and thingsbut he
was utterly devoid of spiritual knowledge.
And now my opportunity came to visit this noted sage at
his famous Roycroft Inn and Shops, in East Aurora, New
York, a short distance south of Buffalo.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
The morning was spent at the inn, browsing around among

books and booklets and copies of the Fra and the Philistine.
After lunch at the inn, Elbert Hubbard came in. He remem-
bered me from former meetings in Chicago and Des Moines
on his lecture tours.
He led the way out on the wide veranda, and started
throwing the medicine ball around. As I remember, there
were four of usHubbard, his daughter Miriam, not far from
my age, and another guest. Once I caught Hubbard napping,
and socked him on the side of the head with the big medicine
balland daughter Miriam soon returned the compliment,
jolting me with a lollapalooza. It was fun.
Next, Fra Elbertus, as he liked to style himself, piloted me
and the other guest on a tour of the Roycroft shops, where
artistic and quality printing were done. Along the way, he
picked up a deluxe leather-bound copy of A Message to Garcia,
inscribed my name in it with his autograph, and presented
it to me; and a little later, inscribed in the same manner, he
gave me a copy of his American Bible.
When my mother heard that Elbert Hubbard had published
a new Bible of his own, she was gravely shockeduntil I
explained. Hubbards own explanation was that the word
bible simply means book. It comes from the Greek biblia,
and by itself has no sacred meaning, merely designating any
book. Of course Hubbards American Bible was intended as
an agnostics answer to the Holy Bible, which he regarded
merely as the literary and religious writings of the Hebrews.
Since the Bible is composed of a collection of various
books written by various men, combined into one large book,
Hubbard had assembled together a selection of writings of
outstanding Americans, including Washington, Jefferson,
Franklin, Emerson and Lincolnand, of courseHubbard! A
faint insight into Hubbards rating of the value and impor-
tance of the writings of these Americans may be gleaned
from the fact that slightly more than half of the whole book
was filled with the writings of all other American writers
combined, while the writings of Hubbard alone filled almost
half of the entire book!
68
Somewhere, through the years since 1933, these two books

personally autographed and presented by Elbert Hubbard
have become lost.
Happiness out of WORK?

Returning to the inn, Hubbard called out: Everybody down
the basement!
Here I was put to work, beside Mr. Hubbard, wrapping
large scrubbed Idaho potatoes in tissue paper, for packing in
Goodie Boxes. The Roycrofters at that time were advertising
in their publications as deluxe gifts these Goodie Boxes,
which were attractive wooden boxes filled with choice
vegetables, fruits, nuts and other goodies.
As Mr. Hubbard and I chatted away, he began suddenly
to chuckle.
Whats so funny? I queried.
I was just wondering what you really think of me, he
mused. You visit me as my guest. I charge you full price for
your lunch. I try to induce you to stay overnight as a paying
guest in my hotel. And at the same time I put you to work
without wages.
Well, who, I asked, was that self-admitted great
philosopher who said: Get your happiness out of your work!?
That pleased him. It was his own quotation, oft repeated
in his magazines.
I continued, I was trying to decide what I really think of
you once, and I asked a Unitarian minister who reads your
stuff whether he knew what your religion is. He said he
wasnt sure whether you have any, but if you do, he was quite
sure it originated in your pocketbook.
Ho! Ho! roared the Fra gleefully, and then he quickly
replied. Well, anyway, I get away with it, dont I?
After perhaps an hour of this getting happiness out of
our work we adjourned to the music salon of the inn on the
ground floor. Sunday evening concerts were frequently held
in this room, which contained three Steinway grand pianos.
By this time, midafternoon or later, several other guests had
arrived. Hubbard ascertained that three of us played the
69
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
piano. We compared notes and found only one tune all three
could play from memory, the waltz The Pink Lady.
So, with Elbert Hubbard leading like a maestro with great
gusto and sweeping arm motions, the three pianos rang out
while those assembled sang or waltzed.
As we broke up, Hubbard again urged me to stay overnight,
but I had to be on the job early Monday morning, so caught
the late afternoon train back to Buffalo.
Sent to Interview Henry Ford

From Buffalo I continued on east to Rochester, Syracuse,
Rome, Utica. I may have stopped off at a number of towns and
small cities through Ohio, Indiana and Illinois on the return
trip. I do not now remember whether I did this, or returned on
a through train to Chicago, and then directly to Des Moines.
I had been scheduled to continue on to Troy and Albany,
New York State, but on January 5, 1914, a sensational news
story broke in Detroit. The Ford Motor Co. raised basic wage
rates from $2.40 per 9-hour day to $5 per 8-hour day. It was
banner-headline front-page news nationwide.
On that day I reached Utica, New York, and the Journal
editors telegraphed me to go immediately to Detroit and
interview Henry Ford. They wanted a story on this labor
bombshell based on a personal interview by a Journal
representative.
The $5-a-Day Plan

Arriving in Detroit, I registered at the Hotel Statlerno,
on second thought I believe this was before the Statler was
built and I stopped at the Hotel Tullerand took a cab out
to the Ford Motor plant, located at that time in Highland
Park. There was a many-storied office building in the frontI
believe fronting on Woodward Avenue, with the large factory
buildings to the rear.
Stepping up to the receptionist desk, I stated my mission
and asked for an interview with Henry Ford.
Mr. Ford, replied the receptionist, is not a difficult man
to see, and if you wish I can arrange an interview for you, but
70
if it is information about the new wage plan you want, I can

tell you that Mr. Ford himself really is not as familiar with
all the details of it as Mr. John R. Lee, head of the sociological
department. You see, this whole new plan was originated by
Mr.Lee, through his department. He presented the plan to
Mr. Ford and the board. They looked into it and approved
it, but thats all. They simply turned it over to Mr. Lee to
administer through his department. Hes the man who has
all the facts about it.
I was there to get the facts, not to glorify my vanity by
being able to say I had gained a personal interview with a
man as famous as Henry Ford. I said that I would prefer to
talk to Mr.Lee.
I remember well my opening statement and his reply.
Mr. Lee, I began, you are now paying the highest wages
in the automobile industryor perhaps in any industry. Id
like to get all the facts about it.
No, Mr. Armstrong, he replied, we do not pay the
highest wages, but on the contrary we pay the lowest wages
in the industry!
But, I stammered, dont you now pay a standard
minimum scale of $5 per day, and dont the other factories
pay only about $3.50 per day?
Quite true, smiled Mr. Lee, but still, we are paying the
lowest wages in the automobile industry. You see, we dont
measure the actual wage by dollars paid, but by the amount of
production we receive per dollar paid. Our sales volume is by
far the largest in the industry. This has made it possible for us
to install an assembly-line system of production. The Ford cars
start at one end of this production line. As they proceed along
this line, each worker adds his own part. At the end of the line
each car is a finished product. In this manner we are able to set
the pace of production. As each car unit goes past each man, he
is required to complete his part in the assembly of the car within
the time limit before it has moved past him. You see, we actually
set the pace at which each man must work. There can be no
stalling, no loafing on the job, no slowing down. We gear the
production speed of each man to a high level of work per hour.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
We pay some 43 percent more dollars per workman per

day, but we get 100 percent more production out of each
manand pay only 43 percent more money to get it. So you
see, we actually pay the lowest wages in our industry for what
we get from the labor of our men.
Well if this plan pays the Ford company so well, why dont
the other motor companies adopt the plan? I asked.
They cant, said Mr. Lee, on their present volume of
production. But of course if and when they get their sales
volume up to a level that will make possible the assembly-
line system, they will naturally come to it.
How about labor unions? I asked.
Oh, we have nothing to do with them. Our men are free to
join the union if they wish, but theres no point in their paying
out labor union dues when they already receive 43 percent
above union scale. We dont recognize the unions in any way,
nor will we negotiate with them. As long as we pay so high
above union scale, we are simply not concerned with them.
I learned that Mr. Lees department actually checked
into the very homes of employees, and regulated their living
standards, thus keeping their men at peak efficiency for
turning out extra-volume production.
But, I pursued, dont your employees object to this
interference and regulation of even their private home life
and also to being forced to keep up such a stiff pace of work?
The whole answer to that is economic. Of course they have
to work harder, and submit to certain of our regulations even
in their private family livesbut enough men are willing to
submit to these conditions in return for receiving almost half-
again more pay than they could obtain elsewhere.
There, as I remember it after 60 years, is the story of the
$5-a-day wage plan that was such a sensation in its day.
But its day came, and has gone. Other automobile factories
did expand into the assembly-line production system, and
then the Ford company found itself on a level with other
companies so far as the labor situation was concerned. Ford
fought off union recognition and negotiation for many years,
but finally was forced to bow to it.
72
Mr. Lee insisted on driving me, himself personally, back

downtown to my hotel. The cars of the company officials were
parked in a wide breezeway between the office building and
factory. He took me into the factory for a glimpse of it. As we
returned back to the breezeway, we saw Henry Ford himself
about to step into a car some 20 feet away. Mr. Lee asked
me to excuse him for a moment, saying he had something he
wanted to speak to Mr. Ford about. So I did see Henry Ford
but did not meet him or speak to him.
How Christ Is Creator

Much later, after my mind became opened to biblical
understanding, this experience came back to mind forcibly as
an illustration of how the Bible represents that God Almighty
is the one supreme Creator, and yet everything that exists
was created by Jesus Christ (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16).
In Ephesians 3:9 it is stated that God created all things by
Jesus Christ. Henry Ford was, while he lived, the manufacturer,
or maker, of the Ford cars. But when I visited the Ford factory,
I saw Mr. Ford standing there in a well-pressed business
suit. It was his employees who were doing the actual work of
making the automobiles. They did it for himat his command.
And they did it with tools, machines and electric power!
In like manner, God is supreme Creator. But He delegated
the actual work of the creating to the One who became Jesus
Christto the Logos, or the One who was the Wordthe
Spokesman. But He, Christ, utilized the power of the Holy
Spirit. In Genesis1:2, we read that the Spirit of God moved
or was brooding upon the face of the waters. He, Christthe
Wordspake, and it was done! (Psalm33:9).
Write Your Autobiography as You Go!

At this point I am constrained to offer the reader some advice
on how to write an autobiography. Dont wait until you are
65 to write it. Start writing it at age 3 or 5, and turn it out on
the installment planas you go. Write it while the events are
fresh on your mind. Of course youll find this method has its
drawbacks, too. You wont know at the time which events will
73
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
stand out in later life as important or interesting, and probably

youll write down about 50 times as much as youll finally use.
But I find that trying to write the whole thing in retrospect
later in life is rather frustrating, too. A lot of things begin to
seem all jumbled up. I was sure, when I started writing about
these Idea Man trips, that the very first one took me west
as far as Grand Island, Nebraska, south through Kansas,
Oklahoma, and Texas, east through Louisiana and Mississippi,
then north through Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky. I
started to write it that way, but found it wouldnt work out.
Then it came back to mind from somewhere in those myste-
rious recesses of memory how the first trip was the one into
New York State and back. So that portion had to be rewritten.
Even now, it seems I must have started on this Idea
Man work earlier than I had remembered, and that the
period spent on the magazine makeup at the Successful
Farming composing room was spent somewhere in between
these editorial trips. In any event every effort is being made
toward accuracy, and this account, as you are reading it, is
approximately accurate.
One reason why I am mentioning the names of most of the
towns and cities visited on these trips is that the Plain Truth
has readers in all these places, and I have felt it might add
a certain interest to those particular readers to know I had
visited their towns. I think that in most of them I could still
name the hotels where I stayed.
Becoming an Early Bird

The second Idea Tour began a few days after returning
to Des Moines, early January 1914. It took me to Atlanta,
Georgia, up the Atlantic Coast to Virginia, and back across
from there. I do remember some events from this tour, and a
few may be worth recording.
On this trip I traveled some days down the Mississippi
River on a large river steamer.
I went first to Davenport, Iowa, making stops in search
of ideas at Iowa City and other towns along the way, and
traveling by riverboat to Muscatine, Fort Madison and
74
Keokuk, Iowa, where the boat was lowered through the

locks of the big dam; then terminating the riverboat mode of
transportation at Quincy, Illinois. This riverboat travel was
quite intriguing at the time.
The itinerary next took me across Illinois to Springfield,
Decatur and Mattoon, and to Terre Haute, Indiana; then
south to Vincennes and Evansville, then Henderson and
Hopkinsville, Kentucky. At Hopkinsville, I remember, I was
assigned to the Bridal Suite of the hotel, of which the hotel
employees seemed effusively proud. It was a large room,
rather old-fashioned, but dolled up in a manner the staff
thought quite distinguished. There were stops at Clarksville
and Nashville, Tennessee, and then a night I well remember
at the Patton Hotel in Chattanooga.
At this time I was sleeping so well nights that I was having
a fight with willpower to awaken and get up mornings.
Everything I had read about the lives of great and successful
men on the subject indicated that all such men are early risers.
Theres the old saying: The early bird gets the worm.
Not that I desired worms, but I did want to be a success. A
successful man must discipline himself. I had determined to
establish the habit of being an early riser. I could not always
depend on hotel clerks getting me up by a call in the mornings,
especially in smaller town hotels, so I had purchased a Baby
Ben alarm clock, which I carried with me.
But I found myself drowsily turning off the alarm, turning
over, and going back to sleep. I was becoming determined.
At the Hotel Patton, before retiring for the night, I called for
a bellboy.
You going to be on duty at 6 in the morning? I asked.
Yassuh, Ahll be heah, he assured me.
Well then, do you see this half-dollar on the dresser?
His eyes glistened. The usual tip in those days was a dime.
A half-dollar was a very extra-special big tip.
You pound on my door at 6 a.m. until I get up and let you
in. Then you stay here until you see I am dressed, and that
half-dollar is yours.
You may be sure I didnt roll over and go back to sleep
75
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
at 6 a.m. next morning. This system worked so well I kept

it up until the early-bird habit was established. This was
one more example of having to put a prod on myself, to drive
the self to do what ought to be done instead of giving in to
inclination or impulse.
Silk Gloves
This trip was started in early January, immediately after
the New York State trip. In Iowa we had worn gloves in the
winter, kid gloves for dress. In Atlanta it was too warm for kid
gloves. Im not at all sure, now, that any gloves were needed.
We never think of wearing gloves in Southern California,
and it is not noticeably colder in Atlanta. Probably the main
incentive was to look sharp, rather than cold hands, but I
bought taupe-colored silk gloves with three stripes of black
braid trim on the back. If vanity is the main ingredient of
human nature, I had my share of human nature. I suppose a
peacock feels about like I did.
In Atlanta I stopped at the narrow but very tall Wynecoff
Hotelthe hotel made nationally famous by a terrible fire
several years ago. I remember I went there because it was
fireproof.
Starting back north, stops were made in search of merchan-
dising ideas at Gainesville, Georgia, and then Greenville, South
Carolina. Near Greenville was a famous rustic-fenced ranch. A
Sunday was spent there, and with other traveling men the day
was spent going out to this unusual ranch. I still have a picture
or two taken at the place.
Then on to Spartanburg, South Carolina; Charlotte and
Greensboro, North Carolina; and Lynchburg, Virginia, from
which point I turned back west, stopping at Roanoke, then
Bluefield, West Virginia, and on to Ironton and Portsmouth,
Ohio. Next stops were made at Chillicothe, Columbus,
Springfield, Piqua, Dayton, in Ohio.
You Cant TASTE Smoke

Next, another Sunday layover was spent in Richmond,
Indiana. On the mezzanine floor of the hotel a Sunday
76
afternoon argument ensued between five or six traveling men.

One of the men made the ridiculous and outlandish
statement that no one can taste smoke. The other fellows
laughed at him.
Youre crazy, exclaimed one. Why, all the cigar and cigarette
manufacturers advertise that their brand tastes better!
Sure, answered the crazy fellow, but it isnt true. You
only smell the smoke of tobaccoyou cant taste it!
He offered to prove it. We went to the cigar counter and
bought about three sets of cigars, two of each exactly alike,
then returned to the mezzanine. The first doubter was asked
to put the two identical cigars in his mouth, one at a time,
lighting only one of them. Then he was blindfolded, and one
of the other fellows held his nose so he could not smell. The
lighted cigar was then put in his mouth.
Now tell us which cigar I put in your mouththe lighted one
or the one not lighted. Go ahead, puff on it. Tell us which cigar
you are puffing on. This was the challenge of the crazy loon.
The guinea pig gave two or three big puffs.
Aw, he exclaimed, this is silly. Why should I puff on this
cigar? It isnt lit. Theres no smoke coming out of this.
The blindfold was jerked off his eyes, and he was amazed
to find himself puffing out smoke like a smoke stack!
The experiment was tried on two or three others, with
cigarettes as well as cigars. All of us were convinced that you
cant taste smokebut then, you probably will say we were
all crazy! Nevertheless, from that time it has been difficult for
me to believe any manufacturers brand of cigarettes taste
better, for the simple reason I became convinced they dont
taste at allthey SMELL! I mean that, literally!!
After visiting Muncie, Anderson, Indianapolis and Lafayette
in Indiana, I went on to Chicago and back to Des Moines.
77
5
PIONEERING
IN PUBLIC
OPINION POLLS
A PPARENTLY THE IDEA MAN TRIP
from Des Moines to Atlanta and return ended along in

April 1914. It was then that the assignment as makeup
man for the Merchants Trade Journal came, related in the
beginning of the preceding chapter. This assignment, with a
desk in the composing room of the Successful Farming plant,
interspersed with writing advertising copy for clients of the
Journals service department, lasted six or seven months.
Becoming a Typist in Two Weeks

It was about the beginning of November 1914 that I was
assigned to the next, and last, Idea Man trip. This time I
was to proceed west as far as Grand Island, Nebraska, then
zigzag south to Houston, Texas, then east to Birmingham,
Alabama, then north to Detroit, and back to Des Moines.
Earlier that year the first portable typewriter had been
put on the market. It was only some six months after the
first little folding Corona had come out that Mr. Boreman
presented me with one.
78
Herbert, he said, here is one of the new portable typewriters.
We want all the idea material sent in typed hereafter.
But, I protested, Ive never learned how to use a
typewriter. It would take me a week to peck out one single
days reports on that thing.
Well thats your problem, grinned Mr. Boreman. The way
to get things accomplished is to put a prod on yourself. Most
of us never get around to doing a thing until necessity drives
us. So I guess necessity forces you to learn how to typeand
quick! For we are requiring that all your notes, data and
reports be typed on that baby Corona, and we require that all
reports arrive here on time!
What an assignment!
But the prod was on! Hurriedly I procured an instruction
book on typing. But I saw at once that I did not have sufficient
time to learn to type with all eight fingers and two thumbs as
instructed in the book. I threw the book away, and began to
teach myself my own way, using the first two fingers of each
hand, and occasionally a thumb on the space bar.
I proceeded west through Atlantic and Council Bluffs,
Iowa; through Omaha, Fremont, Columbus and Grand Island,
Nebraska.
At Columbus, in the Evans Hotel, I ran across a man who
bore a startling resemblance to Elbert Hubbard. He even
wore his hair semi-long, with an artists bow tie and wide-
brimmed hat. He seemed very pleased when I told him he
was Hubbards double, and that I knew the famed sage of
East Aurora, and had visited at Roycroft Inn. I forget his
name, but it seems he was a state senator.
The quest for interesting and practical ideas used
successfully by merchants was unusually productive on this
tour. The material for live and useful articles in the Journal was
accumulating much faster than I could get them typed by the
hunt and peck system. I worked late nights hunting for letters
on the keyboard and pecking at them. I put the typewriter on
my lap in train seats and pecked away furiously while traveling
to the next town. But my notes were piling up on me.
From Grand Island, I cut south and east through Hastings,
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
St.Joseph, and arrived in Kansas City Saturday night. By

now my plight was desperate. I knew my weeks reports
had to be in the Journal office by Monday. I went to the old
Baltimore Hotel, then Kansas Citys leading hotel, but long
since torn down, and hunted keys and pecked away on that
little Corona all night long, going out two or three times
through the night to an all-night restaurant for coffeeand
kept up the ordeal until Sunday afternoon, getting my weeks
reports finally into the post office.
Starting out early Monday morning the tour continued
through Lawrence, Topeka, Hutchinson, Wichita and Arkansas
City in Kansas; then through Oklahoma, stopping at Blackwell
and then Enid. An uncle, my mothers elder brother, was ticket
agent out at Goltry, Oklahoma, some 20 miles west of Enid,
and I was able to take an evening train to Goltry and catch an
early morning train back, so it was possible to spend the night
visiting relatives I had not seen in years.
Indians!
Next was El Reno. And there, for the first time in my life,
I saw real Indians. In the dime stores and the department
stores, stout Indian squaws, when tired, would just squat
down on the floor in the center of an aisle and remain there
until rested. Other shoppers were obliged to squeeze by, if
possible, or go around another aisle. Out on the main street,
I saw a flash of bright red streak by, leaving a cloud of dust.
What in the world was that? I asked in astonishment.
Oh, replied a local man, thats a young Indian just
returned from Carlisle University. He recently inherited a
sum of money from the government, and spent it all for the
most expensive bright red racing automobile he could find.
Since returning from college, he has reverted back to a semi-
savage state, and drives his car recklessly wide open down
the main street.
Again on a Saturday night I arrived, this time in Oklahoma
City, with a notebook full of ideas piled up on me. Once
again there was the all-night ordeal at the folding portable
typewriter. But by this time my four fingers seemed to begin
80
5 | Pioneering in Public Opinion Polls
finding the right keys almost automatically, and from that

time on I was able to keep up with the typed reports. Before
this three-month tour ended, I was pecking away on the
typewriter at a speed more rapid than most stenographers.
And, come to think of it, I am this very minute, still rapping
out these lines with these same four fingers. Only today, I am
privileged to click the words off on a large electric typewriter.
However, the present worldwide enterprise was actually
begun, back in 1927, by clicking off articles on one of those
early model folding Coronas. It could not have had a more
humble beginning. But we shall come to that phase of the
story in due time.
Leaving Oklahoma City early Monday, Chickasha came
nextanother Indian reservation townthen Ardmore. Next
were Gainesville, Fort Worth and Dallas, Texas. Thanksgiving
Day was spent at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas.
The Adolphus in Dallas in those days carried the archi-
tectural appearance of being a slightly smaller sister of
Chicagos Blackstonethough additions have made it several
times larger today. In those days the most exclusive hotel in
America, with the possible exception of the Waldorf-Astoria
in New York, was the Hotel Blackstone in Chicago. It was
commonly reported that guests were not admitted into the
main dining room of the Blackstone in the evening unless
they were in full evening dress; and that the noted diva
Mary Garden, coming in after an evening performance at the
Blackstone theater, was refused admittance because she was
not in formal attire.
Also, in those days, the Adolphus maintained, as nearly as
possible in a city not much over 100,000 population, as Dallas
then was, the atmosphere of the Blackstone.
The main dining room was plush and ornate, serviced with
a matre dhtel and two or three head waiters, besides waiters
and busboys. Most everybody was home for Thanksgiving
dinner, and the hotel dining room was almost empty. The
matre dhtel ushered me to a table and spent the entire time
of the meal chatting with me.
Im a long way from home on Thanksgiving, I said, and
81
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
on a reasonably generous expense account. I wish you would

order my dinner for me. This is once Im not going to keep
down the cost. Go ahead. Shoot the works. Order the finest
dinner you can serve.
He did, and I have never forgotten that Thanksgiving
dinner a thousand miles away from home. In these days of jet
aircraft, that would not seem far, but it did then.
A Strange New Coke

Sunday was spent at Waxahachie. Directly across from the
hotel was the largest drugstore in any town of 5,000 in America.
(Waxahachie is listed at more than 12,000 population in the
1965 atlas. But it was around 5,000 in 1914.) Waxahachie
also had the largest cotton ginning center in America, as I
recall. But this drugstore interested me.
Sunday afternoon I walked over to the drugstore soda
fountain and ordered a coke. After the attendant squirted
into the glass the Coca-Cola syrup and then the soda water,
he took the mixing spoon and dipped the edge of it into a
saucer containing a few drops of some liquid which looked
like milk, shook it off the spoon, then stirred the spoon into
the Coca-Cola.
What kind of strange new coke do you call that? I asked.
What was that you dipped the spoon into and then shook off?
Milk, answered the attendant.
Why, I inquired, whats the idea? You shook the milk all
off the spoon. You didnt mix enough into the coke to even
notice it. Whats that supposed to do?
I was really puzzled.
Well, grinned the soda fountain attendant, thats the
only way I can serve it to you, according to law.
I was more puzzled now than ever.
You see, he explained, its against the law to serve Coca-
Cola on Sundaysbut its perfectly legal for us to serve food.
Milk is food. That tiny portion of a drop of milk I stirred into
it made it food.
I had heard of a lot of ridiculous Sunday blue laws,
but that one really took the prize. However, Texas or the
82
municipality of Waxahachie must have gotten fed up with

it and abolished that law long since.
I Saw General Funston

I continued in the search of interesting and usable ideas in
retail stores and checking community and general social
conditions in Waco, Temple, Austin, Houston and Galveston,
Texas. It was quite an event to catch my first glimpse of an
ocean at Galveston, on the Gulf of Mexico. I went in swimming
on the beach, so I could say I had been in the ocean.
Also I was quite impressed with the Hotel Galvez. General
Funston, at that time General Pershings boss, was there,
and I rode up the hotel elevator with him. He was short, not
tall, but wore a short goatee beard, and carried himself with
very dignified military bearing. However, the dignified mili-
tary bearing was a little lacking that night, as he was being
helped from the bar up the elevator to his suite.
From Galveston I proceeded on through Beaumont and
Lake Charles, Louisiana.
The Crucial Letter

At Lake Charles, I received a letter from Mr. Boreman. It was
very critical. By this time he had taken over a large part, or all,
of the editorial duties from Mr. Vardemann. Mr. Boremans
letter threw me into consternation.
He was not pleased with my work. I was going to have to
step on itget on my toesproduce more and better material.
I was really frightened. I saw visions of being fired. That
was a disgrace I felt I could never take. But Mr. Boreman had
not directed me to take the next train home. Apparently I
was to be allowed to wind up this trip, at least.
Nevertheless, from that time on, I brooded over the thought
of having a can tied to me upon return to Des Moines. The
vision built up in my mind. I did really step on it, from that
moment. I hustled harder than ever before. I feared being
suddenly called in and fired.
Actually, I learned afterwardtoo latethat Mr. Boreman
had not the slightest intention of discharging me. I had
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
apparently gotten into a temporary slump, and he wrote me

a rather sharp letter in an effort to help me snap out of it. But
all through the remainder of this trip the fear of being fired
built up in my mind.
Nevertheless I kept on working with increased zeal.
From Lake Charles I continued on through Lafayette and
Baton Rouge to New Orleans, Louisiana. I remember picking up
quite a story of how an aggressive dry goods merchant in Baton
Rouge beat the big city competition of New Orleans and held
his trade at home. This was my second visit to New Orleans.
Too Conceited? Yes!But

Perhaps I was entirely too proud in those days. Actually there
is no perhaps about it. I was! Later I was forced to suffer for
years to have this vanity and conceit crushed out before I could
ever have been fully prepared for the responsibilities of today.
But I was young then. And I have often wondered if it
is not really better for a young upstart to be conceited, self-
confident, cockyand with it, ambitious, energetic in trying to
accomplish something, than to be an ambitionless, spineless,
lazy, shiftless fellow utterly lacking in spark, drive and the
zeal to try to accomplish something worthwhile.
Such ambitious fellows, of course, may not have right
goalsthey may not know the real purpose of life, or the true
way of life, and they may be energetically pressing on only
toward more vanity and a striving after wind, as Solomon
puts it. But at least they are mentally alive and not dead!
And once circumstances do shake them and bring them to
themselves, and humble them and open their minds to the
true values, they are already in the habit of exerting enough
energy so that, turned at last in the right direction, something
is really accomplished.
At least one reader of this autobiographyand so far
as I know, only onehas written very disapprovingly of
it, condemning me for having been vain and conceited in
those early formative years. I have stated all the facts about
that overabundance of self-assurance. Indeed I have put
emphasis on it.
84
This, then, is one of the things I had to be changed from!

This is a candid and true life story, and the bad is being told
along with what good there may have been. But, if there was
ego and cocky conceit, there also was ambition, determination,
fire, drive and honest and sincere effort toward what then
seemed to be a right goal.
When the Unseen Hand mentioned in the introductory
chapter took a hand, shook me up, knocked me down, took
away what financial success I appeared headed toward, beat
out the proud conceit, and punctured the inflated ego, my
eyes were opened to what they had not seen before. The goal
was changed. The self-confidence was replaced with faith.
But the fired-up desire now flamed forth in the new direction.
The sincere drive and energy now was applied with increased
zeal to the new and far better goal.
And if faith and confidence and positive assurance in what
God has set out to do through a poor human instrument has
been by some critics misapplied as vain conceit, then I offer
no apologybut the dynamic and ever-expanding Work of the
living God cannot stop just to please the whim of critics who
stand on the sidelines, themselves doing nothing except to
carp and complain and criticize. My zeal and dynamic drive
toward a wrong goal did not exceed that of Saul of Tarsus.
But when his eyes were opened, look what a power he was!
Jesus was perfect in every respect, yet He had His critics who
always thought He was doing everything the wrong way. Yet,
like the critics of His Work today, they did not do betterthey
simply didnt do, period! They sat on the sidelines and watched
the procession empowered by the Spirit of God speed by, on to
the true goal of accomplishing Gods purpose here below!
So I have deemed it proper that the full truth about that
self-conceit of those formative years be brought out. But let
me emphasize, it was not deceit. It was honest and sincere.
Challenged Into a Survey

The Idea Man tour continued on through Hattiesburg
and Meridian, Mississippi, then Selma, Montgomery
and Birmingham, Alabama. What route was taken from
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Birmingham north I do not now remember. It seems that the

next stop was Decatur, Alabama. I think I must have made
stops at Columbus and Nashville, Tennessee, and Bowling
Green, Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky.
In any event, the next distinct recollection is in Richmond,
Kentucky. Apparently I backtracked some distance south to
arrive there. I had heard from traveling men along the way
that Richmond was the deadest town in all America, and
I thought there might be a worthwhile story in finding the
reasons for this.
I do distinctly remember getting into a discussion with a
furniture merchant in Richmond. I might better have said a
heated argument. For I had instantly formed the impression
that Richmond was then the most backward, lifeless town of
around 5,000 population I had ever visited.
I hope that the bombshell I exploded before the merchants
of that town had something to do with waking it upfor
apparently the town did come to life, since I noticed in the
latest census it is now over 12,000 population.
In any event, I was so utterly disgusted with the lack of
civic pride and development, and the lackadaisical inertia of
the merchants after interviewing several of them, that I must
have expressed my disappointment to this furniture merchant.
He argued heatedly that Richmond was a very live town.
Is that so! I came back. Do you realize that probably
more than half of the trade of the consumers in your town and
immediate trade territory is going to the mail order houses
and to the stores in Cincinnati and Lexington?
Why, we dont lose any trade to outside competition, he
yelled.
I shot back. That shows how sound asleep you are! Why,
you dont know whats going on right under your nose here in
your own town. Ill tell you what Im going to do! Im going to
show you that an outsider can come into your town and learn
more of the real facts of merchandising conditions here in
three days than youve learned in a lifetime!
I was good and mad! I was determined to show this sleepy
storekeeper, whom I felt unworthy to be dignified with the
86
name merchant, just how ignorant he was of conditions, of

just how dead the businessmen of this town were.
The prod was on! I was only supposed to spend one day in
Richmond. I knew I had to work fast. I had to account for my
time at the office. This was not routine Idea Man work. I
was doing this on my own. So I had to hurry. I was fired up! I
was determined to get the facts!
I had no pattern to go by. To my knowledge no survey
no sampling of public opinionor investigation from a
representative portion of the people, according to the law
of averages, had ever been made. I had to think my own
way through. But I was so angered that I did a lot of fast
thinkingand planning.
The Pioneer Survey

Early each of the three mornings I went to the freight house
and the express office. I knew well the big Chicago mail order
house methods of shipment. The tags did not contain the
mail order house names. Only the street addresses. But I
knew well the Homan Avenue address of Sears Roebuck and
the street address of Montgomery Ward. Also the smaller
mail order houses. Rapidly I jotted down notes of the names
and addresses of all local citizens receiving merchandise
from Chicago mail order houses, listing the description of
the merchandise.
As soon as the banks were opened on that first morning, I
went to the bankers, told them of the survey I was making,
and asked their cooperation in checking through their stubs
and giving me the amount of bank drafts that had been
purchased for mail order houses during the past 30 days.
Also to go through the canceled vouchers of customers, and
add up the total, over a given period, of checks that had been
sent by local depositors to either mail order houses or stores
in Lexington and Cincinnati. All agreed to cooperate fully.
Next I went to the postmaster. I asked if he would
cooperate to let the merchants know conditions by checking
back 30 days through the stubs of money orders purchased
for mail order houses or big city stores. There was a postal
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
regulation allowing the postmaster to use his own judgment

about giving out such information, and this postmaster was
willing to cooperate.
Then, while they were tabulating this information, I
devoted the three days to house-to-house and farm-to-farm
interviews. For this latter purpose I hired a rig, for there
were very few automobiles in service as yet in 1915, especially
in towns of this size. So I drove with horse and buggy 10 miles
out in two or three directions from town.
I learned that the farmers west of town were so indignant
at Richmond merchants that they were actually organizing
to boycott these stores altogether. Housewives in town were
eager to talk to an investigator. They vehemently poured
forth their scathing denunciations of their local merchants.
The women universally said they were forced to go either to
Cincinnati or Lexington to buy clothes. The stores there sent
their expert buyers to New York seasonally to select the latest
styles. But the styles at local Richmond stores were completely
out of date, and of poor design, quality and workmanship.
The main street, downtown, was not paved, and often
shoppers were forced to walk through mud ankle-deep in
crossing the main intersection.
The merchants and their clerks were sleepy, unaccommo-
dating, uncheerful, and seemed to feel they were imposed
upon to wait on a customer. If merchandise was unsatisfac-
tory and returned, the customer was always wrong, and the
merchant always wroth.
I went to the ticket agent at the depot.
These so-called merchants of ours, he said, have no
idea at all of what goes on. In order to go to Lexingtonor
to Cincinnatithe women shoppers have to take an early
morning train leaving at 5 a.m. Lexington shoppers have to
change trains at Winchester. Whether they go to Lexington
or to Cincinnati, they have a whole day for shopping, and the
return train doesnt arrive until long after stores close in the
evening. So local merchants are never up early enough to see
them go, or late enough to see them return. But we have a
train load every shopping day.
88
My First Public Speech

After working furiously daytimes on this quick survey, I typed
rapidly of evenings, writing up reports of every interview. On
the third day I collected all the data from the banks, post
office and express office. Then I carefully tabulated all the
information, reduced the equations, by the law of averages, to
indicate the whole picture of the conditions of the townand
the results were truly astounding!
Among all these drowsy storekeepers, I had found one live
and alert merchantthe local Rexall druggist. Consequently
I had kept him informed as to what I was uncovering in
Richmond. He was intensely concerned, and urged me to stay
over in Richmond one more day, so he could have opportunity
to arrange a dinner for the following evening and get all the
merchants to attend and hear my report.
I felt I could not remain another day in Richmond. I was
already three days behind schedule. I did not, at that time,
realize that this survey would be of any use or value as
editorial material in the magazine. The fear that I was slated
to be fired on return to Des Moines had been haunting me.
Actually I wrote up this complete report of the survey for the
express purpose of explaining this three-day loss of timeand
I actually felt I would be reproved for it and, now more surely
than ever, fired.
But this druggist was very persistent.
Mr. Armstrong, he argued, you simply do not have any
right to come into our town, unearth all these sensational
facts, and then slip on out and refuse to share this information
with our local merchants. Why, this is what weve all been
needing for years. It will wake this town up.
When he put it as a moral duty, and an obligation, I could
not refuse. I think I must have had some kind of illusions
about sacrificing my job, however, to fulfill this obligation.
However, it gave me this fourth day to complete the typing
of my report on the survey, together with all tabulations and
final recommendations.
So on this fourth evening here was a dinner arranged
by this Rexall druggist. How he ever managed to induce all
89
those merchants to attend I did not know, but apparently all
were present.
This was probably the first public speech I ever made in my
life. But I was so filled with sensational facts that I forgot to
be self-conscious or embarrassed.
I remember making the recommendation that, since no
local ready-to-wear department was large enough to hire an
expert woman buyer and send her to New York on buying
trips, they all go together and cooperate, employing one buyer
for all of them; and that on her return from New York at
each buying season, they have her give public lectures in
their various stores, giving the women advance information
on what would be the styles for the coming season.
Possibly some of these suggestions of mine, based on the
survey, had something to do with the fact that Richmond today
is a growing town more than twice as large as it was then.
My First Magazine Article

It was some weeks later that I received the shock of my life. I
received a copy of the latest issue of the Journal in the mail. I
had heard nothing from Mr. Boreman or anyone at the office in
regard to the long report I had sent in about the survey. At least,
no news had been good news. They had not fired me for ityet!
But now, some weeks later, I opened the latest copy of the
Journal, and there, in big headlines as the leading article,
I was told of the most sensational article the Journal had
ever published.
They played it up big!
And, for the first timeunder my own byline!
The accompanying editors note explained that they were
publishing this astonishing report verbatim, just as their
Idea Man had written it.
Also, it seems now that in this same issue was another
smaller article under my byline. For the past several weeks,
I had begun to write up my material in article form. Always
before, however, the editors at the Journal office had done
a complete rewrite job on my material. But now, my own
articles began to appear.
90
6
DISCOVERING
RULES OF SUCCESS
F OLLOWING THE ORIGINAL SURVEY OF
business conditions in Richmond, Kentucky, instructions

came from the home office of the Merchants Trade Journal to
do another investigation. They wanted this one from a larger
town. Lansing, Michigan, was suggested.
So, leaving Richmond, Kentucky, I proceeded north through
Cincinnati and other towns and cities in Ohio.
I am reminded at this point of a visit to the National Cash
Register Corp. plant in Dayton. Again, I am not sure whether
it was on this particular tour. But I learned there of an
incident which has always been remembered.
A Sales Lesson
At that time ncr, as this company was familiarly called, had
something of a reputation of being the most aggressive sales
organization in American business. And its president, John
R. Patterson, was more or less generally reputed to be the
countrys most successful sales genius.
This is what I learned: Mr. Pattersons mind had caught a
sudden sales inspiration. Immediately he did a sensational and
unprecedented thing. He sent telegrams to every ncr salesman
in the United States, ordering them to come to the factory in
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Dayton immediatelyat company expense. I was shown, while

touring the plant, a large auditorium in the companys office
building. Here, I was told, the hundreds of salesmen assembled,
filled with curiosity. Mr. Patterson addressed them.
Men, he began, you are wondering why I called all of you
here. Now I will tell you. Every one of you loses sales because
your prospects put up objections you are unable to overcome.
An idea flashed into my mind the other day that will enable
you to turn every objection into your strongest selling point.
Its so simple youll all wonder why you never thought of it.
Whatever the objection, you are to answer immediately, with
a smile of complete assurance: Why, certainlyand thats
the very reason you need this National Cash Register!
Then Mr. Patterson asked a few salesmen to come to
the platform and pretend they were prospective customers,
putting up to him the objections that each salesman had
failed to overcome.
One said, I simply cant afford to buy a cash register.
Exactly! responded Mr. Patterson. And thats the very
reason you need this National Cash Register. When you have
all the records this register will give youwhen it protects
you from lossespays for itself and saves you money, then
you can afford things!
One by one John R. Patterson answered every sales objection
that his salesmen had been unable successfully to answer.
I have found this principle of salesmanship effective,
perhaps hundreds of times.
A Disappearing American Institution

At this point I must indulge another digression. I had written
this chapter of the autobiography in our bedroom of a Pullman
car on a train. Mrs. Armstrong and I were en route to Texas,
on the Dallas car of the streamlined Sunset Limited. At El
Paso our car was switched onto a T&P train for Dallas.
We had just returned from the dining car. Between our
streamliner car and the diner we passed through one of the
old-time Pullman cars. I had not seen one in some time. The
modern Pullmans are all-room cars. But these older models
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6 | Discovering Rules of Success
contained mostly open Pullman seats that make up into

berths in sections at night. This is the kind of sleeping cars I
rode constantly on these Idea Man trips.
The newer streamliner cars provide private toilets in every
room, but these old-timers provided one large mens wash-
room at one end and a ladies restroom at the other end. These
mens washrooms contained a long leather lounging seat at
one end, and a chair or shorter seat on the side. They were also
the mens smoking rooms. With the disappearance of mens
washrooms on Pullman cars has departed a real American
institution! I suppose few women know anything about it.
In these washrooms, especially on long trips, men would
sit or stand and talk by the hour. In these washrooms no
introduction was needed. Conversations were opened as a
matter of course. Men conversed familiarly, as if they had
been acquainted for years, rarely introducing themselves by
name. And what would you women suppose they talked about?
Their wives? Laughing at dirty stories? Not at all! I dont
believe I ever heard one off-color story being told in a Pullman
washroom. Men always had something more important to
discuss than idle gossip about their wives. The discussions
were always impersonal.
It was here, in this great but vanishing American
institution, that the political, economic and social problems
of the nation and the entire world were solved! Questions
of religion were usually avoided. Heated arguments or angry
controversy were rarely, if ever, indulged.
If only the heads of state of the worlds great nations could
have had the Pullman washrooms wired, and the conversations
tape-recorded, they could have had the solutions to all their
knotty and perplexing problems! Too bad! Tape recording
came in after this honored American institution went out!
I spent many an hour in thought-provoking conversation
in this institution of a bygone day, from the days of these
Idea Man tours until the modern streamliners relegated
this meeting place of business men to a vintage of the past.
But in all seriousness, this digression about washroom
conversations truly belongs in this story of formative life
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
experiences. For I verily believe that these hours of contacts

over the years with many important, thoughtful and
successful men contributed their share in the preparation for
the responsibilities of today, and for the years still ahead of
us. We are influenced by every person with whom we come in
contact. The most successful menthe leadersthe men of
accomplishmentrode the Pullman cars. These washrooms
afforded a meeting place where I was privileged to enter
invigorating, stimulating, and often enlightening conversa-
tion with men I could never have contacted otherwise. Here
was a place where men were free and relaxed, always willing
to converse with other men on a social parity, regardless of
social distinctions outside the Pullman washrooms. Contacts
and conversations with scores and scores of prominent and
important menmany of them in Pullman washroomsare
among my most treasured experiences.
WHY Men Fail

On all these Idea Man trips, one assignment had been to
observe, and to question businessmen, in all parts of the
country, to try to learn why one man succeeds and another
fails. An alarmingly large percentage of retail merchants
over the nation were operating in the redon their way to
failure and bankruptcy. Why?
Two men might start out in business under almost identical
conditions. One would succeed in building a thriving and
profitable business, while the other would go to the wall.
The Merchants Trade Journal wanted to know why!
I had questioned literally hundreds of businessmen, as to
their ideas or opinions on this question. The majority gave
the same answerlack of ability.
While in Detroit on this trip I had a nice interview with the
manager of Detroits large department store, the J.L. Hudson
Co. He, with a minority of other businessmen I interviewed,
insisted that the main reason for failure in business was lack
of sufficient capital.
Of course both of these were factors. But, based on
observation, getting at the facts that led either to success or
94
failure in hundreds of businesses, I found a third important

cause of failures was the fitting of the proverbial square peg in
the round holein other words, so many men are misplaced
in the wrong line of business, for them; this, coupled with the
fact that the seven laws of success are not known or followed
by most people.
One Sad Experience

I remember a perplexed and frustrated merchant in southern
Indiana. He was coming out on the short end, without any
profit, and he couldnt figure why.
I have figured to the very penny every item of cost in doing
business, he explained. It costs me exactly 20 percent to do
businessincluding every expensesalaries, rent, utilities,
advertising, even cost for wrapping paper and stringand
it runs exactly 20 cents on each dollar of sales. Now I have
figured that a 5 percent profit is fair. So I add the 5 percent
profit to my 20 percent cost of doing business, and I mark up
all my goods 25 percent above wholesale price. But at the end
of the year my 5 percent profit just simply isnt thereit has
vanished, clean as a whistle! I cant figure where it went!
I think I can, I replied. Suppose you buy a certain item
at a cost of $12 per dozen. What are you going to retail that
item for?
Why, $1.25, of course. $12 per dozen is $1 each. I add an
overall of 25 percentto cover 20 percent cost of doing business
and 5 percent profit, and mark the selling price at $1.25.
I thought so! I exclaimed. Thats where youve made your
mistake. Now look! You say your expenses run 20 percent of
your salesright?
Sure! he said.
All right. Now I want you to figure 20 percent of that $1.25
selling price, and subtract it from the $1.25.
He did, and couldnt believe his eyes!
Lets see20 percent of $1.25 is 25 cents. Why, when I
subtract my expenses from the selling price, I am right back
to my cost price! Where did my 5 percent profit go?
I felt like laughing, but it was no jokeit was too tragic!
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
You see, I explained, you figure your cost of doing business

as a percentage of your salesnot of your buying price. But
when you figured your markup, you figured it on the buying
price, instead of the selling price. Actually, you should have
marked your price up 33 percent above the buying price, in
order to sell the item at a price to allow you 20 percent on the
selling price for expenses, and 5 percent for profit.
I left this merchant in a rather dazed condition. Why was
he failing? Lack of capital? Lack of ability? Square peg in a
round hole? Or, perhaps, lack of proper education, the second
law of success!
I found many retail merchants in small towns who were
former farmers. It seemed that many farmers in those days
had a habit of grumbling and complaining. They knew they
worked hard. It seemed to them that the merchant in town
had it mighty easy, compared to their lot. The mail order
houses kept telling them how the retail merchants gouged
them and took big profits. It looked like running a store was
a luxurious easy life, with big profits.
So, many farmers sold their farms and bought retail stores.
Then they began to learn that a merchant had worries a farmer
never thought of. They were untrained and unskilled in
merchandising, advertising, selling, cost accounting, shrewd
buying. Salesmen from manufacturers and wholesalers
overloaded them with the wrong goods. They didnt know how
to figure markups. They didnt know how to meet the public
or sell goods. They didnt know how to manage clerks, if they
hired any. They were misfitssquare pegs in round holes!
Then, there are those seven laws of success!
Most peoplemen and women alikeprobably do not think
of or apply a single one of these seven laws. These are of such
importance that we have issued an attractive free booklet on
the subject which the reader may receive upon request.
The Lansing Survey

I continued on to Lansing, state capital of Michigan, to put on
the second survey of retail business conditions.
Here conditions were found to be very much like those in
96
the smaller town of Richmond, Kentucky. Although Lansing

was much larger than Richmond, and had better and larger
stores, yet I found, on actual investigation by house-to-house
and farm-to-farm interview and reports from banks, post office,
etc., that the Lansing merchants were losing untold thousands
of dollars worth of business to the mail order houses and the
larger stores and exclusive shops of Detroit and Chicago.
I had one very good interview with the superintendent of
the Reo automobile plant in Lansing. He explained in detail
why his plant, and all others, were unable to compete with
Fords new wage plan. They were not yet on the assembly-
line production basis.
Somehow, I do not remember so much about this
particular survey. It was mostly a repetition of the Richmond
investigation, only on a larger scale. It was the Richmond
survey that shocked its way into memory, because it was a
new revelation to us.
Hiring Myself Another Job

My next definite memory, after concluding the Lansing
investigation, was an interview with the secretary of the
Chamber of Commerce in South Bend, Indiana.
I have mentioned that, in addition to interviewing retail
merchants, I usually interviewed also the secretaries of
chambers of commerce, for the Journal was interested in
general community activity and betterment, as well as
successful business methods.
Of all the chamber of commerce secretaries I had
interviewed, this man, whose name was SpauldingI do not
remember his given name or initialsimpressed me by far
the most. He is the only one still retained vividly in memory.
He impressed me as being the most able and resourceful of
any chamber secretary I had met.
After leaving South Bend, I had jogged back east as far
as FortWayne, Indiana. From there I was scheduled to cut
southwest toward Indianapolis, and then on back to Des
Moines. My biggest Idea Man tour was now nearing its end.
The imminence of the return to Des Moines brought back to
97
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
mind the fear of being fired. The thought of the disgrace of this
now mounted to a mighty crescendo. I felt I had to beat them
to it, by resigning, avoiding the stigma of being discharged.
So on the impulse of the moment, I entered a telephone
booth and got Mr. Spaulding at South Bend on long distance.
Once again, I hired myself a job.
Hello, Mr. Spaulding! I said. Since I was in South Bend,
Ive been thinking a lot about you and your chamber there.
Ive decided I want to get into chamber of commerce work
for a while. Ive decided to resign from the Merchants Trade
Journal and come back to South Bend as assistant secretary
of your Chamber of Commerce.
You have! exclaimed Mr. Spaulding incredulously. Well,
I dont know what wed have you do, or how I could manage
to pay any salary.
Oh, thats all right, I responded with the usual cocky
confidence. Ill have to go on out to Des Moines, and check
out finally with the Journal, and youll have a couple weeks
or so to figure it out before I return.
This self-assurance and positive approach must have
been difficult to resist, for Mr. Spaulding said hed try to
think of something.
Thereupon I sent in to Mr. Boreman a letter of resignation,
saying I would finish this trip and then would leave
immediately to return to South Bend.
My First Big-League Game

It was about this time, or on one of my Idea Man trips
through Chicago, that I saw my first Major League Baseball
game. Ralph Johnson, manager of the Journals Chicago
office, and I went together.
The Detroit Tigers were playing the Chicago White Sox in
an American League game at Comiskey Park. I had seen a
number of minor-league games. I had played a great deal of
baseball as a boy, between ages 11 and 18. But it seemed to
me that this major-league brand of baseball was the most
monotonous and least exciting of all.
Then I began to understand the reason. They were better
98
players. There was no wasted motion. When a shortstop

picked up a hot grounder, he didnt get all excited and wildly
wind up before throwing to first. He scooped up the ball as his
throwing arm was smoothly moving into throwing position,
and effortlessly it was thrown with speed straight to the first
baseman. The players were not making as many motions, but
actually the ball was traveling faster.
Its the same in all branches of athletics. The novice makes
work of itgoes to unnecessary effort. The champion does it
smoothly, with precision.
The same is true with workmen. A greenhorn beginner as
a carpenter wastes a lot of motions with his hammer, plane
or saw, and quite frequently his hammer misses the nail
altogether. The experienced carpenter does it smoothly, effort-
lessly to all appearances, but he is getting the job done faster.
This particular baseball game really was a monotonous,
dull, unexciting game. Even the experienced regular
customers were talking about it. We endured the game down
to the last half of the ninth inning. The White Sox led, 3 to
1. Detroit was at bat. There were two outs, none on, and one
strike on the batter, who happened to be the famous Ty Cobb.
We arose trying to get out of the stands before the rush.
A regular dyed-in-the-wool fan, sitting in front of us,
turned around and said earnestly, Please take my advice
and dont go yet. No baseball game is over until the last out.
Ty Cobb hasnt failed to get a hit in any game this year. Dont
worryhell get a hit.
Why Ty Cobb Was Famous

We sat down again, a little dubiously. Ball one! droned
the umpire.
Ball tuh!
Foul ball! Strike tuh! the umpires drone continued.
Ball three!
This is it! exclaimed the fan in front of us, excitedly. Now
watch what happens! Old Ty Cobb wont miss getting that hit!
He didnt! The next pitched ball cracked squarely off Cobbs
bat, driven like a bullet straight between left field and center.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
It was a two-bagger at leastmaybe a triple, if Cobb rounded

the bases fast enough!
But Cobb didnt! To our utter amazement, he jogged leisurely
to first, sat down on the bag, stretched and yawned drowsily!
But as soon as the ball was thrown back to the pitcher, he
was up and alert, dancing friskily at a dangerous distance off
first, beginning a taunting, razzing line of chatter at the pitcher.
Hey you pitcher! Thanks for that two-bagger you handed
me! Yea! Thanks for nuthin! I didnt want it as a gift! Id rather
steal it from ya! Come on, now! Im goin ta steal second. Try
and catch me! Ya cant throw straight enough to catch me!
The pitcher whirled and whipped the ball to first. But Ty
slid back under the ball safely. Now he razzed the pitcher
more than ever, taunting him, telling him he was no goodhe
was going to piecesdaring him to catch Cobb off base.
The pitcher threw a ball and a couple of strikes at the
batter, meanwhile whipping the ball a couple more times to
first trying vainly to catch Cobb off base.
Then Cobb dashed off and stole second.
The batter finally connected. This, too, might have been
good for two bases. But the batter was forced to stop on first.
Ty Cobb lay down on second, feigning sleep, snoring loudly.
But as soon as the ball was again in the pitchers mitt, he was
up and dancing wildly far off second, his torrent of contempt
for the pitcher pouring violently from his mouth.
Two or three times the pitcher made a vain attempt to snap
the ball to second in time to nail Cobb off base and end the
game with the third out. But each time only brought a fresh
outburst of contemptuous discouragement from Cobb. This
strategy was beginning to have its effect on the pitcher. Before
the next batter could get a hit, strike out, or a base on balls,
Ty had stolen third. There, again, he sat down and continued
taunting the pitcher.
Why didnt Cobb race, on his own hit, for second, third, or
even to stretch his hit into a home run? Why, when he was
on second, and the next batter cracked out a line drive, didnt
he race on to round third and score a run? Usually a single
drives in a run if a man is on second.
100
The answer is that the score was 3 to 1 against Detroit. One

run was not enough. Had Cobb scored a run on either his own
hit, or that of the batter following him, the White Sox probably
would have put out the next man, and the game would have
ended 3 to 2 for Chicago. Cobbs strategy was to exasperate
the pitcher psychologically until he went to pieces so that
following batters might succeed in driving in a total of three
runs needed for a Detroit win. As long as Cobb remained on
base, he was allowed to taunt and razz the pitcher.
So he remained on third, shouting ridicule at the pitcher,
who now walked a batter, filling the bases. The pitcher now
was thoroughly rattled, nervous, his confidence gone.
The next batter drove out a double, scoring all three men
on bases. Thus the game ended. Score, Tigers 4, White Sox 3!
This game turned out to be one of those rare, once-in-a-
lifetime thrills most people never see, though they may
attend ball games regularly. It was the topic of conversation
of all Chicago next day.
On arriving in Des Moines I learned, to my dismay, that
Mr. Boreman had had no thought of firing me, but merely
wrote the letter I had received at Lake Charles, Louisiana, in
an effort to snap me out of a slump and prod me on to better
effort. I gathered the impression that he was genuinely sorry
to see me leave the Journal.
Actually, now, having been myself an employer for several
years, I think I can better understand. The almost three years
I had spent with the Journal had been largely preparatory
years, and Mr. Boreman probably figured they had invested
quite a little time, instruction, supervision and money toward
developing a man who had some slight promise of becoming
a really valuable man in the organization someday. And to
see me quit and drop out, just as I was beginning to be worth
somethingbeginning to be able to write articles and adver-
tising copy professionallymeant the investment was now
wasted and a total loss, except for whatever value I had been
while there.
While with the Journal my salary had been raised a number
of times. The raises had never been large, but they were fairly
101
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
constant, as frequently as I deserved, and I probably was in

line for another raise about the time I resigned. I was then
getting $20 a week, which was not a high salary, but with the
expense account, traveling most of the time, the salary was
mostly clear. There was no room or board to pay out of it.
I must have had another conference with my Uncle Frank
Armstrong while in Des Moines this trip, but do not remember
his reaction to my latest detour from the main track. But
even though it was another sidetrack, nevertheless it was to
provide valuable experience and training for the later big job.
Building a Highway
Leaving Des Moines this time was destined to be leaving it as
home forever. I had been born and reared there. But now I
was almost 23. Perhaps it was time to fly the home nest.
I arrived, I believe, one evening in South Bend and obtained
a room at the ymca which was to be my home for some three
or four months. Next morning I reported to Mr. Spaulding at
the Chamber of Commerce.
Actually there had been no need of an assistant secretary,
so there was no salaried job awaiting me. But, as I had
detected on my one interview with him, Mr. Spaulding was a
resourceful man, and he did come up with something for me.
The automobile was just beginning to come into its own in
America in 1915. Of course most families did not, as yet, own
automobiles, but the number was increasing annually. And
the cross-country highway idea was just beginning to make
its first bit of headway. Of course all roads outside of towns
and cities were unpaved. But a great deal of work had been
done on the coast-to-coast Lincoln Highway (now U.S. 30),
and this already had been builtin the manner they were
then builtrouted through South Bend.
This manner of building consisted of doing considerable
additional grading and surfacing of already existing roads.
Few if any of the old horse and buggy square corners were
straightened out. Surfacing consisted, at best, of a certain
amount of gravelingbut few even dreamed, as yet, of paving
or hard-surfacing highways between cities.
102
At this particular time the highway activity centered on

getting through the new Dixie Highway, from Canada to the
Gulf. As planned by its promoters, this north-south highway
was to pass through South Bend. But the right-of-way and
cost of road improvements had to be approved by, and paid
by, each township and county. The federal government had
not, apparently, gotten into the highway business as yet. Nor
were there any state highways.
Mr. Spaulding explained to me that they were running into
a snag. Although there was a Dixie Highway Association
more or less privately promoted but endorsed, as nearly as
I remember the setup, by civic groups such as chambers of
commercethe right-of-way over existing roads or for any new
roads, if necessary, had to be voted and approved by a majority
of property owners of each township and county along its
route. The big obstacle was the northern township of Marshall
County, which was next south of St. Joseph County, of which
South Bend was county seat.
In order to hurdle this barrier, and to promote the
construction of the new highway generally, Mr. Spaulding
had conceived the idea of forming a local motor club. It was
in no sense like the aaa, or associated automobile clubs of
today. Its primary aim and purpose was good roads, and the
promotion of this Dixie Highway.
One idea we had was to name or number every country
road in St.Joseph County. I am not sure now whether this
was Mr. Spauldings idea or mine. It was very difficult for a
farmer to direct anyone unfamiliar with the neighborhood to
his farm. He would have to direct one to go about a mile and
a quarter in a certain direction to a certain windmill; then
turn left to a road where he would see a red barn; then right
until he came to a certain cow in a pasture, then to the fourth
house on the leftor some such crazy and incomprehensible
direction. Our idea was to name and number country roads
like city streets, with road signs plainly designating the name
or number of each road.
Mr. Spauldings idea was for the Chamber of Commerce
to sponsor the motor club, which I believe we named the
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
St.Joseph County Motor Club, and memberships were to

be sold to automobile owners for $2 each, with the more
prominent citizens expected to purchase the multiple block
of memberships.
How to Swing a Group

When I arrived, Mr. Spaulding had the germ of the idea, but it
remained for me to put it over. First, we had to propose the
idea to the chambers board of directors, and win their approval.
One of the first lessons learned in this new school of chamber-
of-commerce activity was how to swing a group of hard-headed
businessmen to vote the way you want them to. Mr.Spaulding
had the know-how. It was an interesting experience.
First, he selected three of the more prominent and influential
board members whom he felt sure of winning to the idea. He
and I went to these men and sold them on the motor club idea
privately. He arranged for one of them to spring to his feet in
the board meeting as soon as Mr. Spaulding had presented
the general idea, and enthusiastically endorse it, saying he
was most definitely in favor of this idea. The other two men
were to follow suit, rising promptly before any other board
members could rise to object, and heartily endorse the idea.
Then, at the board meeting, after Mr. Spaulding had
outlined his proposal for the motor club and these three
members in rapid-fire succession had generated enthusiasm
by their vigorous endorsements, Mr. Spaulding exclaimed that
it seemed useless to ask for more discussionand brought it
to an immediate vote before any member could object.
In this meeting were several multimillionaires. South
Bend was home of a number of very prominent industries,
including the Studebaker automobile factory, Oliver Chilled
Plow Works, L.P. Hardy sales book manufacturers, and many
others. It was a new experience to me to see the psycholog-
ical effect of this strategy on these supposedly hardheaded
businessmen. Like all humans, they had the sheep instinct.
The impression had been created in the mind of every board
member that every other member, except possibly himself,
was enthusiastically in favor of this proposition, and not
104
wishing to be on the losing side, or a lone dissenter, each one

voted yesit was unanimous!
So the motor club became a reality. My commission was
to be 25 percent. I learned latertoo latethat the proper
rate of commission on a thing of that kind should have been
50percent. But the whole idea was a new one to all of us.
Actually, my work was very successful, but I was only half
paid, and was unable to hold body and soul together as
they say, on what I was makingso after a few months I was
forced, of necessity, to move on.
But there were some exciting experiences in putting through
this Dixie Highway during those few months.
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7
HOW TO PUT
RESOURCEFULNESS
INTO PRACTICE
A S I MENTIONED, THERE WERE NO
national or state highways in those days, late spring of

1915. These pioneer cross-country highways were privately
promoted with the cooperation of civic bodies. They were
merely graded and graveled. A paved highway between cities
was as yet unheard of. I do not remember how the funds were
provided, but probably by popular subscription from property
owners along the right-of-way. I do remember we had to get
all the farmers along the way signed up for it.
The South Bend Chamber of Commerce had endorsed
this Dixie Highway project. But the promoters had run into
a provoking snag. The farmers of the northern township of
Marshall County, next south of St.Joseph County of which
South Bend is county seat, were refusing to sign up. They
were stubborn. One little township might block the entire
project from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada. A chain is no
stronger than its weakest link.
It was my job, among other things, to sign up these
adamant farmers.
106
For some little time, however, probably the first three or
four months at South Bend, my activities were bent on selling
memberships in the new St.Joseph County Motor Club. This
brought me into close personal contact with some of South
Bends prominent millionaires. I worked fairly closely with
Mr.E. Louis Kuhns, a millionaire capitalist. I believe he was
vice president of the Chamber of Commerce.
Several times I went out to the Studebaker works to chat
with the sole remaining member of the famous Studebaker
Brothers. Mr. J.M. Studebaker was then 84 years of age, hale
and hearty, still somewhat active, and arrived at his office
precisely at 8 every morning. He arrived always with a rose or
a carnation in his lapel. Two or three times, on my visits to his
office, he removed his carnation from his lapel and stuck it in
mine. I remember Mr. Studebaker as a very kindly man, and I
always counted it a rare privilege to have been able to spend a
while in conversation with him. He and his brothers originally
founded the Studebaker Brothers Wagon Works, long before
the days of the automobile. But by 1915 they were one of the
leading automobile makers.
Also I knew Mr. A.R. Erskine, at that time president of the
Studebaker Works. I believe Mr. Studebaker was chairman
of the board.
Mr. L.P. Hardy, head of the L.P. Hardy Co., which I believe
was the countrys largest sales-book manufacturer, also was
very active in chamber work, and I knew him well. The last
time I passed through South Bend, driving a new car home
from the factory, I looked in the telephone directory and failed
to find the L.P. Hardy Co. listed. They must have moved else-
where or gone out of business.
Most of these prominent and wealthy men bought multiple
blocks of motor club memberships, which sold for $2 each.
Frugality of the Wealthy

The one man reputed to be the wealthiest of all South Bends
multimillionaires at that time was Mr. J.D. Oliver, head of
the Oliver Chilled Plow Works. He was reputed to be worth
$110million.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Here, I thought, was a man who could easily afford to

purchase even a few thousand memberships. I began to count
my commission in advance. As explained previously, Mr.
Spaulding had not been able to create a salary job for me,
and I was promoting this motor club on a commission basis
of 25 percent.
In order to psychologically build up to my one biggest order
of multiple memberships, I had planned first to contact all
the other prominent men. I felt it would have a good effect on
J.D. Oliver to be able to tell him how many memberships the
others had taken. He, I figured, would want to outdo them.
I had a nice talk with Mr. Oliver. He listened to my entire
explanation of the purposes of the motor clubthe need of
better roadsthe benefit that would accrue to the community
and every business in South Bend. He listened to the expla-
nation of how generously the other prominent businessmen
of South Bend had purchased multiple memberships. He
seemed quite interested. My hopes for a big commission rose.
Mr. Armstrong, I think this motor club is a splendid
activity. It will be a fine thing for the community. Yes, you
may surely count me in. I want to join!
Man! Now my hopes soared!
Thats certainly splendid, Mr. Oliver. How many
memberships shall I put you down for?
Just one single membership. $2! came the businesslike
reply.
Did you ever have a bucket of ice water thrown in your face
at the moment of greatest anticipation?
It was incredible! A man who had $110 millionand he took
one little, tiny, measly membershipjust $2just the poor
widows two mites! But thats what he said.
Maybe, I thought, as I left the Oliver Chilled Plow plant,
thats why Mr. Oliver has a $110million. He holds on to what he
gets. I was a disappointed young man. But I still had a job to do.
Learning to Drive
After selling motor club memberships to most of the important
businessmen, I went after those running smaller businesses
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7 | How to Put Resourcefulness Into Practice
and even citizens who were employed. I needed to get out into
the country and neighboring suburbs.
I suppose the dealers who handled some of the leading auto-
mobile makes might have loaned me a car for this civic-better-
ment work, but they didnt. It remained for the dealer of the
smallest, lowest priced of all to offer me the free use of a car.
Noit wasnt a ModelT Ford. It was a smaller and lower-
priced cara little baby Saxon. Not many of my readers today
will remember the Saxon, and my memory of it is pretty dim,
but I believe it was smaller than todays German Volkswagen.
I had never before driven a car. This is where I first learned
with a baby Saxon in South Bend, at age 23.
While I was there, Ralph DePalma, then the worlds most
famous automobile racing driver, came to South Bend with his
famous racing car. I dont remember much of the occasion, but
I do remember DePalmahe made quite an impression on me.
Also while I was in South Bend, two then-famous movie stars
came through. They had soared to the top in a serial thriller,
The Million Dollar Mystery. It created about the same national
sensation in that day that the tv show The $64,000 Question did
in 1955. These two actors told me that they had personally made
very little money out of it. No one knew how it was going to catch
fire with the public before it started, and they were employed on
straight salary by contract. It made a big fortune for its owners,
not its actors. Then, in an effort to cash in on their popularity,
these two actors put all the money they had into promoting the
sequel, titled The Hundred Million Dollar Mystery.
But, as they should have known, had they been better
psychologists, the sequel was a total dud. They lost all they
had. A million dollars seemed like an unheard-of amount of
money, and those words in the title coupled with the magic
word mystery captured the fascination and interest of the
American public back in the early silent days. But it was like
a child with a new toy. Once the glamor and excitement of the
toy wears off, it becomes old stuff. Give the child another
toy just like it, only bigger, and he wont be interested.
The star of these serials was James Cruze. The other actor
was Sid Bracey.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Cracking the Adamant

It must have been about midsummer or a little later that
the time came when the Dixie Highway project could not be
delayed any longer.
The farmers to the south of us, in the north township of
Marshall County, were adamant. The road was approved
through Marshall County up to this township line, and again
as soon as it entered St.Joseph County. This little three- or
four-mile strip of road was the only link incomplete along the
entire length of the highway from Mobile to Canada.
It was now my job to crack through that human stone wall.
I had been quite intrigued in watching the strategy
Mr.Spaulding had employed in selling the motor club idea,
and a job for me, to the board of directors of the chamber.
One morning we received a telegram at the Chamber of
Commerce from the director of the Dixie Highway project in
Atlanta, Georgia. It stated tersely that he would be in South
Bend in a few days, and unless we had the highway completed
through this county south of us, the entire highway would
be rerouted by way of Chicago, and South Bend would lose
out altogether.
This was the ammunition I needed.
This was the signal to spring to action, in high gear!
I decided our only chance was to utilize the same prin-
ciple of psychology Mr. Spaulding had used in putting the
motor club through with the chamber directors. But this
was tougher. I decided it needed a big showa real whoop
and hurrah! The only way to break through the obduracy of
those farmers was through their emotions. I had learned, as
an advertising principle, that you can move people to action
easier and quicker through their emotions than through
their reason.
I decided we had to appeal to bothwith terrific impact!
Hurriedly I called Mr. Hardy and Mr. Kuhns. I told them
I planned to stage a big rally that night at the little town of
Lapaz, in the very center of this reluctant township. I asked
them if they would come down and make an impassioned
speech to the farmers in favor of the Dixie Highway. When
110
they had agreed to this, I asked them if they would approve

the expense, to be paid by the Chamber of Commerce, of a big
brass band to help get out the crowd at Lapaz. Having agreed
to speak, they couldnt well refuse to approve the expense of
the band. Mr. Spaulding agreed to call other board members
and get the band approved.
Then I arranged for a big platform to be built during the
afternoon at Lapaz. These arrangements made, I borrowed
my little Saxon car and drove to Plymouth, county seat
of Marshall County. There I arranged with the telephone
company to put through a general ring on every rural party
line in that township, and notify all the people that there was
to be a big rally that night at Lapazwith a big brass band
and noted speakers from South Bend.
Excitement of this kind was a very rare thing in such rural
areas in those days. I knew this would get all the people out. In
Plymouth I went first to the hotel, and wrote out the message
I wanted the telephone operators to announce over all their
telephone lines in that northern township. You may be sure I
put all the advertising punch I knew in that message.
This accomplished, I went to the office of the county
attorney. I explained my mission, and what the South Bend
Chamber was trying to do, and its value to Plymouth and
Marshall County. Then I asked him to draw up for me a legal
petition for the completion of the road improvements through
this northern township, with several sheets attached for
signatures. He dictated the legal document and his secretary
typed it while I waited.
Armed with this, I drove back to the vicinity of Lapaz. I
had previously obtained the names of four leading farmers
in this township, thought to be less hostile than most to the
new highway.
Now my real task began. I had to sell these four men on the
project in person, and I didnt dare fail on a one. I was armed
also with the telegram from Atlanta received that morning. I
had facts and figures on how the new highway would increase
the value of their farms, bring more trade to the towns of the
community, and in every way benefit the farmers.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
The Big Show

With necessity as a prod, I succeeded. One by one these four
key farmers were won over. I explained that they would have
to appear enthusiastic. All four finally agreed to act according
to my plan.
Now the stage was all setand not a bit too soonit was
by that time sundown.
The crowd began to arrive. The platform had been erected.
The delegation from South Bend arrived, and took its place
on the platform. I simply do not remember, now, whether I
myself acted as master of ceremonies or who, but it seems that
this was done by a leading businessman from South Bend.
The band struck up lively tunes, designed to whip up
emotional fervor. We got the crowd to singing, laughing,
dancing, shouting. It was a real show. Then the men selected
as the best public speakers in the South Bend Chamber of
Commerce, Mr. Hardy and Mr. Kuhns, gave their stirring
impassioned speeches, reading the telegram, telling the
farmers it was their last chancetonight or never!and the
advantages to them, their community, and probable increased
value of their land that the new highway would bring.
Now, gentlemen, step right on up here and sign this
petition right now! Wholl be the first? shouted all 6-feet-4 of
E. Louis Kuhns.
This was the signal. I shoved my number one farmer forward.
I want to sign that petition right now! shouted my first
farmer.
Im for it! I want to sign it! shouted out my number two
farmer, crowding forward to the platform.
Me, too! barked my third man. This is just what this
community has been needing!
Hey! Let me through! roared my number four farmer. We
all want in on this! Come on, menlets all sign it!
And they all did. They all crowded forward and signed to
put the highway through! Every farmer who had been bitterly
opposed was carried away with the emotion of things, and
was convinced that everybody else was for it, so he might as
well go along, too!
112
I had negotiated one more experience in learning to

apply the fifth law of successresourcefulnessin meeting
problems and handling obstacles.
The adamant wall was cracked!
The Dixie Highway was builttoday known as U.S. 31,
now a major paved highway from Canada to the Gulf. And, to
my readers who live along U.S. Highway 31, this is the story
of how the last link of your highway was put through, and
how it finally came into being!
Arriving in Danville Broke

The two to four months spent in chamber of commerce work
in South Bend had been valuable experience as part of the
groundwork for later accomplishmentsbut far from profit-
able as immediate financial return.
It seemed that I was doing as well as could be expected.
Many multiple memberships had been sold. But I was
running behind financially. I was living in a small room
with an alcove bed in the ymca. I ate mostly either at the Y
cafeteria or the coffee shop in the Oliver Hotel, inexpensively.
Yet I was running into debt. And the creamthe multiple
memberships sold to leading businessmen and chamber
membershad all been skimmed off, and it had become a
matter of soliciting single memberships at $2 per person. My
commission of 25 percent was not sufficient to keep me going.
Finally the decision had to be made to leave. I should have
taken this problem up with Mr. Spaulding or Mr. Kuhns, but I
was too embarrassed to go to them about a personal financial
problem. Actually I took the more embarrassing course, as I
was to learn later. It is always best to face a problem and solve
it. Running away from it is never the solution. I left debts
behind in South Bend. Later, when they became very pressing
and I was still unable to pay them, I wrote to Mr. Kuhns.
I had by then learned that the standard rate of commission
on activities similar to mine in South Bend was 50 percent.
Actually I had been only half paid. I wrote to Mr. Kuhns about
this, to see whether the chamber of commerce could rectify the
mistake and pay me the additional 25 percent which I actually
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
had earned. He replied that, on investigation, he had confirmed

my contention that the commission should have been 50
percent. But he maintained it was then too late. Had I come
to him about it before leaving South Bend, he said, something
might have been done to adjust the commission properly. Of
course he was a millionaire, and without missing the change
he could have paid these small debts and cleared the good
name of a barely 23-year-old chap who had, in this instance,
been the victim of an unintentional injustice. But that did not
seem to be the way millionaires get to be millionaires!
A year or more before I had come to South Bend, the chamber
had employed an assistant secretary, whose name, I believe,
was Vaughn. He had visited South Bend while I was there,
was about my age, and I had become acquainted with him. He
was now secretary of the chamber at Danville, Illinois.
Why I took the train from South Bend directly to Danville I
do not remember. Apparently I had thought, or Mr. Spaulding
had thought, that Vaughn might be able to turn up something
for me to do in Danville. And I had to get something else to do
immediately! I had barely enough money to get me to Danville.
Arriving in Danville one morning, stone broke, not even a
dime, I went first to call on Vaughn, but he had absolutely
nothing for menot even any ideas.
I walked back down on the street. I had no money for lunch.
I had no money for a place to sleep that night. I was too proud
to beg. Actually, that thought didnt even occur to meIm
merely stating it now. My experience indicates that no honest
man ever begs. I have given to many beggars on the street,
and have put many of them to many different tests to see if I
could find an honest one. Some had a line that sounded real
sincere. But not one ever proved honest. I think the police will
tell you there is no such thing as an honest beggar.
Perhaps some are like one I knew of in Vancouver,
Washingtonthough most are not as successful. This fellow
could throw his body into a pitiful-appearing contortion, put a
pleading, pity-arousing expression on his face, hold up his hat
with some cheap pencils in it from his squatting position on
a busy corner, and wring the hearts of passersby. Then every
114
evening he would get up, limp a few blocks to his Cadillac

parked on a back side street, unkink his legs and spine, and
gingerly hop into his car and drive home to his wife who wore
an expensive mink coat!
King David knew human nature. He said, I have been young,
and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken,
nor his seed begging bread (Psalm 37:25). No, honest people
just never do beg!
Enforced Resourcefulness
Perhaps I should never have come to realize that resourceful-
ness is one of the seven laws of success, or to have acquired any
of that ingredient, had circumstances not forced it upon me!
If so, Im grateful for the dilemma!
Here I was, almost 2,000 miles away from my parents, with
no place I could call home, just arrived in a strange city, broke!
I had to think!and think fast!!
One thing came to my mind in this emergency. The
surveys of retail business conditions I had made in Richmond,
Kentucky, and in Lansing, Michigan, had been sensational in
what they had uncovered. They had been of very great value
to the merchants of those cities. While I had been in Des
Moines, after resigning from the Merchants Trade Journal,
Mr. Boreman and I had talked about the idea that there
ought to be some way of selling these surveys to merchants
so that such investigations might be made everywhere.
But no way to sell the idea had occurred to us. Unfortunately
men will not pay money to hire an investigator to find out
whats wrong about themto discover and show them their
faults and mistakes, and to criticize them.
The thought came that Danville was an ideal size city for
such a survey. But how could I induce anyone to pay me a fee
to unearth the mistakes the local retailers were making?
Ive got it! The idea flashed to mind. Ill sell the idea to
the local newspaper. Why, this kind of information I dig up in
a survey is just the ammunition the advertising department
of the newspaper needs to sell bigger advertising space to the
merchants! Its just the information they need to show the
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
merchants how to write their copywhat individual merchants

need to do inside their stores to make their advertising bring
in better results! Why didnt I ever think of this before?
With brisk and confident steps, I walked into the office
of the business manager of Danvilles daily newspaper.
Enthusiastically I told him of the surveys I had madethe
national sensation they had created in the Journalthe value
to the merchantsand how this information could be used to
perhaps double the advertising revenue of his paper.
Ill buy it! exclaimed the business manager without a
moments hesitation. How much is it going to cost?
Caught Flat-footed
He snapped out his decision as if he was afraid I might
change my mind about being willing to do the investigation
if he delayed.
His answer came so suddenly it caught me flat-footed!
The fee? I hadnt thought of that! I was so bent on solving
my dilemma and getting some money into my pocket before
lunchtime that I had not thought the idea quite that far
through. I had no time to think.
Why, I blurted out, $50, I guess.
Again I had far underestimated the value of my services.
As I found out later, I should have said $500, and he would
have paid it just as readily! Actually I did later put on a
number of surveys for $500 fees. These experiences will be
covered in due time.
I had outlined to this newspaperman that I proposed to
get at least 100 interviews with consumers, so selected as to
be representative of the whole population, even out into the
country and neighboring suburban towns; I was to obtain as
much information as possible from local banks, the express
company, post office, freight houses, etc., as to mail-order
business and trading in Chicago stores. All my information
was to be typewritten in detail, accurately tabulated and
summarized, with separate private reports and recom-
mendations for each major local store. The newspaper was
to arrange a dinner at which all local retailers were to be
116
invited, and I was to give a talk, revealing what I had found.

So, on blurting out the $50 fee, I added: Id like a $10
advance right now, the privilege of drawing another $10
during the survey, and the balance when I turn over to you
the complete typed report and summary on the night of the
dinner. This was to be either the third or the fourth night.
Actually I had cheated myself out of $450! Nevertheless,
the predicament was solved. I walked out of his office with
$10 in my pocket! I ate lunch! And I slept that night at the Y!
It certainly could have been worse! What I really did was
to pay $450 to learn another lesson. Experience is a dear
teacher! But, truly, the laborer is worthy of his hire! This
experience helped me to learn that it is not wrong to charge
a fair and just price for services or commodities, and that an
employer should not underpay employees.
The business manager of that newspaper must have real-
ized, at least after receiving my 40- or 50-page typed report
and analysis, that the professional effort and know-how
that went into that investigation was worth several times the
little fee I had spontaneously blurted out. But, in the busi-
ness world, business is business! He paid what he agreed.
No more!
This worlds way is based on selfishness, greed, competi-
tiongetting all you can, giving as little as possiblethe
profit principle. Our world-girding enterprises of today have
been based on the giving, serving principleand this way of
doing things has built a major-sized organization that has
been eminently successfulserving and benefiting millions
worldwide.
A New Job
The merchandising survey was completed, typed, summarized,
data tabulated and analyzed in some three or four high-
pressure days.
The dinner given by the newspaper for the merchants of
Danville was well attended. My report of the investigation, as
had been the case at Richmond and Lansing, was something
of a bombshell. It really shook up the merchants to learn
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
existing facts about their own businesses and their own town
of which they had been totally unaware.
Nevertheless, a young man barely 23 is still just a young
man to others of senior maturity. I didnt realize it then, but
even the brilliancy of this report did not conceal the obvious
fact that I was a youngster, and probably in need of a job. I do
think, however, that this investigation and the revelations it
disclosed gave these businessmen the impression that I was
a fairly live young man who would be a valuable employee,
because four or five of them tried to employ me. And I was in
no position to turn down a job.
I took the job that appeared, at the time, to be most
promising. It was with the Benjamin Piano Co., selling pianos.
I devoted a month or two in determined effort, and never sold
a single piano!
This perfect goose-egg record reminds me of the punch
line of old Lightnin Bill Jones in a play that broke all
records on Broadway some 38 or 40 years ago. Old Lightnin
Bill was a likable good-for-nothing old codger who knew all,
and had done all.
Yep, he exclaimed at the climax of the show, I was in the
bee business once. Drove a swarm of bees clear across the
desert, and never lost a bee!
I managed to get pianos in many houses, on trial, and
never sold a piano!
I learned something about the piano business. It was not
conducted like other businesses. The method was to work
through piano teachers. The piano teachers always had
prospective customershomes where a child was at the age
for learning to play the piano. The company had a number of
piano teachers working for it in Danville, and over its entire
trade territory. The teachers supplied us with the names of
prospects they had already approached with the idea of lessons
for their children. Then I would call and try to talk the parents
into giving the child lessonswhich necessitated the purchase
of a piano. I would induce them to let me put a new piano
in the home on trialwithout any obligation to buy. Then I
would notify the teacher, and she would accidentally happen
118
to be passing by, and drop in for a friendly calldiscover the

piano, play it, tell the people it had a wonderful tone and a
perfect action, and highly recommend that they buy it.
Unfair Competition
This seemed like a sure fire method of selling pianos.
There was just one thing wrong with this setup.
Competition!
I soon found that our competitors also had piano teachers
working for them! I knew, of course, that our store paid a
commission to their piano teachers if the sale was made. What
I didnt know was that our competitors paid a commission
to their teachers if they could knock the sale of a Benjamin
piano, once it had been moved into a home on trial.
When I called back at a home a few days after placing a
trial piano in it, I usually found the woman angry.
Why did you talk me into letting you bring that old tin pan
into my home? she would demand. I want you to send your
truck and get this out of here at once! Miss Anderson is a
music teacher, and she happened to call on us, and she tried
out this piano and told us it was no good!
I had been successful selling advertising space, but as a
piano salesman I was a total flop. That kind of competition
seemed to me so absolutely rotten, foul and unfair I simply
refused flatly to try to combat it. Getting a local music teacher
to recommend a good piano, which I knew was worth recom-
mending, and paying her a commission, seemed legitimate. But
employing a teacher to go into homes and lie about competitors
pianos was a dishonest method I refused to engage in. Instead
I permitted disgust and resentment to discourage me on the
entire dirty business. Also I found there was no honesty in
pricing pianos. They were usually far overpriced at the start,
and the salesman was expected to keep cutting the price until
he sold the instrument. This is not necessarily true of the best
quality pianos. And I am talking about 1915 practices.
I never believed in price-cutting. A product or a service
ought to be fairly and honestly priced in the first place, and
then the price maintained.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
I have learned that men fall into two classifications, so

far as salesmanship is concerned. Some men are born to be
salesmenothers are not. Even the man with the hereditary
aptitude for it must learn. But salesmen are of two kinds.
One can sell a commodity, the other can sell an idea. I was of
this latter type. As a piano salesman I was a square peg in a
round hole.
Back Into Advertising

Of course I had been keeping in touch with my uncle, Frank
Armstrong, by occasional letter. He realized I had become
sidetracked again, and came to my rescue.
About the time it became evident to me, and also to
Mr.Benjamin, that I was not headed for an overwhelming
success as a piano salesman, I received a letter from Uncle
Frank saying he had lined up a temporary job for me, putting
on a special bank building number for the Northwestern
Banker. This publication was a leading sectional bank journal,
read by bankers in Iowa, Minnesota, North and South Dakota
and Nebraska.
Without delay I landed back in Des Moines. At that time a
large number of banks, especially small country banks, had
been erecting new bank buildingssome were small bank
buildings occupied solely by the banksome were multiple-
story office buildings, with the bank occupying the ground floor.
The magazine had conceived the idea of a special number
devoted to the subject of new buildings. I was to sell ads to
as many as possible of those banks who had constructed new
buildings, showing a picture of the new buildings in the ads.
Newspapers are always working up special issues, with
the purpose of selling special one-time advertising space. I
did not believe in these special issuesand I detested them,
after this experience, to the point that thereafter I always
refused to take part in them.
Actually there was no benefit to be gained in buying a page
or a half-page in this special bank building number, except to
enjoy the vanity of seeing a picture of their new building in
this trade journal, with the knowledge that most of the other
120
bankers in these five states would see it also. But, thats the way
business is done. One of the strongest advertising appeals is
vanity. Youll see it constantly on tv commercials, and especially
in all the womens magazines and the newspapers, utilized by
cosmetics manufacturers, automobile and cigarette companies,
and many other industries. Advertising men appeal to human
weaknesses a great deal in order to sell goods.
I started with a trip through the southern half of Iowa. I
was making very disappointing headway. The truth is, my
heart wasnt really in it, for I realized I was selling nothing
more valuable than flattery.
Selling a Sales Manager

One incident occurred on this trip which might contain some
interest. At Red Oak, in southwestern Iowa, was a nationally
prominent calendar factory. What idea I had in mind as to
how they could profitably use advertising space in a sectional
bank journal I do not remember. But I do remember that I
called to see the sales manager. He refused to see me.
This only made me determined. Of all people, I felt a sales
manager had no right to refuse to see a salesman.
I went to my hotel room, and wrote him a brief and very
pointed letter. I reminded him that he sent salesmen all over
the United States to call on customers and sell his companys
product. Also I reminded him that if his salesmen met with
the kind of treatment he accorded me, his factory would soon
be covered over with rustimania instead of the beautiful green
ivy vines that covered it then. I didnt mind being turned
down if what I had to sell did not fit in with his program or
prove profitable to use. But I did demand at least a hearing!
I rushed with the letter to the post office, registered it
and mailed it special delivery, to be delivered to and signed
by addressee only. I knew the special delivery mail carrier
would get in to him.
This strategy got me the interview. As I remember it, I
did not sell him any advertising space. But I did have the
satisfaction of gaining the interview. That cockiness and
conceit that pervaded my personality in those days was full
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
of persistent determination, and a difficult thing for another

to turn down.
I guess the lesson that came to mind on Goat Island at
Niagara Falls on December 25, 1913, had its effect. Obstacles
were things to find a way around, or over, or through, or under.
Resourcefulness, coupled with determined drive, remember,
are two of the seven laws of success. Where theres a will
theres a way! I hope some of this will rub off on my readers.
Not the egotistic conceitbut the determination, resourceful-
ness and right principles of true success.
Success out of Failure

This swing through southern Iowa was anything but a success.
Clifford DePuy (pronounced DePew), publisher of the
Northwestern Banker, was discouraged. I think he was willing
to call it quits and write off the expenses and advanced
drawing account of my efforts so far as a loss. But again Uncle
Frank came to the rescue.
Ive always noticed, he said, that salesmen who fail in
southern Iowa usually succeed in the northern part of the state.
I dont think youd better give up yet. My advice, Cliff, is to send
Herbert up into northern and northwestern Iowa, and see if the
results are not different. Mr. DePuy agreed to one more trial.
In the northern half of the state I began to sell ads, and
it soon became apparent that we would publish the special
bank building number after all.
Several of the new bank buildings I visited had been
constructed by The Lytle Co., of Sioux City. I was especially
impressed by the fact that officers of these Lytle-built banks
were far more than ordinarily enthusiastic about this company
and its methods. They worked on the cost-plus basis. Most
bankers told me they considered this the most economical
way to build, provided one is certain he is dealing with a fully
competent and thoroughly honest contractor. This construc-
tion company was headed by Mr.J.A. Raven, and all bankers
who had dealt with the company spoke highly of him. I jotted
down their comments.
An idea was beginning to perk in my mind.
122
Arriving in Sioux City, I waited outside the Lytle Co. office

building at noontime until I saw Mr. Raven go out to lunch. I
was not ready to see himyet! Then I walked in, and from his
secretary obtained all his catalogs, circulars, printed matter
and especially photographs or cuts of several of these bank
buildings I had visited.
Next I proceeded to a stationery store and procured a large
sheet of good quality drawing paper, somewhere near 14 x 26
inches in size. The next three days were spent in my hotel room.
Down in Des Moines, Cliff DePuy was getting gray-haired
wondering what had happened to his new salesman. I had
nothing to report, until I had completed my idea. I did put
on the pressure, but it had to be just right, and it took time.
At the end of three days, I had produced a very forceful
complete four-page advertisement, with attractive layout
sketched and carefully designed on this large sheet of drawing
paper, replete with cuts of several bank buildings. It contained
statements from these bankers, which I had jotted down while
in their banks, expressing their full satisfaction with Mr.
Ravens system of building construction. It even contained the
endorsement of the Northwestern Banker, which I felt safe in
offering, based on such unanimous approval from so many
banks. The ad, of course, invited banks and bankers to write
for catalog and a consultation with Mr. Raven with a view to
constructing a new bank home for them.
Selling a BIG Ad
At last I was ready to see Mr. Raven. When I walked in and
showed him this big layout of a four-page insert, he almost
fainted. It happened he was a regular advertiser in the
Northwestern Bankerhe ran a tiny 16th-of-a-page card
every month!
The audacity of trying to jump him from a 16th of a page
to four full pages seemed incredibly preposterous! Of course,
I knew it would. I was prepared for that.
Mr. Raven was a calm, steady, conservative type of man.
Why! he exclaimed. We couldnt afford to run an ad
anywhere near that big!
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
On the contrary, Mr. Raven, I rejoined, you cant afford

not to run it. Now let me read this ad to you. I want you to
hear it, before you decide. Here! You hold this layout, and see
with your eyes where each bit of text matter will be printed,
among these big headlines and pictures of banks youve built.
Of course, he wanted to hear it. But he was convinced he
didnt want to buy it.
One thing I had learned at the Merchants Trade Journal was
the effective method of selling advertising copy. There must
be a well-designed and very attractive dummy, or layout, with
the headlines sketched in, the pictures or illustrations showing,
and boxes or horizontal lines showing where the smaller text
matter will be printed. The idea was to let the prospective
advertiser hold and look at this attractive dummy, while I held
and read the typed text matter, putting into it all the emphasis
where it belonged, and the proper tone of enthusiasm and drive.
This layout was very attractiveMr. Raven had to admit
that! The ad certainly sounded convincing! He admitted that!
Running in this special number, devoted to new bank buildings,
it ought to have a terrific impact. He couldnt get around that!
Yes, he said, thats all true enough. Butfour pages!
Why, thats unheard of! We cant afford anything like that!
Yes, I agreed, remembering John R.Pattersons sales
strategy, it is certainly unheard of! The bankers of these five
states have never seen anything as audacious, as important
looking, as a four-page ad! And thats the very reason you
can afford it, Mr. Raven! Now look! This entire four-page ad
is going to cost only $160. The very smallest country bank
jobs you get run around $8,000, and your bigger jobs into the
hundreds of thousands. You construct on a 10 percent fee basis
for yourself. Your profit on just one tiny little $8,000 country
bank building is $800. If this big ad results in bringing you
only one little $8,000 job, it will have paid you, wont it?
Well, yes, I suppose it would, he replied thoughtfully. I
never thought of advertising in that way, I guess.
And, be honest, now, I pursued. How many new
construction jobs do you think you really ought to get as a
result of a dominating ad like that?
124
Why, I should think it ought to bring us several new

jobs, he admitted. Mr. Armstrong, I guess youve shown
me a new and more effective way to advertise. But I, myself,
could never have designed and written an ad like that. Yes,
I think that ad will really pay! All right, well run it, and see
what happens!
Paying for Vanity

Leaving the Lytle Co. office, I literally ran back to the Hotel
Martin, and from my room called Cliff DePuy in Des Moines.
Where have you been? What in the worlds happened to
you? he demanded on hearing my voice. Have you sold any
space yet?
Have I! I exclaimed. Ive spent the past three days writing
up an entire four-page insert for this special number, and I
sold it to Mr. Raven of the Lytle Co.!
What! he gasped, unbelievingly. Say that again!
I learned later that Cliff forgot momentarily that he was a
grown man, all 6 feet, 3 inches of him, and all 28 or 30 years of
him, as his age was at that time, and that he jumped up and
down for glee like a little boy, and then took off a half holiday
and ran out to tell every banker in the city that we were running
a whole four-page ad in the next issue! Never had anything that
big been heard of!
Before describing the result of that ad, I must recount,
here, an incident that occurred at this same time while I was
in Sioux City.
Mr. Raven told me he knew where I could sell a full page
to a bank. He grinned as he explained. Up in Royal, Iowa,
a little town of perhaps less than 500 population about 80
miles northeast of Sioux City, he had built two small bank
buildings. On completion of the first one, the bank across the
street called him in. The president said he had watched the
Lytle Co.s work, had checked up on them and was convinced
of their reliability and honesty, and had decided to employ
them to build a new building for his bank.
Now, can you tell me how much that little new building
across the street cost? he asked.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Mr. Raven said it had cost $8,000. (Remember, this was

1915. The same building would cost immensely more today.)
Well, Mr. Raven, we want you to draw up plans right away
to build a $16,000 bank for us.
It was going to take an entire day to go to Royal and back,
on the slow branch line railroads in that country. But I
decided a surefire page ad was worth it.
I arrived in Royal and went immediately to this larger
bank. I had a full page ad designed, with a picture of the
building, which I had obtained from Mr. Raven. Also I had a
layout of another full page with a picture of the smaller bank
across the street, which I managed carelessly to permit this
banker to see.
Well, that ad looks nice, commented this bank president,
but Mr. Armstrong theres no reason for us to advertise in the
Northwestern Banker. We have nothing to sell to other banks.
This was only too true. Today my conscience would not let
me sell such an ad. There was only one reason for him to
buy itvanity. And, perhaps, spite, or competitive spirit to
prevent his competitor across the street from getting it. But I
was prepared with the answer.
Well, I said, in that case, I suppose Ill have to see the
bank across the street. You see, this is an exclusive propo-
sition. Just one ad is sold in each town. If you take it, the
other bank cant run their ad. If they do, then you cant. And
it really is too badfor now I suppose all your fellow bankers
you know and meet at the group meetings and state conven-
tions will see the picture of that little bank across the street,
and they wont even know that you have a building twice as
big and fine.
I emphasize, I would refuse to use such a sales appeal
to vanity and jealousy today. It was almost pitiful, when
he asked, like a whipped dog, How much did you say this
page is going to cost? as he reached for a pen and signed the
one-time space contract without another word.
Yes, I learned that there is jealousy and a spirit of
competition among dignified and conservative bankers, just
as there is between other humans.
126
Results-Getting Ads
After this Sioux City episode, I worked my way, selling a few
page and half-page ads to banks which had constructed new
buildings along the way, on over to Charles City, Iowa. In
Charles City was another company which ran regular but
small ads in the Northwestern Banker, the Fisher Co., manu-
facturers of bank fixtures and interiors.
They worked to some extent with the Lytle Co., since they
installed most of the interior of a bank, including the cages
and counters.
Here, again, I took a couple days or so, first getting their
catalog, with illustrations of many of their interiors of banks,
and designed and wrote a double-page spread for them. By
the same method used with Mr. Raven, this double spread
was sold to Mr. Fisher.
Both this two-page ad and the Lytle Co. four-page ad
produced unexpected results, and each sold a number of
new jobs.
Before the next issue of the trade paper went to press, I
called again at both Sioux City and Charles City, and each
company signed up on a yearly basis: the Lytle Co. for a full
page or more each issue, and the Fisher Co. for a half page or
more each issue.
Actually, through the following seven years each company
never used less than this minimum space, but many, many
times the Lytle Co. used double pages, and the Fisher Co. full
pages, and, I believe, a few more double-page ads. These ads,
which I continued to write for them over a span of the next
seven years, proved very profitable to them, and expanded
their businesses.
For a few months I continued to work around in Iowa,
using the procedure of selling advertising space for ads I had
already written before calling on prospective advertisers.
Developing a Business
By this process a temporary one-month special-issue job was
converted into not only a steady job, but a developing and
growing business of my own.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
I had taken this special issue job on a commission basis, with

a drawing account of, I believe, $40 per week, as an advance
from the publication to cover expenses. This drawing account
was deducted from commissions earned. The commission
basis, common for all publications of this class, was 40 percent.
In other words, publishers of bank journals and similar
publications had found that it actually cost them 40 percent
of the sell space, regardless of the method used in paying
whether salary and expense, commission, or what.
Clifford DePuy had, at that time, been the publisher of the
Northwestern Banker only a comparatively short timepossibly
two or three years. His father had been editor and publisher
before him. But when the elder DePuy had died suddenly, the
entire responsibility came crushing down on Cliffs shoulders.
His father had been most highly respected by the bankers of
the Central Northwest, and very popular personally.
Clifford DePuy had been attending an art school or
something of the kind. He had not established any great
reputation as a success. But now he held a serious and a frank
conference at the bank which held the publications account.
Actually he and the elder DePuys family were shocked to
learn the magazine had been left heavily in debt. But on condi-
tion Cliff would make a real fight to save the publication, the
bank offered to back him as long as his efforts remained prom-
ising for the future. He agreed to roll up both sleeves, plunge
into the business, do everything in his power to preserve the
publication. The bankers of the Northwest had a real love for
this journal. They didnt want to see it suspend publication.
Although Cliff was inexperienced in this field, they agreed to
back him.
I recount this experience here because it is one that
frequently occurs and it illustrates a principle. The sudden
plunging of heavy responsibility on one often brings him
to an awakening, provides heretofore lacking incentive,
arouses dormant abilities. This new responsibility suddenly
descending on Clifford DePuy stirred him to intensive and
dynamic action, and brought out dormant qualities and abil-
ities. In a few short years he had developed the publication
128
into a very profitable enterprise with adequate reserves. Later

he expanded, purchasing other publications. He became a
successful publisher.
Cliff and I had a business relationship together for the next
seven years. He was tall, about 6 feet, 3 inches as I remember,
aggressivea human dynamo. I respected his abilities, and
Im sure he respected mine. Later, in Chicago, he periodically
came in, once or twice a year, and we would spend a couple
or three days calling on prospective advertisers together. We
flattered ourselves in those days that we were an unbeatable
team. We both worked at a terrific pace, and we fancied
prospective advertisers found us almost impossible to turn
down. I think we did pack quite a persuasive wallop at that!
After a month or two of soliciting advertising accounts for
the Northwestern Banker over the state of Iowa, it seemed
advisable for me to go in to Chicago.
129
8
BECOMING
A PUBLISHERS
REPRESENTATIVE
I T WAS NOW THE FALL OF 1915. BY THIS
time I had a considerable amount of valuable experience

behind me.
I had reached the age when most students had graduated from
college23. All this time I had continued my studies, delving
into many subjects, including philosophy and psychology, but
my major, of course, had been journalism, advertising, selling
and merchandising, along with business management. This
study had been combined with intensive field experience in
contacts and dealings with businessmen over most of the United
States, discussing business methods and problems with them.
Practical vs. Theoretical Education

This education was far more practical than theoretical class-
room instruction out of textbooks usually written by professors
utterly lacking in practical experience. Nevertheless, I frequently
wondered, in those days, how my education would stack up with
that of most college graduates. Later I was to find out.
You will remember, as recounted in the earlier part of this
130
autobiography, that at age 18 I had faced, and answered,
the question of going to college. I had chosen the advertising
profession. There were no worthwhile courses available in
advertising in the colleges and universities at that time.
On the advice of my uncle, Frank Armstrong, leading adver-
tising man in Iowa, I had decided on a course of self-study
combined with active experience. I had, except for deviations
from my goal, chosen the jobs that would provide the training I
needed for the future, rather than the jobs which paid the most.
Then I purchased books, and borrowed books from public
libraries, besides subscribing to the trade journals in the
advertising field, Printers Ink and Advertising & Selling. I
read a great deal of Elbert Hubbards writings, and continually
studied and analyzed the best advertisements in newspapers
and leading magazines. Also, I read a great deal in certain
general magazines, such as the Quality Group of those days,
especially Worlds Work. I confined my reading in magazines
to informative and thought-provoking articles, resisting fiction
almost altogether. Fiction is the lazy mans reading. Like the
movies, and todays tv programs, it is merely a ready-made
daydream, inducing habits of mind-drifting.
These years of self-assigned study, enforced mental
activity, contacts with successful men in many varied fields,
coupled with the practical experience that had been mine, had
produced an education and training superior to the average
college education.
As president of a liberal arts college with three campuses on
two continents today, I can say that this intensive education
from the university of hard knocks and practical experience
in application has made possible a college offering todays
students a sound and practical education acquiring the true
values! And supplying the missing dimension in education.
Moving to Chicago
My work on the one-issue special bank building number of
the Northwestern Banker had been converted into a regular
job as advertising solicitor, on a 40 percent commission basis,
with a drawing account.
131
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Right here I hope I may interject a success principle of

which the vast majority seem totally unaware. Here was a
temporary job, doing a special one-month edition of a small-
class journal. But it offered larger opportunities. Those greater
possibilities were visualized and acted upon! The temporary
job was turned into a steady job as advertising solicitor for one
sectional bank journal. And it led from these to establishing a
successful business as publishers representative in Chicago.
This is the quality, rare among people (but why should it
be?), called vision. This job on one sectional journal later was
developed into a business as publishers representative for
nine bank magazines. Most men are never able to see any
possibilities of expanding their present jobs. They do merely
what they are toldwhat someone higher up thought out and
laid before them. Or they use deceit to jerk the rug out from
under the man above them.
The Bible says that if we do only what we are commanded
what is expected of uswe are unprofitable servants to be
cast out into outer darkness.
Most people go to one extreme or the other. While the big
majority never think beyond their present jobsnever think
out ways to do the job better, or to develop or expand their own
job into something bigger, or to be preparing themselves for
the better jobs ahead and promotions to them, a minority go
to the opposite extreme. They are always trying to do the job
aheador the bosss jobwithout adequate ability, prepara-
tion or experience, and only throw monkey wrenches into the
gears, causing damage, lacking wisdom and judgment.
Most men never seem to realize how the application of some
of these principles makes all the difference between employee
and employer; between mediocrity or failure and success.
Back to the story. I had now developed the opportunity
into a job. But the field in Iowa was too limited. The nations
advertising headquarters centered in two citiesNew York
and Chicago. After a month or two of developing a few
accounts in Iowa, chief of which had been the Lytle Co. and
the Fisher Co., I moved into Chicago.
I made my home at the old Hotel Del Prado, a South Side
132
8 | Becoming a Publishers Representative
residential hotel on the Midway, adjacent to the University

of Chicago. The one personal friend I had in Chicago at the
time was Ralph G. Johnson, manager of the Merchants Trade
Journals Chicago office, and I moved into Del Prado because
he lived there.
The old Del Prado has long since been torn down, and a
new skyscraper Del Prado erected on the lakeshore. The old
one was a sprawling three- or four-story frame building, well
maintained as a first-class residential hotel. Most cities have
residential hotels, and I learned that they are a most satisfac-
tory type of residence for single people, whether young or old.
Very soon I came to know most of the residents of Del Prado.
The hotel provided a weekly Wednesday night dance for all
guests. The dining room was cleared to provide the dance
floor. There were spacious lobbies and lounge rooms. There
was a sort of unwritten law among guests which dictated that
if one desired social contact, he would find almost any of the
other guests receptive and friendly; or if he preferred privacy,
or to sit alone in the lobby, no one would intrude.
I lived at Del Prado almost two yearsuntil a certain Iowa
girl came to Chicago to become my wife. This privilege of
living in a large metropolitan residential hotel was one of the
cultural and valued experiences of all those formative years.
It supplied one of those social-cultural influences which many
college students receive by residence in a fraternity house
but without some of the evils of frat life.
I soon observed that the most popular girl at the Wednesday
night dancesor chatting in the lobbies at any other time
was Miss Lucy Cunningham. Miss Lucy, as everybody called
her, was a white-haired maiden lady in her 70s. She was espe-
cially popular with all the single young men. A few University
of Chicago coeds lived at the Del Prado with their mothers.
But often these attractive and intelligent young coeds were
forced to play the role of wallflowers during a dance, while
Miss Lucy was always in demand!
She was a charming conversationalist, witty, intelligent,
well educated. We fellows spent many an exhilarating evening
hour chatting with her in one of the lobby roomsusually
133
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
three or four young men around Miss Lucy. That was long
before cigarette smoking became habitual with the female sex.
In those days it was not generally accepted as being nice for
a lady to smoke. Prostitutes smoked, but not nice women.
MissLucy, however, was a nice woman who was a little
ahead of her time. She was nice all right, but she dared to
do what she wanted. Miss Lucy smoked cigarettes! Whenever
another guest walked past the grouping of sofas and lounge
chairs where we were sitting with her, she would casually
hand her cigarette over to one of the fellows, who would hold
it until the way was clear again. Probably not many, except a
number of the young men residents, ever knew her addiction
to smoking.
I didnt like to see her smoke. It has always seemed
disgusting to me to see any woman smoke. But, remember, I
was young then, and fancied I was quite broad-minded about
such things. I was not naive. No one is wholly good or bad, and
I liked Miss Lucy for the things that were good about her.
Besides, I myself smoked in those days. Youll remember
how I swore off chewing tobacco at age 5. But I had taken
up pipe smoking during those long and frantic night hours
at Wiggins, Mississippi, as an aid to staying awake while I
worked over the books. I had smoked, moderately, ever since.
However, I will say that I was never a heavy smoker. Never
more than one cigar a day, or three or four cigarettes in a day.
Thats the reason I did not have the battle many men have
had in breaking the habit when I saw that it had to be broken.
My battles with myself were in other directions.
An Office of My Own
The first time in my life I had an office of my own was in
Chicago. On arriving there from Iowa, now representing the
Northwestern Banker, I opened an office in the Advertising
Building, at 123 West Madison Street, in the heart of
Chicagos Loop. This location was only a half block off South
LaSalle Street, which is the Wall Street of Chicago. Most
of the great banks and investment houses (of Chicago) are
located on this street.
134
The Advertising Building was occupied solely by advertising

agencies, publishing firms, publishers representatives, or
those of allied lines in the advertising field. The Ad Club, a
division of the Chicago Association of Commerce, had its club
rooms there.
The name of this tall but slender skyscraper has been
changed at least twice since then. Not many would remember
it as the Advertising Building today.
Actually, I did not quite open an office, as yet. The fourth
floor of this building consisted of one large general room, with
a tier of private offices forming an L around the far side
and the rear of the floor. This large general room was filled
with a number of desks. At first, I rented merely desk space
in this open room. It was about two years before my business
expanded to the point where I required, and was able to
afford, a private office; and then I rented one on that same
floor. Altogether I maintained office facilities on that same
floor for seven years.
At the entrance of this desk-space room was a telephone
switchboard and a receptionist. She served all tenants on
that floor, taking telephone messages when tenants were
out. Through this entire seven years of my tenancy there,
the same alert, quick-thinking receptionist remained at
that switchboard. Her name was Olive Graham. She had an
astonishingly remarkable faculty. She could remember every
telephone number that had been given to her for days, and
precisely when the call had come in.
On one occasion, a man attempted to alibi his failure to
call me by claiming that he had called and left his telephone
number for me to call. I took his telephone and called our
switchboardRandolph 2-100.
Olive, I said, Mr. Blank says he called me three days
ago, when I was out, and left his number, Blank 8-693, for
me to call.
No, Mr. Armstrong, replied Olive promptly. No Mr.
Blank called three days ago, and no one left the number
Blank 8-693.
That was positive proof. Olive was never mistaken.
135
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Mr.Blank was forced to admit he had not made the call. How
that girl could carry hundreds of telephone numbers in her
mind I could never understand. I never knew her to miss.
Advertising Tractors to Bankers

Some little time after setting up my own headquarters
in Chicago, I had what might appear to be a most absurd
brainstorm. Those on our present staff and our architects
well know that these brainstorms have a way of continuing,
even today.
They may seem ridiculous or absurd at first thought. But
more often than not they have proven to be very practical and
worthwhile ideas. You see, while I was touring the country as
the Idea Man for the Merchants Trade Journal, my job was
to look for ideaspractical ideasideas that had been put to
work, and had proven successful. That experience taught me
the value of ideas.
In the aptitude tests given prospective employees by one large
corporation, one of the questions was: Do you ever daydream?
Ninety-nine out of 100 applicants, if they were putting down the
answers they supposed the company wanted, rather than the
actual truth, would most surely have answered No! Actually,
the company was looking for men who do daydream in a certain
manner. Not the kind of daydreaming that lets the mind
stagnate and drift without thinkingbut the kind of thinking
daydreaming that utilizes imaginationthat thinks up ideas,
and then mentally puts them to every test to see whether they
will work!
To climb the ladder of ultimate success in accomplishment,
one must exercise vision and, supplementary to it, imagina-
tionthe kind of active, practical thinking that produces
sound and workable ideas! The college in which I was trained
taught me these things. The average college education,
however, fails to inculcate anything of this nature.
This brainstormor ideawas the selling of large adver-
tising space in the bank journals to farm tractor manufac-
turers. Certainly no one had ever heard of such an apparently
preposterous idea before. But it worked, and it paid the farm
136
tractor industry in a big wayand, incidentally, it put me

above the $50,000-a-year income class (in terms of todays
dollar) while still a youth in my 20s.
However, that idea required time to develop.
At first, my work in Chicago confined me primarily to the
solicitation of advertising from banks and investment houses
which had not previously used space in the Northwestern
Banker. Although I was required to call on, and render any
desired service to the financial institutions which were
already advertising in the Northwestern Banker, I received no
commission from any of this, but only on such new accounts
as I developed myself.
This journal was already carrying the advertising of many
of Chicagos large banks and bond houses. But there were
still others.
What a Correspondent Bank Is

One might wonder why the larger Chicago banks should
carry advertising in journals read only by other bankers. The
answer is that these larger banks in Chicago and New York
do have something to sell to other banks.
They are, in a sense, bankers banks. Virtually every bank
in Iowa, Minnesota, North and South Dakota and Nebraska
kept a goodly sum of money on deposit in at least one Chicago
bank. This was a system used by banks to facilitate the
clearing of checks.
Have you ever wondered how checks you send to people in
other states are cleared?
Suppose, for example, you live in Fort Dodge, Iowa. You owe
a bill to a concern in Muncie, Indiana. You mail the Muncie
firm a check on your local Fort Dodge bank. The Muncie firm
deposits the check in its local bank in Muncie. The Muncie
bank either pays the Muncie firm the amount, thus cashing
your check, or it credits the amount to the firms account in
the bank.
But, now, how is that bank in Muncie, Indiana, going to get
the amount of the check from you? When you wrote out your
check, drawn on your Fort Dodge bank, you represented that
137
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
you had that amount of money on deposit in the bank in Fort

Dodge. The check is merely an order for your bank in Fort
Dodge to pay to the firm in Muncie, Indiana, the amount of
your money written on the check. Now when a bank over in
Muncie, Indiana, pays this amount of money to this Muncie
firm, the Muncie bank must have a way to collect your money
from your bank in Fort Dodge. How?
Banking procedures have undergone some change, and
today the Federal Reserve system is used by member banks to
a great extent in the clearing of checks, and the correspondent
system to a lesser degree.
But in those days it was done primarily through this
correspondent system. Most banks scattered over such states
as Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin have a Chicago corre-
spondent. That is, they keep a sum of money on deposit in
a Chicago bank, for the very purpose of clearing checks. So
the Muncie bank has a Chicago correspondent. Also the Fort
Dodge bank has a Chicago correspondent, although it may be
a different Chicago bank.
Here is how the system works. The Muncie bank sends your
check to its Chicago correspondent bank. On receipt of your
check, this Chicago bank credits the amount of your check to
the account of the Muncie bank. Now the Muncie bank has
been reimbursed for cashing your check. If your check was for
the amount of $100, it has $100 added to the amount it has
on deposit in the Chicago bank. Now this Chicago bank must
be reimbursed. Through the Chicago Clearing House system,
it sends your check to the Chicago bank that is the corre-
spondent of your Fort Dodge bank, which has an adequate
amount of money on deposit with its Chicago correspondent
bank. This bank in Chicago thereupon debits the account of
your Fort Dodge bank $100. In plainer words, it takes the
$100 out of the money on deposit by your Fort Dodge bank,
which is paid through the Chicago Clearing House system
to the other Chicago bank which is the correspondent of the
Muncie bank. And finally, the Chicago correspondent of the
Fort Dodge bank sends your check back to your bank in Fort
Dodge, notifying your bank that it has taken this $100 out of
138
the money they had on deposit. Your bank stamps your check
paid, taking your $100 which it had on deposit, thus reim-
bursing itself for the $100 which its Chicago correspondent
took out of its money on deposit there. And at the end of the
month you receive a statement from your bank showing they
have deducted this $100 from your balance on deposit, and
enclosing the canceled check.
This is all not so complicated as it probably sounds. I have
taken space to explain it so simply that a little child can under-
stand it. But I thought it might be interesting to my readers,
most of whom probably never had any understanding of how
checks are cleared from one part of the country to another.
Attending Bankers Conventions

My work now brought me into contact with many of the
nations leading bankers. Solicitation among Chicagos larger
banks and security firms made it necessary to cultivate
personal acquaintance with those officers directly connected
with the correspondent accounts. This often included one of
the vice presidents, and in some instances the presidents.
Certain phases of the banking business are not generally
known by the public. One of these is the personal acquaintances
and contacts maintained among men of the banking fraternity.
Each state has its state bankers association, with its
annual bankers convention. These state conventions are well
attended by presidents, vice presidents, cashiers and even some
assistant cashiers, especially those whose jobs are connected
with the correspondent business. Each state is divided into
groups, and each group holds its annual group meeting.
Then on the national level, there is the national aba
(American Bankers Association) convention each year, well
attended by presidents and top-ranking vice presidents of the
nations largest banks.
At these annual conclaves, bankers, so dignified and formal
at home and before customers in their own banks, really let
down their hair, as the saying goes. They familiarly call each
other by their first names.
To a large extent, this correspondent business between
139
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
banks is conducted on a personal acquaintance basis.

Although there were two outstanding national magazines
in the banking field, these localized sectional bank journals
maintained a personal contact and hold on their banker
subscribers that was not possible for a national magazine.
There were seven principal sectional or regional journals,
all published by men of outstanding personality. These
publishers attended most of the group meetings, and all of
the state and national conventions. They mixed personally
with the bankers of their districtswho were the readers
of their publications. The most eagerly read pages of these
monthly journals were the personal gossip pages. All these
sectional journals published a great deal of personal news
about individual bankers in their districts. The bankers of
each section, who knew most of the other bankers personally,
were naturally eager to read any personal news items about
bankers they knewand about themselves!
Since I was now the advertising representative of perhaps
the leading one of these sectional bank journals, I began to
attend several of the state bankers conventions, and most of
the aba conventions.
In this manner I began to form personal acquaintance with
hundreds of prominent bankersanother important factor in
my education which had some influence in preparing me for
the real job ahead.
In Chicago were many manufacturers of products sold to
banks. Of course I solicited advertising from these.
The Tractor Brainstorm

I do not remember just how this idea came to mind about selling
large-space advertising to the manufacturers of farm tractors.
But in some manner, through personal contacts with scores of
small-city and country bankers, I had come to realize that trac-
tors, in those days, were sold for cashthere were no easy-pay-
ment plans or financing terms offered. The farmers were forced
to borrow the money from their bankers in order to purchase
tractors. My conversations with bankers had indicated that
bankers were not, as yet, sold on the idea of the farm tractor.
140
So, in order to get all the facts, I made an extensive survey.

That experience in conducting the surveys at Richmond,
Kentucky, and Lansing, Michigan, had shown the value
of fact-finding by survey, obtaining information from a
representative portion, based on the law of average.
This farm tractor survey was made primarily by mail
through questionnaires. These questionnaires were sent to a
thousand or more bankers, and a representative number of
farmers, and a third questionnaire to scattered local dealers
who sold tractors. Simultaneously, I went out on a personal
tour of several states, personally interviewing bankers, tractor
dealers and farmers.
This survey unearthed some startling facts, which tractor
manufacturers had never realized about their business.
The officers of the average bank in the Northwestern Banker
territory owned eight farms. Many had come into this farm
ownership through foreclosure of mortgages. Of course they
did not farm, themselves. These bankers either employed
managers to operate them, or rented them out. Multiplying
our circulation by eight, I learned that I had a farm-owner
circulation to sell at a lower cost per page per thousand circu-
lation than the farm papers.
But the principal reason farm tractor manufacturers needed
to buy advertising space in a banking journal was to win the
favor of bankers so that they would readily loan money to their
farmer customers for the purchase of tractors. The bankers
were proving a very serious sales-resistance factor. Whenever
a farmer would come into a bank to borrow money for the
purchase of a tractor, the banker, calling him by his first name,
would ask: What do you want the money for, John?
And when he learned John was about to buy a tractor, he
discouraged John. At first, when I presented these facts to
tractor manufacturers, they scoffed.
Why, Mr. Armstrong, they would object, if the bank they
do business with refuses the loan, the farmers simply go
across the street to another bank and borrow it there.
Apparently, I replied, you do not realize the personal
relationship between country bankers and their farmer
141
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
customers. The country banker is a sort of father confessor

to his farmer customers. They come to him with their prob-
lemsask his advice. Do you suppose these bankers are so
stupid that they would turn down a loan in such a manner
that their farmer customer would be offended and go to a
competitive bank? I have interviewed scores of bankers on
this point. The banker who feels his farmer customer ought
not to spend the money for a tractor doesnt refuse the loan
he merely talks the farmer out of wanting it. He will talk
to farmer John something like this: Well, John, my advice
would be to go a little slow before you go into debt to buy
that tractor. As you know, John, I own eight farms myself.
And Im not at all sold on the practicality of tractor farming.
In my opinion, the tractor hasnt arrived yet. Its still in the
experimental stage. Now I know, John, that tractor salesman
has probably put up a pretty slick argument. Of course hes
interested in getting a big fat commission for himself. But Im
interested in your welfare, John. Now, of course, if you decide
to let that salesman talk you into it, well loan you the money,
but my advice is, dont do it! You raise your own feed for your
horses. But youll have to buy gasoline to feed the tractor. I
dont think it would pay.
In soliciting the advertising of tractor manufacturers, I
soon found that their advertising managers could not buy it
because they were given a definite appropriation for definite
fieldsthe farm journals and the farm dealer trade papers.
They had no appropriation for bank magazines, and they
lacked authority to change company policies.
It became necessary for me to go direct to the presidents of
factories in the tractor industry.
This, again, was an experience that afforded personal
contacts with several multimillionaires. Among them was
the president of J.I. Case, Mr. Wallis; Mr. Brantingham of
the Emerson-Brantingham Co.; George N. Peak, president of
Moline Plow Works, who later became prominent in President
Franklin D. Roosevelts nra; General Johnson, vice president
of John Deere & Co., also later head of one of President
Roosevelts nra activities.
142
Representing Nine Magazines

My one biggest obstacle in this farm tractor fieldand also
in soliciting manufacturers of items sold to bankswas the
limitation of our circulation to one five-state region. These
big advertisers in the Chicago district advertised on a
national basis.
Also, because of this, I encountered stiff opposition from the
advertising agencies. Advertising agencies serve the adver-
tiser, who is their client, but they are not paid by their clients.
They are paid by the publishers, on the basis of a 15 percent
agency commission on all billings.
The agency position was this: It took just as much time, and
effort, for them to prepare a page ad for our little sectional
bank journal with some 2,000 circulation and an advertising
rate of $40 per page, as for a page ad in the Saturday Evening
Post with a page rate in those days, of $5,000 (much higher in
later years!). The agency would make only $6 for its work on
a page for us, compared to $750 for the same amount of effort
for a page in the Post.
I began to realize that I could sell big-space advertising
much easier for a large national circulation than for one
small sectional journal.
This brought about another brainstorm. Although there
were two leading national magazines in the banking field,
they did not provide a sufficiently complete national coverage.
The seven leading sectional journals completely dominated
their respective fields. The only possible complete national
circulation in the banking field could come only by using
these ninethe seven leading sectional journals and the two
national magazines.
But there was still a major difficulty. These various bank
magazines had various page sizes. Agencies usually send ads
out in plate formalready set to type. The necessity of making
plates of so many sizes would discourage agencies.
So, about a year or a year and a half after moving to
Chicago, I had worked out a proposition to set myself up as
an independent publishers representative in the bank field.
These publications, by whatever methods, had found it
143
cost them 40 percent to get business. I proposed to represent
all nine magazines, and myself to finance all solicitation, and
send them advertising at a reduction to them of 25 percent
in cost of obtaining business. In other words, I was to have
exclusive representation, on a 30 percent commission basis,
but the magazines were to pay me the entire years commis-
sion in advance on all 12-time yearly contracts, upon receipt
of signed contract from the advertiser. They were all to adopt
a standard magazine page size.
But there arose one overpowering obstacle in my path.
Clifford DePuy, about this time, had acquired a second of
these seven leading sectional bank journalsthe old St.Louis
Banker, the name of which he changed to the Mid-Continent
Banker. He objected in loudest tones to my representation
of any other publications. I had been his exclusive Chicago
representative, and he was determined to keep it that way.
I, on the other hand, had become determined to expand my
field. I maintained that I could send Cliff a great deal more
business as the representative of a complete national circula-
tion. He didnt think so. We really clashed on this issue.
But, before this issue was finally settled, I had met a
certain very attractive young lady out in Iowa.
I think the time has come to relate a different phase of
these life experiencesmy dating girls and the romantic side
of life from the beginning up to the time of marriage.
144
9
HOW I MET MY WIFE
I N THE CHRONICLE OF EXPERIENCES
that provided the training for the activities of later years, none
exceeded in import the dating experiences that culminated in
marriageat least none exceeded the marriage experience.
If it be true, as it definitely appears now in retrospect, that
the Eternal God knew He would call me to the important
activity now in progress with progressively increasing power
of impact, and that this early training of formative years had
some measure of unseen and unrealized divine guidance, then
it is true, also, that the selection of my wife and life partner
was providential.
It was through her, years later, that circumstances impelled
my conversion and induction into the great commission. This
commission, from its beginning, had been a team activity
commission in which Mrs. Armstrong shared equallyeven
though it may not have been evident to many.
No phase of any mans life is more important, or has greater
bearing on his future success or failure, than the romantic
experiences and their culmination in marriage. The same is
true, conversely, in the lives of girls who have reached the
dating age.
Few young people, today, realize the seriousness of this
phase of life. Proper dating has become virtually a lost art in
America. Young people today, it seems, do not know how to
date. Most have little or no conception of the nature of true love,
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
or the meaning and responsibility of marriage. They are men

and women physically, but they are still children emotionally.
Let me repeat, here, that I was born of solid old Quaker
stock. I was brought up from childhood to believe that marriage
was for life, and divorce was a thing unheard of in our family.
Marriage was regarded seriously, and as something not to be
considered by a young man until he had acquired his education
and preparatory experience, and was established financially
and in position to support a wife and family.
Consequently, in my dating of girls prior to age 24, there
was no thought of marriage, except indirectly.
My Dating System
And, by indirectly, I mean this: I had a system. I was
conceited enough to think it a pretty good system. I was aware
that I did not really know what love is. But I had the concep-
tion that it was a mysterious thing that might hit a young
man when he wasnt looking. He might suddenly fall for a
girl. Once this happened, so I surmised, the poor victim lost
his mental equilibrium. He was hooked and unable to help
himself, or if the girl be the wrong one, to recognize that fact.
I was, in other words, afraid I might be caught off guard
and helplessly plunged into a binding lifelong marriage with
the wrong girl. I had heard that love was blind. If I should
fall in love with the wrong girl, I would probably be totally
blinded to the fact she was the wrong one. My life would be
ruined! That is, so I then supposed.
My system was born out of fear of this possibility. I didnt
want to get serious, or think of marriage, before I was
advanced enough to support a family. But, if this love bug
should stab a hypo-love potion into me prematurely, I wanted
to have insurance against being bound to the wrong one.
Therefore my system was this: I would generally avoid even
dating a girl unless she appeared, so far as I could then see, to
be at least eligible if I lost my head and fell for her. Next, on
my first date, one thing was always uppermost in my mindto
coldly analyze that girl from the point of view of what kind of a
wife and mother she would make, if I lost my head over her. If
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9 | How I Met My Wife
she definitely didnt measure up, I firmly avoided any second

date with her. If I were not quite sure one way or the other, I
would allow myself a second dateif she appeared sufficiently
interesting. If a girl passed my analytical test, then immediately
I put all thought of marriage out of mind, but she remained on
the list of girls who were eligible for datesif I desired them.
As a result of this system I did date girls I felt were well
above the average. I enjoyed a scintillating conversation. If a
girl was unable to carry on her part of such an intellectual
conversation, or was lacking in any mental depth and bril-
liancy, she didnt interest me enough for another date.
My First Date
I suppose most little boys, around age 4 or 5, pick out some girl
they call their girlfriend. This is, of course, quite cute and
amusing to parents and other adults. I mentioned, earlier, a
little girl who took part in some church play with me, at age 5.
Then, around 9 or 10 years of age, a Sunday school chum and
I picked out a girl whom we mutually called our girlonly
she never knew it. We were too young and too shy to tell her.
I kissed a girl for the first time when I was 12. Some of us
kids in the neighborhood were playing post office. I think I
secretly considered that girl to be my girlfriend, though Im
sure she didnt know it. I do remember her name.
I also remember the name of this Sunday school girl I
secretly shared with the other boy. But I will refrain from
mentioning it for the other boy finally did start going with
her when he became old enough, and wound up marrying
herand I have heard that she moved to Pasadena.
But my first real date came when I was a freshman in high
school. It was with a neighbor girl who also was a freshman at
North High in Des Moines. The occasion was some high school
event that took place in the evening. I remember I was very
self-conscious being on a streetcar alone with a girl.
Why is it that so many teenage boys are bashful in the
presence of girls their age, while girls seem never to be the
least bit embarrassed?
I did continue to go with this girl, off and on, for some
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
seven or eight years, but never was it going steady as so

many young people do today, and it was never serious. Never
once did I kiss her.
Once, when I was probably 22 or 23, on a date with her in
Des Moines, I did start to slip an arm around her. Promptly
she took my arm and placed it back where it belonged. But
not because she was a prude.
I wish you wouldnt, Herbert, she said simply. At least
unless you are serious. Youre the only fellow Ive ever gone
with that hasnt necked with me. Id like to keep this one slate
clean. It has really meant something to me.
I wasnt serious, so my arm stayed home the rest of the
evening.
Necking Experiences
When I first dated this girl, at about age 15, and for some years
after that, I never necked with any girl. Only we didnt call it
necking thenit was loving up, and back in my mothers
day it was spooning. I dont know what they called it in
Abraham Lincolns day, or back in the days of Adam and Eve.
But its been going on all these millenniums and centuries, no
matter what any passing generation may call it. It speaks its
own universal language. But, in this autobiography, I shall
use the terminology of the present day, for reasons of clarity.
So far as I know, during the earlier years of my dating
experience this thing of necking was not practiced in the
promiscuous way it is today.
I dated a number of girls I regarded as unusual, and
considerably above the average. One was the daughter of the
president of an insurance company. She was my mothers
original preference, and I think that at the time Mother
would have been pleased had I married her. But neither of us
held the slightest romantic interest for the other. She was an
artist and sculptress. I admired and respected her, however,
and enjoyed an occasional date with her. Then there was
another girl, a neighbor in Des Moines, who excelled as an
artist. In fact, this girl excelled in just about everything she
did. I dated her frequently in Chicago, as I passed through
148
on those Idea Man trips, while she was a student at the

Chicago Art Institute. Actually, both of these girls were
studying at the Art Institute. There was another girl in Rock
Island, Illinois, with whom I became acquainted through the
above-mentioned two girls, a member of one of the oldest and
most prominent Rock Island families.
But, along about age 21, it seemed that the necking pattern
was being ushered in. In those years I wanted to be modern
and to keep up with the times. I began to think that perhaps
I was being considered a little behind the times, and decided
that perhaps I ought to start necking a littleat least after a
second or third date. I dont think many indulged in it on the
first date, in those days.
At that time I was dating a girl in Des Moines who was a
special buddy of a girl who was going steady with a chum of
mine. The four of us double-dated frequently. So I began the
popular pastime of necking. Only it was then called loving up.
The girl didnt object. Her father was dead. Her stepfather
was an automobile dealer, and frequently, on our dates, we
were taken riding in their car with her stepfather and her
mother. We necked openly in the back seat. Her parents
seemed to think nothing of it.
Then one night on their semi-secluded front porch, she
became especially serious. She began to tell me how much
money her father had left her, and she felt we ought to begin
to plan what to do with it.
This came like an electric shock. I realized she was
seriously taking marriage for granted. Such a thought had
never entered my mind. I told her so. This stabbed her right
in her heart.
But if youre not serious, and thinking of marriage, what
on earth have you been loving-up with me for? she asked.
I explained that she was the first girl I had ever necked
withthat I had come to believe I was being considered
old-fashioned by the girlsthat it had seemed to me that it
was being done generally, and that girls expected it. I did it
because I supposed it was the thing I was supposed to do.
At this she burst into tears and ran into the house. This
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
sudden turn of affairs shocked and hurt me deeply. I knew

I had hurt her, and that made me feel like a cad. Next day I
called on the telephone to apologize. Her mother answered.
My daughter has told me all about it, accused the mother
with icy scorn. She never wants to see you again! She hung
up the receiver.
So my first experience in necking came to an unhappy and
semi-tragic end. I hope this girl later became really in love
with the right man for her, and found a happy marriage. She
was a fine girl and deserved it. But I have never heard from
or about her since.
Truth About Necking

I have wished very much that I could have known, in those
days, what I am able today to teach the Principles of Living
class at Ambassador College. For had I realized the truth
about this practice called necking, that very fine girl would
have been spared the humiliation of confessing love for one
who was not in love with her.
But I didnt know such truths in those days. My standards
were those of the other young people my age in the world
that is, the standards of those young people who had ideals
and good intentionsbut based on the way that seemed right
to us humans.
It was totally against my code of morals to insult a girl
which, according to those human standards meant carrying
necking beyond the point of decency. That I never did in my
life. I felt I knew where to draw the line. And I was always
careful to observe that human-reasoned line.
But all young people are not that careful. What I did not
then know is that even any necking at allharmless as it is
supposed to beis the very first phase of the four phases of
sexual intercourse! In very plain and frank language, necking
belongs in marriage as a definite part of the marriage relation-
ship. Humans usually reverse what is right. They indulge in
this preliminary act of sexual arousal prior to marriage as
a part of datingand then dispense with it after marriage,
thus often ruining and breaking up marriages!
150
I didnt realize, then, how many countless acts of fornica-

tion and premarital pregnancies are caused by this supposed
harmless and popular custom of necking. The new morality
has replaced the strong convictions some of us had about
where to draw the line.
I Meet Two Pretty Girls

Up until 1917, I had never thought really seriously of any girl.
I liked the company of girls. In my vanity I fancied that I had
been dating the real cream of the cropgirls considerably
superior to the average. But during these years I was still
going to schoolin the way I had decided was best for me
acquiring knowledge of my chosen field, gaining experience,
preparing myself to make big money later.
In my foolish conceit of those days, I was cocksure that I
was headed for outstanding success. But I had certain ideals
and convictions, and one of them was that a young man ought
not to think of marriage until he was prepared to assume the
responsibilities of marriageespecially that of supporting a
wife! The idea of my wife having to get a job to help earn the
living would have crushed my spiritwould have been the
supreme disgrace!
In January 1917, I was in Des Moines on one of my regular
trips to Iowa, renewing contracts and soliciting new ones.
My mother had written that her twin sister, my Aunt Emma
Morrow, was stricken with pneumonia, and asked me to visit
her on this trip. So I took the short side trip to the Morrow
farm, 30miles southeast of Des Moines, and a short mile
north of the crossroads town called Motor, which consisted
only of a store, schoolhouse, church and two or three houses.
I found my aunt considerably improved and convalescing.
During the afternoon a girl from Motor, two years younger
than I, came to see my aunt. She was introduced to me as a
cousinbut only a third cousin. Immediately I was impressed.
She was pretty and seemed to be an unusually nice girl. Her
name was Bertha Dillon, and her father owned the store at
Motor. He was my mothers first cousin.
I was enjoying a conversation with her, when, about 4:30
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
in the afternoon, her older sister, Lomajust my agecame

bounding in. Thats not an exaggeration. I hadnt seen such
fresh, joyous zip and go in a long time. She literally exuded
energy, sparkle, good cheer, the friendly warmth of a sincere,
outgoing personality.
Now I was much more impressed! She was even prettier
than her sister. There was something different about her
something wholesome that I liked. She was the school teacher
at Motor.
Where, I asked myself inwardly, could I have been all my
life, never to have run across these two cousins before? At
that time, although these girls were rather distant cousins, I
thought of them only as cousins.
This was about the middle of the week. My cousin, Bert
Morrow (he was a first cousin), just one year my junior lacking
a day, drove me over to the little town of Beech to take the
evening train to Des Moines. My aunts nurse was returning
to Des Moines on the same train. Loma rode along with us in
the ModelT to Beech. I learned that she was planning to go
to Des Moines Saturday morning to do some shopping.
Why, I asked, dont you bring Bertha with you, and meet
me at noon for lunch, and well take in a movie in the afternoon?
It was a date.
Only, when I met her Saturday noon, she had not brought
her sister. I had preferred to meet Loma alone, but I had felt
that propriety demanded that I ask both girls.
I took her to luncheon at Des Moines nicest place at that
timethe Harris-Emery department store tea room. It was
one of the finest department store tea rooms in the nation.
I was really enjoying this date. She didnt know it then, but
Loma was being intensively analyzed. No thought of marriage,
you understandjust routine, as I always did on a first date.
She seemed to be a girl of sound-minded good sense and high
ideals. She had superior intelligence. There was a mental
depth most girls lacked. I was well aware that she was utterly
lacking in sophistication. She was not, in fact, completely city
broke. There was none of the haughty social veneernone of
the acquired artificial mannerisms of the eastern finishing
152
school products or the social debutante. Indeed, I perceived

she was a bit naive. She was completely sincere in trusting
and believing in people. She had not seen or learned much of
the rottenness and evils of this world. She had that innocent,
completely unspoiled freshness of a breath of spring.
Also, from the instant when she first came bounding in
at my aunts farm, I had noticed she was almost something
of a tomboyactive, very alert. Whatever she did, she did
quickly. I learned later that her brothers dubbed her with two
nicknamesShe-bang and Cyclone! She was full of fun,
yet seriouswith the unspoiled wholesomeness of an Iowa
country girl. And, most important of all, strength of character!
I observed quickly that although she was alert and active-
minded, hers was not one of those flighty surface minds,
active but shallow. She was able to discuss serious and deep
things intelligently. She was very much an extrovert, but not
a shallow, gossipy chatterbox.
Although I noticed, and became immediately well aware of
these qualities, no thought of falling in love, or of marriage,
entered my mind. I thought of her only as a cousin. Perhaps
I had so disciplined my mind in regard to marriage that it
automatically avoided such thoughts. But I did want to see
more of herdefinitely!
She Rated a Second Date!

After the luncheon conversation, which must have lasted
more than an hour and a half, we went to a movie. I remember
nothing whatever about the movieI do remember holding a
soft, warm hand.
I always stayed at the Brown Hotel in those daysa
residential hotel on the edge of the business district. After
the movie, we walked over to the hotel lobby. I ran up to my
room, picked up a package of family pictures I happened to
have in my suitcase, returned to the lobby, and showed the
pictures to her.
I remember that among them was a Cousins Letter I had
initiated. Ever since I could remember from earliest childhood,
my fathers generation had kept a family letter circulating. It
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
made the rounds, perhaps once in nine months or a year, from

coast-to-coast. Some of the Armstrong family were in New
Jersey and Atlantic coast locations. Some were in Ohio and
Indiana, some in Iowa, Colorado, and some in California. Each
time it came around, my father removed his letter which now
had gone the rounds, wrote and inserted a new one. I had orga-
nized a Cousins Letter of our younger generation. It made
about two rounds, and apparently died a natural death. But
this big packet of letters had just finished its first round, and
I remember showing it to my newfound cousin. She, however,
was a third cousin on my mothers side of the family. This
circular family letter only included the Armstrong cousins.
Then I took her to her evening train to return home.
I have mentioned my system of analyzing girls on the first
date. Loma had been duly analyzed. She passed the test with
a perfect grade. She rated a second date!
In fact, the more I thought about it, she rated it without
delay! I lived in Chicago. If I were to have another date with
this very attractive young lady any time soon, I decided it had
to be next day!
Accordingly I hopped the morning train, called my cousin
Bert Morrow to drive over to Beech after me, and, to every-
bodys surprise, here I was to see my aunt again! I dont
remember, now, how I maneuvered to get Loma up to my
aunts, but I do remember spending considerable time with
her there. And she remembers a walk out on the country road
in the deep snow.
I also remember holding her hand againmuch to the
dislike of my uncle and aunt. After I left, they began to warn
her against me.
Now, Loma, they admonished, youd better let Herbert
alone. He reads those magazines written by that awful Elbert
Hubbard, and hes probably an atheist. He probably doesnt
ever go to church anymore!
But I had asked Loma to write, and she said she would.
So now the dating was continued by mail. I must have had
her a great deal on my mind, for I wrote to her almost every
day, and received several letters a week in return.
154
A year and a half before, I had felt that the Iowa terri-
tory was rather dead for new business for the Northwestern
Banker. There was more business to be had in Chicago. But
now, all of a sudden, Iowa seemed to become very desirable
territory again, requiring more frequent visits from me.
The next Iowa trip seems to have been sometime in February.
On a later Iowa trip in May or June, we had a double date in
Des Moines with Lomas number one girl chum and her fianc.
At an amusement park, we took a roller coaster rideLomas
first in her lifeand also her last! She was so frightened that
she unconsciously had a firm, almost death-like iron grip on
my trousers just above the knee as we came to a stopmuch to
her embarrassment and the glee of her chum and fianc! She
was such a modest person that this was terribly mortifying!
But I am getting ahead of the story.
As we continued the acquaintance by correspondence, we
exchanged ideas on many subjects. I wanted to know what
she was interested inwhat she believedwhat her ideas
were. She seemed to have high ideals, and I discovered that
she was seriously concerned about religious truthmore so
than I. I had virtually no interest in religion.
Business seemed to require my presence in Iowa again in
early April, and then the first week in May.
I Fell
In our correspondence, we had exchanged ideas and ideals on
such subjects as necking. Of course I had never, as yet, made
any advances toward her in this directionexcept for holding
her hand a few times. Her letters said she didnt believe in
necking. I would not have been a normal young man if I had
not determined to put her to the test on that.
It was about May 7 or 8 that she met me again in Des Moines.
During the afternoon, we went out to one of the spacious parks
where wildflowers could be picked.
As we were sitting, or leaning on our elbows on the ground,
opportunity came for me to slip an arm around her shoulders
and, leaning over her, plant a healthy kiss on her lips. She
didnt resist.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Sitting back up, I grinned and asked, Now are you angry
with me? Uh-huh, she smiled.
I wasnt quite sure what to think, now, after she had
expressed such disapproval of anything of this sort in her
letters. But it was not just a frivolous kiss to her, as I was
soon to learn.
We returned to the apartment of my Uncle Frank Armstrong
and his family. I was taking a midnight sleeper for Sioux City,
and she was to remain at my uncles for the night.
When it came time for me to leave for my train, Loma came
out into the corridor of the apartment building to say good
night. Suddenly, impulsively, she reached her arms around
my neck and planted a good earnest kiss on my lips!
This, I suddenly realized, was serious.
In a daze, I left. I couldnt sleep that night for hours. Nothing
had ever hit me like this before. That had not been any ordinary
necking kiss! I knew that was, as they say today, for REAL!
It came on impulse straight from the heart. She had kissed me
because she really meant it! It produced an emotional upheaval
inside mea totally new experience. Through the mental daze
I began to realize this was love.
I hasten to add, however, that this emotional thrill I expe-
rienced was produced because of the circumstances leading to
it. No one should suppose that being really in love must hit
one with the kind of emotional wallop I experienced.
In Sioux City next morning, the first thing I did was to call
on a doctor whom I knew. I asked him if there was any reason
why third cousins ought not marry.
He only laughed. None whatsoever, he said. Third
cousins are no cousins at all, so far as marriage is concerned.
Returning to Des Moines a few days later, I went back down
to Motor. It was the night of May 13. We walked down the
roadside, past the old Quaker Church building and graveyard.
I told Loma that I knew, now, that I was in love with her.
Tragedy Threatens!
This seemed to come like a shock to her. Apparently she had
not thought of it in just this way before, but now, suddenly,
156
it dawned on her that if we were married it meant living in

Chicago, in more cultural and, as she supposed, sophisticated
surroundings than she had known. This sudden realization
frightened her.
She stammered that she was not sure.
That statement fell on me like a ton of bricks! I had never
doubted, in my confident conceit, that if and when I ever did
fall in love it would be mutual. Now, suddenly, came the real-
ization that I might be faced with tragedy! But I knew the
right answer. I wish more young people, falling for one who
is not in love with them, could know this right answer. Most
young fellows, it seems, would start pleading with the girl to
marry them anyway. That is definitely not the right answer.
In that case, Loma, I said regretfully, soberly, but firmly,
I dont want to ever see you againthat is, not unless, or
until you find that you, too, are in love. I certainly wouldnt
ask you to marry me if you dont love me. It would only wreck
both our livesand I love you too much to ruin your life.
We were walking back to her home, which was on the
second floor over the store. We sat down for a while on the
steps of the store.
It was momentarily difficult to understand, now, why she
had kissed me as she did that night outside the door of my
uncles apartment. Was I merely receiving just retribution
for causing the first girl I had ever necked with to fall in love,
when I didnt love her?
I asked Loma for an explanation.
She explained, then, how the sudden thought of marriage
had frightened her. She and I had lived in two different worlds.
I had been city-born and city-reared. I had traveled a great
deal. I was worldly wise. I knew the world and was a part of
it. I lived in one of the worlds largest and most metropolitan
cities. She was a country girl. How would she be able to act
and live in the sophistication of a city like Chicago?
Loma, I said seriously, youre a real diamond. Maybe you
havent had the exterior polish of an eastern finishing school
applied. Most of those girls have outer polish, but no qualities
underneath. Its mostly a lot of put-on and make-believe. It
157
isnt real. But you are real, Loma, and you have the quality
of good character all the way through. I can see to putting on
what polish youll need. I dont want, and never could love, a
lot of pretense and empty-headed sophistication! You have the
real qualities for a good wife and the mother of my children.
Its you I love, and I know now I can never love anyone else.
Dont worry about the lack of social training and sophistica-
tion. That stuff can be bought a dime a dozen! Its trash! I
dont want it! All I want you to decide is whether youre in love
with me, as I am with you.
Then, rising, I said finally, Just one thing I want you
to promise me. As soon as youre sure, in your own mind,
whether youre in loveeither wayI want you to telegraph
me just one wordYes or Noand Ill understand.
She promised. I walked away toward my aunts house, a
mile down the road. There was no good-night kiss.
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10
MARRIAGE PLANS
COMPLICATED
BY WAR
I HAD NO INTENTION OF RETURNING TO
the store at the crossroads town called Motor. But next

morning my Aunt Emma Morrow found it necessary to do
some shopping, and asked me if I would drive her in their
ModelT Ford.
How my aunt maneuvered me into the upstairs rooms I do
not remember. But I distinctly remember sitting on the bed
in a bedroom, my aunt in front of me on a chair, and Loma
Dillon sitting beside me, with the box of old family pictures
on her lap.
The Unspoken Answer

As we were looking over the family pictures, my Aunt Emma
told us that my Uncle George had courted her and that they
became engaged to be married in those same upstairs rooms,
over the store. Then suddenly, when my aunt and Bertha
had their eyes on a picture, Loma leaned over and whispered
in my ear that she had something to tell me, a big secret. I
got the message and squeezed her hand, but neither of us
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
gave the others any idea of what had happened under their
very eyes.
Not a word was spoken at the moment. But of course Loma
and I knew I had received the unspoken answer. She was now
sure. And the following morning, waiting at the depot for the
train to take me to Des Moines, we agreed we were engaged
to be married.
Actually, I had never proposedthat is, in so many words.
We simply knewand verbally agreed that we were engaged.
The Cloud of War

But even the happiness of knowing we were in love and
engaged to be married was clouded by the war. The United
States had been drawn into World Wari, declaring war on
Germany on April6, just five weeks and four days before we
were engaged. It had left my future gravely in doubt.
Immediately after the declaration of war, or as soon as
the call went out for voluntary enlistments for the Officers
Training Camp at Fort Sheridan, Illinois, I had applied for
entrance.
The Army did not have a fraction of the needed number
of commissioned officers. It was impossible for West Point
to graduate the required number quickly. To meet the emer-
gency, Officers Training Camps were set up immediately at
various locations. Intensive rush training had to be given
to qualified applicants in time to provide officers to train
draftees and volunteer soldiers in the large cantonments all
over the country as soon as they could be built.
To qualify for admission to an Officers Training Camp, a
candidate was required to be a college graduate or its equiv-
alent. Lacking a degree, the equivalent had to be testified
to by three men of known prominence. I was very glad to
be able to obtain a letter from Arthur Reynolds, president
of Chicagos largest bank, the Continental & Commercial
National (now the Continental-Illinois National), saying he
had been personally acquainted with me for several years (I
knew him when he was president of the Des Moines National
before he went to Chicago) and considered that I had acquired
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10 | Marriage Plans Complicated by War
considerably more than the equivalent of a college education.

I obtained similar letters from an official of Halsey-Stuart Co.,
prominent investment bankers, and from my friend Ralph
G. Johnson, manager of the Chicago office of the Merchants
Trade Journal.
Immediately I purchased an army officers military manual
and began to study. Also I enrolled in a drill class organized
for preliminary training of officer candidates at one of the
armories. But as an army officer I was certainly a greenhorn
as evidenced by a snapshot I had of Ralph Johnson and me
patriotically trying to salute in front of the Hotel Del Prado,
where we both lived. I had not yet learned that a soldier must
keep his heels together.
Attempting to Be an Army Officer

I successfully passed the physical examination, and received
notice that I had been accepted for admission, with orders
to report at Fort Sheridan on a definite date, which I do not
now remember.
Then a few days before I was to enter camp, a second notice
came. It advised me that in the last-minute rush the Army
had received six times as many applications as it could accept,
and consequently first choice had been given to those with
previous military experience, and secondly, to the taller men.
I was only average height for those days. The notice expressed
great appreciation by the government for my patriotism,
but regretfully notified me that I could not now be accepted.
However, I was advised that I might apply for enlistment in
the second session after graduation of the first, some three
months later.
Immediately I applied for entrance into the second Officers
Training Camp. Again I was accepted and notified to report
on a definite date. But again, at the last minute, an overflow
of applications by men of previous military experience or
taller men crowded me out.
I applied for admission in the Quartermasters Corps,
feeling that if I could not enter the army as an officer, I could
serve better in its business department than as a private. But
161
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
here again the rush of men enlisting was too great, and this
department was already filled to capacity.
Well, I said in some disappointment, Ive tried. Now Im
going to let them throw a rope around my neck in the draft
and come and get me.
Meanwhile, as related above, Loma and I became engaged
on May 15.
The Marriage Problem of Every War

And immediately we faced the age-old problem that always
has confronted engaged couples in time of war. Many of my
readers also faced this same problem, either in World Wari,
World Warii, the Korean War or the war in Vietnam. Those
of you who have will understand.
I felt that our marriage should be postponed until after
the war, as most men feel at such times. Loma wanted to be
married before I donned a uniformas girls in love usually do.
Our arguments will bring back memories to those of you
who also found yourselves in love in time of war.
Suppose, I arguedas perhaps millions of men have
arguedI should be seriously wounded, and come home
crippled for life. I wouldnt want you to be tied for life to a
disabled man. And then youd never be free to marry another.
I would never want to marry anyone else, she countered.
And if you should come home crippled or disabled, then more
than ever I would want to be your wife to help you. But if we
were not already married, youd be too proud to marry me
thenyoud think I was marrying you out of pity, and youd
refuse. So I want to be your wife before you go into the army.
Yes, but I might even be killed in action, and then youd
be a widow. I would rather leave you still single and free to
marry someone else.
If you should be killed, came her immediate answer, then
I would want to be your widow. And as for falling in love with
anyone else, you look here, Herbert Armstrong! Do you think
you could fall in love with some other girl?
No, of course not! I replied.
Around and around we went. As fast as I could think of
162
another reason for waiting until after the war, she countered
with a ready answer. We simply could not agree.
Finally, Tell you what Ill do, I concluded. I will take our
problem to the chairman of my draft board. He is a college
professor, Prof. J. Paul Goode of the University of Chicago.
Finally she agreed to this.
One of my strongest arguments against prewar marriage
had been the fact that thousands were getting married to
escape the draft. At the outset of World War i, married men
were not being drafted. Those who married to escape the
draft became contemptuously referred to as slackers. I did
not want to be called a slacker. I was sure Dr. Goode would
advise me not to marry prior to war service.
Accordingly, as soon as I returned to Chicago, I sought and
obtained an interview with Dr. Goode. He listened attentively,
asked questions, got all the facts. Then he surprised me by
advising me to marry Miss Dillon at once.
It is, of course, difficult to remember many details and
dates of such events after 41 years, but a letter to my mother
(then in Weiser, Idaho, partially reproduced in this volume)
brings much vividly to memory.
This letter was written Friday night, July 20. The first draw-
ings of draft numbers, to determine by lot which men would
be called to camp first, had taken place in Washington,D.C.,
that morning. My registration number was 1858. It was one
of the earliest numbers drawn. I wrote that I figured I would
be among the first 80,000 men drafted in the entire country.
And since an army of some 4 million was actually put into
service, it was apparent that I would be called to training
camp on the very first group.
It appeared, however, that due to delays in building and
equipping the training camps, the first contingent would not
be sent to camp before October 1.
I had been out to Motor, Iowa, visiting Loma on this trip
and now was on my way back to Chicago. However, on getting
this news of my early draft, I stated in this letter: This is
Friday night, so I am going back to Motor early in the morning
to spend Saturday and Sunday with Loma. Its getting harder
163
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
to remain away from her, someway, and I cant return to

Chicago now without another visit. Loma still wants to be
married before I go (into service). I have put up every possible
objection to it I could think of, and they are numerous, but
she brushes them all aside, says she has considered them all
and still wants to (be married first).
We Set the Date

The next morning, Loma and her father met me at the depot
with their Ford car. I had given her, by long distance telephone,
the news of the draft. For the first time she was not beautiful.
She was sobbing. Leaning her head on my shoulder, her tears
dripping down my chest, she sobbed that she wanted to be
married before I went to camp.
What man is strong enough to resist a womans tears?
My Aunt Emma had been on her side. Professor Goode
had been on her side. And her tears were on her side. I was
unanimously outvotedfor this swung even me over on her
sideand I acquiesced, as I suppose men have done in such
circumstances ever since Adam and Eve.
We decided to be married as soon as possible. She needed
a week to make all preparations to come to Chicago. I needed
a week to locate a place for us to live. It was now July 21. My
25th birthday was on the 31st. We decided she was to be the
finest birthday present of my life.
Sunday night I caught the sleeper in Des Moines for Chicago.
Loma spent a busy week sewing and preparing. The ministers
wife gave a shower for her, attended by nearly everyone in
the neighborhood. Mrs. Gertie Shoemaker, mother of one of
her first-grade little girls, Irene, worked steadily with Loma,
sewing, all that week. She is still one of Mrs. Armstrongs
best friends, whom she visits whenever she is in Iowaand
that little first-grade daughter of Mrs. Shoemaker is today
herself the mother of a 15-year-old daughter, Mary Kay.
Meanwhile, in Chicago, I had succeeded in renting a nicely
furnished apartment for six weeks from a family going away
on vacation. It was located on the North Side on Wilson
Avenue, between the Evanston L line and the lake.
164
The Wedding Day

On Monday, July 30, Loma, accompanied by her father and
stepmother (her own mother had died when she was 12), did
her final shopping in Des Moines, and boarded the night
sleeper for Chicago. We had arranged for her to leave the train
at suburban Englewood station, and I was to meet her there.
She would never let me forget that I was 10 or 15 minutes
late in arriving. Never having been in so large a city before,
she was frightened. She telephoned my office, but I was on an
L train en route to meet her.
I was imbued with the advertising mans flair for first
impressions. In those days I felt very proud of Chicago. I always
enjoyed showing visitors the biggest or the largest of every-
thingthe largest stockyards in the world, the largest store,
the largest theater (until New York built bigger). I wanted my
brides first glimpse of the Chicago Loop to be the impressive
Grant Park view, overlooking Michigan Boulevard. So I took
her on an L train over to the Illinois Central (IC) commuter
train in Jackson Park, thence to the IC commuter station in
downtown Grant Park.
We walked through Chicagos Loop, up to my office, where
by this time I was sharing a private office with another tenant;
then a block north on Clark Street to the County Building
and the Marriage License Bureau, where we obtained our
marriage license.
We had lunch at the then most famous Chinese restaurant
in Chicago, King Joy Los. We went back out to Jackson Park
on the South Side, took some camera pictures, then to the
Hotel Del Prado where I had lived for nearly two years. I asked
Miss Lucy Cunningham, the 70-year-old most popular girl
in residence at the Del Prado, to accompany us as a witness
to the marriage ceremony. She took Loma to her room for a
little relaxing rest and freshening up. Then we three walked
a short distance to the residence of Dr. Gilkey, pastor of the
Hyde Park Baptist Church. I much admired his preaching.
I had made arrangements beforehand for the wedding at
the home of Dr. Gilkey. He had been unexpectedly called
out of the city. But his father-in-law, a Dr. Brown, pastor of
165
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
the OakPark Baptist Church, was on hand to perform the

ceremony. Dr. Brown was a very handsome and distinguished
appearing elderly man. Mrs. Gilkey was the second witness.
And so, in what I have always felt was the nicest simple
little wedding ceremony I have ever seen, with only five people
present, we were married for the remainder of our natural
lives, and I placed the wedding ring on her finger and kissed
my own darling wife.
I myself have since officiated at so many weddings I have
long since lost count of the numbersome of them somewhat
more elaborate, with many guestssome as plain and simple
as our own. But somehow I have always felt there is no nicer
wedding than a plain, simple ceremony without ostentation of
formal dress, with only the minister and two witnesses present.
I think it is usually the brides mothers who engineer the
lavish weddings.
In any event, we were married, not as so many deluded
people are today, till divorce do us part, but till death do
us part.
The Unrecognized Call

Our first home together seemed to us to be a very lovely
apartment. Of course we were to have it only six weeks, but it
was nice while it lasted. It had to substitute for a honeymoon.
The beach was only about two blocks down Wilson Avenue.
We spent many hours there.
One night my wife had a dream so vivid and impressive it
overwhelmed and shook her tremendously. It was so realistic
it seemed more like a vision. For two or three days afterward
everything else seemed unrealas if in a dazeand only this
extraordinary dream seemed real.
In her dream she and I were crossing the wide intersection,
only a block or two from our apartment, where Broadway
diagonally crosses Sheridan Road. Suddenly there appeared
an awesome sight in the sky above. It was a dazzling spec-
taclethe sky filled with a gigantic solid mass of brilliant
stars, shaped like a huge banner. The stars began to quiver
and separate, finally vanishing. She called my attention to
166
the vanishing stars, when another huge grouping of flashing

stars appeared, then quivering, separating and vanishing
like the first.
As she and I, in her dream, looked upward at the vanishing
stars, three large white birds suddenly appeared in the
sky between us and the vanishing stars. These great white
birds flew directly toward us. As they descended nearer, she
perceived that they were angels.
Then, my wife wrote a day or two after the dream, in a
letter to my mother which I have just run across among old
family pictures, it dawned on me that Christ was coming,
and I was so happy I was just crying for joy. Then suddenly I
thought of Herbert and was rather worried.
She knew I had evidenced very little religious interest,
although we had attended a corner church two or three times.
Then it seemed that, from among these angels in her dream,
Christ descended from among them and stood directly in
front of us. At first I was a little doubtful and afraid of how
He would receive us, because I remembered we had neglected
our Bible study and had our minds too much on things apart
from His interests. But as we went up to Him, He put His
arms around both of us, and we were so happy! I thought
people all over the world had seen Him come. As far as we
could see, people were just swarming into the streets at this
broad intersection. Some were glad and some were afraid.
Then it seemed He had changed into an angel. I was
terribly disappointed at first, until he told me Christ was
really coming in a very short time.
At that time, we had been going quite regularly to motion-
picture theaters. She asked the angel if this were wrong. He
replied Christ had important work for us to do, preparing
for His comingthere would be no time for movies. (Those
were the days of the silent pictures.) Then the angel and the
whole spectacle seemed to vanish, and she awakened, shaken
and wondering!
In the morning, she told me of her dream. I was embarrassed.
I didnt want to think about it, yet I was afraid to totally dismiss
it. I thought of a logical way to evade it myself, and still solve it.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Why dont you tell it to the minister of the church up on

the corner, I casually suggested, and ask him whether it
means anything.
With that, I managed to put it out of my mind.
Let me say here that in about 99,999 times out of 100,000,
when people think God is speaking to them in a dream or
vision in this day and age, it is pure imagination, or some
form of self-hypnotism or self-deception. I have only come to
believe that this dream was a bona fide call from God in the
light of subsequent events.
Do not hastily ascribe a dream to God. True, the Bible shows
that God has spoken to His own chosen servants by this means
of communicationprimarily in the Old Testament, and before
the writing of the Bible was completed. But most dreams mean
nothing. And false prophets have misled people by telling false
dreams, representing their dreams to be the Word of God
(Jeremiah 23, where God says, I am against prophets who
recount lying dreams, leading my people astray with their lies
and their empty pretensions, though I never sent them, never
commissioned themverse32; Moffatt).
Certainly I did not ascribe this dream to God. It made me
feel a little uncomfortable at the time, and I was anxious to
forget itwhich I did for some years. I was 25 at the time.
God left me to my own ways for five more years. But when I
was age 30, He began to deal with me in no uncertain terms,
and from that time every business or money-making venture
I attempted was turned into utter defeat.
The Draft Classification

Upon return of the people from whom we rented the apart-
ment, we stayed on in the bedroom we had occupied a few
days. A friend of theirs, a desk clerk at Hotel Sherman, was
looking for temporary tenants on a similar basis. His wife
and children were to be gone a month. He kept one room for
himself, and rented the rest of the apartment to us for the
month. Then we moved to a single bedroom of an apartment
occupied by a Mrs.Brookhart in the same general north-
side neighborhood, where we had dining room and kitchen
168
privileges at times when Mrs. Brookhart was not using them.

By this time we knew that we were to become parents.
It was about this time, probably late September, that the
draft boards had their questionnaires ready for filling out.
The questionnaire included a question as to marriage status,
whether there were children or a pregnancy; and also a ques-
tion regarding religious affiliation. I wrote down Quaker,
but realizing the Quakers were being granted exemption as
conscientious objectors, I wrote in the words: I do not ask for
exemption because of church affiliation.
I was still expecting to go to army camp as soon as the
camps were ready. But no call came, and a few weeks later I
received my draft classification card. Dr. Goode had person-
ally marked it Class iv, Noncombatant, probably because
he remembered I had married on his personal advice, with no
intention of evading the draft.
I have mentioned that I sold advertising space by first writing
the copy and selling that. Always these ads were carefully
gone over with my wife before submitting them to prospective
advertisers. The surveys made were discussed and planned
with her active participation. From the time of marriage, we
have always been partners in whatever was my work.
I remember her saying, not many days after we were
married: They say a wife either makes or breaks her husband.
Well, you just watch me make mine! But do not receive the
impression that she wore the trousers in our family. She
was a woman of purpose, of ideas, vision, depth of mind,
resourcefulness and great initiative. But the responsibility of
being head of the family was mine, and I have assumed it.
An Emergency Call
About 1 oclock one afternoon a telephone call came from my
wife. It was a desperate emergency call. She was sobbing so
that she could hardly talk. Something terrible has happened,
she said between sobs. Hurry! Come home quickly!
Whats happened? I asked. She couldnt tell me over the
telephone. Just hurry homequick! Oh, its terrible! Hurry!
I ran full speed to the elevator, and out to the street below,
169
where I hailed a cab. No time to take the L train. I asked
the cab driver to rush full speed to our address.
Dashing up the stairs two steps at a time, I ran into our
apartment and took my sobbing wife in my arms.
What on earth is it? I demanded.
Then she told me, still sobbing. She had lost faith in two
women!
Those women told dirty stories!
She had been introduced to an elderly woman by the people
of the second apartment we had occupied after marriage. She
had seemed such a kindly, nice old lady. My wife had gone to
visit with her several times.
On this particular day, this lady was entertaining my wife
and one other woman at luncheon. These two women began
to tell dirty stories and laugh at them. Mrs. Armstrong was
shocked. She had never heard that kind of language come from
the mouth of a woman before. She was horrified! Manners or
no manners, she suddenly excused herself, and ran from the
womans apartment. She continued running all the way to
our apartment and immediately called me.
I looked at my innocent, naive, trusting little wife
incredulously!
Is that all! I exploded, almost speechless. Look here, Loma!
Do you mean to tell me you called me away from an important
business conference, and caused me to waste cab fare all the
way out here, for nothing more serious than that?
My sweet, trusting little wife was so broken up at having
to lose faith in people that I found it necessary to remain with
her the rest of the day. We took a long walk out Sheridan Road,
and probably then went to a movie to get her mind off of it.
The disillusionment she experienced in Chicago caused her
a great deal of suffering. She learned that many if not most
people in a great metropolitan city become hard, suspicious,
selfish, more mechanical than human.
170
11
OUR FIRST CHILD
F OR SOME FOUR MONTHS AFTER OUR
wedding day we lived on the North Side of Chicago, near the

lake. During that brief period we had occupied two furnished
apartments and one furnished room.
About Thanksgiving time, 1917, we moved into a single
room on the South Side. We sub-rented this room from Charley
and Viva Hyle in their apartment some short distance south
of 63rd Street.
Charley Hyle worked on the night shift at an automobile
assembly plant. My wife and Viva became good friends.
Actually, although we rented only the one bedroom with
kitchen and dining room privilege, we shared the entire
apartment with themliving room, as well as dining room
and kitchen.
By this time we knew we were going to become parents.
Our first baby was due the latter part of May.
Our First Child Born

It probably was the affirmative check mark on the pregnancy
question on my draft-board questionnaire that caused the
board chairman, Prof. J. Paul Goode, to give me a Class iv,
noncombatant, draft classification.
We lived with the Hyles until very shortly before the time
for our baby to be born.
In January 1918, my wife accompanied me on a business
171
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
trip to Des Moines. We both wanted our baby to be born in

Des Moines. Mrs. Armstrong had formed an intense aversion
to the artificial and mechanical city of Chicago.
Arriving in Des Moines, my wife found that her girl chums
mother was in the hospital, having just given birth to her 10th
child. The modern method of hospital delivery with anesthesia
was just then becoming the vogue. This particular mother
recommended it to my wife, and also her doctor, a woman
obstetrical physician, Dr. Georgia Stuart.
Mrs. Armstrong preferred a woman doctor, and I did not
oppose. Consequently, a visit was made to Dr. Stuarts office
for a checkup and instruction, and she was retained.
Our baby was due to be born about May 25. We made our
next trip to Des Moines well ahead of timeso we supposed
arriving on Sunday, May 5. On Monday we went to the doctors
office for a checkup. I needed to take a weeks business trip to
Sioux City and other points.
You are in splendid condition, Dr. Stuart assured my wife.
There is every reason to expect the baby to go the full time,
and I believe it is perfectly safe for Mr. Armstrong to be away
for the remainder of this week.
My wifes sister, Bertha Dillon, came to stay with her in our
apartment in The Brown, a residential hotel where we always
stayed when in Des Moines. I left that day for Sioux City.
About 2 oclock Thursday morning Mrs. Armstrong knew
the baby was about to be born two weeks prematurely. She
called Dr.Stuart on the telephone, and the doctor told her to
get dressed and she would drive past the hotel and take her
to the hospital at once.
In those days women wore high-top laced shoes, and in
the excitement of the emergency, much frightened due to the
fact I was away and this was her first childbirth experience,
Mrs.Armstrong was too nervous to lace up her shoes, and
her sister had a frightful time trying to get those high-tops
laced up!
Finally they made it and were ready to leave. Bertha sent
a telegram to me telling me to race to Des Moines on the
first train.
172
11 | Our First Child
This trip I was staying at the West Hotel in Sioux City.

For some reason I slept a little late that Thursday morning.
Coming down for breakfast around 8, I looked in my box at
the desk, and the clerk handed me the telegram, which had
arrived there at 3:30 a.m.
Quick! I exclaimed. When does the next train leave for
Des Moines?
The only train all day to Des Moines left about 15 minutes
ago, was the terrifying answer.
I was outraged!
Look at this telegram! I thundered at the hotel clerk. It
arrived here at 3:30 a.m., in plenty of time for me to have
caught that train. Why didnt you call me or send it to my room?
Well, I suppose the night clerk didnt want to disturb you,
was the unconcerned and exasperating answer.
I could not have been more angry!
Now look! I said sharply. Theres got to be some way to
get to Des Moines before that train tomorrow morning!
Well, said the hotel clerk, there is a train leaving for
Council Bluffs and Omaha in about 30 minutes, but I dont
know whether you could make any connection from there to
Des Moines.
In that 30 minutes my bags were packed, and I had boarded
that Council Bluffs train. At the depot I learned that if we were
on time at Council Bluffs, there was a chance to race across
town in a taxi and catch a train on the Rock Island line due in
Des Moines about 6 oclock that very evening.
Quickly I scribbled off a telegram to my sister-in-law giving
the train number, and requesting her to wire me on the train,
at some town along the way, the news of my wifes condition.
A Father Suffers Birth Pangs

Nervously I kept inquiring at every train stop for a telegram.
There was no telegram. The suspense was building up. It was
becoming almost unendurable.
We did arrive at Council Bluffs on time. The taxi made
the mad dash across town. The taxi driver thought I might
take three minutes to try to get a long-distance telephone
173
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
call through. There had not been time to try to get Bertha by
telephone at Sioux CityI just barely caught that train. The
cab driver stopped in front of the telephone office. I raced in
and tried to make the connection with Des Moines. The three
minutes ran out on me before they got the call through.
I just caught the Rock Island train for Des Moines on the run.
But the train didnt seem to runit seemed to slow down
to a slow walk.
WHY didnt that train go a little faster? It didnt seem in
any hurry. It made all the stops.
Time dragged. My nerves raced. The suspense built up.
I dont think we arrived in Des Moines at 6 that same night.
I think it was at 6 several nights later. At least so it seemed
to me.
After an eternity of anxious suspense, before the train came
to a full stop, I was the first passenger off at Des Moines. I
ran full speed to a telephone at the newsstand in the depot.
A nurse at the Methodist Hospital said sweetly, You have
a fine new 7-pound, 9-ounce daughter.
I didnt even hear that.
I dont care a hang about that, I snapped back. HOWS MY
WIFE? All day long I had lived through the agonizing hours
not knowing whether my wife had lived through it.
You see, this was my first experience at becoming a father.
I didnt know yet, then, that the doctors will tell you theyve
never lost a father yet.
Oh, said the sweet little nurses provokingly slow voice,
shes just fine! At last I could relax a little, as I raced to a cab
and asked him to drive full speed to the hospital.
Babies Dont Stop Breathing

Stepping briskly into my wifes private hospital room, I was
greatly relieved to see her smiling happily, reaching her arms
toward me. I kissed her, and almost immediately a nurse
brought in our little daughter, Beverly Lucile. She was the
most beautiful baby I had ever seen! I was a very proud father.
Mrs. Armstrong has always had a penchant for naming
babies. She has named dozensperhaps scores of them
174
Horace Elon Armstrong and Eva Wright Armstrong, parents of Herbert
Armstrong, pose in wedding attire for a photograph in September 1887.
The family of Horace Elon
top
Armstrong in 1895: Herbert

Armstrong stands between his
fathers knees; his sister, Mabel,
sits on her mothers lap. Herbert
Armstrong, approximately 3years
old, is dressed in a Scottish kilt,
then the style for little boys.
bottom Eva Wright Armstrong,
mother of Herbert Armstrong
Herbert Armstrong, in his first year, appears
in the elaborate dress style of the 1890s.
The paternal grandparents of Herbert Armstrong, Nathan and Lydia Hole
Armstrong (seated); his father, Horace Elon Armstrong (standing, left);
his Uncle Frank (center), the youngest of the three brothers; and his
Uncle Walter (standing, right)
Herbert Armstrong at the age of 1 year with
his great-grandfather Holethen age 92
Herbert Armstrongs
top
grandparents Nathan and Lydia

Armstrong stand in front of the
cottage on West Harrison Street
where Herbert Armstrong lived.
bottom Thomas and Sarah
Armstrong, great-uncle and
great-aunt of Herbert Armstrong
Herbert W. Armstrong, about 3 years old, stands with his sister, Mabel.
This was the dress style for boys and girls in the 1890s.
Horace Elon Armstrongs family in 1897: Horace Armstrong,
sporting a mustache typical of the period; his children Mabel and
Herbert, who is about 5 years old; and Eva Wright Armstrong
A 1901 photo shows Herbert Armstrong at age 9 with sister,
Mabel, then 7, and younger brother, Russell, age 1 year.
Two memorable turn-of-
top, middle
the-century school photographs:

In the photo above, Herbert
Armstrong is seated in the center.
In the middle photo, he is standing
to the right of center, behind the
lad kneeling in the foreground.
bottom Herbert Armstrongs
maternal grandmother, Mary Ann
Maxwell, who married John Wright
Mr. Armstrong (right) at the age of 19, sits in front of the depot
top
at Wiggins, Mississippi, with the towns real estate agent and child.
bottom He visits Mr. Stapps residence in Wiggins in January 1912.
top left Mr.Armstrong goes on a
formal date in suburban Chicago.
top right Herbert W. Armstrong,
in his early 20s, was on another
date when a girl friend snapped
this picture. Many years later,
Mr.Armstrong would write
about the principles of dating
that would change the lives of
thousands of young people.
bottom Frank Armstrong, the
uncle of Herbert W. Armstrong,
as a young man
top Herbert Armstrong (second
from left), age 21, visits a farm
near Greenwood, South Carolina.
middle A group poses beneath
an artistic arbor at the farm.
bottom Falls furnished power for a
large cotton mill at Greenville.
An article published in the Merchants Trade Journal is the result of Mr.
Armstrongs fact-finding Idea Man trips. Also illustrated is a bound copy
of one of Mr. Armstrongs surveys. He pioneered the field of opinion polls.
Mr.Armstrong appears with his hands on his hips in the front center
top
of the crowd gathered for a Dixie Highway booster in Logansport, Indiana.

bottom Mr. Armstrong conducts one of his surveys in the Deep South.
Herbert W. Armstrong appears at age 23 with spectacles;
he needed glasses to compensate for one weak eye.
top A period photo shows
Chicago, Illinois, traffic on May
17, 1920, at northside of Michigan
Avenue Bridge.
bottom Elbert Hubbard on
board the Lusitania in 1915;
Mr.Armstrong met the famed
philosopher on several occasions.
right Herbert Armstrong sent this
photo to his mother shortly before
the flash depression of 1920.
Mr. Armstrong wrote this letter to his mother en route to Chicago
top
on July 23, 1917, when he expected to be drafted at any moment.

bottom The front of his draft card carries the signature that would
become known to millions.
top Mr. Armstrong poses in front
of Del Prado Hotel, Chicago, at
age 24.
middle Mr.Armstrong and friend
Ralph Johnsonagain in front of
Hotel Del Pradoexpected to be
drafted for World War i.
bottom Herbert W. Armstrong visits
Motor, Iowa, his home state.
Iowa, then as now, is in the heart
of the corn belt and possesses
the deepest and richest farm soil
in the whole of the United States.
top Loma Isabelle Dillon (left) and
her sister, Edith, when they were
small children.
bottom Mr. Armstrong came to
treasure this photo of Loma
Dillons family in the mid-1890s:
her mother holds Edith; her father
provides Loma back support.
right Miss Loma Dillon poses for a
photo sometime before Herbert
W. Armstrong meets her.
top Loma Dillon sits beside the pool in front of the apartment building in
Des Moines where she was an overnight guest of Frank Armstrongs family.
left Loma Dillon shortly before meeting Herbert Armstrong
right Loma wears her sisters coat, which proved too large.
Herbert W. Armstrong visits Loma Isabelle Dillon, a vivacious
cousin, during one of his Iowa visits in his early-to-mid-20s.
These photos provide a fascinating
study in the trends in swimwear.
It would be better to label these
garments bathing suits in the
literal sense, as one could hardly
swim effectively wearing them.
These photos were taken on
the beach of Lake Michigan,
at the end of Wilson Avenue in
Chicago, just after the Armstrongs
honeymoon trip. The Armstrongs
lived 1 blocks from the lake.
top The country store in Motor,
Iowa, where, in the upper
right room, Herbert Armstrong
became engaged to Miss Dillon.
middle Loma Isabelle Dillon in
Jackson Park on the morning
of her marriage to Herbert W.
Armstrong
bottom Loma Dillon at the time
of her marriage in July 1917;
she always thought of herself
as a country girl.
Loma Armstrong attends a sporting event with her
husband. The dress is typical of the World Wari period.
Loma Armstrong wrote Mr. Armstrongs mother
this letter relating her dream about the remarkable
incident of her and her husbands calling.
top Bertha Dillon, sister of
Loma Armstrong
left Herbert Armstrong, age 30,
works on the family farm.
right Loma Armstrong (right),
and Herbert Armstrong, both
in their late 20s, appear in this
snapshot taken the Sunday
before their first baby was born.
Herbert and Loma Armstrong tour the city during their early
days together. Herbert Armstrong, though born in a small
Iowa town, was by nature a child of the city. His intense
artistic and cultural interests were reflected in his later work.
wherever and whenever other mothers would allow her to

name their babies. Of course she had Beverly named long
before she was born. Had she been a boy, my wife had decided
to name him Herbert Junior. But by the time our first son
was born, more than 10 years later, we had both changed our
minds about the name Junior.
Just as the baby was born, my wife, only partially under
the ether, asked: What is it, girl or boy?
Its a girl, answered Dr. Stuart.
Girl! Beverly! said Mrs. Armstrong with emphasis in her
semi-anesthetized stupor.
After 10 days the doctor released her from the hospital,
and our little family of three and Bertha resumed life at The
Brown. There was a small balcony off our apartment. The
baby was laid on the bed, and we sat down out on the balcony.
We heard a slight sound from the baby.
Quick! exclaimed my young wife in nervous anxiety. See
if the babys still breathing!
I had to rush inside to reassure her that babies just dont
stop breathing for no reason at all.
Whenever the baby made a sound, Mrs. Armstrong was
sure she was choking to death. When she did not make a
sound, my wife was sure she had smothered to death.
In our apartment was a small kitchenette. The babys first
bath away from the hospital was quite an experience. Mrs.
Armstrongs first experience! She was so afraid the baby
would take cold, she turned on the stove until the kitchen-
ette room was so hot the baby screamed. The young mother
didnt know why the baby screamedbecame frightened,
supposing something terrible was wrong with the baby. Both
sweat and tears rolled down my wifes face. She was afraid
for any air to touch the baby, so she hurried frantically with
the bath! When the baby cried and even screamed because
of the excess heat and lack of oxygen, her young mother,
not knowing what caused the babys discomfort, burst out
crying toobut with determination she finished the bath!
Many young mothers have many things to learn, the same
as young fathers!
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
The Flu Epidemic

It was now after May 20, 1918. The flu epidemic had struck the
United States during the very crisis of the war. People were
dying all over the nation, and especially in the larger cities.
We decided against taking our baby back into the congestion
of Chicago. Instead we rented a house in Indianola, Iowa, 18
miles south of Des Moines, where there were fewer people to
come in contact with and less danger of being exposed to the
new influenza disease. The house we rented was close to the
Simpson College campus.
Leaving my wife and baby with her sister, Bertha, I returned
alone to Chicago to look after my business. At the railroad
depots boxed caskets were being loaded on the baggage cars of
most trainsbodies of influenza victims. We had not wanted
to risk exposing our new baby by a train ride to Chicago. In
Chicago I saw people in the congested Loop traffic wearing
cloth masks over their mouths and noses to prevent breathing
a flu germ.
After some three months we decided the family could not
remain apart any longernor could I afford the frequent
trips to Iowa to be part time with my family, so I brought my
wife and baby daughter back to Chicago. This time we rented
a room with a family named Bland who had an apartment on
the South Side, south of 63rd Street, not far from the Hyles,
who had moved away by this time.
I began to concentrate more and more on developing
the farm tractor business for the Northwestern Banker. As
mentioned in a previous chapter, Clifford DePuy, publisher
of the Northwestern Banker, had purchased the old St.
Louis Banker at St. Louis, and changed its name to the
Mid-Continent Banker.
He appointed a former acquaintance of mine, R. Fullerton
Place, as editor and manager of the Mid-Continent Banker.
Some years before, when I was 18 years of age and a solicitor
in the want-ad department of the Des Moines Daily Capital,
Mr. Place had been sports editor of the Capital. We always
called him by his youthful nickname, Rube Place.
Also I mentioned, in an earlier chapter, that after this farm
176
tractor brainstorm hit me, I had made extensive surveys to

gather facts and information not possessed by tractor manu-
facturers about their distribution problems.
With this information accurately tabulated and analyzed,
I was able to approach the manufacturers in the tractor
industry with facts they themselves did not know about their
own selling and distribution problems.
I found that bankers invariably discouraged their farmer
customers from buying tractors. The readers of my maga-
zinesthe country bankerswere talking thousands of
farmers out of buying tractors after local dealers had talked
them into it. Our readers provided a major sales resistance.
It was, therefore, important to the tractor industry to sell
the bankers on modern mechanized farm methods.
Doing Business With Millionaires

It became necessary to do business direct with the presidents
of these great corporations. Thus, once again, I was thrown
into business contact with important millionaire executives.
These contacts were important in the early training for the
job I was destined to be called to later.
I soon learned, however, that it was difficult to induce
the head of a great corporation with national distribution to
advertise in one small bank journal covering only five states
or, after the purchase of the Mid-Continent Banker, even the
two small localized sectional journals. They were accustomed
to doing business in a big wayof national scope.
I think I must have caught some of their vision. Later,
when the media of radio and the printing press were opened
to me in the great commission, it seemed natural that my
thinking was constantly along lines of expansionfirst from
Lane County, Oregon, to the Portland area; then the entire
Pacific Northwest; then California and the entire coast; then
national; then finally, as of today, worldwide! I think my
readers will be quick to grasp how these years of business
training provided the necessary foundation for the great
Work of today.
Of course all these farm tractor manufacturers placed
177
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
all their advertising through advertising agencies. In the

agencies, even more than in the offices of tractor corporation
presidents, I was tremendously handicapped by representing
only a small sectional circulation. They, by contrast, bought
space on a national basis.
The New Brainstorm

This situation inspired the new brainstorm, also previously
mentioned in this autobiography. There were seven leading
sectional bank journals, and two national magazines with
more scattered banker circulations. It required all nine of
them to cover the entire nation with an intensive national
circulation.
I compared my situation to that of actors in show busi-
ness. An actor in a theater on Broadway gets paid for one
performance each night, but to play before many thousands
of people he must act the part all over again night after
night. But a movie actor in Hollywood, I reasoned, acted the
part just once, and it was seen in hundreds and hundreds
of theaters. The Hollywood stars were paid in hundreds of
thousands or millions of dollars, while the Broadway actors
were paid in hundreds of dollars. The movie star received
multiple compensation for the one effort.
I saw that it would be far easier for me to sell a national
circulation for a string of nine magazines on the one effort. In
other words, it would be easier to make nine commissions on
the one solicitation, than one commission.
Immediately this idea met emphatic and determined resis-
tance from Clifford DePuy. I was his Chicago representative,
and he was not going to share my services with anyone else!
I told Cliff I was absolutely certain I could send him more
business under the new setup, at only 30 percent commission,
than I could as his exclusive representative at 40 percent. He
believed that I could not get as much business for his maga-
zines sharing my time with seven others as I could devoting
all my time to his magazines alone. It was like the irresistible
force meeting the immovable object.
We were both strong-willed.
178
It came to a climax one night in the offices of the Mid-

Continent Banker in St. Louis. I had been in St. Louis soliciting
business. Mr. DePuy was there. I needed to draw an expense
check as advance commission in order to have train fare to
return home in Chicago.
OK, said Cliff, agree to give up this fantastic idea of
representing seven other journals, and remain exclusively
my representative, and Ill give you the check.
He had me over a barrelso he thought!
Actually, his ultimatum was entirely fair and reasonable,
from his point of view. But I couldnt see it that way. To me
it meant more business than ever for him, and at 25 percent
reduction in cost of getting it. I felt he ought to help get me
established in it.
Round and round we went. Neither would give in.
Mr. Place tried to cause me to give in. He quoted Scripture.
The Bible says, To him that hath shall be given; and to him
that hath not shall be taken away, even what he hath. In this
case Cliff hath, and you hath not! Youll simply have to give
in, Herbert, or you have no way to get back to Chicago.
Ill never give in! I retorted with increased determination
and set jaw. Ill start to walk back to Chicago before Ill give
up this new plan. If you wont advance me expense money, I
might as well leave the office and start walking. Ill find a
way to get home and develop this string of bank journals!
When Cliff saw how determined I was, on the showdown,
he was not willing to let me start walking all the way to
Chicago. He gave me the needed expense money.
I will say, however, that I did my best to make it a good
investment, and succeeded. I did send him a great deal more
advertising under the nine-magazine, national-circulation
setup than I could have done otherwiseand at lower
commission.
In those days I worked sporadically in streaks.
I seemed to have my off days and my on days. When I
was on, I was red hot, and, as I fancied, at least, very bril-
liant. But on the off days it seemed I couldnt sell anything.
I became very uncomfortably aware of this great fault, and I
179
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
tried to fight it, but it took me years to overcome it. But I did
overcome it eventually.
Actually, during these next few years, I did not work more
than four or five days a month. But, with the nine magazines
and a national circulation, the commission on a half-page or
a full-page contract for one year was rather large. I did not
need to have too many of the brilliant days to make a good
years income.
From memory, my income for that year 1918 was approx-
imately $7,300; for 1919 approximately $8,700; and for 1920
over $11,000. When you consider what a dollar in those days
was worth, those were very good incomes by todays standards.
The Curtis Opportunity

Not very many knew of that fault of working in spurts on my
on days. The business contacts didnt, because I only called
on them on the good days. On those days I was supremely
self-confident, and consequently effective.
Soon I knew and was known by almost every advertising
agency in Chicago. Representing the nine leading bank
journalshaving virtually a monopoly representation in the
banking fieldnow with an intensified national circulation to
offer, enhanced my prestige greatly with the agencies. They
came to know me as a publishers representative who knew
his stuff. Also, they had learned, by the latter part of 1918,
that I was absolutely honest in statements about bank jour-
nalswhether those I represented or competitive journals.
Since bank journal circulations were very small, even
though extremely high in class, the page rates were compar-
atively low. Agencies made very small commissions from
business placed in bank journals. Having confidence in my
knowledge and honesty, most Chicago agencies came to rely
almost altogether on my advice relative to any space used in
the banking journals.
At that time the biggest organization in the publishing field
was the Curtis Publishing Co. of Philadelphia, publishers of
the Saturday Evening Post, the Ladies Home Journal and
the Country Gentleman. They were regarded as the most
180
aggressive people in the publishing business. It was a matter

of great prestige to be on their staff.
Along about this time the Curtis organization was looking
for a brilliant and promising young cub solicitor who showed
promise of developing into a high executive position. They
inquired of space buyers and contact men in most of the
leading advertising agencies for recommendations of the
most promising man in the field soliciting the agencies. I was
one of the top two recommended by the Chicago agencies, and
was called to the Curtis Chicago office, where their western
manager offered me the opportunity to join the Curtis staff.
It was a very flattering opportunity. However, I wanted to
be sure before making a change. By this time I had finally
learned the lesson of sticking with a thing, and not shifting
around. I went to Arthur Reynolds, president of the Continental
& Commercial National BankChicagos largest bank, and
second-largest national bank in Americafor advice.
He pushed a button on his desk. Immediately a secretary
appeared.
Bring me our file on the Curtis Publishing Co. of
Philadelphia, he said. The file was quickly produced. He
scanned over it quickly. I noticed that the material in it was
red-pencil marked, so as to call to his attention quickly the
most vital information.
Im going to advise you to remain where you are, he
concluded within a few moments. The Curtis people are a
big prestige organization. But youd be just a cub with them,
starting near the bottom. It would be years before youd be
noticed by any of the men at the top. Some of these big compa-
nies take good care of their men, others pay small salaries.
The Curtis people do not have to pay big salaries for the job
or office held. With them youd be a little frog in a big puddle.
Where you are, you are a big frog in a little puddle. You have
your own business. You have developed it so as to bring your-
self into constant contact with big and important men. In my
judgment this is better training for your future success than
anything you would get with the Curtis organization. It is
flattering, of course, that the advertising agencies have rated
181
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
you one of the two most promising and effective young adver-
tising solicitors in Chicago. Take this as encouragement to
drive yourself on to greater accomplishment. But I think you
are doing well right where you are.
I took his advice. The Curtis offer was turned down.
An Irate Competitor
An incident occurred about this time which illustrates the
confidence that had been built up in the advertising agencies
of Chicago.
One day the space buyer of the Critchfield agency called
me on the telephone.
Theres a Mr. Chazen here, he said (the name has been
changed for obvious reasons). He says he is publisher of
three bankers magazines, one circulating in Illinois, Indiana
and Wisconsin; one in Nebraska; and one in Kansas and
Oklahoma. Is it any good?
It was not. It was a fake. I told him the truth.
No, its a plain fake. He really has a good circulation in
Nebraska, but that is all. He puts a different cover with a
different name on a very few copies and calls it by the name
of his supposed Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin paper; then
he puts still a different cover with another name on a few
copies, supposed to be a magazine circulating in Kansas and
Oklahoma. I have survey reports from every bank in Illinois
and Wisconsin. His supposed magazine for these states has
exactly four subscribers in Wisconsin, and 17 in Illinois.
Thats all.
Thanks, Armstrong, said the Critchfield space buyer.
It took this irate publisher about 12 minutes to hotfoot it
across the Loop to my office.
Armstrong, he shouted as he burst in the door, what
kind of a game are you playing, anyway? It seems youve got
all the agencies in Chicago hypnotized so that no one else can
get any business here without your approval. All right! Ill
pay! Whats your price? What have I got to pay you to lay off,
and recommend my three magazines?
Sit down, and cool off, Mr. Chazen, I said. Sure Ive got
182
a price. The price is simply whatever it is going to cost you

to build an honest circulation for those two fake papers of
yours, and join the Audit Bureau of Circulations, and prove
your circulation by an abc audit. Then Ill recommend your
magazines for nothing.
Why, why! he puffed and stammered. Thats outrageous!
Thats impossible! Do you know what that would cost me?
Sure I know. But its the price of being honest!
Its an outrage! he kept shouting, as he stomped out of
my office.
There was another occasion when an agency had a client who
needed all the banker circulation he could get in Minnesota.
In addition to the Northwestern Banker, I recommended a
Minneapolis bank journal that had a good strong circulation
in Minnesota. Its publisher came to see me and thank me. He
had a good honest circulation in Minnesota, and where it fit a
marketing problem I was glad to recommend it.
Our New Apartment

We were still living in our little three-room apartment at the
Blands when World Wari ended, November 11, 1918.
We shall never forget that day. We had Beverly with us at
my office. Chicagos Loop went crazyberserk! We joined in
tearing thick telephone directories into thin strips and throwing
them out our fourth-story window. Everyone was doing it. It
was like snow falling all over the Loop. I got out in the throng
for a whilemanaged to elbow my way for some two blocks
then fought my way through the jam back to the office. Every
whistle and siren was goingevery car honking full blast!
About that time I learned of a new apartment building
being built out in Maywood, third suburban town west of
Chicago. I was beginning to get some of the tractor advertising
for my nine magazines, and we felt that at last we could lease
a full apartment. I leased this one, on the third floor, from
the architects blueprints, about the time the foundation was
being laid. The apartment was on Fifth Street, a block or two
north of the Northwestern railroad tracks.
It was going to be several months before the apartment
183
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
building would be ready for occupancy. Nevertheless, in

January we rented an old house on Second Street in Maywood,
a few blocks from the new apartment building. My wifes
father had decided to come to Chicago, and he bought furni-
ture for the house. Her younger brother, Walter, had been
released from the Navy, and he and Bertha also lived with us
in this place.
We lived there some six months. Beverly learned to walk
there. The elder of my wifes younger brothers, Gilbert,
returned from the trenches in France, discharged from the
Army; and so, with his two sons back from the war, my wifes
father shipped his furniture and moved back to Iowa.
We then moved for a few weeks into the hotel in Maywood.
Maywood was a totally different type suburb in those days
than it is today. It has grown immensely and has become a
big factory town.
The frame hotel caught on fire while we stayed there, an
incident of great excitement. In one room a couple of excited
guests threw the mirror off the dresser out the window,
breaking it into many fragments, and then they carefully
carried down the stairs the dresser itself.
We soon found a furnished house on Fourth Street we
could rent until our apartment was finished. While living in
this house, shortly prior to occupying the new apartment, my
mother came to visit us, and remained until we had moved
into our apartment.
All the while business was improving. We felt able to
furnish our new apartment, and engaged one of Marshall
Fields decorators to work with us in the furnishings for the
apartment. What we selected was of the very best. Our own
apartmentthe first that was our very own since marriage
seemed a joy indeed.
We had moved into the furnished house in early December
1919, and into our apartment in April 1920.
By this time we were expecting our second child. My wife
was having difficulties. Within a week or two after moving
into our new apartment, and only a few days after my mother
had returned to Salem, Oregon, Mrs. Armstrong was stricken
184
with toxemia eclampsia, with urinalysis showing 40 percent

albumin, and rushed to a hospital. We were told that there
was only one doctor in the world who could save her in her
serious conditionand this specialist was called in. She
survived, and our second daughter, Dorothy Jane, was born
in a Des Moines hospital on July 7, 1920.
There was one lasting ill-effect from this critical illness
the treatment that was administered ruined my wifes beau-
tiful golden hairthe most beautiful I had ever seenand in
a comparatively short time she was white-haired.
The world-famous obstetrical specialist brought in on my
wifes case in Chicago, her Des Moines doctor, and my wifes
uncle who was a captain in the Medical Corps in the Army, all
told us that another pregnancy would mean the certain death
of my wife and of the baby. Although we did not know why at
the time, we learned much later we were of the opposite Rh
blood factor.
185
12
DEPRESSION
STRIKES!
S HORTLY AFTER OUR SECOND DAUGHTER,
Dorothy, was born, I persuaded my younger brother, Russell,

then 20, to come back to Chicago and join me in the advertising
business. He had been employed in an office job with the
Portland Gas & Coke Co. in Portland, Oregon.
My Brothers Experience
I gave him what instruction and coaching I could, and sent
him out calling on prospects to sell advertising space for our
magazines. But after several daysor perhaps two or three
weekshe didnt seem to be doing so well. I knew he had not
had any of this kind of experience. So I decided to take him
on a call with me, to observe the manner in which I talked
with prospective advertisers. I decided that we should call
together on someone I had never met before.
The J.I. Case tractor account had just switched to a new
agency I had never contacted. I decided to make the call on
the space buyer of this agency. It was one of my on days,
and about 10:30 in the morning.
I wanted to set a good example for Russell, to show him how
it was done. We went together to the agency office. Briskly,
and with dignity I stepped up to the receptionist.
186
Tell Mr. Blank that Mr. Armstrong is here to see him, I said
in a positive tone. I had found that this approach usually got
me right in on my man.
The space buyer came out to the reception office, holding
my card which I had sent in by the receptionist.
What bank journals do you represent? he asked.
The nine largestall of them that are worth using, I
replied snappily and positively, and in a tone of authority.
Well! he exclaimed. Come in!
In his office I immediately launched into the situation my
surveys had disclosed, slapping down on his desk a pile of
hundreds of questionnaires from bankers and tractor dealers,
and taking out of my briefcase the typed tabulations and
summaries of the surveys.
He was tremendously impressed.
Mr. Armstrong, he said after we had covered the material
in the surveys, I wonder if you could prepare for me a
statement of the combined circulations, page sizes, rates,
etcetera, of your publications.
I have it right herealready prepared for you, I said,
handing the statement to him.
He asked me to prepare for him some other statement. I
reached into the briefcase and handed it to him. He asked if I
would send over to him sample copies of each of my magazines.
I reached in the briefcase, and handed them to him.
Well, he said finally, that just about covers everything.
Now tell me, Mr. ArmstrongI see you know this problem
thoroughly, and you know your own publications. Just what
do you advise for this J.I. Case accountwhich magazines,
and how much space ought they to use to accomplish their
objective with the bankers?
They should use nothing but full pages, I said, speaking
authoritatively, and they should use all nine publications
for a concentrated national circulation, because the J.I. Case
distribution is national; and they should use it every issue on a
year-around basis because they have an educational problem
which is going to require constant educational-type copy over
an extended period of time. Youve got to change the attitude
187
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
of bankers in regard to mechanized power farming. Thats a

big order. It can only be done with big space, and its going to
take time. And here I have for you the data and arguments
you should incorporate into the advertising copy to convince
the bankers. These are the facts that will convince them if you
present them in important-size space and keep it up month
after month.
I handed him the typed statement of facts, data and
arguments which my surveys and personal interviews with
bankers had indicated would be most effective in changing
banker attitudes toward tractors.
He thanked me, and Russell and I left.
Record-breaking Contract
Out in the hall, on the way to the elevator, I asked Russell:
Do you think we will remain on the J.I. Case list, for renewal
contracts for another year?
Boy! exclaimed Russell. Will we! Why, I think he will
do just what you recommended. Why, you had him literally
eating right out of your hand.
Well, did that experience help you, Russ?
I was completely surprised at his answer.
No! It certainly didnt! Instead, it showed me why I
havent been landing any contracts. Look, Herb! Im only 20
years old. They think of me as just a kid. You are 28. Youve
been in this for years, and youve had experience I havent
had. You have all the facts right on your tongue tip. You
speak with assurance and authority. You know your stuff,
and men you talk to know that you know your stuff. They
have confidence in you immediately. But I dont have all this
knowledge yet, and I dont appear as mature, and I cant talk
as confidently.
I was disappointed. To try to help my brother, I had really
keyed myself up to put on a good show for him on this call. It
boomeranged. It reacted in reverse. It discouraged him. And
I didnt know what to do about it. What he had said was true.
It would take him years to gain maturity of appearance, and
the knowledge of all these merchandising and distribution
188
12 | Depression Strikes!
problems, just as it had taken me years to acquire this

knowledge and maturity.
That same afternoon the space buyer in the agency we had
called on that morning called me on the telephone.
Hello, Mr. Armstrong. I have some good news for you. I
didnt tell you this morning, but while you were here, the
president and advertising manager of the J.I. Case Co. were
here in the office of our president, making up the lists for the
next year. I took all your data list.
Splendid! I replied. But how much space? I was already
carrying the J.I. Case account, with half-page space in only
three magazines.
Full page, he replied.
Splendid! But how many magazines?
Oh, as if he had not thought to tell me, all nine of them.
Splendid! But how many months? I was having to drag it
out of him.
Fifteen months, he replied. We will start with the October
numbers, using October, November and December of this
year, and then the entire calendar year next year, making a
total of 15 pages in each magazine.
Wow! It was the biggest advertising contract ever sold
for bank journals, so far as I knew. And so far as I know, it
probably is still the record today. By this time advertising
rates on all my magazines had gone up considerably. My
commission on this order was probably around $3,500a
good fee for about one hours consultation that morning!
For some little time longer I tried to keep Russell on the
job, not soliciting tractor accounts, but smaller-space adver-
tising. But he was just too young. He procured a job with
one of my clients, a burglar alarm manufacturer, selling
their burglar alarm system to banks. He traveled for some
months in northern Illinois and in Wisconsin, gaining some
valuable experience, getting together board meetings in
banks to present his product to them. But, although he did
better on this, his youth proved too great a handicap, and
finally he returned to Portland, Oregon, and to his job with
the gas company.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Depression Strikes
In January 1920, the well-known statistician Roger Babson
was the speaker at one of our Association of Commerce
luncheons then being held each Wednesday in the Cameo
Room of the Morrison Hotel. Through the Advertising Club, a
division of the Chicago Association of Commerce, I had been
a member of the association for some years.
We were then at the very height of a wave of postwar
prosperity.
Gentlemen, said Mr. Babson, we are about to enter the
worst business depression that our generation has ever expe-
rienced. I advise you all to set your houses in order. I advise
against any further plans of expansion until this depression
has passed over.
Seated at tables in that large room were leading bankers
and business executives of Chicago. I glanced around. I saw
amused smirks animate the faces of many prominent men.
Through the next few months of 1920 business activity
continued its boom upswing.
In the summer of that year I attended the American
Bankers Association national convention in Washington, D.C.
While passing the White House one day, I was stopped at
the driveway for a large limousine emerging from the White
House to pass. In the rear seat was President Woodrow
Wilson. He smiled and waved his hand to the two or three of
us who happened to be passing at the moment.
Mr. Wilson was the fourth president I had seen in person.
At age 5 or 6, when we lived in Marshalltown, Iowa, held in
my fathers arms, I saw President William McKinley. He was
making a rear platform address from his private train. The
event was so vividly stamped in my memory that I remember
it distinctly, even though I was scarcely out of babyhood at
the time.
I saw and heard President Theodore Roosevelt several
times, both during his administration and afterward. I sat
within about 15 feet of him at an Association of Commerce
banquet in the ballroom of Hotel LaSalle in Chicago. I saw
President Taft when he made a speech in Des Moines, Iowa.
190
But since seeing and waving back to President Wilson that

day in 1920, I have not seen a single president in person
though of course, since television, most of us have seen every
president many times; and I had seen all presidents since
Wilson in newsreels.
A highlight of that 1920 convention trip to Washington,
D.C., was a long conversation I had, lasting more than an
hour, with John McHugh, in the lobby of the Willard Hotel.
Mr. McHugh was then president of the Mechanics and Metals
National Bank of New York. Later, through consolidations of
this bank and others into the gigantic Chase National Bank,
Mr. McHugh was elevated to a position two levels higher
than the president of the largest bank on Earth, with the
title Chairman of the Executive Committee.
But one might ask: What price glory? in the business
world, after all. A very few years ago I stopped in at the Wall
Street offices of the Chase National Bank, and asked for
information as to the latter days of John McHugh.
Who? Never heard of him! was the only reply I could get
from those of todays staff that I questioned. Had he been
a glamour-boy movie star instead of a world-famous banker,
his name might have lived after him more effectively.
I was really puzzled about one thing. John McHugh was the
very epitome of a quiet, cultured, dignified gentleman. He was
extremely courteous, kindly, polite. Naturally he had many
friends and many who posed as friends. How could a soft-
spoken and kindly gentleman like John McHugh turn down
a conniving, scheming, professing friend who might come to
him for a large, undeserved loan?
Didnt friends and acquaintances take advantage of such a
gentle soul? I asked one of my bank journal publishers.
He laughed. Oh, no, he explained. Dont worry about the
wrong kind taking advantage of John McHughs friendliness.
His judgment is very keen, else he would never have risen to
such high level in the banking world. Nobody puts anything
over on him. He simply remains gracious and friendly, and
explains that loans of this type are handled by such and such
officer. He then offers to introduce the would-be borrower,
191
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
expressing confidence he will be well taken care of. He always

is. Such procedure is the signal to the other officer to turn the
man down. The would-be borrower friend, of course, becomes
angry and furious at this other officerbut not at Mr. McHugh,
who still retains the friendships.
Before the end of 1920, Roger Babsons predicted depression
did strikewith sudden and intense fury. By January 1921,
we had reached and passed its lowest ebb.
Thermometers on the Wall

At this time Roger Babson once again was the guest speaker
in the Morrison Hotel Cameo Room Association of Commerce
luncheon.
Well, gentlemen, he said, you will remember that a year
ago I warned you that within one year we would be in the
throes of the worst depression our generation has ever seen.
I noticed many of you smiling unbelievingly then. Well, that
year has rolled around, and here I am again, and here is the
depression with me.
Chicago business leaders were not smiling now. Mr. Babson
then proceeded to explain why he knew what was coming and
business executives did not.
It is now midwinter, he said. If I want to know what the
temperature is, now, in this room, I go to the wall and look
at the thermometer. If I want to know what it has been, up
to now, and the existing trend as of the moment, I look at
a recording thermometer. But if I want to know what the
temperature in this room is going to be, an hour from now, I
go to the source which determines future temperaturesI go
down to the boiler room and see what is happening down there.
You gentlemen looked at bank clearings, indexes of business
activity, stock car loadings, stock-market quotationsyou
looked at the thermometers on the wall; I looked at the way
people as a whole were dealing with one another. I looked to
the source which determines future conditions. I have found
that that source may be defined in terms of righteousness.
When 51 percent or more of the whole people are reasonably
righteous in their dealings with one another, we are heading
192
into increasing prosperity. When 51 percent of the people

become unrighteous in their business dealings with their
fellows, then we are headed for bad times economically!
I have never forgotten Mr. Babsons explanation. I hope my
readers today may remember and profit by it, too.
I paid with the loss of my business to learn the lesson!
Every one of my big-space advertisers in the tractor and
similar industries went into economic failure in that flash
depression of late 1920. It wiped out my business and source
of incomeliterally!
I was not a quitter. I had learned, now, not to give up. But I
had not learned that a dead horse is dead! For two years I stayed
on in Chicago vainly attempting to revive a dead business.
193
13
BUSINESS
DISINTEGRATES
T HE NEXT TWO YEARSFROM LATE
1920 until December 1922were discouraging years. A

few nationally known business executives, unable to take
the reverses of the depression, sank to despondency and
committed suicide. One of these was the president of one of
the large automobile manufacturing concerns whom I had
known personally.
I had been knocked down, stunned, made groggybut not
knocked out. Desperately I clung on, hoping to climb back
on top.
Conference With Millionaires

One morningit must have been about February 1921a
telephone call came from the secretary of the National
Implement and Vehicle Association. An important meeting
of the board of directors of the association was in progress.
Mr. Wallis (I do not now remember his initials), president of
the J.I. Case Plow Works, my biggest client, was chairman
of this board. He had asked the secretary to call me and ask
if I could run over immediately to their meeting, being held
across the Loop in the Union League Club.
I told him I would be right over.
194
I raced down to a clothes-pressing shop and shoe-shining
parlor, a half block down West Madison Street from my office,
ducked into a dressing room and had my suit pressed and
shoes shined while I waiteda rush job. Then I caught a taxi
and hurried to the Union League Club.
Being ushered into the private room where the board
meeting was being held, I shook hands with Mr. Wallis, and
in turn was introduced to six other millionaire presidents
of large farm implement manufacturers. I remember there
was Mr.Brantingham, president of Emerson-Brantingham,
among the others. The magnetism of the powerful person-
alities of these seven big business heads surcharged the
atmosphere of the room. It was the first time I had ever been
in the presence of so many big men at once. I was deeply
impressed. But they were not in a happy mood. They were a
deeply concerned group of men. The depression was ruining
their businesses. They faced ruin.
Advising Clients to Cancel

Mr. Armstrong, said Mr. Wallis, you know, of course, the
extent to which this depression has hit the farm tractor
industry. This meeting has been called in the interests of this
entire industry. The industry cannot survive unless we can
find some way to stimulate sales in this depression. We have
to find some way to induce farmers to buy tractorsand they
have quit buying them.
Now what we want to ask you is this: Can youwill you
bring pressure on the editors of bank journals of this nation,
whom you represent, to write strong and vigorous editorials
urging bankers to advise the farmers to resume buying
tractors. Can your editor show the bankers why they ought
to bring pressure on farmers to buy tractors, and save this
great industry?
It was a crucial moment in my life. Here were seven heads
of great corporations. They represented the entire great farm
tractor and farm implement industry. And they were appealing
to me to devise an idea and take an action that would save this
vast industry of American big business from bankruptcy!
195
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
What an appeal to my egotism! What a temptation to think

of personal importance!
But I did know the facts! And when this test came, I had
to be honest with these men. It was no time for a grandstand
play for personal glory, or for pretense. I knew the facts
hard, cold stern factsand I had to be honest! Even though
I knew it meant cancellation of what tractor advertising had
not already been canceled.
Of course the implication was that, if I could induce our
editors to undertake a campaign to pressure bankers into
inducing farmers to purchase tractors in this depression, an
unheard-of volume of big-space advertising would be handed
to me on a platter!
I was well aware of that. I was well aware that I had it in
my power to ignore facts I had gathered, and start such a
campaign in Americas leading bank magazines. These men
didnt know what I knew. But it would be misrepresentation
and deliberate dishonesty.
I was ambitious to make money. But not by falsification or
dishonesty! I was sincere!
No, gentlemen, I replied without hesitation. I cannot
do it! I have been constantly in touch with the bankers in
regard to the farm tractor situation. Let me tell you what the
country bankers know. They know that corn, which normally
has been selling for $1.12 per bushel, has dropped down to 18
cents per bushel. I have one client now whose business has
skyrocketed since the depressionthe Gordon-Van Tyne Co.
of Davenport, Iowa. They make, as you know, prefabricated
structures for temporary grain storage. Everywhere farmers
are buying these, and storing their grain for a rise in the
marketafter the depression is over.
Bankers know that one tractor replaces six horses.
Tractors have to be fed gasoline, which is expensive right now.
Horses are fed on 18-cent corn and oats and hay that have
skidded likewise in price. Country bankers know their farmer
customers would think they were fools to recommend buying
tractors and feeding them on high-priced gasoline, when they
have their horses being fed on grain they cant sell.
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13 | Business Disintegrates
The next day I received a cancellation of my last remaining

tractor accountJ.I. Case. But I still had my honesty and
self-respect.
A Childs Menu
In early May 1921, it was necessary to take a business trip to
Iowa. It was decided that I should take our eldest daughter,
Beverly, then almost 3, for a visit with her Auntie Bert as she
called her Aunt Bertha, while I transacted business in Iowa.
In a lower berth on the sleeper that night, as I was
undressing her to put on her sleeping garment, Beverly stood
up and discovered she could reach up and touch the shiny top
of the berth.
See, Daddy, she exclaimed, Im a big girl now. I can touch
the ceiling.
Next morning we were having breakfast in the dining room
of the Hotel Savory. When the waitress brought me a menu,
Beverly, in the highchair they had brought her, demanded a
menu also. Laughingly the waitress gave her one. She looked
up and down the menu with a studious expressionit might
have been upside-down. And then, with great feminine dignity,
in a very ladylike voice, Beverly gave the waitress her order.
I think I will have, she said, pertly, some ice cream, some
string beans and some candy.
Later, when her younger sister Dorothy became about the
same age, she ordered a dinner.
I want some ice cream, popcorn and some chewing gum,
she ordered.
I never did quite agree with the modernistic psychologists
who say we should always give children whatever they want
that they instinctively know what is best for them.
Our children and grandchildren, of course, like all others,
have on occasion gotten off some cute sayings. One time my
wife was putting on Dorothys little Dr. Denton sleepers to
put her to bed. It seems they were made of wool, and they
scratched her skin.
Mother, she said seriously, nobody but just me and God
and Jesus knows what a fix Im in!
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Recuperating in Iowa
Things in my business went from bad to worse. It was
discouragingfrustrating. I was taking the biggest beating
of my lifebut hung stubbornly on. Finally, about July 1922,
it became necessary to give up our apartment. My income
had gone too low to support my family, and at that time we
decided that Mrs.Armstrong and the girls should go to her
fathers farm in Iowa to lessen the expenses.
I rented a single room about a block away in Maywood,
furnishing it with some of our very fine furniture, and the
rest of the furniture was put in storage. We had a Knabe
piano I had purchased new on contract, but it went back to
the store when we could no longer keep up the payments. All
the rest of the furniture had been bought for cash.
From this time I entered upon perhaps the blackest and
most discouraging three months of my life. It was a mistake
to try to face this uphill treadmill climb alone without my
wife and family. If ever I needed my wife it was then.
I began palling around with two other young men who were
advertising representatives of magazines. One of them was
in the process of separating from and divorcing his wife. The
wife of the other was away for the summer and fall. We began
to haunt nightclubsthen called cabarets. Often we would
hang around these places of sorrowful, moaning, screeching,
wailing musicif you could call such dirges musicuntil
1 or 2 a.m. We began to drinknot at all even a fraction of
the volume of an alcoholicbut too much for efficiency. My
mental attitude became one of frustration.
Finally, I got two or three weeks behind with the room rent
on my single room, and I felt too humiliated to go back. I went
to a north-side second-rate hotelthen to another. Finally I
could not even keep this up.
I reached the end of the rope in Chicago in October 1922.
I was lonesome for my wife and children. At last I, too, had
to seek refuge on my father-in-laws farm in Iowa, where we
would have no cost of living. I do not remember now, but I
probably traveled this time in a day coach.
My father-in-law was finishing up corn shucking, and I did
198
13 | Business Disintegrates
the best I could to help himbut I was inexperienced and

unable to keep up with him.
Through that fall and winter, I spent most of the time
resting and recuperating in morale from the crushing defeat
of losing my business because my big-business clients had
lost theirs. That winter, beside the warm fire of burning oak
logs, I read through three or four books of fictionabout the
only fiction reading of my entire life. I did what I could to help
on the farm, but that wasnt much, and my wife, of course,
did the cooking and housework.
My First College Activity

At this time my wifes younger brother, Walter, was a freshman
in Simpson College in Indianola. Along in November he came
to me with a proposition.
Herb, he said, Ive decided to go in for the college
oratorical contest, if youll help me.
A short time before had been the first day of basketball prac-
tice. Walter had been the star basketball player in Simpson
Academy, which he had attended instead of high school. His
greatest ambition had been to make the Simpson varsity
basketball team, and to be chosen on the Des Moines Registers
all-state team.
On opening day of basketball practice, he was the first
one into the gym with a basketball suit. When the coach and
other players came on the floor, the coach had frowned and
walked over to Walter.
Dillon, he said, what are you doing here? We wont need
you. We have all the material we need this year. Go to the
showers and get into your street clothes.
This was open humiliation before all the candidates for the
squad. Being rejected without a chance to even try out for the
team was unfair, unjust and discriminatory. He couldnt under-
stand it. He was mad! Later he found the reason. The coachs
salary at that time was being paid by a certain fraternity, and
only frat members were given consideration for the team.
Now heres the way I figure, he said to me. In oratory,
anyone can compete. They cant throw me off because I dont
199
belong to a frat. Now, you are a professional writer. If you
will help me write my orationand it is allowable to have
helpand work with me on delivery, I think I have a chance.
The two best orators Simpson ever had are a junior and a
seniorboth members of that frat. If you can beat them, it
will be sweet revenge. Will you help me?
Well, Walt, I replied, I dont know a thing about college
oratorical contests. I never saw one. I have never read the
script of a college oration. I dont even know what they are
like. But if you will bring me copies of a few sample orations,
Ill sure help you if I can.
200
14
COLLEGE
COMPETITION
AND OREGON
OR BUST
O N EXPERT ADVICE, I HAD PUT MYSELF
through the college of experienceor, as it is sometimes

called, the college of hard knocks. First was a year of want
ads on a Des Moines daily newspaper. Later came three years
on a national trade journalthe largest in the United States,
involving a great deal of travel, and intensive instruction,
training and experience in writing advertising copy, dictating
business letters, and later, writing magazine articles. After six
months of chamber of commerce work, the seven-year career
representing the leading bank journals of the nation began.
All these years I had studied diligently. My major in this
study, of course, was advertising and merchandising. I studied
what books were available. I read religiously the trade papers
of the profession. I studied psychology. As a minor study, I
delved into Plato, Epictetus and other books on philosophy, and
continually read Elbert Hubbard (whom I became personally
201
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
acquainted with) for style in writing. I read human interest

articles and other articles on world conditions and on the
business of living, in leading magazines.
At the beginning of World War i, I had been able to obtain
written recommendations for entrance into the Officers
Reserve Corps from such prominent Chicago men as Arthur
Reynolds, president of the largest bank in Chicago and second-
largest in America, testifying that I possessed more than the
equivalent of a college education.
But I had not received my education in college.
The Challenge for College Competition

This request from my brother-in-law presented an intriguing
challenge. I had taken a confidence-shattering beating in
the failure of the Chicago business. But the vanity had not
been crushed out of my nature by any means. Here was a
chance to match wits with college students. Also it offered a
total mental diversion from the Chicago nightmare. It was
something I could sink my teeth into, with energy and a
new interest.
But I knew nothing of how college orations were written or
delivered or judged. As I mentioned, I asked my brother-in-law
if he could bring me copies of a few first-place winning orations.
He brought out to the farm a number of them from the
college library, printed in pamphlet form. Immediately I
noticed that they were all couched in flowery languagethe
amateur college-boy attempt at fancy rhetoric, employing
five-to-seven-syllable words which actually said practically
nothing. All the orations were written on such altruistic and
idealistic subjects as peace, or prohibition, or love for fellow
man. They displayed ignorance of the way to peace, or the
problem of alcoholism, or of human experience in living. But
they did contain beautiful, high-flown language!
This became very intriguing.
Tell me, Walt, I asked, what is the prevailing style of
delivery? Do the oratorial contestants go at it hammer-and-
tongs, Billy Sunday style, tearing their hair out, throwing
chairs across the platform, thundering at their audiencesor
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14 | College Competition and Oregon or Bust
do they speak calmly and smoothly, with carefully developed

graceful gesturesor how?
Oh, they try to speak with as much calm dignity as
possiblewith graceful gestures.
One Chance in TWO

How many contestants will be in this contest?
There will be six, including me, Walter answered.
All righttell me, nowwould you rather enter this contest
with one chance in six of winning, or with one chance in two?
He didnt quite understand.
Why, with one out of twobut what do you mean?
Well, Walt, I replied, I guess Im not much of a conformist.
I often break precedent. I figure it this way: If you write a flossy,
flowery oration with big words that say nothing, and attempt
to compete with these upperclassmen of greater experience
on their own terms, you are only one of six contestants, and
you probably do not even have one chance in six of winning.
But if you pick for your subject some red-hot controversial
topicif you have the courage to actually attack something,
give the plain truth about it, open peoples eyes about it, and
work yourself up to white-hot heat of indignation and emotion,
and let it fly Billy Sunday styleto start a big controversy
well, either the judges will like your kind of oration, or the
other kind. You have one chance in two. If they like the other
kind, you lose outyoull be voted last place. Then they have
to choose among the other five. But if they do like your style,
there is no one to choose but youyoull be the only contes-
tant with that kind of oration. So, I figure you will be either
first or last. You will not be second or third.
Say! That sounds good! exclaimed Walter. I dont want
to be second or third. I want to win. If I cant win, I might just
as well be last.
What to Attack?
OK. Now we must find something to attack and expose
something that is wrong. Something that will stir up the
people. What do you hate the most?
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
He didnt seem to hate anything or anybody. There was

nothing I could find that he was really mad at.
Well, I said finally, well have to find something that
needs exposingsomething you can really flay with forceful
language. Come to think of it, right now labor leaders are
resorting to some very foul practices. There have been
murders and gross injustices, both against employers and
against the union members themselves. I remember when I
visited Elbert Hubbard at his Roycroft Inn, at East Aurora,
New York, I read a pamphlet of his that really flayed dishonest
labor leadersand he has the best, most prolific vocabulary,
and the most effective rhetorical bromides of any writer I
know. Suppose we attack labor racketeering.
He didnt know anything about it, but he guessed this subject
would be as good as any. Immediately we wrote to Roycroft Inn
for this booklet I had read. Also we wrote to Governor Allen of
Kansas, who had just been on a fiery debate on labor-leader
racketeering that had made national headlines.
The Herrin, Illinois, massacre had occurred shortly prior
to thiswhere many had been killed. We went all out to
obtain facts on how labor leaders (some of them) were rack-
eteering off of their own worker members. Walter explained
to me that we were allowed to use a total of 200 words in the
2,000-word oration directly quoted from published sources.
We quoted some of the most forceful phrases from Hubbard
and Governor Allen.
We did not attack or oppose the principle of unionism.
The first line of the oration stated, in the somewhat flowery
language that Walter insisted on putting into it against my
advice: There was a time when the laboring man was brutal-
ized by toil. Capital held the balance of power. Labor was
cowed into meek submission.
What was opposed and exposed was the wrong economic
philosophy of labor leaders who assumed that management
is the enemy of laborthat the two interests run in opposite
directionsthat laboring men ought to use force and the
strike to get all they can, while at the same time they ought to
lay down on the job and give in return as little as they could.
204
The threat of calling a strike for blackmail purposesasking

a huge payoff from an employer to a crooked labor leader to
prevent his stirring up the men for a strikemurders and
violencethese things we opposed.
The First Course in Public Speaking

Now began my first real experience in public speaking. I
had given talks before dinner groups of retail merchants
three timesat Richmond, Kentucky, at Lansing, Michigan,
and Danville, Illinois, upon completion of merchandising
surveys. But I had never studied public speaking, nor looked
into any textbooks on the subject. Before this college oratory
experience was over I was to become acquainted with the
authors of the two textbooks on the subject used in most of
the colleges and universities throughout America. As I now
look back over the events of those formative years, in writing
this autobiography, it becomes more and more evident that
the unseen divine hand was guiding me continually into the
very experience and training needed for the great calling.
After the oration was written, Walter memorized it. He
announced that he was finally ready to begin practice on
delivery. We went over to the college chapel at an hour when
it was entirely unoccupied. I took a seat about two-thirds
way back. Walter went to the platform.
He started his oration. Consternation seized me. He was
speaking it in his best attempt to emulate the prevailing
college stylequiet, with dignity, and graceful gestures.
Only, his gestures were not graceful. They were so obviously
practiced, and not at all naturaland they were ridiculously
awkward. The expression was not natural. I saw visions of
winning last place in the contest.
This was a dilemma that had, somehow, to be solved. I
saw at once that Walter did not grasp the real meaning of his
shockingly powerful speech. He didnt feel it. This labor rack-
eteering crisis then so prominently on front-page news was
something of which he seemed unaware. The oration was just
so many meaningless words. Unless he could become aware
of the situation, and really feel with white-heat indignation
205
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
the scathing indictment of these criminal abuses of unionism,

he had no chance of winning.
What to do?
An Incident Makes It Personal

At just this time a living incident made the whole meaning of
the oration personal. A strike was in progress at the Rock Island
Railroad division point in Valley Junctionnow renamed West
Des Moines. The morning Des Moines Register reported a
bombing of the locomotive roundhouse. Eleven big locomotives
had been destroyed.
We went to Valley Junction and managed to get through the
lines to the office of the superintendent. The superintendent
showed great interest in learning of the subject of the oration.
He gave us considerable time. We went out through the
roundhouse. We saw the twisted and tangled masses of steel
of demolished locomotives.
We visited a home in town where the front half of the house
had been blown off by a bomb. Inside the house at the time
had been the wife and children of a worker who had taken up
the tools the union men had laid down. For some little time
the workmen who had accepted jobs after the union men had
walked out had been kept behind barricaded walls day and
night. Violence had become rampant. Nonunion workers had
been assaulted upon leaving the yards and returning to their
homes after working hourshence they had been forced to
remain behind defense barriers night and day.
Walter was now really outraged.
When union leaders try to kill innocent wives and children
just because their husbands have picked up the tools they
laid down, that is just too much! he exclaimed with heat.
Another nonunion homeoccupied only by the innocent
wife and childrenhad been rotten-egged.
Back in the superintendents office he told us one of his
problems with the union leaders.
I was powerless to hire or fire a man without consent of
labor leaders, he said. In the railroad business it is just as
serious a crime for an engineer to go to sleep in his cab as
206
for a sentry to go to sleep on duty in the army in wartime. I

had such a man. I tried to fire him. The labor leader refused.
He said I did not have proof. I had to employ a professional
photographer, and keep him here on the job constantly until
this engineer went to sleep again on duty in his cab. When we
presented the photographic evidence to union officials higher
up, they finally consented to firing the man.
The next afternoon at the usual time we went into the college
chapel for rehearsal. As Walter began speaking, the words of
his oration for the first time conveyed real meaning to his
mind. These words described in dynamic language exactly the
way he now felt. I had told him to dispense with all gestures
immediately after that first rehearsal. Unless gestures are
natural, automatic and unrealized by the speaker, they are
not effective anyway.
But this time Walter was gesturing. He didnt know it
but he was gesturing! They were not the most smooth and
polished gestures of the professional speakerbut they were
terrifically convincing! Today Walter was really angry! As the
words poured forth, their meaning more and more expressed
the very indignation he felt. The delivery was a little raw and
roughit was somewhat amateurishbut it was powerful
and it was convincing!
There! I exclaimed joyfully when he had finished. Hold
it! Hold it right there! Just go into the contest exactly as you
went into this rehearsal! Now you have a chance. Of course,
the judges still may not like something so radically different
from the established style of college oratory. But now you will
be either last, or first!
Comes the Final Contest

On the night of the local college oratorical contest, Walter
drew last place. He was quite discouraged. He didnt know,
then, that the last speaker always has the advantage. He was
terribly nervous.
The two students rated the best were, of course, very good as
college speakers. Theirs were the usual suave, smooth, flowery
big words, delivered calmly with smooth and much-practiced
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
graceful gestures. They were highly applauded. This year the

students had high hopes of winning a state championship
which Simpson had not won for eight years.
Then Walter walked out on the platform for the final oration.
He started out calmly but nervously. But after some six or
eight minutes the words he was speaking took him right back
to Valley Junction. He forgot the nervousness that had seized
him at the beginning. He thought only of the outrageous injus-
tices he had seen with his own eyes. And for the first time he
had an audience to tell it to! He began to gesture. He began to
pace back and forth on the platform. He shook his fist. He was
in dead earnest! He really meant what he was sayingand he
was SAYING SOMETHING!
When he had finished, he knew he had lostbut at least
he had gotten a message over to that audience! He had that
much satisfaction.
The judges decision was announced. First came the third-
place choice. It was one of the two supposed best orators. The
other was announced as second. First placeWalter Dillon!
There was little applause. The two favorites had lost out to
a green, nonfrat freshman! The judges had been moved by his
speech. They had liked it. But the student body and faculty
apparently disagreed.
In the days that followed there was only one topic of
conversation on the campusthe merits or demerits of labor
unionism. It became a heated controversy. The professor
of economics took it up in class. He disagreed with Walter
Dillons economics. He favored the union brand of economics.
Apparently he had slight socialist or Communist leanings.
One senior said to me, I hope Dillon wont disgrace us in
the state contest. We might have won this year, but now, with
a green freshman representing us, we havent a chance. Boy!
But wasnt Suttons oration good?
Yes, I rejoined. It was smooth and well delivered. By the
way, what did he talk about? I cant seem to remember.
Whywhy stammered the student, II cant seem to
remember, either. But it certainly was a great oration!
Well, really, was itif neither you nor I can remember a
208
thing he said? Everyone in town seems to remember what

Dillon said. He really stirred up a hornets nest! Do you really
think a speech is good if it doesnt say anything? He went
away somewhat angrily.
The State Contest

A short time later came the state contest. It was held that
year at Central College, Pella, Iowa. There it was the same.
Walter was very nervous. I walked with him over the campus
grounds while the first few contestants were speaking. Once
again he was last speaker.
Once again, after a calm and somewhat nervous startnot
necessarily obvious to the audiencehe relived the scenes
of violence at Valley Junction. When he came to the Herrin
massacre, the bombing of the Los Angeles Times plant, and the
other outrages of violence covered in the oration, he really lived
it! Again he paced the floor, shook his fists, rose to a crescendo
of indignant and outraged power at the climax, then had real
pleading in his voice in his final solution of these problems.
Again third place was announced firstthen second. Again
we knew he was either first or last. Finally the winner
Walter E. Dillon of Simpson!
Returning to the campus we witnessed a living example
of the fickleness of public opinion. After winning the home
contest Walter had been in disgrace. It was just a fluke
decision, most of the students said. A freshman had spoiled
their chance of winning a state contest. Walter was avoided
on the streets. He was shunned.
But now, he returned the conquering hero.
Simpson had won the state championship! Walter Dillon
was the hero of the campus. It was the first time any freshman
had won a state contest. This was news. It even made the front
page of the Chicago Tribune! He had bids to join fraternities.
The professor of economics was out of town on vacation several
daysuntil the reverse opinion on his economics subsided. For
now the student body unanimously accepted Dillons brand of
labor economics!
Well, it had been an interesting participation in college
209
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
activity for me. It helped restore shattered morale. I had

helped win something. I had begun to study public speaking.
I had gained invaluable experience in speaking, which was
later to be used. My brother-in-law had been deprived without
a chance of his ambition to be one of five to win all-state
honors in basketball. But he had won the state championship
in oratory, which he didnt have to share with anybody.
Walter Dillon continued in the field of education as a
life profession, and, much later, he was to become the first
president of Ambassador College, and its first instructor in
public speaking.
Actually, our experiences in college oratory continued
on another year. I promoted a number of entertainment
programs in various towns in Warren County during the
following year, with Walter billed as the headliner, and
charging 25 cents and 35 cents admission. We brought in
some comedy and singing talent from college. A year later, by
early 1924, Walter Dillon was a smooth and finished public
speaker. Following the national contest of that year, its sole
judge, Professor Woolbert of the University of Illinois, author
of a much-used college textbook on public speaking, heard
him and told me he probably would have given Mr. Dillon the
national championship had he been entered.
Doing Surveys Again

After the rest, and oratorical contest experience of the fall and
winter of 192223, I realized I had to find something to do.
Once before, the reader will remember, when I was
stranded without a dollar in Danville, Illinois, I had brought
the merchandising survey experience to the rescue by
selling a survey to the local newspaper. It had been highly
successful for the newspaper, resulting in a big increase in
advertising volume. Newspapers derive their revenue from
the advertising.
At Danville, I had made one colossal mistake. Caught off
guard when the business manager of the paper asked what
my fee would be, I had set it at $50. It should have been $500.
Now the thought of entering upon a business of conducting
210
surveys was uppermost in mind. My brother-in-law borrowed

a car, and we drove to Ames, Iowaseat of Iowa State College.
The idea of the survey was quickly accepted by a Mr. Powers,
who was owner or manager (or both) of the Ames Daily Tribune.
This time the fee was $500. The price was accepted at once.
This time I put on a more thorough survey than the previous
ones. Not only housewives in the town, but students and
faculty members, and heads of departments at the college were
interviewed. The newspaper put at my disposal a small car. I
do not remember the make, but I believe it was smaller than
a Ford. This enabled me to interview farmers in all directions.
The survey uncovered some peculiar and astonishing facts.
About 75 percent or more of the days shopping on school days
was done after 4 p.m., when rush hour began in the stores.
The women of Ames seemed to prefer doing their shopping
when the college girls did theirsafter class hours.
As usual, most of the trade in some lines went to Des
Moines, only 30 miles south, or to the mail-order houses. I
found out why. Interesting facts were uncovered about certain
individual stores.
Curing a Sick Store

One department store, not the largest, and one of a small
chain of three or four stores, about half or two thirds owned
by the local manager, came in for the most criticism. Women
were satisfied with their stocks and styles, and also with their
prices. The big complaint was on the salespeople.
Why, Ive stood waiting 10 or 15 minutes to be waited on,
one typical customer said, and then the clerk said they were
out of the item I wanted, when I could see it in plain sight
high up on a shelf. She just didnt want to reach up that high
to get it down.
Women universally reported that the clerks never smiled.
I learned it would be the most popular store in town if its
sales force would be transformed into smiling, helpful, enthu-
siastic, wide-awake people anxious to please customers.
I gave a private confidential report to each store, which
the newspaper did not see, in addition to the general report
211
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
and summary which was supplied the newspaper. I distinctly

remember the personal report I made to this particular
department store manager. The confidential report hit him
personally right between the eyes. I had discovered that
he underpaid his sales force. He never smiled at them. He
maintained a secret spy system, spying on clerks. He was
dumbfounded to hear from me that all his clerks were well
aware of this.
The whole thing is your fault, personally, I said. But I can
show you how to correct it and double the size of your business.
Vell, he said at last, in a Scandinavian accent, this is the
hardest ting I have ever had to take in my lifebut I guess
ve can take it. Vhat do you advise me to do?
First, raise salariesand in a rather dramatic manner.
Vait! he cut in. Look! A store can only pay a certain
percent of sales in salaries. I am paying them too high a
percent already!
Yes, sure, I know that, I responded. But the way to get the
percent of sales paid in salaries down is to raise salaries, and
get your sales force on their toeshappysmiling. Then sales
will double, and the percent paid in salaries will go down.
LOWERING Salaries by Raising Them

Tell me how ve do it, he said dubiously.
All right, heres what I want you to do. I dont want you to
do any additional advertising in the Tribune at alluntil this
new system has been working for at least six weeks. Big-space
advertising right now would ruin your business. But, once
you get this thing corrected, big-space advertising will quickly
double your sales volume. First, I want you to plan a big party
for the sales force. Have it on your second floor, in the womens
ready-to-wear section. Try to arrange for the home ec depart-
ment out at the college to prepare the biggest and finest dinner
you ever saw. Hire a dance band. Dont try to beat down the
costpay what it costs to get the best. Then invite all your
employees. Let them know you expect them to be there. I think
I can pass the word along through some of them, so they will
all come. I have made friends with some of them.
212
After they have had the finest dinner they ever ate, and
the dance band has them feeling goodand have all these
dunce caps, noisemakers, confetti to throweverything to get
them into the most gay moodthen rise and make a speech.
Start out by telling them you have been making a big mistake.
You have not treated them right, and they have not treated
customers rightbut you never realized it before, and prob-
ably they didnt either. Then tell them immediately that you
are announcing a substantial raise in salaries for everybody.
Tell them that from now on they must smile while waiting
on customers. They must be alert. You intend to treat them
right from now on, and they must treat customers rightor
youll get salespeople who will. Youll probably be paying the
highest salaries in town. They have to sell enough goods to
earn itat a lower percent of sales than present salaries! If
they dont, your high salaries will attract the best salespeople,
and those who do not respond will be fired.
He said he would do it if I would come to the party, and sit
by his side to bolster him up, and make a speech myself.
The party was held. It had an electric effect.
Now, I said to the manager, hereafter you must personally
stand by the front door between 4 and 6 each afternoon,
greeting customers yourself with a smile, and being sure they
are promptly waited on.
Winning With a Smile

Next afternoon about 4:15 I dropped in. There he was, trying
to bow and smile stiffly at incoming customers. Quickly I
drew him to one side.
No, no! I exclaimed. That will never do! You are acting
like you never smiled beforelike your heart is not in it. Look
at those fine people coming in here. They are customers! They
are coming to spend money with you. Dont you like them?
He did, but he had never thought of them in that light
before. With a little coaching, he began to realize how much
he did like these people. He began to smile a natural smile,
like he meant it!
After six weeks, this store began really big-space advertising,
213
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
with the slogans I had suggestedsomething like most prompt

and interested service in Ames. Or, Where you receive quick,
attentive, interested service with a smile!
I heard later from traveling salesmen who made Ames
regularly that this store had more than doubled its sales
volume in six months. Also an Ames shoe store, which had
come in for some special criticism and correction. The news-
paper doubled its advertising volume.
That was my kind of salesmanship. The newspaper paid a
fee of $500, and doubled the size of its business. The merchants
found what was wrong with them, and doubled their business.
The customers got better service, and were happy. Everybody
benefited! Unless everybody does benefit, salesmanship is not
honest! But not many salesmen know that, or the secret of
intelligent and practical salesmanship!
Important Job Offered

Next I went to Forrest Geneva, then advertising manager of
both the Des Moines Register and the Evening Tribune. He
had worked in want ads on the Register at the same time I did
on the Capital, and we were old friends.
The Des Moines Register was rated (I think still is) one of
the 10 really great newspapers of the United States. It has a
statewide circulation, and is delivered in nearly all parts of
the state early the same morning of publication.
But the Register was not getting the big department store
advertising in Des Moines. This is the biggest part of the
advertising revenue of any newspaper. It actually meant
multiple millions of dollars to the Register to be able to carry
the big-space store advertising.
Forrest, I said, the one most important thing in this
world to the Register is to be able to crack through the barrier
and carry the department store businessand all the other
larger stores. I can do the job for you. I can crack down that
stone wall and get you the big-store business.
After I had explained in detail the method of the surveys,
and how I proposed a statewide survey, to show how the Des
Moines stores already were drawing a tremendous volume of
214
trade from local stores in other smaller towns and cities all over
the state, and how a campaign in the Register, with its state-
wide circulation, which was tremendous, would greatly increase
their out-of-town business as well as the Des Moines business,
Mr. Geneva expressed his confidence that my method would
accomplish the result. Only one dominant morning newspaper,
as I remember, in all U.S. major cities, was carrying the local
department store advertising. That was the Chicago Tribune.
Herb, he said, I believe you have the idea that will do
the job. Give me a few days to take this up with the officers
higher up. Im really enthusiastic over the idea.
A few days later I returned.
We want you, said Mr. Geneva. But we have run into a
certain situation. As you know, I am advertising manager over
both papers. We also have an advertising manager for each
paper, under me. Right now we have no advertising manager
for the Register. I cannot get the management to approve the
addition at this time of both a new advertising manager and
you as a special expert. They want you to fill both jobs.
But Forrest, I protested, I would be tied down with the
executive job of managing the work of your eight advertising
solicitors on the Register, besides all the specialized work of
the survey.
Right, we agreed.
But that will kill everything. I am not an executive. I cant
manage the work of others. Im like a lone wolf. I have to do my
own work in my own way. I often work in streaks. When Im
on I know Im good. But on the off days I couldnt sell genuine
gold bricks for a dime. Id have daily reports to make out, and
thats one thing I just never have been able to do. Id get way
behind on the reports.
Look, Herb, he came back. I know you will make good on
the executive job. I wont let you fail. If you run into a lapse,
or your reports are not in, Ill stay down myself evenings and
do that part of your work for you. No one will ever know.
But I had no confidence in my ability to direct the work of
eight men, and make out daily reports. So I turned down the
offer to become advertising manager of a great newspaper.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
I was to learn much later, beginning with 1947 when

Ambassador College was founded, that I could become an exec-
utive and direct the operations and work of many hundreds of
employees, besides doing about seven mens jobs myself. And
long before that I learned to overcome lapses and streaks. But,
had I taken that job I might be there todayan employee on
a newspaper, instead of directing the most important activity
on Earth. We might have averted several following years of
financial hardship. But I know now, in the light of eventsthe
fruitsthat I was being prepared for this Work and was being
brought down to the depths of defeat and frustration until I
would give up the false god of seeking status out of vanity.
We Migrate to Oregon
The remainder of that summer, and through the following
winter, I put on a survey for a local weekly paper in Indianola,
and worked part time writing advertising for local merchants.
But most of the time was devoted to working with my brother-
in-law on his oratory. We wrote a new oration for the following
year, which involved many experiences, although, having
won, he was not eligible to enter again at Simpson College.
I was beginning to bog down in the mire. My wife was worried.
We were in a rut. I didnt seem to be selling more surveys to daily
newspapers. Mrs. Armstrong knew we needed some change to
jolt us out of the rut. My parents were living in Salem, Oregon.
A complete change of environment might get me started again.
In the late winter of 192324, she began to suggest the idea
of a summer trip to visit my parents and family in Oregon. But,
Loma, I protested, we cant afford a vacation trip like that.
But, she had it all planned. We would go in Walters
ModelT Ford. We would take a tent and camp out nights. We
would prepare our own food, avoiding restaurant costs. She
would ask her sister Bertha to go along, paying her share,
thus helping enough with expenses to make the trip possible.
Bertha was teaching school and had a regular income. I had
earned some money and we still had a little. Along the way,
I would contact newspapers and line up surveys for the
futurethus getting a foundation laid for a future business.
216
My wife knew I liked to travel. I had been over most of

the United States, but never yet as far west as the Rocky
Mountains. A trip to the coastseeing my parents and family
againwas really intriguing.
Walter and Bertha were swayed by her persuasion.
In the meantime, about March 1, 1923, my father-in-law
had moved from the farm he was renting from a brother-
in-law, sold his stock, and bought a small-town general store
at Sandyville, only a few miles distant.
I began to make preparations for our trip. On the second
floor above my father-in-laws store was a sort of cabinet-
making shop. I had taken manual training in high school. So
I began to work out a design and to make folding wooden cots
and canvas tops for our trip. Later we purchased a used tent
of the type that fastened over the top of the car, so that the
car formed one end of the tent. We procured a secondhand
portable gasoline stove.
D-Day Arrives
The morning of June 16, 1924, we piled the two seats of the
ModelT high with bedding. We put our suitcases between the
front fenders and the hood. The folded tent, boxes of food, the
rest of the bedding, the folded cots, the portable stove and all
the rest of our earthly belongings were piled on a rack on the
left running board high up on the side of the car. There were
no trunks on the rear of Model Ts.
How we piled all this stuff on that little car I cant conceive
now, but we didand an extra spare tire or two besides!
I had said to a friend of my wife, previously, Well be back
in the fall. But when I wasnt listening, my wife told her:
Thats what he thinksbut we are not coming back!
So, D-Day had arrived, the morning of June 16, 1924!
(D for Departure.) Walter cranked up the Model T, and
we were off for Oregon. One thing we had on the car was
air-conditioning. Except for the luggage piled high up the left
side, it was all airopen air. The closed cars, except for very
expensive limousines, had not yet come out of Detroit. But we
had side curtains to button up in case of rain.
217
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
In case of rain, did I say?

Yes, as, unhappily, we were to experience that very night!
We had reached Greenwood, Iowa, the first day out, and
pitched our tent beside the carwith Mrs. Armstrong and
me, our two little daughtersBeverly, age 6, and Dorothy
Jane, age almost 4Walter and Bertha Dillonall trying to
sleep on those flimsy, swaying folding cots I had made.
And then the rains came! We soon discovered the tent leaked!
Hurriedly we arose from our rickety cots, delved into the food
and utensil box, procured our one wash pan and a fry pan and
a stew pan to catch the leaking drips. There was little sleep.
In Iowa, you know, there are sharp and blinding flashes of
lightning, followed by deafening claps of thunder when it rains.
For three days and three nights we were marooned there.
In those days there were no cross-country paved highways.
We were traveling on Iowa mud roads.
Tent CitiesNo Motels

Finally, we decided to make a try over the still muddy roads.
A try is what we made. Just outside town the car skidded in
the mud, and two wheels bogged down hub-deep. Walter and
I started out slogging through the mud to the nearest farm-
house. An obliging farmer hitched up a team and pulled us out.
We managed to keep chugging along until we reached
Silver City, Iowa, near Council Bluffs. Later, as we proceeded
farther west, we found roads more gravel than mud. Once
on dry roads we were able to amble along at a steady gait
of between 18 and 20 miles per hourwhen we were not
stopped by some new trouble, which was much of the time.
Most days we awoke by 5 a.m., breakfasted, the women
made sandwiches for noon lunchthere could be no stopping
through the daywe packed everything back on the car,
and climbed up on those bedding-covered seats with the car
cranked up by 6 a.m.
Most days we drove until nearly darkallowing time to
get the tent pitched and staked, cots and bedding arranged,
and dinner cooked before it became too dark to see. We did
carry a kerosene lantern. Walter and I took turns driving. We
218
generally managed to negotiate about 200 miles in a 12- or

14-hour day of driving.
At night we stopped at campgrounds, provided at every
town in those days. That was before the days of motels or
trailer-camps. Tourists all carried their own tents and camping
equipment. Every town along the way had its tent city which
usually filled up by sundown. These camps provided water
and sanitary facilitiesof a kind. As we journeyed farther
west a few cabins began to appear at some of the campgrounds.
These were bare one-room, unpainted board cabins. Some
had rickety old beds and metal springsbut not mattresses
or bedding or linen, and little, if any, furniture. There might
have been an old wooden chair.
Our first stop after leaving Greenwood was Silver City,
Iowa. My wifes uncle, Tom Talboy, owned a drugstore in
Silver City. We drove to the store.
Visiting Relatives
I dont know which one you are, said her Uncle Tom
approaching my wife, but I do know youre a Talboy!
Mrs. Armstrongs mother was Isabelle Talboy before
marriage. There are definite Talboy characteristics, and
Mrs.Armstrong has them written all over her face. The
Talboy family came from England. My wifes great-grandfa-
ther, Thomas Talboy, came to the United States from England
somewhere near the middle of the 19th century, and started
the first woolen mill in the Middle Westat least west of the
Mississippiin Palmyra, Iowa. At that time Palmyra was
larger than Des Moines. There was no Des Moinesexcept
Fort Des Moines. The woolen mill grew and the town grew with
it. But today there is no Palmyraexcept a few farmhouses.
My wifes grandfather, Benjamin Talboy, was a lad of 18
when he came from England with his father, Thomas. He and
his wife, Martha, whom my wife as a little girl called little
curly-haired grandma, reared a sizable and successful family
of nine, of whom Isabelle was one of three daughters. Uncle
Tom, the druggist, as my wife called him, was named for his
grandfather Thomas.
219
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
We visited the Uncle Tom family for a day. Grandpa

Benjamin Talboy was living there, age 93. Little curly-
haired grandma had died at 84. She had always warned my
wife against Grandpa Benjamin. He, she affirmed solemnly,
was an atheist. My wife warned me against listening to him.
But later we learned that he had dared to look into the Bible
for himself, and, discovering these teachings diametrically
contrary to the accepted popular version of Christianity,
had rejected the Christianity. Later we learned that he was
probably more of a true Christian, in belief if not in deeds,
than his well-meaning little wife!
Our Troubles Continue!

We continued our journey westward from Silver City.
At Fremont, Nebraska, I took out time to contact the daily
newspaper office. Another survey was tentatively lined up
for the fall, on our return. But this newspaper call consumed
a half day, and we decided not to take out any more time
for newspaper calls along the way. Everybody aboard was
anxious to reach Oregon.
It was at about this juncture that our tire troubles began.
These tire troubles seemed to multiply the farther we trav-
eled. They were an excellent training in patience! We had
puncture after punctureblowout after blowout. There were
eight of them within one mile on one occasion! We carried a
repair kit and patched our own inner tubes. We carried along
a few boots to plug up blowout holes in casings. Many hours
were spent along the drab, dusty roadsides, one wheel jacked
up, kneeling beside it, fixing tires.
We bought several used tireswe could not afford new
onesand these usually blew out about five miles out of
townjust too far to go back and express our minds to the
dealer who sold them!
We made an overnight stop in Central City, Nebraska, at
the home of my Uncle Rollin R. Wright. His son, John, was
one of the two cousins (on my mothers side of the family) I
had visited so often as a boy. The Wrights had then lived at
Carlisle, Iowa, where Uncle Rollin was an insurance agent.
220
He is the one who gave me and Johnny a good sound spanking

that time when he caught us shooting off a .22 revolver. John
was, within a day, one year younger than I. Now the Wrights
were operating a dairy in Central City. It is always somewhat
exciting to visit relatives you have not seen for several years.
Next morning I went on the milk route with John. Today he
is a minister in the Friends Church and has visited us a few
times in Pasadena.
It seems we got as far as Grand Island, Nebraska, before
our next vexation. We had made a temporary stop under
shade trees because of the intense heat. Little Dorothy Jane,
almost 4, took off one of her shoes and laid it on the right
running board, from where it fell to the ground. The loss
was not discovered until we had traveled too far to return to
search for it. The child had to travel the remaining days of
our journey with only one shoe. To buy new shoes on this trip
was not within our means.
We made an overnight stop in Ogalalla, where I had
intended to visit the other of these two cousins I had grown
up withBert Morrow. He had been running some tourist
cabins there, but had moved before our arrival.
It was somewhere along western Nebraska that we encoun-
tered something worse than a rainstorm. A driving sandstorm
came up. The road became so clouded we could not see to
drive. We had to pull over to the side of the road, button up
the curtains on the Model T, cover our heads with bedding to
keep sand out of our hair, and remain marooned there until
the storm subsided.
221
15
LAUNCHING A
NEW BUSINESS
I SHALL NEVER FORGET MY FIRST VIEW
of the Rocky Mountains from a distance. While I had

traveled the Alleghenies and the Blue Mountains in the east,
I had never seen any really high mountains. I had always
wondered what they would look like. They seemed very lofty
and awe-inspiring to me.
We drove several miles out of our way in order to dip
down into the state of Colorado, before we entered Wyoming.
We wanted to be able to say we had been in that state. At
Cheyenne we drove uphill to the north end of town to the
largest camp we had seen.
But by this time all my handmade wooden folding cots
had broken down, and the canvas tops had split down the
middle. We threw them away. From Cheyenne on, we slept
on the ground.
In the higher altitudes the nights became so cold we were
forced to spread the bedcovers on the ground inside the tent,
making one long bed. All six of us lined up side by side in that
one bed on the ground, to keep each other warm.
At Evanston, Wyoming, the car broke down. We were
detained there 1 days while it was fixed in a garage.
During our journey across Wyoming, Dorothys arm was
222
bitten by a spider. It swelled up, and she was taken to a
doctor. It must have been about this time that we had to
telegraph my father to wire us additional funds. We had run
out of food, gasoline and money. Dorothys arm had to be
soaked in hot Epsom-salts water, and held high continually.
Mrs. Armstrong, Bertha and I had to take turns, on one days
driving, holding that arm, lest it hang down.
We stopped off one full day in Salt Lake City. Walter
and I played some tennis on public courts near the camping
groundswe were carrying our tennis rackets with us.
We took the guided tour around the Mormon grounds and
through the tabernacle.
Premonition of Danger
At Weiser, Idaho, we visited a day and a half with the families
of two of my wifes uncles, Benjamin and Walter Talboy.
Walter later held a high government position in Idaho, and
once ran for governor.
Leaving Weiser in the late afternoon, we were winding
around the figure-eight sharp curves of the highway following
the course of the Snake River. Suddenly, my wife cried out,
Im afraid to go further! For the past hour Ive been having a
terrible premonition of danger! I cant explain itbut I just
cant keep it to myself any longer.
Thats strange, exclaimed Walter. I didnt want to say
anythingbut Ive been fighting off the same feeling.
That was enough for all of us. It seemed foolish, in a way.
Yet we were afraid to go on. We turned back toward Weiser.
Im simply too nervous to drive any further, explained
Walt. I took over the wheel. Just before entering Weiser, on
a short downhill slope, I made the horrifying discovery that
our brakes had gone out! There were no brakes. There was no
reverse! I drove the car into a garage. We were kept one more
night at the Talboy relatives in Weiser. Had we not heeded
those premonitions, we might have been killed crashing
down steep mountain grades around sharp curves without
brakes. Later we learned that at the precise hour my wife
and Walter had been having their premonitions, my mother
223
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
in Salem, Oregon, was also disturbed by a terrible premoni-

tion concerning our safety. It had grown so strong on her she
was forced to remove her hands from the dishwater, and go to
a bedroom to pray for our safety! I do not try to explain this. I
am merely recording what actually happened!
At LastWe Arrive
Finally, July 3, we made our last homestretch lap from
Pendleton, Oregon. That was a long days drive in a Model T.
But that night, after dark, we arrived at my fathers home in
Salem, Oregon, on the eve of July 4.
We had been 18 days on the way. It was fast traveling
compared to the covered wagon days. Yet, today you can
travel from New York to Los Angelescoast to coastin 4
hours, by scheduled passenger jet plane! Allowing for the
time difference, if I leave New York at 5 in the evening, after
a full day of business conferences with radio stations and
our overseas advertising agents, I can arrive in Los Angeles
about 6:30 the same evening!
Few people realize the rapid pace at which this world is
traveling todaytoward its own destruction! It is time we slow
down to realize how far this machine ageatomic agespace
age has plummeted us in these few short years since 1924!
My Father Had Grown Up!

I had not seen my father, my youngest brother, Dwight, or my
sister, Mary, for 12 years! Dwight and his twin sister Mary
had been 8 years old when they moved to the West. Now they
were 20.
But the biggest change of all was in my father. In 1912,
when I was only 20, I had felt rather sorry for my father. At
that time I knew so much more than he! But I was simply
amazed at how much my father had learned in those 12 years.
It seems most young men know more than Dad, but they grow
out of it later. I could see, now, that he knew more than I!
Now I had to look up to my father with respect!
He had a nice home which he had planned and built. It was
paid for. He didnt owe any man a cent. He had a comfortable
224
15 | Launching a New Business
salary as a heating engineer. When we found ourselves out of

money on the way outbuying extra tires and such things
he had immediately wired me $200.
How many young men, getting to know it all from age 16
to 20, have to wait until in their middle 30s to learn how much
they ought to respect their fathers! And my father was a good
man. He never smoked. He never drank, never used profanity.
He never took advantage of another man! I honor and respect
his memory. He died in April 1933, in his 70th year.
After a few weeks visit with my folks, we drove to Portland
to visit my wifes Uncle Dick Talboy, an attorney. Our
elder son, Richard David, was named after him. He was an
Oregon pioneer, having migrated from Iowa first in 1905. He
attended Stanford University in California in 1906 and 1907.
He returned to Des Moines to finish his law course at Drake
University in 1907, returning to Oregon in 1913. It has been
his home ever since.
The very next day Mr. Talboy had to transact some legal
business at the courthouse in Vancouver, Washingtonjust
across the interstate bridge from Portland. He invited me to
go along. I had not yet been in the state of Washington, and
was anxious to add one more state to my list.
Just as we emerged from the bridge, in Vancouver, I saw
the plant of the local daily newspaper, the Columbian.
Another Survey
I asked if I might not hop out right there and contact the
newspaper regarding a survey while Mr. Talboy went on to
the courthouse.
The owner and editor was on a vacation at Seaside, but
the business manager, Samuel T. Hopkinswho was later
to become a business partner of minewas in. Enthusiastic
over the survey idea, he felt sure Mr. Herbert Campbell, the
owner, would be interested on his return. I said I would call
back the following week. We were welcome to remain and visit
at the home of my wifes uncle. The following week, I found
Mr. Campbell as interested in the survey idea as Mr. Hopkins.
I have only one objection, he said. I believe it is going to
225
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
take a man of your specialized merchandising and advertising

experience to follow it up and make it pay. We have no such
man here. Now what I want to know is, can a newspaper of
our size afford to employ a man of your experience and ability
permanently?
Here was a ludicrous paradox.
Here I was, down and out financially, my clothes now
threadbare. And here was a newspaper publisher asking
if he could afford to employ me! Yet I had had a training
and specialized experience such as comes to few men. I had
taken a severe beating by the Chicago debacle, but I still
had the cocky and confident manner. I spoke with a tone of
knowing what I was talking about. Evidently this impressed
Mr. Campbell sufficiently that he did not notice my rather
run-down appearance.
The answer came like a flash.
No, you cannot! I said positively.
This was a challenge. Herbert Campbell was cocky, too!
Well, I think we CAN! How much is it going to cost us?
I had to think fast. Was I going to turn down a survey,
because I felt too important to take a permanent job on a
small city newspaper? I made a quick compromise proposition.
Tell you what Ill do, I shot back. Ill put on the survey
for a flat fee of $500. That will take a week or 10 days. Then
I will stay on your staff as a merchandising specialist for six
months only, at a salary of $100 per week. Take it or leave it!
OK, Ill take it, he snapped. I had my wifes uncle draw up
a legal contract, which he signed a day or so later.
I rented a house in Vancouver, and started on the survey.
Pulling a Clothier Out of the Red

About the time we started on the survey in Vancouver, Walter
and Bertha Dillon, my wifes brother and sister started in
the ModelT their return trip to Iowa; Walter to enter his
junior year at Simpson College, and Bertha for another year
of school teaching.
This time Mrs. Armstrong took part in the survey, and
proved very adept at eliciting confidential information
226
from housewives about their attitudes and feelings toward

Vancouver stores.
The survey soon was completed, together with a complete
typed summary of all data, interviews and tabulations
of statistics, as well as an analysis of conditions and
recommendations.
With this data, I began counseling with merchants about
individual merchandising problems.
One clothing store, for example, was running in the red.
The owner asked if I could help him. I insisted on full access
to his books and all information. Finally he consented.
The survey had uncovered special facts about customer
attitude toward this store. One line this store carried was Hart
Schaffner & Marx clothes. I knew that this firm was prepared
to extend considerable dealer-help. At my request they sent a
qualified representative to counsel with me and this merchant.
A new policy was inaugurated. Certain changes were made.
Until now this store had not carried the more snappy styles
young men liked. The owner, past middle age, had bought
the older mens styles of his personal liking. I induced him
to trust the Hart Schaffner & Marx representative fully with
selections in ordering.
Also I recommended that he stock in addition snappiest
young mens styles in a less expensive line.
Then we began a big-space advertising campaign in the
Columbian. I wrote and laid out all his ads. I induced him to
spend 7 percent of sales in this advertising campaign.
But, he protested, you have shown me that Harvard Bureau
of Business Research figures show that no retail clothing store
ought to spend more than 4 percent for advertising.
Thats right, I explained, but this big-space adver-
tising will quickly build up your volume. The amount, in
dollars, spent in advertising will remain the same. But, as
sales volume increases, the advertising expenditure will
become an increasingly smaller percentage of sales. Also I
explained to him it might take six months before his total
expenditures would go below his total income, and his books
would get out of the red.
227
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
It took a lot of courage. But it was a matter of accept my

program or go bankrupt. He finally agreed.
It did take about six months. Twice before that time he lost
his nerve and wanted to quit. Twice more I talked him into
staying with it. At the end of six months his business was
showing a profit. The sales continued to increase. So did his
merchandising turnover. And likewise his profits. Finally he
was able to sell his store at a substantial profit.
Discovering a New Business Potential

Soon I became virtually advertising manager for a leading
hardware store, the largest department drugstore, a furniture
store, a jewelry store, a dry-goods store and others.
But my most important client turned out to be the local
laundry. The general survey had brought out some startling
facts about the laundry situation. I wanted more facts. So a
further separate survey was made to get the facts and more
definitely learn customer attitude toward laundries.
I found that very few housewives entrusted their family
wash to the laundry. We unearthed many suspicions. Many
women assured me that laundries use harsh acids and
chemicals which ruin clothes. This, I soon found, was not true.
They shrink clothes, said scores and scores of women.
They fade colored things, women assured me.
How do you know? both Mrs. Armstrong and I began asking
women we interviewed. Has the laundry ruined your things
have your colored clothes been faded or your woolens shrunk?
Oh mercy, no! they would reply. Why, I would never
think of sending my things to the laundry.
Then how do you know the laundry mistreats things in
this manner? we would ask.
Oh, I just know! Why, everybody knows how terrible
laundries are on clothes, would come the confident answer.
Scores of women said laundries would lose things and
refuse to make good the losses. The laundries will never
make an adjustment or settle a claim, women assured us.
We found dozens of things wrong with the laundriesin
the public mind.
228
Then I investigated conditions at the Vancouver Laundry,

owned by a man of my name, J.J.C.Armstrong, no relation.
Actually, I found that conditions were precisely the opposite
of the general public conception.
The laundry washed clothes with a neutral chip soapI
think that particular laundry used Palmolive, a gentle facial
soap. To add alkaline strength, without injury to clothes, they
used an expensive soap buildera controlled alkali, which
could not harm a babys tenderest skin, could not injure
sheerest silks or finest table linens, and yet possessed the
strength to get greasiest overalls spotlessly clean. This harm-
less but effective soap builder was not available to consumers
on the retail market. It was sold only in barrel quantities
direct to laundries. It was the result of then recent and
specialized scientific research, manufactured by one of the
largest corporations in the laundry industry, a subsidiary of
the Aluminum Corporation of America (alcoa).
Through Mr. J.J.C.Armstrong I met a laundry chemist,
Robert H. Hughes, a special technical representative of this
company, the Cowles Detergent Co. of Cleveland, Ohio. Mr.
Hughes explained to me the chemistry of launderingwhy
we use soap to wash our hands, faces or clothes.
How Soap Cleans

Its a very fascinating story. Did you ever wonder what causes
particles of dirt to cling to clotheswhy clothes become soiled?
Did you ever wonder how soap removes dirt?
I dont believe the truth will bore you. Briefly, this is
the story: Naturally, dirt would fall off clothes instead of
attaching itself to cloth were it nor for the fact that an acid, or
oil or grease, even in slightest amount, is present. This acid
holds the dirt to the cloth. Laundries did not use acids, as so
many people seemed to believe. There is acid already present
on the clothes, else they would not become soiled.
Chemically, matter is either acid, alkali or neutral. These
are chemical opposites.
Soap is made from two substancesfatty acid (oil or fat),
and alkali. But alkali, if used alone, would injure and rot
229
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
cloth. So in the soap factory the two substances, fatty acid

and alkali, are mixed by a process called saponification. This
converts the two into a new substance, which is neither acid
nor alkali, but which we call soap.
If the soap be completely purea prominent soap used for
faces and even babies is advertised as 99 and 44/100 percent
purethere is no free alkali in it. All the alkali has combined
with the oil, tallow or fat, and has been converted into soap. The
alkaline content is now utterly harmless. Yet it has an alkaline
action that will dissolve the acid that glues dirt to your skin or
your clothes, so that the dirt is flushed off in the rinsing.
But a pure facial soap is not sufficiently alkaline to loosen
the acid on badly soiled clothes. Therefore soap makers at the
time of this story put a certain excess amount of alkali in the
laundry soaps sold in stores to housewives. This excess alkali
was called free alkali. It was not controlled, or neutralized,
in the soap. Alkali is chemically a crystalline substance. In
other words, it dilutes into and becomes part of the water. In
clothes-washing, it soaks into the fiber meshes of the garment.
Rinsing cannot remove itit merely dilutes it. The soap and
the dirt are flushed away in the rinsingbut the free alkali
remains inside the fiber of the cloth. In the drying process it
tends to eat or rot the cloth. It would even destroy shoe leather!
Now why does not a pure soap injure the cloth?
The answer is that, chemically, soap is a colloidal substance.
In solution, or emulsion, it breaks up into thousands of tiny
particles. But it does not become part of the water. Its thou-
sands of minute particles discolor the water and float around
in the water. In the agitation or rubbing of clothes-washing,
the tiny soap particles are flushed in between the fiber meshes
of the garment or cloth, but never soak into the fibers. They
dissolve the acid, thus loosening the dirt. The agitation breaks
up the dirt into tiny particles, loosened from the cloth. The
tiny colloidal soap particles have a chemical affinity for the
tiny dirt particles, which means the dirt particles cling to the
soap particles. The rinsing flushes them away. Even if all the
soap were not rinsed off, the alkali is not free but controlled
by the soap, and could not eat or rot or harm the cloth.
230
This scientific soap builder sold by the Cowles Detergent

Co. contained great alkaline strength, but it was chem-
ically in colloidal form, not crystalline, and the alkali was
as completely controlled as in a 100 percent pure soap.
Therefore it could not harm silks, woolens or the sheerest,
daintiest fabrics, although, it had the strength to wash clean
the greasiest overalls. Also it restored colors, brought them
out newer and sharper than before.
Since those days, however, there has been a complete
revolution in the manufacture of clothes-washing detergents
sold to housewives. Whether our big-space advertising of the
dangers of the free-alkali laundry soaps to clothes then sold
for home washing machines had bearing on it, I do not know.
But the chemists on the staffs of leading soap and detergent
manufacturers have developed new synthetic detergents. Few
housewives, if any, use soap in their home washing machines
today. The first household synthetic detergent on the market
was Dreft, produced by Proctor & Gamble, in 1933. Colgate
came out with Vel later in the 30s. Since, there have been
many developments in the field of synthetic detergents. They
are not yet perfect or foolproof, but chemists have not yet
exhausted the possibilities of improvement.
Our campaigns were in the early days of the home washing
machine. These home washers were crude compared to todays
product. In our ads, and in special booklets, we figured it out
and convinced many housewives it was less costly to send the
family wash to the laundry.
A New Business Launched

I began to write big-space ads for this laundry. Armed with
complete information of customer attitude and complete factual
and scientific information about laundry processes, I was able
to assure housewives that their sheerest, daintiest fabrics were
actually safer at the laundry than in their own hands at home.
Soon these ads became an item of conversation among
Vancouver women. It took time to dispel suspicions and
build confidence. But gradually the laundry business began
to increase.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Before this campaign, laundry business had consisted

mainly of mens shirts and hotel business. But now the family
bundle business gradually began coming to the laundry.
I found that the laundry industry was 12th in size
among American industriesyet in aggressive methods,
and advertising and merchandising, it was the least alive
and the most backward and undeveloped. I sensed, here, a
tremendous field for a new advertising business.
I began to develop plans for a personalized, yet syndicated,
advertising service for leading laundriesone client in each city.
I learned that not all laundries were using as advanced
methods as Vancouver Laundry. Some laundries were still
using as a soap builder plain caustic sodafree alkali. Some
lacked efficient methods of operation. Many were guilty of
haggling with customers over claims of losses or injury, and
of refusing to make losses good.
I had become closely acquainted with R.H. Hughes and
his reputation among laundry owners as the leading laundry
chemist and expert on production methods on the West Coast.
So Mr. Hughes and I formed a partnership. As soon as my
six months tenure with the Vancouver Columbian expired,
we set out to establish a new business as a merchandising
and advertising service for leading laundries.
I moved my family to Portland.
I would start off every campaign with a local merchandising
survey to determine the local customer attitude. We would
accept no client unless the laundry owner would give Mr.
Hughes complete latitude and authority within his plant to
install the latest scientific methods and equipment, eliminate
lost motion, and speed up efficiency.
I had to be able to make big claims in the advertising. The
client had to be able to deliver what the ads promised. The
client had to agree to settle every claim without a question
the customer was always to be right in any complaint.
And Then BANG!

The general appeal of the ads was syndicatedthe same for
all laundries. Yet certain factors peculiar to each local laundry
232
were altered to comply with that particular clients conditions.

We ran two large-space ads each week for each client.
The new business started with great promise. Soon we
had as clients leading laundries in Eugene, Corvallis, Albany,
Salem, McMinnville, Oregon City and Portland, Oregon;
and in Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, Ellensburg, Walla Walla,
Olympia, Centralia, Chehalis and Vancouver, Washington.
In six months the business volume of some of these
laundries doubled. Our advertising and merchandising
service was winning big results for clients.
No matter how many clients we should acquire, I had only
one general advertising idea to think up and write for the
entire number. The new business promised to grow to be a
national, universally used service.
This would mean, in another two or three years, an income
larger than I had ever before contemplated. Already our
fees were grossing close to $1,000 a month. They appeared
to promise to rise between $50,000 and $100,000 per month
within two or three more years. I began to see visions of a
personal net income of $300,000 to a half million dollars a year!
And thenthe bottom fell out!
And through no fault or cause of our making. There was one
unusual condition peculiar to the laundry industry. They were
highly organized in their Laundryowners National Association.
Some bright advertising man, in an advertising agency
in Indianapolis, Indiana, put over on the Laundryowners
National Association a $5 million advertising campaign for
the entire industrythe entire amount to be spent by this
agency in the big-circulation national womens magazines,
such as Ladies Home Journal, McCalls, Good Housekeeping,
etc. The campaign was to run three or more years. The
association was to pay for it by assessing each laundry-owner
member within half of 1 percent of the maximum percent of
sales volume a laundry could safely spend in advertising.
Every one of our customers was taxed by this campaign up
to the limit they could safely spend. They had no alternative
except to cancel all their own private local advertising. Our
field was literally swept out from under our feet.
233
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
In Chicago I had built a publishers representative business

that brought me an income equivalent to well more than
$50,000 a year or more before I was 30. The flash depression
of 1920 had swept away all my major clients, and with them
my business.
Now, with a new business of much greater promise, all
my clients were suddenly removed from possibility of access,
through powers and forces entirely outside of my control.
It seemed, indeed, as if some invisible and mysterious hand
were causing the Earth to simply swallow up whatever busi-
ness I started.
Reduced to Going Hungry

Soon every laundry client had been forced to drop all local
advertising except one. I still had the account of one of the two
largest laundries in Portland, running one ad a week in the
Portland Oregonian. This supplied an income of $50 per month.
But $50 per month was not enough to pay house rent and
provide food and clothing for our family. We began to buy
beans and such food as would provide maximum bulk and
nourishment on minimum cost.
One time, a couple days before my monthly $50 check was
due, we were behind in our rent, completely out of groceries
except for some macaroniwe did not even have a grain of
salt in the house; our gas and electricity had been shut off.
We had a small heating stove in the living room, and nothing
but old magazines for fuel.
My morale was fast descending to subbasement. I was not
so cocky or self-confident now. It seemed almost as if I was
being softened for a knockout blow of some kind.
Religious Controversy Enters

Some little time prior to this, we had been visiting my parents
in Salem. My wife had become acquainted with an elderly
neighbor lady, Mrs. Ora Runcorn. Mrs. Runcorn was an avid
student of the Bible.
Before our marriage my wife had been quite interested in
Bible study. She had been for years an active Methodist.
234
After marriage, although she had not lost her interest in

the Christian life and the Bible, she had not had the same
opportunity to express it or participate in religious fellowship
with others. While we lived in Maywood, suburb of Chicago, we
had joined the River Forest Methodist Church. The fellowship
there had been more social than spiritual or biblical.
But all Mrs. Armstrongs active interest in things biblical was
reawakened when she became acquainted with Mrs.Runcorn.
One day Mrs. Runcorn gave her a Bible study. She asked my
wife to turn to a certain passage and read it. Then a second,
then a third, and so on for about an hour. Mrs.Runcorn made
no commentgave no explanation or argumentjust asked
my wife to read aloud a series of biblical passages.
Why! exclaimed Mrs. Armstrong in amazement. Do all
these scriptures say that Ive been keeping the wrong day as
the Sabbath all my life?
Well, do they? asked Mrs. Runcorn. Dont ask me
whether you have been wrongyou shouldnt believe what
any person tells you, but only what God tells you through the
Bible. What does He tell you, there? What do you see there
with your own eyes?
Why, its as plain as anything could be! exclaimed
Mrs.Armstrong. Why, this is a wonderful discovery. I
must rush back to tell my husband the good news. I know
hell be overjoyed!
A minute or so later, Mrs. Armstrong came running into
my parents home, with the good news.
My jaw dropped!
This was the worst news I had ever heard! My wife gone
into religious fanaticism!
Have you gone crazy? I asked, incredulously.
Of course not! I was never more sure of anything in my
life, responded my wife with enthusiasm.
Indeed, I wondered if she really had lost her mind! Deciding
to keep Saturday for Sunday! Why, that seemed like rank
fanaticism! And my wife had always had such a sound mind!
There was nothing shallow about her. She had always had a
well-balanced mind with depth.
235
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
But now, suddenlythis! It seemed incredible

preposterous!
Loma, I said sternly, this is simply too ridiculous to
believe! I am certainly not going to tolerate any such religious
fanaticism in our family! Youll have to give that up right
here and now!
But she wouldnt!
Doesnt the Bible say that wives must be obedient to their
husbands? I asked.
Yes, in the Lord, but not contrary to the Lord, she came
back.
It was amazing how many logical arguments came to my
mind. But always she had the answer.
I felt I could not tolerate such humiliation. What would
my friends say? What would former business acquaintances
think? Nothing had ever hit me where it hurt so muchright
smack in the heart of all my pride and vanity and conceit!
And this mortifying blow had to fall immediately on top of
confidence-crushing financial reverses!
In desperation, I said: Loma, you cant tell me that all
these churches have been wrong all these hundreds of years!
Why, arent these all Christs churches?
Then, came back Mrs. Armstrong, why do they all
disagree on so many doctrines? Why does each one teach
differently than the others?
But, I still contended, isnt the Bible the very source of
the teaching of all these Christian churches? And they do all
agree on observing Sunday! Im sure the Bible says, Thou
shalt keep Sunday!
Well, does it? smiled my wife, handing me a Bible. Show
it to me, if it doesand Ill do what it says.
I dont know where to find it. You know Im no Bible
student, I could never understand the Bible. But I know the
Bible must command the observance of Sunday, because
all the churches observe Sunday, except the Seventh-Day
Adventists, and theyre regarded as fanatics. The Sabbath
was the day for the Jews.
I even threatened divorce if my wife refused to give up this
236
fanaticism, though in my heart I didnt really mean it. In our

family divorce was a thing unheard ofand besides, I was
very much in love with my wifethough at the moment I was
boiling over with anger.
If you can prove by the Bible that Christians are
commanded to observe Sunday, then of course Ill do what I
see in the Bible!
This was her challenge.
OK, I answered, Ill make you this proposition: I dont
know much about the BibleI just never could seem to
understand it. But I do have an analytical mind. Ive become
experienced in research into business problems, getting the
facts and analyzing them. Now Ill make a complete and thor-
ough study of this question in the Bible. All these churches
cant be wrong. Ill prove to you in the Bible that you are
mistaken!
This was in the autumn of 1926. My business was gone
all but the one laundry account in Portland, where we were
living at the time. This one advertising account required only
about 30 minutes a week of my time. I had time on my hands
for this challenge.
And so it was that in the fall of 1926crushed in spirit from
business reverses not of my makinghumiliated by what I
regarded as wifely religious fanaticismthat I entered into
an in-depth study of the Bible for the first time in my life.
237
16
RESEARCHING THE
BIBLE AND DARWIN
W E HAD MOVED TO THE
Northwest in the summer of 1924. My wifes brother, Walter

Dillon, and her sister, Bertha, had driven Walters ModelT
PACIFIC
Ford back to Iowa in August. Walter finished his junior year

at Simpson College in Indianola, 19241925 school year, and
Bertha continued teaching at the same school where she had
taught before the Oregon trip.
During that third college year at Simpson, Walter had
married a blonde girl of German background whose name was
Hertha. In June 1925, Walter and his young wife, together
with Bertha and my wifes father, had returned to Oregon.
With a new bride to support, it was necessary for Walter to
go back to teaching school, as he had done before entering
Simpson. Both he and Bertha obtained teaching jobs, and my
father-in-law bought a small-town store.
During the following years, Walter attended summer
sessions at the University of Oregon and managed also
to take, part of the time, some night extension courses
at the university, in Portland. Walter kept this schedule,
while teaching, until he earned his bachelor of arts degree
at the university, and later his master of arts. He soon
moved up to a principalship, and finally became principal
238
at the largest grade school in Oregon, outside of Portland.
Walters wife had been indoctrinated with the theory of
evolution in college. One day she and I became engaged in a
discussion. The evolutionary doctrine came into the conversation.
I mentioned that I was not convinced of its validity.
Accused of Being Ignorant

Herbert Armstrong, you are simply ignorant! accused
Hertha. Her words stabbed deeply into what was left of my
ego. One is uneducated, and ignorant, unless he believes in
evolution. All educated people now believe it.
That accusation came hot on the heels of this Sabbath chal-
lenge from my wife. Of course, Hertha was only about 19, and
had had but her freshman year in college. She was yet imma-
ture enough to be a bit oversold on what had been presented
to her as a mark of intellectual distinction. Nevertheless, her
manner was cutting and a bit sarcastic, and I accepted it as
a challenge.
Hertha, I responded, I am just starting a study of the
Bible. I intend to include in this research a thorough study
of the biblical account of creation. Since it is admittedly one
of the twoevolution or special creationI will include an
in-depth study of evolution. I feel sure that a thorough study
into both sides will show that it is you who are ignorant, and
that you merely studied one side of a two-sided question in
freshman biology, and accepted what was funneled into your
mind without question. And if and when I do, Im going to
make you EAT those words!
And so it developed that I now had a double challenge
to go to work ona dual subject involving both the biblical
claims for special creation, and also a more in-depth study
than before into texts on biology, geology, paleontology and
the various works on the theory of evolution.
Actually, this is simply the study into the two possibilities
of origins. It threw me directly into an in-depth research of
what is perhaps the most basic of all knowledgethe very
starting point in the acquisition of knowledgethe search for
the correct concept through which to view all facts.
239
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
The two subjectsor, rather, the two sides of the same

subject of originsshould be unprejudicially and objectively
studied together, yet seldom are!
Most believers in the Bible and in the existence of God
have probably just grown up believing it, because they
were reared in an atmosphere where it was believed. But
perhaps few ever studied into it deeply enough to obtain
irrefutable proof.
Likewise, the educated, who have gone on through college
or university, have, in the main, been taught the theory of
evolution as a belief. They have accepted it, in all probability,
without having given any serious or thorough study of the
biblical claims.
I had come to the point where I wanted the truth!
I now had the time on my hands. I was willing to pay the
price of thorough and in-depth research to be sure!
The reader is reminded that I had chosen, instead of the
university, the process of self-education, selecting my own
courses of study. I had studied diligently, after leaving high
school at age 18, and continuously up to this incident in
1926. But I was now entering on a field of research in which
previous study had been minimal.
I began this intensified study by obtaining everything I
could find in the way of books, pamphlets and other literature
both for and against what was often called the Jewish
Sabbath. I wanted, not only everything I could lay hands on,
on the case for Sunday, and against the seventh-day Sabbath.
I wanted, also, the arguments or proponents for it, which I
hoped to be able honestly to refute.
At the same time, I found, in the Portland Public Library,
many scientific works either directly on evolution, or as a
teaching in textbooks on biology, paleontology and geology.
Also I found books by scientists and doctors of philosophy
puncturing many holes in the evolutionary hypothesis.
Strangely, even the critics of evolution, being themselves
scientific men, paradoxically accepted the very theory they
so ably refuted.
But, reading first the works of Darwin, Haeckel, Spencer,
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16 | Researching the Bible and Darwin
Huxley, Vogt and more recent and modern authorities, the

evolutionary postulate began to become very convincing.
It became apparent early that the real and thorough-going
evolutionists universally agreed that evolution excluded the
possibility of the existence of God! While some of the lesser
lights professed a sort of fence-straddling theistic evolution,
I soon learned that the real dyed-in-the-wool evolutionists
all were atheists. Evolution could not honestly be reconciled
with the first chapter of Genesis!
Does God Exist?

And so it came about that, very early in this study of evolution
and of the Bible, actual doubts came into my mind about the
existence of God!
In a very real sense, this was a good thing. I had always
assumed the existence of God because I had been taught it
from childhood. I had grown up in Sunday school. I simply
took it for granted.
Now, suddenly, I realized I had never proved whether there
is a God. Since the existence of God is the very first basis
for religious belief and authorityand since the inspiration
of the Bible by such a God as His revelation to mankind is
the secondary and companion basis for faith and practiceI
realized that the place to start was to prove whether God exists
and whether the Holy Bible is His revelation of knowledge
and information for mankind.
I had nothing but time on my hands. I rose early and studied.
Most mornings I was standing at the front entrance of the
public library when its doors were opened. Most evenings I
left the library at 9 p.m., closing time. Most nights I continued
study at home until my wife, at 1 a.m. or later, would waken
from her sleep and urge me to break off and get to bed.
I delved into science. I learned the facts about radioactive
elements. I learned how radioactivity proves there has been
no past eternity of matter. There was a time when matter
did not exist. Then there came a time when matter came into
existence. This was creation, one of several proofs of God.
By the laws of science, including the law of biogenesis, that
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only life can beget lifethat dead matter cannot produce

lifethat the living cannot come from the not-living, by these
laws came proof that God exists.
In the Bible I found one quoted, saying in the first person,
I am God. This God was quoted directly in Scriptures,
proved to have been written hundreds of years before Christ,
pronouncing the future fates of every major city and nation in
the ancient world. I delved into history. I learned that these
prophecies, in every instance (except in prophecies pertaining
to a time yet future), had come to pass precisely as written!
Refuting Evolution
I studied the creation account in the Bible. It is not all in
Genesis1. I studied it all! I studied evolution. At first the
evolutionary theory seemed very convincingjust as it does
to freshmen students in most colleges and universities.
I noted evidences of comparative anatomy. But these
evidences were not, in themselves, proof. They merely tended
to make the theory appear more reasonable if proved. I noted
tests and discoveries of embryology. These, too, were not
proof, but only supporting evidence if evolution were proved.
I noticed that Lamarcks original theory of use and disuse,
once accepted as science, had been laughed out of school. I
learned that the once scientific spiral-nebular theory of the
Earths existence had become the present-day laughing stock,
supplanted by (in 1926) Prof. Thomas Chrowder Chamberlins
planetesimal hypothesis. I sought out the facts of Darwins
life. I learned the facts about his continual sicknessabout
his preconceived theory and inductive process of reasoning
in searching for such facts and arguments as would sustain
his theory.
I researched the facts about his tour on the good ship
Beagle. I read of how he admitted there were perplexing
problems in his theories and in what he had written, but that
he nevertheless continued to promulgate evolution. I learned
how his colleagues glossed over these perplexing problems
and propagandized his theory into scientific acceptance.
Then I came to the matter of the human mind. As far back
242
as 1926 I was concerned about the vast gulf between animal

brain and human mind. Could that gulf have been bridged by
evolution? It appeared that, even if the evolutionary process
were possible, in reality the time required to bridge this gulf
in intellectual development would have been millions of times
longer than what geology and paleontology would indicate.
But, most important, I knew that I, with my mind, am
superior to anything my mind can devise, and that I can
make. Likewise, it became axiomatic that nothing less than
the intelligence of my mind could have produced something
superior to itselfmy mind! Of necessity, the very presence of
human intellect necessitates a superior and greater intellect
to have designed, devised and produced the human mind! It
could not have been produced by natural causes and resident
forces, as evolution presupposes. Unintelligence could not
produce intelligence superior to itself! Rational common
sense demanded a Creator of superior mind!
I came to see that there was only one possible proof of
evolution as a fact. That was the assumption that, in the study
of paleontology, the most simple fossils were always in the
oldest strata, laid down first; while, as we progress into strata
of later deposition, the fossils found in them become gradually
more complex, tending toward advancing intelligence.
That one claim, I finally determined, was the trunk of the
tree of evolution. If the trunk stood, the theory appeared proved.
If I could chop down the trunk, the entire tree would fall with it.
I began a search to learn how these scientists determined
the age of strata. I was months finding it. None of the texts I
searched seemed to explain anything about it. This trunk of
the tree was carelessly assumedwithout proof.
Were the oldest strata always on the bottomthe next
oldest next to the bottom, the most recent on the top? Finally I
found it in a recognized text on geology authored by Professor
Chamberlin. No, sometimes the most recent were actually
below the most ancient strata. The age of strata was not
determined by stages of depth. The depth of strata varied in
different parts of the world.
How, then, was the age of strata determined? Why, I finally
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
discovered in this very reputable authority, their age was

determined by the fossils found in them. Since the geologists
knew their evolutionary theory was true, and since they had
estimated how many millions of years ago a certain fossil
specimen might have lived, that age determined the age of
the strata!
In other words, they assumed the age of the strata by the
supposition that their theory of evolution was true. And
they proved their theory was true by the supposition of the
progressive ages of the strata in which fossil remains had
been found! This was arguing in a circle!
The trunk of the evolutionary tree was chopped down.
There was no proof!
I wrote a short paper on this discovery. I showed it to the
head librarian of the technical and science department of a
very large library.
Mr. Armstrong, she said, you have an uncanny knack of
getting right to the crux of a problem. Yes, I have to admit you
have chopped down the trunk of the tree. You have robbed me
of proof! But, Mr. Armstrong, I still have to go on believing
in evolution. I have done graduate work at Columbia, at the
University of Chicago and other top-level institutions. I have
spent my life in the atmosphere of science and in the company
of scientific people. I am so steeped in it that I could not root
it from my mind!
What a pitiful confession, from one so steeped in the
wisdom of this world.
The Creation MEMORIAL

I had disproved the theory of evolution. I had found proof of
creationproof of the existence of Godproof of the divine
inspiration of the Bible.
Now I had a basis for belief. Now I had a solid foundation
on which to build. The Bible had proved itself to contain
authority. I had now studied far enough to know that I
must live by it, and that I shall finally be judged by it
not by men, nor by mans church denominations, theories,
theologies, tenets, doctrines or pronouncements. I would be
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judged by Almighty God finally, and according to the Bible!

So now I began to study further into this Sabbath question.
Of course I had procured all the pamphlets, books and
booklets I could find in defense of Sunday observance and
purporting to refute the Jewish Sabbath.
Especially I sought out eagerly everything claiming apos-
tolic observance of Sunday as the Christian Sabbath. Early
in my study, I learned about the many Bible helpsthe concor-
dances, which list alphabetically all the words used in the
Bible, showing where they are used, and what Greek, Hebrew
or Aramaic word was originally writtenBible dictionaries,
Bible encyclopedias, commentaries, etc., etc.
From the exhaustive concordances I soon learned that the
command I sought, Thou shalt keep Sunday, was nowhere
to be found in the Bible. In fact, the word Sunday was not
used in the Bible. That surprised me.
I really became excited, however, when I learned that there
are eight places in the New Testament where the phrase
first day of the week appears. And I read eagerly arguments
in tracts or booklets claiming that these established that the
original apostles were holding their weekly worship services
on the first day of the weekwhich is Sunday.
But I became painfully disappointed on learning by more
careful study that there was not a single instance of a
religious service being held on the hours we call Sunday
Saturday midnight to Sunday midnight. The Apostle Paul,
after spending a Saturday Sabbath with the church at
Troas, preached to them Saturday night until midnight. But
although, in the biblical manner of ending each day and begin-
ning the next at sunset, that wasbiblically speakingon
the first day of the week, it was not Sunday, but Saturday
night, lasting until Sunday began at midnight.
I was further disappointed in this case, when I discovered
on careful study, that on that Sunday Paul indulged in the
labor of walking some 19 miles to Assos. The others of Pauls
company had sailed, beginning sunset when the Sabbath ended,
around the peninsula, some 65 miles to Assos. By walking
the 19 miles straight across, on Sunday, Paul had gained the
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
extra time to continue speaking to the people Saturday night.

So my effort to find a command to observe Sunday met
with disappointment.
I found there is no command to observe Sunday. Sunday
is nowhere called holy time, but to my chagrin, I found this
Jewish Sabbath is, and is said to be holy to God. There was
not even a single example of any religious meeting having
been held on the hours called Sunday!
On the other hand, I had to learn, like it or not, that Jesus
kept the Sabbath day as His custom was, and the Apostle
Paul kept it as his manner was. Also Paul spent many
Sabbath days preaching and holding weekly services, and in
one instance the Gentiles waited a whole week in order to
be able to come and hear Paul preach the same words on the
following Sabbath!
I learned that creation is the very proof of God! A heathen
comes along, pointing to an idol made by mans hands out of
wood, stone or marble or gold.
This idol is the real god, he says. How can you prove your
God is superior to this idol that I worship?
Why, I answer, My God is the Creator. He created
the wood, stone, marble or gold that your god is made of.
He created man, and man, a created being, made that idol.
Therefore my God is greater than your idol because it is only
a particle of what my God made!
Another comes along and says, I worship the sun. We
get our light from the sun. It warms the Earth and makes
vegetation grow. I think the sun is God.
But, I reply, the true God created the sun. He created light.
He created force, energy and life. He makes the sun shine on
the Earth. He controls the sun, because He controls all the
forces of His creation. He is supreme Ruler over His universe.
Then I began to see that on the very seventh day of creation
week, God set that day aside from other days. On that day He
rested from all He had created by work. On that day he created
the Sabbath, not by work, but by rest, putting His divine
presence in it! He made it holy time. No man has authority
to make future time holy. No group of menno church! Only
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God is holy! Only God can make things holy. The Sabbath
is a constantly recurring space of time, marked off by the
setting of the sun. God made every recurring Sabbath holy
and commanded man to keep it holy (Exodus 20).
Why did He do it? Why does it make any difference?
I found it in the special Sabbath covenant in Exodus31:12-
18. He made it the sign between Him and His people. A sign is
a mark of identity. First, it is a sign that God is the Creator,
because it is a memorial of creationthe creation is the
proof of Godit identifies Him. No other space of time could
be a memorial of creation. Thus God chose that very space of
time for man to assemble for worship which keeps man in the
knowledge of the true identity of God as the Creator. Every
nation which has not kept the Sabbath has worshiped the
created rather than the Creator. It is a sign that identifies
Gods own people, because it is they who obey God in this
commandment, while this is the very commandment which
everyone else regards as the least of the commandments
which they rebel against obeying!
God is the one you obey. The word Lord means Master
the one you obey! This is the one point on which the largest
number of people refuse to obey the true God, thus proving
they are not His people!
Law and Grace

I studied carefully everything I could obtain which attempted
to refute the Sabbath. I wanted, more than anything on Earth,
to refute itto prove that Sunday was the true Christian
Sabbath, or Lords day.
I read the arguments about law or grace.
I was pointed to, and read, Romans 3:20: Therefore by the
deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.
But I looked into the Bible, and found the pamphlet had
left out the rest of the verse: for by the law is the knowledge
of sin. That is true, because I read in 1John 3:4 that the
Bible definition of sin is not mans conscience, or his church
donts, but sin is the transgression of the law. Naturally,
then, the knowledge of sin comes by the law.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
And I discovered the pamphlet forgot to quote verse 31 of

Romans 3: Do we then make void the law through faith? God
forbid: yea, we establish the law.
I read in a pamphlet, the law worketh wrath
(Romans4:15).
I turned to my Bible and read the rest of the same verse:
for where no law is, there is no transgression. Of course!
Because the law defines sin. Sin is disobedience of the law!
I read in one of the pamphlets that the law was an evil thing,
contrary to our best interests. But then I read in Romans 7:
Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by
the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said,
Thou shalt not covet. And Wherefore the law is holy, and
the commandment holy, and just, and good. And again, For
we know that the law is spiritual (verses 7, 12, 14).
I learned that grace is pardon, through the blood of Christ,
for having transgressed the law. But if a human judge pardons
a man for breaking a civil or criminal law, that pardon does
not repeal the law. The man is pardoned so that he may now
obey the law. And God pardons only after we repent of sin!
The Bitter Pill

But do not suppose I quickly or easily came to admit my wife
had been right, or to accept the seventh-day Sabbath as the
truth of the Bible.
I spent a solid six months of virtual night-and-day, seven-
day-a-week study and research in a determined effort to find
just the opposite.
I searched in vain for any authority in the Bible to establish
Sunday as the day for Christian worship. I even studied Greek
sufficiently to run down every possible questionable text in
the original Greek.
I studied the commentaries. I studied the lexicons and
Robertsonss A Grammar of the Greek New Testament. Then I
studied history. I delved into encyclopediasthe Britannica,
the Americana, and several religious encyclopedias. I searched
the Jewish Encyclopedia and the Catholic Encyclopedia. I
read Gibbons The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
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especially Chapter 15 dealing with the religious history of the

first 400 years after Christ. And one of the most convincing
evidences against Sunday-keeping was in the history of how
and when it began.
I left no stone unturned.
I found clever arguments. I will confess that, so eager was
I to overthrow this Sabbath belief of my wife, at one point
in this intensive study I believed I might possibly have been
able to use arguments to confuse and upset my wife on the
Sabbath question. But there was no temptation to try to do
it. I knew these arguments were not honest! I could not delib-
erately try to deceive my wife with dishonest arguments. The
thought was immediately pushed aside. I know now she could
not have been deceived.
Finally, after six months, the truth had become crystal
clear. At last I knew what was the truth. Once again, God
had taken me to a licking!
It had been bewilderingutterly frustrating! It seemed as
if some mysterious, invisible hand was disintegrating every
business I started!
That was precisely what was happening! The hand of God was
taking away every activity on which my heart had been setthe
business success before whose shrine I had worshiped. This zeal
to become important in the business world had become an idol.
God was destroying the idol. He was knocking me downagain
and again! He was puncturing the ego, deflating the vanity.
Midas in Reverse
At age 16 ambition had been aroused. I began to study
constantlyto work at self-improvementto prod and drive
myself on and on. I had sought the jobs which would provide
training and experience for the future. This had led to travel
and to contacts with big and important men, multimillionaire
executives.
At 28, a publishers representative business had been
built in Chicago that produced an income equivalent to
some $35,000 a year measured by todays dollar value.
The flash depression of 1920 had swept it away. At age 30,
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
discouraged, broken in spirit, I was removed from it entirely.

Then, in Oregon, had come the advertising service for
laundries. It was growing and multiplying rapidly. After one
year, in the fall of 1926, the fees were grossing close to $1,000
per month. I saw visions of a personal net income mounting
to $300,000 to a half million a year with expansion to national
proportions. Then an action by the Laundryowners National
Association swept the laundry advertising business out from
under my feet.
It seemed that I was King Midas in reverse. Every material
money-making enterprise I started promised gold, but turned
to nothing! They vanished like mirages on a desert.
Yes, God Almighty the Creator was knocking me downagain
and again. As often as I got back on my feet to fight, starting
another business or enterprise, another blow of utter and bitter
defeat seemed to strike me from behind by an unseen hand. I
was being softened for the final knockout of material ambition.
Now came the greatest inner battle of my life.
To accept this truth meantso I supposedto cut me off
from all former friends, acquaintances and business associates.
I had come to meet some of the independent Sabbath keepers
down around Salem and the Willamette Valley. Some of
them were what I then, in my pride and conceit, regarded as
backwoods hillbillies. None were of the financial and social
position of those I had associated with.
My associations and pride had led me to look down on
this class of people. I had been ambitious to hobnob with the
wealthy and the cultured.
I saw plainly what a decision was before me. To accept this
truth meant to throw in my lot for life with a class of people I
had always looked on as inferior. I learned later that God looks
on the heart, and these humble people were the real salt of the
Earth. But I was then still looking on the outward appearance.
It meant being cut off completely and forever from all to which
I had aspired. It meant a total crushing of vanity. It meant a
total change of life!
I counted the cost!
But by then I had been beaten down. I had been humiliated.
250
I had been broken in spirit, frustrated. I had come to look on

this formerly esteemed self as a failure. I now took another
good look at myself.
And I acknowledged: Im nothing but a burned-out old
hunk of junk.
I realized I had been a swellheaded, egotistical jackass.
Finally, in desperation, I threw myself on Gods mercy. I said
to God that I knew, now, that I was nothing but a burned-out
hunk of junk. My life was worth nothing more to me. I said to
God that I knew now I had nothing to offer Himbut if He
would forgive meif He could have any use whatsoever for
such a worthless dreg of humanity, that He could have my
life; I knew it was worthless, but if He could do anything with
it, He could have itI was willing to give this worthless self
to HimI wanted to accept Jesus Christ as personal Savior!
I meant it! It was the toughest battle I ever fought. It was a
battle for life. I lost that battle, as I had been recently losing all
battles. I realized Jesus Christ had bought and paid for my life.
I gave in. I surrendered, unconditionally. I told Christ He could
have what was left of me! I didnt think I was worth saving!
Jesus said, Whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and
whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. I then
and there gave up my lifenot knowing that this was the
only way to really find it!
It was humiliating to have to admit my wife had been
right, and I had been wrong. It was disillusioning to learn,
on studying the Bible for the first time, that what I had been
taught in Sunday school was, in so many basic instances, the
very opposite of what the Bible plainly states. It was shocking
to learn that all these churches were wrong after all!
But I did, later, have one satisfaction. I wrote up a long
manuscript about the Sabbath, finally tying it up with
evolution, and proving evolution false. I gave it to my sister-
in-law, Mrs.Dillon. She read it unsuspectingly. Before she
realized what she was reading, she had accepted the evidence
and proof that evolution was false.
You tricked me! she exclaimed.
But she did have to eat those words!
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17
AT THE
CROSSROADS
A MOMENTOUS
DECISION
I T WAS HUMILIATING TO HAVE TO ADMIT
my wife had been right, and I had been wrong, in the most
serious argument that ever came between us.
Disillusionment
But to my utter disappointed astonishment, I found that much
of the popular church teachings and practices were not based
on the Bible. They had originated, as research in history had
revealed, in paganism. Numerous Bible prophecies foretold
it. The amazing, unbelievable truth was, the source of these
popular beliefs and practices of professing Christianity was,
quite largely, paganism and human reasoning and custom,
NOT the Bible!
I had first doubted, then searched for evidence, and found
proof that God existsthat the Holy Bible is, literally, His
divinely inspired revelation and instruction to mankind. I
252
had learned that ones god is what a person obeys. The word
Lord means masterthe one you obey! Most people, I had
discovered, are obeying false gods, rebelling against the one
true Creator who is the supreme Ruler of the universe.
The argument was over a point of obedience to God.
The opening of my eyes to the truth brought me to the
crossroads of my life. To accept it meant to throw in my lot
with a class of humble and unpretentious people I had always
looked upon as inferior. It meant being cut off from the high
and the mighty and the wealthy of this world, to which I had
aspired. It meant the final crushing of vanity. It meant a total
change of life!
Life-and-Death Struggle
It meant real repentance, for now I saw that I had been
breaking Gods law. I had been rebelling against God. It
meant turning around and going the way of Godthe way
of His Bibleliving according to every word in the Bible,
instead of according to the ways of society or the desires of
the flesh and of vanity.
It was a matter of which way I would travel for the
remainder of my life. I had certainly reached the crossroads!
But I had been beaten down. God had brought that about
though I didnt realize it then. Repeated business reverses,
failure after failure, had destroyed self-confidence. I was
broken in spirit. The self in me didnt want to die. It wanted
to try to get up from ignominious defeat and try once again to
tread the broad and popular way of vanity and of this world.
But now I knew that way was wrong! I knew its ultimate
penalty was death. But I didnt want to die now!
It was truly a battle for lifea life-and-death struggle. In
the end I lost that battle, as I had been losing all worldly
battles in recent years.
In final desperation, I threw myself on His mercy. If He
could use my life, I would give it to Himnot in physical
suicide, but as a living sacrifice, to use as He willed. It was
worth nothing to me any longer.
Jesus Christ had bought and paid for my life by His death.
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It really belonged to Him, and now I told Him He could have it!
From then on, this defeated no-good life of mine was Gods.
I didnt see how it could be worth anything to Him. But it was
His to use as His instrument, if He thought He could use it.
JOY in Defeat
This surrender to Godthis repentancethis giving up of the
world, of friends and associates, and of everythingwas the
most bitter pill I ever swallowed. Yet it was the only medicine
in all my life that ever brought a healing!
For I actually began to realize that I was finding joy beyond
words to describe in this total defeat. I had actually found
joy in the study of the Biblein the discovery of new truths,
heretofore hidden from my consciousness. And in surrendering
to God in complete repentance, I found unspeakable joy in
accepting Jesus Christ as personal Savior and my present
High Priest.
I began to see everything in a new and different light.
Why should it have been a difficult and painful experience to
surrender to my Maker and my God? Why was it painful to
surrender to obey Gods right ways? Why? Now, I came to a
new outlook on life.
Somehow I began to realize a new fellowship and friendship
had come into my life. I began to be conscious of a contact and
fellowship with Christ, and with God the Father.
When I read and studied the Bible, God was talking to me,
and now I loved to listen! I began to pray, and knew that
in prayer I was talking with God. I was not yet very well
acquainted with God. But one gets to be better acquainted
with another by constant contact and continuous conversation.
A Doctrine at a Time
So I continued the study of the Bible. I began to write, in
article form, the things I was learning. I did not then suppose
these articles would ever be published. I wrote them for my
own satisfaction. It was one way to learn more by the study.
I had been reared of Quaker stock. The Quakers do not
believe in water baptism. But now I wanted to prove, by the
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17 | At the Crossroadsa Momentous Decision
Bible, whether I ought to be baptized. So I began to study

about baptismand receiving the Holy Spirit.
As this study of the Bible continued, I was forced to come
out of the fog of religious Babylon a single doctrine at a time.
It was years later before I came to see the whole pictureto
understand Gods purpose being worked out here below, and
why, and how, He is working it out. Like a jigsaw puzzle, the
many single doctrinal parts ultimately fit together, and then,
for the first time, the whole picture burst joyfully into view.
It was like being so close to one tree at a time I could not see
the forest. I had to examine every doctrinal tree in the religious
forest. Many, as I had been brought up to believe them, were
felled on close examination in the Bible. New doctrinal trees
came into view. But finally, after years, I was able to see the
whole forest of truth, with dead doctrinal trees removed.
That is why students at Ambassador College today are able
to learn the truth much more rapidly than I could. That is
why the readers of the Plain Truth, the regular listeners of the
World Tomorrow program, and the students of the Ambassador
College Bible Correspondence Course are able to come to mature
knowledge of the truth so quickly. The pioneer work has been
done. The weeds have been removed. The very trunks of the
trees of false doctrines have been chopped down and uprooted.
But I myself had to check carefully and test every doctrine,
one at a time.
And so next, after repentance and surrender to God, came
an intensive study of water baptism.
Disillusioned About Preachers

During my initial six-month study, I had studied not only
the Bible, but every book, booklet or tract I could get on the
religious subjects under study. On the Sabbath question, I
had sought out eagerly and studied avidly everything I could
find against the Sabbath and supporting Sunday as the
Lords day. But I had tried to be fair, and searched also the
literature on the other side of the question. But always the
Bible was the sole authority. Thus I became quite familiar
with Seventh-Day Adventist literature.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Never, however, did I attend any Seventh-Day Adventist

church service.
Also I checked over carefully the literature of the Church of
God, with headquarters at Stanberry, Missouri.
Upon surrender to God, I had lost all sense of animosity
toward Mrs. O.J. Runcorn, the elderly lady who had started
my wife on the religious fanaticism which proved to be Gods
truth. We even came to call her and her husband our spiritual
parents. Mrs.Armstrong and I visited with her frequently
when in Salem at the home of my parents. Through her and
her husband we became acquainted with a small group of
Church of God people in Salem and near Jefferson, Oregon.
One day when we were in Salem we learned that a preacher
of this Church of God had just arrived from Texas, an Elder
Unzicker. He and his wife were staying at the home of a
neighbor, member of the Church of God. Mrs. Armstrong and
I walked across the street to this neighbors house to see him.
I wanted to ask him questions about water baptism.
Questioning Other Ministers

Next I went to a Baptist minister in Portland to learn why
Baptists believe in baptism. He was courteous and patient,
glad to explain his churchs teachings.
I went to a Seventh-Day Adventist minister. He, too, was
courteous and glad to explain his belief, according to the Bible.
Then, finally, I went to see a minister of the Friends Church.
I asked him why the Quakers did not believe in water
baptism. He explained the Quaker belief. They believe in
spiritual, not water, baptism.
Well, Herbert, he said finally, Ill have to confess I cant
honestly justify our church position by the Bible. This very
thing bothered me a great deal when I first felt called into
the ministry. At first, I felt I could not consistently become a
minister in the Friends Church because this stand on water
baptism really bothered me. But then, I looked at some of the
great preachers of the church (naming several, including my
own great-uncle Thomas Armstrong), and they all seemed to
be holy men of God. And so I decided that if such great and
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holy men could preach against water baptism, so could I.

To me, this was disillusioning and discouraging. It showed
me that ministers are human, like other people, after all.
As a boy, I had somehow come to assume that ministers of
religion are different from other people. Preachers were holy.
Other people were sinners. Other people had human nature.
But preachers were above the temptation and weaknesses of
mortal humans. They were a sort of special species, about
halfway between ordinary humans and God. I had looked on
ministers of religion with a sort of embarrassed awe. I think
many people think of the clergy in similar manner.
Of course I was not a minister, and at that time did not ever
expect to be. In my Bible study up to this point I had become
painfully aware that the heart [human] is deceitful above all
things, and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). This is true
of every human, and I had to realize it included me. But I had
to come to see that clergymen are human alsoand perhaps
have even a harder fight against temptation than laymen.
My Experience Utterly Unique

Actually, though I didnt realize it then, I was, myself, being
literally thrust into the ministry of Christ, though not at all
of my own seeking. And I know now that my experience was,
in all probability, utterly unique! Most certainly the manner
in which I was put into it was unlike any other I had heard of.
How does the average minister come to enter the clergy? Im
sure most choose the ministry in the same manner that other
young men choose medicine, law, architecture or science as a
life profession. So, naturally, they enter into whatever course
of preparation is provided by their particular religion, church
or denomination. Probably they enter a theological seminary.
There they are taught the doctrines of their particular
religious organization.
But I did not belong to any particular religion, church or
sect. I did not choose the clergy as a profession. Actually,
that would have been the very last choice in my case. But,
though it was not yet realized, the profession I had chosen,
after thorough self-analysis and survey of professions and
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
occupationsjournalism and advertisingprovided the very

background, training and experience to fit me for what I was
now being drawn into.
I did not enter the course of study of some particular religion
or church. I was not being taught by man! I had entered on
the in-depth study of the Bible to prove my wife was wrong in
a new religious belief. Being challenged also on the theory of
evolution, my research led me to question even the existence
of God and the authority of the Bible. And I had accepted the
reality of the existence of God, and the authority of the Bible,
only after finding incontrovertible proof.
How do most people come to believe what they do? The
philosopher C.E. Ayres commented that few indeed ever
stop to inquire in retrospect how they come to believe what
they do, or why they believe it. Most people believe whatever
they have been taught, or what they have read or heard, or
whatever their particular group, religion, church, political
party or area of the world believes. They simply go along.
They carelessly assume, because others do.
Our system of education encourages this. It fails abysmally
to teach growing children to think for themselves, to question,
to seek proof before believing. In school and college, students
are taught to accept and memorize whatever is in the textbook
or given in the lecture. They are graded on how well they have
accepted and memorized what has been thus funneled into
their unsuspecting minds. And I know of no seminary that
departs from this process or encourages students to thoroughly
question whether their sectarian doctrines are true.
Of course, too, people usually believe what they want to
believe. That is to say, they refuse to believe what they dont
want to believe. But in my case I was forced, on thorough
examination and research, to believe what, prior to that
research, I had definitely and vigorously not wanted to believe.
I was forced to accept, on proof, that which I had started out
to prove false. I was forced to admit, under most humiliating
circumstances, on proof, what I had hoped to disprove.
And what I was forced, on proof, to accept was probably
the most unpopular belief and the hardest for most people
258
to accept. But I had, against my wishes, found it to be true,

and once proved true, I did finally come to embrace it with
gladness and joy!
In no other manner, I believe, could the mind of anyone
have been opened to see the most basic, vital truths of the
revealed message of God to mankindthe most important
knowledge of allutterly overlooked and unrealized by this
worlds religions, churches and sects.
It was in this unique manner that I was brought to
discover the missing dimension in educationthe truth about
why humanity was put on this Earththe true purpose
of human lifethe cause of all the worlds unhappiness,
unsolvable problems and evilsthe difference between the
true values and the falsethe way that can be the only
CAUSE of peace between nations, groups and individuals
the only cause of true success in life with happiness, peace,
prosperity and abundance.
No, I know of no one who was thrust into the ministry
of Jesus Christ, untaught by man, but by the living Christ
through His written Word, in the manner in which I was. I
didnt realize it yet, but I was being brought into His ministry
by the living Christ in a manner utterly unique and totally
unlike any other of which I know!
But back, now, to my study in regard to baptism.
Begotten of God
Finally the study of the subject of baptism was completed.
There was no longer doubt. Peter had said: Repent, and be
baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the
remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy
[Spirit] (Acts 2:38). To Cornelius and his house, who already
had received the Holy Spirit, Peter said: Can any man forbid
water, that these should not be baptized, which have received
the Holy [Spirit] as well as we? And he commanded them to be
baptized in the name of the Lord (Acts 10:47-48).
It was a command. There was no promise of receiving the
Holy Spirit until after being baptizedalthough Cornelius,
the exception to the rule, had been begotten by the Holy Spirit
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
prior to baptism. Yet even he was commanded to be baptized

in water. What I had learned in this study on baptism is
recounted in our free booklet All About Water Baptism.
And so I was baptized forthwith and without delay.
Immediately upon coming up out of the water, I definitely
experienced a change in attitude and in mind generally. I
had already repented and surrendered to Gods rule over my
life. The natural carnal hostility to God and His law already
had gone.
Yet now, for the first time, I felt clean! I knew, now, that
the terribly heavy load of sin had been taken off my shoulders.
Christ had paid the penalty for me. All past sins were now
blotted out by His blood. My conscience was clean and clear.
For the first time in my life I experienced real inner PEACE
of mind! I realized, as never before, how futile and useless and
foolish are the ways of this world on which most people set so
much store. There was a quiet, wonderful happiness of mind
in the sure knowledge that now I was actually a begotten son
of God! I could really call God Father!
There were no excitable physical sensations or exhila-
rating feelings running up and down the spine. Nothing of
the nervous system. That is physicalnot spiritual. Nothing
of the sensesnothing sensual, as some people, diabolically
misled and deceived claim to experience. But there was a
knowing! There was an unmistakable renewing of the mind
(Romans 12:2).
For six months I had struggled night and day, with a
carnal mind, to learn the truth about one single doctrine
in the Bible. Prior to that my wife and I had read the Bible
clear throughbut I had not understood a WORD of it! Most
of the time I asked my wife to do the reading, because she
could read faster. We got through quicker. But it was like
reading or listening to a foreign language. I simply could not
UNDERSTAND the BIBLE!
But now, from this point of baptism on, a strange, wonderful,
delightful new thing took place. I could read the Bible and
understand what I read! Of course I could not understand
the whole Bible in five or 10 minutes. I still had to study it a
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doctrine at a time. But it was understandable! It made sense!

Even though it took time, I was now getting some place. But I
was comprehending and learning so much faster than during
that initial six months study!
It was like a miracle! And indeed, it WAS a miracle! The
very Holy Spirit of God had come into and renewed my mind.
I had been baptized by the Holy Spirit into the true Body of
Christ, the Church of Godbut I did not realize that fact
literally. I was still to search earnestly to find the one and
only true Church which Jesus founded, before recognizing
fully He had already placed me in it!
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18
LEARNING
WHETHER
GOD ANSWERS
PRAYERS
W HERE IS THE ONE TRUE CHURCH
today? That is the question that still haunted my mind in the

late spring and the summer of 1927.
During that six months diligent research, I had run the
gamut of disillusionment, doubt, confusion, frustrationand
finally, the sure knowledge, proved, that God exists, and that
the Holy Bible is His revealed Word.
Finally, sadly disillusioned about believing all these
churches couldnt be wrong, I began to ask, Where is the one
true Church today? I read in Matthew 16:18 where Jesus
said: I will build my church.
Therefore I knew He did build it. He said the gates of the
grave would never prevail against it. It had to be in existence
still. But where? Which church could it be?
I had been astounded to learn that the Bible teaches
truths diametrically opposite to the teachings of the large
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and popular churches and denominations today. I saw in
the Bible the real mission of Gods true Church. But these
churches, today, were not carrying on the real Work and
mission of Christ.
The source of their beliefs and practice was not the
Bible, but paganism! There was no recognizable comparison
between them and the original true Church I found described
in Acts and other New Testament books. Yet somewhere there
had to exist today that spiritual organism in which Christ
actually dwelta Church empowered by His Spiritacting
as His instrumentcarrying out His commission.
But where?
I was to be some years in finding the answer.
I still had to sift out the real truth a doctrine at a time!
Mrs. Armstrong and I began to attend many different
churches. I wanted to check on eachcompare it with the Bible.
I continued almost daily study at the Portland Public Library.
Getting Relatives Saved

One must not assume, from what has been written about my
surrender to God, and the change that came with Gods Spirit,
that I had reached spiritual maturity and perfection at one
quick bound. No one ever does. A human baby must creep
before it learns to walk. It must learn to walk before it can
run. And it stumbles and falls many times. But it does not
become discouraged and give up.
The newly converted are mere babes in Christ. I had not
learned much, as yet. Vanity was far from being eradicated.
Upon surrendering to accept Gods truthas far as I had
then come to see itmy first impulse was to share it with my
family and relatives. Once the natural-born hostility to God
and His law had been crushed, the Bible truth appeared
as a glorious lightthe most wonderful thing I had ever
known. I was suddenly filled with zeal to get this precious
knowledge to all who were close to my wife and me. I wanted
to get them converted.
Suddenly I began to feel so unselfish in this new Christian
experience that I felt my own final fate was not important, if
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
only I could get those related by blood or marriage ties into

Gods Kingdom.
But sad disillusionment followed every overture. I had
absolutely no success whatsoever trying to cram my religion
down their throats.
Facing the Tobacco Question

Then, immediately after I was baptized, the matter of smoking
had to be settled.
Of course the Quaker church, in which I had been reared
as a boy, taught that smoking was a sin. But I had been
unhappily disillusioned to see that in so many basic points
the Bible teaching is the very opposite of what I had absorbed
in Sunday school.
Ive got to see the answer to the tobacco question in the
Bible! I said to myself.
Until I found the answer in the Bible, I decided I would
continue as beforesmoking mildly.
I had continued to smoke lightly, averaging three or four
cigarettes a day, or one cigar a day. I had never been a
heavy smoker.
Now I had to face the question: Is smoking a sin?
I wanted the Bible answer, for I had learned by this time
that Christ had said we must live by every word of God. The
Bible is our Instruction Book on right living. We must find a
Bible reason for everything we do.
I knew, of course, there is no specific command: Thou shalt
not smoke. But the absence of a detailed prohibition did not
mean Gods approval.
I had learned that Gods law is His way of life. It is a basic
philosophy of life. The whole law is summed up in the one
word love. I knew that love is the opposite of lust. Lust is
self-desirepleasing the self only. Love means loving others.
Its direction is not inward toward self alone, but outgoing,
toward others. I knew the Bible teaches that lust of the flesh
is the way of sin.
So now I began to apply the principle of Gods law.
I asked myself, Why do I smoke? To please othersto
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18 | Learning Whether God Answers Prayers
help othersto serve or minister to or express love toward

othersor only to satisfy and gratify a desire of the flesh
within my own self?
The answer was instantaneously obvious. I had to be
honest with it. My only reason for smoking was lust of the
flesh, and lust of the flesh is, according to the BIBLE, sin!
I stopped smoking immediately. This beginning of over-
coming was not too difficult, for it had not been a big habit
with me. Once weaned, I was able to see it as it isa dirty,
filthy habit. And today we know it is a serious and major
contributing cause of lung cancer!
God designed and created the human body. He designed
the lungs to take in fresh air to fire and oxidize the blood,
and at the same time to filter out of the blood the impurities
and waste matter the blood has picked up throughout the
body. Befouled smoke, containing the poisons of nicotine and
tars, reduces the efficiency of the operation of this vital organ.
The physical human body is, God says, the very temple of
His Holy Spirit. If we defile this templethis physical body
God says He will destroy us! God intended us, if we are to be
complete, to live happy, healthy and abundant lives, and to
gain eternal life, to take in His Spiritnot poisonous foreign
substances like tobacco.
Mrs. Armstrong Stricken

I was now beginning to grow in Christs knowledge and in
His grace. His Holy Spirit had renewed my mind. I could now
understand Gods truth as I studied His Word.
I had come to understand, the hard way, the truth about
law and grace. I had come to understand the Bible teaching
about water baptism. I had come to see that I could not help
others unless I, myself, were obedient and practicing what
I preached. I had come to see the truth about tobacco. Now
God saw fit to teach my wife and me another most important
and useful truth. He let us learn it through severe experience,
coupled with Bible study.
Along about early August 1927, a series of physical illnesses
and injuries attacked Mrs. Armstrong.
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First, she was bitten on the left arm by a dog. Before this
healed over, she was driven to bed with tonsillitis. She got up
from this too soon, and was stricken violently with a backset.
But meanwhile she had contracted blood poisoning as a result
of being stuck with a rose thorn on the index finger of her
right hand.
For two or three days her sister and I had to take turns,
day and night, soaking her right hand in almost blistering
hot Epsom-salts water, and covering her wrist and forearm
with hot towels, always holding her right arm high.
The backset from the tonsillitis developed into quinsy. Her
throat was swollen shut. It locked her jaw. For three days
and three nights she was unable to swallow a drop of water
or a morsel of food. More seriously, for three days and three
nights she was unable to sleep a wink. She was nearing
exhaustion. The red line of the blood poisoning, in spite of our
constant hot Epsom-salts efforts, was streaking up her right
arm, and had reached her shoulder on the way to the heart.
The doctor had told me privately that she could not last
another 24 hours. This third sleepless, foodless and waterless
day was a scorching hot summer day in early August.
Does God HEAL Today?

On this late morning, a neighbor lady came over to see my wife.
Mr. Armstrong, she asked, out of hearing of my wife,
would you object if I ask a man and his wife to come and
anoint and pray for your wifes healing?
That sounded a little fanatical to me. Yet, somehow, I felt
too embarrassed to object.
Well, no, I suppose not, I replied hesitantly.
About two hours later she returned, and said they would
come at about 7 in the evening.
I began to have misgivings; I began to regret having
given consent.
What if these people are some of these wildfire shouters, I
thought to myself. Suppose they begin to shout and yell and
scream like these holy roller or pentecostal fanatics do? Oh
my! What would our neighbors think?
266
Quickly I gathered courage to go to our neighbor who had

asked them to come. I told her I had been thinking it over,
and felt it better that these people did not come. She was very
nice about it. She would start immediately, and ask them not
to come. Then I learned she would have to walk over a mile to
contact them. They were living in some rooms in the former
Billy Sunday tabernacle that had been built for Billy Sundays
Portland campaign some years earlier. This tabernacle was
out beyond 82nd Street, near Sandy Boulevard.
It was now in the heat of the daythe hottest day of
the year. I began to feel quite ashamed to impose on this
woman, by asking her to make a second long walk on that
sweltering afternoon.
I do hate to ask you to make a second trip out there, I
said apologetically. I didnt realize it was so far. But I
was afraid these people might yell and shout, and create a
neighborhood disturbance.
Oh, they are very quiet people, she hastened to assure me.
They wont shout.
After that I decided not to impose on this neighbor who
was only trying to help us.
Lets let them come, then, I concluded.
The Meaning of FAITH

That evening this man and his wife came, about 7. He was
rather tall. They were plain people, obviously not of high
education, yet intelligent appearing.
This is all rather new to me, I began, when they were
seated beside my wifes bed. Would you mind if I ask you a
few questions before you pray for my wife?
He welcomed the questions. He had a Bible in his hands, and
one by one he answered my every question and doubt by turning
to a passage in his Bible and giving me the Bible answer.
By this time I had become sufficiently familiar with the
Bible to recognize every passage he readonly I had never
thought of these biblical statements and promises and
admonitions in this particular light before.
As these answers continued coming from the Bible, I
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began to understand, and to believeand I knew the same

assurance was forming in Mrs. Armstrongs mind.
Finally I was satisfied. I had the answer from the Bible.
I believed. My wife believed. We knelt in prayer beside her
bed. As he anointed my wife with oil from a vial he carried,
he uttered a quiet, positive, very earnest and believing prayer
which was utterly different from any prayer I had ever heard.
This man actually dared to talk directly to God, and to tell
God what He had promised to do! He quoted the promises of
God to heal. He applied them to my wife. He literally held God
to what He had promised! It was not because we, as mortal
humans, deserved what he asked, but through the merits of
Jesus Christ and according to Gods great mercy.
He merely claimed Gods promise to heal. He asked God to
heal her completely, from the top of her head to the bottom
of her feet.
You have promised, he said to God, and you have given
us the right to hold you to your promise to heal by the power
of your mighty Holy Spirit. I hold you to that promise! We
expect to have the answer!
Never had I heard anyone talk like that to God!
It was not a long prayerperhaps a minute or two. But as
he spoke I knew that as sure as there is a God in heaven, my
wife had to be healed! Any other result would have made God
out a liar. Any other result would have nullified the authority
of the Scriptures. Complete assurance seized meand
also my wife. We simply knew that she was released from
everything that had gripped hershe was freed from the
sicknessshe was healed! To have doubted would have been
to doubt Godto doubt the Bible. It simply never occurred to
us to doubt. We believed! We knew!
As we rose, the mans wife laid a hand on Mrs. Armstrongs
shoulder. Youll sleep soundly tonight, she smiled quietly.
I thanked them gratefully. As soon as they had left,
Mrs.Armstrong asked me to bring her a robe. She arose, put
it on, and I walked slowly with her out to the street sidewalk
and back, my arm around her. Neither of us spoke a word.
There was no need. We both understood. It was too solemn
268
a moment to speak. We were too choked with gratitude.

She slept soundly until 11 a.m. the next day. Then she
arose and dressed as if she had never been ill. She had been
healed of everything, including some long-standing internal
maladjustments.
We had learned a new lesson in the meaning of faith. Faith
is not only the evidence of that which we do not see or feelit
is not only the assurance of what we hope forit is definite
knowing that God will do whatever He has promised. Faith
is based on Gods written promises. The Bible is filled with
thousands of Gods promises. They are there for us to claim.
They are sure. God cant lie.
If there is any one attribute to Gods character that is more
outstanding than any other, it is Gods faithfulnessthe fact
that His word is good! Think how hopeless we would be if
Gods word was not good! And if a mans word is not to be
trusted, all his other good points go for naughthe is utterly
lacking in right character.
A Dumbfounded Doctor
Shortly before Mrs. Armstrong had been confined to bed in
this illness, she had taken our elder daughter, Beverly, to the
doctor with a felon on her finger. It had not been bandaged
for some days.
The morning after her miraculous healing, my wife arose
about 11, ate a breakfast, and then took Beverly to the
doctors office to have the bandage removed. Incidentally this
was the last time we have ever called a doctor for any illness
in our family.
What are you doing here?! exclaimed the doctor, looking
as if he had seen a ghost.
Well, answered my wife, do you believe in divine healing?
I dont believe Mary Baker Eddy has any more pull with
God Almighty than I have! asserted the physician.
But I dont mean that, Mrs. Armstrong explained, I mean
miraculous healing direct by God as a result of prayer.
WellyesI do! replied the astonished doctor, slowly,
incredulously. But I never did before.
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Studying a New Subject

This awe-inspiring experience brought a totally new subject
before me for study. And remember, I had plenty of time on
my hands for Bible study. Only one laundry client remained.
We were now reduced to real poverty. Although I had been
beaten down and had made a complete surrender to God,
giving myself to Him, yet without realizing it much of the self-
pride and vanity remained. Of course God knew this. He was
yet to bring me down much lower. I was yet to be humiliated
repeatedly and thoroughly chastened before God could use me.
In those days we were constantly behind with our house
rent. When we had a little money for food we bought beans
and such food as would provide the most bulk for the least
money. Often we went hungry. Yet, looking back over those
days, Mrs.Armstrong was remarking just the day before
this was written that we were finding happiness despite the
economic plightand we did not complain or grumble. But
we did suffer.
From the time of my conversion Mrs. Armstrong has
always studied with me. We didnt realize it then, but God
was calling us together. We were always a team, working
together in unity.
And now came a new subject to study, and new enlight-
enment. We entered into it with vigor and joy. We searched
out everything we could find in the Bible on the subject of
physical healing. We discovered that God revealed Himself
to ancient Israel, even before they reached Mount Sinai,
under His name Yahweh-Rapha, which means the Eternal
our Healer, or our God-healer, or, as translated in the
Authorized Version, the Lord that healeth thee.
He revealed Himself as Healer through David: Who
forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases
(Psalm 103:3). And again: Fools because of their transgression,
and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. Their soul
abhorreth all manner of meat [food]; and they draw near unto
the gates of death. Then they cry unto the Eternal in their
trouble, and. He sent His word, and healed them (Psalm
107:17-20).
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Then I made a discovery I had not read in any of the tracts

and literature we had been sending for and gathering on this
subject. Healing is actually the forgiveness of transgressed
physical laws just as salvation comes through forgiveness of
transgressed spiritual law. It is the forgiveness of physical
sin. God forgives the physical sin because Jesus paid the
penalty we are suffering in our stead. He was beaten with
stripes before He was nailed to the cross.
Experience of the Crooked Spine

After we had made some little progress in gaining biblical
understanding of this subject of healing, Aimee Semple
McPherson came to Portland.
She held an evangelistic campaign in the Portland
Auditorium. My wife and I attended once, and then I went
alone another time. We were checking up on many religious
teachings and groups. Unable to gain entrance, because of
packed attendance, I was told by an usher that I might be
able to slip in at the rear stage door if I would hurry around.
Walking, or running, around the block to the rear, I came
upon a sorry spectacle.
A woman and child were trying to get a terribly crippled
elderly man out of a car near the stage entrance. I went over
to help them. The man had a badly twisted spinewhether
from arthritis or deformity from birth or other disease I do
not now remember. He was utterly helpless and a pitiful
sight to look upon.
We managed to get him to the stage door. Actually, I
should never have been admitted had I not been helping to
carry this cripple in. He had come to be healed by the famous
lady evangelist.
We were unable to gain contact with Mrs. McPherson before
the service. And we were equally unable, after the service. I
helped get the disappointed cripple back into their car.
If you really want to be healed, I said before they drove
off, I would be glad to come to your home and pray for you.
Mrs.McPherson has no power within herself to heal anybody.
I have none. Only God can heal. But I do know what He
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has promised to do, and I believe God will hear me just as

willingly as He will Mrs. McPhersonif only you will believe
in what God has promised, and put your faith in Him and not
in the person who prays for you.
They gave me their address, just south of Foster Road. The
next day I borrowed my brother Russells car and drove out.
I had learned, in this study, that there are two conditions
which God imposes: 1) We must keep His commandments,
and do those things that are pleasing in His sight (1John
3:22); and 2) we must really believe (Matthew 9:29).
Of course I realized that many people might not have
come into the understanding about keeping all of Gods
commandmentsHe does look on the heart. It is the spirit and
willingness to obey. And therefore some who really believe
are healed, even though they are not strictly commandment
keepers. But once the knowledge of the truth comes, they
must obey. In this case I felt sure that God wanted me to
open the minds of these people about His commandments,
and that sin is the transgression of Gods law.
Consequently, I first read the two scriptures quoted above,
and then explained what I had been six months learning
about Gods lawand particularly about Gods Sabbath. I
wanted to know whether this cripple and his wife had a spirit
of willingness to obey God.
They did not.
I found they were Pentecostal. They attended church for
the good time they had there. They talked a good deal about
the good time they enjoyed at church. They scoffed and
sneered about having to obey God. I told them that, since they
were unwilling to obey God and comply with Gods written
conditions for healing, I could not pray for him.
Was This an Angel?

This case had weighed heavily on my mind. I had been touched
with deep compassion for this poor fellow. Yet his mind was not
impaired, and I knew that God does not compromise with sin.
Some weeks later I had borrowed my brothers car again,
and happened to be driving out Foster Road. Actually at
272
the time my mind was filled with another mission, and this
deformed cripple was not on my mind at all. I was deep in
thought about another matter.
Coming to the intersection of the street on which the cripple
lived, however, I was reminded of him. Instantly the thought
came as to whether I ought to pay them one more callbut at
the same instant reason ruled it out. They had made light of,
and actually ridiculed, the idea of surrendering to obey God.
Immediately I put them out of mind, and again was deep in
thought about the present mission I was on.
Then a strange thing happened.
At the next intersection, the steering wheel of the car
automatically turned to the right. I felt the wheel turning. I
resisted it. It kept turning right. Instantly I applied all my
strength to counteract it, and keep steering straight ahead.
My strength was of no avail. Some unseen force was turning
that steering wheel against all my strength. The car had
turned to the right onto the street one block east of the home
of the cripple.
I was frightened. Never before had I experienced anything
like this. I stopped the car by the curb. I didnt know what to
make of it.
It was too late to back into traffic-heavy Foster Road.
Well, I thought, Ill drive to the end of this block and turn
left, and then back onto Foster Road.
But, a long block south on this street, it turned right only.
There was no street turning east. In getting back onto Foster
Road I was now compelled to drive past the home of the cripple.
Could it possibly be that an angel forced the steering
wheel to turn me in here? I wondered, somewhat shaken by
the experience. I decided I had better stop in at the cripples
home a moment, to be sure.
I found him stricken with blood poisoning. The red line
was nearing his heart.
I told them what had happened.
I know, now, I said, that God sent an angel to turn me in
here. I believe that God wants me to pray for youthat He
will heal you of this blood poisoning to show you His power,
273
and then give you one more chance to repent and be willing
to obey Him. And if you will do that, then He will straighten
out your twisted spine and heal you completely.
So now, if you want me to do so, I will pray for you and
ask God to heal you of this blood poisoning. But I will not ask
God to heal your spine unless and until you repent and show
willingness to obey whatever you yourself see God commands.
They were now desperate. He probably had about 12 hours
to live. They were not joking and jesting lightly about the
good times at Pentecostal meetin. They wanted me to pray.
I was not an ordained minister, so I did not anoint with
oil. I had never yet in my life prayed aloud before others. I
explained this to them, and said I would simply lay hands
on the man and pray silently, as I did not want any self-
consciousness of praying aloud for the first time to interfere
with real earnestness and faith. I did have absolute faith he
would be healed of the blood poisoning.
He was.
I returned the next day. The blood poisoning had left him
immediately when I prayed. But, to my very great sorrow and
disappointment, they were once again filled with levity, and
sarcasm about Gods law. Again they were jestingly talking
about having a good time at church.
There was no more I could do. It was one of the great
disappointments of my life. I never saw or heard from any of
them again.
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19
TRYING TO
CONVERT
RELATIVES
I N ALL MY EXPERIENCE SINCE CONVERSION
one oft-repeated incident has brought sorrow and regret.

Many times a certain individual has been used to bring us
light, or truth, or help, or certain advancement or stimulus to
the Work of God, only to lose out spiritually and be discarded
once his usefulness was over.
Resurrection Not on Sunday

It was about this time, summer 1927, my wife and I had
learned an exciting, shocking truth. The resurrection of
Christ did not occur on Sunday morning!
The crucifixion was not on so-called Good Friday. These
I had found to be mere traditions, totally unsupported by any
evidence, and completely refuted by the sole historic record
the Bible.
I had learnedand found completely provedthat Jesus
was in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea three days and three
nights. Jesus Himself said so (Matthew 12:40). It was the only
SIGN He gave as a miraculous proof of Messiahship.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
The usual argument employed to discredit Jesuss state-

ment, that this was an idiomatic expression in the original
Greek meaning only three parts of days, or either a day or
night, did not stand up. We had the same three days and
three nights duration expressed in Jonah, inspired in Hebrew,
which knows no such idiomatic twistor idiotic twist. Also
many other passages verified the full 72-hour duration.
The crucifixion was on Wednesday. The resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead was late Sabbath afternoon, prior to
sunset. This is proved conclusively, not only by all the scriptures
on the subject, which are many, but also by astronomy, and by
the Hebrew calendar. In the year in which Jesus was cruci-
fieda.d.31the Passover was on a Wednesday, not a Friday.
The reader, if not already familiar with this truth, is
invited to write for the booklet titled The Resurrection Was
Not on Sunday, and also, to learn the true origin and full
truth about Easter, ask for the booklet titled The Plain Truth
About Easter. Both are free, of course.
From the beginning of the new Spirit-led life, I wrote
in article form the thrilling new truths being unfolded in
this continuous almost night-and-day study. This discovery
of the true dates of the crucifixion and resurrection was
written in an article captioned Foundation for Sunday
Sacredness Crumbles.
I had found that opponents of Gods Sabbath can invent
some 57 varieties of arguments to explain why they dont keep
the Sabbath. But they have only one argument for observing
Sundaythe supposition of a Sunday-morning resurrection.
Of course no scripture anywhere tells us to observe the day
of the resurrection. That, too, is a man-made argument.
Actually, there is absolutely NO Bible authority for Sunday
observance. The only authority for it is that of the Roman
Catholic Churcha fact I believe any Catholic priest will
confirm. Protestants, whether knowingly or not, acknowledge
the authority of the Roman Catholic Church in observing
Sunday.
With a Sunday resurrection illusion shattered, the last
supposed foundation for Sunday observance had crumbled.
276
19 | Trying to Convert Relatives
Disheartening Disappointment
This article, Foundation for Sunday Sacredness Crumbles,
I believe, was never published. I did not write the articles, in
those days, with the intention or expectation of having them
published. I had been a trained advertising-copy and maga-
zine-article writer. It simply came naturally to put into article
form these intriguing, fascinating truths for my personal
enjoyment and record.
But, exciting as these new truths were to me, I realized
fully I was new in the trutha novice spirituallya babe in
Christ. I deemed it wise to have this newly discovered truth
about the day of the resurrection verified by others more
experienced in biblical understanding than I.
It was but natural to look upon the man whose prayer God
had so miraculously answered in healing my wife as a man
of God. So, even though I felt sure this truth was proved, I
wanted to be doubly sure. Also I sincerely wanted to share this
wonderful truth with the man whom God had used in sparing
my wifes life. So I walked down to the old Billy Sunday taber-
nacle, out past 82nd Street, where this man was caretaker,
one evening, very shortly after my wifes healing.
This man of God promised he would study my article and
give me his opinion. Then a few nights later I returned to his
living quarters in a corner of the giant tabernacle.
For several minutes other subjects occupied the conversation.
But did you study into my article about the day of the
resurrection? I asked, since he avoided mentioning it.
Well, yes, Brother, he replied, I took it to our pastor and
we went over it together.
Well, did you find any error in what I wrote? I persisted.
Well, no, Brother, he admitted, we couldnt find anything
wrong with it. It does seem to be according to the Scriptures,
but Brother, we feel that studying into that kind of subject is
likely to be dangerous. It might get you all mixed up. We feel
it would be better for you to just forget all about thatjust
get your mind clear off of that. There are more important
things for you to think about and study into. Its best to just
keep your mind on Christ.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
But, I rejoined, suddenly disillusioned, if the resurrection

was on the Sabbath, and not on Sunday, the only reason
anyone has for Sunday observance is gone. Dont you think
we might be breaking the commands of God and sinning if we
ignore such a truth?
Well, now, Brother, he tried to reassure me, thats just the
trouble. You see how it could get you all upset. All the churches
observe Sunday. We cant start to fight all the churches. Now
we are saved by grace, not of works. We think there are more
important things in salvation than which day Christ rose on, or
which day we keep. This could just get you all mixed up. It could
be dangerous. Better just get your mind off of such things.
I walked back to our home on Klickitat Street in Portland,
grieved and sorrowfully disillusioned. I had had a lot of
confidence in this man. Now here he was, admitting I had
brought him a new truth, proved by the Bible, yet rejecting
this lightand, more, advising a newly converted man who
had confidence in him to reject the Word of God!
Arriving home, I happened to turn to Hosea 4:6, where God
says that because we have rejected His knowledge, He will
reject us.
TRUTH or Consequences
A week or two later I walked back out past 82nd Street to the
huge old Billy Sunday tabernacle. This thing had weighed
heavily on my mind. This tall, uneducated, plain and simple
man had been an instrument in Gods hands not only in
saving my wifes life, but also in opening our eyes to the truth
of Gods healing power. I felt deeply grateful. I hoped that
even yet I might help rescue this man from the consequences
of rejecting Gods revealed knowledge.
I found him in the big auditorium. He appeared dejected,
downcast, worried.
Brother, he said, on looking up and seeing me, Brother,
something terrible has come over me. God has left me. He
doesnt answer my prayers any more. I dont understand what
has happened.
Poor man! I understood what had happened.
278
He had been a trusting and deeply sincere, if simple, man.

God had used this man. God used him to bring my wife and
me the knowledge that God actually performs miracles for
those who trust HimHe healsif we obey and believe. And
how many other people God had helped through this mans
prayers I did not know.
Evidently, until God used me to test him by bringing to
him a new truth, he had not deliberately rejected truth nor
disobeyed Gods commands knowingly. God looks on the heart,
and until this man followed his preacher in deliberately
rejecting light and truth from God which he acknowledged to
be truth and which led to willful disobedience, his heart was
honest and sincere in his simple way.
But he had rejected Gods knowledge. And now God had
rejected him!
His prayers were no longer answered.
He was now guilty of disobedience of Gods law. And God
reveals through John that whatsoever we ask, we receive
of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those
things that are pleasing in his sight (1John 3:22). This man
no longer complied with the divine conditions. Yet if ever I met
a man who had the gift of healing spoken of in 1Corinthians
12:9, this man had had it.
God had used him to bring to us a truth. We accepted it,
and began to walk in it. Then God used me to take to him a
truth. He acknowledged that it was the truth. He had seen it
proved. Yet he rejected it and walked in disobedience instead
of in the light! God used this man no more.
Of course he had much to learn, had he continued as an
instrument in Gods hands. True Christians must continually
overcome and grow in grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
The servant of God cannot stand still. Either he advances
and grows spiritually against opposition and obstacles, or he
falls by the wayside to be rejected. It is not an easy road.
This incident just described is but one of many of its
kind. Later I was to encounter many more whom God used
to help me and His Work, only to see them endure but a
while, and fall aside. Several of these have been among our
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
closest and most loved personal friends. These experiences

have provided our greatest suffering in Gods service. They
were pictured by Jesuss parable of the sower and the seed. It
seems the majority who start out on this straight and narrow
road of opposition, persecution, trial and test, self-restraint,
continuous attitude of repentance, overcoming and growing
fail to endure until the end.
It has grieved Mrs. Armstrong and me deeply to see so
many for whom we were gratefulwho had helped us and
Gods Workwhom we learned to love so much, turn aside
finally and drop out of the race for eternal life.
Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed, lest he fall!
How about YOU?
Dont YOU Make THIS Mistake!

That year 1927 was a very eventful year in my life.
As soon as I swallowed my bitterest pill of rebellion, surren-
dered to obey and trust fully in the mighty God through faith
in the living Jesus Christ, this new Christian way became
the most happy, joyful experience of my life. Studying the
Bible became a passion and a joy. I plunged into it with
concentrated zeal.
The all-day sessions at the Portland Public Library did
not stop with my capitulation to the truth following the six
months angered study to end my wifes fanaticism.
No longer was it an intensive study driven by anger
and determination to have my own way. Now it was an
enthusiastic study of eager anticipation, literally thrilling to
every new discovery of spiritual light and basic knowledge.
Now a passion swept over me to get our families converted.
With the best intentions in the world, I set out on a vigorous
campaign. To me, it was the loving and intense desire to share
the wonders and glories of Bible knowledge with those we felt
we loved most. But to most of them, it was an unwanted effort
to cram my crazy religion down their throats.
I did succeed, apparently, in talking one sister-in-law into
a certain start. I had to learn later it was a false start. She
was baptized, either when I was, or very shortly afterward.
280
But, as too often happens when a high-pressure salesman

talks one into something he doesnt really want, she turned
against it all shortly afterward.
I had to learn, however, that, even though I had believed
I was a pretty good salesman in my earlier business
experience, I was unable utterly to cram my religion down
my relatives throats. My efforts only aroused hostility.
They said I was crazy.
This is a universal mistake committed by the newly
converted. Especially is this true where a husband or wife
yields to Gods truth without the other.
It actually threatened to break up our marriageeven
though Mrs. Armstrong did not attempt to inject her new
religious belief into me. In our case the marriage was saved
because I accepted the challenge to study into it myself,
confident I could prove she was wrong.
But most mates will not study into it. Most unconverted
mates, especially if the converted one tries to talk the other
into his or her religion, will break up the home instead.
In all the years since my conversion, I have known of many
marriages that have ended in divorce because the newly
converted mate tried to talk the unconverted one into it. I have
never heard of a case where the unconverted mate was talked
into accepting it.
Of all things evil and harmful a newly converted Christian
can do, the very worst is to try to talk your husband or wife
into your religion. Whatever else you do, let me plead with
every such reader, NEVER commit this tragic sin. If you love
your husband or wife, dont do it!! If you love your Savior who
died for you, and now lives for you, DONT DO IT!!!
Learning the Lesson

Remember these scriptures: No man can come to me, said
Jesus, except the Father which hath sent me draw him
(John6:44, 65). Again, Jesus said, Think not that I am come
to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
For I am come to set a man at variance against his father,
and the daughter against her mother . And a mans foes
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or

mother [or wife or husband] more than me is not worthy of
me . And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after
me, is not worthy of me (Matthew 10:34-38).
God made every human a free moral agent. Thank God!
no one has power to force on you any unwanted religion.
Every individual makes his own decision. A religious differ-
ence between husband and wife is a serious handicap. The Bible
forbids a converted person from marrying an unconverted.
But if such difference already exists, do not make matters
worse by talking religion to your mate. Do all your talking to
God in prayer. Let your mate see your happy, pleasant, cheerful,
joyful, loving way of lifenot hear your arguments or nagging!
Allow your mate complete religious latitude and freedom
whether to be converted, religious, irreligious or atheistic!
I am glad I learned that lesson early. I have had to maintain
certain business connections with many people since being
plunged into Gods Work. I must maintain contacts with radio
men, publishers, professional men. I get along splendidly with
them. A big reason is that I never talk religion to them.
I never try to talk anyone into accepting Bible truth or
being converted. I go to the world over the air, and in print,
and everyone is free to listen or reador to dial out or not
read. No one gets our literature unless he personally requests
it. We try never to force Gods precious truth on anyone. Thats
Gods way!!
How NOT to Witness for Christ

Do you know how the Apostle Paul won individuals to Christ?
Not the way people attempt to do it today. He said, I am made
all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
When he talked to an unconverted Jew, do you suppose he
spoke as a Christian thinking he is witnessing for Christ
would do today? Do you suppose Paul said to the unconverted
Jew, Have you received Christ as your personal Savior?
No, that is not the way Paul spoke to unconverted Jews. Paul
said, [U]nto the Jews I became as a Jew (1Corinthians 9:22,
20). Paul spoke to others from their point of view! He talked
282
to a Jew just like another Jewfrom the Jewish viewpoint

showing sympathy and understanding of the Jews way of
looking at Christianity. Paul did not arouse hostilityhe put
it down, so that they were sympathetic toward him, not hostile.
He became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews. Even so he
gained only a small minority, yet it was a large number.
Perhaps you have had your eyes opened to the fact that sin
is transgression of Gods law. Most professing Christians have
been taught, and consequently sincerely believe, that the
law is done away. Paul was inspired to write that the carnal
mind is hostile to God and to Gods law; it is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be (Romans 8:7). If you say to
your unconverted mate who is hostile to Gods law, Youre
just a rebellious sinner, and your church is just one of these
false worldly churches, you have not only aroused hostility,
you have yourself been hostile, and you probably have broken
up your marriage.
How did Paul talk to such people? Listen: To them that
are without law, as without law that I might gain them
that are without law.
First Principle in Influencing Others

One of the first principles of successful advertising I learned
early in my career is that to get results you must first learn the
attitude of your reading audience toward whatever product
or service you are advertising. You must not antagonize
those whom you expect to persuade. You must approach
them from their point of viewnot from yours, especially
if your viewpoint is contrary to theirs. To win them to your
point of view, you must approach them from their viewpoint.
Otherwise you only arouse hostility.
I know that these words are addressed to a very large
number who have made this terrible mistake. That is why I
have devoted so much space to this point.
If you believe Gods truth, and your husband or wife does
not, never talk religion to him or her. If your mate normally
thinks and speaks only of material and worldly things, then
you must speak of material things to your spouse.
283
If the World Tomorrow broadcast has, probably because of
your own aggressiveness in trying to get your mate to listen,
become a sore spot, go off to some private room to hear the
program. Keep the volume turned down. Make every effort
NOT to antagonize your husband or wife.
And again, when you talk about it, talk to God in prayer.
Let your mate see your good conduct, in a manner that he or
she will naturally approve. Avoid every hostility. Be pleasant.
Keep cheerful. Be happy. Radiate joy! Give love and warm
affection! Do everything to cause your husband or wife to like
you! THAT IS THE CHRISTIAN WAY!
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20
THE FIRST SERMON
T HIS CHAPTER OF THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY
is being written in Rome. It dawns in my mind that there is

intriguing significance in the fact that I should be here at the
very time when this chapter must be written.
The Apostle Paul wrote some of the books of the Bible here
in Rome. It was then the seat of the ancient pagan Roman
Empire. It was world headquarters of the pagan religion.
Today it is world headquarters for the largest and most
powerful professing Christian church.
We come now to the time, in recounting my life experiences,
where I had been sadly disillusioned about organized traditional
Christianity. As earlier chapters have explained, my wife, in
early fall of 1926, had begun to observe the seventh-day Sabbath.
To me that was the most disgraceful fanaticism she could have
embraced. But six months intensive and determined night-
and-day study of the Bible had failed to find the authority for
Sunday observance I had felt confident it contained.
All these churches cant be wrong, I had contended. I
felt certain that all their teachings, whether Catholic or
Protestant, had come directly from the Bible. I did not then
realize that the Roman Catholic Church makes no such claim,
but claims the church itself is the sole official and infallible
authority. The various denominations, I supposedjust as
millions still supposewere just so many different parts of
the one true Christian church.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
DisillusionedPerplexed
I have already told you repeatedly how rudely I was disillusioned.
I had seen, with my own eyes, that the plain teachings of
Christof Paulof the Biblewere not the teachings of the
traditional Christianity of our time. Nothing had ever been
more shocking to discover. Incredible as it seemed, the beliefs
and practices of the churches today, I found, were far astray
from the teachings and customs of the true Church as Christ
organized it. In fact, in most essentials, the very antithesis!
This emphatically was not what I wanted to believe.
It had left my head swimming. I was stunned, perplexed!
I began to ask, Where, then, is the real true Church which
Christ founded?
The True GOSPEL

My shocking, disappointing, eye-opening discovery, upon
looking into the Bible for myself, had revealed in stark plain-
ness that the teachings of traditional Christianity were, in
most basic points, the very opposite of the teachings of Christ,
of Paul, and of the original true Church!
Could the original and only true Church have disintegrated
and disappeared? Could it have ceased to exist? No, for I read
where Jesus said the gates of the grave would never prevail
against it. Also He had said to His disciples who formed His
Church, Lo, I am with you alway.
Then I saw that the very purpose of the Church was to
preach Christs GOSPEL! It is His BodyHis instrument by
which He carries on Gods Work!
I looked carefully at that gospel as Christ Himself preached
it and taught it to His first ministers. It is recorded in the four
books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. At almost every
point of teaching that Jesus enunciated, the teachings of
traditional Christian bodies today are just the opposite.
They were not preaching the same gospel at all, but a
totally opposite message! This was shockingincredible
unbelievable! Yet I was compelled to see it was true!
Jesus began the work of preaching the very gospel which
God the Father had sent to mankind through Him. He
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20 | The First Sermon
commissioned His disciplesHis Churchto carry this same

gospel to all the world. And He had said He would never drop
the Work He had begun! But where was it going on today?
Seeking an Obedient Church

I knew now that when I found the one and only true
Church, I would find a Church obedient to Godkeeping
His commandmentshaving the testimony of Jesus Christ,
which is the truth of the Scriptures.
I had been much impressed by a description of the true Church,
as it is to be found in our timejust before the Second Coming
of Christ. It is found in Revelation 12. It is the time when Satan
is filled with wrath against Gods Church, because he knoweth
that he hath but a short time (Revelation12:12). Satan is
making war with the remnant of her seed. The remnant
means the very last generation in this age. The Church is defi-
nitely described. It is those which keep the commandments of
God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (verse 17).
My intensive study had revealed one thing plainly: the
commandments of God mean Sabbath-keeping to most
traditional denominations. They say, The commandments
are done away! They reject the commandments of God.
That automatically ruled out all churches observing
Sunday. So far as I could learn, it reduced the search to three
small groupsthe Seventh-Day Adventists, the Seventh-Day
Baptists and a little, almost unheard-of church called the
Church of God, which maintained a small publishing-house
headquarters at Stanberry, Missouri.
So I examined Seventh-Day Adventist teachingsjust as
I did those of many other denominations. I obtained their
magazines, their booklets and pamphlets, their large book of
Bible readings, or Bible home instructor.
The true Church is the one which lives by every word of
Godthe words of the Bible!
Never an Adventist
It seems necessary to add here that I have never been a
member of the Seventh-Day Adventist denomination. False
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
statements have appeared in various church or religious maga-

zines, pamphlets or tracts that I am a former Seventh-Day
Adventist. I did obtain much of their literature to compare
with the Bible. I did examine and study it with an open mind,
and without prejudice. I was happy to find that, like most
denominations, they do have certain points of truth. None is
100 percent in error.
But my familiarity with Adventist doctrines has come entirely
through their published literature. I have never attended a
regular Sabbath church service of that denomination!
Next, I looked into the teaching of the Seventh-Day Baptists.
I found it to be virtually identical, except for observing a
different day of the week, with other Protestant denomina-
tionsespecially the Baptists.
But of these three churches to which the search had been
narrowed, only one had the right name for the true Church.
This was the small, little-heard-of Church of God whose
headquarters was at Stanberry, Missouri.
The True NAME

Twelve times in the New Testament I found the name of the
Church that Christ established plainly stated as the Church
of God.
I looked into this word church. It is the English word
translated from the Greek word ekklesia. It merely means
a congregation, an assembly, or group or crowd of people.
I found that the word, by itself, had no divine or spiritual
connotation whatever. For example, the name Lutheran
Church or, as it might be otherwise stated, Church of
Luther, means simply, Luthers congregation, or assembly
of people. A name like Wesleyan Church means, simply,
Wesleys group or congregation, without any religious or
spiritual or holy implication whatever.
In Acts 19:23-41 is an account of an angry and hostile
uprising against the Apostle Paul instigated by Gentile
pagans who profited in business from the sale of silver shrines
to the goddess Diana. Three times in this passage the original
inspired Greek language called this angry crowd of citizens
288
an ekklesia. It is here translated into the English word

assembly. In verse 39 it actually refers to a legal assembly
(Moffatt translation) in a courtroom. It certainly was not a
Christian church assembled for worshipnor was it holy.
The only thing that adds sacredness to the word church
is the true name, Church of God. That is not any mans
church, but Gods congregationthose owned and governed
by God whom they worship and follow.
In Ephesians 3:15, speaking of the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ (verse 14), we read: Of whom the whole family
in heaven and earth is named.
Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church, but it is named
after God the Father. Although Jesus is Head of the Church,
the head of Christ is God (1Corinthians 11:3).
In His last prayer for His Church, before being seized to be
crucified, Jesus prayed, I have manifested THY NAME unto
the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were,
and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. Holy
Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast
given me, that they may be one, as we are. While I was with
them in the world, I kept them in THY NAME (John 17:6-12).
Those in the true Church are begotten children of God.
They become the affianced Bride of Christ. Christ is the Son
of God. It is a Family. The Family is, properly, named after
its Father. The 12 passages, aside from these scriptures here
quoted, which plainly call the true Church the Church of
God, or, collectively as local congregations, the Churches of
God, establish the true name.
Could GODS Church Be Fruitless?

The only church I had so far found which kept the
commandments of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ,
and at the same time bore the name of the original true
Church, was this almost unknown little Church of God with
its small publishing house in Stanberry, Missouri.
But this left me quite confused. For this was a little church,
especially compared to the Roman Catholic, the Methodist,
the Baptist, the Presbyterian, the Lutheran or other large
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
churches numbering millions of members. Then I saw where

Jesus called His Church the little flock.
But still I was not completely satisfied. I was deeply
concerned. I prayed a great deal over it. For here was a
church, which, compared to the large-scale activities of the
Catholic and big Protestant bodies, was ineffective. I could
see that it was imperfect. It wielded no great power. Jesus
had said: All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth
(Matthew 28:18). I read how Jesus Christ was to be IN His
Church! He guides it! He directs it! He empowers it! He said
His Church was to receive power (Acts 1:8).
No person is even a member of the true Church unless he
has received, and is filled and led by, the Holy Spiritand the
Holy Spirit is the Spirit of power! This little church seemed to
be powerlesscomparatively impotent! I failed to see where
it was bearing much, if any, fruit! Could a fruitless church be
the one and only true Church of God on Earth?
I was deeply perplexed. Here was a little church, with scat-
tered members probably numbering less than 2,000mostly
in rural areas. Apparently, as nearly as I could learn, it had
only a very limited number of local churches, none as large
as 100 members. As I began to come in contact with some
of its leaders, they seemed to be men of little educationno
college degreesits ministry could hardly be described as
an educated ministry. Their preaching had a certain fire,
yet seemed totally to lack the power that attracts sizable
audiences, that moves people, stirs hearts and changes lives.
I could see no visible results.
Could this be Gods one and only true Church on Earth?
The very question seemed preposterous!
But, Where Else?

And yet
Yes, and yet, small, powerless, resultless, impotent though
it appeared to be, here was a church with the right name,
keeping the commandments of God and the testimony of
Jesus Christ, and closer, in its doctrines and teachings, to
what God had been opening my eyes to see plainly in His
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Word than any other church of which I knew! Small and

impotent though it appeared, it had more Bible TRUTH than
any other church I could find!
At this time, God was opening my understanding to some
biblical truths which this church did not accept; and also to
some errors, even though minor, which it did embrace. Plainly,
it was not perfect. It merely appeared to be more nearly so,
and less imperfect, in its beliefs and practice, than any other.
Could such a churchimperfect, fruitless, feeble, lacking
in any sizable accomplishmentbe the true Church of God?
Could this be Christs instrument through whom He worked,
in carrying on Gods Work on Earth? Jesus said, By their
fruits ye shall know them. Its fruits were not evilit simply
did not seem to produce fruit!
I was bewildered. I was unable to come to the answer
thenor until many years later. The real answer to this
perplexing question will come out in this Autobiography
later, at the account of the time when I myself found the true
answer. I will state here, however, that I did learn later that
it was merely the remnant of a church that had been more
alive many years before.
Meanwhile, what was I to do? I was not at all convinced this
was the one and only true Church. Yet, if it was not, which
one was? This one came closer to the Bible qualifications than
any I knew.
Therefore, I began to fellowship with their scattered and
few members in Oregon, while at the same time refraining
from acknowledging membership.
We were living in Portland, Oregon, at the time. I knew of no
members of this church in Portland, but there was a sprinkling
of them through the Willamette Valley between Salem and
Eugene, in Oregonmostly farmers or truck gardeners. They
welcomed the fellowship of myself and Mrs. Armstrong.
We found them to be simple, plain and humble people,
hardworking and industrious, and loving the Bible truthas
much as they hadwilling to suffer persecution for it.
And so it was, in this detached fellowship, that Mrs.Armstrong
and I continued the first 3 years of my ceaseless night-and-day
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study of the Bibleof history, especially as connected with

biblical history and prophecyand of pertinent allied subjects.
These, too, were years of much and earnest prayer. Much of the
Bible study done at home was done on my knees, combining study
with prayer. Much time was spent during these years, as it had
been that first six months, at the public library. I delved into
intensive research in the commentaries, Bible encyclopedias,
Bible dictionaries, comparing various translations of the Bible,
examining Greek and Hebrew texts of doubtful or questionable
passages, checking with lexicons and Robertsonss A Grammar
of the Greek New Testament. I made an intensive study of
ancient history in connection with biblical history and prophecy.
But, as mentioned before, all this study and research had
to be approached a single doctrine at a time. I was to be some
years in getting to the very trunk of the tree of the very purpose
for which mankind was placed on Earth, and getting clearly
straightened out with a right understanding of Gods plan.
Nevertheless, as Ive mentioned, having been a trained maga-
zine and advertising copywriter, the results of these studies
were written up, purely for my own benefit, in article form. My
wife began showing these articles to some women members of
this Church of God who lived in Salem. Soon they began to
urge me to preach before them. But becoming a preacher was
the very last thing I had ever wanted to do. I felt an instinctive
aversion to the idea.
Meanwhile, on their urging, a few of these articles had
been mailed in to the Bible Advocate in Stanberry, Missouri.
These articles began appearing on the front page.
The Dual Test

Early in this 3-year period, between 1927 and 1930, I decided
to try a dual test to help settle the question of whether this
was, in actual fact, the true Church of God.
The Church is merely the sum total of its members. By
the one Spirit of God we are each baptized, or put into, the
true Church (1Corinthians 12:13). Jesus promised that when
we receive the Holy Spirit, His Spirit shall guide us into all
truthnot merely part of it (John 16:13).
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But no person can receive all truth instantaneously. The

human mind receives knowledge gradually. The child of God
must grow in the knowledge of our Lord (2Peter 3:18). Also he
must have the spirit of repentance, always ready and willing
to acknowledge error and to turn from it. The Scriptures are
profitable for reproof and correction, as well as instruction
in knowledge new to us. And God corrects every son He loves
(Hebrews 12:6).
Now it was a simple truism that if each individual member of
the Church must be growing in the knowledge of God, constantly
overcoming, being corrected and eliminating error, then all
the members together, which form the Church, must also be
constantly willing to confess error and eliminate it, and to
accept that which is new light from Gods Word to the Church.
I knew of no church or sect or denomination that had ever
publicly confessed error or embraced new truth. Yet, plainly,
this would be a test of the true Church.
So, as the first step in this test, I wrote up an exposition
of some 16 typewritten pages proving clearly, plainly,
and beyond contradiction that a certain minor point of
doctrine proclaimed by this church, based on an erroneous
interpretation of a certain verse of Scripture, was in error.
This was mailed to the Stanberry, Missouri, headquarters to
see whether their leaders would confess error and change.
The answer came back from their head man, editor of their
paper and president of their General Conference. He was
forced to admit, in plain words, that their teaching on this point
was false and in error. But, he explained, he feared that if any
attempt was made to correct this false doctrine and publicly
confess the truth, many of their members, especially those of
older standing and heavy tithe payers, would be unable to
accept it. He feared they would lose confidence in the church if
they found it had been in error on any point. He said he feared
many would withdraw their financial support, and it might
divide the church. And therefore he felt the church could do
nothing but continue to teach and preach this doctrine which
he admitted in writing to be false.
Naturally, this shook my confidence considerably. This
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church leader, if not the church itself, was looking to people

as the source of belief, instead of to God! Yet here was the
only church holding to the one greatest basic truth of the
commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, kept in the
name of God, and in spite of this and a few other erroneous
teachings, nevertheless being closer to the whole truth than
any church I had found.
If this was not the true Church of God, then where was it?
The Second Test

A little later I tried the second test. After exhaustive study
and research, I had found it proved that the so-called lost 10
tribes of Israel had migrated to Western Europe, the British
Isles, and later the United Statesthat the British were
the descendants of Ephraim, younger son of Joseph, and the
United States modern-day Manasseh, elder son of Joseph
and that we possessed the national wealth and resources of
the birthright which God had promised to Abraham through
Isaac, Jacob and Joseph.
This truth was written in a lengthy manuscript of close to
300 typed pages, and mailed to this editor and leader of this
church. I explained that although this new truth seemed to
be proved beyond doubt, yet I was still comparatively new in
Christ and scriptural knowledge, and wished the judgment of
one more mature and experienced in things biblical.
I think it was some six months before the reply came. It
was written on a train late at night. This church leader stated
in his letter (which I still have) that I was most certainly
rightthat this was a wonderful new truth revealed by God,
and that God surely had a special reason for revealing this
new truth to me. However, he stated he did not know what
use, if any, he could make of it at that time, but was sure I
would hear more of it later.
Did this church accept and proclaim this vital new truth
the key that unlocks the doors to all prophecy? Here was the key
to understanding one third of the whole Bible. But this church
refused then to accept it or preach it or publish it though their
leader frankly confessed it was truth and revelation from God!
294
Yet here was the church which appeared to have more truth,
and less error, than any other. It did profess the command-
ments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. It did
have the true name of the Church Christ built. Its members
did love what truth they had and sacrificed for it! In spite of
the fact this church did not appear to be dynamically alive
spirituallyin spite of its little or no accomplishmentstill
it came closer to the biblical characteristics of Christs true
Church than any I knew!
Truly, this was bewildering!
My earnest and prayerful study continued. After some
time, I made a discovery in the 31st chapter of Exodus. At
least I had found nothing in the published literature of this
Church of God or of the Seventh-Day Adventists about it. It
became very plain that in Exodus 31:12-18 was the account of
a completely different and distinctive covenant God made with
His people on Earth. This covenant established Gods Sabbath
as binding forever! It was entirely separate and apart from
the Old Covenant made with Israel at Mount Sinai.
My First Sermon
This was new light which I felt impelled to present before
these church brethren we had come to know and love down in
the Willamette Valley. Repeatedly they had urged me to preach
for them. But preaching was the last thing I felt I wanted to do.
I had continually refused.
Now, however, I was overcome with an urge to get this new
knowledge before them. I was unable to refuse any longer
to speak. It was arranged for me to speak, I believe, on the
following Sabbath.
The meeting was held in a country store building, but we
drove first, for lunch, to the farm home of one of the members
south of Salem, near Jefferson. We were taken down by the
Runcorns of Salem, who we now had begun to look upon as
sort of second parents. It was Mrs. Runcorn who had opened
my wifes eyes to the truth of the Sabbath. I remember they
drove a large Studebaker President.
In the car, en route from Salem to the place of meeting,
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consternation suddenly seized me. We were to arrive by noon,

and all were to have lunch outdoors under a large tree. The
preaching service was to be held in the afternoon. Suddenly
the terrifying realization dawned in my mind that I might
be called upon to give thanks over the food at the luncheon.
I realized it would be customary to call on a visiting guest. I
had never prayed aloud before others. The thought of doing
so frightened me!
But by this time I had gone far enough in my Christian
experience and study of the Bible to know what to do. I began
praying silently, as we rode along, that, if called upon, God
would put the words into my mouth and give me the help that
I needed. The fear loosened its grip. I had been learning the
lesson of faith. I knew that Christ would be with me and not
forsake me, and all embarrassment over the anticipation left.
Sure enough, I was called on to ask the blessing over the
food. I did have the help I needed. I dont believe that any
there, except Mrs. Armstrong, knew that this was my first
audible prayer in the presence of othersuntil I told some of
them afterward.
The meeting was held in a vacant country store building
nearby. It was known as the old Dever Store. This meeting, I
believe, was in the summer of 1928.
If that talk I gave, explaining this Sabbath covenant, could
be called a sermon, it was my first. Mrs. Armstrong assured
me it was far from being a powerful sermon. Yet it was
enthusiastically received. I did have a message, and a sincere,
earnest urge to present it.
I remember that one towering member, 6 feet, 4 inches tall,
who had moved to this Oregon valley from Texas, and was
somewhat of a leader among the members, rose to his feet
after I concluded and said, Brethren, I just want to say that
I have heard nearly all of the leading ministers in the Church
of God, but I have heard this afternoon the best sermon I
ever heard in my life. This didnt quite coincide with my
wifes evaluation, who said that the delivery was extremely
amateurish and inexperiencedbut, I suppose, the fact that
the message was new to them, and that I was enthusiastic
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and in earnest about this new discovery of truth, caused it

to be so well received.
I was asked to speak before them again.
Opposition Begins
It has been related in previous chapters how my wife had
been miraculously and astonishingly healed in the summer
of 1927. Following this, I had plunged into a thorough study
of the subject of healing in the Bible.
Consequently when, about a month later, I spoke again at
a meeting of these people, at this same vacant Dever Store,
my message was about Gods power and promises to heal.
Apparently the ministers of this church had heard of my
previous speaking to these people, and of their request for this
second appearance before them. So this time one of the older
ministers of the church in Idaho had been sent to Oregon to
be on hand to counteract any influence I might have.
I had spoken first. When he followed, he devoted a good
portion of his sermon to an effort to refute everything I had
said. He warned the brethren that if they relied on God for
healing, Christ would say to them, Depart from me, ye workers
of iniquityI never knew you.
That was the beginning of years of continuous opposition
from ministers. This also brings me to a stage in this history
of events and experiences in my life which I have long dreaded
to write.
It is simply the fact that from this point onfrom the very
second sermonif those early talks could be called that
opposition from other ministers, both within this church and
without, was met at every turn continually.
I Shall Not Hide the FACTS!

So I say candidly that I shall relate these events. I shall try to
record truthfully what happened, without feeling of rancor
and I certainly harbor no resentment or bitterness against
these ministers, whatever their intentions. I believe that, as
these incidents and happenings are related in the coming
several chapters, they will truly open the eyes of many who
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never knew the full truth about my contacts with, and efforts
to work with and cooperate with, the ministers of that church.
For some little time, now, my articles had been appearing
on the front page of the Bible Advocate, published by this
Church of God in Stanberry, Missouri.
Up until this time, now 1928, there had been no minister
of this church in Oregon, except for occasional visits by the
minister from Idaho, and the one from Texas of whom I had
inquired about water baptism during his visit to Oregon in
1927. But there were at that time perhaps 50 or 60 members
of the church in Oregon, from Salem to Eugene.
And, with the beginning of my speaking before these
people in Oregonand with my articles being featured in
their church paperno time was lost in sending a minister
to Oregon to take charge. He was a young manI believe
about 28 or youngerwho, I believe, had come from Arkansas
or Missouri. He came to see me in Portland. His attitude
appeared cordial and friendly. But very soon after his arrival
publication of my articles in the Bible Advocate was stopped.
Soon I learned the reason. Probably the most influential
member in the state at the time was elderly G.A. Hobbs, of
Oregon City. He was past 80 years of age, but very alert,
aggressive and active. He had received a letter from the editor
in Stanberry, Missouri, explaining that my articles were being
discontinued at the request of the young minister newly arrived
in Oregon. The grounds were that I was not a member of the
church and it was dangerous to give me this much standing
and prestige before the brethren there. I might gain influence
and become their leader and lead them astray.
This had aroused the fiery indignation of Mr. Hobbs.
Immediately he sent a scorching letter back to Stanberry, a
copy of which he let me read. It resulted in reinstating my
articles for publication.
First Regular Preaching

As soon as I had heard of this Mr. Hobbs, and the little group
at Oregon City, I had visited him a few days after my first
sermon. I found a very small group of brethren who met
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together in a little church building at the top of the hill, on

the Molalla road, in Oregon City.
There were only around eight to 12 of them, but they
habitually met on Sabbath afternoons to study the Sabbath-
school lesson, using the quarterlies from the Stanberry
publishing house.
On discovering this little group, I began going to Oregon
City to meet with them regularly. Almost immediately they
asked me to be their leader in the study of the lesson. And
soon I was delivering them a sermon every Sabbath.
These were days of extreme financial hardship in our
home. We often went hungry. Several times there was not
enough carfare for my wife and family to accompany me to
Oregon Cityin fact it was seldom that they were able to go.
At least three times, during the next couple of years or so, I
had barely enough for carfare to Oregon City on the electric
linewith no carfare to return home. I even lacked bus fare
from downtown Oregon City out to the little church house at
the top of the hill on the outskirts of town. It was probably
two or three miles up a steep hill all the way, but I walked it,
carrying my briefcase with Bibles, concordance, etc.
But in every instance when I had come without carfare to
return home, someone would happen to hand me a dollar or
two of tithe money. And, strangely, no one ever handed me
any money on those Sabbaths when I had enough to get back
to Portland. And, of course, I never made the need known.
But God always had a way of supplying every need!
My First Son!
I believe I have recounted in earlier chapters that, following
the birth of our second daughter, three doctorsone an
eminent obstetrician of international reputationhad warned
Mrs.Armstrong and me that she could never bear another child.
They had said a pregnancy would mean the certain death of
both mother and unborn child.
It is natural for every man to desire a son. Before the birth
of our first child, neither Mrs. Armstrong nor I had cared
whether it was a boy or a girl. Our second child was another
299
daughter. When I was told we could never have another, I
was terribly disappointed!
And now seven years had gone byby 1927without
expectations of ever having a son.
But when, in the summer of 1927, Mrs. Armstrong had been
miraculously healed of several things at onceand when we
remembered that the man who had anointed and prayed for
her had asked God to heal her completely of everything from
the top of her head to the bottom of her feet, we had faith that
whatever had made another childbirth impossible had also
been healed. We planned, consequently, to have a son. And I
had faith that God would at last give me a son.
And God DID!!
Our first son, named Richard David, was born October13,
1928. That day, I said then and for years afterward, was the
happiest day of my life. I was simply filled to overflowing with
gratitude to a merciful, loving God who so richly lavishes
on us His grace and blessings completely beyond all we can
anticipate or hope forif we yield our lives to Him and do
those things that are pleasing in His sightif we seek first
Gods Kingdom and His righteousness!
We dedicated that son to God for His service.
During his college career, here at Ambassador College
in Pasadena, California, which God was later to use me
in founding in 1947, our son Dick, as we called him, was
convertedhis life changedand he, himself, gave his life
to God.
From that time it was used in Gods service, with
continually growing usefulness and accomplishment, until
his sudden death in an auto accident in 1958. Dick worked
hard on his own self, overcoming faults and weaknesses and
habits which he freely confessed, repented of and strove to
overcome. He reached the high point of his spiritual growth
and development, of overcoming and usefulnesshaving
established the branch office of Gods Work in London and
becoming director of all overseas operations.
God later gave us still another son, Garner Ted, only a year
and four months younger than his brother Dick.
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21
THE
MILLION-DOLLAR
CLAY BUSINESS
E
continue quite a while longer.
VEN IN 1928, THE LEAN YEARS WERE TO
But if these were the lean years financially, they were the
fat years spirituallyyears of coming into the true riches. Yet
I still had many lessons to learn. Jesus had said, regarding
economic prosperity, Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his
righteousness; and all these [physical] things shall be added
unto you! But God doesnt always add the material prosperity
until after humans have been tried, tested and proved faithful.
Not only was there much more truth to be discovered and
dug out of Gods spiritual gold minethe Holy Biblebut
there was much character to be developed through hard,
cruel experience, the dearest teacher of all.
I should not have thought so at the timebut God knew
that I needed much more humblingmuch more chastening
at the hands of God!
I had been humbled! O yes! And still, I know now that had
God allowed me to have prospered financially at that stage of
spiritual experience, self-pride once more would have seized
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
me and the humility would have fled! The lessons so far

received by all this chastening would have been lost! I was
to have to suffer much moreand my family to suffer it with
me! The material blessings were withheld 28 years!
But do not infer from this that the material riches were my
goal. No such idea even entered my mind. I had given up all
idea and expectation of material prosperity.
At this time, during 1928, we were living on Klickitat Street
in Portland, Oregon. We were falling dangerously behind in
paying the rent. The real estate agent who collected the rent
came very frequently to the front door. To others he was probably
a kind and pleasant-looking man. He taught a Sunday-school
class. But to us, he was a dark, foreboding, frightening, almost
devilish-appearing man, when, of evenings, he so frequently
stood at our front door, demanding in a deep, bass, stern tone:
Can I have the rent?
We simply didnt have the rent! Whenever he came, we
knew just how a whipped dog feels when his tail is between
his legs. Actually, this man, who appeared to us almost as an
enemy, was kind enough to pay our rent a number of times out
of his own pocket.
At one time we were in darkness nights of involuntary
necessity. The electricity was shut off because we were delin-
quent. My wife did her cooking on a small gas plate, and our
gas was shut off. Only the water was left running. We were out
of food, and out of fuel. Our heating stove was one my father
had made, shaped something like an old covered wagonwith
rounded top.
Uneatable Macaroni
The children were crying with hunger. My stomach gnawed
with pain. Like old Mother Hubbards, our cupboard was bare,
save for a little macaroni. But there was no cheese or any of
the ingredients used in baking macaroni. There was not even
a grain of salt. And there was no money to buy any.
I decided to try to cook some macaroni, even without the
accompanying ingredients. Without gas there was no oven to
bake it in; so I boiled it. Patiently I tore up and crumpled pages
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21 | The Million-Dollar Clay Business
of magazines, so I could set a fire in the rounded-top heating

stove for heat. I balanced a pan of water and macaroni on top
of the stove, and kept throwing in more crumpled magazine
pages to keep the fire going.
I offered this delicacy to my wife and daughters. We all
tried it.
That is all we did. We did not swallow it. We tried, but the
slick, slithery, tasteless mess simply would not go down! You
may laugh. I dont know why some Hollywood scenario writer
never thought of this as a comedy idea. People love to laugh at
the discomfiture of others in the movies. Movie actors pretend
to suffer things like this to give audiences big amusement.
But to us it was not a bit funny!
It was about this time, while still living on Klickitat
Street, that I learned what the Apostle Paul meant when he
wrote to the Corinthians of how God also hath made us able
ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the
spirit (2Corinthians3:6).
The Spirit of the Law

Most people, I had noticed, thought that the letter was done
away, and that the ministration of the spirit did away with
the law and all obligation for obedience to God.
I have told this many times in sermons, and on the air. But
this experience occurred at this time, and I believe it belongs
in this account.
Our eldest daughter, Beverly, then 10, had been in the habit of
bringing books home from the school library. I had noticed they
were always fiction. She was an inveterate bookworm, and a
rapid reader. We had noticed that she was beginning to have
a little trouble with her eyes, and we attributed it, at least in
part, to excessive reading habits. Besides, I had noticed that the
constant reading of these fictitious, ready-made daydreams
which is precisely what fiction iswas causing her mind to drift
and wander, rather than to think actively.
Beverly, I said one day after my wife and I had discussed it,
Mother and I want you to stop taking these fiction books out of
the library. You are injuring your eyes with too much reading.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Two days later, I observed Beverly in her usual slumped-

over position in a chair, with a book opened near the middle.
Let me see that book, Beverly, I demanded. Isnt this
another fiction story?
Yes, Daddy, she replied, handing it to me. Already she
had read it half through.
Beverly, I said sternly, didnt I tell you to stop bringing
these books home and rest your eyes?
Well, yes, Daddy, came the innocent reply, but I didnt
get this book at the library. I borrowed it from Helen.
Beverly actually obeyed the literal letter of the law, but she
completely disobeyed the spirit of what I had told her! The
spirit of the law goes much further than the mere letter. It
includes the letter, but also its obvious meaning, or intent.
That is the way we must obey Godnot only the letter,
but the spirit or intended meaning of the law as well! Jesus
explained this in His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew
5:17-28especially verses 21-22 and 27-28).
My First Personal Healing

It was also while living here, during 1928, that I had perhaps
my first experience in applying Gods miraculous power of
healing, as a personal experience in my own body.
For fuel we burned woodwhen we were able to have it.
One day in chopping wood, the ax slipped, and struck my left
thumb in midair. It cut clear to the bone. I had to pull the
sharpened ax out of the bone. It had cut quite a deep gash.
Instantly I prayed, asking God to prevent pain and to heal
it over rapidly, as I ran into the house to wrap and bandage
it. At first such a cut often benumbs the nerves, as it did this
timebut normally the pain soon follows. This time I felt no
pain at all.
I made one slight mistake later, else I am convinced I should
never have had so much as a scar. I left the bandage on for
some three days. But I became overanxious to look at it. When
we trust God for healing, we need to keep our eyes and our
minds on Christnot on the physical part. I unwrapped it too
soon. I experienced the only pain at any time from that severe
304
cut in removing the wrapping to look at it, and pulling off a

scab that had formed.
The result was that there is, to this day, just the slightest
trace of a scar across the length of my left thumb. But, even
so, it is so slight that one would never notice it unless pointed
out. The cut was directly across the knuckle. I believe it could
have robbed me of the use of the thumb. As it is, there is no
impairment whatsoever.
Advertising JobRejected
It must also have been during this year of 1928 that another
advertising job was offered me.
I mentioned, in connection with the advertising service for
laundries, the soap builder used by laundries manufactured by
the Cowles Detergent Co., of Cleveland, Ohio. This company
was a subsidiary of the Aluminum Corp. of America. They
manufactured an unusual product, unique and exclusive, so
far as I know, in the laundry industry. I understood that this
company was the largest operation in the laundry industry.
The Cowles Detergent Co. had become familiar with the
advertising I was writing and designing for laundry clients.
Also they were familiar with the astonishing results. These
ads had been building the volume of business of my clients in
unprecedented fashion.
And so it was that, about this time, the sales manager
of the Cowles company, a Mr. Fellows, came to Portland to
interview me and offer the post of advertising manager of
their company. Actually the job was to organize and establish
a new advertising department! Up to that time, they had
delegated all advertising preparation and placing to their
advertising agency.
Bear in mind, I was not yet a minister. Although I had
given a few talks that might by a stretch of the imagination
have been called preaching, and had been speaking almost
every Sabbath before the little group in Oregon City, I most
assuredly did not think of myself as a minister. Nor did I
expect, at this time, ever to be.
The laundries of the nation, through their national
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association, had gone into their $5 million national campaign.

This had been pulled right out from under melike a rug being
jerked out from beneath ones feetall my laundry clients,
save one. I still had the account of the National Laundry,
second largest in Portland. But, as I have mentioned before,
this required only about 30 minutes a week of my time. It was
our sole income$50 per month. It was not enough to pay
house rent, and keep us fed and alive.
If you will remember, in 1924 I was offered the job of
advertising manager of the Des Moines Registerrated by
many as one of the 10 great newspapers of the United States.
I had turned it down because I believed that I was not an
executive. I believed I could not direct and supervise the work
of others. I found it so distasteful to make out reports and
keep recordswhich would have been a regular routine on
such a jobthat I felt I was simply not fitted for such an office.
I explained all this to Mr. Fellows. I told him frankly that
one of my faults was that I worked in spurts. I felt I was
moderately talented in certain directions, but this was offset by
serious faults I had not yet been able to master and overcome.
At times my performance would be brilliant. Results would be
outstanding. But then I might go into a slump for a week or
a month, during which I would accomplish little or nothing.
What I did not tell him was that my wife and I had talked
it over, and decided that in order to obey God and keep His
Sabbath, I must reject the offer.
Lest any suspect that I went into the ministry to make
money (and I suppose most could not realize one could have
any other motive), I was rejecting a very flattering offer.
Mr. Fellows thanked me sincerely for my honesty in telling
him of these shortcomings. He returned to Cleveland. I never
heard whether he found the man he needed to start his new
advertising department.
Actually there may have been some providential guidance
in my supposition that I could not become an executive. Had
I accepted this job, which, as I remember, would have paid
a salary of $8,000 a year in 1928 to startthe equivalent
of a much larger figure in todays dollar valueand about
306
$12,000 if I made good, I would have been snatched away

from the calling God was drawing me into. I would probably
be back in the world today.
Actually I was mistaken about not being able to become an
executive. When God later began to build His Work around
me, and the Work began to grow steadily and continuously
at the rate of about a 30 percent increase each year over the
year beforewhich rate of growth continued for 35 yearsI
had to become an executive! And with Gods help and power,
it was achieved, and the working in spurts was long ago
overcome. For many years now, I have had to work at the
same steady pace day in and day out.
Cash Position Desperate!

Also it was about this time, late in 1928, that our position was
so desperate that I prayed earnestly and asked God to open a
door for some income that very day.
Having asked in faith, in the morning, I took the streetcar
to downtown Portland, seeking the open door to a job, or
something with some cash in it. All the circumstances have
dimmed somewhat in my memory, but I believe that we had
to have a certain amount of money by 5:30 that evening, or be
evicted from our home. But I knew that if I did my part God
would provide the need.
All day long I sought open doorsbut every door was closed
and apparently locked tight. My faith was being tried. Then
5p.m. came. Time had almost run out.
But I still relied on God.
At that moment it came to my mind to stop at the office
of a Mr. Davidson, manager of the merchandising service
department of the Portland Oregonian.
Say, he exclaimed, youre just the man Ive been looking for.
The advertising agency for the Bissell carpet sweeper people
want a survey made in Portland on the relative opinions of
women between the carpet sweeper and the vacuum cleaner.
You are the only man I know with the experience to conduct
such a survey. Can you take time to do it?
I most certainly could!
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It was going to pay just the exact amount I needed by

5:30 that evening to prevent being evicted. But the check
would not be forthcoming until about 30 days, after the
survey was completed.
With brisk step, after having been briefed on what the
Bissell company wanted in the survey, I walked rapidly
over to the offices of the mortgage company where the
house payment had to be made, arriving right on the dead-
line, 5:30 p.m.!
I explained about the survey to be made immediately. I
offered to simply endorse the check and hand it over for our
house rent when it came, if the company would accept it some
30 days later. My word was good with them. Since it was
definitely sure, they agreed to accept this check 30 days later,
on my promise to endorse it over.
And Now1929!
1928 ended. It had been a year of great progress in my life.
Spiritually, that iscertainly not financially.
It had been a year of outstanding world events. Trotsky,
Zinoviev and other Communists were exiled from Russia
January 16 that year. The first all-talking motion picture was
shown in New York that year on July 6. This was preparing
the way for our filming The World Tomorrow for television,
beginning 1955. October 13 of that year God had blessed us
with the birth of our first son, Richard David.
In the spring of 1929 we moved to a house on 75th Street,
north of Sandy Boulevard. 1929 was to be a year of struggle,
spiritual growth and miraculous answers to prayer.
In world events, too, 1929 was an epochal year! The
notorious St. Valentines Day massacre in Chicago occurred
February 14. On June 7 that year, the Papal State, extinct
since 1870, was revived as a state, or nation. The Kellogg
Peace Treaty, known also as the Pact of Paris, outlawing
war, was signed July24. Albert B. Fall, secretary of the
interior, came to his terrific fall November 1, when he was
sentenced for accepting a $100,000 bribe. Cmdr. Richard E.
Byrd made the first flight over the South Pole November 28.
308
And, biggest event of all, the New York stock market crash
occurred October 29. Sixteen million shares changed hands.
The decline in value of stocks was estimated at $15 billion
by end of 1929. And stock losses, by 1931, were estimated at
$50 billion, affecting directly 25 million people. It plunged
America into its worst depression. It prevented me from
making a million dollars!
Incident of the Mystery Woman

1929 not only ended as a depression year for usas it did
for millions of othersit began as just another of the lean
years! For us, it was another year of desperation to keep
ourselves alive.
Very shortly after moving into the house on 75th Street,
we had reached another crisis of hunger and desperate need.
Again I prayed earnestly for God to either send us some
money or provide a way for me to earn it.
An hour or two later, a strange woman knocked on our front
door. Mrs. Armstrong opened the door. There was something
mysterious about the womans appearance.
Who was she? She did not introduce herself. She gave no
inkling of her identity.
If your husband isnt too proud to do it, she said in a low,
quiet voice, there are two truckloads of wood he can throw in
at this address. Jot it down. My wife jotted down the street
and number.
The mysterious woman walked quickly away and
disappeared.
People in Portland used wood for fuel. Portland is in the
heart of the Oregon-Washington lumber country. Throwing
wood into the woodshed, garage or basement was an odd job
customarily reserved for the bums who came along. Very few
men in Portland threw in their own wood. To be seen doing it
was to appear as a down-and-out bum.
We were totally perplexed as to the identity of this strange
woman. How did she know we were in such desperate need?
Who was she? We never knew.
But I did know I had just asked God to provide. And at once
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I recognized one fact. This woman was like the mischievous

boys playing a trick on a poor widow. Her window had been
open. She was praying aloud, asking God to send her some
bread for her children. The little boys, playing just outside
the window, overheard her prayer.
Lets play a trick on her, said one of the boys. Lets toss a
loaf of bread through her window.
When they did, she knelt again and gave God thanks.
Ah-ya-ya! jeered the boys. God didnt throw in that
breadwe boys did.
Well, answered the grateful widow, smiling, Maybe the
devil brought it, but just the same God sent it!
No matter who this mysterious woman was, I knew God
sent her! And I realized instantly that God was answering my
prayer His way, and not mine. I knew He was giving me a test
to see whether I would accept a humiliating job. I realized I
had not yet been freed completely from ego and pride. I knew
that God was giving me a lesson in humility at the same time
He answered my prayer.
I walked immediately to the address the woman gave. It
was about a mile from our house. There was a large pile of
wood in front. I went to the door, asked for and got the job of
throwing the wood in the basement.
Realizing God was teaching me a lesson, I resolved to do it
His way, which was to do the best job I could. A thing worth
doing is worth doing right! Now that God allows me to be the
employer of many men, I insist that they do their work in the
right manneror else tear it out and do it over.
I stacked the wood up as neatly and orderly as I could.
I worked rapidly, and did it as quickly as I could. Several
people walked past the house. Every time one saw me, I
winced. I knew they thought I was a down-and-out bum.
Each passerby knocked off a little more of that vanity. But
I just prayed silently to God about it, and thanked Him for
the lesson, and asked Him to help me to be humble and
industrious.
When the job was finished, the woman inspected the piled
wood in her basement.
310
Why, youve done that so neatly and so fast, Im going to

pay you double, she said.
The satisfaction and inspiration this gave was a far bigger
reward than the extra money.
Clay Mine a GOLD Mine?

About this time a clay mine was brought to my attention. It
promised to become a million-dollar gold mine.
My former associate on the Vancouver Evening Columbian,
who had been its business manager, Samuel T. Hopkins,
brought it to me. He had encountered an elderly man who
owned a farm on which a mysterious kind of clay was mined.
It was located in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, in
Skamania County, Washington.
One day this farmer had cut a bad gash on the back of
his hand on a rusty barbed wire fence. He had been digging
rather deeply in the vicinity and had dug into a semisoft,
grayish, blue-green clay. Without thinking much about why
he did it, he reached down, scooped up a handful of the soft
clay and slapped it over the back of the hand to cover the
cut. Then he proceeded with his days work. The clay dried in
some 20 or 30 minutes.
That evening on removing the now dried and hardened
clay, he was surprised to discover that it had coagulated
the blood, drawn the skin together from the wide gash, and
virtually healed it over!
The farmer became curious. A member of his family was
plagued with eczema. He experimented. This clay was placed
over the portion of skin affected, and allowed to dry. There
was noticeable improvement. A second and third application
was applied. Soon the skin disease disappeared.
The farmer knew Sam Hopkins, and told him about it.
Mr.Hopkins made a few experiments on cases of acne and
eczema. Results were astonishing.
This clay contained a certain amount of fine sand and
grit which proved somewhat harsh on womens skin. So he
experimented with rubbing the clay through a very fine
copper-wire screen, removing most of the sand and grit.
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Astonishing the Doctors

About this time he came to me with his discovery. He thought
it contained great possibilities, but didnt know how to market
it. He offered me a 50 percent partnership in whatever
we might do with it. I was considerably intrigued. I took a
sample to a well-known doctor in Portland who specialized in
skin diseases.
It is certainly a coincidence, said the doctor, that you
came at this psychological time. I have a stubborn skin
disease case which has persisted six months. Im not making
any headway with it. I couldnt tell my patient, but I dont
mind admitting to you that I am desperate enough to try
this clay. Under other circumstances Id be very reluctant to
experiment with anything new.
I returned a week later. The doctor was very excited.
Theres something very mysterious about that clay, he said.
Why! A few applications cured that skin disease completely!
We had noticed that it was 50 percent heavier than water. A
pound-size jar of this clay weighed 24 ounces. He felt it might
contain radium or other radioactive substance. He suggested
I take it to another Portland physician, then president of the
Oregon-Washington Medical Association, who specialized in
cancer and radium treatment. He called this doctor on the
telephone and set up the conference for me.
I found this physician maintained a large suite of offices, or
treating rooms, like a private hospital, with eight registered
nurses in constant attendance.
He made a number of experiments, and became quite
excited. It cured acne, eczema, psoriasis. One day he contacted
me, requesting a large supply of the clay. He had a patient
almost completely covered and his whole body swollen with
poison oakthe most severe case he had ever seenand the
patient was in critical condition. After the first application
of the clay, the painful itching was greatly relieved; and
after the second it was stopped. This patient was kept in his
private hospital quarters, and after several days the poison
was completely gone!
This physician made a photographic test for radiumnot
312
a completely reliable or conclusive test, but he felt it would

give some indication. The film, left overnight inside a metal
case placed next to a jar of clay, had been exposed to light
when developed. This indicated radium! But the doctor
would not accept it as final, saying this was not a completely
conclusive test.
Some four or five rooms down the hall his X-ray apparatus
was located. He said it was barely possible that the film had
been exposed by this machine, instead of by the clay. If this
were true, I reasoned, then why were not all his X-ray films
exposed by that apparatus, so he could never use any of them?
But I was not a scientist, I discarded my reasoning as worthless.
Option on the Mine

This physician acquainted a friend of his, a leading corporation
attorney, with the facts about this clay. This attorney had
connections in the east with wealthy men and interests who
had large sums to invest.
He advised us to tie up the clay mine at once on an option
to buy.
Ill tell you what Ill do, said the lawyer. You men cannot
afford to pay me the fee I would charge to handle this for
you. But the doctor has told me enough to give me confidence
in this thing. Ill make you this proposition: Ill handle the
legal end of it, and give you whatever advice I can. I will do
what I can to get it financed. You either have a million-dollar
proposition or nothing. If it fails, you owe me nothing. If you
succeed, Ill charge you a double fee, and in that event youll
be amply able to pay it.
We agreed.
He drew up an option contract, under which we were to
be given exclusive right to all of the clay for one year, at a
certain price per gallon. We were given one year to exercise
the option and purchase the property. The purchase price
was set at about three times the value of the property as a
farm. The owner signed the option contract. We had one year
to make our million dollars.
It was probably August or September 1929, when we got
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the contract signed and were ready to start building our

million-dollar fortune out of the clay mine.
With the cooperation of this doctor, I immediately sought
out the leading, most aggressive and the best-informed beauty
shop operator in Portland. Many inquiries in the field led to one
certain woman. Since this clay seemed to quickly rid women of
acne, eczema and other common skin diseases, we decided the
biggest single market possibility was through the beauty shops.
This woman made experiments. The results were the same.
It cleared up splotched faces after a reasonable number of
applications. But, she discovered, it had a drawing power
too severe for many women. Applied as a face mask, or
a mudpack, it seemed to hold the face in a stiff vise. Its
drawing power was exceedingly strong.
For use as a mudpack facial, this beauty shop owner
advised, I recommend cutting down the severe drawing power
by mixing a certain facial oil in it. And it must be perfumed.
Wed better have the advice and cooperation of a top-flight
chemist, I said. I went to the chief chemist of the largest
wholesale drug house in Portland. He agreed to help. Between
him, the beauty shop expert and the physician, we worked
out a formula which the beautician pronounced perfect, the
doctor and chemist pronounced safe and harmless, which had
the most delightful fragrance, and which, after many tests, we
found to have the same powers of eradicating embarrassing
face blotchesexcept that it required perhaps one or two
more treatments than before.
Selling Mudpacks
But, just as we were getting everything ready to approach
one of the largest cosmetics concerns on a deal to sell them
our formula and the raw supply of the clayjust as we were
devising various other possible uses and marketsthat
fateful October 29, 1929, rolled around.
The stock market crashed. The nation was plunged into
the worst economic depression of its history.
It became utterly impossible to finance a new business, or
sell a new product to a cosmetic firm.
314
Once again, as if some unseen supernatural hand were

taking every business opportunity away from me, another
promising business of million-dollar possibilities was swept
away by powers and forces beyond my control!
I began to call myself King Midas in reverse! Everything I
touched turnedwell, this timeto clay! It was certainly not
a gold mine. It was only a clay mine, after all.
By this time I had no means of keeping my family alive,
except to try to sell this clay. I had to explain to beauty shop
owners that they could not sell these facial masks as a means
of healing or curing a facial disease. They could be prosecuted
for practicing medicine without a license if they did. But they
could recommend these treatments to customers as the finest
of all facials, and suggest that if, incidentally, they found that
the acne disappeared, that would be very nice!
I also worked out a formula for poison oak. I called it
P.O.P.Poison Oak Paste. A certain amount of distribution
for this was developed through local Portland drugstores. All
who bought it reported astonishing results.
The facial mask, or clay-pack, I named Marv. This I began
to sell in booth-size pound jars to beauty shops. But each
jar actually weighed 1 pounds! Before long, many of the
Portland shops were using it, and gradually resales increased.
I found a way to dilute the clay until it became a soupy
liquid. All the sand and grit would sink to the bottom. Then
I siphoned off the top. Straining it through fine copper-wire
screens did not remove all the fine grit. My new way left it
soft and utterly smooth. Our kitchen on 75th Street became
virtually a clay factory. After the siphoning process, I boiled
the clay down to the consistency I wanted it. This boiling did
no harm to its curative powers, and made it more sanitary.
Heres Your Breakfast!

Shortly after we moved into the house on 75th Street, a
Mr.and Mrs. Charlie Beck moved into the corner house next
door. Helen Beck was one of the most cheerful women we ever
knew. She seemed full of sunshine and good cheer within and
without. She was quite religiously inclined, even emotionally
315
so. She learned and accepted quite a little biblical truth
through us, but seemed unable to see quite all of the truth.
Nevertheless she appeared to walk in all the truth she really
graspedand if I ministered to some extent to her in spiritual
matters, she ministered to us in a material way.
She learned that we often did not have enough to eat.
When we did get in a little money, we went to the markets
and loaded up on beans and food that went the farthest and
cost the leastest.
But often when we were out of food, she would come to our
back door with her cheery Good morning, folks, heres your
breakfast, carrying a tray full of steaming hot breakfast. Prior
to the bust of 1920 it would have cut my pride unbearably to
have received this kind of charity from a next-door neighbor.
But hers was the kind spoken of in 1Corinthians 13, where it
says that though you may speak with the tongues of angels,
understand all knowledge, have all faith, and have not
charity, you are nothing!
Actually this cheerful good morning act of charity profited
both ourselves and Helen Beck. It is more blessed to give than
to receive. She reaped that greater blessing. But I reaped the
spiritual blessing of being humbled a little furtherhaving
to swallow more pride, and see the hand of God in it!
And so the year 1929 had come and gone. 1930 was to be
another of the lean yearsas indeed were several others to
follow. We were at rock bottom financially. We had learned
what it is to go hungry. But these were, nevertheless, years
of spiritual growth.
These were the years in which Jesus Christ, the living Head
of His Church, was instructing me in His Word, preparing me
for His ministry, humbling me, rooting out the self-confidence,
the cocky conceit, the vanity and egotism.
But He was replacing these self-trusting attributes with
reliance and dependence on God. Instead of self-confidence,
He was giving me painful but valuable lessons in faith. He
was granting us a few miraculous answers to prayer. Some
far more astonishing answers to prayer were to follow in the
year 1930.
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22
ASTOUNDING
ANSWERS TO
PRAYER
N EVER IN MY LIFE HAVE I FACED A MORE
serious problem than the situation that confronted us at the

beginning of the year 1930. Not only were we confronted
with another lean year economicallywith our own personal
financial condition at rock bottomwith the whole nation
plunging on down, down, DOWN into the depths of depression
but it seemed as if we were destitute of faith in God as well.
We were within six weeks of the birth of our fourth child.
My wife, who had been so miraculously healed in 1927, was
now in an alarming condition. She was anemic. Her blood was
lacking in iron. Her strength appeared depleted. The doctor
was definitely alarmed. He was afraid of complications at the
time of delivery due to her weakened condition. He insisted
she go to the hospital where every emergency facility would
be available in the event of trouble.
The Lesson of Fasting and Prayer

But we had been in such financial depths that the hospital
bill for our first sons birth had not been paid. The hospital
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would not admit my wife again until the previous bill was
paidor else we paid in advance.
I had prayed for Mrs. Armstrongs healing. But she had not
been healed. I had prayed again. And again! But there had
been no improvement, and time was running out. We were
becoming desperate.
What was wrong? I had learned that God does heal. We
had experienced almost incredible miracles. My wife had
been healed before. But why not now?
Obviously God had not changedHe is the same from
eternity to eternity. He has promised to heal, and His Word
is sure! The fault could not be with God. I knew it had to be
with me. But where? I searched my heart. One condition to
receiving miraculous healing is that we obey God.
And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we
keep his commandments (1John 3:22).
But I had surrendered to obey Gods commandments three
years before. Faith is the second condition. But I believed, as
firmly as when God first healed my wife.
There was no more time to lose. I had to find the answer.
I knew of only one way. Fasting and prayer! It was the last-
ditch resort. I didnt know how one ought to fast and prayI
had never done it before. But when Jesuss disciples were
unable to cast out a demon, Jesus said such a result came
only by fasting and prayer. So I began to fast.
The fasting was begun on a Sabbath morning. That morning
I ate no breakfast. Not knowing how one ought to go about
fasting and prayer, I first prayed and asked God to show me
the wayto open my understanding. Then, since God speaks
to us through His written Word, I began to search the Bible
for instruction about fasting. For one hour with the aid of a
concordance I studied passages of Scripture on the subject of
fasting and praying, much of the time on my knees.
Then for one hour I sat in thought and contemplation. I
turned over in my mind the scriptures I had read. I reflected
on my own life in recent months. I tried to compare it with
Gods way, as revealed in the Scriptures. Then I spent the
next hour in talking to Godin prayer.
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22 | Astounding Answers to Prayer
And so I decided to continue in this orderone hour in

Scripture study, one in contemplation and one in prayer. I did
not once ask God to heal my wifeas yet. I had been doing
that for weeks, without result. I was fasting and praying, not
for the purpose of bringing pressure on God to force Him to
obey my will and give what was askedbut to find out what
was wrong with me! I realized we did not need to nag at God.
NEVER fast as a means of inducing God to answer!
I read of Elijahs prayer, in presence of all the priests of Baal,
when God answered and the fire came down from heaven. I
timed that prayer. It was very shortonly about 20 seconds.
But the awe-inspiring answer came crashing from heaven
instantly! Elijah did not need to talk God into it by a long prayer
or by repeated prayers. But I knew that Elijah at that moment
was close to Godthat he had previously been spending hours
in long prayers to be in contact and close communion with his
Maker! And he naturally knew his Maker would answer!
Gradually the truth began to pierce through the fog in
my mind. Gradually, as this process of fasting and prayer
continued all day, and into the afternoon of Sundayas I
became more and more hungrybut closer and closer to God,
the realization came that I had been keeping my mind more
and more fully on this clay project.
Finding the Trouble

This experience in fasting and prayer, and the overwhelming
result, has been broadcast over the air, and probably related
previously in the Plain Truth. But it is one of the outstanding
experiences in my life and properly belongs in this present
account, even though a repetition for numerous readers.
This process of self-examination, in the order of one
hour of Bible study, followed by an hour of reflection and
contemplation, and then an hour of prayer, under the
unpleasant weakness of fasting, continued until the middle
of Sunday afternoon.
Suddenly I heard one of our daughters cry out, Here comes
Grandpa and Grandma!
My father and mother were driving their two-door Ford
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
sedan up our driveway. At that moment I was lying on the

bed in our bedroom, in an hour of thinking and reflecting.
By this time I KNEW where the trouble had been. I realized
fully that I had gotten so wrapped up in this clay projectthe
development of formulasdevising plans for marketingand
selling enough of it to beauty shops to keep us from starving,
that I had unconsciously been drifting farther from the
previously close relationship with God.
I had not stopped Bible study or prayer. I had not even
realized that I had been diminishing it. But now I realized
that I had actually become closer to this clay project than I
was to God. It was fast becoming first in my mind, my interest
and my time. And God will not play second fiddle to anything!
I wonder, as I write, how many of my readers are more
wrapped up, in their interest, and in their hearts, in some
material business, project or other interest than they are in
God! Probably most of you who are reading this need what
God had brought me to do.
I realized now that God had mercifully, in His wisdom and
His love for me and my family, refused to answer my prayers
to force me to fast and pray and come to see where I was
unconsciously drifting.
But in a flash, as I heard my fathers car drive past the
bedroom window, the realization came that the mission of the
fasting was accomplished! No need to continue it now! I must
end it, and go out and greet my parents.
And so, in a brief prayer not much longer than Elijahs, but
in deep earnestness and absolute faith, I nowfor the first
time during this fastasked God to heal my wife and put iron
in her blood and give her needed strength. Like a flash it came
to mind that we were completely out of foodout of wood for
fuel to keep warm (in January)so I asked Him to send us food
and fuel. I asked Him to send money for the hospital bill for the
delivery of the baby. Quickly I thought of my winter topcoatit
had a big hole at the rear of one hip, which was embarrassing
and a handicap in my workand asked God for a new coat.
Asking God for these five things had taken less than a
minute. But by now my parents were alighting from the car,
320
and I wanted to go out to meet them. Two scriptures flashed

to my mind:
Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before
ye ask him (Matthew 6:8).
My God shall supply all your need according to his riches
in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).
So quickly I ended my prayer, saying, Father in heaven,
you know what I need before I askand you have promised
to supply every needso I ask you to supply whatever else
I need. Then I quickly thanked God for it, rose and ran to
greet my parents.
And the ASTOUNDING Answers Came!

Dad was just handing Mother a big covered roaster out of
the car, and then gathering up an armload of wood. He had
removed the back seat before leaving Salem, and piled into
the entire rear part of the car a large supply of wood.
We soon had a fire going in the kitchen cook stove, and
Mother reheated an entire big dinner she had brought in the
roaster. Dad had managed to pile about a weeks supply of wood
into his car. So here, even as I was asking for it, was the answer
to two of my prayer requeststhe immediate fuel and food.
Arising Monday morning, my wifes cheeks were rosy red!
When the doctor saw her, he exclaimed, What in the world
has happened to you! He could not understand how her
anemia had so suddenly disappeared. She had her old zip and
pep and strength. (Mrs. Armstrong always was an energetic
personas recorded earlier, her brothers had nicknamed her
variously Shebang and Cyclone as a little girl.)
The very first mail delivery after my prayer request, on
that Monday morning, brought a letter from one of my wifes
uncles in Iowa containing, most unexpectedly, a settlement
from her mothers will, in the exact amount of the hospital
bill! My wifes mother had died when she was 12.
You may be sure that Mrs. Armstrong and I were
overwhelmed with gratitude. Our prayers that morning were
all of thanksgiving to a God who is real and near to every one
of usif we will be near to Him!
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
But Monday was another business day in downtown

Portland, and it was necessary to make the rounds of some
of the beauty parlors once again to sell more clay. Arriving in
the lobby of an office building I would remove my topcoat, and
carefully fold it so as to hide the big hole in the side, carry it on
my arm, and then enter the shops or offices where I had to call.
About 11 that morning I found myself across the street from
the building of the gas company, where my brother Russell
was an information clerk. So I crossed over. We chatted for a
couple of moments.
Herb, exclaimed Russell suddenly, eyeing the hole in my
coat, Youve got to have a new overcoat. Meier & Frank are
having a big sale on overcoats. Today is January 20th. I have
a charge account at Meier & Franks, and anything charged
beginning today is not billed until the March 1st statement,
and I will have until March 10th to pay and keep my credit
good. You go over now and select an overcoat, and Ill meet
you over there at noon and have it charged.
Oh, no, Russ, I remonstrated, I couldnt let you do that.
But suddenly, as I continued to protest, it seemed as if a
still, small voice within said to me, Didnt you ask God to
give you a new overcoat? Are you willing to receive it the way
God gives it, or not?
It is human nature to rebel against Gods way. We want
to do things in a different way than God commands. We
want to live a different way than Gods law. I broke off the
remonstrance immediately.
OK, Russ, I smiled humbly, and gratefully, Ill go select
a coatand thanks a million!as my eyes began to water.
It was humiliating to me to take this coat from my brother.
I felt he could not afford it. But I realized it was Gods answer,
coming the way God had chosen to answer my prayer. He was
still humbling me. But this was good for me, and actually,
giving the coat was good for my brother. It just did not seem
so, humanly.
On Tuesday or Wednesday of that week my other brother,
Dwight, drove over to our house in his Ford.
I got to thinking, Herb, said Dwight. You may have to
322
rush Loma to the hospital at any unexpected hour of day or

night. Ive brought my car over for you. Im going to leave it
until you go to the hospital. And in the meantime, just use it
as if it were your own.
I think it was on Thursday afternoon Mrs. Armstrong and I
were sitting in our living room reviewing what had happened,
and thanking God. It was about 3 oclock.
You know, I never should have thought of needing a car for
a sudden emergency trip to the hospital, I said. But I asked
God to send whatever else we needed, besides what I asked
for specificallyand He sent it.
There is only one thing more that I can think of, mused
my wife. I never thought of this before, but I do not have a
robe or slippers to wear in the hospital. If I had those, every
need would be complete.
We dismissed it from our minds.
But that evening, my sisters husband drove her over to our
house. She seemed highly embarrassed and a little flustered.
Loma, she said, I dont understand this at alland you
may think Im crazy. But this afternoon, about 3 oclock, some-
thing strange came over mean insistent urge to go to my
bedroom and pray. And while I was praying something put it
in my mindjust like a voice saying, Take your robe and slip-
pers to Loma! Take your robe and slippers to Loma! I didnt
understand it! I never had any experience like that before. You
may think Im crazy, but I simply had to bring these to you.
We then explained how God had answered my prayer,
and how, at that precise time that afternoon, we had been
in conversation about that very remaining needthe robe
and slippers.
Truly, God does move in mysterious ways, His wonders
to perform!
Garner Ted Is Born

It was just a little over two weeks later that the loan of Dwights
car was justified, and I rushed my wife to the hospital.
On the 9th day of February, a Sunday, my second son
was born.
323
My wife named him Garner Ted. The name Garner had
been a family name in her family and her mothers family for
generations. Her maternal grandmother was a Garner before
marriage. Several men in the family had been given the name
Garner as a first name.
Mrs. Armstrong had known an intelligent young man in
college in Iowa by the name of Ted, whom she greatly admired.
The name seemed, she said, so short and simple and direct.
He was our fourth child.
For 11 years of married life I had been denied a son. After
Mrs. Armstrongs first miraculous healing, in 1927, I knew that,
despite warnings from three doctors, we could have another
child without fear of fatal consequences. God had blessed us
with our first son, Richard David, on October 13, 1928. That
day was the happiest day of my life. I was filled to overflowing
with gratitude for a son after all those yearsa gift from God.
But now, a year and four months later, God blessed us with
a second son. And Ted, too, was born as a result of an almost
incredible miracle of healing only three weeks before his birth!
324
23
PRELUDE
TO MINISTRY
I HAVE RELATED PREVIOUSLY HOW MY
wife nearly died of toxemia eclampsia shortly before our

second daughter was born. Three physicians had warned us
that my wife could never have another child. We did not know
the reason then. It was many years later that we learned we
had the opposite Rh blood factorshe being negative, and
I positive. This was unknown to the doctors who said Mrs.
Armstrong could not bear another child. It probably was not
the cause. This, however, was undoubtedly the cause of Ted
having been born with yellow jaundice.
This, as nearly as we can remember now, was one of the
reasons it was necessary to supplement the new babys breast
milk. Another reason was the fact that Mrs. Armstrong did
not have enough to eat. She simply was not able to supply
sufficient milk.
One day a few months after Ted was bornprobably
early summer 1930I arrived home from the beauty shop
rounds in mid-afternoon. The baby was crying lustily.
Hurry! exclaimed my wife. Go to the store and get a
quart of milk. The baby has missed one feeding, and its a
whole hour past his second feeding, and I havent a bit of
milk for him.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Asking God for a Dime

Well, Im broke. Give me a dime, I said. Milk was then 10
cents a quartthink of that!
But if I had a dime, Id have sent Beverly after the milk
long ago, she replied. Ive been waiting for youpraying for
God to hurry you home. I thought youd have at least a dime.
The baby howled louder than ever. We had never estab-
lished credit at any store.
Theres only one thing to do, I said. Were helpless, of
ourselves. Theres no human to help us. Well have to rely
on God. He has promised to supply all our needand this is
a need.
Jesus said we should enter into our closet, or small room,
and pray to our Father in heaven in secret, and He will
reward us openly. The only small room of absolute privacy in
our home was the bathroom. I locked the bathroom door and
knelt beside the bathtub. God had promised to supply our
every need, according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
I believed Him.
But we had to have the answer immediately. I had learned
that sometimes God does not answer at onceHe sometimes
tries our faith in order to develop patience in us. But right
now it seemed that little Garner Ted needed his milk more
urgently than I needed patience.
I felt there was not timeor needof a long prayer.
Instantly the 70th Psalm flashed into my mind. God by His
Holy Spirit inspired David to record, as part of the very Word
of God, Davids prayer wherein he asked God to Make haste,
O God, to deliver me; make haste to help me, O Lord. I
am poor and needy: make haste unto me O Lord, make
no tarrying. I knew that prayer would not be in Gods Word
unless it was Gods will to answer that same prayer for me. So
I asked God boldly to make haste!
I arose, unlocked the door, and walked back toward the
kitchen. Before I even reached the kitchen, one of our girls
cried out from the living-room window: Oh Mother, here
comes the old rag and bottle man!
Well, quick! Beverly, called out my wife, run and stop him!
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23 | Prelude to Ministry
We have a lot of old things in the basement we can sell him!

The only entrance to our basement, I remember, was from
the outside at the rear of the house. In eager anticipation we
led the rag and bottle man down the basement stairs. My
wife showed him all kinds of things. We expected to get at
least a dollar from him.
He only shook his head.
No. Nothing here I want, he said, starting back up the stairs.
Our hearts sank. Halfway up the steps he stopped, glanced
at a high stack of old magazines beside the stairs. Slowly he
turned and retraced his steps, examining the stack of magazines.
Ill give you a dime for these, he said. This is all I want.
I had asked God to send to us a dimeimmediatelyin
haste! When God sent it, within the very minute I asked, we
tried to increase it to a dollar or more. But the immediate
need was a dime for milk. God has not promised to supply
our wantsonly our need. The need I had asked was a
dime10cents! That is what God sentimmediately!
We had learned another lesson!
We gratefully gave God thanks, as I ran all the way to the
store and then back with the milk.
Jesus said, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray,
believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them! I know
that is true. Do you?
This incident has been made public beforeover the air
and in the Plain Truthbut it properly belongs here in the
Autobiography, so I relate it again.
A New Job
A family by the name of Melson lived on 74th Street in
Portland at this time. Their house and ours were opposite,
back to back. Some years later this family became nationally
famous. A feature article about them on How America
Lives appeared in one of Americas leading mass-circulation
magazines. We can remember that they had three little girls:
Anna Lou, Marilyn and Joyce. Little Dickie, our older boy,
called Anna Lou Ah-woo.
One evening Mr. Melson came over and asked me if I
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
would accept a job with the Wear Ever Aluminum Co. He was
a salesman with that company, selling to retail stores. The
job open to me was selling the heavy New Method utensils
direct to consumers.
The sale of the clay to beauty shops was not providing a
living. This aluminum job was the straw a drowning man
would grab. We were in such down-and-out financial circum-
stances we were grateful for anything that promised enough
food to eat.
I went to their office. I found this company had developed
a type of salesmanship with which I was not experienced
and they had reduced it to a virtual science. They sold this
particular line of utensils, not through stores, but direct to
consumers by a system of demonstration dinners, which they
called dems. First, to see what it was like, I attended one.
A woman was offered a valuable utensil prize if she would
invite a number of married couples to a dinner in her home.
The prize was in accordance with the number who came.
They had to be coupleshusbands and wives. The salesman
supplied all the food and ingredients and cooked the dinner.
It had to be the most delicious dinner the guests had ever
eaten, and of natural foodsno concoctions.
After the dinner, he gave a lecture on health and the causes
of sickness and disease. I observed that the salesman giving
this dem seemed to know more about the causes of sick-
ness and disease than the physician who was a guest with
his wifeand he kept quoting nationally known physicians
and surgeons for his statements, and then asking the local
guest physician if he agreed. Of course he didfor the state-
ments were all medically correct, and the guest doctor would
be disagreeing with outstanding national or international
authorities unless he endorsed everything the salesman said.
Before he was through, the guests were impressed that
this salesman-lecturer knew more about the minor ailments
in their families than their family doctor. Enough of these
common ailments had been mentionedcolds, fevers, consti-
pation, rheumatism, tooth troubles, stomach troubles, diges-
tive disturbances, etc., etc., that every family present was
328
sure to be affected. Then the salesman made appointments

to call at each home at a time when both husband and wife
would be present, in order to give private and confidential
counsel about how to prevent these ailments by proper diet
and method of preparing food.
Every couple present willingly made the appointment. I
could see that most of them were actually eager to make it.
They had never heard a lecture of this type before. It had
been sparkling with interest, and had opened up facts about
common ailments they never knew before.
I was intrigued. I saw that this job offered me the opportunity
to make an intensive study of the causes of sickness and
disease, and of nutrition and the part diet plays in health or
illness. I had already been doing enough preaching to have
had some little experience in giving these lectures. Also, the
lectures would provide experience for more effective preaching.
One thing that appealed to me was the fact that a salesman,
in this rather unique work, could be doing a great deal of
good. I learned, during the following years, that many of
these salesmen were conscientious and used their work only
for the good of the customer.
Lecturing on Health
My first dem was a very large cooperative one, held in a
public hall in Oregon City. Several of the men out of the
Portland district headquarters participated, a more experi-
enced one delivering the lecture. Actual participation gave
me initial experience.
The district supervisor, a Mr. Peach, gave me a list of several
books, whose authors were nationally famous physicians and
surgeons, on the subject of diet, causes of common ailments,
sickness and disease.
At the library and bookstores I searched out other books
besides these he recommended. I plunged into an intensive
study in this fascinating field. Mr. Peach also gave me
mimeographed material, data and facts which his office had
condensed from many qualified authoritiesincluding many
shocking figures and statistics on existing national health
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
conditions. The office also supplied me with large charts,

illustrated, showing many of these little-known facts. The
charts were used in the lectures.
I obtained pamphlets from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, showing results of scientific government tests
made, I believe, at the University of Wisconsin. These tests
showed the percentage of mineral elements and vitamins lost
from various kinds of foods by cooking at or over the boiling
temperature. These figures were astounding. They showed
that excessive temperatures, in cooking, rob foods of from 23
percent to 78percent of these vital health elements.
I learned of what the human body is constitutedprimarily
16 elements of matter, 12 of which are alkaline-reacting mineral
elements, and four of which are acid-reacting carbohydrates. I
learned that, while the human body requires for health that
the diet be composed of a large majority of the alkaline mineral
elements, the average American meal is in fact a dietetic
horrorconsisting of an overwhelming preponderance of the
starches, sugars and greasesthe carbohydrate acid-reacting
elements which cause numerous ailments and diseases.
Most natural foods are rendered harmful by sauces, gravies
and dressings. I learned that leading physiciansthat is, the
very few who have studied foods or the causes of sickness
and diseaseestimate variously that from 85 percent to 95
percent of all sickness and disease which is not of mental
origin is caused by faulty diet, and the small remaining
percent from all other causes combined.
Soon I had an eye-opening, interest-compelling lecture
outlined. Of course the study was continued intensively
along with continued Bible study for the next year, and the
lecture progressively altered and supplemented.
The details are now dim in memorythis is being written
almost 30 years laterbut it seems that I teamed with
another more experienced man in the next one or two dems.
Then I must have been transferred to the territory around
Salem, Oregon. Also it seems this move was influenced by the
fact that I had not yet gotten sufficiently established in this
aluminum selling to have been able to pay our house rent,
330
and my father was having to pay it for us. Apparently he felt

it would be less burden on him for us to move back into the
parental home in Salem.
Our First Automobile

About the time I was getting started in this new work, we
acquired the first automobile we ever owned. I had learned
to drive a car when I was assistant secretary of the Chamber
of Commerce at South Bend, Indiana, when I was 23. I had
driven cars a great deal. Often I had borrowed my brother
Russells car, and also my brother Dwights. But it was
impossible to hold these dems without a car.
So an arrangement had been made with my father whereby
I received his cara two-door Ford sedanand he acquired
a better car. Just what the three-cornered deal was is too
cloudy in mind to recall.
So, along about October 1930, we left the house on 75th
Street in Portland, and once again moved in with my parents
on Highland Avenue in Salem.
The religious interest did not diminish. Rather, this new
study of the causes of ill health and disease, and these dems
with their health lectures, only supplemented my continued
study of the Bible.
I learned quite a little about fasting as a means of
eliminating toxins and poisons from the body. Always the
people I visited after a dem, had in the family some of these
common ailments or diseases. Never before had most of them
heard any explanation of why they had these sicknesses.
Most people seemed to suppose it is natural for our bodies
to get sick. But sickness is not natural. Sickness comes only
from broken physical laws within our bodies. Most of the time
it comes from excess of carbohydrates. Part of the time from
malnutritiona lack of essential elements. Under fasting the
body naturally eliminates stored up toxins and poisons.
Many on whom I called were, by fasting followed by right
diet, relieved of rheumatism, constipation, colds and many
other chronic ailments or diseases.
Of course most doctors do not recommend fasting. Many
331
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
M.D.s refer to fasting as a starvation diet. At that time some

doctors seemed to feel that if a patient missed a single meal
or two he or she would starve. No matter what the sickness or
disease, if one were admitted to a hospital, one very probably
was fed, even if intravenously.
Actually, if people would fast more, as animals do by
instinct when sick, and eat more carefully, it might just be
that the doctors would starve, not the patients!
But those doctors wanted to stay in business. They did not
often recommend fasting.
On the other hand, one should not fast for more than three
to five days unless he is under the care of a physician who
does understand and believe in fasting, or someone equally
experienced. And one kind of fasting is required to rid one of
constipation, and another kind is indicated for other situations.
It is regrettable that medical science was so narrow that
it tried to make a cure-all of one thingmedicine; or, in some
cases, of surgery. One doctor confided to his elderly mother
that if all drugs were dumped into the ocean, it would be so
much better for humanity, and so much worse for the fish. But
such was the science of man that all too often it is, as the
Word of God says plainly, science falsely so called. The day
will come when the whole world will wake up to that sad fact!
I never did, on these calls, ask people if I could pray for
their healing. Gods instruction is, Is any sick among you; let
him call for the elders of the church (James 5:14-15). They
are told to ask for it. And I was not then an elder. I was not
then ordained.
However, when the subject of Gods truth did come upas
it frequently didif I found the people I was visiting were
believers, and they asked me to pray for their healing, I
always did. This happened a number of times, and several
were healed. But I had learned never to force religion on any
one, and the approach to the subject had to come from them.
This is Gods way.
What I learned during this year of study and lecturing on
sickness and disease was actually an important part of the
preparation God was taking me through for His ministry.
332
The Near Fight at a Meeting

Along in November 1930, the Runcorns, neighbors of my
parents, asked me to go with them to a business meeting
of brethren of the Church of God being held in the home of
Mrs.Ira Curtis, near Jefferson, Oregon.
Although I was a guestI had never become a member
of this church, whose headquarters was at Stanberry,
Missourithey asked me to act as secretary and take down
the minutes of the meeting. I learned that the meeting was
called for the purpose of organizing these Oregon members
into an Oregon Conference.
I sensed immediately there was a feeling of division among
them. Elder A.N.Dugger was the real leader of the church at
Stanberry. He was editor of the churchs weekly paper sent
to members. He either was, or had been, president of their
general conference. I learned that they were organized as a
general conference, with elections of officers held biannually.
Most of the Oregon members lived in the Willamette Valley
in the vicinity of Jefferson. Most of them were in attendance
at this business meeting.
About half of them were opposed to Elder Dugger. They
wanted to organize a state conference. Some of the other
states had state conferences. The purpose of this Oregon
State Conference was to hold the tithes and church funds
contributed by Oregon members in Oregon.
But actually, it was born of opposition to and dissatisfaction
with the Stanberry membership and state conference. The
other half were just as verbal in their loyalty and support of
Elder Dugger and the Stanberry regime.
The dispute over Stanberry politics and Elder Duggers
personal fitness and integrity waxed more and more heated.
One tall man who weighed considerably over 200, and was
a leader, spoke of dirty politics and called Elder Dugger a
ward-heeler. An equally vociferous man on the other side of
the dispute rose to defend the honor of Mr. Dugger. Words
flamed hotter and hotter. Each side was sincere and in roused
earnest. Under the tense pressure, tempers were flaring. I
became afraid it was going to be settled (or unsettled) by fists.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
At that instant I rose, and in a loud but calm voice asked

if I might say a word. Since I was a guest, they didnt refuse.
Brethren, I said, you all know how, as recorded in the
first chapter of Job, when the sons of God came together,
Satan came also. You also know how, in the 12th chapter of
Revelation we are told that the people Satan is most angry
with are those who keep the commandments of God and have
the testimony of Jesus Christ. That means us. Satan is here.
He is stirring up rage and anger in your hearts. I am going
to drop to my knees right now, and ask God Almighty to cast
Satan out of this house! All of you who wish may kneel with
me and pray silently.
Without another word, I quickly dropped to my knees
beside my chair, and began asking God to rebuke Satan and
this controversial spirit that was rousing these men to anger,
and to drive Satan from our presence, and to give us peace
and love.
When I rose there were some wet eyes, but there were no
angry voices. These people were sincere. They simply believed
what they believed and had allowed themselves to be caught
off guard and roused to anger.
Asked to Conduct Campaign

The state conference was agreed to and formed. The concept
of church government seemed to be that lay members should
be in the offices of authority. Ministers were to be employed,
and under orders from the lay members. This is essentially
the concept of what we call democracy: government from the
bottom up. Those being governed dictate who shall be their
rulers and how their rulers shall rule them.
The most perplexing subject in all the Bible to me was
this matter of church government. I never did come to clear
understanding of the Bible teaching on the subject until after
Ambassador College was formed and well on its way.
I believe that elderly G.A. Hobbs of Oregon City, previ-
ously mentioned, was made the first president of this state
conference, and that O.J. Runcorn, with whom I had come to
this meeting, was president the second year. I have in my old
334
files my Ministerial License Certificate, which is reproduced

in this autobiography, dated March 2, 1932, and signed by
O.J. Runcorn as president and Mrs. I.E. Curtis as secretary.
This was almost a year after I was ordainedprobably my
second certificate.
At the close of this business meeting, the newly elected
officers caused me great embarrassment.
They asked me if I would hold an evangelistic campaign for
them in the church building they rented in Harrisburg. I had
never preached before the public. Only before these brethren
in the Willamette Valley and at Oregon City. As I have stated
before, becoming a preacher was the very last thing I should
ever have wanted to do. I had been literally drawn into what
little preaching had been done before these few brethren.
Most certainly I had never pushed myself in.
But to hold a public evangelistic campaign! Consternation
seized me! By nature, I shrank from the idea. Yet here were
these simple, Bible-loving people looking to me for leadership.
It was as if they were sheep needing a shepherd. They wanted
to get the gospel out. It seemed impossible to refuse. If I was
severely embarrassed at the thought of doing it, it would
be even more embarrassing to refuse. More and more I was
being drawn into the ministry by some power greater than I.
Inexperienced though I still was in the gospel area, I had
come to realize that the success of any campaign depended
more on the amount and earnestness of prayer behind such
a campaign than on the oratory or eloquence of the speaker.
One thing I knew, if God was in itif I were merely an
instrument and God was really conducting the campaignit
was bound to bear fruit.
Embarrassment on the Other Foot

All these things flashed through my mind in a few seconds.
Well, brethren, I replied, I have never preached before a
public audience in my life. All the revivals and evangelistic
services I have attended have wound up in altar calls. Ill
tell you the truthI simply could not do this without a lot
of help from God. And I know that results will depend more
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
on the prayer back of the meetings than on my preaching. In

fact, the effectiveness of the preaching will depend on prayer
and the extent to which I can allow God to speak through
me. This would really be a very hard assignment for me. But
Ill make you brethren a proposition. If every one of you here
at this meeting will pledge yourselves right now to devote
not less than one hour every day to earnest and believing and
prevailing prayer for the success of these meetingsfor God
to help me and speak through mefor God to cause the ones
He is calling and drawing to attendand for God to convict
the ones He is callingand if you will solemnly pledge to keep
up this hour or more a day of prayer, beginning now, and until
the last night of the meetingsthen I will undertake this
campaign. I could do it at the end of December. Our company
does not work from December20 until after New Years Day.
I could start the campaign on Sunday night, December 21,
and 11 nights right up to the end of the year. The Wear Ever
Co. has a convention in Seattle the first week in January and
I must be there. But I will have these 11 nights free.
And now, it was their turn to be embarrassed. Perhaps some
had been spending an hour a day in prayerbut I was sure
most of them had not. Their tempers would not have boiled
over into a near fistfight if they had. But, as I had been too
embarrassed to refuse their offer, they were too embarrassed
to refuse mine. To refuse to devote an hour a day on their
knees would be very unchristian! Yes, that would have been
more embarrassing than to go through with it!
They agreed. They pledged themselves to this intensive
prayer.
I agreed. I was brought one step closer to the ministry of
Christ!
These brethren realized that the Stanberry church was
not getting the gospel to the world with power. In this area
the church was virtually impotent. The Oregon brethren
were anxious to get the Work going. Although I had been
greatly humbled by business reverses not of my making, and
by conversion, they were aware of my past experience in the
business world.
336
And actually, from the time of this business meeting, the

brethren in Oregon looked to me for the leadership that
would revitalize the Work of the gospel. There had been no
minister of the church resident in Oregon. But from this time,
ministers were to be sent there to counteract the favor these
Oregon brethren were showing toward me. Always I was to
meet opposition from the ministers.
The First Public Preaching

You may be sure that I, too, practiced what I demanded of
them. In fact, I was afraid not to. If ever I had needed the
help of God, it was now.
I designed a good-sized circular. This was the first time my
20 years of advertising experience was used in Gods Work.
I did not have the money to have the handbills printed, but
the new conference officials agreed to pay all expenses for
the meetings. I had the circular printed at the job printing
department of the Salem Statesman. I do not remember how
they were distributed, but I think church brethren living near
Harrisburg must have volunteered to do it. The handbills
were distributed to every house in Harrisburg and for some
five miles around.
Even before conversion I had attended two or three evange-
listic campaigns. A businessman, a prosperous and successful
owner of a factory in southeastern Iowa, had conducted a
big tent campaign in Indianola, Iowa, during the summer
of 1923. At that time I was working with my brother-in-law,
Walter Dillon, on his college oratory, and also conducting a
merchandising survey for an Indianola weekly paper.
I had attended several of these meetings. The businessman
was a vigorous speaker, somewhat of the Billy Sunday style.
He had a very effective song leader and teammuch as Billy
Graham was to do later on a much larger scale. Always there
were altar callsthe traditional sawdust trail. Workers
urged people of the audience to go forward.
In my inexperience, I took these traditional methods for
granted. In these beginning years of my ministry I went
along with many of these religious practicesand even some
337
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
doctrinescommonly accepted by the evangelical denomina-

tions, and which I later had to UNlearn.
I had to learn one doctrine, and one truth, at a time.
The little church building in the little town of Harrisburg,
then about 500 population, had seating capacity of perhaps
150. On the first Sunday night we had about 100 or more in
attendance.
I think the attendance dropped a little after the first night,
but it held up not far under a hundred. Our little group of
church brethren assembled in the church about an hour and a
half early each evening, and had their hour of prayer together
in the church.
We did not have droves of hundreds or thousands hitting
the sawdust trail, but God did give us four who were
converted in the meetings.
However, we knew that the greatest good done was the
spiritual revival that took place in the church brethren as a
result of that hour a day spent in solid prayer!
They were a changed people! They were happy. They were
closer to Godand this was evidenced by their manner, their
conversation, their lives!
WHO Should Baptize?

The subject of water baptism had been the very first I had
studied in the Bible, after my original surrender to Christ.
Now I had four new converts to be baptized. One of those was
my own brother, Dwight Armstrong.
But who was to baptize them? I was not an ordained minister.
A young minister of the Church of God, who had been
sent out from Stanberry, Missouri, headquarters, had been
in an automobile accident in Harrisburg. He was confined to
bed with a broken leg at the time. I consulted him. It was a
problem neither of us had confronted before.
We looked at Matthew 28:19-20.
Go ye, said Jesus in His great commission, therefore,
and teach all nations, baptizing them . It appeared that
whoever taught those who repented and accepted Christ was
to do the baptizing. Nothing was said about being ordained.
338
We examined Acts 2:37-41the initial New Testament

experience on the day of Pentecost. Three thousand were
baptized. It was evident that the 12 disciples of Jesus could
hardly have baptized this vast number.
In Acts 8, Philip, a deacon, and apparently not yet at that
time an ordained evangelist, baptized those to whom he
preached at Samaria, and later the Ethiopian eunuch.
We decided that I had the authority of God to baptize those
converted during my first public preaching.
I baptized them.
This brought stern criticism from authorities higher up
in the church. There was criticism because the conference
paid expenses when I was not even a member. In fact, from
this time, I was to meet continued criticism, opposition, perse-
cution and political maneuvering by ministers. But the lay
members looked more and more to me for leadership.
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24
ORDAINED TO
CHRISTS MINISTRY
T HE YEAR 1931 DAWNED FOR MRS.
Armstrong and me, like those preceding, with dark and

overcast skies. It was one more of the economically lean years.
It was an exceedingly high-point year in my life. It was the
year in which I was ordained as a minister of Christs gospel,
plunged full-time into the ministry. Yet this very ordination
was to foment multiplied opposition and persecution from the
Stanberry ministers.
God did not induct me into His service as an imposing
figure impressing others as a man of importance, wisdom
and distinction.
Rather, the Eternal put me into His ministry a good deal
like the Apostle Paul, who wrote: And I, brethren, when I
came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom
. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much
trembling (1Corinthians 2:1-3).
Greenhorn Tail-End Minister

I was no vip entering the ministry. There was no red-carpet
welcomeno pomp and ceremonyno spectacular acclaim. It
would not have been Gods doing had it started out auspiciously.
Everything God does through human instruments must start
340
with a humble beginning, the very smallest. God brings down
low and to naught the proud and the lofty. The Eternal is able
to exalt in His own due time those He first humbles.
Every person has his idol. God cannot receive and convert
a human life until his idol has been smashed or torn from him.
My idol had been an egotistical sense of self-importancea
cocky self-assurancea passion to become successfulto
attain statusin the eyes of the material world. God is
creating in those He calls a righteous character which can be
developed only through experience; and experience requires
time. God has a lot of timeHe is EternalHe has always
existedHe always will.
It took time to eradicate from my heart the love of the
praise of men. God gave me, instead, the false accusations,
the unwarranted oppositions, the scheming persecutions of
jealous, competitive-minded ministers. It required time to
bring me to a place where I no longer set my heart on material
possessions and the finer things of this material world.
This process required not one or two yearsnot sevenbut
four sevens! For 28 financially lean and humiliating years out
of the very prime of life, God continued to root out of my life
and character this vain idolatry!
From the first, and for some time, I was treated by the
ministers as the greenhorn tailender among them. They used
every practice and device constantly to humiliate me and
belittle me in the eyes of the brethren. I needed thisand I
knew God knew I needed it! Aware of my need of humility, I
felt, myself, that I was the least of the ministers. However,
the brethren loved me and continued looking to me for
leadership. The only fruit being borne resulted from my
efforts. This, naturally, was the very reason for the opposition
and persecution.
And so the year 1931 dawned.
The Convention at Seattle

The first evangelistic campaign was over. It was just a short
11-night campaign in the little rented church building in
Harrisburg, Oregon. Attendance had been good for such a
341
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
small townaround 100. I had not known better than to

follow the Protestant evangelical method of giving altar
calls for repentant sinners accepting Christ to come up to
the altar and kneel. Four had come and been baptized.
The pastor of one of the churches in the neighboring larger
town, Junction City, asked me to hold a campaign in his
church. I do not remember which church, but I believe it was
the Baptist.
I was still dependent on my job with the Wear Ever
Aluminum Co., giving dinner dems with health lectures and
selling their new method heavy aluminum utensils. It was
necessary that I attend the annual convention of their Pacific
Northwest sales force in Seattle, beginning at or after the
first week in January.
This prevented any extended campaign at the church
in Junction City. However, it was arranged that I should
hold three special services thereon Saturday night, and
on Sunday afternoon, and Sunday nightwith the pastor
himself holding his usual Sunday morning service.
I shall never forget the thrill of accomplishment and
thankfulness I experienced as I rode with the Runcorns back
to Salem after the Harrisburg meetings. It was a deeper and
far more intense sensation than I had ever experienced at a
football game.
The Wear Ever district convention was held at the
New Richmond Hotel in Seattle. There I met all of the
top-ranking salesmen of the districtsome of whom were
of the high-pressure type and extremely successful, earning
large incomes.
However, this convention was somewhat disillusioning.
Actual appointments in homes, with a husband and wife
who ostensibly were attending a dem lecture, were acted
out. The entire district sales force saw these top-ranking
salesmen in simulated action. I came to realize that these
men who were in the big money used high-pressure methods
which I, as a Christian, could not employ. It became apparent
that I could never get into the big-money bracket on this
kind of a job. I was not making enough to meet the actual
342
24 | Ordained to Christs Ministry
needs of my familyjust enough to keep us from starving.

I did, however, learn things I had not known about health,
nutrition and diet, causes of disease, etc. One thing I learned
which seemed importantthe reason why one mans meat is
another mans poison.
Different individuals are of varying chemical types. One
person would be classified as the potassium type. The
element potassium is somewhat dominating in his physical
constitution. These people are said to be the outdoor type,
usually extroverts loving to be with other people.
The salesmen analyzed and classified one another
as to chemical types. I gave the most expert among
them considerable difficulty. I seemed to be a mixture of
several types, but they finally agreed that calcium was the
dominating chemical constituency in my makeup. This must
be true, because I require more calcium than most people.
Calcium is found in largest quantities in milk and milk
products. I seem to crave and need a goodly amount of milk,
cheese and butter.
The First Funeral

We were still living, at this time, with my parents in Salem.
Shortly after returning to Salem from the convention in
Seattle, a death occurred in the family of a young couple,
Mr.and Mrs. Milas C.Helms, who lived near Jefferson.
Parents of both of them were members of the Church of God.
Their baby son, Richard Leon, born November 23, 1930, had
died on Monday, January12, 1931.
I was contacted and asked to conduct the funeral. This was
a new and frightening experience for me. The dread and fear
of it grew.
As the day of the funeral dawned, this dread had almost
driven me berserk.
I cant do it! I kept saying. I just cant go through with it!
I wont! I wont do it! I finally shouted.
Not many times in my life did my fathers powerful bass
voice speak sharply and with authority to me. This was one
of those few times.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Herbert! Dads voice cracked like a sudden thunderclap,

in unmistakable authority. Snap out of that instantly!
Wake up! Come to your senses! Those people are stricken
with grief! They are depending on you! You cant let them
down! You are going to sit right down and prepare this
funeral sermon. Then you are going down there and fulfill
this obligation!
If I had been almost out of my senses, this brought me back
instantly. It was like a sudden awakening from a nightmare.
Yes, Dad, I said. Thanks for waking me up. Ill ask God
to help me, and I will do it.
I had attended very few funerals. I did not know what
customary funeral sermons were like. I did not want to know.
I felt it would only be a pagan ceremony. I merely prayed and
asked God to direct me through His Word. Soon I had a short
sermon worked out from the Scriptures, reading certain basic
scriptures on the subject of death and the resurrection, with
a few brief comments expounding them.
It turned out that only a graveside service had been planned.
When the moment came for me to officiate, my prayer for
Gods help was answered, and I was calm, sympathetic and
in sincere earnest.
That brief sermon from the Scriptures, together with the
grief of losing their little son, deeply affected and moved Mike
and Pearl Helms, and resulted in bringing them to repentance
and conversion through Christ as their Savior.
It was the beginning of a very close friendship and
Christian fellowship between us for several years to come.
I have always had a very special warm spot in my heart
for Mike Helms, and I feel sure it is mutual. We were to
go through many rough experiences together in Gods
Workexperiences which brought us together like two
close brothers.
Mike was a vegetable gardener, and a very successful one.
He was a natural leader. Inevitably, you will read quite a lot
about him if you continue reading this story of my life, for he
became closely connected with it and the many experiences I
must relate from this point on.
344
We Move Again
Through the first half of the year 1931 the study and lectures
on the causes of sickness and disease continued. Enough of
the heavy aluminum was sold to keep the family alivebut
no more.
Two or three cases during that time come back to memory.
One man in Salem was troubled with chronic constipation
and with rheumatism. After my first visit to his home he
went on a 10-day fast, followed by a diet of natural vegeta-
bles and fruits, lean meats and whole grainsa diet free of
starches, fats and white sugar. Both the rheumatism and
the constipation disappeared. Another case was a man who
had ulcers of the stomach. He could not even drink milk and
hold it down. Yet a milk diet, with nothing else for many
weeks, was his logical corrective. I squeezed a half lemon
into a glass of milk, stirred it, and had him drink it. Of
course it curdled slightly. He held it in his stomach, and was
started on his milk diet. His stomach healed over naturally
after several weeks.
Because I thoroughly believed in what I was doing, I held
dems for the Church brethren in the Jefferson area. Most
of them purchased the heavy aluminum, and began eating
natural foods.
In the spring of 1931 my father bought a small farm about
15 miles south of Oregon City, trading their home in Salem
for the farm. Of course my brother Russell had been married
several years and was living in Portland, and my sister also
was married and living in Portland. My youngest brother,
Dwight, went with the folks to the farm.
At that time we moved to a house on East State Street
in Salem. A number of events were to happen to us in that
houseamong others, little Garner Ted being miraculously
given his voice. When Ted had been about 6 months old he
had fallen out of his crib, landing on his head on the floor.
From that time he had been dumb, and he never learned to
speak a word until he was past 2 years old. But that is getting
ahead of our story. He was about 14 months when we first
moved to the State Street house.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
R.L. Taylor Arrives

In early summer of that year a former Seventh-Day
Adventist (sda) minister, a RobertL.Taylor, came to Oregon
from California. It was practice among these Church of God
people to hold all-day meetings about once a month. It was
at one of these meetings that Mr.Taylor preached. We were
all quite impressed.
Hes a better preacher than any of the leading ministers
from Stanberry, seemed to be the common exclamation.
Indeed we were all rather swept off our feet by his preaching.
After a few weeks, the brethren of this Oregon Conference,
which had been formed the preceding November, wanted to
team Elder Taylor with me to hold an evangelistic campaign.
They were becoming anxious to see a little life in the work
of the Church.
They found Elder Taylor very receptive to the idea. By this
time a modest balance had accumulated in the new conference
treasury. You will remember that the object in forming this
state conference was to create a local state treasury and keep
their tithes and offerings in the state, instead of being sent to
Stanberry, Missouri. These were days of rapidly descending
economic depression, but several of these brethren were
vegetable gardeners. They were doing very well financially.
Elder Taylor said he would be glad to undertake this
campaign with me, suggesting it be held in Eugenefor
reasons I was to learn later. We decided to speak on alternate
nights, the one not speaking to lead in the song service.
This made it necessary that the Oregon Conference ordain
me to the ministry.
ORDAINED Christs Minister

Being ordained and entering the ministry full-time meant
a complete change in my life. In former years the idea of
becoming a minister was the very last thing I should have
wanted to do. But by June 1931, I had been preaching a great
deal for 3 years. By this time my whole heart was in it.
I had come to see, at the Seattle salesmens convention,
that this aluminum sales job was not permanently compatible
346
with the Christian life. I was unable to adopt some of the

high-pressure methodsin the interest of the salesmans
commission, but not in the customers interestwhich the
top-ranking salesmen employed. I knew I could never make
more than a bare existence for my family. And anyway, by
this time I think I recognized that God had called me to His
ministry.
I had remained in this aluminum selling only because I
realized I was acquiring valuable knowledge about food and
diet, and the causes of sickness and disease. But now I had
devoted a year to this study. There was no point in continuing.
The decision was not difficult. God had now brought me to
the place where I really heard the voice of Christ as if He
were saying, Come, and follow me, and I will make you a
fisher of men.
It was decided by the officers of the conference that on the
next all-day meeting I was to be ordained.
I shall never forget that moment of my ordination.
The meeting was being held outdoors. I do not remember
whereexcept it was in the general rural area of Jefferson. I
do not remember other circumstances.
But I do remember the ordination itself. It was one of those
once-in-a-lifetime experiences like being married, and being
baptized. Only this seemed to me to be the most momentous
event of my entire life.
All the brethrenas many as could get their hands
through to my headlaid their hands on meon my head,
my shoulders, my chest and my back.
I am sure it was the weight of the experience, from a spiritual
and emotional standpoint, rather than the physical weight
of hands and armsbut it seemed I was entirely weighted
down with the heaviest load I had ever stood up under.
To me this was symbolic of the tremendous responsibility
that now came down on my head and shoulders.
And let it be made plain here: I was ordained by, and
under the authority of, the Oregon Conference of the Church
of God, separately incorporated; not by the Stanberry,
Missouri, headquarters.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Coincidence?or DESIGN!
This brings us to a series of almost incredible facts. Whether
strange coincidence or planned acts of God, I cannot now say.
But these are facts, nonetheless.
I never recognized these facts until just a few months
before the writing of this present chapter. Certainly this
strange chain of occurrences was not of my planning.
Here, then, are the actual facts:
First, Jesus Christ began His earthly ministry at about
age 30. God took away my business, moved me from Chicago,
started bringing me to repentance and conversion preparatory
to inducting me into His ministry, when I was 30!
Second, Jesus began the actual teaching and training of
His original disciples for carrying His gospel to the world in
the year a.d. 27. Precisely 100 time-cycles later, in 1927, He
began my intensive study and training for carrying His same
gospel to all nations of todays world.
100 Time-Cycles
It is important that we realize the significance of 100
time-cycles!
God set the Earth, sun and moon in their orbits to mark
off divisions of time on the Earth. One revolution of the
Earth is a day. One revolution of the moon around the Earth
is a lunar month (according to Gods sacred calendar). One
revolution of the Earth around the sun is a solar year. But
the Earth, the sun and the moon come into almost exact
conjunction only once in 19 years. Thus 19 years mark off
one complete time-cycle!
Now consider further factswhether strange coincidence
or providential design.
The actual ordination, or completing of the ordination and
enduement of power for sending out the original disciples into
the ministry occurred after 3 years of intensive instruction
and experience. It was on the day of Pentecost. And the year
was a.d.31.
Exactly 100 time-cycles later, after 3 years of intensive
study and training, Christ ordained me to preach this same
348
gospel of the Kingdom in all the world as a witness to all

nations (Matthew24:14). This ordination took place at, or
very near, the day of Pentecost 1931.
I do not remember the exact day of the month of this
ordination. No special significance was attached to the date
then. Most of those who participated are now dead. But the
date was June 1931.
But that is not all! Consider further!
More Amazing Parallels!

Christ started out His original apostles preaching the very
gospel of the Kingdom which God had sent by Him, and which
He had taught the apostles, in the year a.d. 31. For exactly
one 19-year time-cycle this preaching was confined to the
continent where it startedAsia. After precisely one 19-year
time-cycle, a.d. 50, Christ opened a door for the Apostle Paul
to carry the same gospel to Europe! This was a.d. 50. Before
a.d. 70, Roman armies besieged Jerusalem. From that time
the Roman government stamped out the organized mass
spreading of the gospel of Christ. Soon a different gospel was
being tolerated, later endorsed and then enforced by Roman
government. It was Roman paganism now being palmed off
under the new name Christianity.
For nearly 19 centuries the world has been rendered
spiritually drunk on the wine of this counterfeit gospel! As
prophecy foretold, all nations have been deceived. But
looking into our time, just before the end of this age, Jesus
foretold that His same original gospel of the Kingdom of God
was to be preached and published (Mark 13:10) in all the
world as a witness to all nations! (Matthew24:14). This was
to immediately precede His Second Coming!
TODAY THIS IS BEING DONE! Now consider this
amazing parallel!
God first opened a doorthat of radio and the printing
pressfor the mass proclaiming of His original true gospel
the first week in 1934! The exact date was January 7, 1934.
Exactly one time-cycle later, January 7, 1953, God opened
wide the massive door of the most powerful commercial radio
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
station on Earth, and Radio Luxembourg began broadcasting

Christs gospel to Europe and Britain!
What startling coincidences!or are they mere coincidences?
My First Extended Campaign

My ordination ended the dems and selling of aluminum. The
state conference employed Mr. Taylor and me as evangelists
at salaries of $20 per week. Remember this was 1931. The
country was undergoing rapid deflation.
Immediately Mr. Taylor and I went to Eugene. The conference
owned a small tent. With a small platform across the front, we
were able to set up 50 folding chairsthat is all50!
This tent was pitched on a vacant lot in Eugene on West 10th
Avenue. I rented a room with a small kitchenette on the second
floor of a house across the street, within the same block. Mr.
Taylor and his wife had moved to a small chicken ranch on the
outskirts of Eugene. They had a car. I must have left mine in
Salem. It probably died of old age at that time, or shortly later.
I do not remember about preliminary advertising, but we
must have had some. I was entirely too advertising-conscious
after my long years in that profession to have started without it.
I opened the first Sunday nights meeting as MC and song
leader. Elder Taylor preached. The tent was full50 people.
On Monday night he opened the song service, and I
preached. Thus we continued for the six weeks, alternating
each night. Services were held six nights a weeknone on
Saturday nights.
In Portland I had gained some little experience with
Pentecostal people. I had been somewhat overawed by their
speaking in tongues, and their glib testimony. I had not yet
at that time fully understood it. But I had noticed that most
of these people refused to obey Gods commandments; almost
none had any real sound understanding of the Bible; they
customarily had a wide knowledge of certain scattered texts
verses or partial verseswhich they usually misapplied,
entirely out of context, putting only a meaning of pseudo-
spirituality on them. They spoke in what was supposed to
be spiritual-sounding language. They loved to show offto
350
brag, especially about their own spirituality which usually

consisted of sentimentality and emotion.
The brethren in the Willamette Valley had been decidedly
antagonistic toward tongues speaking and Pentecostalism
in general. Elder Taylor had also appeared to be opposed to it.
But a couple families of Pentecostal people began attending
our tent meetings in Eugene. Soon I noticed that Mr.Taylor
was especially friendly to them. He welcomed and gradually
began to encourage their loud amens and hallelujahs and
praise the Lord expressions during his preaching.
But for the first few weeks I thought little of it.
Sole Fruit Borne

This was my first ministerial experience teaming with another
man. Jesus sent His disciples out two and two together. The
teaming of two ministers together certainly has biblical
precedence and approval. But if God refuses to use either
member of the team, no spiritual results can be produced by
the team. This lesson I was to learn.
I was surprised, somewhat incredulous, somewhat discour-
aged, as our meetings wore on, to notice that no fruit was
being borne. I could not understand it.
Then one night the lone exception occurred.
It was an exceedingly stormy night. Mr. Taylor and I went
over to our tent to loosen slightly the ropes, so the shrinkage
from soaking would not up-stake them, and also to drive down
the stakes more securely. It was a nasty night. We did not
expect anyone to come. While we were there, one couple who
had attended regularly drove up in the storm. I had noticed
this couple. I had felt sorry for them. I supposed they were
very poor peoplewhy, I didnt know, except that he was as
far from being handsome as Abraham Lincoln had been, and
she had no beauty of the worldly sort. Later I was to be much
surprised to find that they were very successful and prosperous,
though thrifty, farmersleaders in their community.
I had not, up to this stormy evening, become acquainted
with them further than shaking hands with them at the
tent entrance.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
No one else came that night. No service could have been

held in the tent.
It would simply be a dirty shame for you to have come all the
way into town on such a terrible night, and then be deprived
of a service, I said sympathetically. Why not come on over
to my room, and we can at least have a Bible study together?
That would be splendid, smiled Mrs. Fisher. I had never
known their names before.
Well count me out, answered Mr. Taylor. Its too stormy
to stay around here. Im going home.
This was my first shock of disappointment in Mr. Taylor.
He had been my ideal as a minister. But one incident like
this could not cause me to lose confidence in him.
Over in my room, Mrs. Fisher said, I wonder if you would
mind giving us a Bible study on the question of which day is
the Sabbath of the New Testament. My husband believes the
only Bible Sabbath is Saturday. But it never seemed possible
to me that all these churches could be wrong. Id like to have
you explain just what the Word of God says.
Why, I replied in some surprise, that is exactly the way
I felt when my wife began keeping the Sabbath. That is the
very thing that started me studying the Bibleto prove that
all these churches cant be wrong. Ill be very happy to open
the Bible and show you what I was forced to see for myself.
This is the very question that resulted in my conversion.
After my opening up the Scriptures, and having Mrs.
Fisher read them for herselfand after answering her rather
sharp questions later, and explaining some vague passages
she brought up, she smiled and said, I thank you, Brudder
Armstrongshe was Swedish, and talked just a trifle
brokenly, it is all clear now. My husband and I will keep the
Sabbath together from now on.
And that was the sum total of the tangible results produced
by this entire six-week campaign!
But God was to use Mr. Elmer Fisher and Mrs. Margaret
Fisher in a most important way in raising up this very Work
which now thunders the true gospel of Christ worldwide into
every continent on Earth! You will read much of them later!
352
Suspicious Incidents
As our tent campaign progressed, a few little incidents began
more and more to disturb me in regard to Brother Taylor.
I began to notice that he was becoming much more
chummy with the two Pentecostal families than others who
were attending. Finally he asked me to attend an all-night
tarry meeting they were going to have out at his place
following our evening meeting.
You need a deeper spiritual experience, he said to me.
You need to pray, and agonize, and tarry until you receive
your baptism of the Holy Ghost, he said.
Brother Taylor, I answered, I know I need a deeper spiri-
tual experience. I do want a still closer fellowship and contact
with God. But I prefer to seek it the way Jesus attained itby
going out to a solitary placeperhaps up on a mountainor,
at least as Jesus commanded, to enter into a closet or small
room, alone with God, and pray.
I shall never forget his astonishing answer.
Youll never get your baptism that way, brother! he said
sharply, with emphasis.
I was shockedand disappointed.
Im sorry, I replied firmly, but if this baptism is something
I cant get the way Jesus taught and commandedif it is
something I have to get from men and cannot receive from
God while alone with Him, then it is something I do not want!
Prior to this, Mr. Taylor had come to me and said, Brother
Armstrong, our peoplereferring to the brethren of the
Oregon Conferenceare not spiritual enough. We need to
seek a closer walk with God. To this I had agreed.
Now it began to dawn on me that Mr. Taylor was, little
by little, attempting to lead the Church into the very thing
he had told them, in his sermons, he was againstthis
wild-fire Pentecostalism. When he had first heard that the
brethren were against it, he assured them he was also against
it. But now, by careful and adroit methods, he was gradually
beginning to try to introduce this very thing.
Was he, himself, just beginning to believe he had been
wrong? Had he been honest and sincere? Was he now honest
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
in claiming God was opening his eyes to see that we were not
spiritual enough?
Why, didnt you know? later exclaimed a man who had
known Mr. Taylor much longer than we had, Taylor has
always been Pentecostal. He just pretended he wasnt in order
to get in with the Church.
But from the moment I turned down his tarry meeting
invitation, his attitude toward me became coldly courteous,
and I sensed repressed hostility.
Correcting a Member
During this tent campaign in Eugene, we attended Sabbath
services with brethren at the church building in Harrisburg.
One elderly brother whose name was Rough as nearly as I
remember (pronounced Row) had been, in his deep sincerity
and zeal for a certain contention, stirring up a row at nearly
every service.
He lived out east of Eugene on the Mackenzie Highway.
He contended the Church was in error on one scripture. He
could shout his antagonism like a lions roar. The brethren
wanted Mr. Taylor and me to visit him and see if we could not
change his mind or at least quiet him.
I had just read, sometime previous, an article in the old
American Magazine on how to win an argument. The idea
was to make your opponent first state his case fully. Ask him
questions. Make him state every detail. Exhaust him, till
he has nothing more to say. Just listendo not reply to any
of his argumentsuntil you have made him state them all.
Then summarize his entire position briefly, showing you fully
understand his argument. State it even more clearly than he
did, if possible.
Then agree with him on those points where you find you actu-
ally are in agreement. Then, finally, tear apart his remaining
arguments, disproving themleaving him without anything to
come back with.
We decided to use this method. In our morning session,
before noon dinner, we just listened to his reasons. We asked
questions, but gave no answers. We drew him out exhaustively.
354
Mrs. Rough had prepared a delicious chicken dinner. I

think this was my first experience with the custom of serving
chicken when the minister is the guest. I never understood
the reason for it. But I was to eat a great deal of chicken from
that time on.
After dinner, we questioned old Brother Rough some more,
until he simply had to drift into silence for want of anything
more to say.
Then we summarized his arguments, and got him to agree
we thoroughly understood his reasonswhich he had always
claimed the Church was not willing to understand. Next we
agreed on certain points.
But, finally, we riddled his whole conclusion by scriptures he
had not considered, which totally reversed his whole argument.
It left him without any answer or comeback. The lions roar
had been reduced to a kittens meow. There were no more
explosive eruptions from that time on to disturb Sabbath
school or Church servicesand he remained friendly.
Building a Church
As our campaign neared its close, Mr. Taylor was promoting
with the Church brethren the idea of building a church building
in Eugene. Actually, there were no members in Eugene. Some
lived a few miles north, but most of them lived north of Junction
City or Harrisburgalthough two families lived out east of
Eugene on the Mackenzie Highway.
The Eugene campaign added only the Fishers and, I believe,
one other man who continued only for a while.
It was planned that I was to leave Eugene and put on a
campaign up in St. Helens, Oregon, 25 miles north of Portland,
with a minister by the name of Roy Dailey, who had just
returned from Stanberry or points in the Midwest. The confer-
ence had just employed him. There were now three of us on the
payroll at $20 per week. At this rate the conference treasury
was soon going to be empty.
But Elder Taylor was to remain at Eugene, superintending
the new building. Many events were to take place in that
little church building.
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25
EVANGELISTIC
CAMPAIGNS IN
FULL SWING
M Y FIRST FULL-LENGTH EVANGELISTIC
campaign with Elder Robert L.Taylor in Eugene, Oregon, came

to its almost fruitless end. Mr. and Mrs. Elmer E. Fisher, who
lived seven miles west of Eugene, were the only ones added to
the Church by this campaign. And they had been brought in by
a private Bible study in my roomnot in a preaching service.
Mr. Taylor had induced the Oregon Conference members
to build a church building in Eugene. He felt sure he could
build up a good congregation there.
It turned out that Mr. Taylor had, for some little time
previous to our campaign, been in the retail lumber business in
Eugene. He had apparently failed, and salvaged out of it only
a small amount of lumber. This lumber, although not enough
to build it, was put into the new little church building. The
money for the remaining lumber, and all other expenses, was
contributed by the church members. The members purchased
a 50-foot lot just outside city limits on West 8th Street.
However, because of the lumber he donated, Mr. Taylor
managed to have the entire property deeded in his name
356
personally. Before leaving Eugene, I attended one service
in the new church building. It was entirely unfinished. The
siding had not been put on the outside. Slabs of plaster wall-
board had been nailed up on inside walls, but the cracks had
not been filled in, nor had it been painted. Folding chairs were
brought in for seats. A small speakers stand substituted for a
pulpit. Actually, that was as far as Mr. Taylor was to proceed
in finishing the church.
The St. Helens Campaign

The officers of the conference decided to team me up with Mr.
Dailey, since Mr. Taylor was staying on in Eugene to try to
build up a congregation for the new church building, still to
be completed. Actually, he never added a single member.
We were assigned to go to St. Helens, Oregon, 25 miles
north of Portland, on the west bank of the Columbia River.
In West St. Helens, sometimes called Houlton, lived a very
zealous member of the church, Mrs. Mary Tompkins. She
was filled with zeal and a spirit of lovealthough we were
to learn that she had more love and zeal than wisdom. Mary
Tompkins was a worker. She witnessed for Christ in a
most active way. She had for a long time pleaded with the
conference to send evangelists for a campaign in St. Helens.
She assured them there was a tremendous interest there.
So the conference sent us.
Arriving in St. Helens, we first sought out a hall for meetings
and rented a second-floor hall. I do not remember whether it
was the old K.P. Hall or the old Masonic Hall. Whichever lodge,
it had built a new one. However this old hall was reasonably
attractive, and appeared quite desirable.
Next we went directly to the newspaper and placed a half-
page advertisement, ordering a few thousand reprints to be
distributed as circulars.
Then while we awaited the first Sunday night service, I
spent some three or four days going from house to house,
inviting people personally to come, and leaving a circular. I
was surprised at two things. Practically everybody I invited,
except those Mary Tompkins had talked to, promised to
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
attend. Elder Dailey and I saw visions of having to hang out

the sro (Standing Room Only) sign. But I was even more
surprised to find, at the many homes where Mrs. Tompkins
had visited, that the people were hostile and regarded this
dear, well-meaning lady as a pest.
Sunday night came. But the expected crowds did not! To
our utter dismay, not a soul showed up!
We couldnt understand it. On Monday, I went to the
newspaper office to see if they had an explanation. They had.
Of course nobody came, the man grinned. That hall has
been condemned as a firetrap. Everybody knew that but you.
And you took our half-page ad and our moneyand also
our money for all those reprints, and didnt tell us a word!
I exploded.
He only grinned.
I felt he really needed some of our fiery gospel preaching!
But we didnt give up immediately. We returned to the hall
on Monday night. One couple came. I then heard something
I had never heard before in my life. Mr. Dailey mounted the
platform, walked behind the pulpit, and preached an entire
sermon. And I mean preached! His style had a bit of the old
preachy toneand he preached, full volume, just as if the
hall were packed with people. And to only two people! That
was a new experience for me!
Well, we know now, Mr. Dailey said as we went back
to our room after this meeting, that we are not going to
have a crowd here. But I know a place where we can draw a
crowdover in Umapine. Its in eastern Oregon, near Walla
Walla, Washington. I have visited one of our members there,
Bennie Preston. We can stay at his house and save room rent,
and we can draw enough people there to make it worthwhile.
Next morning, early, he started out in his car for Jefferson,
Oregon, to get permission from the conference board for this
switch to Umapine, and a little additional expense money.
On Tuesday night, left in St. Helens alone, I went again to
the hall. Two couples of young people came. I did not preach.
Instead I sat down with them and had an informal Bible
study, letting them ask questions, and answering them.
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25 | Evangelistic Campaigns in Full Swing
On our long trek in Mr. Daileys car over to Umapine, we

exchanged views on a lot of things. I was especially puzzled
over the matter of church organization. Not yet having come
to see and understand the plain and clear Bible teaching,
I had gone along with the Oregon Conference in its idea
of government by the lay members. In this conference the
governing board was composed solely of lay members. They
hired and fired the ministers.
If we were to have the ideal organization, opined Mr.Dailey,
all the officers would be ministersnot laymen. This
sounded strange to me at the time. But the question of church
organization and government was to keep coming up in my
mind for years before it was finally to become clear. Remember,
I still was driven by the persistent question: Where is the
one true Churchthe same one Jesus founded? This Church
of God, with national headquarters at Stanberry, Missouri,
seemed to be closer to the understanding of Bible truth than
anyyet I was unable to reconcile myself that such a small
and, especially such a fruitless church could be that dynamic
fruit-bearing spiritual organism in which, and through which,
Christ was working. Surely the instrument Christ was using
would be more alivemore productive! Yet I had not found it!
The Meeting at Umapine

We were welcomed by Bennie Preston and his wife, and given
a room where Roy Dailey and I slept in the same bed. We
quickly rented a hall on the main street, ground floor.
Here, as Mr. Dailey had promised, results were different.
We certainly did not have a crowd of thousands, but atten-
dance, as I remember, ran between 35 and 50 which, at the
time, we considered satisfactory. We had no local church to
swell attendance. We were unknown, locally. None of the
factors that produce great crowds was present.
One little event I shall never forget. Bennie Preston
raised some sheep. He decided to butcher one for us. He had
impressed me as a man filled with true Christian love.
I should hate to kill this tame, loving little sheep, he said,
if it were not true that God created sheep to produce wool and
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
meat for man. That is their only purpose in existence. Man has
a different and far greater purposeto become sons of God.
Still, Mr. Preston loved that helpless little sheep, now
about to give its life as food for us. He led it to a spot in his
backyard. He lovingly caressed it first. Then he hit it a hard,
stunning blow on top of the head with the sharp edge of a
small sledge hammer, and quickly slit its throat to drain out
the blood. The sheep suffered no pain. The sharp, quick blow
rendered it instantly unconscious.
We Separate
After about two weeks of our Umapine meetings, a letter
from Mrs. Florence Curtis, secretary of the state conference,
informed us that a business meeting of the board had been
called for only two or three days after our receipt of the letter.
I know what this meeting is all about, said Mr. Dailey. It
means the conference treasury is running out of funds. They
are going to have to lay off at least two of us three ministers.
If we dont go back there and protect our interests, at this
meeting, they will be sure to let you and me out, and keep
Elder Taylor on. Were going to start back to the Willamette
Valley at 5:30 tomorrow morning.
But Roy, I protested, we are only halfway through our
meetings here!
Aw, we wont accomplish anything by staying here.
Whatever we accomplish is in Gods hands, I replied. We
are merely His instruments. God has sent us here to preach
His gospel. We have people coming. The interest is increasing,
and so is the attendance. Im going to let God protect my
personal interests at that conference board meeting, Roy; but
Im going to stay right on the job where He has put me, and
continue those meetings.
Elder Dailey was now becoming a little nettled and
disgusted with me.
I told you Im starting for the valley at 5:30 in the
morning, he returned. If you dont go with me, youll force
the conference to have to pay your bus fare to get you back
home. They wont like that.
360
But I was just as firm as he.

Regardless of what the men on the board like, I know God
would not like it if I desert while Im here on duty. To me it
would be like deserting an army, and running away, in the
thick of battle in a war. This is Gods battle. He put me here,
and I am staying right here on the spiritual firing line until
the campaign is over!
Why must men always consider only their own personal
interestsand cater to what men will like?
I know Mr. Dailey thought I was wrong. He sincerely
believed I was wrong most of the time from then on. But to
me it was a matter of duty, and a matter of principle, and a
matter of obeying God.
At precisely 5:30 next morning, Mr. and Mrs. Preston and
I bade Elder Dailey goodbye, and he started alone, giving me
final warning that the brethren were not going to like my
remaining behind and costing them extra bus fare to get home.
As it turned out, the special business meeting was called
off, and Mr. Dailey had raced back to the Valley for naught.
But later, just as he anticipated, both he and I were laid off
and Elder Taylor kept onbut not until after I had returned
from completing the campaign.
Left AloneFruit Borne

I continued the meetings alone.
Interest continued to pick up at the meetings in the hall.
Results were not greatbut there were results! Details are
rather hazy in memory, now. I am not sure whether Mrs.
Preston had already been converted and baptized, or whether
she was converted by these meetings.
In any event, we had a total of five by the close of the
meetings. There were three or four to be baptized. I learned
that a son of our conference president, the elderly G.A. Hobbs,
was a local elder in the Seventh-Day Adventist church. I went
to this younger Mr. Hobbs, and through him arranged for the
use of the baptistery in the church.
Before leaving, I organized the five members into a local
Sabbath school, to meet at the home of Bennie Preston,
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
appointing Mr. Preston as superintendent and teacher. This

should have grown. But there was no minister to feed the
flock and protect it from wolves in sheeps clothing. Bennie
Preston was a substantial and upright man, but he lacked
the leadership and qualifications of a minister.
This tiny flock endured for a while. But some little time
later, Mrs. Preston died. I am not sure whether this was
the cause of the disintegration of the little Sabbath school,
but Mr. Preston was hit a demoralizing blow by her death.
Some years later he moved to the Willamette Valley. He had
remarried by then.
This Umapine experience was one more in which no fruit
could be borne as long as I teamed with one of the ministers of
this church, connected with or springing from the Stanberry,
Missouri, political center.
Years later, still in my search for the one true Church,
still questioning whether this could be that church, still not
having found it elsewhere, I asked Mrs. Runcorn (whom
Mrs.Armstrong and I looked upon as our spiritual mother)
if she could point out a single real bona fide convert, brought
in from the outside, resulting from the ministry of any of the
preachers affiliated with Stanberry. She thought seriously
for quite a while. Then she slowly shook her head. She knew
of none. I asked several others who had been in the church for
years. Their answers were the same.
My first evangelistic effort was conducted alone, at the end
of 1930, in Harrisburg. There were conversions. In 1931 I was
teamed with Elder Taylor, who had arrived from California.
There were no results, except for the night it stormed
the meeting out, and in a private Bible study in my room
Mrs.Elmer Fisher had accepted the truth. I was teamed with
Elder Roy Dailey. There were no results. He left Umapine.
I continued alone, and there were conversions. Results then
were smallindeed it was a small beginning, compared to the
mounting worldwide harvest of todaybut God was using me
and producing fruit.
I have always noted, in my years of experience since, that if
even one member of a two-man team is not a true instrument
362
of God, there will be none of the kind of fruit borne which

is produced only by God through human instruments. This
very undeviating method of God, verified by experience, is
the source of great inspiration and encouragement today. For
in Gods Church today, without exception, every minister or
team of ministers is used of God, and God really does things
through them! By their fruits ye shall know them, said Jesus.
A Thrill and a Jolt

I remember distinctly the all-night bus ride back to the Valley
from eastern Oregon. Arriving home, on East State Street in
Salem, I learned that the State Conference Board had run
low on funds and, unable to continue paying three salaries
each of $20 per week in the descending depths of the Great
Depression, had decided to retain Mr. Taylor and release
Elder Dailey and me until funds revived.
Also, a few days after arriving home, happy over success
in the campaign, this sense of elation was rudely jolted by
a stern letter from old Mr. Hobbs. He had heard from his
son. He wanted to know what a young whippersnapper like
me meant, using the prestige of his name with his son, and
baptizing people in Umapine without authority, or special
consent from the board? Shortly following the first evangelistic
experience at Harrisburg, Mr. Hobbs had sternly called me
on the carpet, asking me what authority I had for baptizing
those converted in the meetings. I had answered that I had
Gods authoritythat of Matthew 28:19where those who
do the teaching resulting in conversions are commanded to
baptize those taught. This rather stumped him, at the time.
But elderly Mr. G.A. Hobbs was a stern, fiery little old
mana stickler for proper form and system, and proper
authority for everything. He had been an Adventist since a
young manprobably beginning somewhere around 1870, or
perhaps earlier. Adventists during those earlier years were
very strict, legalistic and exacting. Mr. Hobbs had left the
Adventists rather late in life when he saw clearly, in the Bible,
that the Millennium will be spent on Earth and not in heaven.
But he retained his strict disciplinary teaching to his death.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
But if old Mr. Hobbs was one of my strictest and sternest

critics, he was also one of my staunchest supporters to the
day of his death. He defended me against other critics with
the same fiery zeal with which he criticized me to my face.
His sharp criticism for baptizing the converts God gave me
at Umapine, plus the sudden, though not unexpected loss
of salary, did dull somewhat the spirit of rejoicing over the
results God granted at Umapine.
But having my salary cut off caused no worry. By this time
I had learned to trust God. Already we had experienced many
miraculous answers to prayer. I knew God has promised to
supply all our need, according to his riches in glory by Christ
Jesus (Philippians 4:19).
So, in perfect faith, I prayed and told God of our need, and
asked Him to supply it, and use me wherever He willed.
But I had not yet learned that everything that happens is
not, necessarily, from God. I had not learned to try the spirits
whether they are of God (1John 4:1). While this scripture is
speaking of spiritsangels or demonsyet we must learn also
to test experiences, and happenings, whether they be of God.
It was now late November.
Back Into Advertising!

In serene confidence, I was expectantly awaiting Gods answer
to supply our financial need. Not more than two or three days
later, my former newspaper associate, Samuel T.Hopkins,
who had been business manager of the Vancouver Evening
Columbian, appeared at our door.
He had left the Columbian, and now was editor and manager
of a new morning newspaper in Astoria, Oregon, The Morning
Messenger. He and two Astoria associates, a physician and
the superintendent of a salmon cannery, had started a new
newspaper in Astoria. But they were in deep trouble. They
had started a brand-new daily newspaper in the depths of the
national depression, and without adequate capital.
Herb, youve just got to come out to Astoria and help us,
pleaded Sam Hopkins. You are the only man I know with
the specialized advertising and selling experience who can
364
put this thing over for us. I know you can do it. Right now Im
not even in position to guarantee you any regular cash salary.
Actually Im depending on you to get in the business to make
even your own salary possible. But once we put this over, well
give you a large chunk of the stock in the companyanything,
if only youll come on out to Astoria and inject the life we need
into this paper. I want you to come as advertising manager.
Well set your salary at $25 a week at the start, and hope we
can pay it. But as we get the paper on its feet, the skys the
limit. Youll have a big salary and a large chunk of stock.
But Sam, I answered, Im in the ministry now. I cant go
back into the newspaper business.
He would not give up. He kept pleading. It was a matter
of life and death to him. I began to think of how I had prayed
for God to supply our new financial need. In my inexperience,
this did seem to be the answer. I did not then realize this was
not Gods answer. This was not Gods WAY of answering.
I did realize that I could not accept this job as a permanent
thing. I knew I had been called to the ministry. I had been
ordained. I had been successful in a small way. Everything
I had ever touched in business, since age 30 in Chicago, had
turned to nothing. But in the ministry, everything I did was,
in the small way of a small beginning, successful. Yet this did
appear to me, in my inexperience, to be Gods answer to my
prayer. Since I could not go back into the advertising business,
and leave the ministry, permanently, I reasoned this solution:
Tell you what I might do, I finally said to Mr. Hopkins. I
know I have been called to the ministry. Ive been ordained.
But my salary is temporarily cut off. It seems to me this is
Gods answer as a temporary fill-in for our financial need. Ill
come on out to Astoria just for one month only. Then Ill have
to return here.
How many times, since, have I quoted the scriptures: Lean
not unto thine own understanding, and There is a way that
seemeth right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of
death. Human reason is usually faulty. But this did seem
like the right decision. I was to pay a high price over the next
15 months to learn that lesson.
365
I was to have to learn two basic requirements of God before
He can use one for an important commission in His great master
plan working out His purpose here below: 1) Not only must
Gods instrument preach the Word faithfully, but having
been plunged by Christ into Gods Work, he must never turn
back (Luke 9:62). And 2) he must rely on God, and not man, for
his needin, not out of Gods Work. The REAL WORK started
only after I learned these lessons!
How I found myself caught in a trap of unforeseen
circumstance, forced to break all precedent in methods of
selling advertising space; and how, after 15 long and almost
sleepless months I finally got back into the ministry, is related
in the next chapter.
366
26
CAUGHT IN
NEWSPAPER
BUSINESS TRAP
G ETTING BACK INTO THE NEWSPAPER
business was a tragic mistake. A too dear price now had to be

paid to learn an important lesson: When God once truly calls
a man into His ministry, he must keep at it, in season and
out of season (2Timothy 4:2).
And if he attempts, like Jonah, to run away from the
mission, God will first teach him a stern lesson and then yank
him back to perform what God called him to perform!
Arriving in Astoria, I made a disillusioning discovery.
Immediately I made preliminary get-acquainted calls on
the leading merchants. It was then, for the first time, that
I learned the true state of affairs. It was far worse than Mr.
Hopkins had told me. Every merchant told me our situation
was hopeless. We faced a predicament unprecedented, as far
as I know, in the newspaper business.
Caught in a Trap
It called for desperate and unprecedented measures for
solution. And before I realized it, I was caught in a trap of
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
circumstances from which I was unable to extricate myself

for 15 months.
This was the unheard-of situation: Only months before,
the opposition newspaper had purchased the old established
morning paper, the Astorian, for $50,000. But the opposition
publisher had also signed up all local stores which advertised on
five-year contracts in which they agreed not to advertise in any
other Astoria English-language paper. (There was, in Astoria,
a Finnish-language daily paper not harmed by the contracts.)
Apparently this publisher and the merchants had assumed
the rather general concept of those in smaller cities, viewing
advertising in terms of obligatory support of the newspaper,
rather than as an effective means of selling goods, lowering
costs and increasing profits. This publisher offered to save
the merchants from having to support two newspapers by
buying out and thus eliminating his competitorprovided
the merchants would sign up on these five-year contracts.
Every store in town which was a regular advertiser, with the
single exception of the J.C.Penney store, had signed.
But, I protested, that kind of contract is illegal! It is in
restraint of trade!
We know that, came the answer, but there is more to
it than mere legality. You just dont know your opposition
publisher. Maybe you dont realize what he could do to us in
retaliation if we broke our contracts. He could print things
harmful to us, slanting the news so as to reflect against us,
or assassinate our character right on the front page. I for one
am afraid to try to break my agreementand I think the
other merchants are as afraid as I am. We just wont take
this chance!
A few days later I learned what he meant. Our news editor
handed me a clipping from the teletype. It was a dispatch
from Oregon City, Oregon, reporting an automobile accident
involving one of Astorias leading merchants. It exposed also
the fact he was having a clandestine affair with an attractive
woman, who was with him in his car. The press service had
sent it along as a nice juicy scandal for Astoria papers.
But The Messenger did not print it. Neither did the
368
26 | Caught in Newspaper Business Trap
opposition. I took the teletype strip personally to the merchant

involved. His face reddened.
Thanks! he exclaimed in extreme embarrassment. Man!
This could have ruined me if you had printed it! It would
have broken up my home, and ruined my business. You
see, Mr.Armstrong, this sort of thing is the reason none
of the merchants dares try to break his contract with your
competitor by advertising with you.
Yes, I understood, now, only too well!
Our plight was utterly frustrating. Our newspaper was new.
The opposition paper was old, well established. The evening
paper had the dominant circulation. It was well financed.
The Morning Messenger, on the other hand, did not have the
capital to do those things necessary to build a better paper or,
for that matter, even to keep it on its wobbly feet. And every
retail advertiser in town, save one, actually by agreement
and by fear was prohibited from advertising with us.
It Means Something to YOU!

I am going to relate what was done in this predicament,
because the experience has a direct connection with the lives
of all my readers.
You probably shall never run into this specific kind
of problem. But nearly all people do, more than once in a
lifetime, find themselves in some frustrating, apparently
hopeless trouble.
One of the seven basic laws of success in life is resourcefulness.
Resourcefulness is the ability and determination to find a
way to solve every problem, trouble or obstacle. It accepts and
acts on the old adage: Where theres a will, theres a way!
Another of the seven principles of success is endurance. Nine
out of 10 who have every other ingredient for success finally
give up and quit, when just a little more stick-to-it-iveness
mixed with resourcefulness would have turned apparent
hopeless defeat into glorious success. Of course there is a
time to get out and leave whatever you are in: if it is wrong,
or if it really is totally dead. But usually it only appears dead.
The seventh and most important rule of success is contact
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
with God, and the guidance, wisdom and help that can be
received from Him.
In this desperate situation, I did invoke these three
recourses. I do believe I had made a costly mistake in supposing
this call to the newspaper business in Astoria came from God.
Yet, once in it, I did call on God for guidance and help. And a
way was found to break those five-year contracts, and fill our
newspaper with advertising! I think the account of how it was
done may be interesting, informative andif you will apply
the principles to your own problemshelpful.
Inside Facts About Advertising

This unprecedented situation, I knew, called for a totally
unprecedented solution. Most people are absolutely bound
by precedent. They are slaves of habit. They are conformists.
They must do just what society doesthe way society does
it. I have never been afraid to break precedent, or to go
counter to established procedures, if such action is both
right and necessary.
Advertising space in newspapers and magazines had
always been sold on the basis of a certain price per column
inch, or per page. The rate is set according to volume and
class of circulation, being influenced also by competition and
general circumstances.
So now let me give you a few inside facts not known by
most of the general public. Full-page advertising space in large
mass-circulation magazines costs tens of thousands of dollars.
Do you mean for just one time? many will ask incredulously.
Yes, for one page in just one issue. But that is not expensive.
It is, actually, one of the least costly ways to get a message
to people!
The magazine may have a circulation of 1 million copies,
often actually read by 2 or 3 million people! Now suppose
you try to get just a very brief message to 1 million homes by
inexpensive postcards. You would have to pay not only the
costly postage but also for the blank cards. You probably never
realized that before. Then figure what you would pay to have
your message printed 1 million times on a million cards. Add
370
the cost of hiring enough people to write names and addresses

of 1 million people on the cards. I think you will decide it
would be much less costly to pay for a whole page of space, as
large as a newsmagazine-size page, which includes the cost
of the paper, of the printing, of the postage for mailing, and
of the stamping on of the names and addresses. And, more
than this, in every home where your message is received, the
recipient asked for the magazine to come, and (except for the
Plain Truth) actually paid to receive it. If you were to spend
money to print and mail out a million postcards, they would
be uninvited, and probably unwanted in most homes.
So you see, magazine and newspaper advertising is not
expensive.
You probably have heard that advertising forces up the
price of a commodity or service to the consumer. Many people
believe that if they can purchase a non-advertised brand they
save money. They suppose the merchant or manufacturer who
advertises must add the cost of the advertising to the price.
Do You Pay More for Advertised Goods?

Let me tell you the true inside factsthe plain truth about
this supposition. Truly, people as a whole are deceived today,
not only about Gods truth, but even facts about business.
Actually, if the advertising is intelligently and effectively
used, it reduces the price to the consumer! I think it may be
interesting to you to know how it works.
Suppose a certain comparatively small store sells $100,000
worth of mens clothing and haberdashery in one year. This
store spent nothing for advertising. But it did pay, shall we
say, $70,000 for the merchandise to the manufacturers. And
it also had to pay, shall we say, $15,000 for clerk hire, and
$10,000 for store rent, heat, light, water, wrapping paper
all other expenses. So you see that for every dollar of goods
bought by a customer, the merchant had to pay, over and
above the cost of the merchandise, 25 which is 25 percent as
a cost of doing business. He had 5or 5 percent of sales
left for himself. This merchant, then, based on sales price,
had a cost of 70 percent for merchandise, and 25 percent as
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
cost of doing business, with 5 percent profit for all his own
time, hard work, worry and return on his capital investment.
Now suppose this merchant tries advertising the next
year. This is, approximately, what did happen in a similar
interesting case in Astoria, as I shall relate. I am assuming
this merchants advertising is effective.
So the following year this merchant spends $4,500 in adver-
tising. It is effective, and brings in new customers. This year
his sales increased to $150,000. But because in the preceding
year his salesmen did not have enough customers to keep
them busy, he does not need to hire additional clerks. He still
pays the same rent, public utilities and similar expensesa
total of $25,000, the same as the year before.
But here is the big difference. That $25,000 was a 25 percent
cost of doing business the year he sold $100,000 worth of
goods. But now, with sales of $150,000, it is only 16.7 percent.
But he did have one increase in business expensehis $4,500
advertising. But even so, his $29,500 cost of doing business
is only 19.7 percent. This merchant passes this saving in
total cost of his business expense, per dollar of sales, to his
customers, still taking for himself the same 5 percent of sales
for profit.
Lowering Prices
Now see where this leaves the customers, and what it makes
for the merchant. You may think the customers were the
only ones who benefited, since the merchant still took only
5 percent profit. But the merchant actually made half again
more for himselfbecause his 5 percent profit now is taken
from $150,000 sales, instead of $100,000. So the merchant
did all right for himself! He made $7,500 this year instead
of only $5,000. But what about prices to the customers?
The same itemor number of itemsthat sold for $100 the
non-advertising year are now priced at only $92.92. It is
simple to figure. The merchant still paid $70 for this amount
of merchandise. But his business expense now was only 19.7
percent, and profit 5 percenttotal 24.7 percent instead of 30
percent the year before. This is $24.67 in expenses per $100
372
in sales. Add the $70 wholesale price to this $24.67, and the
new sale price is $94.67, a savings of over $5 to the customer.
So what actually happened? The merchant saved his
customers more than 5 on the dollaror $5.33 on each $100
of purchases. So his advertising reduced the cost of goods to
the customer! At the same time, this merchant made $7,500
for his own years work, which was $2,500 more than he made
the year before he advertised.
You might ask, didnt the advertising cost anything? Of
course. It cost $4,500or 3 percent of his years sales. Then
how did it save the customers money, and make more money
for the merchant? The answer is that it does cost money to
run a store. It does cost money for us who are customers to
have a merchant take all of his time, and all of his salesmens
time, to gather in merchandise from New York, from Chicago,
from London, from Los Angeles, and assemble it all in one
store for the convenience of us customers. But could we go
to the clothing manufacturer in New York, the shirt manu-
facturer in Utica, New York, and the shoe manufacturer in
Boston or St. Louis to buy our goods, without spending money
over and above the factory cost? Of course not. And if we all
did this individually, the manufacturer would have to charge
us more, because it would add to his expenses to have to deal
with so many people. When the factory sells enough suits, or
shoes, or hats for 200 people, or 500 people or more to just
one store, he can sell for much less than he could by making
500 different transactions with 500 individual customers.
So actually the local merchant renders us a pretty valuable
service, far cheaper than we could do it ourselves.
In so doing, he has a cost of doing business. And, as the
experience of thousands and thousands of retail stores shows,
that cost is reduced by spending about 3 percent or 4 percent in
advertising, because then he spends less, per dollar of sales, on
such other expenses as rent, salaries, public utilities, etc. His
total expenses of operating his store are less, per dollar of sales.
That is how it works. Why your local merchants do not use
a little of their advertising to just explain these simple but
interesting facts to their public, I do not know. But I have
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
spent years of my life as an advertising and merchandising

specialist, and I thought that these facts about the price you
pay for goods you buy every daywhether at the grocery store,
the clothing store, the dry-goods store or wherevermight
prove interesting. You come in direct contact with this very
merchandising operation at least every week of your life.
Now let me relate to you the rather exciting story of an
experience with one store in Astoria.
Breaking All Precedent

There were four retail clothing (mens) stores in Astoria. Three
advertised, and were signed up on these five-year contracts.
The second largest, Krohn & Carson, had never spent its first
dime in advertising. I checked financial ratings in Dunn &
Bradstreet. Krohn & Carson had the highest financial rating
of the four.
So I went immediately to Krohn & Carson. I found them
as firmly set against advertising as a 50-foot-thick stone
wall. Apparently it was even more impossible to crack their
stone-wall resistance against advertising than to break these
five-year contracts. Yet I did have a will, and I did find a way!
I mentioned above that newspaper and magazine adver-
tising has always been sold by the column inch or by the page.
The Messenger rate was 25 per inch. The larger evening
paper charged 50 per inch. But now I deliberately shattered
all precedent in newspaper advertising practice.
I proposed an entirely new, completely revolutionary plan
to Krohn & Carson. I explained to them what I have explained
to you, above, how effective advertising works. The clothing
stores in Astoria were each selling only about 40 percent as
much merchandise as they had sold before the depression.
But, I explained, for every $100 that men used to spend
in these four stores, they still spend $40. Now if we can show
Astoria men and their wives that you can save them money in
this depression, a larger portion of that $40 will come to you.
I can show you how you can still double your business, and
your own profits, and at the same time save your customers
money by lowering prices!
374
It sounded fantastic, preposterous! But it cost them nothing

to listen to my plan.
First, I proposed, you will put on a big price-reducing
sale. Your shelves are loaded with goods that are not moving.
Retail success depends more on turnoverkeeping your goods
movingthan on big margins of profit. You have capital tied
up in all these goods. Put on a sale. Sell it for less moneyget
your money back out of the merchandise, plus a small margin
to cover business expensesreinvest that money in more
goodskeep it moving. Better make 12 profits a year of only
1 on a dollar of sales, than a 10 profit once in two years.
This way you take 12 percent on your investment. The way
you are doing now you make only 5 per dollar.
Now, here is how we will make this sale a success, and double
your business. Harvard Bureau of Business Research figures
show that the retail clothing stores which spend 4percent of
sales in advertising have the lowest cost of doing business, and
the highest turnover. To spend less than 4 percent in adver-
tising means to spend higher percentages in salaries, rent,
utilities and other expenses. To spend more than 4 percent does
not bring enough additional increase in sales to pay. So this is
what I propose. It is a new plan. It is unheard of in newspaper
advertising! You pay us just 3 percent of your sales. That is one
fourth less spent on advertising than most successful stores
spend. Then we will give you absolutely unlimited space in the
Messenger. I will give you my own personal service in writing
all your advertising. Your competitors cannot afford to bring
specially trained professional advertising writers to Astoria
and they do not know how to write ads that can compete with
what I will write for you.
We will start out with four full pages, announcing this sale.
We will make it a big saleand we will make it look big! We
will reprint the four pages in our job printing department as
a big handbill, and you can hire boys to distribute those to
every house within the entire Astoria trade territory. We will
charge you nothing extra for the circulars, but you hire them
distributed. We will follow this up with two-page ads as long
as the sale lasts. It will be an Astoria sensation.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Now that people can spend only 40 percent as much for

clothing as they did before the depression, they have to try
to save every penny. They are price conscious. These lower
prices will bring in crowds of customers from miles around.
How Could WE Afford It?

But, Mr. Armstrong, protested the younger partner, Mr.
Krohn, who was Mr. Carsons son-in-law, how can you afford
to give us four whole pages, and then repeated double pages,
at no increase in cost to usjust this 3 percent?
Two reasons, I explained, smiling. First, because I know
this policy and this big space will greatly increase your sales.
If we double your sales, we double what you pay us. It makes
us a partner in your business, in a way. We get paid according
to the results we bring you. If we dont bring more customers,
you dont pay more. Then there is a second reason why we
can afford to do this. We have to print eight pages every day
never less. The paper now has very little advertising. I am
going to write these ads and design them with great, large
display type. It will cost us far less to set a page, or two pages,
of these big-type ads than for our Linotype operators to have
to set all pages in small news type.
Mr. Krohn persuaded Mr. Carson to accept my offer.
The sale drew crowds. Sales soared.
During the sale an opportunity came to the store to double
its floor space, and still reduce rent. The store occupied a corner
location. The landlord had not reduced rent in proportion to
reduced business during the depression. A ladies ready-to-
wear store, which had occupied a middle-of-the-block location
with twice as much space as Krohn & Carson and with four
times as much front window display space, had failed and
closed up. The landlord of this storeroom, faced with a no-rent
prospect for the duration of the depression, offered this to
Krohn & Carson for half the rent they had been paying in
their corner location.
I advised taking it. Then I recommended a new
merchandising policy.
If you double the size of your store, you will have to also
376
double the volume of business, or such a big store space will

look rather foolish, I said. Now, you are reducing your
expenses, by lower rent, not adding to them. If you will be
willing to try out a new merchandising policy, I think my ads
will convince the men of Astoria, and make it work. My idea is
that you now keep these special reduced sales prices in effect
right along. If you have doubled the sales volumeor keep up
what you are doing in this special salewithout increasing
your expenses, you can make at least as much profitperhaps
more, and win the goodwill of the customershelp the public
by reduced pricesand, as the depression begins to end and
prosperity comes again, youll be the largest and best-liked
store in town.
They agreed. As soon as the sale ended, and they moved
to the new larger store, I began running full-page, editorial-
style advertisements. They were of the nature of a straight
man-to-man talk with the men of Astoria and vicinity.
I told the men that, if they would keep up the sales volume,
this store believed it would be able to keep these reduced
special sale prices in effect every day in the year. I told them
of the reduced rent. I told them of Krohn & Carsons well-
known financial capitalhow they were able to take cash
discounts and buy for lessand were willing to pass these
savings on to customers, if customers in turn would keep up
the sales volume. I explained, as I have above for you, how
increased sales volume, if it does not increase expenses, can
lower the price to the consumer.
The ads were sensational in policydignified in
appearanceand they had a ring of sincerity that rang true.
The men of Astoria responded.
Breaking the Opposition

I am taking space to explain in some detail this experience for
one reason. I hope many readers may get from it the lesson
of a valuable principle: There is always a WAY where there is
a WILL!
Would you have quit, thrown up your hands, and said, It
cant be done?
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
And let me explain, here, another principle I always followed

in my business experienceespecially in advertising and
selling. It was never to sell anything unless I was convinced
it benefited the other fellow, as well as myself.
Be an expert adviser in your customers interests was a
slogan I tried to follow. Know your stuff was anotherin
the advertising mans vernacular. Always educate yourself in
your field. Know more about it than your competitors or your
customer. Know how to help your customer. If you are profit-
able to him, he will stay with you. Another adage I followed
was: A customer is more valuable than a sale. The one-time
sales to customers who feel they were talked into something
unprofitable costs more to make than it is worth. I have
always wondered why more businessmen do not understand
these principles. Honesty is the best policy!
But back to our story.
As I said, the men of Astoria responded. Soon Krohn
& Carson was doing more than half of all the clothing and
haberdashery business in town. The ones my work did not
benefitand for this reason I would never do this again
were the competitors.
In this experience I learned a few things about Jewish
people. Both Mr. Krohn and Mr. Carson were Jewish. So was
their chief competitor, who had previously had the biggest
business, across the street. In business, these men were bitter
enemies. But after business hourswell, that was different.
Then they were friends. At the synagogue they were friends.
But in the storethere they looked across the street at the
competitive store with intense rivalry.
Its the same in many other businesses or professions. I
certainly do not waste time watching prize-fights on television,
but who can avoid seeing a few seconds of one occasionally,
turning the dial from one channel to another? Have you ever
noticed the end of such a fight? Men who have fought viciously,
unmercifully, with the killer instinct trying to knock each
other unconscious, will dance to their enemy of a second
ago, after the final bell, and throw their arms around each
other in loving embraceand it makes no difference if one is
378
white and the other black! Lawyers who will fight each other
angrily in a courtroom during the heat of a trial, will go out to
lunch together after its over, as the best of friends! Ive seen
bankers who have been bitter rivals forget it completely, and
call each other by their first names, buddy, buddy fashion,
at national bankers conventions.
But, in business Krohn & Carsons Jewish rival across the
street was bitter and now getting more and more bitter!
In desperation, as his customers flocked over to Krohn &
Carsons, he ran a half-page ad in the opposition paper. It
cost him twice as much per inch as our regular inch rate. In
it he advertised a price-slashing sale. Mr. Krohn called me to
the store.
Look at this! he exclaimed, worried. Now maybe he will
get the business, and our new plan will fail after all.
Oh no, I laughed. This only means its time for you and
me to get busy. I want you to take that ad, and mark your own
prices, cut still lower, on every itemitem for itemlisted in
his ad. Tomorrow morning we will run a two-page ad, listing
exactly the same items, every one priced lowerand once again
reminding the men that Krohn & Carson saves them money.
Well run a special sale tomorrow, also, on these same items.
Mr. Krohn looked at me and shook his head in amazement,
and then began to grin, as he went to work marking lower
prices.
Next day all the special sale customers filed into Krohn
& Carsonsthe biggest day in some time, while their rival
across the street looked more discouraged than ever in his
empty store.
Later that day, he telephoned the Messenger office and
asked if I would come to the store to see him.
Look here, he stormed, you are breaking my business. I
cant afford to run many half-page ads in the evening paper
at their high ratesand even when I do you come out with a
bigger one for Krohn & Carson, and they get all the business
from my ad as well as their own! You have brought me to
the place where I am willing now to take a chance on the
evening paper doing anything if I break my agreement not to
379
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
advertise with you. I want you to make me the same deal you
did Krohn & Carsonand I am willing to sign up right now!
Im sorry, I replied, but you and all the other merchants
turned me down cold when I first came to Astoria. You presented
me with a kind of unfair competition such as I never heard of.
You forced me to break all precedent to develop new advertisers
out of non-advertising merchants. That plan was offered to only
one merchant in each line. You said you were bound and could
not advertise with us. Now we are bound, and cant give you
this same deal of unlimited space on a percent of sales.
Well, then, he countered, can I buy space with you at
your regular price by the inch?
Oh yes, of course was the answer.
But that is not enough, he continued. It is the way you write
these ads that is bringing the business to Krohn & Carsons.
Will you write my ads, as well as theirs? If you will, I will start
advertising with you, and quit with the evening paper.
I had not bound myself to exclusive ad-writing service, so I
was free to agree. Next morning, his first ad, about a third of
a page, appeared.
When I walked into the Krohn & Carson store that day,
Mr.Carson was like a wild man.
Look at this! he shouted. Anyone would know you wrote
that ad. You cancel our advertising immediately, and dont
ever come in this store again.
All right, Mr. Carson, if thats what you really want to do,
I said. But first, I want you to calm down and listen to me
just one moment. I never offered you my advertising-writing
services exclusively. I have not given your competitor the
unlimited space on a percent-of-sales basis at all. He has to
pay the regular rate by the inch. Mr. Carson, I have doubled
your business for you in the midst of this terrible depression.
I have worked hard for you, and made you money. But I am
advertising manager of the Messenger, and when my plan
begins to really work and break down these unethical and
illegal contracts our opposition paper holds over these other
merchants, that is the real reason I evolved this unprece-
dented system that has doubled your business and made you
380
the leader in Astoria, instead of second-fiddle like you were.

Now, if you didnt appreciate that, and want to cancelOK!
Ill walk out of this store, and never come back againand
now you free me to give this whole plan to your competitor
across the street!
I began to walk out rapidly.
Mr. Carson showed surprising and amazing athletic ability
in scampering behind the counters to the front door before
I could get there! He darted into the doorway, blocked it,
holding up both hands.
Wait! Wait! he exclaimed. Dont you walk out of here!
Dont you cancel our agreement!
He came up and threw his arms around me, and cried like
a child.
Mr. Armstrong, he said, embracing me, I have loved you
like a son. I didnt mean what I said. I want you to still be my
advertising manager and advisereven if you do write ads
for that fellow across the street.
Even though dollars were at stake, Mr. Carson spoke
from the heart. He was filled with emotion now. He was
really sincerehe did really feel a deep love for me. It was
not only because of the business success our relationship
had broughtour close personal association had brought
about mutual affection. He was a businessmanhe was very
conscious of dollars, and had acquired his share of thembut
underneath was a real warm heart capable of real friendship.
Our radio listeners have heard me say that I bear no
hatred toward JewsI love them, as I love all people. Some,
allowing themselves to become hooked on the insidious,
poisonous drug of anti-Semitism and hatred for Jews have
never learned all there is to know about Jewish people. Sure,
many of them, despised and hated and persecuted by race
prejudice, have developed a keen sense of dollar conscious-
ness, but who among us is so free from faults and sins he can
throw the first stone? I have learned that many Jews also
have very warm hearts of friendship. We have all been carnal,
weighted with human nature, until converted and filled with
Gods Holy Spirit of love and tolerance!
381
Unable to Leave
I have been getting ahead of my story. I have carried this
one experience with this one advertising client on to its
conclusion, over a period of many months. But I wanted to
complete this one case history, as a typical example of the
Astoria newspaper experience.
Back, now, to December 1931.
In Astoria was one of the two leading hardware stores not
tied up on those five-year contracts, besides the J.C.Penney
store, one of the movies and several restaurants. I induced
most of the restaurants to take out advertising in trade for
meal checks for our employees, and the Penney store and the
hardware store accepted my unlimited space on a percent-of-
sales basis.
But by December 31, I found I was caught in a trap. We
had 23 men employed. If I left then, the paper would have
folded and these men would have been out of work. There still
was no money in the Oregon Conference church treasury to
bring me back into the ministry. I was stuck in Astoria. God
intended for me to learn a lesson. It seems that most of the
time I have had to learn these lessons the hard way, through
experience and suffering. This was to be no exception. It was
not until the end of February 1933 that my prayers to be
relieved of these newspaper responsibilities and to be allowed
to return to Gods ministry were answered.
382
27
STUCK IN ASTORIA
A FTER THE KROHN & CARSON EXPERIENCE
forced their main clothing-store competitor to break its five-

year contract, other stores gradually began cautiously to put
a limited amount of advertising in the Messenger. This drove
our opposition publisher to adopt a new type of competition.
Now the going became rougher than before.
Competition Gets Rough

Both the evening paper and ours maintained job-printing
departments. There was, besides, one independent job-printing
establishment. But the evening newspaper job department
did more than half of all the printing. With this and the news-
paper combined, the opposition newspaper employed more
than half the employees in all three unions involvedthe
typographical, the pressmens and the stereotypers unions.
The depression, by spring of 1932, had descended to such
depths that if a man lost his job he had small chance of finding
another. At union meetings, the evening paper employees
had a majority vote.
So we had the unheard-of spectacle of our competitors
employees being forced by their employer, on threat of losing
their jobs, to vote our employees out of their jobs on strike,
while all our employees voted desperately against the strike.
It meant the loss of their jobs. They knew they would be
unable to obtain employment elsewhere.
383
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Actually, our competitors employees did have a technical

violation to charge us with. Our employees were not receiving
their full wages in cash. Our paper simply did not have the
money. One reason I had felt obligated to remain on in Astoria
after December 1931 was the responsibility of keeping our 23
employees from starving. I had traded advertising space for
meal tickets in local restaurants. I had traded advertising space
for rooms in hotels and small apartments in large apartment
houses. I had taken most of the Krohn & Carson 3 percent
compensation in clothes for our men. Thus we had managed
to keep them clothed, fed and sheltered. We had paid them
small amounts of cash for other expenses, but the balance of
their wages was being paid in stock in the paper. Thus they
were part owners. If and when the paper got on a paying basis,
they would then receive their wages with interest.
When the strike was first voted against us, Mr. Hopkins
and, I believe, our city editor, took a quick trip to Seattle to
appeal to the district union chief, a Mr. Pelkey. We awaited
their return anxiously. Their smiling faces told us, on their
return, they had succeeded. Mr. Pelkey had called off the
strike. He realized the desperate competitive situation. But
this was a reprievenot the end of the matter.
A month or two later, our opposition employees again voted
our employees out on strike. Again Mr. Hopkins raced to
Seattle. Again Mr. Pelkey rescinded the strike vote. During
the summer our competitors employees did it again. A third
time Mr. Pelkey vetoed the strike.
But our opposition simply wore down Mr. Pelkey. A fourth
time the opposition men voted ours out on strike. This time
Mr.Pelkey said he was getting fed up with this Astoria
quarrel, and he let the strike become official.
The Strike STRUCK!

The date was Labor Day, 1932. Our employees had to face
the problem of whether to defy the strike vote, stay on the job,
and thus be put out of the unionsin which case their entire
future in the printing business was ruinedor lose their jobs
with no prospect of finding others. The men, however, decided
384
27 | Stuck in Astoria
that their futures, after the depression had subsided, meant

more to them than the immediate job.
Mr. Hopkins immediately brought a few non-union printers
from Portland to Astoria. But they were unskilled, and totally
unsatisfactory as workmenand they were too few. I had
never operated a Linotype machine, although I had been
around composing rooms for 20 years. Now I had to work all
night long with a hunt and peck effort to set the type.
Also I set ads in display type. After 36 hours without sleep,
we finally got out the paper, in the evening of Labor Day.
Our morning paper came out after the evening paper of the
same day. But we got it out! Otherwise we should have been
put out of business altogether!
For three days and three nights Mr. Hopkins and I and a few
of the newsmen worked straight through without sleep. We
literally lived that 72 hours on coffee. There was an all-night
cafe across the street. We kept them constantly making coffee!
The day following Labor Day we got the paper to bed in
mid-afternoon. The next day by about noon. Gradually we gained
an hour or two each day, and within a week we were getting
the papers on the street by early morning. But it was indeed
a sorry-looking newspaper! It came out full of typographical
errors, bad typesetting. But we were fighting to keep it alive.
Even before this 72-hour stretch without any sleep, I had
been consistently losing sleep in Astoria. For the entire 15
months on this newspaper job I averaged about 5 hours
sleep per night. I need a minimum of seven. This continuous
loss of sleep proved a real handicap after I did finally get back
into the ministry in 1933.
Two Awe-Inspiring Miracles

During the 15 months of this stay in Astoria, God blessed us
with two amazing miracles. For the first seven months, still
hoping from week to week to be able to wind up this news-
paper detour and get back on the main road of Gods ministry,
Mrs.Armstrong and our children remained in the house on
East State Street in Salem. During that time I managed to
take frequent weekend trips home to be with my family.
385
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Finally, by early July 1932, we decided to move the family

to Astoria. This resulted from my wife calling long distance
late one afternoon asking me to rush home. Little Garner Ted
was stricken with pneumonia! I drove the Messenger coupe
down to Salem, arriving late that night. The children were
asleep. Mrs.Armstrong was still up, beside little Teds sofa,
on which he was lying. Immediately, we both knelt beside our
sick baby. Little Garner Ted was then 2 years and 5 months.
And I must explain here that he had been, to that time,
dumbunable to talk. While somewhere between 6 months
and a year old, he had fallen out of his crib headfirst onto the
hardwood floor. We attributed his inability to talk to this fall,
landing on his head. He would point to whatever he wanted
to tell us about, making motions, and grunting Ugh! Ugh!
But he was unable to speak a single word. We were becoming
much concerned.
I anointed Ted and began to claim Gods promises to rebuke
the fever and heal him. As I was praying, Mrs. Armstrong
silently prayed, asking God that, if it was His will to heal our
baby of this dumbness at that time, to put it in my mind to
ask for this, as well as healing from the pneumonia.
I did also have this in mindor God put it in my mindfor
the very instant she had asked for this, I began asking God to
restore Teds power of speech.
His fever left quickly. The very next day he was able to say
a number of single words. In about three days he was talking
in whole sentences.
After this experience, my wife and I decided to move the
family immediately to Astoria. I remained a few days to help
pack our goods.
After everything was packed, I crowded our two daughters
and Dicky (we called our boys Dicky and Teddy until the
day they entered junior high school) into the coupe and drove
to Astoria. Mrs. Armstrong followed with Teddy on the train.
Little Teddy was so frightened by the train that my wife
had some difficulty in getting him aboard. But once on, and
relaxed and reassured, he began talking.
Here we go, said Teddy cheerfully, to see Daddy, see
386
Ba-wee (Beverly), see Dorsee (Dorothy), see Dicky! That was

a 12-word sentence, gushing out only about three days after I
had prayed for his healing!
I had arranged for one of the members of the Church, who
lived near Jefferson, to haul our furniture and things to
Astoria. We went first to the hotel in Astoria. Mr. Hopkins
and I had lived there, trading advertising for rooms.
Soon we rented a house, high up on an embankment above
a street overlooking the mile-wide Columbia River. We were
only 10 miles from the ocean at that point, and the mighty
Columbia widens to a very great river at its mouth. From our
house there was an unobstructed view straight out the river
to the ocean.
About that time I managed to obtain a portable radio by
trading advertising space and taking it as part of my salary.
This small portable radio would receive stations from great
distancesmuch farther than even large and expensive
modern sets today. After our strike finally did strike, I was
kept at the newspaper office until midnight or later about six
nights every week.
Arriving home at midnight or 1 a.m., I often turned on the
radio in order to unwind my nerves a bit from the tense
business day before retiring. Any night at that hour, which
was around 6 p.m. in Japan, I was able to get Radio Tokyo on
standard wave direct. There was no obstruction between the
aerial atop our house and Japanjust the mile-wide mouth
of the Columbia, and straight across the ocean.
Also, at the time, I was able to bring in clearly such
stations as wls, Chicago; wlw, Cincinnati; wsm, Nashville; who,
Des Moinesall of which I was later to have the privilege of
broadcasting over.
Hunting for Bear

My son Garner Ted loves to hunt and fish. He may not remember
when the excitement of hunting was first implanted within
him, and he may read this now, along with all our readers.
As soon as God gave us our first son, for whom my wife
and I had waited 11 years, I wanted to be a pal to him. I had
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
begun calling little Dicky, as soon as he could talk, my pal.

But now, as soon as little Teddy began to talk, on hearing me
call his elder brother pal, he exclaimed, Well, Im your pal,
too, Daddy.
From that moment Teddy became Pal Two, and Dicky
Pal One.
One of the very first things I did, after we moved into the
house in Astoria, was to take my two pals bear hunting. I
have explained that our house sat on an embankment high
above the sidewalk below. This hill ran up steeply from the
great river below and continued on uphill behind our house,
thickly wooded. I took my two sons, armed with wooden sticks
for guns, on frequent hunting trips up this steep, heavily
wooded slope, hunting for bear. The boys would growl like a
bear, and confidently expected to get a shot at one any second.
The basement of our Astoria house was on the ground level
in front, but basement level at the rear. In Astoria, as well
as when we lived in Salem and Eugene, we burned wood for
fuel. My sons helped me carry chopped wood up the basement
stairs into the kitchen. Although Teddy was speaking whole
sentences three days after his speech was restored, he did not
pronounce all his words like an adult immediately.
I shall never forget his rapping on the basement door, three
or four sticks of wood across his outstretched arms, yelling:
Open d doagmopen d doagmhere tums dreat bid mans!
Our younger daughter Dorothy got in Teddys hair on
occasion. On one of these occasions, in the kitchen, little
Teddy became exasperated and started for his tormenting
sister with clenched fists.
In fear Dorothy ran through the hallway, and up the stairs
to the second floor like a frightened deer, with little Teddy
scampering after her in red-hot anger, shouting, Boy, oh
boy! Ill hap your hace!
Apparently Dorothy found refuge in a bedroom and locked
the door.
I suppose we have had quite the same experience rearing
children that most parents have. Most of the time our two
daughters, only two years and two months apart, have been
388
the best of chums and buddies, but they had their share of
quarreling over the things most sisters quarrel overwhose
turn it was to do the dishesor when one girl had put on
the other girls clothes. But our two sons seldom quarreled,
and surely no two brothers could have gotten along better
together, or been closer to each other. Their fights were
usually with older sisters!
Another typical experience many fathers should under-
stand: Early in the Christmas shopping season, 1932, I
managed to obtain for my boys an electric train, with quite
a lot of track and accessoriesby trading advertising space
for it. The price of the train was charged at the newspaper, of
course, as part of my salary since only a small part of salaries
could be paid in cash. Mrs. Armstrong said smilingly that I
got the electric train for the boys, so I could play with it! I
wonder how many fathers have done the same thing!
The Second Miraculous Healing

It was during the midst of the winter, December 1932 or
January 1933, that Milas Helms appeared in Astoria one
night. He finally located me at one of the movie offices, where
I was picking up an ad at around 10 p.m. His little son, James,
was stricken with a most serious case of pneumonia, and was
in extremely critical condition. Mike had driven his pickup
truck all the way from his farm, southwest of Jefferson. He
asked me if I would not drop everything and go with him to
anoint and pray for his boys healing.
We drove through the night around the icy sharp mountain
curves of the only highway in those days, through a driving
snowstorm blizzard, on to Portland, and then some 75 miles
more to his farm.
We arrived there around 5 a.m. The oil lamps were still
burning, and Mikes wife, Pearl, was still up. Little James
was gasping for breath, with an extremely high temperature,
but still alive. Immediately we knelt beside his bed, and I
anointed him and claimed Gods promises to heal him. Almost
immediately the boy sank into a sleep, and then all of us laid
down to get some overdue rest and sleep.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
We awakened at 10 a.m. Little James awakened, too, at

about the same time, and immediately scampered out of bed
and began playing around the room. His temperature was
normal. He had been completely healed. I returned to Astoria.
An END of Going Hungry

I have mentioned repeatedly how God had brought me down,
reduced us to poverty and want, and how much we had
suffered hunger through those years. Much of the time in
Astoria, up until about the time of this emergency trip to the
Helmss farm, we had not had enough to eat.
I have explained in past chapters how, after conversion, I
had to come to learn and understand one doctrine at a time.
The truth was not acquired all at once. I had known that the
Bible had quite a little to say about tithing ones income. Yet
somehow it had never become completely clear.
At about this time, in the little time I had from my work
at the newspaper for Bible study and prayer, I had made a
special and thorough study of this matter of tithing. We saw the
mistake we had been making, and started a definite practice of
strict tithing. We had only a very little on hand, but we sent a
10th of it, plus an offering, to the Oregon Conference treasurer.
That very day, the way opened for us to be able to stock up
at home with a reasonable abundance of food. For one thing,
we had a large thick steak. My wife cooked it at low heat with
the utensils we had acquired when I had devoted a year to
selling them. I shall never forget that steak! It was way and
by far the best steak I have ever tasted!
Although we still were required to live another 14 years in
the barest and most modest financial circumstances, we have
never from that day had to be actually hungry, and miss meals,
because of financial poverty! We have since heard of scores
and scores of case histories of the experiences of others who
were immediately prospered, once they began tithing. But
we, ourselves, lived through this same experience. I am very
grateful to have been privileged to have been instrumental in
bringing countless others into this same divine blessing! My
wife and I had to learn it the hard way!
390
Dicky Becomes Lost

One day in August or September 1932, shortly before Dicky
was 4 years old, he became lost, and his mother became
frantic. I was not home at the time.
When Mrs. Armstrong discovered he was missing, and was
nowhere to be found around the house or yard, she started
an immediate worried search. Neighbor children had seen
him going east. A little farther along the street two little
children said he had asked them to go with him to a childrens
playground in Rose City Park to play on the swings and slides.
Rose City Park was in Portland, more than a hundred
miles away! After running, out of breath, some distance past
the end of our street and onto the highway to Portland, not
finding him, she turned back. He had not been gone long
enough to have gotten farther on the highway. Now the
terrifying thought gripped my wife: What if little Dicky had
wandered down to the riverbank, and had fallen in the river!
She retraced her steps back, and, half running, half walking
breathlessly, began following the riverbank westward.
Finally she found him, trying to walk back home along the
riverbank. When the two children had refused to go to Rose
City Park with him, he had decided he didnt want to go alone,
and had started back homeby way of the riverbank! He had
supposed he could soon walk to Rose City Park!
I have often wondered how any of the millions of us men
on Earth ever survived the dangers of growing boyhood, and
lived to be menunless indeed God has assigned an angel to
watch invisibly over every boy, and keep him from physical
harm and tragedy!
While we were in Astoria, I received a letter from Elder
Taylor. Just one letter, in that year and a quarter. It told me,
we have lost the little church in Eugene. The brethren, he
said, had been unable to keep up payments. When I finally
got back to the Valley I learned how we really had lost it.
Mr.Taylor had traded it for a more salable house and lot
next door. Then he had traded that, with another place he
had acquired, for an island farm. But more of that at the
proper time, later.
391
Our Prayers Finally Answered
One day, late in February 1933, Mike Helms drove his pickup
truck up to our house. He had come to take us back to the
Valley. The church conference had now accumulated a small
balance. Mike was now president of the conference. He said
they would be able to pay us only $3 per week, but farmer
brethren would supply us with vegetables, and the members
would buy other food for us.
Behind him, he said, was coming one of the men from
the Valley with a large truck to haul our small amount of
furniture and furnishings back to the Valley.
At last God had answered our prayers to allow me to be
put back into His ministry! Mrs. Armstrong got into the truck
with Mr. Helms, and they drove downtown in search of me. I
was overjoyed at the news.
We were nearly all night getting packed and ready for the
tedious trip back to the Valley. The next day we left.
All of the newspaper employees I had felt a responsibility
for keeping alive, except Mr. Hopkins and two or three
newsmen, had long since left, anyway. I felt no obligation to
remain another day.
A couple months or less after our departure I heard that
the Morning Messenger, which had come to be dubbed the
Morning Mess, had gone out of business. I had kept it alive
for 15 months. I had learned a valuable lesson, and collected
some valuable experience.
392
28
BACK
INTO THE
MINISTRY
W E SOON LEARNED THERE WAS A
reason why Mike Helms had come for us when he did. The
former president of the California Conference, A.J. Ray, had
moved to Oregon, near Jefferson. A very small balance had
accumulated in the conference treasury, and small amounts of
tithes from members once again were beginning to trickle into
it. Mr. Ray learned of the Oregon Conferences plans to bring
me back into the ministry as soon as funds permitted. He had
moved swiftly to forestall that, by sending for a close friendI
believe he was a former Seventh-Day Adventist minister
Sven (Sam) Oberg, whom he wanted as the Oregon minister.
The Plots Begin

Apparently Mike had known of Mr. Obergs imminent arrival,
and drove immediately to Astoria to bring me back. We both
arrived about the same time.
Now the newly arrived Mr. Ray raised the question of
whether to employ Mr. Oberg or me. A business meeting was
called. I believe it was held at the church building in Harrisburg.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Mr. Oberg was a man of 53. He kept himself in vigorous

physical condition by strenuous calisthenic exercises every
morning, including about 100 push-ups. If Robert L. Taylor
had swept the members off their feet, impressing them with
his spirituality and preaching power in 1931, Sam Oberg
did much more!
In fact, he appeared to be so perfect, so spiritual, my wife
and I thought of Hebrews 13:2, stating that a stranger might
be an angel being entertained unawares! He seemed too
perfect to be human. He was strict in punctuality, spiritual
in language and phraseology, immaculate in appearance, glib
of speech, powerful in preaching delivery.
Yet, in spite of his almost awe-inspiring effect on the
members, they had all liked and loved me, and still looked
to me for the leadership to get the gospel going out. I had
been ordained by them and employed by them before. I do
not remember the details now, but I was employed instead of
Mr.Oberg.
$3-per-Week Salary
The condition of the conference treasury allowed them to
pay me only $3-per-week salary. However, most of the
members were farmers, and they promised to supply us with
vegetables and such foodstuffs as they raised. Also, they paid
our house rentI believe $5 or $7 per month, and purchased
for us a certain amount of food. This consisted of 100-pound
sacks of whole wheat flour, large sacks of beans, large bags
of raw sugarthe kind of food that supplied the mostest for
the leastest.
The $3 cash salary per week, then, was to cover butter,
milk, water and light and clothesif any. We were moved
into a small house on Hall Street, not far from the state
fairgrounds. There were two fireplaces and the kitchen stove
to supply heat. We burned wood altogether.
But I was to be disillusioned, and to learn that a person
who first appears to be too good to be true usually isnt! Both
Mr.Ray and Mr. Oberg schemed constantly to discredit me and
get that $3 per week for Mr. Oberg. More of that as we go along.
394
28 | Back Into the Ministry
Starting the Salem Meetings

However, I was still looking on Mr. Oberg with a sort of awe,
feeling I had never met a person so perfect and so righteous
and so powerful in preaching. True, I had behind me a most
unusual wealth of experience, as these Oregon members were
aware. But my still comparatively new Christian experience
had humbled me to virtual unawareness of that fact and I
was trying to efface self. But I did have vision.
I suggested that we try to hold a big citywide campaign,
with Mr. Oberg doing all the preachingsince I felt I was
not worthyas a minister of Christto team up with so
great a man. My suggestion was that I use my advertising
experience to be the public relations man, prepare circulars
and newspaper advertising, and draw in the crowds. I had
suggested we try to hire the big armory in downtown Salem.
I felt that with an evangelist of Mr. Obergs power, I could
really pack in a big crowd.
My suggestions, as became usual with the other ministers,
were turned down by Mr. Oberg. I was slightly disillusioned
to learn that Mr. Oberg did not think big. He wanted to hold
a small campaign in a small empty store building out in the
Hollywood suburb of Salemjust a small local neighborhood
campaign. And he wanted to share it with me, speaking on
alternate evenings.
There were many vacant store buildings. We were now at
the very bottom of the great economic depression. We were
able to hire a vacant storeroom for $10 per month.
We worked hard making preparations. Mr. Oberg was not
lazy. He was a hard worker. I believe we rented folding chairs.
I had handbills printed and distributed over that general part
of Salem.
The opening night arrived. Immediately I was greatly
alarmedas also, it appeared, was Mr. Ray. Already I had
seen quite a little of that type of religious people who call
themselves Pentecostal. I had learned that they had no
understanding of the Bible, although they glibly quoted
certain verses, or partial sentences, usually misapplied and
entirely out of context.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Those I had known had never surrendered their rebellious

spirit against obedience to God and His written commands.
They were always seekingnot to serve, share or obey, but
for those emotional and supposedly spiritual things that
would glorify the self and its vanity and please the senses.
Mr. R.L. Taylor, with whom I held my first evangelistic
campaign in Eugene in 1931, had started a series of meet-
ings in this same north end of Salem, following our Eugene
campaign. The Pentecostal people had come, and he had
encouraged them. They would keep reasonably quiet until
Mr. Taylor, after two or three weeks of preaching, had a few
unconverted and non-Pentecostal people brought close to
repentance and conversionand then they would begin to
take over with their loud-shouting hallelujahs and ridic-
ulous demonstrations. This immediately discouraged those
near conversion, chilled them completely, and they dropped
out and quit coming. After this, Mr. Taylor went around that
end of town, inviting new people to come, and in a few nights
had a new small crowd. The experience was repeateduntil
he finally had to quit with no results whatever for his efforts.
In Portland, at Pentecostal camp meetings, I had heard
women wail and then shriek like a fire siren, audible for three
or four blocks.
Our Problem
When we saw about 25 or 30 of these same Pentecostal people
who had ruined Mr. Taylors meetings coming into our little
hall, Mr. Ray and Mr. Oberg and I went into a quick huddle.
Mr. Ray purported to be completely opposed to this brand of
Pentecostalism.
What shall we do about this? he asked. Weve got to get
rid of these people, or they will simply take over the meetings
and there will be no results.
Just leave the situation to me, said Mr. Oberg. I know
how to handle these people.
We were reassured.
But by the second or third night, we began to realize that
Mr.Oberg, far from discouraging or handling these people,
396
was deliberately catering to them. Gradually we began to

realize that Mr. Oberg was Pentecostal himselfa fact he
had carefully concealed. Indeed, he had deliberately led us
to believe he was opposed to it. Soon I realized these people
were definitely in and firmly established. It was too late to
change it.
For the first few nights Mr. Oberg and I alternated, each
speaking every second night. But it became apparent that
the Pentecostal people, now more than 90 percent of the
attendance, warmed up much more to Mr. Obergs preaching.
He encouraged them. He invited their loud amens just as
Pentecostal preachers do constantly, getting them stirred up
to an emotional and excitable pitch. So after about a week, I
suggested that Mr. Oberg do all the preaching, and I preached
to our own members who came up from the Valley for the
Sabbath services.
About the end of the first week word came from the manager
of a lumberyard situated very close to our hall, asking if I
would stop in and see him. He had attended the first five or
six meetings, then dropped out.
Mr. Armstrong, he said, I just wanted to explain to you
why I stopped attending your meetings. I was really quite
interested in hearing your sermons, but this man Obergs
constant succession of stories, and whooping up those holy
rollers into shouting and emotional frenzy and foolishness
is more than I can take. I think you were wise in just letting
this other man take over the meetings. Not many who are
seeking the real truth that you preach will be attending from
now on, anyway. I would have continued attending, if you
had been conducting the services alonebut I cant tolerate
that senseless wildfire.
My Fathers Death
Along about the 20th or 21st of April in that year of 1933
word came that my father was very ill. I asked Mr. Oberg to
accompany me, and we hastened to his farm, between Oregon
City and Molalla. Apparently we asked Mr. Ray to take the
service till we returned.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Dad had suffered an acute attack of indigestion. We

anointed and prayed for him. He seemed to recover at once.
He also had called for us because he wanted to be baptized.
My father, as I may have stated before, had always been
a good man. He had been jolly, friendly with everybody. He
never smoked, drank, swore or indulged in any such vices. He
never opposed or harmed a soul, but always was willing to
help. He had, as I recounted earlier, a marvelous deep bass
voice. Dad had attended church regularly all his life, and had
been activeespecially in singing.
But my father was actually so good, humanly speaking, and
so void of vices and any of the commonly accepted sins that he
was actually in the same category as Job. Job was so righteous
that even Satan could not find anything of which to accuse
him. Actually Jobs one great sin was his own righteousness.
It blinded him to his humanity, the actual nature of sin in every
human. Job was the most difficult man on record for God to
convert. Finally, God brought Job to the place where he did
REPENT, and come to completely abhor himself!
My father had come to that same place. He came to realize
that mere human goodness and uprightness is not, after all,
the true righteousness of God, which is received only from
Gods Holy Spirit after the painful and suffering experience of
repentance. But now he had repented. And now he had come
to recognize his real need of Jesus Christ as personal Savior.
He had thrown himself on Gods mercy, in faith believing.
That afternoon, his acute indigestion healed, but still
needing rest and sleep to recover strength, we planned to go
down to the river at the edge of his farm and baptize him the
next day.
Late that afternoon, we all sang Praise Him! Praise Him!
with my fathers deep melodic bass voice ringing out. It was
to be the last time he ever sang.
When we finished, he had tears in his eyes, and his face
literally illuminated in a happy smile.
Its just wonderful! he exclaimed. Its absolutely
WONDERFUL!
What do you mean, Dad? I asked.
398
That God at last has forgiven all my sins! he exclaimed.

It seems like a load of many tons has been rolled off of my
shouldersand I dont have to carry that weight of guilt
around any longer!
We left him to rest.
A while later we were called back into the room. He had
sunken into a coma, not from indigestion, but a heart attack.
We anointed and prayed for him again. We put him to bed in
an adjoining bedroom. We noticed his feet were swelling. He
did not come out of the coma. We kept up an all-night vigil of
prayer. The swelling continued up his legs.
Dawn came. We continued praying. I know that I continued
believing. By this time we had been granted many miraculous
answers to prayer, and I felt I never had more faith in my life.
Yet, at 9:40 that morning, the day after he entered his 70th
year, my father died. I was stunned. This I could not believe!
Suddenly I was confused, bewildered. I knew that God
had given His written promise to heal. Always before, since
learning this truth, God had healed all in our family. I realized
that there are two conditionsobedience and faith. But I had
surrendered fully and unconditionally to Gods commandments,
given my life to Him and His service. And I had believed with
positive conviction. There had been no waveringno doubt
just calm assurance.
For three days I was in a mental fog. Not that I began
to lose faith in God, or the reality of biblical promises. Not
that doubts began to be entertained. I was still quite a babe
in Christ in the new Christian life, but we had been put
through enough experiencesand I had studied and proved
the Scriptures sufficientlythat I did not allow doubts to
begin to arise. When one permits doubts to enter his thoughts
and reasonings, he is on dangerous ground. He is thinking
negatively. Whoever doubts is damned. I want the reader to
learn that lesson.
If one is not certainif he has not proved a doctrine or
a factthen the teaching of God is, with open mind free
from prejudice, to seek all the factsto prove it. This is not
negative, but positive thinking and procedure. Doubting is not
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
proving. Doubting is not intelligent! It is negative thinking

about something one does not know enough about to warrant
this form of unfounded disbelief.
Strengthening FAITH
I knew that God could not break a promise. I knew God has
promised to healthat Jesus took the penalty of physical
sickness and infirmities and paid it for us by having His
perfect physical body broken by being beaten with stripes!
But why, then, did my father die? Through James God
instructs us that if any lack wisdom, he shall ask of God
asking in faith, not wavering or doubtingand God prom-
ises wisdom shall be given. I prayed earnestly. I asked God
for understanding.
And I searched the Scriptures for the explanation. I did not
doubtbut I did seek an explanation. Faith must be based
on understanding, and I knew there was something I had not
yet come to understand. Naturally I soon came, in this search,
to the faith chapterthe 11th of Hebrews. Then the answer
became plain.
God gives us many examples of faith in that wonderful
chapter. I noticed the example of Abrahamthe father of
the faithful. He, with Isaac and Jacob and Sarah, all died,
not having received the PROMISES. My father, like them,
died, not having received Gods promise of healingAS YET!
Did the death of Abraham, before he received what God had
unconditionally promised, nullify that promise? Did his death
mean that God failedthat Gods promise was worthless, not
to be kept? Not at all!
No, it simply meant that, for Gods own reason and purpose,
the fulfilling of the promise is delayed until the resurrection!
In like manner, I could now understand that God has prom-
ised to healbut He has not promised how immediately, or
by what manner, He will do it. I knew, now, that my fathers
healing is still absolutely sure. He will be resurrected
healed! I saw, now, that our days are indeed numbered. God
has not promised that we shall live in this mortal existence
eternally. It is appointed to men once to dieand after this
400
the resurrection. I read how the trial of our faith is allowed

to work patience.
God, then, does give us tests of faith. Faith is the evidence
of that not seen, not felt. Once we feel and see that we are
healed, we no longer need the invisible spiritual evidence of
faith. Faith, then, is our evidenceour proof of the healing
which God gives us to be exercised and utilized between the
time we ask, and the time the physical evidence is granted.
We should not go to God, asking, unless we have faith that
God will do what He has promised, and what we are ready to
ask. Then, after we ask, we should still have faithjust as
beforethat God will do as He has promised.
Now I understood!
Some people, in the clutch of fatal doubts in their faulty
reasoning, will try to reason that unless God heals instan-
taneously, either God has not kept His promiseor that the
one who asked is guilty of such sin that God will not hear him.
Such people are wresting the plain teaching of God to their
own destruction.
The net result of this shocking experience of my fathers death
was a great strengthening of faith. I hope sincerely that the
recording of this experience will strengthen the faith of many
readers. Gods very purpose in giving us this temporary physical
existence is to build righteous spiritual character, through
EXPERIENCE. In the Bible God gives us many experiences
of those He has dealt with, that we may learn by reading of
their experiences. The only reason I am continuing with this
autobiography is the hope that many readers may learn lessons
God intends them to learn, through these recorded experiences.
Was It GODS Spirit?

As the meetings in Salem continued on, after the first week
or so, almost the only people coming were these Pentecostal
people. Their antics drove away most others. Though it is
rare among this type of people, many, or most, of them were
Sabbath keepers. But, aside from the Fourth Commandment,
there did not appear to be any desire to obey God, or to live
by every word of God. Their whole desire was a good time
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
during meetings. They came for the temporary thrill and

enjoyment of going on an emotional spree of excitement,
shouting and bragging in testimony meeting about how glad
they were they had their baptism, and how much better they
were than others, for precisely the same purpose that other
people attend a football game to shout and yell, and work up
sensations of excitement.
They were definitely not seeking the Kingdom of God
and His righteousness, but they were continually seeking
physical and sensual pleasure and thrills and excitement,
under the deceptive illusion that all this was pleasing to God.
One of these women, some months later, after the close of the
meetings, who had received her baptism as they term it,
became disgusted with it and told my wife in private that what
she and they all got from it was what she termed sublimated
sex thrills. She said frankly it was plain lust of the flesh. Yet
the people in it are deceived into sincerely believing that they
are seeking, and receiving, the Holy Spirit of God!
One night while Mr. Oberg was preaching, one very fat
woman, who must have weighed 250 pounds, arose and with
short, jerky, staccato steps, slowly waddled up front to the
piano, shaking her fat hips at each jerky step. She sat down
on the piano bench and began to hit the keys with the palms
of both hands in a discordant jumbled manner about like
a 1-year-old baby might do. There was no chord, harmony,
tuneno regularity of beat or rhythmjust a spasmodic
discordant pounding in utter confusion.
As she began, the one other big fat woman in the hall,
of equal horizontal proportions, arose and began a sort of
awkward dancing jig, her arms floundering around, uncon-
trolled, overhead, her very fat hips waddling and shimmying.
For some two to five minutes these two women continued
their unrefined duet.
Mr. Oberg stopped his preaching, with expressions of
Praise the Lord! Glory hallelujah! Praise you, Jesus!to
which the whole Pentecostal attendance immediately joined
in until the place was a bedlam of din and confusion.
As we were walking home that night after the service, our
402
elder daughter Beverly, then of junior high school age, asked:

Daddy, was that the Holy Spirit making those women do
those things?
I was well familiar with Christs saying that the blasphemy
against the Holy Spiritaccusing the Work of the Holy Spirit
of being the work of the devilwas the unpardonable sin.
Although I was by that time quite aware that these practices
of Pentecostal people were not in conformity with either
the teaching or example found in Gods Word, nevertheless
I was afraid to take any slight chance of committing the
unpardonable sin.
I just cant answer that, Beverly, I replied. I suppose
those women were sincere in believing they were being moved
by Gods Spirit. Most people are deceived, today. But I dont
want to try to judge.
A few paragraphs back, I quoted the lumberyard manager
as referring to Mr. Obergs succession of stories. We soon
learned that his preaching consisted more of telling various
stories than of expounding the Scriptures. He was one who
believed Jesus spoke in parables in order to make His meaning
more clear. Actually, Jesus Himself said He used parables for
precisely the opposite reasonto hide the true meaning, so
they could not understand. Mr. Oberg had made it a practice to
memorize just about every story he ever heardor could read.
He constantly used stories to illustrate his points. He
had stories in his memory by the thousands. As he himself
claimed, he had stories to produce laughter, stories of pathos,
tearjerkers to make his audience weepand these especially
he told with great acting ability. He continually urged me to
acquire a large stock of stories. But, as Will Rogers might
have said, I just couldnt see it that way. That is not the way
the original apostles preached.
NO Fruit Borne!
When the meetings came to the end of the planned duration,
and absolutely no fruit had been borne, except for the
nightly emotional jamboree, Mr. Oberg was reluctant to stop.
Sam Oberg and his young, 25-year-old wife had been living
403
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
with Mr. and Mrs. O.J. Runcorn. I believe it was Mr. Runcorn
who put up the $10 for one more months hall rent. The total
duration of the meetings ran either three or four months.
But even after the extended month, there were no
conversionsno members added to the Churchabsolutely
no visible results. The Pentecostals had been enjoying a
continuous nightly show. There was nothing else to show for it.
I have stated before, that never once, when I was working
with any of these other ministers, were any results apparent.
Never, in all those years, did I know of a single conversion
resulting from the work or preaching of any of those ministers!
Yet never did God fail to grant good results, with people
converted and baptized, when I was working alone. I do not
say this with any joyfor while I do rejoice and am grateful
for the harvest God has produced through my efforts, I have
sorrowed and not found any pleasure or rejoicing in the lack
of fruit borne by the others. That has truly been one of the
disappointments we have had to suffer.
However, God has now changed all that. Today, as I
write, 39 years later, God is abundantly blessing all His
ministers whom He now graciously has added to His Church,
with conversions, changed lives, healings and continuous
blessings. Gods Church today is going forward in constantly
accelerating powerthe true power of God!
The Plots Progress

All through this campaign in Salem, personal relations
between Mr. Oberg and Mr. Ray and me were, on the surface,
very friendly and cooperative. At least that was my attitude
of heart. But, under cover, their plots began to thicken.
After my father had died at his farm north of Molalla in
April 1933, my wife had gone to the farm for a visit with my
mother. I do not remember the exact month, but I believe it
must have been along in late May or early June.
One night she was disturbed and frightened to be
awakened from a startling dream, in which it seemed an
angel was telling her: Go to Salem at once! Go to Salem at
once! Enemies are plotting against your husband.
404
She was so alarmed that she was afraid to chance the

dream possibly meaning nothing. She came immediately that
day to Salem. At the same time, Mike Helms had come to tell
me that Mr. Oberg and Mr. Ray had gone around to a number
of the brethren in the valley, and set up an accusation against
me, in a secret plot to get me out of the ministry. They wanted
the $3 weekly cash salary, and the benefit of the other money
being spent for our house rent and beans and flour, etc.
They had brought enough pressure to force Milas Helms,
as president of the conference, to call a business meeting for
the following Sunday at the church in Harrisburg.
They plan to discredit you, explained Mr. Helms, by
charging that your wife is not a neat housekeeperand then
turning to the biblical qualifications for an elder, for ruling
well his own household. Since they will claim that you are not
ruling your wife sternly enough to be a better housekeeper,
they will claim that you are not scripturally fit to be a minister,
and must be put out of the ministry.
This came as a shocking surprise! Their accusation was
false. My wife was a good housekeeper, and I did rule my own
family and household, and have my children in subjection.
But these men knew that most members did not know all
about our private family life, and would believe their lie.
These men had been so very friendlyto my face! I had not
realized they were enemies, speaking lies about me and my
wife behind my back! Mike saw that I was deeply hurt.
The only thing I know that I can possibly do to help you,
continued Mr. Helms, is to give you the opportunity to speak
first, if that will be any benefit. I will be chairman of the
meeting, and I can give you the chance to speak before they do.
I accepted the offer. You may be sure I prayed a great deal
over it. Actually, Mrs. Armstrong has always been a very
clean housekeeper, and a very neat one, with the exception
that, during the years when we had four growing children
in the houseand at this time the youngest was 3, and the
eldest 15children did leave a few things misplaced, on
occasion, of course. But the charge Mr. Oberg planned to
make was simply an outrageous LIE!
405
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Defending My Wife!
Sam Oberg made a fetish of stern neatness, punctuality and
certain outward mannerisms designed to lead others to think
him righteous. Actually, although he was unreasonably stern
with his little 3-year-old daughter, he knew about as little
of proper child rearing as anyone I ever knew. He went to
the extreme on stern demands for certain mannerisms of
decorum, and punished his child with over-severity, while
at the same time he completely neglected her in most other
ways, failed to properly teach and train her, and allowed her
to do other things that should not have been done.
There have been times, since I have been changed by Gods
Spirit, that righteous indignation arose instantly to white-hot
heat. This was one of them.
But I prayed, and God helped me to put down anger. Also it
came to mind what to do. You may not think God put it there,
but I do.
At Harrisburg on Sunday, Mr. Helms, after opening the
meeting with prayer, gave me the floor first. I think this
was a surprise to Messrs. Oberg and Ray. I told the board
members and other brethren assembled that I understood
this meeting had been called as an inquisition, to crucify me
by false charges. I told them I did not wish to defend myself.
I told them I knew I was full of faults and weaknesses, the
same as each of them. I told them I had been striving, and
with Gods help, overcoming many of these human frailties
and weaknesses and habits since my conversion, some six
years beforebut I had not yet reached perfection. I felt that
each of themand Messrs. Oberg and Raylived in glass
houses, also, in case any had a hating spirit of wishing to
throw stones.
I stood there and confessed many specific faults and
weaknesses, and asked them if they would pray for me that I
might have help in overcoming them. Their eyes began to fill
with tearsall but Oberg and Ray.
Then I quickly ended by saying that Mr. Oberg and Mr.Ray
might say anything they wished against mebut that I
understood they planned to accuse my wife falsely, and I then
406
told them with all the power I had that God made me my wifes
defender, and that if either of them dared to utter one word
against my wife, I wouldif need beclose their mouths
before they could finish the first sentence. I did not specify the
means. This was said with blazing eyes, and a sharp voice!
I sat down.
Mr. Helms then called on Oberg and Ray. I do not remember
what they saidif anything. I do know that there was nothing
left for them to say against mefor I had said it all myself
before them. And they somehow must have known that I
MEANT IT when I said I would defend my wifes honor. They
were silent about her.
I do know the result. Their plot backfired! I was not
discharged. Rather, the brethren were still looking to me for
leadership. But Mr. Oberg and Mr. Ray were not through
gunning for me. There was much more to come later!
Chopping Wood
I began to realize that Messrs. Oberg and Ray were secretly
carrying on a propaganda campaign against me. In talking
privately to church brethren they would drop little sugges-
tions implying, at least indirectly, anything possible against
my character.
One day Milas Helms came to me with the offer to give me
a very large tree on his farm if I would chop it down, saw it up
and split it for our winters fuel supply. This tree was 6 feet in
diameter at the trunka huge fir.
Some of the brethren, he said, are getting the idea from
Mr. Oberg and Mr. Ray, that they have to do hard physical
work on their farms, but that you have it pretty soft merely
preaching, visiting members and prospective members,
holding Bible studies, getting out the news bulletin. If you will
spend the next several days splitting up a years wood supply,
I will see that the word gets around about how energetically
you are working. This will counteract this propaganda better
than a million words of denial.
Somehow, it never seemed to dawn on the brethren, who
listened to these subtle innuendos suggesting I was lazy, that
407
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Mr. Oberg devoted his time, also, to the ministry and had no
time for hard manual labor.
Gladly I accepted the offer, happy of the opportunity to
provide fuel for my family. I counted the rings on the tree.
That tree was growing there when George Washington was
a boy! I was glad of the chance for the exercise and the fresh
country air, as well as the wood.
Again, the plot was foiled.
Cackling Hens
During the course of the Salem meetings Milas Helms
brought us a number of eggs one dayperhaps a dozen or so.
We have decided to start tithing our eggs, as well as money
income, he said to us.
It was the off-laying season. This incident has been reported
before in the Plain Truth, but it properly belongs at this
point in the Autobiography. Even though it was out of season
for Mikes hens, they immediately went on an egg-laying
campaign. Never, it seemed, had they laid so many eggs.
After this incident was reported in the Plain Truth, one
reader wrote that she had begun to tithe her eggs and received
the same result. Experience repeatedly proves it pays to tithe!
Blessings in Disguise
Very shortly after our return from Astoriapossibly even
before the meetings began in Salem, or very soon after they
started, the Santiam Riveron whose banks bordered the
farms of Mike Helms and his brother-in-law, Yancy McGill
went on a rampage, overflowing its banks in a complete flood.
It happened on a Friday or Friday night. Mike told me of it
when he came for church on the Sabbath. In fact, we attended
a meeting with other brethren at some town west of Salem
that day. En route, Mike told me of the calamity. His crops had
been all planted. They were all under the water.
The reader can understand by this time that I felt a very
deep affection for Mike Helms. I felt as badly about this as
if it had been my own fields. I continued to express my deep
concern and regret and sympathy.
408
Mr. Armstrong, said Mike in what seemed like a half gentle

rebuke, you seem to be taking this a lot harder than I am. God
says everything works together for good, to them that love the
Lord. I love the Lord, and I try to serve Him and obey Him and
I BELIEVE Him. I am faithful in paying tithes. Right now I
cant see how a thing like this can work together for my good.
But I dont need to see how. I know God means what He says,
and, in a way I cant see right now, this is going to work for my
good. Im just praising the Lord for it!
I hope that God used me in teaching Mike many valuable
lessons, but this was a time when God used Mike to teach me
a lesson I shall never forget. Perhaps, in this way through the
Plain Truth, Mike can be used to teach many thousands of
our readers a valuable lesson today, more than a quarter of a
century later.
After the flood subsided a very strange thing became
apparent. On adjoining farmland, without even a fence between,
the crops were completely ruined. But the damage stopped at
the very line of Mike Helmss and Yancy McGills farmsall
except one small patch of Mikes land, which it was not too
late to replant. And because the floodwaters had ruined the
crops of so many vegetable gardeners, Mikes and Yancys crops
brought a higher-than-usual price that year! And THAT is how
this calamity worked for good!
409
29
THE REAL
BEGINNING OF
PRESENT WORK
T HE MEETINGS HELD
S.A.Oberg and me in the Hollywood district of Salem,

Oregon, ended on July 1, 1933. Just prior to this date I
BY ELDER
received an invitation that was to result in the start of the

great worldwide Work of today.
This invitation came from Mr. and Mrs. Elmer E. Fisher.
They were the couple who had been brought into the Church
by our private Bible study in my room, the night the storm
prevented the meeting, during the tent campaign in Eugene,
in the summer of 1931. The Fishers were successful farmers,
living seven miles west of Eugene. Mr. Fisher was a member of
the school board of the one-room Firbutte school, eight miles
west of Eugene on the old Elmira road. The Fishers asked me
to hold meetings in this country schoolhouse, inviting me to
be their guest in their farm home during the meetings.
Organizing Another Church

But I was still in the employ of the Oregon Conference of the
Church of God. The salary, as stated in the preceding chapter,
410
was $3 per week. The conference was to have paid our house
rent in Salem, and they supplied us with bulk foodswhole
wheat flour, raw sugar, beans. Farmer members supplied
us with vegetables and fruits. However, part of the time the
conference was unable to pay our house rent, which was $7
per month, and my wife had to make up the deficit by doing
the washings for our landlady. In addition to this, I raised a
vegetable garden on our lot that summer.
Decision about the Firbutte school meetings near Eugene
required a special conference board meeting. About the same
time the Fishers invitation came, the way opened also for a
series of meetings to be held in the little church building we
had rented in Harrisburg. The board wanted to decide which
assignment was to go to me, and which to Elder Oberg.
But since the Harrisburg church seated about 150 people,
and was located in a town, while the Firbutte schoolhouse
seated only 35, and was located eight miles from town, in
a sparsely settled rural district where farmhouses were a
half-mile apart, the board readily agreed to assign me to the
country schoolhouse. Elder Oberg was assigned to the church
building in Harrisburg, at his urgent request.
Meanwhile, the Salem meetings, after three months, ended
on July 1, 1933, with no results. Mr. Oberg left immediately
to make preparations for his Harrisburg meetings.
After he left, Mrs. Armstrong and I visited a number of
the people who had attended regularly. They had not come
into the Church because of a few doctrinal differences. Mr.
Oberg, as explained earlier, had done nearly all the preaching
after the first week. The meetings had become altogether
Pentecostalor, as some might have stated it, inspirational.
These doctrinal differences had not been explained. I felt that
I could explain them. As a result of nearly a weeks work with
these people in their homes, a number of them did accept
the truth. We thereupon accepted them into fellowship as
members of the Church.
During these four or five days I rented a church building in
the same general part of Salem, at 17th and Chemeketa, for
Sabbath services, and Thursday night prayer meetings. After
411
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
conference with the board, it was arranged for Mr. A.J. Ray
to act as pastor of the new church at Salem. The members
from the Jefferson area agreed to attend at Salem, and this
formed a church of around 30 or 35 members.
The church there lasted only a few months. The new
Pentecostal members apparently dropped out after a few weeks,
and the older members around the Jefferson area went back to
meeting in a country schoolhouse southwest of Jefferson.
The START of the Present Work

As soon as arrangements were completed for starting the new
church at Salem, I hurried on down to the Fisher farm to
start the new campaign west of Eugene.
Mr. Oberg was starting his new meetings in Harrisburg on
Sunday night, July 9. The Fishers and I decided to start the
meetings at the Firbutte school the same night. I arrived at
the Fisher farm, leaving my wife and children at our home in
Salem, about July 5 or 6.
This was the smallactually infinitesimalstart of what
was destined to grow to a major worldwide gospel Work
reaching multiple millions of people every week.
But if small, it started with a burst of energy and inspiration.
First, it started with intensive and earnest private prayer. To
the rear of the Fisher farm home was a fair-sized hill. Running
over this hilltop for exercise I discovered a rock about 14 inches
high. It was in a secluded spot. It came to mind how Jesus had
dismissed the multitudes, and gone up into a mountain apart
to prayalone with God. I dropped to my knees before this rock,
which seemed just the right height to kneel before, and began
praying earnestly for the success of the meetings. It became
sort of a daily pilgrimage, during my stay at the Fishers, to this,
which became my prayer rock. Im sure that I drank in much
energy, spiritual strength and inspiration at that prayer rock.
Preparing for the meetings, I borrowed a typewriter. I
think the Fishers arranged this for me through one of their
relatives. With carbon paper, I typed out some 30 notices,
announcing the meetings, and the topics of the sermons for
the first week or 10 days.
412
29 | The Real Beginning of Present Work
There was no local newspaper in that localized school district.

We could not have afforded to purchase advertising space to
announce the meetings, had there been one. We could not
afford to have handbills printed. But I took these typed notices,
and part of the time walking, part of the time with Mr.Fisher
driving me, and part of the time driving his car which he let me
use, I visited all the homes for some five miles aroundfarther,
toward the westtelling the people about the meetings, inviting
them to attend, and leaving the typed announcements.
Then we anxiously awaited Sunday night. Would the
people come?
Twenty-seven people filled 27 of the 35 seats that first
night. I spoke on prophecy.
The second night attendance dropped to 19. But that night
we had a bit of excitement. An event occurred that greatly
stimulated interest.
HeckledPut on the Spot

In this neighborhood, near the schoolhouse, lived an elderly
Bible scholar with quite a reputation in the community. His
name was Belshaw. He owned the most extensive theological
library in the districtprobably the only one. The neighbors
regarded him as something of a Bible authority.
Mr. and Mrs. Fisher had warned me of one of his habits
which was traditional in the neighborhood. In Eugene,
adjoining the University of Oregon campus, is a theological
seminary. Frequently, advanced students were sent to one of
these country schoolhouses to hold a short series of meetings
as part of their training. It was Mr. Belshaws custom to
attend one of the first two meetings, and to put the speaker
on the spot by heckling with a trick question.
It was Mr. Belshaws contention that these young men
did not really have a thorough knowledge of the Bible. He
was sure that he did. He was adept at asking questions the
answer to which he was pretty sure the young preacher, or
preacher-to-be, did not know. If he could tangle the speaker
up and expose his ignorance, the neighbors would have a good
laughand then fail to attend any further meetings.
413
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
If Mr. Belshaw can trap you with a trick question, no one

will attend your meetings after that, warned Mr. Fisher.
He nearly always has a question these young men cant
answer. But if you can answer him, or turn the tables on
him, the news will spread all over the neighborhood and the
attendance will increase.
Mr. Belshaw had not put in an appearance the first night.
Apparently he had decided to first see whether I had a good
crowd. But the second night, he was one of the 19 present.
He interrupted my sermon.
Mr. Armstrong, he called out, May I ask you a question?
Yes sir, Mr. Belshaw, I replied, you may.
Have you been saved yet?
Instantly I knew what his trap was. He expected me to
say that I had been, of course. Then he would have asked
me if I did not know what Jesus said in Matthew 24:13. So I
immediately quoted this scripture to him.
Jesus said, in Matthew 24:13, that he that shall endure
unto the end, the same shall be saved. And in the very next
verse, Jesus also said that His gospel of the Kingdomwhich
is the rule of Godthe keeping of His commandmentsshall
be preached in all the world as a witness. That is what I am
doing here tonight. Why do you not obey the commandments,
as Jesus said, Mr. Belshaw?
I knew that Mr. Belshaw argued against the Ten
Commandments.
I would, if I could see any love in them, he replied.
Then you must be spiritually blind, I said. The Ten
Commandments are merely the 10 points of the great law
of love. The first four tell you how to love God; the last six
how to love thy neighbor. The Bible says love is the fulfilling
of the law. The commandments came from God, and God is
love. He gave the commandments. Do you think God ever did
anything that was not done in love?
Mr. Belshaw had no answer. He was silenced for the
night. But he was not through. He tried to trap me with the
Scriptures three more times, in later meetings.
The news did spread.
414
Miss Loma Dillon Armstrong, about 27, holds 3-week-old
Beverly outside the store at Motor, Iowa, in late May 1918.
She was visiting family in her hometown.
Loma Armstrong sits
top
with first daughter, Beverly,

in the apartment area
where the Armstrongs lived.
bottom Herbert, Loma and
Beverly Armstrong make a
visit to the country in 1918.
Mr. Armstrong with 9-month-old Beverly in February 1919,
top, from left
Jackson Park, Chicago; Mrs. Armstrong with Beverly in November 1919

bottom, from left Herbert Armstrong with his mother in Chicago in 1920;
Russell Armstrong with Beverly, age2, in Chicago
top Herbert Armstrong at the
time of his brother Russells
visit to Chicago in 1920
left Walter Dillon,
Mr.Armstrongs brother-in-law,
prepares for an oratory contest.
right Herbert Armstrong visits
with his mother in Maywood
shortly before his second
daughter was born.
Mrs. Armstrong, about November 1920, now the proud mother of
two daughters: Dorothy Jane, age 4 months, and Beverly Lucile
top left Herbert and Loma
Armstrong sit with their two
daughters on the front porch.
bottom left Walter Dillon, Herbert
Armstrong and daughters; Mr.
Armstrong played tennis until
he was past 55.
top Herbert Armstrong with the
Dillons
top right Jessie Hole at 94 (he
died at 98), brother of Elon
Hole, father of Lydia Hole
Armstrong, the grandmother
of Herbert Armstrong
right Loma Armstrong watches
Beverly.
top The Armstrongs and Walter
and Bertha Dillon travel west from
Iowa to Oregon in a loaded-down
Model T Ford.
middle Roads were seldom paved
and tire trouble was frequent.
bottom Another view of the Model T
The Armstrongs and Dillons arrive for a weekend at Seaside, Oregons
top
leading resort. Mr. Dillon is at the wheel, Mrs.Armstrong in rear seat.

bottom Their camp at the ocean resort of Seaside, Oregon; the other car
was Mr. Richard Talboys 1924 Maxwell.
Early 1920s laundry ads by Herbert Armstrong; the brochure, A Frank
Comparison, put in print the results of Mr. Armstrongs laundry survey.
An advertisement is reduced to almost one third the original size as
it appeared in the newspapers. These ads changed the thinking of
thousands of women toward laundries, doubling their volume of business.
These are some of the typed
top
manuscripts Herbert Armstrong

prepared regarding the Sabbath
and evolution to better explain
the issues to himself. They later
became the basis of his writings
for others.
bottom The clay project brochures
Richard David Armstrong, the third child of Herbert and
Loma Armstrong, shown at age 6months. Even as a child,
Dick had beautiful light clear blue eyes and a happy spirit.
top left An important prophetic letter by church leader A.N. Dugger
bottom left The proposed Plain Truth in 1929
top The old Dever store in Salem, Oregon, is where
Mr. Armstrong gave his first sermon in the summer of 1928.
bottom The Church at one time met in this
country schoolhouse in the Dever area.
Garner Ted Armstrong, the fourth child of Herbert
and Loma Armstrong, when he was 7 months old
The second ordination certificate issued to Herbert W. Armstrong
in 1932; it was then custom to renew the certificates annually.
The document is signed by O.J. Runcorn, husband of the woman
who first enlightened Loma Armstrong about the Sabbath day.
top The Jeans schoolhouse, 12 miles west of Eugene, Oregon, was
the location of a 1933 evangelistic campaign by Mr. Armstrong.
bottom The Hampton Building, corner of 6th and Willamette in
Eugene, houses the small, inside one-room office where the Plain
Truth was published.
right The first issue of the fledgling magazine
The first issues of the Plain
top
Truth were mimeographed on a

Neostyle similar to this model.
bottom Herbert Armstrong
cut the stencils on a Corona
typewriter like this one.
Several early publications of the Church of God, Eugene,
Oregon; although at first mimeographed, publications were
later printed in the same advertising format that Herbert
Armstrong used in his ads in the years before his conversion.
The Bulletin of the Churches of God in Oregon provides
a history of the early development of Herbert W.
Armstrongs duties, including his appointment in 1933.
After the Churches of God
top
became divided over the matter

of Church government in the
early 1930s, Mr.Armstrong was
sent a ministerial certificate signed
by A.N. Dugger and C.O. Dodd,
leaders of one of the divisions.
bottom Mr.Armstrong plays with
three of his children.
Herbert Armstrong
top
delivers a program
in the earlier years of
broadcasting.
bottom Receipts from
radio stations kore,
kslm and kxl in Oregon;
the weekly costs
are unbelievable by
todays standards, but
those were the days of
the Great Depression.
This selection of early broadcast scripts in Herbert W. Armstrongs
files shows they were all written in longhand, and although no one
else read them, they reflect his advertising skills in their headlines.
Mimeographed evangelistic campaign fliers announce meetings
and subjects to be delivered. In an age without television, these
meetings were a major source of reaching new hearers.
One of a few pictures taken
top
during the financially-stressed

years shows a 1935 tent meeting.
bottom Mr. Armstrongs evangelistic
campaign sermon notes expound
such doctrines as law and grace,
sin, the Sabbath, the origin of the
devil, and conversion.
top Dick Armstrong fishes along the river.
middle Mr. Armstrong plays with his sons and two friends on the beach.
bottom left Loma Armstrong sits with the two boys.
bottom right Two friends join Dick and Ted for a photo.
right The four Armstrong children appear in this photo taken around 1936.
A collection of photos from the later
1930s show Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong,
along with Dick, enjoying their time
on the Oregon beach.
Herbert W.
top
Armstrong with his

brother Russell;
Herbert Armstrong
often spoke admiringly
of Russell to friends
who never were able
to meet him.
bottomMr.Armstrong
always had a good
sense of photography,
which was reflected
in his perception of
magazine covers and
layout.
Tuesday night 36 were in attendanceone having to stand

through the service. Thursday night 35 cameevery seat
filled. Our highest attendance was 64with 29 standing in
the crowded little room. Attendance for the six weeks aver-
aged 36one more than seating capacity.
Heckled Againand Again!

The final Sunday night, beginning the last week of the
meetings, a young minister who also fought against Gods law
came as a visitor. It was the custom to ask visiting ministers
to lead in prayera custom from which I have long since
learned to depart. I asked him to lead in prayer.
My sermon topic had been announced. He knew I was
going to speak on the subject of Gods Sabbath. In his prayer
this young preacher did his best to belittle me, discredit
everything he thought I could say in my sermon, and give the
impression I was not preaching the gospel.
I thank Thee, O Lord, he prayed in a strong voice, that
we have a Christ to worship, and not a day! Help us, O Lord,
to preach Christ, and Him crucifiednot about days and
laws. Help us to be like the Apostle Paul, who said, I am
determined to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ,
and Him crucified.
As he prayed, I realized he was trying to knock my sermon
into some kind of a cocked hat before I could start preaching
itand that unless I had the right answer his prayer would
cause many to be prejudiced, and to reject everything I would
say. As he prayed, I prayed desperately, asking God to put the
right answer in my mind. God did! Instantly I knew what to say.
This is another incident that has been mentioned before,
on the air and in the Plain Truthbut it properly belongs
at this point in the Autobiography. After his prayer I said
to the audience: I am glad to know that Mr. (I dont
remember his name) says he is determined to know nothing
but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, for I, too, am of the same
determination. I am going to preach Jesus Christ, and Him
crucified tonight! But to do that, one must first know why
Jesus Christ had to be crucified!
415
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
I have just received a letter from my wife in Salem, I

continued. She wrote me that our elder little son, Richard
David, 5 years old, has just preached his first sermon. He,
too, preached Christ crucified. He and another little boy
were playing by the side of our house. The window was open,
and my wife overheard the conversation. The other little
boy had been using a lot of slang. Our Dicky was exasper-
ated. He picked up two sticks, crossing the longer with the
shorter one.
Now you look here, Donald, said Dicky with flashing
indignation. Do you know what this is?
No, answered Donald.
Well, this here is a cross. And they had to put Jesus Christ
up on a cross, and drive nails through his hands and his feet,
and nail Him to that cross so He would die, just because you
have been saying gosh and darn and gee-whiz! Dont you say
those words any more!
And I wonder, I continued, if people realize that sin is
the transgression of Gods lawand that Jesus Christ was
crucified because you people have been transgressing His holy
Sabbath! Dont you profane what is holy to God any more!
And now I propose to preach to you Christ crucified tonight
and why He was crucified!
My young preacher guest, in white-hot anger, stomped
out of the schoolhouse, to the accompaniment of the laughter
of the audience, all of whom apparently delighted to see the
tables turned on one who took a hostile advantage of a friendly
invitation to lead in prayer.
He had merely provided me with the most effective possible
introduction for my sermon.
Belshaws Last Stand

The elderly Mr. Belshaw tried twice more, during those
meetings, to entrap me with the Scriptures. But each time,
God through His Spirit put the correct answer in my mind,
and the right scriptures with which to reply.
Much later, after the meetings had closed, and we were
holding meetings three times a week at the next schoolhouse,
416
four miles farther westthe Jeans schoolhe made one final

attempt. He staked everything on this, his last stand.
He waited until after the close of my sermon. He accosted
me in the rear of the schoolroom just as people were starting
to leave.
Mr. Armstrong, he said in a loud voice, May I ask you
a question?
This acted like an electric shock on everyone present.
Mr.Belshaws question had stirred much excitement. The
two or three who already had gone out the door rushed back
in. All circled around Mr. Belshaw and me.
Yes sir, Mr. Belshawyou most certainly may try once
again, I responded, and by this time with a confident smile.
Well, Mr. Armstrong, have I not heard you mention the
scriptures stating that the Apostle Paul told the Gentile
converts that he had not shunned to declare unto them the
whole gospeland that he had not held anything back that
was profitable to them?
That is correct, I smiled.
And have you not also said that no nation ever kept the
Sabbath, except the Israelitesthat is, that these Gentiles
had not been Sabbath keepers before Paul taught them?
That is also correct!
All right, pursued Mr. Belshaw confidently. He was
sure he had the best of me this time. IF the Sabbath law is
binding on us today, then it was binding on those Gentiles as
soon as they became Christians. They were never Sabbath
keepers prior to conversion. IF it is binding on us, then it
was necessary for Paul to teach them to keep it. Now can you
show me any scripture where the Apostle Paul ever taught or
commanded the Gentiles to keep the Sabbath? He felt he had
delivered a telling blowunanswerable, that would finally
discredit me and what I preached once and for all! He was
shocked at my answer.
Yes sir, Mr. Belshaw! I answered without any hesitation.
I certainly can! But before I do, I will now ask you a question: If
I do show you where the Apostle Paul commanded the Gentile
converts to keep the Sabbath, then that is irrefutable proof
417
that you are commanded to keep it today. Now before I show
you this command, I demand to know this: IF I show where
Paul commanded the Gentiles to keep the Sabbath, will you
now give up your rebellion, and surrender to keep it also?
He looked at me completely dumbfounded. He had been
sure there was no command in the New Testament from Paul
to Gentiles to keep the Sabbath. My answer caused him to
back up, so startled, he almost fell over backward. It literally
staggered him. Now he was not so sure of himself. I appeared
very confident. He wasnt sure whether I was bluffing. But he
was afraid to take the chance.
NO, I wont! he snapped, and angrily stomped out of the
schoolhouse.
I do hasten to add, however, that aside from these four
skirmishes where Mr. Belshaw, as was his custom with all
preachers coming to the neighborhood, tried to trap me, he
was most friendly toward me. He respected me. He refused
to agree, but he did respect me. We had many friendly visits
together. Mr.Fisher and I called on him three or four times,
but, much as he liked to argue Scripture, he usually avoided
the subject when we came around.
After he left I did show the rest of the people present where
Paul did command the Gentiles to keep the Sabbath. My
challenge to Mr. Belshaw was not a bluff.
418
30
THEWORLD
TOMORROW
BROADCAST
BEGINS
T HE IDEA OF A LITERAL, YET INVISIBLE,
devil of supernatural powers is looked upon askance by the

liberal clergy, and by most of the so-called educated of
today. But you can prove that the Holy Bible is in actual fact
the inspired very Word of the Eternal God and Creator. And
the Bible reveals that there is an existent devil! It reveals
also that he is, in these last days, exceedingly angry and
stirred to action against the true servants of God, who keep
Gods commandments, and have the faith of Jesus Christ
(Revelation 12:12, 17).
An Angry Devil
It is also revealed that Satans method is to deceive, and that
he and his demons have power to put thoughts, suggestions
or impulses into unsuspecting human mindsunless we are
alertly on guard against it.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
The unseen Master Competitor had instilled into the

hearts of associated ministers a spirit of competition against
me, even before the actual start of this present Work of God
in that little Firbutte schoolhouse.
The very second time in my life I ever preachedif those
early efforts could be called thatan opposing minister had
appeared, and devoted most of his sermon to an effort to tear
down what I had preached in the first sermon of the day, just
before his sermon. Another minister had tried to prevent my
articles from appearing further in the Bible Advocate organ of
the Church of God. A plot had been hatched by two ministers,
during the Salem, Oregon, meetings, by false accusations,
to discredit me and get me off the payroll of the Oregon
Conference of this church.
And now, at the very start of what was to continue
steadily expanding into a worldwide force directed and
empowered by God, Satan tried, more viciously than ever,
to stop this Work while it was still small. Surely no activity
could have started smaller. The things of God, when the
Eternal works through human instruments, must start the
very smallestlike the grain of mustard seed. But they
grow. No power, no grouping of power, whether satanic or
human, can stop or prevent Gods purpose! Satan may be
far more powerful than man. But God is incomparably more
powerful than Satan, and the devil can do no more than
God allows.
I suppose these opposing ministers thought they were
doing right. There is a way that seems right to a man.
God says these ways are wrong, and end in death. But a
deceived man cannot comprehend that. I do not wish to
impute motives. I could not read these mens hearts. But I
do know that, regardless of intent, their actions sought at
every turn to destroy what has proved, by its fruits, to be the
true Work of God! Today, far more powerful and formidable
human powers are being marshaled against it. Today, just
as the Pharisees and Sadducees hated the gospel Jesus was
preaching, so modern organized churchianity hates that
same identical gospel now pouring like an avalanche over
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30 | THE WORLD TOMORROW BROADCAST BEGINS
every continent on Earth, preparing the way before Christs

coming to rule all nations with Gods laws.
Thus prophecy is being fulfilled!
The Pork Obsession

The opposition through the spring and summer of 1933 had
come through the two ministers who had moved up to Oregon
from California, Elders Sven (Sam) A. Oberg and A.J.Ray.
Mr. Ray was developing, through the summer, a sort of
obsession against the eating of unclean meatspork, ham,
bacon, seafoods and those labeled unclean in Leviticus 11.
The emphasis he continually put on this doctrine, almost with
vehemence, rather gave the impression that, in his eyes, the
eating of pork, which came in for his greatest condemnation,
was the greatest of sins.
About the time the Firbutte school meeting started,
July9,1933, Mr. Ray began aiming his anti-pork guns
directly at me. He demanded that I state definitely my stand
on this question. I had written him a biblical exposition of the
subject, showing that it was a physical food question, rather
than a spiritual or gospel subject. Unless a man broke the
Tenth Commandment by lusting after it, the eating of pork
did not violate the Ten Commandments, which constitute a
spiritual law.
I quoted Mark 7:15-23, where Jesus explained that sin
is a spiritual principlethat which is coming out of the
heart of a manevil thoughts leading to actions of adultery,
murder, theft, deceit, blasphemy, prideviolations of the Ten
Commandments; but that nothing from without, entering in
his mouth, defiles the man spiritually. Jesus was speaking of
spiritual principles, and sin as a spiritual offense.
I explained that I was well aware that the unclean animals
were unclean even before the Floodnot suddenly pronounced
so by Moses. I also explained that I was well aware of the
fact they are still unclean, and unfit for the physical digestive
process; that Peters vision of the sheet was given, not to
cleanse unclean animals, but to show Peter that he should
not regard a Gentile man as unclean (Acts 10:28).
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Also that I well understood that 1Timothy 4:1-5 did not

make unclean foods digestible and healthful, but only those
which are creatures of God and sanctified, which means
set apart, by the word of God and prayer. The Word of God
does not sanctify the flesh of swine, or set it apart for holy
usebut rather forbids its use for food. Undoubtedly millions
of people have contracted disease from eating unclean meats.
But, I pointed out, it still was a physical violation, not a
spiritual sin. The Kingdom of God (Romans 14:17) is not
meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the
Holy Spiritspiritual things.
And, I explained, I was commissioned to preach to the
outside world the Kingdom of God, which is not preaching
meat and drink. I explained that neither I nor any of my
family ate unclean meats; that I taught all converts not to eat
unclean meats, as a matter of good health. But I asked him
if he could show me by the Bible where I was in error, or any
scriptural commission to preach sermons to the unconverted
on the eating of pork. I told him I refused to make this food
question a subject for sermons to the unconverted, unless he
could show me scriptural grounds for so doing.
He was unable to reply. Instead, he set out with renewed
zeal to discredit me and get me ousted from the ministry.
There was a ministers meeting one Sunday afternoon,
about four weeks after the Firbutte school meetings had
started, at the Jeans schoolhouse, four miles west of Firbutte.
Both Mr.Ray and Mr. Oberg came to talk to me. They were
not friendly. Mr. Ray, especially, was wrathful.
Hatching Another Plot

Then a general business meeting of the state conference was
called for the following Sunday, at the church building in
Harrisburg. I was instructed not to let the Fishers or any of
the people in the Firbutte or Eugene district know about it.
I well knew the purpose of the meeting. I was having, in
the one-room country schoolhouse out in this sparsely settled
rural district, a larger attendance than Mr. Oberg was having
in the larger church building in the town of Harrisburg.
422
I already had three or four conversions, he had none.

At this meeting with Mr. Ray and Mr. Oberg, they
strenuously objected to my baptizing new converts before I
had preached to them against pork, and had evidence they
had given it up. I knew that Messrs. Oberg and Ray intended
to use this against me in the business meeting, as their latest
try to get me ousted from the payroll.
I must repeat that I was receiving a salary of $3 per week!
The farmer members provided my family in Salem with a
certain amount of food, in addition to the salary.
I have not mentioned it before, but in April 1933, during
the Salem meetings, I had started the issuing of a monthly
Bulletin for members of the conference. It was mimeo-
graphed. At Salem, I had hired the Bulletin printed at the
local mimeograph shop. At the Fisher home, after starting
the Firbutte school meetings, I had borrowed a typewriter,
and the Eugene mimeograph dealer permitted me to use
one of his mimeographs without chargethough I had to
buy the stencils and paper. These costs were paid by the
conference treasury.
After we started the meetings West of Eugene, some people
in that area had begun giving me small amounts of money
occasionally, which I began to use for the expenses and
mailing of this conference Bulletin.
A Letter to My Wife
During this week, between the conference with the two
ministers and the business meeting at Harrisburg, I wrote a
letter to my wife. I was temporarily discouraged, and I was
exasperated and indignant at the tactics of these ministers,
professing to be the ministers of Jesus Christ. I simply felt I
had to blow off the steam of righteous indignation. Some of
the human nature asserted itself.
I really got it off my chest in a six-page single-spaced
letter I typed to my wife on this borrowed typewriter. Then,
after getting it out of my system I folded up the letter. But I
did not mail it. I must have neglected to destroy it, for I have
run across the letter in an old dusty file. I had refrained from
423
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
sending it to my wife, for I knew she would reprove me for

griping. I felt I had murmured like the grumbling children
of Israel being led out of Egypt under Moses.
Nevertheless, although some of this letter reflects a human-
ness of which I was ashamed, it does give an account, written
at the moment, of the very feeling of the situation.
I did go up the hill to my prayer rock and get the complaining
out of my heart. There it came to my mind that I should
prepare a written defense of my action in baptizing the four
so far converted at Firbutte.
But the truth is, God did prosper the Work started in
the Eugene area. With the Church then being raised up at
Eugene, He did start a Work through us which He could, and
did, prosper! He is still prospering it in a mighty way!
The All-Day Wrangle

Mr. Fisher drove me to the business meeting at Harrisburg
on Sunday morning. But he, being excluded, returned home.
Both Mr. Ray and Mr. Oberg had their fighting tempers
on. This time they were determined to have me put out of the
conference. One of them preached an hour and a half or two
hours in the morninguntil noonin one long tirade against
me. The other followed in the afternoon session, with another
two-hour denunciation of my baptizing people on repentance
and faith, before they had been given a complete education
about Gods law, and before they had been instructed against
eating pork. As usual, not much Scripture was givenbut
emotional arguments based on human reasoning, and worked
up to a high pitch.
I knew they had swayed some of the brethren into believing
I had done wrong in baptizing these people according to the
Bible teaching.
I then asked to be allowed to defend myself, and present
the scriptural reason why I baptized as I did, according to
scriptural teaching. Immediately Messrs. Oberg and Ray
were on their feet in protest.
If Brother Armstrong is allowed to speak, he will take up
too much time, they argued.
424
I anticipated that, I replied. I have my reply to these long

speeches by Brother Ray and Brother Oberg typewritten. I
have timed it. It takes exactly 15 minutes to read it. Are you
going to allow these men hoursall morning and afternoon
to accuse me, and then refuse me even 15 minutes to answer
their accusations, and show by the Scriptures, who is right?
On promise I would not take up more than 15 minutes
time, I was allowed to read my defense.
In brief it was this: The natural, unconverted mind cannot
understand the Bible, and is not subject to the law of God,
neither indeed can be. There is no promise in the Bible God
will give His Holy Spirit to anyone prior to baptismeven
though He did in the case of Cornelius (Acts 10:44-48).
Gods order is 1) repent, 2) be baptized as a symbol of faith
in Christ, and 3) receive the Holy Spirit. Repentance means
unconditional surrender to God, and to Gods will and His way,
or whatever He commands. It means having the rebellion in
the human heart against obedience to God broken. It means
utter submission to God, and to whatever He instructs in His
Word. Those I had baptized had repented.
In Matthew 28:19-20, Gods order is 1) go and preach the
gospel (compare with Marks version, same words of Jesus,
Mark16:15); 2) baptize those who repent and believe; then,
after that, 3) teach them to observe the commandments.
Since people cannot fully comprehend the truth of the
commandments and the teaching of the Bible until after they
receive the Holy Spirit, and since there is no promise God will
give the Holy Spirit until after baptism, therefore I baptized
them after repentance and faith, just as the Bible instructs
and then, after laying on hands with prayer for their receiving
of the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:12, 14-17; Acts 19:5-6; 1Timothy
4:14; 2Timothy 1:6, etc.), I taught them Gods commandments,
and not to eat unclean meats, etc. Every convert I had ever
baptized had obeyed all the truths as soon as I taught them.
They were submissive, teachable, yielded to God, hungry for
His truth. The knowledge of the Lord is something to teach
converted people whose minds are opened by Gods Spirit. We
must continually grow in this knowledge.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
The Double Cross

As soon as I finished, Mr. Fishers car had arrived to take me
back to the Firbutte schoolhouse for the evening meeting. I was
forced to leave immediately. Under the circumstances, I asked
the board members and ministers if they would postpone any
action until another meeting when I could be present. To this
they agreed.
About half of the brethren present were very plainly on my
side. As I left the church, this half rose and walked outside to
assure me of their sympathy, and that they would resist any
action against me.
But as soon as I and all who would support me had gone
outside, Messrs. Ray and Oberg broke their word! They imme-
diately offered a resolution that I be required, if I remained
in the conference, to baptize people their way instead of
the scriptural way, and those remaining inside the church
building were swayed into voting for it.
As soon as I heard of the action taken, I immediately wrote
a letter canceling the $3-per-week salary, and suggesting
they give it to Messrs. Oberg and Ray. I did not resign from
the conference. But I refused further salary.
My wife was in complete accord with me.
As for me and my house, I then said firmly, we shall serve
the Eternal our God, and Him only shall we serve. If men
pay us a salaryeven as small as $3 per weekwe have now
learned we must preach only what men order us to preach. If
we are to work for God we must look to God as our employer,
and trust Him to supply our every material need. And then, I
added, if we fail to serve Him as He commands, He will stop
our income. I wrote my wife to this effect.
It may seem like a step that required great courage to give
up even a $3-a-week income when that was all we had. Of
course, a few offerings were by this time being handed to
me personallybut they were usually a dollar or less, and
averaged less than the $3 weekly salary. But it really did
not require any real courage. My wife and I knew we were
obeying and serving God. We knew He was using us. The
fruits being borne were loud testimony of this. God had
426
prepared us for relying solely on Him by many miraculous

answers to prayer. Therefore we knew, in perfect faith, God
would supply our need.
The Crucial Test

Actually this was the turning point of my whole lifefar more
crucial than I realized at the time.
This was the crossroadsthe final pivotal, crucial test
before the living Christ began opening the doors of mass
communication through which Gods Work at last could come
to life after centuries of sleeping, and go forth in mighty power
to all the world, preparing the way before Christs return to
Earth as Ruler over all nations.
I did not fully realize, then, that this was a crucial turning
point in the history of the Church of God. My wife and I did
not leave the Church. This was Gods Church. Of that I was
not, then, completely sure. They came closer to biblical truth
than any otherbut I was seriously disturbed by their lack of
power and accomplishment.
What actually was happening, though we did not
understand it then, was that a new era was dawning in the
history of the Church of God. The words of Christ are quoted
in the second and third chapters of the book of Revelation,
foretelling the history of Gods Church in seven successive
eras, or phases. Events since that time have revealed this to
be the era in which Christs message is to go worldwide just
before the end of this age.
Mrs. Armstrong and I continued to fellowship with these
brethren. I continued to work with them, and with their
ministers, as far as that was possible. The lay brethren
continued to look to me for the leadership for getting the Work
of God going to the world. But from that all-day wrangle
I was independent of them and their ministers, financially.
From that time I was dependent, solely, on God. We did not
ask or solicit financial contributions from any except those
who voluntarily became financial co-workers with us. And
that has been the policy ever since.
But, from that moment when we began to rely solely on
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
God for financial support not only, but also for guidance,
direction and results, the Work began a phenomenal yearly
increase of nearly 30 percent for the next 35 years. It doubled
in size, scope and power on the average of every 2 years. It
multiplied eight times every eight years64 times in 16 years.
Today it is an immensely larger and greater Work than then.
WHY has this Work leaped from virtually nothing to
worldwide power and scope, multiplying itself continually
over and over again?
Certainly I had not the ability, the resources within
myself, to have planned, directed, and accomplished
anything remotely like the phenomenal development into the
worldwide enterprises that is reality today.
In my 20s I had been ambitious, self-confidentconceited,
supposing I would be doing great things. But that self-
inflation had been punctured and utterly deflated. I had been
brought down to earth with a sickening thud. I had been forced
to realize, in retrospect, that I had been merely running
around in circles, unable to develop any organization or take
an executive job requiring the management and supervision
over others. I had come to see myself as a hunk of burned-out
junk, unworthy to be cast aside on the scrap pile.
Conversion had deflated ego and replaced self-assurance
with the confidence that is faith in God!
And this crisis was the turning point when my wife and I
actually, in practice, began relying solely on Godno longer
on either self or men!
Until those two milestones had been hurdled, God could
not open the big doors! The difference between THIS Work of
God and others is just thatthis is the Work of GOD and not
of men. It started, and continued, to rely on God, not on man.
I had been changed; I had seven years of intensive Bible
study and growth in biblical knowledge behind me. I had
five years of experience in preaching. I had become quite
experienced in relying on God, instead of on self or on humans.
Yet, notwithstanding, as long as I was employed by men who
were over me, and who had proved to be susceptible of being
influenced and swayed by false ministers, into acting contrary
428
to Gods Word, I was not yet free to rely on God alone, and to
be completely faithful to His Word!
The living Christ simply could not start opening the doors
for His Work, until I was free to rely solely on Him!
I was now free! This final crucial test had proved that I
would be faithful to God and His Word, even at cost of giving
up everything!
I know of evangelists who probably are sincere in supposing
they are serving Godand who would like to be free to
proclaim many truths they now hold back. They reason some-
thing like this: If I go farther, and preach those things, Ill
lose all my support. Id be cut off from the ministry altogether.
Then I could preach nothing. Better serve God by preaching
as much of the biblical truth as possible, than to be prevented
from preaching anything.
They are relying on the financial support of men, or of
organizations of men. Anyone in that predicament is the
servant of men, and not of God, whether he realizes it or not.
A man accosted me as I was walking along the gravel
country road, between the Firbutte school and the Jeans
school in the fall of 1933.
You wont get far, he said. Youre preaching the straight
truth of the Bible. That offends people. The Bible is like
a sharp two-edged sword. It cutsit reproves, corrects,
rebukespeople wont support that kind of preaching! You
wont get far.
But I was not relying on the support of people. If people
paid me, I would have to serve people. If I were to serve God,
I would have to look solely to God for support!
Of course God does work through human instruments. But
I had to rely on God to lay it on the hearts of people to support
the kind of preaching that obeys Isaiah 58:1 by crying aloud
lifting up my voice and showing the people their sins!
Never was a more important decision made than that
decision to cut loose entirely from relying on men, and instead,
relying solely on Godnot only for truth, and for direction,
but also for support! Thats why we never solicit the public
for contributions.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Very quickly after that decision the living Christ began

opening doors! Very small ones at first. Then additional small
onesthen a big doorthen more and more of them!
And, to finance what He opened before me, He added, slowly,
gradually, but consistently to the little family of co-workers
who voluntarily wanted to have a part in Gods Workin
changing hearts, changing human nature, preparing for
Christs coming to change and SAVE the WORLD! But I could
not invite people to become co-workers. I could welcome them
with gratitude when God caused them voluntarily to become
co-workers with Christbut until they took the initiative I
could not ask them. No other activity on Earth is operated
like thisand perhaps none has grown so surely.
The First Broadcast

The six-weeks meetings in the one-room Firbutte schoolhouse
came to a close on Sunday night, August 20, 1933. A total of
more than 20 had come with usbut this apparently included
the 10 members of the Fisher and Ellis families, members of
the Church before the meetings started.
The October 1, 1933 Bulletin carries the report that with
the Fisher and Ellis families, more than 20 signified their
desire to establish a new Sabbath-keeping Church of God in
this district.
In Septembervery soon after rejecting a salary and
being controlled and muzzled by men, the living Christ began
opening doors for the mass-proclaiming of His gospel. It was
then that someone brought to my attention the fact that the
local radio station at Eugene, kore, then the very smallest
minimum-power of 100 watts, had a morning devotional
program scheduled, but that they were having difficulty
getting local ministers to conduct the program. It was free
time, carried by the station as a public service sustaining
program of 15 minutes, 7:45 to 8 a.m.
Immediately I went to the radio station. A woman secretary
told me she felt sure they would be glad to have me take the
program for a week. I was to call back later for the exact date.
On my second call I was assigned the week of October 9.
430
October 9 was surely a great big day in my lifethe day of

my very first experience before a microphone, ON THE AIR!
I took this opportunity very seriously. It was an opportunity
to speak to several hundred people at once! I had never spoken
to that many before.
I spent the preceding week preparing rather extensive notes
and script. I might never again have such an opportunity, so I
decided to strike directly at the very heart of the gospel of the
Kingdom of God. Since the Kingdom of God is based on the
promises made to Abraham, I began, on Monday mornings
program, with the promises made to Abraham.
Mike Fright
I had heard a lot about everybody getting mike fright the very
first time on the air. I wondered if I would experience this. It
was probably the most exciting adventure of my life.
On Monday morning, I arrived at the radio studio early.
The announcer did not come into the studio until 10 or 15
seconds before 7:45.
Mike fright? Why, I thought to myself, Im calm and cool
as a cucumber!
Listen! I said quietly but quickly to the announcer. Ive
never been on the air before. If you have any instructions, youd
better give them to me in a hurry. We have only 10 seconds!
He looked at me disdainfully, and a little bored.
Just stand up there in front of the mike, and start talking
as soon as I announce you, he replied.
About three seconds later he announced me. While he was
giving this very brief announcement on the air, I thought,
Well I dont have any mike fright. Im sure glad of that!
Then, for the first time in my life, I said into the microphone:
Greetings, friends!
But suddenly something had happened! Before those
two words were finished, something had hit me like a jolt!
Something had started my heart pounding like a sledge-
hammer! I felt myself gasping for breath! During those
opening two words, mike fright had seized me!
I struggled with all my might to control my hard breathing
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
so it would not be audible over the air. It was agony, but I

concentrated my mind with all the strength I had on two
thingsto carefully say the words of my typed script as
naturally as I could, and to control my hard breathing so it
did not sound.
After two or three minutes I was making good progress in
gaining control. After some five minutes my breathing had
returned to normal, and I was so absorbed in getting this
vital message over to the largest audience of my lifeeven
though that audience was invisiblethat I forgot all about
the mike fright.
The Surprising Response

The second morning there was no mike fright. I was beginning
to gain assurance, and able to speak a little more naturally.
It must have been about Thursday morning that the
announcer told me the station owner, Mr. Frank Hill, wanted
to see me in his office later in the morning.
He had received several letters and telephone calls from
listeners, requesting copies of my talks. I had offered no
literature of any kind. I had invited no mail response.
This is rather surprising, said Mr. Hill. We never had any
response of any kind, before, from this morning devotional
program. They told me you had not invited any. Yet it has
been coming. I listened in on you this morning to see what
was causing it. You have an excellent radio voice, and a way
of delivering your message that arouses interest and holds
an audience.
Now, Mr. Armstrong, he continued, I want to suggest
that you work out a regular Sunday morning Church service,
condensed into a half hour. Id like to put that on as a regular
sustaining programfree timebut I cant do that without
offering equal time to every church in town. However, I will
sell you the time at less than bare cost of operation, $2.50 per
half hour.
And that suggestion from Mr. Frank Hill is what put the
idea of the World Tomorrow program in my mind!
Altogether 14 letters and telephone calls came in to the
432
radio station requesting copies of the messages I had broadcast.

I thanked him, and told him I would see what I could do.
But, $2.50 every week! WOW! That was almost as much
as my entire salary had been! And I had just previously
renounced even that small salary!
Today, $2.50 per half-hour broadcast seems incredibly small.
We have to pay far more than that per minute on stations
today! But it seemed like an insurmountable barrier then.
Yet I knew this was Gods Work not mine. I was only an
instrument. God had promised to supply every need.
God had opened the door of mass evangelism! I knew He
wanted us to walk through that door. I knew He would
somehow supply that $2.50 every week. I knew also that we
had to do our part, not lie down, do nothing, and expect God
to do it without any effort from us.
I was continuing to hold meetings at the Firbutte school-
house, twice weeklySabbath afternoons and Thursday
evenings.
Then, on October 21, at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ed
Smith, just across the road from the Jeans school, four miles
west of Firbutte, a new Church of God was organized, with
Mr. E.E. Fisher as deacon, and myself as pastor. Meetings
continued from that date, three times a week, Tuesday and
Thursday evenings, and Sabbath afternoons. Attendance
was averaging 22. A first action of the new Church was the
decision of whether to go ahead with the broadcast. These
new members and the lay brethren of the Oregon Conference
all approved it joyfully as an effective evangelistic activity of
the Church.
So I sent out a letter to the small mailing list of members
we had for the Bulletin. I asked for pledges from brethren
to help raise this $2.50 per week. But I asked this only of
Gods peoplebrethren in Christnot of the public! In due
time pledges came back for just half enoughabout $1.35
per week! We decided we would trust God in faith for the
other $1.15 per week!
It was arranged with Mr. Hill to start the new half-hour
program every Sunday in the new year, 1934.
433
31
THE PLAIN TRUTH
IS PUBLISHED
S URELY NOTHING COULD HAVE STARTED
smaller. Born in adversity in the very depths of the Depression,

this Work of God was destined to grow to worldwide power.
But I did not realize its destiny then. There were no illusions
of grandeur. It was not through any planning of mine that
the little Three-Point Campaign then being launched was to
expand into its present global scope and influence.
Divinely Planned
Most people are conscious only of what they seeof that
which is material. They fail to see the invisible hand of God
in the working out of things.
All I had in mind, as the World Tomorrow program was
being planned late in 1933, was to serve God faithfully
wherever He should lead in that local territory of Lane
County, Oregon.
It is true that where there is no vision, the people perish.
But few people realize that the source of true vision is God.
There has been vision behind the planning and phenomenal
growth of this great Work. But this is the Work of God, not of
man; and the vision and the planning has been that of Jesus
Christ, the active, living Head of this Work, not of man.
434
Even in earlier business experience, I had always looked
ahead. It had become habitual with me to think of expanding.
I had envisioned my laundry advertising service becoming
national in scope. I did have a vision of this broadcasting
being expanded.
But, I most certainly did not sit down, in the fall of 1933,
and lay out detailed plans in my human mind for a great,
powerful, Earth-encircling program to reach and influence
the millions in every nation. There was no thought, then, of a
gigantic radio program, and a publishing enterprise, starting
in Eugene, Oregon, but soon expanding to every inhabited
continent; there certainly was no thought of the massive
television program of today (television was virtually unheard
of until some 12 years later, after the end of World Warii);
nor was there the remotest idea that we should, at the proper
time along the way, organize and build a college for training
the personnel for a rapidly growing organization.
No, this Work, in the sense of the magnitude to which it
has developed, was not of my planning or vision. This is the
very Work of GOD, and the vision behind it has been that of
Jesus Christthe planning His! I was merely His instrument.
A Powerful DOOR Opens

What actually was happening has been written for almost 1,900
years. Of course no oneleast of all myselfhad the remotest
realization of it then. Jesus Christ said: I will build my
Church. He built it for a purposeto become Gods instrument
in carrying on Gods Work fulfilling His purpose here below.
God began the Work of His Church through Christ. Jesus
said that He Himself was powerlessit was the power of
Gods Holy Spirit working in His personal human body which
really did the Work.
But after His ascension to heaven, that same Work of
God was carried on through the Spirit of God working in the
collective body of Gods Church. That is why the true Church
is called the body of Christ (Ephesians 1:22-23).
God sent His messagethe good news of His Kingdomof
His reignHis governmentHis divine Familyto mankind by
435
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Jesus Christ. Jesus taught this message to His disciples, who

became the apostolic leaders of His Church as it started out.
This message from GodChrists gospelwas also recorded
in the Scriptures of the New Testament. A few accepted that
message, and it changed their lives.
But men generally rejected the gospelthey crucified
Jesus for teaching it! Those who preached it were
persecutedmartyred!
During the first 19-year time cycle of the preaching of
the gospela.d.31 to 50the gospel was being preached
primarily to Jews. The Jews had understood about the
Kingdom of God. They were familiar with the prophecies of
Isaiah 9:6-7, of how the Messiah would come to set up the
Kingdom and government of God over all the world. What
the Jews did not understand was that Jesuss first coming, as
a babe born of the virgin Mary, was to qualify, by resisting
and conquering Satan, to replace Satan on the throne of the
Earth as well as to announce that Kingdom to appear some
1,900 years later. And to pay with His own lifes blood for the
penalty of human sins.
Consequently, the 12 apostles devoted their preaching to
the Jews primarily to proving that Jesus was the prophesied
Messiah. The opposition against the spread of the Church was
almost wholly from within the Jewish community, denying
the Messiahship of Jesus. The 12 apostles were eyewitnesses
to the fact that Jesus was the true Messiah. They had been
with Him continually for some 3 years before His crucifixion
and 40 days after His crucifixion until His ascension to Gods
throne in heaven.
But the preaching of the Apostle Paul and other apostles
to the people of the Gentile world was the very gospel Jesus
Himself had proclaimedthe good news of the future coming
of the Kingdom of God and world rulership of Christ. The
Gentiles had not heard of the Kingdom of God before.
Somewhere around the middle of the first century, a violent
controversy had begun to develop as to whether the gospel
to be preached was merely a gospel about Christof His
Messiahship and death as our Savioror the very message
436
31 | THE PLAIN TRUTH IS PUBLISHED
God sent by Jesus as the divine Messenger with the message

of the true gospel (good news) of the coming Kingdom of God.
Evidence of this is the letter the Apostle Paul wrote about
this time to the churches in Galatia, in which he warned that
they had already turned to a different gospel (Galatians 1:6-7).
At that time a most amazing thing occurred. The history
regarding the Churchits gospel and its developmentseems
almost totally to have disappeared. It was as if a curtain had
been rung down on all historic accounts of Church history
until about a.d.150. When this curtain was lifted after that
lost century, in the records of Church history, an altogether
different gospel was being preachedmerely the so-called
gospel of men about the Christ, the Messenger, but not
proclaiming His message.
Except for the one true Church, persecuted, falsely accused,
condemned, subjected to martyrdom over the centuries
by the rising great false church (Revelation 17:5), the true
gospelthe good news of the coming Kingdom of Godwas
not preached to the world for 100 19-year time cycles. Then,
in 1953, God miraculously opened the door before me of the
most powerful radio station on Earth, reaching all Europe
and Britain, Radio Luxembourg.
Christ foretold that, just before the end of this worldthis
agethis man-built society rejecting the laws and ways
of GodHis very same gospel of Gods Kingdom shall be
preached (Matthew 24:14) and also published (Mark 13:10)
in all the world for a witness unto all nations.
In the light of fast-developing, world-encircling events, it
became apparent that what was actually happening in 1934
was precisely this: Jesus Christ was opening the gigantic
mass-media door of radio and the printing press for the
proclaiming of His same original gospel to all the world!
On that tiny-powered radio station korein that infant
mimeographed Plain Truthwas going out an astonishing
message! Just as the public, 1,900 years before, had been
astonished at Christs gospel (Mark 1:14-15, 22), so were those
who began to hear this same gospel in 1934. It was so utterly
different from what had been palmed off as Christianity.
437
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
The Three-Point Campaign

And so it was, that when Mr. Frank Hill, owner of kore,
urged me to produce a half-hour Sunday program, consisting
of a regular church service condensed into a half hour using
radio techniques, that I went to work on the idea with zest
and enthusiasm.
This seemed big, compared to past activities. I saw in it
immediately an opportunity to reach many more people with
Gods truth.
Not only did I set out with a will to produce the radio
program, but I realized there must be follow-up (and I do not
mean a money-soliciting follow-up) if this new effort were to
be resultful.
Immediately the idea came of realizing, at last, the dream
I had cherished since 1927the publication of a magazine,
to be called the Plain Truth. Back in 1927 I had made up
an entire dummy of this proposed magazine. I had even
written articles for it. I even had a professional letter artist
design a front cover idea in 1927and I had tried designing
one myself. But we had never had the wherewithal to start
publishing a magazine.
This ambition to publish the Plain Truth was the natural
outgrowth of earlier business experience. Much of my 20
years of advertising experience had been spent in the class
magazine field.
Now, at last, I realized that this magazine was a must as
a follow-up for the radio broadcast. Yet we were no more able,
financially, than we had been in 1927.
Necessity is the mother of invention. If we could not afford
to publish a high-quality, professional-appearing magazine, I
would simply convert the mimeographed Bulletin I had been
issuing for our scattered Church brethren in the Willamette
Valley into the Plain Truth.
My idea for this magazine, from the start, had been to
publish a magazine, not for Church members, but for the
general publicthe unconverted and unchurchedan evan-
gelistic-type publication to bring to the world Gods truth
making it plain!
438
So now, even if it had to start with about 250 copies done

by hand on a mimeograph, I would start it! Like the grain
of a mustard seed, it started, very possibly, the smallest of
magazines. But it has grown into a professional-appearing
32-page magazine of over 8 million circulation.
Also I saw at once that the broadcasts should be followed
up by continued public evangelistic services.
Therefore, I wrote to the small number of members on the
mailing list I hadperhaps less than 50the news of the
forthcoming Three-Point Campaign: 1) The half-hour Sunday
radio program; 2) the new mimeographed magazine for
interested listeners, the Plain Truth; and 3) personal public
meetings.
The broadcast, and idea of the Three-Point Campaign,
had been completely approved, of course, by the brethren of
the Church.
ON THE AIR!
On the first Sunday morning in the new year, 1934, precisely at
10a.m., we were on the air. The program has been continuously
on the air, without missing a single week, ever since.
Mr. Hill had suggested that we produce a regular Sunday
morning church service, condensed into 30 minutes. I had
planned it according to his suggestion. In our new local
Church, then meeting out at the Jeans schoolhouse, 12 miles
west of Eugene, we had a young couple, Claude and Velma
Ellis. Claude was a very good tenor. His wife Velma sang alto.
They sang duets. They supplied the music.
I do not remember the exact format of the program, as
it started, during those first few months. Very soon the
duet was replaced with a mixed quartet, with our daughter
Beverly singing soprano, Mrs. Armstrong alto, Claude Ellis
tenor, and Alfred Freeze bass, with Mrs. Ellis at the piano.
As the program started out it was called the Radio Church
of God. It was, indeed, a church service on the air. There
has been a gradual evolution in the format of the program.
We were to learn, later, that an abbreviated church service
appeals only to a very few churchgoing people, who may
439
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
want to listen in on a church serviceor to attend church

without leaving their homes. It attracts only what is called
the religious audience. Through the years the program
changed, until it became a program pointed toward the
non-churchgoing publicpeople who are not religious and
may never attend church.
Gradually, we learned that it was the message which
attracted listeners. Radio station managers began to tell us
that we really had a speech-type program, and a message and
type of speech which would attract and hold a bigger audience
than music.
But back, now, to January 1934.
The Plain Truths Modest Bow

Just as the 15-minute morning devotional programs had
brought an unexpected mail response, so did the half-hour
regular program of our own. Only it now brought a larger
response. I began with the first broadcast, that first Sunday
in 1934, inviting listeners to write in for the new magazine,
the Plain Truth.
At the same time I began work on producing Volume1
and Number1 of this magazine of my dreams. I did not even
have a scope for hand-lettering the headlines. I was still
living with the Fishers on their farm seven miles west of
Eugenemy wife and children still at the Hall Street house
in Salem. I had to hold the mimeograph stencils up against
a window, and try to cut the headlines with my right hand
while I tried to hold the stencil without slipping against the
window pane with my left. The headlines were a little shaky.
That first issue of the Plain Truth was somewhat amateurish,
and homemade looking. Probably no one but myself would
have dignified it by calling it a magazine.
No publication could have had a more humble, or a smaller
start. But it was a start. It grew. It was improved, as scanty
funds permitted. It took years before we were able to have it
printed on a printing press. But through the years it has been
instrumental in making drastic changes in thousands of lives!
It was sometime later, in 1934, that a few special offerings
440
made it possible for us to purchase a very old, used, outdated

Neostyle. It was predecessor to the mimeograph. It was
entirely hand operated. The sheets of paper had to be fed into
it one at a time by hand. There was nothing automatic about
it. It cost $10. We had also finally been able, before or shortly
after the first issue of the Plain Truth, to raise enough money
to purchase a secondhand typewriter for $10.
And so finally the Plain Truth, homemade at Fishers farm
on the mimeograph I was permitted to use at the office of
the local mimeograph dealer, but containing priceless plain
truth, made its humble bow to the world February 1, 1934.
I have no record of the exact press run of that first edition,
but it was in the neighborhood of 250 copies. I think we still
have one copy somewhere in some old files.
Looking back now, we are a little amazed to see how far
the broadcast and the Plain Truth have gone since then. That
grain of mustard seed is multiplying mightily under the
guiding power of God!
441
32
CAMPAIGN GETS
UNDER WAY
DESPITE OPPOSITION
Y OULL NEVER GET FAR, MR. ARMSTRONG,
said a resident of the Jeans neighborhood whom I met on the

roadside one day. It was during the time I was holding three
meetings a week at the Jeans schoolhouse, 12miles west of
Eugene, Oregon. This followed the six-weeks meetings at
Firbutte school and formation of the new local Church of God
which met at the Jeans school.
Why do you say that? I asked.
Because you are preaching exactly what the Bible says.
The Bible corrects and reproves people. People dont want to
be told they are wrong. People dont like correction. What you
preach is too strong for them. People will never support it.
I smiled.
If I looked to people for support, I would have to preach
what people want to hear, I replied. I have learned that by
experience. But I was not called to this ministry by people. I
was not taught the gospel I preach by people. People did not
put me in the ministryJesus Christ did. I am not employed
by people, or any organization of men. I have been called, and
442
sent with His gospel, by Jesus Christ. He is my employer. I rely
on Him for support. He has given me the written promise that
He will supply all my need. I believe He is able, and will do it!
The man stared at me incredulously. He was speechless.
But now, nearly 40 years later, I can report that Jesus
Christ did support His Work through His servant. He did
supply its needs (almost infinitesimal at first, increasing
gradually, yet always increasing). True, God works through
human instruments. He has moved on the hearts of those He
could make willing to become co-workers with Him and with
me in this Work, now grown great and world-encompassing.
Eugene Campaign Starts

During the July-August meetings at the Firbutte school, and
on through the winter with the new local Church continuing
meetings at the Jeans schoolhouse, 12 miles west of Eugene,
my wife and children had remained in Salem. I had lived with
the Elmer Fishers on their farm seven miles west of Eugene.
But by late March I had rented a house on West Fourth. I
think the rent was about $7 per month. I had arranged for
meetings to start in the Old Masonic Temple on Seventh
Avenue. Then one evening my wife and children arrived in
Eugene with our household furniture and furnishings on Ed
Smiths truck. That night we arranged for my family to sleep
on mattresses on the second floor of the Old Masonic Hall.
The year and three months spent in Astoria, averaging
perhaps less than five hours sleep per nightwith one ordeal
of three days and three nights with no sleephad left me in
a condition which made it difficult to get to sleep at night.
On this particular night, I had procured barbiturate sleeping
pills, desperate for a full nights sound sleep. At this time
these sleeping pills did not require a doctors prescription. I
shall never forget the experience. It was my first and last
with the sleeping pills.
I had a good full nights sleep, all right. But it was a peculiar
sensation. It was not a natural but an induced sleep. It left
me frightened. As I had sworn off chewing tobacco at age 5, I
now swore off barbiturate sleep-inducing forever.
443
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
A few busy days followed, cleaning up this virtually

abandoned Old Masonic Temple auditorium. Beside my wife
and children, Mr. and Mrs. Fisher, and one or two others in
the Church joined in the cleanup.
The Three-Point Campaign was ready to leap ahead on
all three points. The broadcast had started the first Sunday
in January 1934. The Plain Truth, mimeographed, made
its first appearance February 1. And now, the first of April,
the meetings were started in downtown Eugene, in the Old
Masonic Temple.
As mentioned before, meetings still were being held
three times a week out at Jeans schoolhouseTuesday
and Thursday nights and Sabbath mornings. Consequently
the meetings in downtown Eugene were held on Sunday,
Wednesday and Friday nights. This was our first experiment
in holding public evangelistic meetings three times a week.
These meetings were carried on for 5 months.
We learned by this experience that meetings held only
three times a week are not as fruitful as meetings held
consecutively six times a week.
Later, we were to learn that the same is true in broadcasting.
A once-a-week broadcast, or even three times a week, does
not produce results comparable to daily broadcasting six or
seven times a week.
For this Eugene campaign I mimeographed handbills and
announced it on the radio program. An attendance of approx-
imately 100 was maintained up until the final two weeks. But
this was much lower than later campaigns with consecutive
six-nights-a-week services.
Here, as in the Salem meetings with Elder Oberg, the
whooping, shouting, aggressive Pentecostal people were
much in evidence at the beginning. But by this time I had
learned that they were primarily concerned with working
up an emotional demonstration. They were not interested
in learning biblical truth, obeying Gods commands, and
yielding their lives to be changed and transformed according
to Gods Word by a living Christ who does His saving Work
within us. A few vigorous sermons on obedience to God,
444
32 | Campaign Gets Under WayDespite Opposition
and on overcoming, and living by every word of God soon

discouraged them. Most of them stopped coming.
Pentecostal Incidents
A large Pentecostal church carried a full hour and a half
broadcast on kore of their Sunday night service. During one
of these broadcasted services, their pastor said that if any
of their members desired to visit any other church it would
be quite all right, with the exception of the services I was
holding. But he warned them against attending our meetings.
Shortly after we had moved into the house on West Fourth
Avenue, three of the Pentecostal people who had attended the
tent meetings held in 1931 by Elder Taylor and me came to
our home. They were a middle-aged husband and wife and
the sister of one of them. One of the women claimed to have
a disease or sickness of some kind. They asked me to anoint
this woman and pray for her healing.
I invited them into the house.
Why, I asked, when you people claim to have the baptism
of the Holy Spirit and say that I have notwhen you claim
to be on a much higher spiritual plane than Iwhen your
pastor and your church denounce me, and say I am not Gods
ministerwhen you claim that your Pentecostal preacher has
Gods Spirit and power and that I have notwhy do you come
to me for anointing and healing instead of your own pastor?
Hmm! they snorted. Whod we go to over there?
Well, I pursued a little further, in 1John 3:22 God says
that whatever we ask we receive of Him because we keep His
commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His
sight. This obedience to Gods commandments is a distinct
condition to being healed. You people do not obey Gods
commandments, although you attended our tent meetings in
1931 almost every night for six weeks, and you heard the truth
about this made very plain. Now either you are deliberately
rebelling, and refusing to obey God, or else you have been so
blinded in your carnality that somehow the truth never really
got through to you although we made it very plainand you
just never did really see it. Which is it?
445
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
I guess we just didnt see it, brother, came the answer.

All right, I said. I cant read your mind and heart as God
can. I have to take you at your word. Since you claim you
have not come to consciously understand the truth, and have
not knowingly rebelled and disobeyed, I will anoint you.
The minute I began to pray all three, true to Pentecostal
heathen and unscriptural custom, began to try to drown out
my voice by their loud expressions of O praise you, Jesus!
Hallelujah! Glory to God! etc., etc., in a babylon of noisy
confusion. Then immediately the woman I was anointing
went into a wild, loud, uncontrolled laugh. This seemed to be
a new fad at the time among Pentecostals in Oregon. They
called it the holy laugh.
Instantly I put my hands on her head, and in a loud voice
called on God, by authority of Jesus Christ, to silence this
work of Satan, and cast the demon spirits out of my home!
Instantly, as if struck by a bolt of lightning, the womans
hysterical unnatural laughter was silenced, as were the
shoutings of the other two. All was quiet.
They rose to their feet.
Well, anyway, sneered the supposedly ill woman. Im
healed, so there! And quickly they left the house.
On another occasion a member of this Pentecostal church
came running up to me on a Eugene street one Sunday morning.
Weve had a dozen men out looking everywhere for you,
he gasped breathlessly. Please come quick! Our pastors wife
fell over backward under the power during prayer, and shes
unconscious, and we cant revive her. Our pastor sent us out
scouring the town to find you. Please come and pray for her,
that she will revive. Were afraid she is dying!
I hurried over to this Pentecostal church. There they
were, probably 400 to 500 of them, wringing their hands
in despair, all crying out in confusion for God to revive the
stricken woman.
I called out in a loud voice of authority for them all to be
quiet. Then in very brief and few words I asked God to have
mercy on their foolish heathenism, and revive this woman. I
leaned down, laid my hands on her, and she revived. I took
446
her by the hand and lifted her up, and then strode out of their
church while an awed silence reigned.
I have never been quite able to figure out why so many,
through the years, who have denounced me and claimed to be
spiritually superior themselves, have come to me for prayer
when they needed someone close enough to God that a prayer
would be answered.
Visiting Jail
During the meetings in the Old Masonic Temple, someone
told me of a man in the county jail who requested that I visit
him. The prisoner was the black sheep brother of a very
respectable man.
This prisoner seemed to welcome my visit. He was
scheduled to be released from jail in a couple of days, and
promised to attend the services. Two nights later he came to
the meeting, with a girl he introduced as his wife.
As I believe has been mentioned previously, in those days I
followed the evangelistic custom of giving altar calls. It was
one of those things I thoughtlessly took for granted without
checking for proof of any biblical or divine origin. All of us
have carelessly assumed, taken for granted, accepted and
followed more customs, ideas and ways than we realize. As the
years have raced by, I have learned to be much more careful
to check and prove all beliefs and practices. Later, when I
researched again over the ministry of Jesus, of Peter, Paul,
and the other apostles and evangelists of the New Testament,
it became clear that they never practiced or instituted any
such custom. So we dropped it immediately.
But at this time I was still learning, and giving the usual
evangelical altar calls. And this young man and woman both
came up. They appeared quite repentant. I spent some time
with them afterward. They exhibited a spirit of willingness
to obey God completely, and to embark on a new life of
overcoming through faith in Christ, living by every word of
the Bible. Next day I baptized them.
But I learned a serious lesson through this experience.
Later we discovered that these two were not married.
447
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Actually they had gone through a ceremony of marriage, but

it was bigamy. The girl had previously married another man
in another state, from whom she had not been divorced. She
had a little 2-or-3-year-old daughter whose father was a third
man to whom she had never been married. From that time
we have been very careful to check the marriage, divorce and
remarriage status of all candidates for baptism. God intended
that we learn by experience, besides direct instruction.
I told this girl she would have to leave this man.
Well, she replied, I will, then, as soon as I can get a job.
No, I said firmly, you must leave him now!
But I cant leave him now, she protested. I have no other
place to go.
You come along with us, then, I insisted. Mrs. Armstrong
will put you in our spare bedroom for tonight, and tomorrow
we will help you make permanent arrangements.
She was a weakling, and so was this man. So she gave in to
our firm insistence. Next morning Mrs. Armstrong went into
her room to call her to breakfast. The bed was empty. The
window was open. The girl had climbed out the window and
gone back to her man.
However, they were soon forcibly separated again. They
had bought furniture and furnishings for a cheap rented
house on contract at a local furniture store. This young
man had then sold much of it for cash, and failed to pay his
installments at the store.
Helping a Weakling
This fellow was in jail again. He called to me for help. On visiting
him again in jail I learned what had happened. He promised to
be good this time, if only Id get him out. The furniture merchant
said he understood the fellow had a brother of some means.
If you will go to his brother and get him to pay up the
furniture bill, we will withdraw the charges, said the
furniture merchant. We dont want to be hard on the boy.
We are businessmen. We only want our money.
I had no automobile in those days, but I traveled some
distance to see the fellows brother.
448
Mr. Armstrong, he said after I explained the situation,

you may think I am a hardhearted brother, but Im not. Im
going to do what I know is best for my brothers own good. If
I pay this and get him out of jail, it wouldnt be 30 days until
he would be back in jail again. My brother hasnt had enough
punishment to learn his lesson yet. I think he needs this 30
days in jail to think it over.
He did think it over, and managed to keep out of jail for
a year or so, after which I lost contact with him. But he and
the girl were too weak to remain apart. They quarreled and
fought when together, but they could not resist being together.
Rejecting all advice and counsel from me, the girl obtained
a divorce from her first husband, and then had a justice-of-the-
peace second wedding with this neer-do-well fellow, which at
least legalized their adulterous living in the sight of mans law.
Whatever finally became of them I do not know.
Mrs.Armstrong and I spent a lot of time trying to help them
get straightened out, but they were the type Jesus spoke of
in Luke8:13 in the parable of the sower. They listened to
and received the Word of God gladly, but had no root or
backbone of character, and as soon as temptation came along
were too weak to resist.
The quotation God helps those who help themselves is
not found in the Bible, as many believe, but is a saying of
Benjamin Franklin. Yet it does express a Christian principle.
Long ago I learned that I cannot carry others into the Kingdom
of God on my shoulders, or drag them in. I can only point the
way, proclaim the truth, give counsel and advice, aid in many
material ways, and pray for others. I can give aid and help
but each must stand on his own feet before God, and by strong
motivation yield to allow God to transform him and mold him
into Gods own holy character. God does it by the power of His
Holy Spirit. But we also have our part in denying ourselves, in
overcoming, and in doing! It is the doers, not those who hear
only, who shall enter finally into His Kingdom (Romans 2:13).
Nevertheless, this experience I have just related did cause
a deal of reflection and study of the Bible to inquire how God
is going to deal with human weaklings such as these. We find
449
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
the answer in the parable of the pounds, and the parable of

the talents.
In the parable of the pounds all 10 of Christs servants
appear to have had equal ability, and each was given an equal
portion from God at the start. The one who by overcoming
and growth in grace and knowledge of our Lord multiplied
what he started with 10 times was given the reward of ruling
over 10 cities. He who multiplied five times, over five cities.
But in the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) God
gave to each, at the start of his Christian life, according to his
natural ability. To one He gave five talents, to another two,
and to another only oneaccording to the natural ability of
each. The man with five talents doubled his spiritual stock-
in-trade. Likewise, although the man with two produced less
in number than the one with five, he also doubled what he
started with. He did as well, in proportion to his ability!
Consequently we find it revealed that to whom much is given,
much is required. To whom little is given, less is required.
In other words, God judges each individual according to how
well he overcomes, yields, develops and grows, according to
what he has to do with!
This unfortunate couple of weaklings were not born with
as much intelligence and strength of character (potentially)
as many others. Consequently God does not require as much
of them. But He does require of them as much effort in
proportion to ability! We do have our part in the developing
of the Christian life and character.
So-called Bible Organization

During these late winter and spring months of 1934 the
opposition of Elders Ray and Oberg did not cease. I had rejected
receiving further the $3 weekly salary from the Oregon State
Conference after the memorable all-day wrangle meeting
in early August 1933. But this alone did not appease their
wrath against me.
At the biannual general conference meeting of the church at
Stanberry, Missouri, which probably was held in August 1933,
Elder Andrew N. Dugger had lost his previous iron control
450
of the church by one vote. Thereupon Mr. Dugger promptly

bolted the conference and organized a competing Church of
God under what he termed the Bible form of organization.
He managed to induce half or more of the ministers in
the church to join him in this new organization, on the
argument that they were now reestablishing the Bible form
of organization. Among those joining with him were Elder
C.O. Dodd of Salem, West Virginia, an Elder McMicken,
Elder Alexander of Kansas, Elder Severson, and Otto Haeber
of Hawthorne, California whom I knew as a good friend. Mr.
Haeber had not, I believe, up to this time been ordained as an
elder but was an influential member.
Mr. Dugger had been accused of dictatorship, bossism and
even crookedness. I had not as yet met him, and did not judge.
Nevertheless his new form of organization tended to divert
criticism. He claimed the original 12 apostles were intended
to form the top governing permanent board of the church
as Christ organized it. He called this board the Twelve.
Mr.Alexander, Mr. Haeber and Mr. McMicken, I believe, were
put on the Board of the Twelve (although there never were
12). But Mr.Dugger kept his own name off of that supposedly
governing board, thus avoiding the accusation that he was
running things as the head.
Next, taking the 70 which Jesus appointed for a one-time
special mission (Luke 10), Mr. Dugger, with Mr. Dodd and
Mr.McMicken, set up the Board of the Seventy leading
ministers. On this board they appointed as many names as
they could. There never were 70, however. On this board they
had placed my name, and also those of Elders Oberg and Ray
of Oregon. Elder Severson was, I believe, also on that board.
Finally, noting that the early apostles had appointed seven
deacons to take care of the business of waiting on tables and
serving proselyte widows (Acts 6:1-4), Mr. Dugger devised a
Board of Seven to handle the business of the church, making
himself chairman of that board. The difference was that the
early apostles seven deacons merely relieved the apostles
from the physical business of waiting on tables, serving
food and otherwise serving physical needs of widows; while
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Mr. Duggers Board of Seven handled all church income

and finances! Therefore it actually carried all the real power
to govern. Mr.Dugger had control over the salaries of the
Twelve. The word business appears in the King James
translation. But both the Revised Standard Version and
Moffatt translation have duty.
Persecution Continues
This Bible form of organization appealed to most of our
brethren in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. There were
still two factions in the valleyone of them still loyal to
Stanberry as it was called, the otherwhich had incorpo-
rated as the Oregon Conferencebeing somewhat enamored
of the new organization.
Mr. Dugger claimed world headquarters as Jerusalem,
Palestine, with United States headquarters at Salem, West
Virginia. Thus this became known as the Salem church.
In those days one biblical subject I was completely befogged
on was the matter of Church organization and government.
I knew the Stanberry pattern of a general conference was
not scriptural. I knew that voting by human preference was
unscriptural. I saw plainly that Christ chose His apostles
that they and the evangelists, in turn, chose and ordained
elders in local churches. Consequently in the Church now
meeting at Jeans schoolhouse, since I was the evangelist God
used in raising up this Church, I chose and appointed Mr.
Elmer E. Fisher as deacon, remaining as pastor myself.
But just what truly was the biblical form of organization I
did not at that time see clearly. I was really confused on the
question. I had grave misgivings about Mr. Duggers professed
Bible form of organization. I talked it over with Mr. and
Mrs.Fisher, Mr. Claude Ellis, and others of our church at Jeans.
Mr. Fisher was not sold on it, either. He advised going slow.
Meanwhile Messrs. Ray and Oberg were exerting every
effort to urge the Oregon Conference to go in with, and to keep
me out of, the new organization. One of the basic doctrinal
points of the Salem organization was abstaining from pork
and observing rigidly the food law of the clean and unclean
452
of Leviticus 11. Mr. Ray now tried to discredit me with the

new organization with his anti-pork argument.
Consequently, Mr. Fisher, Mr. Ellis, the other members
at Jeans and I decided we would simply leave the answer in
Gods hands. We would pray and ask God to show us in this
manner: If the Salem reorganization did accept me as one of
the 70 in spite of the opposition of Messrs. Ray and Oberg,
we would go in. Otherwise we would remain independent.
The Test
For some months the status quo remained. Neither acceptance
nor rejection came from Salem. Then one day Otto Haeber came
to the office I had set up in an anteroom in the Old Masonic
Temple, accompanied by Elder Alexander from Kansas.
I had never met Mr. Alexander before. But since I had
heard a great deal about him, and read much about him in
the Church paper, the Bible Advocate, I was happy to meet
him. I was steering the conversation along the general lines
of getting acquainted, asking about the work in Kansas and
general conversation.
Suddenly Mr. Haeber interrupted, rather sternly.
Mr. Armstrong, he said abruptly, apparently you do not
quite grasp the importance of this meeting. Mr. Alexander is
one of the Twelve! Mr. Alexander is a very important man!
His time shouldnt be wasted by mere friendly conversation.
Mr.Alexander is the man who has the power to bring about your
acceptance on the Board of the Seventy, if you can satisfy him
about your stand on the clean and the unclean meat question.
I had known many important men in the business world,
and I had not sensed anything in Mr. Alexanders appearance
or personality that was overawing.
Well! I exclaimed. I had not realized! I beg your pardon
for wasting your valuable time. I will tell you my stand on
this question in one or two minutes.
Point number one: I read in Scripture that sin is the
transgression of the law. In Romans 7, Paul says the law it is
sin to transgress is spirituala spiritual, not a physical law.
Point two: Jesus Christ, speaking of spiritual defilement in
453
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Mark 7, says that physical food entering a mans stomach from

without cannot defile him spiritually, but that which comes
from within, out of the heartadulteries, murders, thefts,
covetousnesstransgressions of the Ten Commandments
defile the man spiritually. Point three: The clean and unclean
laws of Leviticus 11 are physical, not spiritual laws.
Point four: Christ preached the gospel of the Kingdom of
God. He commanded the apostles, and us today, to preach
the Kingdom of God. That is the gospel I am commanded to
preach. Point five: Paul says plainly in Romans 14 that the
Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness,
which is obedience to Gods law.
Point six: Therefore I do not preach to the unconverted
meat and drink because it is not the gospel. But, on the other
hand, the physical body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and
we are taught not to defile it, even physically.
Finally, point seven: I realize fully that there were both the
clean and unclean animals long before Mosaic laweven prior
to the Floodand therefore from creation. God did not create
the unclean animals for food. Just as many plants and weeds
are poison and not food, so unclean animals were not made
to digest properly or nourish the human body. They are not
creatures of God intended for food. They are not sanctifiedor
set apartby the Word of God. Peters vision of the unclean
animals in the sheet was given, it is distinctly stated in Acts
10, to show him that he should not call any man uncleannot
to make unclean animals clean. Therefore I do teach every
convert and every Church member that they should not eat
the unclean meats. We do not eat them in our home. Not one
of our Church membersnot one of my convertsis eating
unclean meats. But I teach it as a physical matter of health,
not as a spiritual matter of the true gospel.
That, in few words, Elder Alexander, is what Gods Word
says and teaches and what I believe. Now Im very sorry I
wasted your valuable time, and since it is so valuable, I shall
not take up more of it. Good day, gentlemen.
And I opened the door.
Actually, I snapped out this explanation of my stand
454
probably at a faster pace than most readers have been able to

read it. It left Mr. Alexander a little bewildered. But he could
not deny, refute, nor question a word of my explanation.
Well, Mr. Armstrong, he managed to say as they were
leaving, it seems to me you believe the same way the church
does, only you may have a little different way of stating it.
A short time later, I learned that they did consider me as
one of the 70.
CooperatingNot Joining
Thus we of the Church of God meeting at the Jeans schoolhouse,
along with our brethren of the Oregon Conference, decided
to go along with it in cooperation, but we of the new local
church near Eugene did not join in the sense of becoming
an integral part of it.
I then began to send in regular ministers reports. We
cooperated fully as brethren in Christ. But I did not accept a
salary or expense money from them. None in our local church
put himself under their authority. We kept ourselves free to
obey God as set forth in the Scriptures, should any differences
come up. And they did later come up!
After the experience of being ordered to baptize contrary
to the Scriptures and the renouncing of the $3 weekly salary,
we were firm never again to be placed in a position where we
might have to obey men rather than God.
Result of Eugene Meetings

The meetings continued for two months in the second-floor hall
of the Old Masonic Temple, just off the main street, Willamette,
on West Seventh Avenue. But Mr. Chambers, owner of
the building, had made arrangements for remodeling and
permanent occupancy of the hall beginning June 1. I managed
to rent a hall on the second floor, on the east side of Willamette
Street between Seventh and Eighth, beginning June 1. Meetings
continued there for 3 months, closing the middle of September.
The downtown meetings had continued in Eugene
5months. Results actually were less than in other five- or
six-week campaigns where services were held six nights
455
a week. Definitely we learned that holding meetings three
times a week on nonconsecutive nights does not build up or
sustain an interest comparable to every-night services. This
was an important lesson.
Nevertheless, there was a harvest. There always was a
harvest. That was the main reason for the opposition from the
other ministers. No one in the Church of whom I could inquire
knew of any fruit whatsoever having been borne at any
time by any of the other ministers then in the Church. Their
jealousy, antagonism, competitive spirit, opposition against
the only Work God was blessing, eloquently testified to the
reasoncarnalitylack of real conversion and yieldedness to
God. God can use only those who have surrendered to become
instruments in His hands.
I do not remember now how many had appeared to have
repented, and believed, and how many had been baptized
during and at the end of these meetings. It seems it was around
10 to 15. But several of these were of the type Jesus referred
to in His parable of the sower: the largest number compared
to the wayside. Jesus Christ sowed the seedthe Word of
Godby my voice. There were the ones who came and heard,
but did not understand nor believe; and Satan took the truths
they heard out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be
saved (Luke 8:12). Those stopped attending before the close of
the meetings. Some compared to the stony ground, including
the young man and woman already mentioned. They received
Christs gospel with gladness and joybut had no depth of
character, and endured only for a while. Others compared to
the ground covered with thornsthe cares of this world and
desire for worldly amusements caused them to drop out.
Nevertheless, even though few of those brought in during
those meetings proved to be the good ground which endured,
there were some 10 or 15 additional ones making the start of a
Christian life. A new Sabbath school was organized for these,
meeting at our home on West Fourth Avenue on Sabbath
afternoons. The Sabbath morning services continued out
at Jeans schoolhouse. Often several from there came in to
Eugene for the afternoon class at our home.
456
33
EARLY
EVANGELISTIC
CAMPAIGNSTHE
TRIALS AND TESTS
T HE ACTIVITY THAT WAS DESTINED TO
expand steadily into worldwide power and scope was now fast
getting under way. No activity could have started smaller. None
could have had a more humble and unpromising beginning.
But, with an insignificant $1.35-per-week pledge for the
radio broadcast, and what appeared then as a monumental
additional $1.15 per week to be received purely on faith, the
Radio Church of God had started on the air the first Sunday
in 1934. It was the very bottom of the Great Depression.
Faith was rewarded, however, and the other $1.15 per
week always came, sometimes only a half hour before
broadcast time.
I had devoted some years to experience on newspapers and
national publications. Now, at last, my dreams of a magazine
of understanding making plain the revealed truth of the
Bibleto be made available to all who requested it without
457
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
price to themhad become a reality. Promptly on February 1,

1934, Volume1, Number 1 of the Plain Truth was published,
or should I say published?
No publication ever made a more humble entrance before
the public.
After the first issue had been mimeographed, through
courtesy of the local A.B. Dick Co. dealer on one of his mimeo-
graphs, we had managed to purchasefor $10, I believean
old secondhand Neostyleancestor of the mimeograph. It
was entirely hand-operated, hand-cranked, hand-fed. Surely
it was the most humble of printing presses! For the next few
years the Plain Truth was to be run off on this ancient Neostyle,
before we could afford a secondhand mimeographand then
sometime longer before we could afford to have it printed.
The Three-Point Campaign had at last gotten fully under
way with the downtown Eugene evangelistic meetings. These
meetings had continued 5 months until mid-September.
Now, mid-September, plans were under way for another
campaign.
Alvadore Next
Some 12 to 15 miles northwest of Eugene was the little
community of Alvadore. It was not even a village. There was
probably only one full general store. But there was a two-story
schoolhouse. The Alvadore school consisted of two classrooms
on the ground floor, and an assembly hall upstairs.
Mr. Elmer Fisher and I felt this was the site for the next
campaign. We were able to engage the use of the assembly
hallpractically without cost.
I do not now remember whether these meetings were
conducted over a period of six or eight weeks. The only record
now immediately available to me affirms that the campaign
started in November 1934 and ended in January 1935.
Probably we started in late November and finished in early
or mid-January.
At any rate we had learned the sober lesson about holding
services three times a week. In Alvadore we were back on the
six-nights-a-week schedule.
458
33 | Early Evangelistic Campaignsthe Trials and Tests
Attendance was good. Interest was very good. By this time

I was gaining in speaking ability due to the experience of
speaking virtually six to eight times a week since July 1933.
Learning to Speak Publicly

One learns to speak before the public by speaking. I remember
how one asked Elbert Hubbard how he learned to write. He
replied that he learned to write by writing. A pianist learns
to play the piano by playing the pianoeight hours a day, if
one is to become a concert pianist.
If there was anything I had never expected to become, it
was a preacher or an evangelist. I have explained early in
this autobiography how at age 18 I had put myself through a
self-analysis with the book titled Choosing a Vocation. This
self-conducted test indicated that I had an analytical mind,
an intellectual curiosity, a desire to understand, and some
natural aptitude for writing. The test pointed to the advertising
profession. Those years of experience in advertising and news-
gathering, editorial writing, and the writing of magazine
articles, had prepared me for the calling to Gods ministry.
But it was two or three years after conversion before I real-
ized I was called to preach. I have just come across a carbon
copy of a letter that I had written, dated July 11, 1928even
before our first son was bornto Mr. A.N. Dugger, at that
time principal leader of the Church of God, at Stanberry,
Missouri. It shows that at that time a little more than a year
after my conversion, I did apparently realize that God was
calling me for some definite mission, for which I was being
prepared. I did not know what it was to be. I realized I was
not yet ready. And I supposed, at that time, that it would be
in the field of writing, not speaking. I feel that many who are
reading this life history may find a few excerpts from that
letter interesting.
Elder Dugger had invited me to join their church. I have
explained previously that I never did formally join it. Here
are portions of that letter: I appreciate your kind invitation
to affiliate actively with the Church of God organization.
Elder Stith approached me on the subject, also.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
However, for the immediate present, until further devel-

opments, I do not feel led to join any organization, and feel
that I should not take matters into my own hands, or rush,
or hurry. I believe the Lord is dealing with me, preparing me
for a very active and definite calling and mission, and that
until matters have developed further I should do as Jesus
commanded the apostlestarrying until I have received full
preparation and power. I feel it is absolutely necessary
that we should permit ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit,
and not try to launch into something half prepared, by taking
matters into our own hands before we are sure it is the will
of the Lord. I do not know exactly, yet, what my mission or
calling is to be, or what the method of carrying it out is to be.
Unquestionably it will require organized effort, rather than
attempting to carry out the mission alone and unaided.
WritingNot Speaking
I can say this muchI feel that it is along the line of writing
rather than oral speaking or preaching, my letter continued.
I believe the Lord bestows gifts and callings upon men
mightily according to their natural talents and experience,
giving spiritual gifts along these same lines.
My whole business experience has been along the lines
of investigating, analyzing and gaining an understanding
of business problems and rectifying the situations, and in
writing. Whatever natural talent I have is along those lines.
I know something about public speaking, for I have studied
textbooks on it, had contacts with professors of public
speaking at the Universities of Illinois and Michigan, who
are authors of the texts used in most colleges, and coached a
brother-in-law into winning a big oratorical contest. But
he had the voice, and other necessary personal attributes for
public speaking.
If I am being given any of the gifts, it is that of understanding
of the truth of Scripture. But I am not fully prepared as yet.
Little did I realize then that God could, and would, use my
voice to reach worldwide audiences of multiple millions every
week. But I did sense, somehow, that God was preparing
460
me for some definite mission, and He had given me sufficient

insight to realize that I did not yet know what it was and that
I was not yet prepared or ready, and that I should not rush in
until it became certain that God was leading the way. I knew
I must not take things into my own hands.
Actually, my first sermon, Mrs. Armstrong has assured
me, was not preachingbut just a kind of talk. It did meet
enthusiastic response, not because of any speaking ability,
for there was nonebut because I did have something vital
to say. It was three years after the above letter was written
before I was ordained a minister.
Even then I did not speak with any drive or fire or
power. I still more or less just talked. But there was, always,
a vital message. After all, the message, which comes from God,
is the thing! Not the speaker or even oratory. I remember
that it was either during, or shortly after, the first Firbutte
campaign in late 1933, that the message began to pour
forth with some power. It was during one of those all-day
meetings held about once a month at the little church house
in Harrisburg, Oregon (long since torn down). I was probably
more surprised than the congregation that day. I did have a
burning messageand I did feel it intenselyand suddenly
the message began to pour forth in power. I did not put it
onrather I had to try to hold it in check. They told me
afterward that for the first time I gestured with my hands
and arms. I didnt realize it. My mind was on the audience
and the message I knew they sorely needed.
Today I try to teach young future ministers to be natural
to quit thinking of themselves, their gesturing, their oratory
or speaking ability. I tell them never to try to turn on the
powerbut wait until after the experience when dynamic
power is there naturally.
Heckled Again
In this Alvadore neighborhood were three or four families of
Seventh-Day Adventists. They attended the meetings. I soon
learned that one of them was coming for the sole purpose of
learning what I was preaching, so he could visit the others
461
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
in the daytime and try to refute everything I was saying. He

didnt seem to be succeeding very well. The others continued
to come with increasing interest.
Then there was Elder Day of the Christian Church and his
wife and two late-teenage children. Elder Day was then about
84. He was a quiet, soft-spoken, rather scholarly gentleman.
After two or three nights, he smiled as he shook hands with
me at the door, and said, Well, I have learned something
new tonight.
This continued through the rest of the meetings. My heart
surely went out to elderly Brother Day. When a man well
advanced into his 80s is learning something new every
night, he is a rare and precious individual, indeed. Always
his face lighted up happily in this new knowledge!
But as we came into the final two weeks of the meeting,
the one Seventh-Day Adventist finally became vocal. I was
just beginning the sermon one evening, speaking on the truth
that Jesus was three days and three nights, exactly as He
said, in the tomb after crucifixionand then, therefore, the
crucifixion was not on Good Friday and the resurrection
was not on Sunday morning!
Now it so happened that, since their Mrs. White had a
dream or vision in which she claimed the resurrection did
occur on Sunday morning, Seventh-Day Adventist doctrine
cannot accept anything contrary.
I had hardly begun the service when this ill-advised man
arose and began to heckle.
That passage in Matthew 12 verses 38 to 40 does not mean
that Jesus was in the tomb, he said. It means he was in
the hands of the Roman soldiers three days and three nights.
Besides, the Bible plainly says Jesus rose early in the morning
on the first day of the week!
I immediately accepted his challenge.
You mean you think the expression in the heart of the
earth means in the hands of Roman soldiers? I asked.
Yes, it does! he lashed back.
And you say the Bible plainly states that Jesus actually
rose early on Sunday morning?
462
Yes, it does, he affirmed.

Well, I said. Now Ill tell you what well do. You just be
seated until the close of the sermon, and start hunting for
that passage in your Bible. You wont need to listen to the
sermon, because you wont believe a thing I say anyway, and
you only listen in order to go around the neighborhood trying
to confuse others and to refute everything I am preaching.
Now I strongly advise you to utilize every single minute
between now and the end of the sermon hunting that text
because you are going to need a lot more time than that to
find what simply isnt there. Then at the close of the sermon,
I am going to call on you to stand up again and to read to us
out of the Bible where it says that Christ actually rose on
Sunday morning.
At the close of the sermon, I called on my heckler and
bade him to rise, and to read his text. He arose, and began
thumbing through the New Testament of his Bible.
I had become a little provoked by this mans persistent
opposition and determined to make an example of him and
end any influence he possibly might have once for all.
Come, now! I said. I noticed you did not heed my advice to
devote all the time of the sermon hunting for the text that is
not there. You should have been searching, then you wouldnt
keep us all waiting like this. Come, now! Read it! Read where
the Bible says Christ rose on Sunday morning.
He merely stood there, confused, flushed in the face.
We are waiting! I prodded.
I let at least three minutes of dead silence elapse. It seemed
more like an hour. I purposely let it become embarrassing, to
let the truth of this scripture sink deep in the audience.
Finally, I said, Well, while this man stands there and
hunts for the scripture that isnt there, lets look now at what
he said about in the heart of the earth meaning in the hands
of the Roman soldiers. Notice, this scripture says:for as
Jonas was three days and three nights in the whales belly;
so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the
heart of the earth. Now see how Jonah was a type of Christ.
In the great fishs belly, Jonah says (Jonah 2:2): I cried by
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out
of the belly of hell [margin, Hebrew, sheolthe grave] cried I.
Now, Jonah was in this gravefor had he not been vomited
up, it was a grave of deaththree days and three nights, after
which he was supernaturally resurrected by being vomited
upto become the human savior from physical destruction of
the city of Nineveh. Likewise, Christ was in a tomb hewn back
into the heart of the earth, three days and three nights, after
which He was resurrected to become the spiritual Savior of
all mankind. The analogy is plain. The meaning is plain and
simple. Christ was resurrected from the tomb in the heart
of the earthHe was not resurrected from the hands of the
Roman soldiers!
Now, I continued, how many of you in the audience
believe in the heart of the earth means the tomb from which
Christ was resurrected? Let me see your hands!
Every hand, except that of the very confused man standing,
went up!
Well, I said to him. It sort of looks like we are all out
of step but you. Have you found that scripture that isnt
there, yet?
He merely looked helplessly confused. Everyone was
laughing at him. It was well deserved and ought to have been
profitable punishment.
We cant wait longer, I said. I do hope this will be a good
lesson to you. You may sit down.
This was the only time I have ever made a laughingstock out
of any man before others, to my knowledge. But this man had
been spending weeks trying to discredit me and Gods truth,
and I felt it was the way to defend the truth for the good of all.
Meeting More Opposition

One family attending the Alvadore meetings regularly, and
accepting the truths taught, was the W.E. Conns. Mr.Conn
was a farmer in the neighborhood, doing quite a dairy
business. One truth which seemed of tremendous importance
to them was the fact the resurrection was on late Saturday
afternoon, and not Sunday morning.
464
The following Sunday after preaching on that subject,

Mrs.Armstrong and I were invited to their home for dinner.
After dinner two men called. One was a preacherapparently
an independent, or of some small local sect, who had been
serving as pastor to the Conns sometime before when they
had lived in Salem, Oregon. The other was a man, also from
Salem, who appeared to be associated with the preacher
religiously. They had heard that the Conns had accepted the
truth of Gods Sabbath, being influenced primarily by the fact
that the resurrection was not on Sunday. This knocked out
from under Sunday observance the only prop which human
tradition used to support it.
This preacher apparently came for a fight. He was angry.
He was ready to get tough.
The Bible says Christ rose from the dead on Sunday
morning, he snapped, angrily.
I handed him a Bible.
Read it to me, I said, simply.
He turned, as I knew he would, to Mark 16:9. But to my
utter surprise, he did not read it as it is printed. He misread:
Now when Jesus rose early the first day of the week.
My dear sir, you did not read that as it is written. Will you
read it once again, and this time, read exactly what it says?
I demanded.
Now when Jesus ROSE early the first day of the week, he
repeated with heavy emphasis on the word rose which does
not appear in the text.
I saw he was going to persist. I decided to maneuver this
dishonest man, intent on deliberately deceiving, into a trap.
The expression the first day of the week is merely
describing when Christ appeared first to Mary Magdalene, I
said. Punctuation was not inspired, but added by uninspired
men long after the Bible was written. This was translated
from the Greek. The comma belongs after the word risen, I
said deliberately appearing to argue.
He took the bait, hook, line and sinker!
Oh, no, you dont, he exclaimed angrily. You cant go
changing it.
465
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Do you mean we must accept the King James, or Authorized

Version, just as it is, without changing a single comma, or any
translation? I inquired.
I do! he snapped. You cant change a thing.
Well, then, why dont you read it as it is, without changing
it? Now I want you to read Matthew 28, verse 1.
He turned to read it. His face grew red with anger. It reads:
In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the
first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other
Mary to see the sepulcher.
Yes, now read verses 5 and 6, and remember, this is in the
end of or late on the Sabbathnot Sunday morning.
I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified, he read.
He is not here: for he is risen, as he said.
Yes, I added, while it was still late in the end of the
Sabbath, which ended at sunset.
Oh, he began to explain, but that is a mistranslation. It
doesnt mean in the end of the Sabbath, but dawn Sunday
morning.
Didnt you just say that you cannot change the King James
translation? Didnt you just say that I have to take it as it is,
without changing or retranslating a thing?
He was beginning to lose face. He had no answer.
Now, I said, turn back to Mark 16:9, and lets see whether
you are honest enough to read it honestly.
Now when Jesus ROSE early the first day of the week,
he shouted.
I turned to Mr. Conn.
I dislike to do this, I said, but I had to show you how dishonest
this man is, and how he had been deliberately deceiving you
these past few years as to what the Bible says. Now, Mr. Conn,
this passage tells what state Jesus was in early the first day of
the week. It tells whether He was rising, or whether He already
was risen, because He had risen the evening before. I want you,
Mr.Conn, to read this. Does it say Jesus roseor, early the
first day of the week, that He already was risen?
I handed the Bible to Mr. Conn. His hands trembled until
he could hardly hold it. He was extremely nervous.
466
He read, Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of
the week.
The preacher and his companion strode angrily from the
room, picked up their coats and hats and went out the front
door without a word. Mrs. Conn broke down weeping.
I hope I was not too harsh with those men, I said
apologetically.
Oh, you were not, sobbed Mrs. Conn. They were harsh
with you. But I tell you it hurts to have to completely lose
confidence in men you have looked up to as almost holy, and
representing God, all these years. To see them show that
they are deliberately dishonest and trying to deceive us is a
terrible blow.
Another New Church

The Alvadore campaign ended. Fifteen had come with
us, including the Days and the Conns. A new local church
was organized, to meet in the Alvadore school auditorium
Sabbath mornings. I ordained Elder J.M. Day as elder, and
W.E. Conn as deacon.
Now I was forced to alternate between Alvadore and Jeans,
every other Sabbath morning at each one, and Sabbath
afternoon at our home in Eugene.
467
34
STEADY
GROWTH OF
WORK AT EUGENE
I T WAS NOW SPRING 1935. HOLDING
Sabbath morning services alternately at the Jeans school, 12

miles west of Eugene, and at the Alvadore school, 15miles
northwest of Eugene, and Sabbath afternoon services at our
house in Eugene soon became untenable.
Purchase of Church Building

Usually, members at Jeans would drive over to Alvadore, or
attend at our home in Eugene, on the odd Sabbaths after I
was unable to preach at Jeans. Likewise, Alvadore members
usually drove to either Jeans or Eugene when I was not at
their school. But this situation was not very satisfactory.
The need of a church home in Eugene to combine these
three small groups focused our attention on the place that our
people had built in 1931.
The building of this little church house had begun
immediately following the close of the tent campaign held in
Eugene in the summer of 1931 by Elder R.L. Taylor and myself.
Mr. Taylor had, prior to this campaign, owned a small
468
retail lumber business in Eugene. Apparently, he had failed
in business, but came out of it with a small amount of lumber
on hand. He had proposed to donate that lumber toward
the erection of a small church house in Eugene. He only had
part of the needed amount of lumber, however. So Church
brethren were induced to contribute funds for most of the
construction costs. A few donated labor, including a carpenter
and an electrician.
They had never completed the construction. Siding had
not been put on the outside, and plain slabs of wallboard
had been nailed up inside, with quarter-inch spaces
unfilled between slabs. And there were no seats or pulpit or
furnishings of any kind.
While I was at Astoria in the newspaper business, in my
final detour from my lifes real calling, Mr. Taylor had
written me that we had lost the church building.
He was correct in saying that wethe church members
had lost it. But HE had not. He had traded it and a small piece
of land he owned to a Mr. Powell who lived next door to the little
church, for Mr. Powells house. This, in turn, he had traded for
a small island in the Willamette River opposite Eugene.
Because of the partial amount of lumber he had donated to
the church house, Mr. Taylor had insisted on holding the deed
to the property in his own name. Although Church brethren
had contributed much more than he, they had allowed it to
be held in his name. He had sold them down the river, and
come out with a little island in the river for himself.
Late in May 1935, Mr. Powell was living in the little
unfinished church house. Mr. Elmer Fisher, Mr. W.E. Conn
and I approached him about the purchase of the place. The
purchase was made, for $500. Mr. Fisher put in the first
$100 to bind the deal. Various church members put in, later,
another $100 or slightly more, and most of the balance was
contributed by elderly Mrs. S.A. Croffoot.
Now came the question of how the new property was to be
deeded. Mr. Taylors action had given Church members cause
to question the honesty of a minister who had the Church
property deeded in his name. I was determined that no such
469
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
suspicion should have grounds for being directed toward me.

I insisted that my name should not be connected in any way
with the deed to this property.
In this particular case, as subsequent events proved, it
would have been safer for the Church if control of the property
had been in my hands. But I said, then, If we cant trust such
men as Mr. Day, Elmer Fisher and Mr. Conn, then nobody
can be trusted. Perhaps I didnt realize as thoroughly as I do
today that God says we can trust no man.
On my own recommendation, the property was deeded to
J.M. Day, Elmer E. Fisher and W.E. Conn, as trustees for the
Church of God at Eugene, Oregon. Actually, as I learned from
attorneys later, this was a loose and unsafe way to protect
the property of the Church, legally. Anyway, the purchase
was made late in May 1935, after some four months of the
unhandy functioning of those three little separate churches.
Completing the Building

Immediately we set out to put the building in shape for holding
services. I asked the members to contribute special offerings
to purchase necessary lumber and paint. We purchased the
siding lumber, which was put on by volunteer labor. I filled
in the quarter-inch spaces between plaster boards with the
proper plaster cement, myself, then the inside walls were
painted and the outside also.
I looked into other church buildings for ideas about the
seating. The most economical way proved to be to build our
own seating in the form of benches, with a center aisle and
two narrow outside aisles down the side walls. I designed
the pattern after observing various more costly benches in
larger church buildings. I sat in various ones, to determine
what design would give the most comfort. Then, with some
of the men of the Church helping, we built the seats. They
were comfortable with contoured backs the entire length of
each bench.
Mrs. Armstrong and Elmer Fisher painted those church
seats in an attractive brown color while I worked on other
things. In the new church at Alvadore, one of the members
470
34 | Steady Growth of Work at Eugene
was a cabinet maker by profession. He built the pulpit and an

altar rail around the front of the rostrum.
On June 1, 1935, the Church of God at Eugene, Oregon,
held its first service in the new building, consolidating the
three groups into one church.
Convincing Atheist Communists

Soon after occupying the new little church building, I
began holding every-night evangelistic services there. We
mimeographed handbills and had them delivered to front
porches all over town. We called it The Little Church at the
End of West Eighth Avenue. Its location, then, was a half
block beyond the city limits.
While these meetings did not attract thousands, the little
church house was usually fairly well filled. One night my
subject was the prophecy of Daniel 11the longest prophecy
in the Bible. It begins with events of Daniels time, in the first
year of King Darius. It foretells the swift conquering flight
of Alexander the Great, his sudden death, the division of the
empire into four divisions. Then the prophecy carried along
the events of the king of Egypt and the king of Syria or the
Seleucidaeas king of the south and king of the north.
One ancient history covers the details of those events and
those following in this long prophecy. That night I read a
verse of the prophecy, then a paragraph showing its fulfill-
ment from Rawlinsons Ancient History, carrying straight
through to the time of Christ, the early apostles, and on to
our present, and the immediate future.
At the close of the service a young lady who had come
for the first time, with two companions, waited to speak to
Mrs.Armstrong. Her friends went on out. She asked if she
could make an appointment to talk to Mrs. Armstrong and me.
Im an atheist, she said. Or at least I thought I was when
I came here tonight. But now I feel myself slipping. To tell
the truth we three girls thought it would be good sport to
come out here and laugh at the ignorant medieval religious
superstition we expected to hear. Ive always believed religion
is a silly superstitionthe opium of the people. But tonight
471
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
we couldnt laugh. I never heard anything like this. I have to

admit no human writer could have written that long prophecy
and made it come to pass, step-by-step, over so many years.
What I heard tonight makes sense. It is not like any religious
teaching I ever heard. I want to ask you some questions.
Mrs. Armstrong arranged a private talk with her for the
next afternoon. She jabbed sharp questions and pointed
questions at us, but they were all promptly answered. She
continued to attend the meetings, and after a couple of weeks
she believed, repented and was baptized. We learned that she
was the secretary of the local Communist Party! She resigned
from the Communist Party forthwith.
This young lady was jeered and ridiculed for taking up
with medieval superstition, of course.
One day she walked into the small front room of the Old
Masonic Temple which I was still using, rent free, for an office.
She was actually leading a half-reluctant man by the arm.
Mr. Armstrong, she said, this man is a Communistone
of my former associates in the party. Hes an atheist. He says
he knows there is no God. We encountered each other across
the street just now. He said he would like to meet that weak-
brained idiot of a preacher that hypnotized me into believing
foolish superstitions. He said that he would prove that evolu-
tion is true and there is no God by making a monkey out of
you. So I grabbed his arm and said, Come right along. Mr.
Armstrongs office is just across the street. I have marched
him over here, and I have come along to laugh at the show, as
he proceeds to make a monkey out of you.
At the moment I had a Bible in front of me. I pushed it aside.
This was a challenge that inspired fast thinking. I gave a
quick silent prayer for guidance.
Sit down! I said to the man in a commanding voice, and
taking immediately the initiative before he had a chance
to utter a word. So youre going to make a monkey out of
me by proving there is no God. First, Ill shove this Bible
out of the way because you couldnt believe anything it says,
anyway. Now you must be a very highly educated man, with
a brilliant intellect. I want to find out just how bright you
472
really are, and how much you know about some of the laws
of science. Do you know something about radioactivity and
radioactive elements?
Well, yes, he stuttered. Evidently my fast and sharp
attack caught him by surprise and he was on the defensive
before he could recover.
I asked him if he agreed with certain laws of science. Of
course he had to answer that he did. I followed up the attack,
snapping questions at him forcing him to answer and commit
himself. Before he realized what was happening he had
admitted that science proved there had been no past eternity
of matterthat there was a time when radioactive elements
did not existand then a time when they did exist. He had
also admitted that life could come only from life, and not from
the not-living. Before he realized it he had admitted there had
to be a First Cause, possessing life, able to impart life to all
living organisms.
Now, I pursued, youre a real intelligent man. Im sure
you wont deny that! You have a mind. With it you can think,
imagine, reason, plan. You can make things. But you cannot
make anything that is superior to your mind! Do you agree to
that, or can you show me that you can originate and produce
something superior to your mind?
He was getting more confused by the minute. Of course
he could not demonstrate that he could produce something
superior to his own mind, so he was forced to admit it.
Then you have admitted that whatever can be produced must
be devised, planned and produced by an intelligence greater
and superior to whatever is produced. Do you know of anything
that is more intelligent, and superior, than your mind?
I knew his vanity could never admit of anything superior
to his mind.
I guess not, he admitted weakly.
And yet you acknowledge that something less intelligent
than your mind could never have produced your mind and
that it must of necessity have been devised and produced
by an intelligence greater than your mind. So you see you
have admitted a First Cause having life, and of intelligence
473
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
superior to the most intelligent thing you know, in order to

bring you and your mind into existence. Look at all the forms
of life on this planetthe way each is constructedthe way
each functionsthe way each needs certain things like water,
food, sunshine and a certain range of temperature in order
to function and exist. Could you, without any pattern to go
by, think out, design, produce, set in motion, and impart a
functioning life to all these life forms of the fauna and flora of
the Earth? Or do you think it took a greater power, a superior
intelligence, a living Creator, to design, plan and create and
sustain this Earth and the entire vast universe?
He could take no more. WWWell, he stammered
pitifully, I wont worship God even if you do make me admit
He exists! This was a last attempt at defiance.
Thats a decision God compels you to make, I replied. He
wont make it for you. He will allow you to rebel and refuse
to worship Him. But He did set laws in motion, and whatever
you sow, that shall you reap!
The young lady did not laugh. It was not funny!
A few weeks later I met this man on the street corner. He
made one last effort at brave retaliation to salve over his
wounded pride.
Ill never bend my knees to your Christ, he said.
Oh, yes, you will! I replied firmly. There is a judgment
day coming for you, and the Creator that lets you breathe
says every knee shall bow to Christeven if He has to break
the bones of your legs!
I encountered this man many times on the street after that,
but he never again discussed religion. He always treated me
with respect.
My First Wedding
I must go back a bit now, to recount an incident that occurred
in February or March 1934. It was shortly before my wife and
children had moved to Eugene from Salem.
I was asked to perform my first marriage ceremony. Ernest
McGill, one of the 12 children of Mr. and Mrs. J.J. McGill,
whose names have appeared before in this autobiography,
474
asked me to perform the ceremony for him and Ora Lee Wilcox.
It caught me by surprise. It was the first time, since my
ordination, I had been called on for such a ceremony. I was
totally unprepared.
My first thought was to go to the pastor of some church
in Eugene and ask him for his form of marriage ceremony.
But on the heels of that thought flashed in the next second
the thought that I had found the Bible entirely different from
modern-day religious beliefs, forms and ceremonies. I realized
then that instead of going to men to learn how to perform a
marriage ceremony, I should go direct to the Bible. Instead of
learning from men, I should learn of God.
Immediately I studied all I could find in the Bible about
marriage. I did not find the words of a specific ceremony written
out, but I did find Gods purpose in marriagethat God had
instituted itand Gods requirements of both husband and wife.
The wording of the specific ceremony, itself, came naturally by
putting together the essential scriptures concerning marriage.
When the wedding day came, the ceremony was simple,
plain, taken from the Scriptures. I had seen that it is God
and not man, who joins husband and wife as one flesh.
Therefore they were married, not by me, but by God during a
prayer. Everyone thought it was the most beautiful wedding
ceremony they had ever seen. Gods ways are beautiful! That
same ceremony, with very few alterations, is still being used
today in our hundreds of churches worldwide.
But I must recount here an accompanying incident. I had,
of course, written my wife that I was to marry Ernest and
Ora Lee. A little later she found our elder son, Dickie, age 5,
missing. When he didnt show up she became frantic. Finally
she found him hiding under a bed, sobbing as if his little
heart would burst.
Why, Dickie, she called, whats the matter?
I dont want Daddy to marry Ora Lee, he sobbed. He
married you, and hes my daddy, and its wrong for him to
marry another woman.
Of course his mother explained. Later he, himself, performed
marriage ceremonies, and I performed his wedding ceremony.
475
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Our New Office

Following the evangelistic meetings in the Old Masonic Temple
in downtown Eugene, April and May 1934, I had retained for
some time, as mentioned above, the use of one of the smaller
rooms as an office. I do not remember just when, but later
probably early autumn 1935Mr. Frank Chambers, owner
of the building (and somewhere near half of all downtown
Eugene, it was rumored), told me he had a tenant for the
entire building, and I would have to move. Up to that time
he had not charged any rent for this smaller office room. He
said he had a vacant room in the Hampton Building, across
from the post office (a new post office has been built since) on
the southwest corner of Sixth and Willamette. However, he
would have to charge me $5-per-month office rent.
Well, we seemed to be getting up in the world. From no office
rent we now advanced to paying $5-per-month office rent!
However, it was an inner room, without windows for
ventilation. There was a transom over the door leading into the
hall. There was another transom over a locked door leading into
the Labor Union Hall adjoining. But instead of fresh air, the
stale tobacco smoke wafted regularly through this transom on
mornings following a union meeting. There had been a skylight
in the ceiling, but it was so dirty very little light filtered through.
During the years we occupied this office we were able to
work only about two hours at a stretch, then having to vacate
the office for an hour or so while the air changed a little. After
some months we did manage to afford a small electric fan
which kept the stale air circulating.
There were two or three old tables in this room. Unable to
afford a desk these were used as office desk, and tables for
printing, folding and mailing the mimeographed Plain Truth.
There were also a couple of old chairs in the room.
For filing cabinets in which to keep folders of correspon-
dence and records we went to a grocery store and asked for
some cardboard cartons. The ones they gave me apparently
contained bottles of whiskey, since they had big whiskey
labels printed on the sides. I pasted plain wrapping paper
around the outside to conceal these labels.
476
Into this office we moved the very old secondhand Neostyle

ancestor of the mimeographand our old secondhand $10
typewriter. This constituted our entire printing equipment
on which the Plain Truth was printed for the first few years.
I wrote the articles, then cut the stencils. The local
mimeograph representative permitted me to visit his office
once a month and cut the headline on one of his scopes. It
was Mrs.Armstrongs job to grind out the sheets on the old
hand-cranked Neostyle. Every sheet had to be fed in by hand,
then slip-sheeted by hand after each sheet was printed. She
then assembled the pages, folded them, and addressed them
by hand in pen and ink. She maintained the mailing listall
written in ink on sheets of paper.
What a far cry that was from the way the Plain Truth is
printed and mailed today! But in one respect we did have an
advantage in those days. Mrs. Armstrong and I were able to
carry the entire mailing of the mimeographed Plain Truth in
our arms across the street to the post officeand before we
did, we always knelt and prayed over them, laying our hands
on all the copies asking God to bless them and those who
received them.
477
35
UPHILL
ALL THE WAY
W E HAD COME, IN THE PRE

VIOUS
chapter, to the spring of 1935. Now I should like to backtrack

briefly.
The broadcast had started the first Sunday in January
1934. The first issue of the Plain Truth, mimeographed, came
out February 1, 1934. The third point of the Three-Point
Campaign got under way April 1, with the small-scale evan-
gelistic campaign in downtown Eugene, Oregon.
Old Notation Discovered

In an earlier chapter I mentioned that the broadcast was
started with pledges for slightly more than half of its $2.50
weekly cost. That $2.50 per half hour on radio station kore
was almost a donation from its owner, Mr. Frank Hill. He
probably gave the $2.50 to the announcer as a slight bonus
for opening the station 30 minutes earlier. kore had been
going on the air with its Sunday programming at 10:30 a.m.
To clear time for my half hour, Mr. Hill simply moved his
operating schedule up a half hour earlier.
Now $2.50 per week may seem a little ridiculous today,
as the price of a half-hour broadcast. It was not a bit absurd
to me, in those days! We were at the very bottom of the
478
Depression. I had, only a few months earlier, given up the
$3-per-week salary I had received. A single dollar was a
considerable item to us then.
When I stated, earlier, that almost half of that $2.50 radio
charge per week had to be undertaken on sheer faith, I was
quoting from memory. The last few chapters were written
in England.
Since returning to Pasadena, I have researched in the dusty
old files of the years 1933 to around 1940. The papers in filing
folders are still intact in the cardboard cartons I obtained
without cost at a grocery store. We could not afford the
luxury of steel filing cabinets in those days. In those old files,
stored in a basement storeroom of one of our buildings on the
Pasadena campus, I have culled out a number of interesting
papers, letters, bulletins, and copies of mimeographed Plain
Truths. Among them I found an old yellowed sheet on which I
had penciled notations of the pledges for the beginning of the
radio program.
Under Pledges for Radio are the following:
J.J. McGill $ .50
Ernest Fisher 1.00
Mrs. C.A. Croffoot 2.00
T.P. Madill 1.00
John Davison & family .50
Edgar W. Smith 1.00
Mrs. J.W. Snyder .25
Mrs. Gemmel .25
$6.50
It may seem a little strange today that some were able
to pledge only 25 or 50 per month. Perhaps we have been
spoiled by todays prosperity. Perhaps we have forgotten
those bottom Depression days. But at that time 25 or 50
per month, over and above tithes and regular offerings, as
a special pledge, may have meant considerable sacrifice.
Anyway, those are the names that made possible the start of
the broadcasting work that now covers every inhabited conti-
nent; that has, today, probably become the most powerful
broadcasting work on Earth, worldwide!
479
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
And today, I say, all honor to those people for that initial
sacrifice! It was not so little as it might seem, at first glance,
today! God has multiplied that many thousands of times over!
When Almighty God does something Himself, by His
own power alone, He does it in a manner so mighty and so
vast our minds cannot comprehend it. But when God does a
Work through human instruments, He always starts it, like
the proverbial mustard seed, the smallest. But it grows to
the biggest!
And so I honor those eight original co-workers. Most, if not
all, are now dead, but what they helped to start lives onin
multiplying power!
On this same yellowed sheet of paper is the notation of
tithes and offerings received of $11.75probably an entire
months income for my familys living! Also special offerings
for the Bulletin I was then issuing, $4.25. But under it
appear the notations: Spent for Bulletin: stencils $1.75; 1
ream paper, $1.35; ink, $1.25; brush, $.15; postage, $1.50;
miscellaneous, $1.52; total, $6.02. That was $1.77 more than
offerings received for the purpose. I presume the $1.77 was
paid out of the $11.75 family income, leaving less than $10 for
a months living.
I have taken this brief flashback because I feel that few
readers, adjusted to the prosperity and luxuries of today,
would otherwise realize the rough going under which this
Work of God was forced to start.
Actually, at $2.50 per Sunday broadcast, I did have a
little over half of the amount pledged. When there were five
Sundays in the month, the broadcasting cost $12.50, and
when four Sundays it was $10.00. The average cost was
$10.83 per month. The $6.50 pledged was actually 60 percent.
But taking that additional $4.33 per month on sheer faith
was a bigger test of faith, in those days, than it is easy to
realize today!
I had no idea, then, where that additional $4.33 per month
was to come from! But I felt positively assured that God had
opened this door of radio and expected me to walk on through
it! And I relied implicitly on the promise in Scripture that my
480
35 | Uphill All the Way
God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory
by Christ Jesus. And although God has allowed many severe
tests of faith, that promise has always been kept!
Smashing Your Idol

I think it well that the reader be given some idea of the
financial hardship under which Gods present worldwide
Work got under way. Some persecutors imply that I was in
it for the money! Perhaps it is well to set the record straight.
And further because an advanced student here on the
Ambassador College campus expressed great surprise, the
other day, to learn that I had been forced to labor along for 28
long and lean years in economic hardship. He had heard that
I had been knocked down by God economically, somewhat
as the Apostle Paul was by blindness, and plunged into Gods
service. But he had supposed that the financial test of faith
had consisted of some three or four comparatively short
periods of perhaps a few weeks or a few months.
So let me say right here something about conversion I find
most people do not understand.
The repentance required as a condition to being truly
converted by receiving Gods Holy Spirit is something far
different than most people suppose. It is infinitely more than
merely seeing Gods truth, or some of it, and being good
enough to embrace and accept it. It is something altogether
different from merely agreeing with certain doctrines.
Whoever you are, you have, or you have had, an idol. You
have had another god before the true, living Almighty God.
It might be your hobby or your habitual pastime. It might
be your husband, or wife, or child or children. It might be
your job. It might be your own vanity, or the lipstick you
paint on, or your business or profession. Very often it is the
opinion of your friends, your family, your group of social or
business contacts.
But whatever it is, that idol must first be crushed,
smashedit must be literally torn out of your mind, even
though it hurts more than having all your teeth pulled out
and perhaps a jawbone, too! I dont believe that many people
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
experience this painlessly. I dont know of any anesthetic

that will render it pleasurable. Usually it seems like
something more excruciating than the agony of death by the
cruelest torture.
Now I had an idol. My whole mind and heart was set on
that idol. I had worked hard, night and day, for that false
god. My false objective was the intense desirethe desperate,
driving, overpowering ambitionto become successful in
the eyes of important businessmento be considered by
them as outstandingly important in the business worldto
achieve status. I did not have a love for money as such.
After establishing my publishers representative business
in Chicago, I aspired someday to own, or build, one of the finest
and largest homes in the north-shore aristocratic suburb
of Winnetkawith large spacious grounds constituting
an important-appearing estate. I wanted to be considered
important by the important.
Crashing Down to Reality

I was so zealously set on that accomplishment that it became
the god I worshiped and served.
God could not use me as long as I had another god that
was more important in my eyes than He. Yet tearing that
ambition out of me was like yanking out, root and branch, my
very life itself. It was smashing dead everything I felt I lived
for and worked for.
So God first took away my business in Chicago by
bankrupting every major client. Twice, later, He again swept
businesses that promised multimillion-dollar rewards right
out from under my feet. He brought me down to poverty and
to hunger.
But the bigger they come, the saying is, the harder they
fall! And all this swelled-up ego came crashing down, down,
DOWN! I had been so bigso importantin my own sight,
there was no room left for God! But God whittled self-righteous
Job down to size! God drove strutting King Nebuchadnezzar
out to eat grass with the beasts! God struck down Saul with
blindness, changed his direction, and then his name to Paul.
482
And God was certainly able to knock me down off my imagi-

nary high perchagain, and again, and again! I had to come
to realize that all this self-importance was pure illusion! I
was brought down to earth and reality with a thud!
Instead of ego, vanity and self-importance, God fed me,
for 28 long years, on the raw and scanty diet of humiliation
and poverty!
Had God merely let me suffer financial reverses, even to
the point of experiencing real hunger, for short periods of a
few weeks, I would have bounded back and quickly set back
up my idol to serve again! Had God let me suffer that kind of
humiliation and poverty even for a period of a yearor even
six or seven yearsI probably would have resumed the same
sense of ego once back on my financial feet.
But God had in mind, as lifelong events have since proved,
using me as His instrument in preparing the way for the
World Tomorrowfor world peacefor universal happiness,
joy and prosperity, for a growing worldwide Work involving
tremendous expenditures in His service. And He knew that
He could never entrust me to handle His money, in the
administration of His Work, as long as I set my heart on
money or the things money would buy.
Please do not misunderstand. It is not wrong to have or
enjoy the good, material things of life. What is wrong, and
therefore harmful to our own selves, is setting our hearts
on these things, instead of on the true values! The love of
material thingsthe vanity of wanting to exalt the self
instead of Godof wanting the worshipful praise of men by
being considered importantthese are the wrong things
to set our hearts upon. When the heart is set on such false
values, the soul shrinks inwardly and dries up! Thank God!
He saved me from such a fate by that 28 years of poverty
and humility!
Dying to LIVE
I was never converted until I was brought to the place where
I realized my own nothingness, and Gods all-encompassing
greatnessuntil I felt completely whipped, defeated. When
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
I came to consider myself as a worthless burned-out hunk

of human junk not even worth throwing on the junk pile of
human derelicts, truly remorseful for having imagined I was
a somebodycompletely and totally and bitterly sorry for
the direction I had traveled and the things I had donereally
and truly repentantI told God that I was now ready to give
my self and my life over to Him. It was worthless, now, to
me. If He could use it, I told Him He could have it! I didnt
think, then, it was usableeven in Gods hands!
But let me say to the reader, if God could take that
completely defeated, worthless, self-confessed failure to
which I had been reduced, and use that life to develop and
build what He has done, He can take your life, too, and use
it in a manner you simply cannot now dreamif you will
turn it over to Him without reservation and leave it in His
hands! What has happened since gives me no glorybut it
magnifies again the power of God to take a worthless tool and
accomplish His will through it!
But dont ever suppose it came easy. If a mother suffers
birth pangs that her child may be born, most of us have to
suffer that we may be born again of Godeven in this first
begettal stage we call conversion!
And what does all this mean? It means that millions of
professing Christians have been deceived into believing in a
false conversion! It means, as Jesus said, Whosoever will
save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for
my sake shall find it. Or, in another place, he that loveth his
life shall lose it.
It means that the individual must be changed! It is a
change in what you ARE! Jesus Christ never pictured the
way of salvation as the broad and easy and popular road.
Rather, He said, that popular road is the way that leads to
destructionand the many are traveling that road. He said
that many would desire to enter the Kingdom of God, and
should not be able! Why? Because they are not able to give
up this worldthis worlds waysto give up being concerned
primarily with what will my friendsmy clubmy associ-
atesmy relatives say?
484
Repentance means giving up your waythe worlds way

the worlds opinion of you! It means turning to the way of
Godthe way of His law! It means surrenderunconditional
surrenderto live by every word of God. Since the Bible is
the Word of God, it means to live by the Bible! It means utter
voluntary submission to the authority of God, as expressed
in His Word!
When you come to fully realize what is the full implication
of your rebellion against the authority of Godof the Bible
it is not so easy to give up! It is much more than a change
of direction. It is a change in what you ARE! That old self
doesnt want to die! This true repentance is excruciatingly
painful. It is agony! Jesus said few find that way!
It wasnt easy for me. How about you?
The only people of God, going His way, that we knew at
that time were at the opposite extreme of human society from
the great and the near great I had been proud to associate
with. I thought immediately, of course, of what my former
friends and business associates would think of me. They
would regard me as a fanatic embracing superstition. It was
humiliating. I knew it meant giving up all such associations.
I knew it meant giving up my lifes ambitions. It meant giving
up everything I had driven myself so hard to attain. But now I
was disillusioned. All that had been pure egopure inflation
of vanity. It was a blown-up balloonand the balloon had
been punctured.
When I literally gave my life over to God, I meant it! I did
not count it mine any longer. Yet, had God brought me merely
to this agonizing experience of conversion, and then restored
me to economic ease and prosperity, I probably would have
reverted back to the same goals and ways. The old cocky self-
confidence probably would have returned. I probably would
not have endured as a Christian.
So God not only brought me low, He kept me that way for
28 long years!
Yet living without this former god was no longer painful,
once I gave it up. I had found the true God instead. I had
found the overflowing joy of receiving new understanding of
485
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Gods truth out of the Bible. I now plunged into the study
of the Bible with an energetic zeal surpassing any efforts I
had expended in the quest of material success. I found a new
happiness and joy in the fellowship of those humble and lowly
folk that was infinitely greater than any enjoyment experi-
enced before. Mrs. Armstrong and I were now seeking first
the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. We learned that
happiness does not consist of material acquisitions.
When God Opens Doors

Among old papers, letters, bulletins in those dusty old files
I find a mimeographed letter addressed to co-workers. Our
little family of co-workers making possible this Work of God
was still very smallperhaps a couple dozen or so. The letter
is dated December 20, 1934.
It started out: I am overjoyed to be able to make a most
wonderful and important announcement. The Lord has very
graciously blessed the Work . And now He has opened the
way for far greater influence during 1935 . A wonderful
opportunity has come for the Radio Church to go on the air
IN PORTLAND! This may be done by a hookup between our
present station, kore in Eugene, and kxl in Portland.
A few other excerpts from this letter should prove interesting.
Here is oneand how true this is, still today! But there
is one fact I want you to realize. It has been said that if a
minister would dare to stand before his congregation and
preach the plain truth of the Bible, he would not have a dozen
members left. That is about true, for Gods Word is profitable
for reproof, for correction (2Timothy 3:16), and the minister
who will use it to reprove and rebuke (2Timothy 4:2) as God
commands will find the time has come when people have
adopted fables! We have dared to preach the truth! We have
not minced words, nor toned down the Word of God. And but
FEW will support such preaching.
Yet, continuing the letter, we have found a peculiar
paradox. We have learned that people will listen, over the
radio, to the straight truth that would cause them to get up
and walk out if their own ministers preached it in their own
486
churches! They will listen, over the radio, but they will not
support such preaching! We cut ourselves off totally from their
financial supportyet they listen! And do you know, there
are millions over the United States who will never listen to
the last gospel warning in any way except over the radio?
They can be reached by radioand by radio ALONE!
How true that has been! That is one reason God Almighty
opened the door of mass evangelism by radio and, later, by
television. Today, scores of millions listen every weekyet
the numbers who support this great worldwide Work, even
today, are only a few hundred thousand worldwide, and many
of them in the lower income brackets!
Yet, even from those early days in 1934, we have made
financial needs known only to those few who had voluntarily,
without solicitation, become active co-workers! We have never
begged for financial support over the air. We have never taken
up collections in evangelistic campaigns. We have never put a
price on any gospel literature! People must send in offerings
or tithes, voluntarily and without solicitationor else tell us
they wish to become co-workersbefore we consider them as
such, or acquaint them with the financial needs of the Work!
That financing policy was in effect from the very first
broadcasting year1934! Every co-worker who helps support
this Work of God is individually responsible for reaching
thousands with Christs gospelbecause only one in thousands
is a co-worker!
But the point I wish to make is that, by the end of our first
year on the air, Christ opened another door! He opened the
door for us to go on station kxl, Portland, then only 100 watts.
But at that time I was afraid to walk through that door
until after co-workers had pledged enough money to pay for
it. This very letter quoted above went on to ask co-workers for
those pledgestotaling only $50 per month, for the year 1935.
A coupon form of pledge was mimeographed at the bottom of
the second page of the letter.
Our co-workers failed to pledge the needed $50 per month.
As I remember, they pledged only about half that amount. And
I failed to walk through the door Christ had opened. We had to
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
wait almost two more years before God gave us another oppor-
tunity for His Work to expand into Portland! Later other doors
were opened, when I wanted definite pledges before walking
through those doors. But definite pledges was not faith.
We had to learn, by experience, that when God opens doors
for Christs gospel, He expects us to start walking on through,
in faith, trusting Him to supply our every need!
Whenever we have done this, God has always supplied the
needthough He has given us severe tests of faith. Whenever
we have refused to follow where Christ leads until the money
is on hand, the money has never come!
And so the entire year 1935 went by and we were still on
only the one little 100-watt station in Eugene, Oregon!
My First Car
During the year 1935, we continued grinding out a handmade
Plain Truth on the antiquated Neostyle. The mailing list
had started with 106 names. But through 1934 and 1935 it
continued to grow as a result of the radio program.
Evangelistic meetings continued, Sunday nights, through
most of 1935 at our Little Church at the End of West Eighth
Avenue. I had taken out time for a short six-nights-a-week
campaign of perhaps two weeks at the Clear Lake schoolhouse
between Eugene and Alvadore. Also I had conducted a two- or
three-week campaign at a schoolhouse near Globe, Oregon,
some 40 miles north of Eugene.
A Bulletin dated March 1935 announced the addition
of 200 copies to the Plain Truth circulation, and a radio
listening audience estimated, by the mail response, at 8,000
every Sunday.
By August 1935, the radio audience was estimated at 10,000.
I find a letter dated September 19, 1935, sent out by
three members of the Eugene church, telling members and
co-workers of our dire need of an automobile. I had not owned
a car since leaving Salem for Astoria in December 1931.
For all these meetings I had held eight miles, 12 miles and
15miles west of Eugene, I had been forced to hitchhike a ride
or be taken by someone attending who had a car.
488
A few excerpts from this letter may throw additional light

on the circumstances of the time. Here are a few:
Dear Friend: We want to bring to your attention a few
facts that have not been known, about the Work, ministry
and circumstances of your radio pastor and editor . He
started this Work of Bible evangelism without any money
or income of his own. He has received no salary or income
from any organization, but solely on sheer faith in the Lord
to supply his needs and those of his family . To do this,
Brother Armstrong and his family have sacrificed in a way
you little dream of . Most of the time Brother Armstrong
has been preaching six to nine times a week. He and his wife
do all the work of printing, folding, addressing, stamping and
mailing out the Plain Truth, themselves, to save expenses
. We are three of the many who have been converted by his
preaching during the past year. Now this Work is expanding
. He has an urgent call to open evangelistic meetings at once
near Salem. The way is opening for him to go on the air in
Portland . But Brother Armstrong is severely handicapped,
and may be prevented from expanding this great Work,
because he has no car. The time has come when he must
take quick trips back and forth between Portland, Salem and
Eugene. He must also have a way to get around to visit more
of his radio audience, especially the sick and afflicted who call
upon him for prayer. So we, the undersigned, have taken it
upon ourselves as a committee of three, to try with the Lords
help and blessing, to provide a car for this great purpose .
We have in mind not even the lowest priced new car, but a
used car, the lowest priced car that will serve the purpose
and cover the mileage he now will have to cover. One of the
undersigned is an experienced mechanic and automobile
man, and will select the right car for the purpose. We three
are starting this fund, at a sacrifice to ourselves.
As a result of their letter, a fund of $50 was raised. We
purchased a used 1929-model Graham-Paige, in Portland.
The price was $85. We signed papers for paying the additional
$35, with the understanding I was to have 10 days to pay it
in cash and save the carrying charges of a years payment
489
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
contract. I borrowed the $35 and paid for the car. Afterward
the man from whom I borrowed itand I believe it was
Ernest Fisherfigured that he owed that amount of tithe
money, and canceled the note.
Back in the proud old Chicago days, it would have been a
very painful blow to pride to have accepted a car in that manner.
Along in those early years, 1934 to 1936, I sometimes
laughingly boasted that I have a suit of clothes for every day
in the weekand this is it! But that one suit finally became
threadbare. It became a handicap to the Work. Mr. Elmer
Fisher decided I had to have a new one, and took me to the
Montgomery Ward store and bought me a new $19.89 suit. It
may have been a year and a half or two years later when that
one was looking equally unpresentable. At that time Milas
Helms, near Jefferson, formed two committees, one headed
by him at Jefferson, and the other at the Eugene church,
to solicit contributions from members for another new suit.
They raised $35.
Through these years my wife wore used clothes her sister
sent her, and how we shifted to keep our children clothed I do
not rememberexcept that one woman at Alvadore stopped
tithing by saying: Well, Im not going to let any of my tithes
go to buy silk stockings for those Armstrong girls. She said
cotton stockings were good enough for them. Yet all other girls
in high school wore silk stockings! This was before the days
of nylons. Had our girls worn cotton stockings, they would
have been ridiculed and laughed at by the other girls. Mrs.
Armstrong did not want this to happen. She prevented it by
accepting worn silk stockings from others, with runs in them,
and sewing up the runsfor both her daughters, and herself.
It was incidents like this that soured and prejudiced our
children against Gods truth. Through those years most of the
members of the church in Eugene lived better, economically,
than we.
I have a letter written November 13, 1935, showing that
at that time, after almost two years on the air with the radio
program, the income of the Work was running around $40 to
$45 per month.
490
It was sometime during 1935 that opportunity came to

purchase a small house of our own on West Sixth Avenue
in Eugene. Certain of the Church members raised the down
payment. On this I have to trust memory. No figures are at
hand, as I write. But I believe the price was $1,900, with 10
percent, or $190 down and 1 percent of the $1,710 balance, or
$17.10 per month payments. The Church members agreed
that if I were able to keep up the payments, the property, when
paid out, should be deeded to me. It was deeded to the three
officers of the Church and myself, as trustees for the Church,
which made it Church ownership.
More Persecution
There had come a request for me to hold evangelistic meetings
of about three weeks in the Eldreage schoolhouse on a country
road 12 miles north of Salem, Oregon.
In previous chapters I have had a great deal to say about
Mr. and Mrs. O.J. Runcorn. We had come to regard them as
our spiritual parents. They lived in Salem during these
years. Their son, Fern Runcorn, and his family lived in this
community close to the Eldreage school, and Mr. Fern Runcorn
was a member of the school board. It was through him that
permission was obtained by the board to hold the meetings. I
was invited to be his guest while they were being held.
This school was one of the newer two-room schools.
The rooms were divided by folding or sliding doors. These
could be opened so that the two rooms became one larger
auditorium room.
While it was a country community, we had an attendance
running from 50 to 70 each night. Among them were some
15 teenagers, including a few husky 16-year-old overgrown
boys. They did not come because they hungered and thirsted
for Gods truth. They came for mischief. They sat in the rear
seats, making loud catcalls and weird noises, trying to disrupt
the preaching.
Mr. Runcorn had warned me about them in advance. He
said that if I attempted to quiet them or discipline them in any
way, I would find all the adults resenting it, and attendance
491
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
would stop. I could not understand why, but he warned me

that the people there were accustomed to this noisy confusion,
and would resent any effort of mine to stop it.
Consequently, when the nuisance started, I stopped my
preaching long enough to say that I had been warned against
trying to stop it.
Now, I said, if thats the way you people want it, thats
the way you may have it. These boys are sitting at the rear.
They are closer to you people than they are to me. If you can
stand it, I can. But if and when you get tired of it, and want
it stopped, I shall stop it!
When these young rowdies saw they could not break up
my meetings that way, after a few nights they broke into
the school one night after midnight, breaking a window, and
stealing a number of books.
Next evening Mr. Runcorn said the chairman of the school
board had called a board meeting, and he and the third member
had voted to refuse permission for the meetings to continue,
on the ground that my presence there was endangering school
property. But I learned also that the chairman of the school
board was a member of a certain church, of which about half of
all the residents of the neighborhood were members, and that
he, himself, had deliberately instructed these boys to break
into the school building, in order to give him the opportunity
to deny the use of the building to me.
That rather aroused my indignation. I was to be allowed
this one more service that same night. At this service, I
announced to the congregation what had happened. I told
them I did not want to be a party to a religious war in this
religiously divided community, but I believed God would give
me wisdom to handle the situation. I felt confident the board
decision would be reversed before the following night, and
advised all to come.
Next morning I drove to the sheriffs office in Salem. I asked
him if his office was willing to uphold the Constitution of the
United States which guarantees the right of peaceful assembly.
Mr. Armstrong, he said, if there is anything this office
will stand firmly behind, it is the right of peaceful assembly.
492
Whats your trouble, and what can we do for you?

I explained what had happened. I asked for two deputy
sheriffs to be present each night, beginning at the time of the
meetings, until about two hours after midnight, to prevent
further breaking in or destruction of school property. He
assured me his men would be glad to put down the disturbance
of these young ruffians by arresting them and taking them to
jail if they disturbed the meetings further, provided I would
prefer charges. It was agreed. The deputy sheriffs were to
remain in the school play-shed just outside the school.
Next, I went immediately, with two witnesses, to the home
of the chairman of the school board.
Now, Mr. X, I said when he came to the door, I understand
that your only objection to my meetings is your fear of
destruction to the school property, and your desire to have
the property protected. Is that correct?
Oh, yes, of course, he replied.
And of course, I pursued, there is no religious persecution
or bigotry in your action, is there? You are not trying to start
a religious war in this community where half are of your
religion and half of the other kind of Christianity?
Oh, no, of course not, he said, his face turning red.
Well, then, since you are not doing this as a matter of
religious bigotry and intolerance, but only to protect school
property, Im sure youll change your vote on this, for there
will be no further danger to the school property. I have seen to
that. The sheriffs office is sending two armed deputy-sheriffs
out every night from here on. They are going to guard the
school property until long after midnightas long as there is
any danger. So you have no other objection, now, have you?
Well, he stammered, I-I g-guess n-not!
Thank you, I said. These men are my witnesses that we
now have your permission to continue the meetings.
We left, and drove to the home of the third board member.
I told him what had happened.
You might as well make it unanimous, I said, since the
other two board members have given permission, anyway.
He was glad to do so.
493
That night we had a good crowd.
At the outset tonight, I said, I want to say that I am
sure, after this breaking into the school building and the
robbery, that you people will be with me in demanding the
constitutional right of peaceful assembly. There are two
sheriffs deputies just outside this door. The first one of you
young bullies that makes a single disturbing sound is going
to be yanked right out of your seat and thrown in jail for the
night, and I will appear against you and demand the severest
penalty of the law!
At the end of three weeks, the interest had increased, and
the meetings were continued for six weeks.
494
36
BROADCAST
WORK
EXPANDS
W E COME NOW TO THE YEAR 1936. THE
meetings being held 12 miles north of Salem, Oregon, had

started around December 12, 1935. Originally scheduled for
three weeks only, they were continued an additional three
weeks because of local interestespecially after the episode
of bringing two sheriffs deputies from Salem to guard the
school property every night.
Going to Heaven?
One night I spoke on the reward of the saved. Most people,
of course, suppose it is a matter of destinationgoing to
heaven. In other words, a matter of where, instead of what
we are to be.
I had shown that Jesus Christ came to confirm the promises
made unto the fathers. Whatever the promises made to the
fathers, Jesus confirmed them as the reward of the saved.
Then I showed by both Old and New Testament scriptures
that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were the fathers.
Next, starting with the 12th chapter of Genesis, I showed
495
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
that Abraham was not promised heaven, but rather this

Earth for an everlasting possession. The words everlasting
possession simply mean eternal life. The same promises
were re-promised to Isaac and Jacob. This was confirmed by
Christ, who preached eternal life as the gift of God.
Of course, most people have been taught, and carelessly
assumed, precisely the opposite of the biblical teaching on
this, and many other basic truths. The Bible says: The wages
[reward of] sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23). Yet nearly
every professing Christian believes exactly the opposite. Most
believe the wages of sin is eternal lifein hell fire. They do
not believe eternal life is the gift of Godthe reward of the
saved. They believe we already possess eternal life. They
believe the pagan Platos teaching that we are immortal
souls living in a fleshly body which is merely our temporary
cloak we have put around us.
The original Hebrew word translated soul is nephesh,
which means animal lifemortal existence, subject to cessation
in death. The very word soul has the opposite meaning to
eternal life. The expression immortal soul is as impossible
and self-contradictory as that silly poem circulated some 50
years ago, about the barefoot boy with shoes on who stood
sitting in the grass, while the rising sun was setting in the
west as it rained all day that night.
The Bible says positively, and twice: The soul that sinneth,
it shall DIE (Ezekiel 18:4, 20).
Teaching the Teacher

Many do not realize that the idea of going to heaven did not
come from the Bible, but from pagan superstitions. Anyway,
in the course of the sermon, I offered $5 to anyone who could
show me any place in the Bible where it gives any plain
statement or promise that the saved shall go to heaven.
After the service, one of the two teachers of that two-room
country schoolhouse came to me, and with a tantalizing grin
said, Mr. Armstrong, Im just mercenary enough to take that
$5 from you. Here, read this.
496
36 | Broadcast Work Expands
She had a Bible opened to the beatitudes in the sermon on

the mount. She pointed to verse 3 of Matthew 5: Blessed are
the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
I smiled, too.
Well, I exclaimed with a glint in my own eye, now please
read verse 5.
She read: Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit
the earth.
Now that is a plain statement of what they shall inherit
the Earth, I said. Doesnt that contradict your idea of going
to heaven? How do you explain that?
Well, I dont knowunless, she said, suddenly jumping to
an explanation, unless the people who are meek have to stay
on Earth, but the poor in spirit get to go to heaven.
Now, come, you know better than that, I smiled. Are you
not one of the teachers in this school?
Yes, I am.
Well, now, I persisted, teasing her a little, do you think
you are qualified to be a teacher, when you dont know the
difference in meaning between the simple little words of in
and of? You have heard about the famous Bank of Morgan in
New York, havent you?
Oh, yes, of course.
Well, is that bank inside of Mr. Morgan?
I see what you mean, she smiled. The word of denotes
ownershipit is not the bank in Mr. Morgan, but the bank
he owns.
Right! And the kingdom of heaven is not referring to a
kingdom that is in heaven, but one that is to be on Earth and
owned or ruled by heaven. Now turn to Lukes account of the
same saying: Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom
of God. Here the expression is Kingdom of God. It is not
speaking of a kingdom inside of Gods personbut the earthly
kingdom God rules and possesses!
Then I explained how Matthew consistently employs the
phrase Kingdom of heaven, where Mark, Luke and John, often
quoting the same words of Jesus, always use the expression
Kingdom of God. Both expressions mean the same.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Now do you still think I should give you the $5? I asked.
No, she replied, thanks for the free lesson.
As always in the evangelistic meetings I held through
those years, we reaped a harvest. There were conversions.
The little group was formed into a small local churchbut
there was no pastor to leave there to feed the little flock.
The details of what followed that campaign are very dim in
my memory now. A general mimeographed letter to co-workers
dated March 30, 1936, shows I had been continuing to spend
some little time visiting converts and interested people in
that vicinity.
But it was the same experience as other evangelistic
efforts. There were resultsconverts baptizedbut without
a local minister, the flock was soon devoured by the world,
the flesh or the devil. Few seem to be able to endure without a
minister to feed them spiritually, counsel with them in their
problems, and keep the wolves away. So far as I know, just
one of that group who attended the Eldreage school meetings
continues to endure at the time of this writing!
Still, this voice of experience did not sink into my
consciousness sufficiently to produce the solution until 10
years later. It was in 1946 that the Eternal God finally got
through to me the fact that He intended to use me in founding
His own college, out of which were to come forth the ministers
and pastors so direly needed for the growth of Gods Work!
This same general letter also records the fact that there had
been no issue of the Plain Truth for several monthssince
starting these meetings. Still, I find in this mimeographed
letter the statement: As you know, I have never begged for
money over the air. And, For more than two years we have
conducted this Radio Church on sheer faith.
The latter part of May or early June Mrs. Armstrong and I
drove our aging secondhand car to Hawthorne, Californiaa
Los Angeles suburbto pick up a tent which the Sardis
people had purchased the year before. We towed it back on a
trailer. I set it up in a good location on the edge of the down-
town district in Springfield. Springfield adjoins Eugene to the
easta somewhat smaller city.
498
Of course we had a good radio following in Springfield.

The tent seated around 400. We had a nightly attendance
that must have averaged 150 to over 200. However, just as
interest was increasing, at the end of two weeks, the Sardis
people needed the tent. One of their men was going to hold
meetings in the little town of Stayton. They had a small tent,
maximum seating capacity 50 people, which they brought me
to replace the bigger one.
For the remainder of the Springfield meetings we were
forced to raise the side flaps straight out, with 50 people
seated inside, and 100 or more having to sit outsideexcept
the night it rained. Then only the first 50 obtained seats.
The others had to return home. Meanwhile, it was privately
reported to me that most nights over at Stayton there was
no attendance whateverone night two people came, and
another night there were four, who had a full sermon preached
to them. This was just another of the many experiences trying
to cooperate with these people.
A Tough Lesson in Faith

In the preceding chapter, I quoted penciled notations from an
old now-yellowed sheet showing that $6.50 per month was
pledged by eight co-workers to start off the radio broadcasting.
Actually, the original pledges were only $5.50. Three others,
totaling $1 per month, were added a little later.
When the first opportunity came to go on the air regularly,
the owner of station kore, Eugene, Oregon, offered me a
Sunday morning half hour at the astonishingly low rate of
$2.50 per half hour. During a four-Sunday month that totaled
$10, and in a five-Sunday month, $12.50. Actually, before
starting, only $5.50 per month was guaranteed by pledges.
That is, roughly, only half the required amount. But, in active
faith, I did walk right on through the radio door Jesus Christ
had opened.
And I have explained how, in those bottom-Depression
days, this took real living faith! When 25, 50 and $1 per
month was all that people felt they could afford to pledge, you
may realize how big the unpledged balance appeared.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
At that time Jesus Christ opened the door! I walked

through it. I trusted Him to keep the balance coming. He kept
it coming! Sometimes the necessary $2.50 was not on hand up
to 30 minutes before broadcast time. Then one of the brethren
might knock at our front door and just happen (?) to leave
some tithe money, or an offering, at that psychological minute!
Never once did Christ fail to provide. Never did we have to
miss a broadcast! Real faith requires the courage of believing
and acting on it! This, let me explain, was not like going in
debt for something consumed and unpaid for. We didnt go
into debt. We trusted Christ to send the money to pay before
each program, in advance.
But I had not yet fully learned this lesson of active faith.
By December that first year of broadcasting1934Christ
opened a second door. His time had come for the broadcast to
leap to Portland, with 10 times the potential listeners. In fact,
a hookup was opened to us for two additional stations, kxl,
Portland, and kslm, Salemboth at that time only 100-watt
stations. The cost was to be $50 per month.
But I had grown more cautious, apparently. I wanted more
than Christs assurancesI wanted tangible pledges in black
and white that I could see! In the preceding chapter I quoted
from the letter sent out December 20, 1934, asking for those
pledges. Not enough was pledged. I let the opportunity slip.
Then it was too late!
On September 3, 1936, after almost three years of
broadcasting, I sent out a letter to co-workers. One paragraph
said: Do you realize that kore, our present radio station, is
only a small local station of 100 watts? That it reaches only
50 to 75miles from Eugene? Did you realize that people north
of Salem, south of Roseburg, east of the Cascades, are never
able to hear the message being broadcast? Yet over this local
station, in this small territory, we have established a regular
weekly audience of around 10,000 people.
Did God reject me because I had not yet learned that lesson
in faith? No, I had exercised faith in other ways many times,
and answers had been miraculous. But He let me pay for this
mistake! I had to wait two more whole years before Christ
500
again opened the door to Portland! Here we were, September

1936, and still on only that one little, local station!
Yet on the other hand, I had worked hard and remained
faithful. I had held repeated evangelistic campaigns. I had
kept up the publishing work, with Mrs. Armstrongs full-time
help. Scores had been converted and baptized. I had preached
Gods truth fearlessly.
From another paragraph in this general letter of
September3, 1936, I quote: Nero fiddled while Rome burned!
Many churches and religious broadcasts are today giving the
people a sleeping potion in the form of nice, soothing, pleasing,
comforting programslulling the people to sleepwhile the
judgments of God are fast coming upon them! Why, in Jesuss
name, do they not wake up and fearlessly shout the warning?
This is no time for soft and smooth platitudes. It is time to
awaken people! It is time to warn them!
And that is precisely what this program was doing
thenand is doing on many thousands of times greater
power, today! Even then, in that little section of one state,
it was like a voice in the wildernessthe only voice on the
air fearlessly proclaiming Christs own gospel message of the
Kingdom of God!
No, God did not reject us. But He did try us. He did let
us suffer to learn lessons. He did let us go along on that one
low-powered station, unable to leap out into greater fields, for
two additional years!
At LastInto PORTLAND!
This same letter of September 3, 1936, told co-workers
of how I planned now to get on Portlands most powerful
station. Actually, Christ had not opened that door. Herbert
W. Armstrong tried to open it. Here is another excerpt from
that letter:
Consequently, the Lord willing, we plan now to extend the
radio broadcasting to a powerful Portland stationif possible
the most powerful station in Oregon. This station has 50
times the power of kore. After sundown this station reaches
out all over Oregon, Washington, Idaho. After 6p.m. the cost
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
is just double, but if we are able to secure a 30-minute period

between 5 and 6p.m., Sunday evenings, which will be after
sundown in the months just ahead, we can send the program
out over this large territory at a cost of only $110 per month.
But again the pledges fell shortless than half!
Christ had not opened that door. I had to learn to wait
until He did, and then to walk on through the doors He opens!
But by November 8, another letter to our co-workers shows
that Christ finally had opened the door once again in Portland.
Not the door of the biggest, most powerful station in Oregon.
The same identical door He had opened two years beforethe
smallest power of only 100 watts, as it was then, kxl!
Here are portions from the letter dated November 8, 1936,
which tell the story:
I was in Portland this week, and learned that, beginning
November 1, kex (the station I had wanted) goes off the air on
a silent period at 4:45 in the afternoon, before dark. We cannot
afford to pay their high rate for a daytime broadcast. We now
have subscriptions for only about $40 per month, and it began
to look like we would have to give up the whole program.
And so I am sure you will rejoice with me to know that
the Lord has opened to us a better broadcast than would
now be available on station kex, and at half the cost. The
owner of another smaller station, kxl, who also owns the
Salem station, made me a proposition for hooking up by
wire hookup with both these stations, at our regular Sunday
morning time, 10a.m., over kore, at Eugene, at a reduction
of one third from the regular rate. These three stations form
the Oregon Network, and are connected by wire hookup .
It is not as big a program as we had hoped for, but it is
what the Lord has provided, and will multiply the number of
listeners to between seven and 10 times the number we now
reach . It is a stepping stone. Often the Lord does not let
us progress as rapidly as we would like, and He knows best.
I believe that this will soon lead to other larger stations, so
that soon we shall be covering the entire coast, and later the
entire nation . We can now hope to start off this extended
program by next Sunday.
502
The next co-worker general mimeographed letter in my

files is dated December 9, 1936. It tells its own story:
Greetings in Jesuss name! I know you will rejoice with
me that the extended broadcast over the network is already
bearing fruit!
We are now in the second month of this broadcast, and are
receiving letters from listeners every day.
I have just returned from Portland with good news that I
know will cause you to rejoice as it did me. The way is now
open, as soon as finances permit, to extend the broadcast still
further, into Washington.
Once we broke out of Eugene, and learned to follow through
where Christ leads in His Work, we were allowed to begin
expanding with increasing momentum.
503
37
A COSTLY
LESSON
PAYS OFF!
B EFORE GOING ON TO THE YEAR 1937,
Id like to backtrack again for just a moment to point out

some very important lessons.
Our Sons Start School

By September 1935, we were living in a small Church-owned
house on West Sixth Avenue in Eugene, Oregon, as I have
recorded earlier. At this time my wife decided to start both
our boys in school together.
Dicky (Richard David) was then 6, and to reach his seventh
birthday in October. Ted (Garner Ted) had reached 5 the
preceding February. We might have started Dicky, as we then
called him, in school in September 1934. He was then within
about six weeks of reaching 6. But Mrs. Armstrong had her
mind set on starting the two boys in school together. They
each had little sailor dress suitswhitesand of course
we thought they looked very cute together. They really were
pretty sharp in those neat and immaculate white suits.
I did not think well of putting both boys in school
504
together. The matter had first come up in August 1934. We
discussed it a great deal. Both Mrs. Armstrongs sister and
one of her brothers were school teachersher sister of first
grade. They advised strongly against putting the two boys
in school together.
I am mentioning this because the problem might confront
some of our readers and I should like to help them to profit
from our experience.
My wifes brother and sister advised definitely against
starting little Teddy, as he was then called, when he was
barely past 5 yearsand also against putting the two boys
in the same grade when one was a year and four months older
than the other. Had they been twins, it would have been
different, of course.
Although I thought it unwise, it seemed to mean so much
to Mrs. Armstrong to see the two boys starting off to school
together that I acquiesced. So, on what probably was the
morning after Labor Day in September 1935, I saw my very
pleased wife walk with her two smartly attired little boys on
the way to school.
However, we did come to feel, later, that it had been a
serious mistake to start the two boys, more than a year apart
in age, in school together. Most of the reasons for this I shall
relate farther on. Little Teddy, during the growing years, was
much shorter than his brother Dicky. Richard David was at
least of normal height for his agebut Garner Ted was short
for his ageuntil maturity, when at last he grew up to exactly
the same height as his elder brother.
Because he was so little during those years, his women
teachers thought Teddy was cute, and he was continually
pushed to the front. This, naturally, resulted in giving Dicky
an inferiority complex.
Later, during noon hour the day the boys started junior
high school, they themselves changed their names to Dick
and Ted. And at age 13, I took Dick in tow with me at the
time we were starting on the air daily, in Hollywood, and
managed to apply a treatment that snapped him completely
out of his feeling of inferiority. That, however, I shall leave
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
to be related when we come to it. It was a most interesting

experiment. And it worked!
The Costly Lesson

I have already mentioned how Jesus Christ, the real Head
of this Work, had said in advance (Revelation 3:8) that, at
this time, He would open doors that His message might go to
the world in power! And, further, how, after first opening the
mighty door of radiojust the narrowest start of an opening
first, in January 1934, on one smallest-powered stationI
had lacked the faith to walk on through when it opened a
little wider, in November of the same year.
Instead of trusting God fully, I wanted the assurance
of men. I sent out letters to our few co-workers, asking for
monthly pledges. I have mentioned how that door then swung
shut, and did not again open to us for 2 years.
But that was not all. We were really punished much more
than that. I didnt recognize it as punishment at Christs own
hand, then. It seems plain, looking back on what happened, now.
God says, plainly that whatsoever is not of faith is sin
(Romans14:23). And without faith it is impossible to please
him (Hebrews 11:6). Of course this was not knowing or
deliberate sinbut it certainly did not please God, and He
impressed the lesson.
Not only was the expansion of the broadcasting withheld
two whole years, but the Plain Truth was suspended from
publication, also! After I failed to trust God by going on kxl
when He opened its door to us, we were allowed to print and
send out only two more issues of the Plain TruthMarch and
July issues, 1935and then the Plain Truth was entirely
suspended for 2 years!
After the issue of July 1935, there was not another issue
that year. There was not a single issue of the Plain Truth
during 1936. There was not one number of the Plain Truth
all during 1937. Not until January 1938 did the Plain Truth
appear again!
We were dramatically reminded of the lesson that God
expects His people to trust Him in LIVING FAITH!
506
37 | A Costly Lesson Pays Off!
The Lesson Applied Before YOUR Eyes!

We learned our lesson! That is one reason why, today, the radio
log shows many very powerful and leading radio stations
broadcasting The World Tomorrow, worldwide.
Our living and guiding Head, Jesus Christ, has begun
opening radio doors more rapidly than ever before. He has
also been opening other doors for the expansion of this Work
in an amazing, breathtaking manner! Even in times of
economic recessionwhen our faith has been most severely
tried! Even when we have felt the imperative need of reducing
expenditures in the Work, not increasing them. God has
provided the means.
When a radio station agrees to accept our program, and
clears a definite time, that means take itwalk through that
opened door nowor the door will be slammed shutperhaps
forever! Forty years of experience has taught that stern
lesson. Every time I glance at the current volume number of
the Plain Truth and see those two years missing, I have to be
reminded that God taught me a stern lessonwhen He opens
such doors He expects me to walk on through, trusting Him!
Would you say this takes courage? Well, not exactly. Not
after so many years of experience learning that God can be
trusted!
Its a mighty practical lesson!
507
38
WORK GROWS
DESPITE
HARDSHIPS AND
PERSECUTION
N OW WE COME TO THE YEAR 1937. IVE
explained how, in about mid-November 1936, we started on

kxl, smallest-powered 100-watt station, in Portland. With
it, using Postal Telegraph wires for a hookup, we included
station kslm, in Salem. This was our first network!
Truth About Networks

I think it will be interesting here to give our readers a few
facts they probably do not know about radio networks. The
telephone companies have a very efficient system of network
broadcast lines feeding the various major network stations
cbs, nbc and abccoast to coast.
These are very special lines, specially engineered, and of
far greater efficiency than ordinary telephone lines. They are
specially boosted at intervals of about every 50 miles. This is
necessarily a very costly servicebut the quality is as near
508
perfection as human technology can make it. Sound is carried
instantaneously from originating stations in Hollywood, New
York or Chicago to all parts of the United States with no
detectable loss in tonal quality. The voice is transmitted as
naturally as if the speaker were in your living room or your
car. Music, at both highest and lowest frequencies, is trans-
mitted just as naturally.
The installation and maintenance of these special lines is a
costly operation. In 1936 and 1937, we were not able to afford
such perfection in network lines.
But at that time the Postal Telegraph Co. offered far less
costly lines. These were just the ordinary telegraph wiresfar,
far from the quality of telephone special network lines. There
were no boosters along the way, and even the lines themselves
were inferior, for our purpose. Often they would fade down
or out. Frequently they didnt work at all. The reception at
the other end was far from perfect. But we were on our first
network, nevertheless! We called it the Oregon Network.
Everything God starts through humans must, it seems,
start the very smallestand sometimes the crudest. But it
was a start! And, once started, the Work of God never stops!
Not only that, it never stops growing!
We were to use Postal wires in immediate future years to
Seattle and Spokane. Later, the Postal Telegraph Co. was
absorbed by Western Union. But it helped us get a start while
it lasted!
Even at that time, I had my sights on extending the broad-
cast into Seattle and Spokane, though I was forced to learn
patience and wait until God opened those doors. I knew we
could not call it the Oregon Network when it extended into
Washington, so, in my mind, I had it named already the
Liberty Network, ready for the future!
Gospel to the Holy Land

Meanwhile, I was continuing to hold regular Sunday night
evangelistic services in our little church building at the end
of West Eighth Street, in Eugene. Interest and attendance
gradually were increasing.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
It was either the last Sunday in December 1936, or the first

Sunday night in January 1937, that a former leader of that
Church of God we find described in Revelation 3:1 as the Sardis
Churchwith which I was trying, in those days, to cooperate
appeared with a professed converted Jewish evangelist.
This particular church leader, whom I will not name since
I can say nothing good about him as an individual, had a
scheme to get the gospel to the Jews in the Holy Land. They
had arrived a day or two before and explained their plan to
me. It sounded really good. In fact, the idea, itself, was good.
The reason evangelists generally were failing to convert
the Jewish people to Christ, he explained, was their wrong
approach. This may not be the whole reasonbut the
approach of most evangelists assuredly had been wrong!
They customarily started by trying immediately to preach
the name of Christ to the Jews. But, explained this Jewish
evangelist, all Jews have been taught from babyhood to virtu-
ally hate, despise and reject the name of Christ. To mention
this name was to set up immediate prejudice. It raised an
immediate impenetrable barrier.
This evangelist, being Jewish, said Jewish people would
not be prejudiced against him, but would listen. Instead of
preaching Christ directly, he proposed to approach them with
the Jewish ScripturesOld Testament only. After arousing
their interest with prophecies being actually fulfilled today,
he would then turn to a few passages such as Isaiah 53, Micah
5:2, Isaiah 7:14, describing how the Messiah was to be born
as a baby, of a virgin, in Bethlehem, to grow up as a child, to
be despised and rejected and crucified.
He said that when he approached Christ from the Old
Testament Scripturesfrom the Jewish point of viewthey
would listen.
Whether or not many would listen very far, this was the
only possible approach I knew, that had a chance.
The plan was to raise enough money to send this man to
Jerusalem, from where he would work throughout the Holy
Land in getting the message of the Savior to the Jewish
people there. I agreed to help.
510
38 | Work GrowsDespite Hardships and Persecution
The Deception
On that Sunday morning, I interviewed both this church
leader and the Jewish evangelist on my radio program, and
announced public meetings where the converted Jew would
speak at our little church on Sunday night.
That night our church building was filled. I sponsored the
idea of the tour of the Holy Land, and asked for liberal donations.
Never, except for something very special like this, did we take
up offerings in any service. The response was liberal.
The next night we had a packed house at Harrisburg. Again,
the donations were liberal, and the evangelist was on his way.
But a year later, after other unpleasant experiences with
this church leader during 1937, the Jewish evangelist again
visited our home in Eugene.
He had a sad report to make. His effort had not been
altogether honest and sincere. It had weighed on his
conscience. He knew he ought to return the money I had
helped raise, but he didnt have it to repay.
He had gone to Jerusalem, all right. But he had found
that the church and church members supposed to exist there
were nonexistent, he said. The man whose name was used
as a representative of the church also proved, he reported,
to be a representative for other churches, drawing financial
compensation from all of them.
The converts being made in the Holy Land, he reported,
were not Jews at all, but Arabswho were not really converted.
The procedure used in the Holy Land, he reported, was this:
These supposed missionaries, evangelists or representatives
who drew money from several Protestant denominations,
and reported large harvests of converts, each had a small
tent, in which they served tea and cookies. Like a barker at
a circus sideshow, they shouted, beat tin pans, made noises
to attract a crowd, announcing free cookies and tea. When
the crowd gathered, the missionary went through a short
two- or three-minute spiel, after which he offered the free
cookies and tea to all who would raise their hands and say
they accepted Christ.
The natives all raised their hands, partook of the tea and
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
cookies, and then proceeded to the next tent where they got
converted all over again!
Well, as the saying goes, Live and learn!
I have learned many lessons in more than half a century in
Christs ministryand I have been completely disillusioned in
regard to the sincerity of a lot of professed religion in this world!
Radio Audience Grows

In a letter to co-workers who were regularly supporting Gods
Work with tithes and offerings, dated February 12, 1937,
it was estimated that the listening audience had grown to
some 40,000 or 50,000, every Sunday. It was steadily growing
toward our goal of 100,000 the letter reported!
What a goal!
That looked mighty big, then! Yet today our listening
audience is immensely larger.
But the point is, as I mentioned once before, I did not, in
those days, have any remote idea that this Work ever would
reach even a fraction of its power of today!
I think I have stated, before, that I did have vision. I did, at
that time, look forward to going on small stations in Seattle
and Spokane. My horizon had expanded to include the entire
Pacific Northwestand at times I even envisioned the entire
coast. But the vision of a God-empowered Work on the vast
worldwide scale of today was that of our living Head and Chief
Director, Jesus Christnot mine! This is His Work. I, and
our co-workers with me, have been merely instruments in His
hands! But the present size and scope and power of this great
Work is testimony to the power of God to build, and increase
His Work, and keep it growing until, like the grain of mustard
seed, it fills the whole Earth!
Whatever plant my heavenly Father has not planted shall
be rooted up! But God says He will never stop the Work He
has begun! Whatever is of man is destined to come to naught!
But whatever is of God cannot be stopped! Through the years
we have met hardship, persecution, disillusionmentevery
obstacle! But none could stop us, or prevent this Work growing
and multiplying in scope and power!
512
Compare the mail response of the broadcast today with

1937. A general letter sent to co-workers on March 19, 1937,
reported the following big mail response: In the past
2weeks, 26 letters from listeners of kxl, Portland; 20 from
kslm, Salem; and 12 from kore, Eugene. Total 58. The letter
then asked: Brethren, is this worthwhile? That seemed big
then. Today, we receive tens of thousands of letters per week.
And that is from the United States, only. Besides this there
is a receipt of mail at our offices, worldwide, much larger per
day at each office than we then had in 2 weeks back in 1937.
This letter of March 19, 1937, started out: I am more
than gratified at the evidence of rapidly increasing audience,
growing power, and mounting influence. This mail count
inspired us to increased activity then. And, by comparison
with what God now grants us, that same report gives all of us,
whose hearts are in Gods Work, great inspiration to further
increased activity, today!
I wonder if the reader can realize, as I read over these
letters and reports from dusty files of long ago, how much
deep-down satisfaction and inspiring gratitude to our God it
gives me, today! It was a real struggle, then. It always has
been! But the results with which we have been blessedthe
assurance of continued multiplying growth from here onare
mighty gratifying and worth all it has cost many thousands
of times over!
There is a reason for this rapid and consistent growth over
the years. That reason is partly stated in a letter dated April8,
1937: This is not just another religious broadcast. It is utterly
different, as Im sure you realize by this time. It dares to
proclaim the Bible TRUTH straight from the shoulder! It
dares to warn people of the fast-approaching dread Day of
the Lord, and to preach the only true gospelthe good news
of the Kingdom of God! It dares to correct modern fables!
The same remains true today!
More Persecution
On Sunday, May 2, 1937, the program on the three
network stations was dedicated to high school students. By
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
arrangements with the principal of Eugene High School, the

combined boys and girls glee clubs of that school furnished
the musical portion of the program. The message was directed
to high school students, in their own language, captioned
Getting a Real Kick Out of Life. A special notice was sent
on the Monday preceding to principals of the high schools
of Oregon and southwestern Washington, asking them to
announce the program to students in assembly.
About the first week in July, another six weeks campaign
was started in Eugene. The attendance was goodaveraging
150 to 200 per night. As usual, there were a number of converts.
August 20 to 29, inclusive, a camp meeting was held in
Cabin City, on the highway just north of Eugene.
This particular camp meeting was the last of our cooperation
with the Salem, West Virginia, branch of the church. The son
of one of the so-called 12 apostles of that church informed me
of a plot, hatched at a meeting he attended with his father, in
which the so-called leading ministers of that group intended
to use this camp meeting, of which we at Eugene were hosts,
to attempt to discredit and ruin the radio broadcast.
I had announced the camp meeting over the air, weeks
ahead, and invited all listeners to attend. Immediately, on
learning of the plot, I appointed a committee to be in charge of
the camp meeting, and had them go to the leading ministers
who already were in Oregon, demanding that all antagonisms
and derogatory insinuations against me personally and the
radio program be withdrawn from their plans. They refused,
saying other ministers from the East Coast were coming,
whom they could not muzzle, and they were determined to
ruin the broadcast if possible.
Thereupon, I announced there would be no camp meeting.
In two days, the apostle customarily in charge of these
annual camp meetings arrived in Eugene from Southern
California. He came straight to our home.
What was this, he asked, about my threatening to call off
the camp meeting?
Thats right, I said, explaining to him the conspiracy to
defame the broadcast and ruin it.
514
But you cant stop the meeting from being held, he exclaimed.
But I can, and will, I replied. You see, I have rented this
camp grounds in my own name, and I alone control it. I will
not allow the grounds to be used. I have the entire member
mailing list. I shall send out notices informing all of the facts,
telling them it is canceled, and not to come. About 85 percent
of all expected to attend are members of the two churches
at Eugene and up at Jefferson, of which I am pastorand
they will do exactly as I say. There is no other possible place
where such a meeting could be held. On next Sunday, I shall
announce to the radio audience that the camp meeting, to
start that night, has been canceled. Nobody will come! Now
tell me, pleasehow are you going to stop me from stopping
the camp meeting, and saving the broadcast?
His wife intervened, and advised him to realize that I had
him over a barrel.
He then begged me not to stop it, promising there would
be no attacks against me or the broadcast from the pulpit or
otherwise during the meetings. But I remained adamant.
Do you question my word? he asked, a little indignant.
It isnt your veracity but your ability to stop this vicious
and evil attack that I question, I replied.
He reminded me that he was a cousin of the leader in the
church, who held all these ministers under his thumb. He
said he would guarantee that nothing hostile would occur.
Finally, on this, I relented and agreed to let the meeting go on.
But there was an undercurrent of bitterness and hate.
Whenever I preached, the next minister to preach devoted
his sermon to an attempt to refute, disagree with, and tear
down everything I had said. I tried hard to preach on subjects
that could not be disputed or disagreed withyet they found
a way to twist what I had said and attempt to cast reflection
against me.
Then, at a ministers meeting, this very apostle who had
always appeared so friendly to me, proved himself willing to
give a Judas kiss. Having the floor, he said, in pretended
sympathy, that dear Brother Armstrong had worked so hard,
and was so overworked, that they decided to help me by
515
relieving me of some of my burdens. Therefore, they had
decided to appoint another of their ministers (one totally
hostile to me), as pastor of the church up at Jefferson. He
almost wept crocodile tears of pretended sympathy.
One elder and one deacon of the Jefferson church, shocked
and thoroughly aroused at this so evident subterfuge and
bit of deceitful hypocrisy, as a plot to take over that
church and thus rob the broadcast of its tithes and offerings,
resigned immediately.
All of us at Eugene church, and half the members at
Jefferson, severed all connection and effort at cooperation
with those who had proved themselves willing to serve Satan
and their own personal greed and to injure the very Work of
God! I am going to end all comment about that group here,
with the epitaph thatlike a dead treethey have since split
and re-split into so many little tiny groups, all hating one
another, that no one seems to know where all of them are.
These harassing events were unpleasant. It really did hurt
Mrs. Armstrong and me, and all loyal to Gods true Work, very
deeply to see some we loved very much willing to be misled by
greedy and self-willed little powerless preachers. But such is
life, and such is this world!
Jesus Christ said the gate is narrow, and the road hard,
difficult, that leads to life, and only the few find it. We
certainly have found His words true! It has not been an easy
road. I know why Jesus was a man of sorrows. It was not
because of persecution against Him, or personal suffering,
but the anguish of seeing those He loved reject the truth and
be willing to turn the wrong way to their own perdition! It
hurts, deeply, to see people drop by the wayside!
But in the Work of God, the great blessings outweigh the
sorrows 100 to 1.
516
39
THE
PLAIN TRUTH
REVIVED!
U SING POSTAL TELEGRAPH WIRES, WE
continued on the local network, feeding the 10 a.m. Sunday

morning program from kore, Eugene, Oregon, to two addi-
tional stations, kxl, Portland, and kslm, Salem.
These, like our original kore, were the smallest-powered
commercial stations in operationa mere 100 watts.
Weekly Portland Jaunts

But we stayed, at that time, with kxl for only about 10 months.
On September 5, 1937, we moved up to a 500-watt station, as
it then waskwjj. The new time on kwjj was 4 p.m. Sundays.
We continued on kore and the Salem station.
This not only was another increase in power, it started
weekly trips to Portland that were to continue several years.
Later these trips were extended on to Seattle.
At this time I put the program on kore, broadcast simul-
taneously by wire hookup over kqlm, Salem, at 10 each
Sunday morning. Then came the 123-mile drive to Portland
for the 4p.m. broadcast.
517
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
By this time we were using a mixed quartet on the program.

As the program started out, our concept had been to condense
a regular church service into a half hour, using radio
techniques. The program started with a fast-moving theme
hymn, then two verses (never more) of a lively hymn, followed
by prayer during which the singers usually hummedor
followed it with a threefold Amenthen announcements
about the program, the Plain Truth or other free literature.
Then followed a sermon of about 22 minutes, then sign-off
with a closing theme hymn.
In using this type of programming, in those early days,
I was merely following the custom of religious programs
generally. Nearly all other religious programs on radio have
continued that format to this date. But later, as we branched
out onto larger stations in larger areas, we began to learn
that this style of program is all wrong.
It is based on the assumption that a regular Sunday
church service is being brought to people in their homes. It
assumes one of two fallacies: either, 1) that all radio listeners
are church-going people who want to sit in a church service
which is true of not more than 2 percent of radio listeners,
or 2) that radio is the proper medium for holding a church
service with our own particular church members.
We discovered later that such type of programming causes
about 98 percent of radio listeners to tune to some other station,
or tune out. The minute the average person hears a hymn,
he says: Oh-oh! Theres another one of those sentimental,
pestering religious broadcasts!and he flips the dial.
It was some years later, but eventually we learned. Then
we began programming for the other 98 percentthe people
who are not religiousthe unchurchedinstead of what
radio men call the religious audience. Years ago we dropped
off hymns and singing altogether.
But in those days, and for some years to come, we did use
singing. Our mixed quartet was hardly of Metropolitan Opera
qualityyet, as religious programs went, it was very creditable.
Some of the time we used eight voices in a double mixed quartet.
Customarily, however, we used the four singers, which
518
39 | THE PLAIN TRUTH REVIVED!
included my wife and eldest daughter. The quartet, a pianist

and I drove directly from the studios of kore to Portland,
usually taking lunch along to eat in the car en route.
Portland Tabernacle Offer

Shortly after going over to kwjj, opportunity came to purchase
a tabernacle in Portland. This brought us to the crossroads
decision for the entire future of the Work.
I had to learn, here, that all that glitters is not gold. This
offer glittered. It flattered. It was tempting.
A Portland radio evangelist, Willard Pope, had built this
tabernacle a few years earlier. He had now built a new and
slightly larger tabernacle and vacated his former one. He was
conducting one of these local religious broadcasts, holding
nightly evangelistic services in his tabernacle and regular
Sunday service for his church members which this program
brought him.
The idea of having what then appeared to me as such a
nice large auditorium of our own in Portland was enticing.
This tabernacle seated 800 people.
But soon I began to realize that, although this tabernacle
was offered on terms that amounted virtually to rent, with
no down payment for about a year or so, it would change the
entire direction and future course of our Work.
It would mean tying me down to Portlandpreaching in
Portland six nights a week to those attracted by the radio
program. It would mean trying to build a local church. It
would have tied me down, locally, in Portland. I had from the
start realized that the first and major commission to which I
had been called, was not to build up a church and to bring in
members, but to proclaim the true and original gospel of Christ,
which the world had rejected and lost for 18 centuries. I saw
our commission in Christs prophecy of Matthew 24:14. The
gospel was to go out, not to cram it down peoples throatsnot
to try to force conversion on them, but as a witnessperhaps
even a witness against them!
Of course I did see that Christ had said it was to go into
all the world, and as a witness to all nations; but I had no
519
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
delusions of grandeurI never thought of myself as reaching

more than a segment of the whole Earth. I assumed God
would raise up others to reach the rest of the world. But I did
realize I was called to preach that very gospel to as many as
God made possible.
This tabernacle offer, I began to realize, would mean
diverting the Work from that path. I began to realize that
it might prevent the radio work and the Plain Truth from
expanding into wider areas. And already I envisioned a
program expanding to reach the entire West Coastand
possibly even, in time, the entire United States.
For some three or four months I weighed the matter, prayed
over it, sought advice and counsel from those whose judgment
in such matters I respected. And finally, on the grounds it
would divert us from our divinely ordained course, which I felt
sure I realized at last, the tabernacle offer was turned down.
It was a wise decision. It was a test in wisdom. I think I
have mentioned before that I had discovered, very early in my
ministry, that I lacked natural wisdom. I had always craved
understanding. I had absorbed a reasonable share of knowl-
edge. But wisdom is ability to put both of these together and
form a right decision. I had read Gods instruction in James 1.
If any man lacks wisdom, he is to ask God for it; and, believing,
he shall receive it. I had asked God for wisdom. God granted it.
But, even though it comes as His gift, He lets it develop gradu-
ally, and through experience. This was one more experience in
wisdom. I have always been sure the decision was Gods. The
Work would not be where it is today, otherwise.
Atheists at a Funeral
In February 1937, I had sent out a letter to co-workers saying
that the mail response indicated a radio audience of between
40,000 and 50,000 each Sundaygrowing toward our goal
of 100,000. By April the mail response indicated 60,000
listeners. By November 26 we had reached our goal100,000
weekly listeners was announced! We set new goalsand
continued to grow!
On November 30, 1937, the father of the former atheist
520
secretary of the local Communist Party, whose conversion

was recorded in a preceding chapter, died. This precipitated a
nerve-testing experience.
The mother of the young lady ex-Communist had also
come into the Church. But it was a fairly large family, and
nearly all the other members of the family were professed
atheists. There was some kind of a controversy within the
family concerning who was to officiate at the funeral. The
professed atheist members were violently opposed to me.
They wanted a Mr. Herbert Higgombotham, pastor of the
Unitarian Church in Eugene. However, in deference to their
mother, they acquiesced.
Oh, well, they said, well sit there and endure the
ignorant, superstitious, medieval mouthings of this stupid
God-believing minister, and then well have a good laugh
picking to pieces his ridiculous funnymentals after its over.
I realized what I was facing.
I spoke on the meaning of death, and the question of life
after death. I mentioned that among men there are various
ideasthe immortality of the soul, which is pagan; conditioned
immortality and the resurrection of the dead; and the atheist
idea that death ends all. Then I pointed out that the reason-
ings and inventions of human imagination carry no weight of
authoritythey are only ideasand other people have different
ideas. Nobody has ever yet come back to tell us his experience,
except the resurrected Christ whom they deny. Science can
contribute nothing. We, therefore, have one of two choices:
1)accept the revelation of the Creator Godwho knowsin
the Bible, or 2) admit we are absolutely IGNORANT!
The pagan, I said, is ignoranthe has only his imagined
and superstitious ideas. The atheist, I affirmed, is even more
ignoranthe has only his prejudiced refusal to accept truth,
without any proof or scientific knowledge whatsoever; he
has no authority; he, like a fool, ignorantly believes what he
wants to believe, because he is unwilling to believe the truth.
Then I said that I would now read to them what God says,
and that we have the choice of accepting this authority or
confessing that we are ignorant.
521
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
En route to the cemetery from the mortuary, I rode on the

drivers seat of the hearse, and with us was a cousin of the
sons of the deceased.
Mr. Armstrong, he said, you probably didnt know it,
but you had several professed atheists and scoffers before
you today. They came to ridicule and scoff, but you certainly
closed their mouths! They intended to go home and pick
your sermon to piecesbut their home will now be as quiet
as a morgue!
Of course, I did know what I was up against. I had prayed
to the God they denied for wisdom. I believe He granted the
request. They fell into the pit they had dug for mebeing
labeled ignorant. They had no answer.
Our Car Gives Out

By December, our old secondhand, several-year-old Graham-
Paige car laid down on the job, like a worn-out, tired old horse
ready to lie down and die.
At this time we had one secretaryMrs. Helen Starkey.
She was working without salary. Later, I think, we managed
to pay her $5 per week, but even that was only a fraction of
a salary.
Without my knowledge, she sent out a letter over her own
signature on December 21, 1937, asking co-workers for a
special love-offering for a new secondhand car to enable us to
continue the weekly broadcast trips to Portland. It was that
or go off the air.
Enough came in to purchase a 1934-model used Graham
on monthly payments! It lasted until 1941.
Helen Starkey died in 1959, faithful to Gods Work to
the end. But a year or two before she diedhaving moved
to PasadenaI learned that she and her husband were
trying to purchase a small home, but lacked a few hundred
dollars of being able. It was a very rewarding privilege for
Mrs.Armstrong and me to be able now, at last, to pay her
the few hundred dollars as back salary she had really earned,
some 20 years before. She lived in the home they bought the
short remainder of her life.
522
More Tests of Faith

There had been no issue of the Plain Truth since July 1935. The
reasons have been fully explained before. During this period,
I did manage to turn out, frequentlythough not monthly or
with regularityprinted sermons that had been broadcast.
These had been months of trial and hardship, persecution,
plots by the very ministers I was working with to wreck the
broadcast, and struggle to meet rising expenses and keep the
Work alive.
I will mention briefly one such incident. On November22,
1937, I had managed to afford enough paper and ink to
mimeograph a printed sermon. But we lacked enough to pay
for postage to send it out until November 26. Here are a few
brief excerpts from the letter I sent along with it. This letter
was sent only to those who had become regular co-workers:
Again, with the printed sermon, I send greetings in the Lord.
I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your
interest in Gods truth. But this month I must take you into
my confidence about some of the problems we are facing in
this Work. Right now Jesus Christ is opening up the most
wonderful opportunities for the expansion of the Work. And
yet, instead of taking advantage of these opportunities, I am
faced with having to stop what we are doing, and going off the
air altogether, after next Sundays broadcast!
Most of you must have thought that with our vast radio
audience, so many people would be sending in money that
we do not need your help. A hundred thousand listen, every
Sunday, but only a very FEW of them send any money. And I
have never asked for money over the air! We preach the Word of
Godand the Scriptures are profitable for reproof, correction
and instruction in Gods way. It is not a popular gospel. People
do not pay to be told their sinsto be reproved and corrected.
They would walk out of church if their pastors hit them with
the Bible truth. Their pastors would lose their jobs. Yet we
have found that people who would not tolerate such preaching
in their churches, where their friends see them being told their
sins, will listen privately, in the secrecy of their own homes
by radio. For some reason, they cannot resist listeningover
523
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
the radio! But they will not support it with their money.
The cold facts which I must face are that we have not been
able to send out this printed sermon earlier because there
has not been enough money to pay postagewe do not at
this writing even have enough money on hand for the trip
to Portland for the Sunday broadcast, and must trust God to
send it before Sunday morning. I do not like to tell you these
things. Brethren in Christ, this is one of the discouragements
I must facethe responsibilities I must carryin order to
bring you the spiritual benefits and blessings so many of you
have written you are receiving from this Work.
I wish you could sit at my desk a few days, and read the letters
that come in. Some of them would tear at your heartstrings! You
would come to really realize the wonderful amount of real good
this great Work is doingalready on a large scale, covering
most of Oregon and southwestern Washington. Thousands are
hearing the true gospel and Gods warning, who never heard
such things before! Conversions are actually taking place
while our program is coming in over the air!
When I look at this world and see the people hurrying
here and there, absorbed altogether in their worldly cares
and pleasuresyet really miserable and unhappy and lost
heedless, knowing nothing of the terrible things soon to come
on those who have not put themselves under Gods protection;
and when I look into my Bible, and see how real these things
are, and how soon they are coming, I am appalled, and my
heart burns to shout out the warning to more and more people,
before it is too late!
I felt it might be worth the space to reprint the above
portions of that letterjust to show what we faced, and how
we felt, at that time.
AT LASTa Plain Truth

But, patience, faith and struggle were rewardedas they
always are.
January 1, 1938, we finally were enabled to bring the Plain
Truth back to life! It was the first issue in 2 years!
But it still had to be a hand-produced mimeographed
524
magazine. A letter sent out with it said: We cannot, yet,

afford to have it printed. So we mimeographed it ourselves.
This work has been done mostly by Sister Helen Starkey,
Mrs.Armstrong, and myself, with a few of our good friends
coming to the office for volunteer work the past few days, to
help with the folding, addressing, stamping, etc. Mrs.Starkey
was still working daily without salary.
A bulletin sent to local Oregon Church members, dated
January 1938, announced the Plain Truth mailing list was
now 1,050.
It had outgrown Mrs. Armstrong and me. It was becoming
too large to mimeograph. In February 1938, we were forced
to reduce the Plain Truth down to three pagesits smallest
size ever. There were two sheets of paper, and the back page
was devoted to a letter!
At this time I learned that we could have the March number
printed, at a local printing plant, on cheap paper, eight pages,
for $30 more than the cost of mimeographing. But we didnt
have the $30!
So the March and April numbers were still mimeographed.
March 18, 1938, I sent out a letter showing that the expenses
of the Work (including our family living) had risen to $300 per
month. But we were running behind on part of the family living.
Legal action was being instituted to foreclose and take from us
our small home! In some manner I do not now remember, this
trouble was met, and we managed to keep the home. But this
only added to the harassing discouragements in the struggle
to keep the Work going.
First PRINTED Plain Truth!

Finally, after more than four years on the air, we managed to
produce the first really printed Plain Truth!
This was done by combining May-June into one number! It
had to be printed on inexpensive newsprint paper. The page
size was larger than the present magazine, but it contained
only eight pages.
This was the first issue that carried under the masthead the
slogan I had always wanted: a magazine of understanding.
525
40
FIRST VISION OF
WORLDWIDE WORK
T HE 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 19384 years after the Plain Truth started as
a mimeographed magazinethe 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
526
mean convenient wantsbut 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
outabout to lie down and cease functioning because of old
ageand 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 needor else the Plain
Truth had to cease publication and die a natural death along
with the Neostyle.
So it was that on February 4, 1939five years after the
first issue of the Plain Trutha 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 1,000 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
527
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 peopleand 100,000 were
hearing on radio every week the very gospel Christ Himself
preachedbesides 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 600miles every week2,500 miles a month
in Gods Work. The present car wont 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. Starkeys letter sent out
December21, 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 needs. But during these
years it was surely bare need, not wantsand 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
528
40 | First Vision of Worldwide Work
come. We have warned our radio listeners of this prophesied

event since the first year we were on the air1934. We have
shouted this prophecy ever since 1934 in the Plain Truth.
This issue carried a full-page map, which I sketched and
traced on 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 fulfill-
ment 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 Godour national sins
have increasedand 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 powerrevived Roman Empirecan 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 Europeout
of which 10 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,
529
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 Germanythe 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 struggleclimbing 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 40s.
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
monthincluding our family living of less than $85 per month.
Boys Growing Up
Meanwhile, our four children were growing up. The two girls
now were 20 and 22. The boys 10 and 11Dick almost 12. 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 11. My only sister, Mabel,
died that year in an attack of spinal meningitis, at age 9.
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 wrestlingthese 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 11 and 12 a boy has few responsibilitiesdevotes
himself primarily to funand 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.
530
I have recounted how our younger son had given me a big

kissand 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 didnt pick her outwe 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
swimonly 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 fianc, 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 sufferedall 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 Springsbut
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 definitelybecause
Jim cut us two big club-like fishing poles and tied the line to
each of them.)
Sowe 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 fishingI 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.
531
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Mom picked out the spot where it was safestinstead 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 wasnt the faintest, remotest chance of ever catching
a trout under those conditionsand we both knew itbut 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
sacrificetaking 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 ourselvesour 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 Lords Work will stop unless substan-
tial help comes quickly. For the Works sake I must appeal
to our helpers. I would starve, before I would ask one cent as
charity for myself. But Im willing to humiliate myself in any
way for the gospels 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-girdling Work
reaching many millions on all continents. If anyone had
then suggested that this Work would grow to even a 10th
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 waybut because God planned it, expanded
it, empowered it.
532
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 neer-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 Christnot 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
Warii, 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 Christs gospel of
Gods 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 endcombined 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
533
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 fulfilledthat we are in the very last days! Now
is the time when Jesus said this gospel of the kingdomthe
good news of the coming government by Jesus Christ, the
Kingdom of Godshall 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 worldwideto 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 Gods 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 laidjust the
subflooring. There was no stairway as yetand no partitions
either upstairs or downjust 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.
534
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 couldnt 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 womans 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
roomsbut that is not an absolute need. We just could not
use this money for a temporary material home, when it will
help get Christs message of a home for all eternity in Gods
Kingdom to many thousands of people!
I realized, then, that it was really Gods will that this money
be used for His gospeland 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 Godthe spiritual
valuesand 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!
535
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
The program started there Sunday, September 15, over

1,000-watt station krsctwice the power of our Portland
station, kwjjand 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 faith-
fully 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 its station, didnt
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. Ithappened
536
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 oclock 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, Im sure youll 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 Sundays 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, Gods time has come for this
last warning message to goand 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!
537
41
IMPACT ON PACIFIC
NORTHWEST
N OW 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 begin-
nings? Did anything ever start smaller? Looking back on
those years now, I am, myself, astonished! It surely couldnt
have happened. Yet, it did!
With ManImpossible!
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 supportI 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
538
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 tickand 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 survivedand grewis that I
was not, after all, on my own.
Pitifully small as this effort was during those first few
yearsstill 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 smallestbut 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 5] 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 manAbraham. The only true religion started with
one manJesus 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
broadcaststhey 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
539
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 multi-thousand 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 Gods servant, and he must speak
Gods Word faithfully, else Gods support is withdrawn. What
a difference!
Redoubling Growth
Jesus Christ said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father
hath not planted, shall be rooted up (Matthew 15:13).
Again, Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain
that build it (Psalm127:1). But, David was inspired to say
(Moffatt translation): Though I must pass through the thick
540
41 | Impact on Pacific Northwest
of trouble, thou wilt preserve me: The Eternal intervenes

on my behalf;thou wilt not drop the work thou hast begun
(Psalm138:7-8). 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 2 years and 7 months is,
after all, a very rapid and almost unheard-of rate of growth.
And that rate of redoubling continued nearly 30 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 oper-
ation. Those with spiritual discernment began to recognize it
for what it wasthe 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-June1938 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
541
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 16 pages, just double the present
size. Constant improvement is our goal.
That improvement came slowly through the yearsbut 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 24 and then to 32 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, September15,
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 contributionsespecially 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.
542
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 reproduced17 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 Christs own
gospelvery 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, Washington: 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 Gods Work.
From Indianola, Washington: 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 recog-
nize it as Gods very own message, and it has been the generally
unpreached truth of Gods 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:
543
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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, Washington: 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 sayone 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 atheiststhose 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 letterthe 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
544
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 timeGod and the
Bible. Ive 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 thinkingprobably for the
first time in years. Then I started regretting. I didnt deserve
it, but found the door open when I knocked. Its marvelous
how much different ones attitude is when it is taken from a
spiritual angle. All things seem different. Its something God
only can do for a person. I wish you could reach a much larger
audience, and Im praying for the time when you can.
This man, sometime after writing this letteryet this was
prior to going on the air in Seattleattended 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 Workalong with many other prayers
was answered, and he became a valuable instrument of God,
collaborating with me in Gods 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 threat-
ening 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
545
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 Lords Work
entirely through December. Brethren, the tithe is the Lords
for His Work! Here we are, in the most serious hours of all
Earths 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 Gods
message and the salvation of souls must come firstmaterial
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 peoplewomen, 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 discour-
agement, when by accidentor, as he himself suggested,
intervention of Godhe heard the broadcast of February 9.
He wrote that this message got through to himmade 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
546
morning, February 28, at 10 oclock, in the little church at the

end of West Eighth Avenue, in Eugene.
Beverly is the soprano in the Radio Church quartet, 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 4p.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 1a.m., Sunday. I remember
well tuning in Seattles 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 couldnt afford itthen. 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 hotelone of
the newer but smaller onesa 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
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
5a.m.showered, shaved, dressed, and down to the all-night

fountain in the corner drugstore, 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
formone 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
8a.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 15 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 oclock 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 3p.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 daytimes 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
548
not going to hold together for another single trip to Seattle.

Youve got a connecting rod and a bearing situation that wont
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 $105so your car is now worth $5 less than nothing,
actually. If ever you intend to trade this old hulk in, its a
matter of right nowor 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 carthe most
beautiful car, I thought, I had ever seen!
Weve had this car in here six weeks, he said. My wife
has used it six weeks as her personal car. Its just barely
broken inhas 1,700 miles.
But I cant 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 from 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 carwhich 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. ArmstrongI 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? Ill 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 carif 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
549
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 daughterto 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 honey-
moon. 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 Kathleenlater, I believe, destroyed in the war.
We regretted having to intrude ourselves into their honey-
moon 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 one time a
slightly used car was everything the dealer claimed!
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42
ON THE AIR IN
LOS ANGELES
B Y MID-MAY 1941, THE WEEKLY
listening audience, over the three stations in Eugene, Portland

and 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
16-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
551
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 nights union meet-
ings. 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 equip-
ment. 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, sunlit office became available to us. It was in the old
ioof 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 windowssunlightfresh air.
Let me tell you right here, I never was so grateful for
552
42 | On the Air in Los Angeles
sunlight and fresh air in all my life. I had never before real-
ized 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 deskafter 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 Gods 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 equip-
ment the world affords.
I do not remember now what I paid for that ancient
addressing machine. I believe we still have it stored some-
where 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 $15we
could not have afforded more, then. Im 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 uswith at times the help of a girl who
knew no shorthand and could not use a typewriterhandling
553
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 stamps on every copy.
Mrs.Armstrong had to cook a 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 cabinetand then we could afford only the one. How
many modern steel filing cabinets do we have today? I simply
dont knowbut it must be hundredsnot only at Pasadena
headquarters, in many different buildings on the campus,
but 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 behow 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 literatureall 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
Judahthe 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 10 tribes had its capital, not at Jerusalem, but at
Samaria. It was called the house of Israelnot Judah. The
554
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 uprooted from
their homes, their farms and cities, and taken to the southern
shores of the Caspian Sea. But by the time of the Babylonish
captivity of Judah, in Ezekiels day, some of the house of Israel
had migrated northwest to northwestern Europe and the
British Isles.
Ezekiel was made a prophet to this nationnot the nation
of Judah among whose captives he lived. His message was
a warning of invasion and total destruction of the nations
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 Judahgo, get thee unto the
house of Israel.
But Ezekiel did not go. He couldnt! He was a captive of the
Chaldeans. And no such gigantic military invasion has ever
befallen the kingdom of Israel since Ezekiels prophecy was
written! The prophecies of the Bible are nearly all dual. They
have a two-fold fulfillmentthe 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 flowa 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 watchmanto watch inter-
national conditions as well as Gods propheciesand when
this invasion is preparing, and near, shortly prior to Christs
coming to rule the world, the watchman is to warn the people
who had migrated, in Ezekiels day, to northwestern Europe
and the British Isles! But Ezekiel never carried that warning!
555
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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-cen-
tury Ezekiel to shout this warning.
The realization flashed to my mind with terrific impact
that in World War iialready then under wayAmerica
being then drawn closer to participationthat 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-proc-
lamation of His gospel and of this warning, nationwide, I would
walk through those doors and proclaim Gods message faith-
fully, 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 Warii 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 peoplesat the watchmans 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
10,000 or 15,000 people read the 5,000 copies of the Plain Truth.
Of course I had been sounding this warning all alongbut
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 this meant, today, the United States, the British
Commonwealth and the nations of northwestern Europe. The
556
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 a
door nationally!
In June that year1941Mrs. Armstrongs sister and a
friend were planning a trip to Detroit to take delivery of a
new car. Somehow the suggestion came for Mrs. Armstrong
and mewith themto 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 channelsno other station on the continent on their
channels. 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 stationbut 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 wasand isone of the very top prestige
stations. Its signal was phenomenal. Today, there are many
more stations on the air than then. Today, none of these big
stations reaches out like they did then.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 15 years. We had arranged
by telephone to have a family get-together at the home of
my cousinhis daughterand her husband in Indianola, a
county seat town 30miles 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
usafter 15years.
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. Colonel 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 stations 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 opportunitybut 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 soalthough there were a large number of religious
programs on the air in Los Angeles.
Station knx, the powerful 50,000-watt cbs outlet, carried
558
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 to
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 18-Day Fast
The long strain of building the Work through 7 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.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 18-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 Seattleat 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 15 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 planes radio that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor
that morning, December 7that 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 Warii!
Arriving in Portland, I jumped into a cab and got to the
radio studio as quickly as possible. I purchased the extra
560
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 20 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 14-year accumu-
lation 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 spotlightsuch men as Elmer Davis, H.V. Kaltenborn,
Raymond Gram Swing, Edward R. Murrow, Eric Sevareid and
othersjust 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 reli-
gious programs had the newspaper and analytic background,
nor, I may add, the true understanding of the prophecies, to
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
connect that entire third of the Bible with the war events.
Putting the two togetherfactual knowledge and analysis
of war events, with biblical propheciesput 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 15-minute sermon,
out of a service of an hour and 15 to 30 minutes long, I did get
in a 23-to-26-minute sermon on a 29-minute program.
We started with our opening theme, then a lively two-verse
hymnnever more than two verses on the airthen 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
562
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, Im not marrying you; Im going to marry your
daughter! he snapped.
Mr. Mattson may be surprised when he reads this. He
probably doesnt remember it now. He didnt really mean to
be rudehe was in Marine boot campand it has the reputa-
tion 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 friendliest men I ever knew.
I found him to be tall6 feet, 3 inchesblond, 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 handsometo 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 onfor some 12 to 13 yearsMr. Mattson served as
controller of Ambassador College and business manager of the
Radio Church of God, in charge of business and financial affairs.
At LastLos 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 didnt
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.
563
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 24 hoursor 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 us9:30 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 non-churchgoers whom we wished primarily
to reach, and since in the worlds language the message of the
true gospelthe Kingdom of Godis about tomorrows 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 allArt 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 programexcept 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
564
to know that Mr. Gilmore is a fine, upstanding, sincere and

highly 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 accept-
able 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.
565
43
IMPACT OF
DAILY RADIO!
Hollywood!
W E WERE NOW ON THE
The radio station kmtr (now klac) had the very desirable
AIRIN
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 NowDAILY Broadcasting!

Within about two weeks a new opportunity came. When
Mr. Tinkham called me to his office and offered it, I didnt
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
566
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 wouldor even couldpledge enough to guar-
antee this mountainous increase in expenses. I had to grab
that open time within 24 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 Gods 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 Workin 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 weeks daily broadcasting.
Well, even if it was our last dollar, God had supplied
todays need for this colossal opportunity He had opened to
us! Jesuss sample prayer teaches us to ask, Give us this day
our daily bread. God does not often give us today our need
for next yearthough He tells us elsewhere it is right for us
to lay up in the summer for the winters 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.
567
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
I walked promptly through that door in faith! Blind faith!

I could not see where the money for a second weeks daily
broadcasting could come from. How could our income for the
whole Work suddenly double?
I decided that was Gods 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 listenersthere was a corresponding increase in
tithes and offerings arriving in Eugene.
The first week rolled by quickly. On the day the second
weeks advance payment for radio time was due, I telephoned
our office in Eugene. The money for the second weeks broad-
casting was in the bank! And, a week later, there was enough for
the thirdand 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 a 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
outlinedthen putting it on the typewriter. Around 4:30 in
the afternoon I pulled the last sheet of paper from the type-
writer. Then the walk of a mile or so to the radio station, and
on the air at 5:30.
568
43 | Impact of Daily Radio!
Once a weekit was Thursday eveningsafter the daily

program, I went to a restaurant for dinner, checking the
evening newspapers and the weekly newsmagazines for war
news I could usethen, 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 Gods 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.
Im sending Dick down to you on the next train, she
said. Hes grown too big for me to punish, and I simply cant
manage him anymore.
Dick was then 13, and only about four months from
reaching 14. 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 fellowshort 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, 16 months younger, had always basked in
the limelightstolen the show so to speakDick had
developed an oversized inferiority complex. Here he was,
sprouting up to a full mans height, almost 14, but seriously
lacking in confidence.
569
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 Hollywoodafter showing him around Hollywood
to some extentI 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 carfare
to Hawthorne and back.
Well, Dad, I dont 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. Im too busy getting the broadcast ready
to tell you. Heres carfare. Youre on your own. Find your own
way. And be back here in time for dinner. Goodbye, son.
What went on in Dicks 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 beachat 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 Hollywoodbut 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 didnt know
where the zoo was, but gave him permission to goagain on
his own.
Dick was learning self-reliance. He was developing initia-
tive. He was finding his own way around. I planned to have
570
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 Dicks 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
couldnt afford to rent it.
How do you know I couldnt? 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 serviceand he just barely took in enough to pay the rent.
Youve only been on the air down here about three months. You
havent had time to build up a fraction of Dr. Davies following
yet. Even if you took up five collections in your service, youd
never get enough to pay for itand besides, Id have to have
the entire rent in advance. You havent been on the air down
here long enough yet to fill a big auditorium like the Biltmore.
571
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Well, thats what Id 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 15 minutes
before closing time at the post office.
I dashed back into the theater lobby and up to the
managers office and wrote him out a check for the following
Sundays 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 performancesbut for some reason people
were afraid to attend a religious service at night. It merely
demonstrated where peoples hearts and interests were.
So the meeting had to be held on Sunday afternoonI
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 postcards, and
objected to having the expense of handling charged to
them. But I explained our emergency, and there was no
572
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 Biltmoreand 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 theater seating about
1,900 people?
Oh boy! Dick had exclaimed excitedly, as soon as he had
heard I had rented the Biltmore Theater. Im going to sit in
a box! Ive always wanted to sit in a box in a theater. Now my
dad has rented the whole theater. Oh boy! Im going to sit in
a box at last!
We took a streetcar to the theater, arriving about 2:15. A
few blocks away I noticed the streets were unusually crowded
with peopleespecially 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 directiontoward 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. Daviess 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.
Dicks experience in self-reliance and initiative now paid
off. Immediately henot yet 14took charge. He called all
the ushers to one side.
Im Dick Armstrong, he told them, and Im taking charge
here.
Then he snapped out orders. He said he would use all the
ushers, since the crowds were literally streaming inand each
573
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 ushersand 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 serviceand have not to this day, and never
shallI 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
Dickto one side, and not in the direct path of the exits from
the inner aisles.
Actually, Dick did get to sit in his boxbut 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 oclock 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
574
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 lobbybut that
they would not see them unless they went out of the usual
path to find themthat 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 secondI think it had been
announced to close at 4:15just 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!
Dicks Final Exam

We engaged the Biltmore for the following two Sundays. We
decided, for those two Sundays, to hold two services each
Sunday afternoon. Im 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 12 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
575
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 Dicks
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 hes never been to Hollywood before. Hell be pretty
green. I want you to look after himtake him placesshow
him Hollywood and Los Angeles. Take him boating on the
lake in Echo Park, but dont let him handle the boathe
wouldnt 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 sometime 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 Gods 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 attainbut one of the supreme right goals of life!
576
44
WORK LEAPS AHEAD
WORLD TOMORROW
HEARD NATIONWIDE
T HE YEAR
biggest year of progress up to that date.

1942 WAS BY
The response to daily broadcasting on station kmtr (now

FAR OUR
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 contri-
butions 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.
577
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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
Gods 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
8a.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, 9:30a.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.
578
44 | WORK LEAPS AHEADWORLD TOMORROW HEARD NATIONWIDE
The announcers voicerecorded, and I think it was the

voice of famous network announcer Art Gilmore, as it is
todayheard in all parts of the nation, was saying:
The World Tomorrow! At this same time every Sunday,
Herbert W. Armstrong analyzes todays 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 Hitlers 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, Gods thousand-year
plan was explained from the Biblethe coming Millennium!
Hitlers plan was indeed a satanic and clever counterfeit,
aimed at producing diametrically opposite results. Where
Christs millennial rule shall bring freedom and happiness,
Hitlers would have produced slavery. Where Christs reign
shall give eternal life to multitudes, Hitlers 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 12 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 300 years
growing out of an ancient document dated May 18, 1592. The
579
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 centu-
ries. 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 on December 7, 1941. It was based on the reli-
gious 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 Christs gospel of the
Kingdom of Godand 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 Hitlers 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 10 to
12 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 1. 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 Hitlers Europe . Hitler staked everything
on his death-gamble that he could knock out Russia before the
Allies can open the second European front.
580
There, in summary, was the analysis of the war as of

August1942, 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 crucifiedthe message
the world has rejected ever sincewas 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 Gods 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 uncles local influence, I had been given a local
rateand a religious rate at that, which was, as I remember,
just half of the local commercial rateyet 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 its
own wayyet.
Immediately I obtained train reservations for Des Moines.
Then I wrote out a letter addressed to who listeners who had
581
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 tele-
phone, 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 48 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
wasnt 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 coldall over the continent. In Iowa it was
one of those 20-below-zero nights, without windcold 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 letters2,200!
I think that was some kind of a national record for response
582
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 demandedsomewhat angrily, I thought.
Why, I suppose so, I replied, rather startled. Is that wrong?
Wrong? Why, man, dont 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 allbut it is a mighty big nuisance!
Well, I didnt realize that, I replied. I thought youd want
to know how our program was being received by listeners. I
surely didnt 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 didnt 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 spotand in
trouble. I had not met this sales manager before. Because
583
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 jobundoubtedly very valuable to
the station. But he did not like our program. He didnt 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 commer-
cially for religious programming.
We went into Mr. Mailands 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 positionhow
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 years 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 5 months feeling that, in
due time, a sufficient number of interested listeners would
voluntarily join them as co-workers backing this Work finan-
cially 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 years
contract in which we trusted, and have taken this hard-
earned money contributed by all these poor peopleand
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 youd keep the door open only 5 months, we
584
surely never would have signed the contract or startedor

have spent any money with you. Would you want to injure a
church by breaking your contract?
Well, Mr. Armstrong, of course we wouldnt. 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. Mailands office, I was able
to talk to him alone. He explained that he had opened that
time and signed the contract in perfect good faiththat he
liked our program and was himself one of our interested
listenersthat he certainly didnt want to do us any injury
but on the other hand, he didnt 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 years contract is finished, will you agree to go off then?
There was nothing else I could doI certainly had no
contract beyond that time. Reluctantly I had to agree to
thisand 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
585
of woai. Did he have 11 p.m. Sunday nights opencould 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 6months 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 closedjust as
Christ has said that no man can shut it!
And every apparent setback has proved like the cocking of a
gunit 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.
586
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 nothave never
been sincenever will be, in this world, as long as we remain
faithful in proclaiming Christs 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 subversive of Caesars government.
587
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
It is hard to realize, but it is truethere 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 gener-
ation, 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 Christs truth, that
inspired religious leaders to accuse, persecute and crucify
Jesus Christ!
But, did you ever notice that Gods 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 leadersHe 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 programthe leading busi-
nessmen of San Antonio liked it, and made me an honorary
life member of the Businessmens Bible Class (not denomina-
tional, 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 sometime 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
588
45 | More OppositionMore Growth
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, 19421943, 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 managements 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 10 minutes. I walked rapidly
almost ranto 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 Gods direction, wisdom and to give me
favor in the eyes of the man with whom I had to deal.
Christs commission is Go ye into all the world with His
589
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
message. To go to the world with the gospel necessitates

dealing with the world, and with some of its business
organizations. Therefore Gods servant ought to seek not only
divine guidance in such dealingbut 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 Gods 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 walkedhalf ranI prayed. There was no
opportunity to kneelnor was there, now, time. I prayed
as I walked. I asked God to forgive me for negligence in not
asking Him before I called. Then I asked Him, now, to change
this mans 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 15 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 15-minute disc,
they would ask to hear the other. But the program was grip-
ping their interest. The operator did not expect to play the
second disc, but they signaled 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.
590
45 | More OppositionMore Growth
By now I was not timidI was confident!

No, 8 a.m. is too early on Sunday mornings, I said, We
have found 8:30 is OK, but 8 oclock is too early.
But we air our star news program at 8:30, was the reply.
We couldnt move that.
By now I was superconfident.
No, I came back, I wont 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 kxland the
reader will remember it had been a small 100-watt station
on which we first started in Portland, going later on 500-watt
kwjjthat 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 drivers seat,
and knew itfor these men had been really impressedso 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
tooso I had to postpone kvod.
The sequel is that actually we did go on kvod, many years later.
591
46
A TALK TO
SAN ANTONIO
BUSINESSMEN
A BOUT 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
friendssome coming just to meet usothers with problems
for counseling.
I was invited to speak before the Businessmens Bible Class
of San Antonio. It was nondenominational, and met in a club
592
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
Businessmens 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 businessmen on that
occasion. Remember, this was only about a half year before
the end of the war.
Talk to Businessmen
First I read from Psalm 127:1: 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
generallybuilding a house for a home, building a city,
a nation or a business. We are prone to take things for
grantedeven this war, as well as the economic system in
which we find ourselves. Weve been in the war about three
years nowweve gotten used to it. Youve been in this system
of business quite a whileand naturally take it for granted.
But there is tremendous significance to world events right
now! They are fraught with meaning far deeper than real-
ized. Lets 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 warand changes have been shaping during the past 40
years unrealized by most businessmen.
Back in the years 19121915, 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 fieldsnot only business,
593
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 encroach-
ments of the giant mail-order houses, and chain stores were
beginning rapid development. World Wari put impetus to
the centralization trend. As an aftermath of that war the
flash depression of 1920 shook America, economic collapse
rumbled through 40 other nations, finally producing our
Great Depression of 19291936. All this time the machine age
was developing rapidly in America, making possible three to
30 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, weve 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
James5:1-5: 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 are the enemy of labor, and that by organization
labor ought to exact more than its fair share.
Meanwhile, World Wari 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 revolutionchaosdestruction! They are
594
46 | A Talk to San Antonio Businessmen
producing the robot bomb and the rocket bomband 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 interveneswhich He promises to do!
Whats wrong?
God did not build this worlds house! Therefore they labor
in vain that struggle to build it. They are reaping destruction.
This world is not of Gods 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 Gods 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 worlds business is
based on the foundation of competition. The competitive
system is the relentless effort to take from competitorsto
get the best of a deal.
Also, the system underlying the worlds whole civilization
is based on concentration in cities. We are now beginning
to see the destruction of cities. They are not built on Gods
pattern. God says He will destroy themtear 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 choicesgo their own waysto write in human
experience the lesson that only Gods ways can bring us the
happiness, prosperity and joy we all want.
I then explained a little of Gods economic laws, and gave
a glimpse into the World Tomorrow when Christ puts down
this worlds 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
Businessmens 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.
595
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
The Work Grows

By late August 1943, our years contract with station who was
completed. We had then had 6 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 45-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
10:15, 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 itat 9:30, Sunday mornings.
And so it was that the November-December issue of the
Plain Truth, for 1943, listed a log of 10 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 10 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 10 years had mounted
to $1,000 per issue.
596
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
100 times the original costan expenditure of $250 per week.
Fierce Wolves Enter

It was during these years1943 and 1944that 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 the
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 mans 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 23 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
597
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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
the 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 any longer. She had
been professionally employed at a 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 believedbefore
going to Everettwas 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 Gods 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 Gods 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
598
again revive the tithing system among these peopleonly

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 conster-
nation or fear. We did pray and commit the problem to the
Head of our Work, the living Jesus Christ. And, somehow,
the income for Gods Work did not drop. It kept right on
climbingjust 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 dearlyamong
whom we had labored diligently for approximately three
yearsfall by the waysidecutting themselves off from
Gods precious Work and thus from His true Church, which
is His instrument carrying on Gods Work.
599
47
SEVERE
FINANCIAL CRISIS
W E HAVE COME, NOW TO THE YEAR
1944one decade after the broadcasting and publishing work

had started, in 1934.
It had been a decade of hardship, persecution, opposition
and struggle. It was still a very small Workcompared to
the world-girdling power of that same Work today. And even
thenafter 10 yearsat the beginning of 1944, we faced the
most severe financial crisis up to that time.
Now NINE Stations

Yet, viewed comparatively, remarkable growth had been made.
One must remember the almost incredible, infinitesimal begin-
ning. Jesus Christ compared the beginning and growth of the
Kingdom of God to a mustard seedwhich starts as the smallest
of all, but grows to become the largest of all herbsjust as,
eventually, the Kingdom of God will fill the whole Earth. The
Kingdom of God will actually appear very soonwith the end
of this present evil world, and the beginning the happy World
Tomorrow. This very Work of God is the end-time proclamation
of it, going just before, preparing the way, leading up to it.
This WorkGods Workof necessity had to start infin-
itesimally smallsmaller, in fact, than any sizable worldly
600
work of a religious nature had for its beginning. But now,
January, we were on nine stations! Two of these were giant
exclusive-channel, maximum-powered 50,000-watt major
stations heard in every state in the Union. In Portland, Oregon,
we had now gone from 250 watts to a 10,000-watt station, and
in Seattle we had added a 5,000-watt station which, like the
Hollywood kmtr, on the identical dial spot of 570, actually put
out the equivalent of about 40,000 watts!
The Plain Truth had developed from a hand-mimeographed
little magazine of about 150 copies to a printed magazine of
35,000 copies circulated nationwidethough limited to eight
pages, and published every other monthwhen funds allowed!
We Sell Our Home

Actually, January 1944 was a month when funds did not
allow! The days of hardship and struggle were far from over.
Instead, we now had come to the most serious financial crisis
faced so far.
There was no January-February issue of the Plain Truth
that year. It looked, at the moment, as if there never would
be another.
A few months before, our supply of copies of the booklet The
United States and Britain in Prophecy had been exhausted.
Ten thousand requests had piled up, unfilled! Ten thousand
envelopes lay there in our office, addressed, ready to enclose
copies of the booklet and rush to the post officebut there
were no booklets. There was not money for postage.
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 toeven if it took our all! This Work always has been
a Work of faithrelying 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
601
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 themas 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 purchaseand 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 soldat 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. Twenty-
five thousand copies of the booklet The 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.
602
47 | Severe Financial Crisis
Our two daughters were married before we left our Eugene

homeour 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
Eugenehad been since 1936.
At that time1936we 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, Youd
better find a way to turn this into a purchaseor youll
have no place to live. You wont be able to find a place for
rent, anywhere!
We had first searched the city with the proverbial fine-
tooth comband 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 experi-
ence 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.
603
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Fatherly Advice Backfires

It was while we were living in one of these motels that I
noticed our two sons, then about ages 15 and 16, 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 morebut in secret.
I thought I had a better way. At the time, it really seemed
to me to be a foolproof way that couldnt 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 decisionsfor the result
may affect your entire lives, and I dont want you to make a
mistake. Now, if cigarette smoking is beneficialreally good
for you, and will help you to do good to othersthen Im 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 wont want to do it,
and will stop right now, before you smoke a second one and
develop a habit thats mighty hard to break.
You see, I myself still had a lesson to learn. These boys
were still carnalunconverted. In effect, I was actually
saying the same thing to them, in principle, that God had
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 upget the factsget the truthand
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,
604
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 15, we dont
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 wrongeven when some know it is wrong!
Yes, God knew well, in advance, which choice Adam and Eve
probably would make. He knew, too, that YOUevery one of
you reading this autobiographywould probably do what you
realized was wrongall would sin! Nevertheless, God left
every human mortal free to make his own choice. Not one of
us ever had to sin! We just didof our own volitionand 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 smokingand 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 anotherstill unable to rent a housewe 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 15 on up to 18, this was no
605
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 Gods 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 testsand 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 semi-soft acetate phonograph discs15
inches in diameter. Each disc recorded 15 minutesor half
of our 30-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 nations 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
606
Herbert W. and Loma D. Armstrong stand by their DeSoto
in front of their Eugene home, which they later sold.
top Dorothy (far left), Beverly and Richard join their parents in the garden.
bottom Richard, in chair, and Garner Ted, with parents
right Herbert and Loma Armstrong take a stroll.
top Eva Wright Armstrong visits
with her sons Russell and Herbert.
middle Mr. Armstrongs borrower's
card for the Eugene Public
Library, which he used often.
bottom The Armstrongs stop their
Chrysler alongside the road on a
cross-country trip.
This group of publications shows the development of the Good
News from the mimeographed Our Co-workers Bulletin to the
Good News Letter to its appearance as a magazine in 1951.
Herbert Armstrong examines ruins in the American Southwest during
top
the 1946 cross-country tour.

bottom Herbert W. Armstrong and Richard visit the Hollywood/Los Angeles
area on one of numerous trips to record the World Tomorrow program.
Belknap Hot Springs, Oregon,
became the site of the annual
autumn festival of the Church of
God from 1946 through 1951.
top Members enter the main lodge.
middle Members gather for a
photo in front of the main lodge.
bottom Herbert W. Armstrong in the
woods surrounding Belknap Springs
Loma Armstrong watches while Herbert W. Armstrong
delivers a broadcast from the Eugene office by way of
telephone hookup to radio stations in the Pacific Northwest.
The International Order
top
of Odd Fellows building in

downtown Eugene provided
an office with full natural light,
a welcome relief from their
first cramped interior office.
bottom Mail sacks outside the
office door contained the
Plain Truth and booklets ready
to be sent to subscribers.
The roomy office in the ioof building housed the 1940s
top
mailing system. Son-in-law Vern R. Mattson was office manager.

bottom The Armstrongs read growing correspondence responses
from the broadcast.
top Mr. Don Hunter cuts an electrical transcription for The World
Tomorrow in his Eugene studio.
bottom A closeup of a record shows the subject of the broadcast, speed
at which to be played, radio station call letters, and date of airing.
right The Armstrongs attended the 1945 San Francisco uno meeting;
Loma Armstrongs visitors pass was signed by Alger Hiss.
One of the numerous letters written during
top
the Armstrongs late-winter trip to Europe.

The Armstrongs explore their ship in New York
top
Harbor on the eve of their departure for England.

top Loma Armstrong gets fresh
air on the sundeck of the Queen
Elizabethii in Southampton,
England.
middle The return trip saw 60-foot
waves during a mid-Atlantic
galethe worst storm ever
experienced by the mighty ship.
Mr. Armstrongs historic photo
series was immediately requested
by press for next-morning
release upon arrival in New York.
bottom Mrs. Armstrong lounges
on the sundeck during calmer
moments.
top Loma D. and
Herbert W. Armstrong
had formal portraits
taken when they got
their passport photos
in the winter of 1947.
Heleneum
middle, bottom
on the shores of Lake

Lugano, Switzerland;
the villa was patterned
after the Petit Trianon
in Versailles, France.
A letter to Uncle Frank Armstrong, leading advertising
top
writer in Iowa in his day and mentor of Herbert W. Armstrong

bottom Ambassador College expanded significantly in 1956
with the acquisition of the Merritt estate.
top left The first four students
of Ambassador College pose at
the entry to the main classroom
building, now the library.
bottom left Snow remained all day
on campus in February 1949,
the second year of the college.
Pasadena has not seen snowfall of
such magnitude since that date.
top Students of the fourth
year have a group photo with
Mr.Armstrong.
middle First commencement
bottom Richard David is flanked
by mother and father.
Mr. Armstrong sits
top
in his first office on the

Ambassador College
campus in what is now
the library annex.
bottom Girls enjoy a
sunlit room of Mayfair,
now a girls' dormitory,
acquired in the third
year of the college.
Mr. Armstrong delivers the weekly assembly to faculty
top
and students in the fifth year of Ambassador (19511952).

The area is now a reference room in the library.
bottom A graduate seminar in the library
Beverly Armstrong sings a music interlude during the World
top
Tomorrow broadcast in the radio studio.

bottom Richard Armstrong mans the controls at the radio studio.
top An office wall map flags the
radio stations carrying the World
Tomorrow broadcast.
left Herbert and Loma Armstrong
stroll across the Big Sandy, Texas,
festival site, which later became
another Ambassador campus.
right Mr.Armstrong prepares a
script at his typewriter.
The World Tomorrow made its
television debut in 1955.
top The handwritten cards use
to prompt the speaker have
long since been replaced by
teleprompters.
middle top The introductory scene
used the Ambassador campus as
background.
middle bottom Mr. Armstrong delivers
one of the first World Tomorrow
programs for television in 1955.
bottom The Armstrongs sit at a desk
on the set.
right Herbert Armstrong often
delivered the first tv programs
while standing.
top Loma and Herbert Armstrong have a photo
taken at their tent west of Cairo, Egypt, in 1956,
with the pyramids of Giza in the background.
middle Near Megiddo in the Galilee region
bottom By the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem
The passports of Herbert
top
and Loma Armstrong and son

Richard David; the Armstrongs
1956 trip throughout the Middle
East and much of Western
Europe provided new insights for
future articles and broadcasts.
bottom On tour in Cairo
top Herbert Armstrong records a program following the 1956 trip abroad.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony brings the grounds of Ambassador
bottom left
CollegePasadena to their present configuration.

bottom right Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong examine the first four-color
Plain Truth, with Sir Winston Churchill on the cover.
right The Plain Truth matures over a 30-year period.
Mr. Armstrong visits the office
top
in Sydney, Australia, and approves

its character and quality.
bottom Richard David Armstrong, in
the London office, keeps in touch
with Pasadena headquarters.
The Yule estate in Bricket Wood, Hertfordshire, England, at the
top
time of its purchase

bottom The main residence was renovated and became Memorial Hall,
in memory of Richard David Armstrong who died in 1958.
top The Loma D. Armstrong Academic Center at Ambassador College
in Pasadena includes Ambassador Hall, which is flanked by the Fine Arts
and Science buildings.
left A painting of Loma D. Armstrong hangs in Ambassador Hall.
right Mr. Armstrong leads the groundbreaking for the academic complex.
in other citiesSan 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 programa mere recordnot
an actual live person. For this reason, especially on our large
50,000-watt stations, we feltand so did the stationsthat 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 the process of
being formedto be known as Associated Broadcasting
Corporationor, 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,
607
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
refreshed, I heard of the possibility of securing a good night

time on a superpower 100,000-watt station, xelo, at Juarez,
Mexicojust across the river from El Paso, Texas.
This station had twice the power of any station in the
United States, had an exclusive clear channelno other
station on the North American continent at that time on its
wavelength800 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 stationprogramming that
never would have been acceptable on most United States
stationsand 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
11p.m. over any large United States stationand we were
able to be, then, on only the onewoai. This best time on xelo
was going to cost quite a little more, but I knew we would
have many times the audience at 8p.m., and 800 on the dial,
than we had at 11 p.m. after most people had gone to bed. So
I took the plunge.
608
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 15-minute programs on that station. I had frequently,
since July1942, gone to Hollywood for about three weeks of
continuous daily broadcasting of 15-minute programs.
However, these 15-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 15 minutes.
These try-out 15-minute programs on xelo were aired,
I believe, at 6p.m. But after available recordings were
exhausted, this series was discontinueduntil we could
afford to go on every night with a full half hour.
609
48
HISTORIC
SAN FRANCISCO
CONFERENCETHE
UNITED NATIONS
IS BORN
T HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY BEGAN
the year 1892. This chronicle of events has now covered almost
53 years, and we have come to the tremendous year of 1945.
WITH
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 311The Yalta Summit Conference between
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston
Churchill and Premier Joseph Stalinat which the Western
powers were outmaneuvered into giving all, and getting nothing.
April 12President Roosevelt died at Warm Springs,
610
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 worlds top figures were erased from
world power. The year 1945 was a pivotal turning point of
world historythese men wentthe war wenta new age,
the nuclear age, was born.
April 28Only 16 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 2930Adolf Hitler was blotted out of this worlds
history, presumedly a suicide in his bunker underground
beside the Chancellery in Berlin.
So noticethese three of the five world leaders were all
removed from world leadership during the same monththe
fateful month of April 1945.
Mans last hope of saving this world also begandoomed
to failureduring 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
worlds top leaders met at Yalta. Two months later, three of
them were removed from powertheir voices silenced, their
activities ceased. It is trueyou never know what an hour
may bring forth!
But to finish the listing of tremendous events of that one year:
April 25The great San Francisco Conference opened, at
which leaders of 46 nations formed and adopted a Charter for
the United Nations.
May 7Germany signed unconditional surrender, ending
World Warii in Europe.
July 17August 2Potsdam Conference in Germany, a
summit conference with President Truman, Prime Minister
Churchill and Joseph Stalinat which, once again, the
Western powers gave all and Stalin took all.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
August 6First atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan,

destroying the city, and terrifying the world with sudden
knowledge of the nuclear age.
August 9Second atomic bomb exploded on Nagasaki,
Japan, destroying that city.
August 14Japan surrenderedend of World Wariiwith
the world now looking fearfully toward a nuclear World Wariii.
September 2Formal ceremony of surrender by Japan to
Gen.Douglas MacArthur on board the uss Missouri.
What a chronicle of world events for one single year!
Civilizations 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.
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48 | Historic San Francisco Conferencethe United Nations Is Born
They said that we were gathered there, charged with the

grave responsibility of producing a world organization that
was civilizations 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 wereso far as mans efforts to survive are concerned.
Or was it merely window dressing, to be printed in the
newspapers to impress the public?
Only STRIFENot Peace

Here were the world leaders, except for the Axis powers.
They freely confessedthey put oratorical emphasis on the
factthat 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 another world war!
So here, on the floor below us, under the same roof with us,
were the leaders of the worlds 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 worlds 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 30 or 45 minutes late in arriving.
When he came in, his face was white with fury. He liter-
ally 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 sometime before this news
613
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 naively believed that the Soviet Union
was really our ally. President Roosevelt had felt that he could
convert Stalin by kindnessby giving him everything he
wantedby 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
Roosevelts pictures were flashed on the screenand then,
when Stalins picture was shown, wild applause, shouting,
foot-stomping shook the theater!
Even before Potsdamwhen Gen. George S. Pattons forces
were starting their drive toward Berlin after the Channel
crossingacademic psychologists convinced the administra-
tion 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
Pattons 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 Pattons 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 laterat the eastern front.
614
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 European 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 Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to pull General
Patton backto 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, 41 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 convertedor being then, or
ever becoming, our friends, Mr. Stettinius certainly was
disillusioned now! He literally blazed with anger after the
closed-door conference with Molotov! This I saw, and heard,
in that press conference.
One morningwhether the first morning of the first plenary
session or later, I do not now rememberMrs.Armstrong
and I arrived early at the opera house to get a close-up
view of the celebrity statesmen arriving. One of the first
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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. Molotovs haughty behavior made
Mr.Anthony Eden all the more well liked by all of us there.
Mrs. Armstrong whispered to me, Isnt Mr. Anthony
Eden a handsome man? I assentedand 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
616
disliked and detested by all. We saw quite a little of him

during that monthlong conferencemore than we enjoyed.
Meeting the Sheikh

Very much in the news at the conference were the Arab
delegates, always noticeable by their flowing robes. They were
headed by Sheikh 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 sheikh 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
Sarahs handmaid Hagar. I asked him. He did not mention
Ishmaels 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 sheikh spoke very good English. Mrs. Armstrong and
I met him again, in 1947, in London, when 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-hours 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 countryand how farm owners
had their farms taken from them.
One press conference attended was held by the former head
of Latvia, or Estonia, or LithuaniaI 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
617
Chinese Navy. He represented Chiang Kai-sheks 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 glamorous uniformnot 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 pres-
ence of the admiral of the Chinese NavyNationalist China
had no navy! Not a single warship! That may be one reason all
the glamor was concentrated on the admirals uniform.
A Pontifical High Mass

Also, during our stay in San Francisco, I, myself, spoke a
couple of timesnot before conference delegates, but in halls
before local radio listeners.
We also attended a Roman Catholic Pontifical High 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 delegatesimportant offi-
cials and heads of state of many nationsactually 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 conditionhow this
effort to unite nations for peace was mans last chance. These
delegates were trying to build a housea union of nations.
Unless the Roman Catholic Church was put at the head of
itfor of course he assumed that church was the Lords sole
instrument on Earthit was doomed to failure. Since they
claim the pope is in place of Christ on Earthwhat 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!
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49
WORLD WAR II
ENDSATOMIC
AGE BEGINS
W HILE ATTENDING THE SAN FRANCISCO
Conference, I spoke on Wednesday night, May9, 1945, 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 towera super world
organizationmans nearest approach toward world govern-
mentan 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 Europeor 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
619
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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. Thats a kind of battle we Americans dont know. We
know only one kind of war. We have never lost a warthat
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 dont understand German thoroughness. From the
very start of World Warii, they have considered the possi-
bility of losing this second round, as they did the firstand
they have carefully, methodically planned, in such eventu-
ality, the third roundWorld Wariii! 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
undergroundand 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 roundand it spells doom
for us, as Gods punishment, because we, as a nation, have
forsaken Him and His ways! The third round is termed, in
prophecy, an invasion by Babylona resurrected Roman
Empirea European Union. I have been proclaiming that
since 1927. For a while I thought Hitler might organize
itespecially when he tied up with the Roman Mussolini.
It wasnt 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 toler-
anceespecially 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 worlds
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49 | World War II EndsAtomic Age Begins
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 Gods Word: Except
the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it
(Psalm 127:1). Again, Christ said (Matthew 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 (Genesis 10:8-11;
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 togetherwithout 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 ideaplanted it in
mens mindsof uniting nations together. It paved the way
for the prophesied resurrection of the Roman Empireby
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 didnt fit apparently, for he removed it,
looked at it, then put it back and found his own.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Deep-sea FishingWars End!

After the uno (as it was then 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-week 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 endand
usher in the better World Tomorrow!
On Thursday of that week, August 9, news came over radio of
the wiping out of Japans 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 16 and 15 (Dick
was almost 17), 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,
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
622
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 II 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 sayword had just been flashed
over radio of Japans surrenderthe end of World Warii!
I had received the news of the start of the warthat is, of
United States participationon December 7, 1941, while up
in the air on my first airplane flight. And now that war was
finally ended while I was on my first sailing on an oceanthe
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. Armstrongs 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.
623
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
The military war had ended in Europe. Mussolini had been

ignominiously put to death and buried.
But even greater news has followed. World Warii 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
manon land, on the sea, in the air. This is planned in
order to convince dramatically 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 peacetime 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. Its a new agebut one destined
to be of extremely short duration. Its an age fraught with
horrifying, imagination-defying possibilities. Yet its an age
which at once opens to us marvelous new opportunitiesand
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 weaponsknives, 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 Warii came to an end, the weapons of
the future put in an appearancejet propulsion and rocket
weapons, carrying missiles still faster and farther.
And then, the tremendous climax! The best-kept secret
of the warthe 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!
624
At LastDAILY Broadcasting
Also it was announced, in this Bulletin of August 27, 1945,
that, beginning October 1, the World Tomorrow program
was to be broadcast six nights a week, at the prime listening
time of 8p.m., at 800 on the radio dial, over the superpower
100,000watt 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 Gods Work, so far!
After this tremendous impact of nightly broadcasting got
under way, the number of listeners of Gods 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 doorsand 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 11,
Number 1the 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.
625
50
A MOMENTOUS
YEAR
A S THE YEARS SPED ALONG, EACH
seemed to usher in more important developments than any

preceding year in Gods Work. 1945 was a momentous year!
but, for the Work, 1946 was even more important.
Actually, 1946 was the year of BEGINNINGS, as an orga-
nized 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.
This 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 the growing personnel for the
fast-expanding organized Work.
626
Now notice the startling significance of the fact this all
happened in this particular year!
The Magic Number 12

Looking back in retrospect, it is truly amazing to recall how
many things, lifting this almost obscure minor effort to the
dynamic worldwide force Gods Work is becoming today, had
their beginnings in 1946.
I have remarked before how certain numbers have
significant meaning in Gods plan. Six is the number of man
and materialism. Seven is Gods 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 Gods 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 12 is Gods number of spiritual organizational
beginnings. Gods promises pertain to Abrahams children.
His children began with the 12 sons of Jacob. God began His
organized nation on Earth with 12 tribes. Christ began His
Church with 12 apostles.
But 12 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
(Genesis 17:5); and this same one man is the human father
of the faithful (Romans 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 12.
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
627
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
no real part, in the Work. To all practical effects, it started

with one man, with the help of my wifeand, 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 12 years after Gods 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-girdling, organized
Work first entered my mindand that the property for its
beginning was purchased that year. The truth is, I never so
much as realized that this all happened 12 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 12 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 window washer (there
were no windows the first seven years).
But an organizational operation could not operate
worldwide, as Gods Work does today, without a department
of business administration.
We didnt 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),
628
50 | A Momentous Year
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 engage-
ment 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
Second 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 systemand
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
goodwhen they worked. We were glad, therefore, when he
was transferred to a more steady and safe job, in the mill.
629
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 Jimmys 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 didnt 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 dont 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 years 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 cant pay you as much
as you make in the woodswhen you have work there, but
this would be steady, and youd 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.
630
My Mothers 80th Birthday

My mother reached her 80th 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 flyand 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 of 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 her husband were there
to meet us.
It seemed that 80 was a very ripe old ageone that
deserved honoring. But God granted my mother an additional
15 years after that15 years of enjoying life abundantly.
In September 1961, recovering from a deep-seated cold and
semi-pneumonia condition, sometimes called the old peoples
friend, she simply seemed to lack the physical strength to
continue recovery. In mid-afternoon, 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, youre the best mother I ever
had. As usual, though a little weaker and more tired than
usual, she smiled and replied, Herbert, youre one of the best
sons I ever had.
No one grieved, though she was greatly missed. She had
631
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
lived to the fine old age of 95, enjoying life to the last day.
She simply went to sleep happilyno 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 bornfor I was
her firstborn. She bore me, and for Jesus Christ I baptized her.
But I have gotten 15 years ahead of the story. Back, now,
to the spring of 1946. Back, now, to that year of organizational
beginnings, when Gods 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 mans efforts to rule the world.
The General Assembly of the United Nations was merely a
debating bodya 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 flight.
This flight was made in a series of hops in the best air
service of the timeDC-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.
632
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.
Im 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 arrivedand, even if late,
I could always say, Mission accomplished!
It was a faultand it has been overcomebut 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 complete 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, it seemed, to necessitate that
final leap for the departing trainor, in this instance, plane.
I decided to drive the car to Portland airport. On this
occasion, I believe we started on time. But we encountered
tire troubleor car trouble of some naturealong 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 70-some miles. I dont think Mrs. Armstrong ever
633
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 flight was not flown
nonstop in four hours in a big jet planeas 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 oclock 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
ModelT Ford18 arduous days from Des Moines, Iowa
just a little over halfway across the United States. And
now, only 22 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 three-tailed Constellations; then the still
larger DC-6Bs; 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.
634
I was a passenger on the first overnight jet flight from Los

Angeles to New Yorkleaving 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 flights!
Yes, time flashes pastand 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 pressroom 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 pressroom, 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 pressroom 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
635
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
pressroom 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 worlds 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 is later than we think!
636
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 October1, 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.
637
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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, secondhand, 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 stren-
uous 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 letdown 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 for 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 estab-
lishments in Los Angeles for adequate facilities for printing
638
the Plain Truth. The idea of a college didnt strike my mind

until 1946.
Of all places, however, that Mrs. Armstrong and I did not
want to live in, 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 Angelesor
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
639
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 plannedand prayed for wisdom and
guidancethe 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 Christs ministry. The true ministers of Jesus Christ are
chosen by Himjust as He chose His original apostles. Jesus
said, Ye have not chosen me, 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 itas 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 todays 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
640
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-4s, 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
flight 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 Gods planning, not mine.
But I did not yet know Christs 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.
641
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Finally, I found a vacant lot west of the arroyo that seemed

somewhat near my conception of a suitable location. It was in
a residential 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 prelim-
inary 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 18, and Ted
was 16. 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 lotsperhaps 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. Youve heard people speak of things tugging at their
642
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 5 years oldit 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
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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.
Sometime before this, I had obtained in Eugene a
lightweight rubber waders 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 eveningperhaps 10 oclockwhen 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 unsafeeither 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 forgo 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,
644
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 Caon
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 GODS Location

By November 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 deter-
mined 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, Im glad you dropped in. I
have a property Id like to show you. It isnt quite what you
have in mind, but I think it might be worth your while to take
a look at it.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
I was taken to a small mansion of some 18 rooms, on Grove

Street just off of South Orange Grove BoulevardPasadenas
millionaire row residential street. This was a 2-acre place
known as the McCormick estatebecause 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. Besides 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 a flat roof, architecturally of
institutional appearance rather than residential.
Of course, I didnt 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
646
on this visitI had hardly taken notice of the inside of the

building on the first visitthat the large living room, about
27 by 30 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 10 or
12 students.
Upstairs there were three large bedrooms, of adequate
size for classrooms seating from 30 to 65 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 Gods 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 treespalms, 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, Dr. Walter
Homan, at that time 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
647
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
placeand, 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
September10 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. 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 25 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.
648
Then I prayed earnestly. I asked God to reveal His will

respecting His college by causing Dr. B. to accept if that were
Gods 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 whateverand
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 usand
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 didnt 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.
649
51
PLANNING
A NEW-TYPE
COLLEGEIN U.S.
AND EUROPE!
W HEN THE IDEA OF
college to provide the future trained personnel for the

expanding Work was first conceived, I thought immediately
FOUNDING A
of my brother-in-law Walter E. Dillon. My wifes brother

had been a lifelong 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 19221924. 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 masters 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 gradu-
ating from college, later becoming a principal, and finally
principal of the largest public school in Oregon outside the
650
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
dont know much about the Bible. Administering a religious
college, Im 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 courseas one of the majorsin Bible
and theology. You wont 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 wed
make a good team in getting this college started. With your
business experience and ability, your religious knowledge
and experience, and my academic experiencewell, Ill think
about it.
He did think about it. Often we talked about it. Of course
it was a weighty decision for him to makehe 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.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 16 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
spreadpages 8 and 9had 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 institutionnot
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 of
college a forward-looking, progressive institution built on
soundest principles, having highest goals and objectives, yet
employing the best of proven 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.
652
51 | Planning a New-Type Collegein U.S. and Europe!
But why should we establish and conduct a college in

connection with this, Gods 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 collegethough it is being designed so that,
should we be fortunate enough to find one out of 20 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
worlds education todaywhat has happened to ithow it
has drifted into materialism. It showed that the revelation
of Godin the Bibleis the very foundation of all true
knowledgethe right approach to knowledgethe concept
through which to view and explain what is seen, measured
653
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
and observed. But in this worlds 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 collegeits location, courses offered, tuition.
Planning a 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 Years 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 those days, Dr. B. was very
friendly. About 4:30 a.m., New Years 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 Streetthe main
business street of Pasadenawas even more exciting than
the paradeif that were 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, was
inadequate. I wanted our young people to be taught to speak
these languages as the natives of those countries dowithout
a foreign accent. This was almost impossible as taught in an
654
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 besides.
In Switzerland, children are taught the official language
of their district from birth. Then at age 6 most children start
to learn a second language, and at age 10 or 12, a thirdand
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 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 purchaseif
you can stretch to iton 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 incomesort 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
655
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 dealand it
would make it possible for you to acquire your second college
without capitaljust monthly payments, beginning now.
I was intrigued. I did not realize that the good doctor
actually had designs on marrying the rich widowsurmising
that she probably would also get her money from the Paris
banks somedayand 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, about
February 10, 1947or a day or two laterI talked further 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 30 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 12 years of age, when her widowed mother,
with her 11 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 vesselbut 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
656
wifes 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
Railwaythe Empire Builderto Chicago, thence on the
B&O 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.
657
52
OUR FIRST
TRIP ABROAD
I T 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, Ive decided I want
to go with you!
Mrs. Armstrongs Shirttail Shoot

Well, this is a nice time to make up your mind, I said. You
couldnt possibly get ready in time, now.
Oh yes I can! she replied. Grab your suitcase and
typewriter, and lets 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. Mothers 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
658
from the office. We had sold our home nearly two years before.
The Work had needed the money.
We were whisked, as only a 17-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 10 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 12 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, and 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
rougher. It was even rougher on the B&O all-night ride into
Washington, D.C.
659
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 ones 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
660
52 | Our First Trip Abroad
my wifes 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
4:30p.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 Yorkrougher 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
661
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 were 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 accom-
modate your United States senator from Oregon. Youll see
Sen.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 shipsand so are all other steamship
linesuntil the middle of August. More than that, we have
several hundred others on the waiting listall ahead of you.
Theres absolutely no chance of so many cancellations that
we can fill all of those ahead of you before tomorrows 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 abroadon a moments 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, theres 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
662
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. Ill be
right back.
In just about 50 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 canceling a cabin on the March 15 sailing
from Southampton, and just because youre on the phone at
this moment, Im 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 30 days time. I could file my application
now, but the visa could not be issued for 30 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 oclock tonight.
That makes no difference, sir, replied the clerk. We
require 30 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 dont rush things through in such a mad manner.
This may be a British office, but youre 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!
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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, Im 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 30 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 30 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 3:30p.m.
664
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 didnt
seem to know I was here.
Oh, Ill 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 oclock 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 boardmail leaves in 10 minutesmust be brief.
Visitors all have just left, This is the largest passenger
liner ever builttremendous! Its been like an exaggerated
movie premiermobs throng all over14 decksblocks
and blocks longeveryone dressed upmany in evening
clotheseveryone happycrowd surrounding Mischa Auer
getting autographs (hes going to Europe on the Queen)now
its quieting down. This ship carries 3,500 passengersa city
floating! One gets lost on it.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
At last were really going to EnglandEurope! 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. Thats the way to get more
privileges. Ted dress warm. Thats all the time I have.
Keep the home fires burning. They say theres no coal for
fires in England or Europe. Well probably freeze and starve
but here we go!
Love,
Dad
Dearest Children all of you,

Its a quarter of midnight. We are aboard and lack a whole
lot of having seen the ship. Its 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 cant realize that Im at last going to see England. Ive
always wanted to. This is a beautiful ship. Well 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 longalmost a

quarter mile. It had 14 decks; its gross tonnage was 83,673
tonsabout double that of a large battleship; it carried
3,500 passengers.
I was much amused at a cockney elevator operator aboard
ship. Of course, actually the ship did not have elevatorsthe
British call them lifts. In calling out the various decks, he
would say: C deck nextC for Charlie. Then, R deck
nextR for restaurant. Then, B nextB for Bertie.
Then, I deck nextI for Albert.
We had the smoothest crossing ever experienced by
members of the crewso some of them told us. We had prayed
for it. Nevertheless, Mrs. Armstrong spent two days in bed
with seasickness.
666
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 Englandjust 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
cockneyand we had to trudge back to car A.
Arriving in London
We docked at Southampton on Tuesday, February 25. Thursday
morning, the 27th, 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: Its so different
here in London. Cabs, buses, everythingnever 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 Grandmas birth record, but couldnt find it. However,
I dont know just the year or place of her birth. We have a
nice room, but cold. Lights all go off and elevators (pardon
melifts) stop running from 9 until noon, and from 2 to
4p.m. Scarcely any heat in the coldest winter England has
had since 1840, around two years before Grandma was born.
The sun shone brightly todayfirst time since five weeks ago.
667
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Weve 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 didnt get started until 9 p.m. We almost
froze. Were almost freezing now. The temperature in the hotel
room and lobby is about 55 degrees. Its a different world. Old
buildingsmany in ruins, all originally nearly white, and of
stone, now almost blackcoal smoke.
Attending a 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, Sheikh
Hafiz Wabba. She said that His Excellency had heard that
I was in LondonI had an hours interview with him at the
San Francisco Conference in 1945and 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 sheikh 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
Sheikh 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 sheikh.
This royal reception was in honor of H.R.H., the Crown
Prince, Emir Saud. He later became King Saud of Saudi
Arabia. The sheikhs 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.
668
We had planned to leave London for Zrich that afternoon.

We had an appointment to meet Dr. B. and Madame Helene
Bieber in Zrich that evening. When I expressed regret at
being unable to attend, due to this appointment in Zrich,
the secretary urged me to postpone the Zrich 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 sheikh.
I said that I would telephone Dr. B. in Zrich, and if I
could postpone our appointment, I would call her back. The
appointment was postponed, and I notified the ambassadors
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 Sheikh Hafiz Wabba and H.R.H. Emir Saud, the Crown
Prince of Arabia. It was very colorful. About 200 invited
guestsearls, 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 Isince this was the
customary way. First we were greeted by His Excellency
Sheikh 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 dont have many fine clothes over here right
669
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 sheikh, 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
Sheikh 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
alltables everywhereyou 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 musicviolins 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.
Its March 1 now; (this part evidently written later) Im
all packed. We leave soon for France. Its bitter cold, no heat
670
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 Nowthe Continent

The evening of March 1, I 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
Zrich. 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. Its 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 isnt us over here.
Calais is quite a little town. Weve 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 dont 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 atten-
dants, 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 syllableor equally
on both. The train porters cant speak a word of English. They
say Oui! (pronounced we).
Its now 8:45 p.m. Just at that last paragraph we were
called to dinner. A Frenchman walks through the cars ringing
671
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
a cute little bell. We werent sure if 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 couldnt understand
us; we couldnt understand him. We tried by motions to make
him understand we were looking for the dining carif any.
Mother suddenly remembered that the word cafe is a French
word, but probably we didnt pronounce it the French wayat
least he didnt 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 Amiensthis town figured
prominently in the warremember?) 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 waterunfit 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 Britishabout the size of an
American car. We had to climb up a steep ladder to get on
the train. Its rather crude compared to our Pullmansstill,
not too bad. Altogether different, though. Seems funny to us.
We have a private compartment. There are no sectionsall
private rooms. It has private wash basin, but no toilet. All
use the same public toiletboth men and women.
Mother has seen some of those French farms weve heard
ofhouse and barn for livestock all in one building. The
672
ground is covered with snowhas been, all over, since we

landed at Southampton. We are to arrive at Basel about
8:10a.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 interestingand prophetic: The English tell us that we
Americans are just now starting to go through the stage of
development they did 200 years agothat 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 beyet 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 themand they dont 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 difficultno
use of radio there, as its 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. Ive 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 doa 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
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 expectedit
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 mens 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 cant 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 didnt get
my gloves after all. After he had removed the price tag, he
couldnt 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 10 or 15
minutes, I asked for a dozen lemons. The woman asked for
my ration book. No ration coupons, no lemons!and only half
a pound to a customer, then! Im starving for fruits, juices
674
and leafy vegetables. You dont realize what we have to be

thankful for, on Americas Pacific Coast. We have the best
of everything in the worldand 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
General Eisenhowers 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 Im 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 actorsappeared 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 didnt 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 morningbang!
The great invasion smash was onand doom for Hitler! No
one in this hotel suspected anything was up.
675
53
IMPRESSIONS
OF
SWITZERLAND
AND
FRANCE
W HAT 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 discour-
agement. People in Switzerland appeared more alert, better
676
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 Zrich and had
made reservations at this hotel for us. Arriving in Switzerlands
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 Zrich, 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:
breathtakingmagnificent!
677
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
At Zrich, 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 6.
Then Swiss children are taught a second language beginning
at 6years of age, and a third language at about age 10 or 12.
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 Godthat
neither I nor any man plans and guides it.
It is not our work, but Gods 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. Sauls name was then changed to Paul.
He and Barnabas were ordained apostles. They were called
to Gods Work. They did not choose it as a professionChrist
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
Gods 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 MinorTurkey today], they assayed
to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit [of Jesus] suffered them
not (Acts16:7).
Paul planned to go east along the north shores of what
678
53 | Impressions of Switzerland and France
is Turkey today. But Jesus Christ, Head of His Church and

Gods 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 (Acts16:7-13).
In like manner, on this trip to Lugano, I tried to plan to
start operation of Gods Work for these last years either
immediately, or within three years in Europeand to estab-
lish a branch of Ambassador College in Lugano. That was
my planning and intentionjust as Pauls was to travel east
into Bithynia.
Here is what I wrote to those at home, from Lugano, on
March3, 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 laterseven years later; in 1960and 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! Its all so differentso strange. Its Italy with Swiss pros-
perity. A beautiful, prosperous Italy. Its the most intriguing
place we ever saw. Its certainly old-world. Its the perfect
place for the European unit of Ambassador College.
679
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
So I thought. But Christ thought otherwise!

Mme. Bieber remained in Zrich 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 lifetime experience. The majestic
Swiss Alps rise on either side. The Alps really surpass our
Cascades, or the Rockieseven the Canadian Rockies. Just
now they are snow-coveredlook as if they are miles high, in
fantastic shapes. Lugano is the Swiss Riviera. Its 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
Heleneumthe possible future seat in Europe of Ambassador
College. We were invited to 4 oclock 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 40 or 50 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 its the only way she can eat her cake and
have it toothat is, sell it, live off the income from the sale,
and still live IN it for the next three or four years. And its
the only way we can purchase such a property without the
680
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 itbut Jesus Christ was
planning otherwiseand He, not I, guides and directs Gods
Work. In His due time, He opened the door (see 2 Corinthians
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 plannedHis
Ambassador College overseas. He opened in England a place
we never dreamed of findingnot 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 40 or 50 students, we had the capacity for many more.
Surely Gods 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 securityof Gods guidance. Its 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 20 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 20 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!
681
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
There is another saying Swiss people like to quote: Its

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.
Its a Sunday morning, 8:07 a.m. For two hours we have been
thrilling to the most marvelous scenery! Yet its only 11:07
Saturday night in Oregon. Seems funny. Its 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 belowonly 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. Its 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 theyre white,
now! Isnt it exciting? O, come over here, quick! Oh, youre so
provokingits too late, nowweve 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 wont 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
682
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 riverwith
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 20-minute 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 intro-
duced to it, so it seemed to us, by way of the back doorentering
through a dilapidated blighted area. It was a drizzly, dreary
morning. The railroad station through 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 oclock 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.
683
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
These foreigners cant even speak plain English, I

exclaimed to my wife. She reminded me that we were the
foreigners! That realization gave me 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
in 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 accomplishmentif 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 bareheaded out into the street. In five
minutes he returned, shaking his head. Another 15 minutes.
Then again he left, saying hed go over on the boulevard, a
block away, in search of a taxi. He explained that the Nazis
didnt leave them many cabs in good repair, and besides,
had 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
684
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 bitterno milk or cream. The
cost was 400 francs$4.
Foreigners Seeing Paris

After another 10 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 Elyses, 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 camerathe 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 rainand 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 didnt 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 couldnt understand. I tried to
tell him our train left at noon, by pointing to 12 oclock on my
watch. He immediately smiled knowingly, nodding his head
that he understoodand drove us in 15 or 20 minutes to a
jewelry storewhich, of course, was closed! I tried to make him
understand Id like to buy some film for my cameraand he
drove us to a photographers 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.
685
54
MID-ATLANTIC
HURRICANE!
S TREAKING 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 10-nation resurrection of the Roman Empire.
Desolate, Hopeless Europe

Have we forgotten what bleeding, war-torn, disheartened
Europe was like immediately after World Warii? 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
686
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 Europes today.
I was seriously impressed with this wretched postwar
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. Halfway we crossed the
Swiss-Italian frontier. Immediately we noticed a difference.
The style of architecture was much the sameall 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 lakeshore,
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 shoesthey 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:
687
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 lakeshore on their
knees leaning over into the water, washing clothes in the cold
lake water on flat boardsnot washboardsno soap, just
pounding and rubbing, some using a brush on their sheets,
mens pants, sweaters and everythingbig baskets of clothes,
gray and dingy looking. They hung them along the lakefront
or on buildings, balconiesanywhere.
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 8percent increase over present income. There is
no down payment whatever required. Just monthly payments
three or four years, before we take possessionwhile 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 hotelThe Dorchesterhere 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
688
54 | Mid-Atlantic Hurricane!
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 unitsone 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.
Its 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 timeand there
is not too much time.
How PROPHETIC were those words, written March 13,
1947!
God did guide and leadnot 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 1962probably 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
689
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 Henrys 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
baroneta 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
Hoovers 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 havent 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 isnt 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
690
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-JonesGuide 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 Kings
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
2 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 Britains kings 400 years before. It was so dirty
and shabby I asked why they didnt 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
400years ago. But its very beautiful inside, sir.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Spencer-Joness 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 blackout, 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. Ive
walked right past here, he said at one point, and watched
hundreds of planes overheadGermans desperately trying
to bomb this royal and government sectionour 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 pensioners 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, dont
ever express any pity for us because weve gone through a war
and are now having a hard time. That, we just couldnt 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 memoryand 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:
692
Dear Everybody at Home: What a sea! Today were seeing

something you never see at homea real rough sea in the
middle of the Atlantic. Mother isnt seeing any of it. This is
her third day confined to bed. A rough sea greatly encourages
her penchant for seasickness. Weve 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 15-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.
Its a sensationbut, unfortunately, one of those things
one must experience, and cannot be really understood by
a words-eye view. So you wont 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 shuddersand 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 10-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 10 feet of movie film. I think
I caught the most spectacular film of allwaves rolling like
mountain peaksthen the breakand the stiff gale blows
spray like boiling steam.
Most of the ocean is dark muddy green in coloralmost
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.
Its real stormy weatheryet theres 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
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
gale so far. And, although I hope I have shot some more or

less thrilling pictures of it, youll never know what I mean.
No picture can give you the third dimensionthe feelthe
motionthe lurch and sway, the sounds, and the experience
of it. Poor Mother! Shes experiencing it in seasickness, but
not seeing any of it! They say we wont dock in New York until
Friday or Saturday, now. Weve had to slow down to five or
six knots.
But the worst was yet to comeand 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 yesterdays
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 seain 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, tooand 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 1/200 of a
694
second. I hope the fast-whipping spray doesnt 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 50 or 75
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 midair. It was a sensation!
The Climax
Instantly I realized we were taking another of those super-
dips. 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 waterwe on the bottom, the bow pointing
straight up to the sky. Of course, we didnt sink quite that far
downbut 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.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 20 yearswith 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 thenperhaps a half mileperhaps three or four miles
awaya 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 galehalf, 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 12-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 didnt 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
696
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 Gods protection on
this voyage. Now I realized we were in the plight described in
Psalm107:23-31: 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 wits 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 earnestand also in real faith.
I knew that those words of God were not idle wordsthey
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 manin 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 nights sleep.
697
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 motionthe 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 Fords quarters.
The captain said it was a storm of hurricane force, and
the worst of his entire lifes experience. It was big news. The
worlds 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 AP headquarters.
Next morning I returned to AP 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.
698
55
STRATEGY TO
GAIN POSSESSION
BIRTH PANGS OF
THE COLLEGE
T HE 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 wifes
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.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 educatorI am not.
Youve devoted your life to education. You are head of the
largest school in Oregon, outside Portland. You have a masters
degree from the University of Oregon, with work toward a
Ph.D. You are familiar with academic requirements, orga-
nization 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 admin-
istration. Youve had the academic experience. Ive had the
business experience. Dont you think wed make a good team?
I certainly do, he replied, after hearing my explanation.
We talked over all the details, and policy plans gener-
ally. I explained that I was bent on founding a new kind 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 5,000 to 40,000 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 Makers
instruction book He has sent along with His productthe
700
55 | Strategy to Gain PossessionBirth Pangs of the College
human individual. It reveals the purpose of lifethe purpose

for which the human mind and body was designed and
brought into beingthe 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
knowledgethe basic concept as an approach to the acquisi-
tion of all knowledgewhether 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 knowledgeit is the
foundation of all knowledge. It is the starting point in
mans quest for knowledge, and equips man to build on that
foundation.
The Bible, alone of all books or sources of knowledge, reveals
basic purposes. It alone reveals the inexorable, yet invisible
laws that regulate cause and effect, action and reactionthat
govern all relationshipsthat produce happiness, peace, well-
being, prosperity. The Bible is a guidebook 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, investi-
gate, 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
knowledgethat foundation of all knowledge, revealed only
in the Bibleman 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 lifewhat, exactly, man isor the
way to such desired blessings as peace, happiness, abundant
livingthe spiritual values.
The biblical revelation provides man with the true concept
through which to view and explain what he can observe.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 reve-
lation, 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 worlds education. He
was imbued with its concepts. He never did quite grasp the
real meaning of my continuous emphasis 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 todaybut
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 applica-
tions 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
702
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 Wheatons retirement age70.
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.s from two universities. One was
from Columbia Universitythe other from the University of
Oregon. We had received an application from her. We hired
her as our first instructor in English.
We Buy a New Home

We arrived in 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 didnt like the second place. The third place was three
703
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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. Shed like it.
But on the entrance sidewalk, I stopped.
Look, Mrs. McCormick, I said. Its no use looking at this
place. Its the most homelike-looking place Ive seenbut we
could never afford a place like this. What were looking for
is a small, modest-type housesomething inexpensive. This
place is sufficiently modest in appearance, but its too big.
Mr. Armstrong, she promptly replied, this is the only kind
of place you can afford. Thats why all three of these places
I had chosen to show you are larger places. You cant afford
to buy a small place. If it is a new tract place, the company
selling it will demand a down payment which you dont have.
If its 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 dont 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. Ive
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.
Thats 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 14-room house,
14years 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
704
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
dont buy it, I will. Dont ever let this place get away from you.
Of course I wanted Mrs. Armstrong to see it. And the
Williamses 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 arrivedor, 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
typeher 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
Williamses, 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. Its
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
90 days when the second payment is made.
We couldnt 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
705
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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! Thats 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 Williamses, 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 occu-
pying 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 stablesway back in b.c. yearsbefore 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 secretarya 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 Prof.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
professoreven then a year or two past 70.
706
After my interview, we appointed him our first instructor

in French.
We employed two other women teachersMrs. 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
librarianhad served on the staff of the Library of Congress
at the nations 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
April1, 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
707
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
and furnishings were somewhat old, but of the character

usually found in larger mansions. He probably had bought
it all secondhand 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 25-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 25-month
lease. At the end of 25 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 addressbut 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 30 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 possessionthat
his intention was to keep the money we had paidwhich now
708
would be $11,000 by July1, and to keep the property too! We

went into a huddle at the law offices about strategy for peace-
fully taking possession.
Dr. B. had always made me a welcome guest, personally.
Mrs.Armstrong and I had spent the night there on New
Years 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 Boulevardand 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 Dr. B.s 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 10 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 theyand 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 July1.
It was decided to inform Dr. B. we had set a date for
709
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 sleepingand 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 dont want to have
to resort to legal means or force.
Oh, well, he answered gruffly and angrily, All right! All
right! Well 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.
710
56
A SUPREME CRISIS!
NOW FORCED
TO FOLD UP?
N OW 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
meto 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, diabol-
ical 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 directionsand from within as well as without.
Yet in actual fact all were instigated from one sourcethe
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.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 beas we then called
ita $30,000 headache. Thats 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
jobon $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 weekall 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 savingsa 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.
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56 | A Supreme Crisis! Now Forced to Fold Up?
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
doctors degree, he came to Ambassador and earned an addi-
tional 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 mewithout 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.
Everyoneexcept my wife and Iknew the college had
folded upbefore it even opened its doors to students. And,
of course, the living Head of His Church, Jesus Christ, knew
it hadnt!
How I finally raised that additional $8,000 within a few days
time, I dont 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
faithreally. I never doubted the outcome. Yet I had not yet
learned the total, implicit, trusting faith that can relax and
leave it quietly in Gods 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 Gods forgiveness. Twice I
did give up, on going to bed at night. But next morning was
another day, and I bounded back, repentant for having given
upif only momentarily.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Yet this $30,000 headache was only the beginning of

troubles. Others were yet to comefrom 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 desper-
ation 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 40 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;
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56 | A Supreme Crisis! Now Forced to Fold Up?
and Miss Betty Bates from Tulsa, Oklahomafour pioneer

studentswith 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 Gods purpose STANDSthat Satan can do no
more than God allowsand that, though Satans power is
far greater than that of us humans, Gods power is infinitely
greater than Satans.
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!
715
57
SURVIVING THE
FIRST YEAR OF
AMBASSADOR
COLLEGE
W OULD YOU REALLY SAY IT WAS A
college that finally swung open its door to students on

October8, 1947? There were only four students!
There were no dormitoriesno place for students to be in
residence on the original little campus of 1 acres. We had
some books and encyclopedias on shelves in the one room
that served as music room, assembly room, library, study
room and loungebut 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
716
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,
Gods works through humans must start the smallestbut
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 buildingsan administration building, classroom
buildings, laboratories, music conservatory, large ornate audi-
torium, gymnasium, a fine quarter-mile track and football
field, a large library building with 500,000 volumes, dormito-
ries, dining hallseverything complete, then I could certainly
have no faith in accepting it as Gods 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 stablesway 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 Gods number for
organized beginnings is 12. 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 nations government and leadership started
with the one man, Moses. The Church of God and Gods Work
started with the one man, Jesus Christ.
But Gods own nation on Earth had its organized beginning
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
through the 12 tribes. The Church had its organized beginning

with 12 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 12 persons in totalfour students,
eight faculty members, myself included. The property had
been purchased, as previously explained, 12 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 2 miles from the college. They used less expensive
transportationshoe 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-renteach! In order to have enough to eat,
they often picked lambs-quarterin place of spinachwhere
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 didnt 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 mindsnor in mine. They had faith. They were there
for a purpose! It was a mighty serious purpose! It was the one
718
57 | Surviving the First Year of Ambassador College
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 Valleybut from jealous and coveting minis-
ters. There were temptations to drop itoffers of something
betterfinancially. Only these didnt 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
Gods college. Not a Bible school. Not a religious school. A
straight liberal arts coeducational institutionbut based on
Gods revealed knowledge actuated by Gods Spirit.
But where was I to find teachers and college professors,
at the university level, who taught courses on the very
foundation of Gods revealed knowledge? Such instructors
simply did not exist. I had to start with those reared and
schooled in this worlds type of education.
And I have explained before how educators, long agofrom
the days of Nimrodfrom the days of Plato, who founded the
curricular systemfrom the days of the University of Paris,
which started the present universities in the 12th centuryhad
not retained God in their knowledge. The world had inherited
education, not from Gods 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.ssome eight degrees altogether. This surely
sounded like the best. She had taught many years in India. I
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 Prof. 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 Taylors record in
education and science appeared positively providential.
In todays 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. Taylors Christianity was this
traditional variety. But somehow I didnt realize this until
after he arrived in Pasadena.
It seemed indeed a rarity to find a man of Dr. Taylors illus-
trious scientific status professing fundamentalist Christianity.
And I was overjoyed. Dr. Taylor was appointed, as previously
explained, as dean of instruction and registrar.
720
Before the college was scarcely more than started, I was

somewhat disillusioned. I soon learned that Dr. Taylors reli-
gious 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
theologythe real foundation course of the collegehad been
reduced to a two-hour minor subject!
By then classes were under way. All students schedules
were fixedall 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 building.
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
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 cant refute his
statements, but Im 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 choicesto 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 Christs 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 yearthat 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
722
to be inculcated thoroughly in faculty and students alike.

Ambassador was to be Gods collegenot another rubber
stamp of the educational institutions of this world! But, with
a faculty trained in this worlds 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 further 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 cant make that claim any more. Already at that time,
723
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
19471948, 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 Coastxerb,
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 Christs 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 prayedcontinually and fervently. But if God
had had a better way, perhaps He found my head so thick
724
He couldnt get it through to me any faster. Now, however, I

asked for deliverance out of the trouble. And it camelater!
By March 1, xeg carried out its threat to throw us off. It
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 weeknight 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 Gods 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 Christs 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 falland 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 Boardor whoever it was that the
725
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
matter came beforeallowed us to distribute the back pay

over several months. 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 faithbut 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 usand
she is still loyally with us todayMrs. 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 teacherand I can make them higher by going on,
during summer vacations, to complete work at Juilliard
[Americas highest-ranking musical college in New York], for
my masters degree in music. Ill be happy to take over the
music department if youd 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.
726
Three New Students Arrive

No effort had been made to recruit any additional students,
due to this situation. However, one student showed upa
fellow from Wisconsin, named Kenneth C. Herrmann.
A very few weeks after the 194849 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 whats in the Bible! Hes 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
727
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 youve finished high school, I said.
Oh, were older than we look! came the quick answer.
Weve already graduated from high school.
Well, how does it happen youre not in Ambassador College,
then? I asked.
Well, we supposed we couldnt 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 playhis 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
728
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 25 months.
Also interest on the unpaid balance, starting at $100,000,
less $1,000 each month for the 25 months. Insurance for the
25 months also became due in one lump on 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 Gods 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 ORear, 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. ORear had been an attorney
in Washington for several years. While there, we had one long
conference with a former friend of hisan attorneyin this
lawyers 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
729
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 nextand the nextand the next. This
almost dumbfounding downpour of money continued until
December15. 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 explanationGod 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 circum-
stances, the way he actedand considering that he was
planning to prevent allowing us to exercise our optionunless
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 neededand He sent it!
Dr. B. Holds Out

We still owed a few thousand dollars in back teachers sala-
ries 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
useven 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
730
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 duelong 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 Ill 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
twountil in this manner he had paid us back.
Dr. B. thereupon signedbut 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
sisters 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
December27, in order to have been exercised on December27.
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 sisters signature on the papers before 1 p.m. on Friday,
731
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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. ORear
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 30 minutes, or Ill tell you whats going to happen. I have
exhausted my patience on you. I have suffered your harassment
now for two years. Im going to end it here and now!
Unless I telephone my attorneys that your sister has signed,
before 1 oclock, it will be too latethey 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.
732
Dr. B., you are a smart lawyer. You know I can do this
and I WILL! Its 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. Its almost 12:30.
At 1 oclock it will be too late!
Dr. B. was beaten!
Martha! he called at the stairway. Come on down right
away! Weve got to hurry! We have to hunt up a notary public
to witness your signature before 1 oclock.
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 12:30just 30 minutes before our attorneys would have
left their office to file the suitI 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 toothat 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.
733
58
AMBASSADOR
BEGINS TO GROW!
A MBASSADOR COLLEGE HAD BEEN SAVED.
The property originally acquired was now securedas 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 aheadbut 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 194849 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 15-day inpouring
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
December15, 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
734
eight-page issue in March. But then we were put off the air
on our one big station, and we managed only one morea
June numberprior to September.
By holding publication down to eight pages, we were able
to issue a Plain Truth every month for the remainder of that
yearSeptember, 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 yearone 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 for 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
year19481949were obliged to rent rooms around town.
But in May 1949, the first addition to the original 2-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
1acres, giving us a campus of four acres, with magnificently
landscaped grounds.
The Mayfair grounds were not in the most desirable condi-
tion. 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,
735
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 12. I
have said quite a little heretofore, about 12 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 pre-appointed 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 194849 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 5,000watt Chicago station, wait. It was only once
a week10a.m. Sundays, but the response was good. The
736
58 | Ambassador Begins to Grow!
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.
1950Still 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
dobut 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 Truthin 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 classesand that meant three classes the
third year!
And Now, FOURTH College Year

When college classes began, early September 1950, 10 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
737
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
first year. There were seven the second, and 12 the third.
September 1950 brought five new girl students. Until then,
we had had only the one girl studentBetty Bates. Now we
had six girls and 16 men. Now we had an enrollment of 22!
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 22with, at last, six girl
studentsseemed 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 posses-
sion, 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 194849
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, 1951completing 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.
738
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 states 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 someday becoming our athletic field.
Meanwhile, Mr. Hulett C. Merritt, the multimillionaire
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 quite counted 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 itthus wrecking our hopes of an athletic field.
739
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
One Sunday morning I happened to be in our adminis-

tration 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. Merritts
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, wed have to pay a higher
price, and move fast.
Ill 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?
Its a deal, he said. Im sure the owners will accept.
All right then, I said, lets move fast. I will have a quorum
of our board of trustees here in this office by 2 oclock this
afternoon, and Ill have a $5,000 check ready. Can you have the
necessary papers drawn up to put the deal into escrow by that
timeand 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. Youre the first man that ever
got the jump on me and beat me in a business deal. Im 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?
740
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 Ill take them off your hands. You
paid $30,000 for them. You shouldnt have paid over $25,000.
So, tell you what Ill 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
youve paid only $30,000 for the athletic field.
Ill consult my tax attorney, I replied, but Im 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 wouldnt 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 mens 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.
741
59
FIRST FRUITS OF
RIGHT EDUCATION
A FTER 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
smallthere 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 shot put.
Then the Green Street houses could be converted into
mens dormitories. Mayfair could be made exclusively a girls
student residence.
We felt that, with a classroom building, an administration
building, both mens and womens 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 Truthand 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
742
responsibilities of this expanding Work in mere 24-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 12 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
remainedin 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 100
to about 30. You know what the Israelites got into when God
called Moses away from them for just 40 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 30 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 11 or 12 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
743
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 problemthe lack of funds to
publish a 16-page magazine every month.
Twelve years before I had started a second magazine,
called the Good News. It was to have been a Church member-
ship 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 timeFebruary 1939I had been unable to continue
publication of the Good News beyond the first issue! The
reason? Same reasonlack of funds, and inability of one man
to do so much.
But now, 12 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 Gods 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 re-born!
Now, for the first time, our students began to make active
contributions to the activities of this expanding Work!
744
59 | First Fruits of Right Education
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:
A new idea is born! The Good News is reborn!
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 world-
wide activity!
It is later than we think!
When God first started Ambassador College, many
brethren and co-workers lacked faith. They couldnt see Gods
hand in it. Some felt your pastors duty was solely to preach
the gospel to the worldnot realizing that one man alone
cant 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 isnt 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 timethough there is
not a day to lose. The end of this age cant come until this very
gospel of the Kingdom has been preached and published in all
the world as a witness to all nations (Matthew 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 150, brought to repentance and conver-
sion 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!
745
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
The New Idea

And now, with this issue, a new idea is born. Through
Ambassador College students, The Good News is reborn!
With this issue, our students launch a new activity in Christs
ministryand at the same time, a new college activity.
It was back in February 193912 years agothat with only
Mrs. Armstrongs help, from a little stuffy inside office without
windows or ventilation in Eugene, Oregon, the first issue of
the Good News was printedon a secondhand 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 from 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
publisheduntil now.
But now, at long last, the Good News is reborn, as one of
the first fruits of Ambassador Collegeone of the evidences
that this college was necessary.
But, even with the editorial help of students, finances
permitted the publication of only four 16-page issues during
the remainder of 1951plus one 16-page Plain Truth, issued
October 1951written 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 Gods 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 publishedand even this was notyetin 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
746
a week; a local Pasadena station, kali, at 7:30 seven mornings

a week; and all others were Sunday onlystations wait,
Chicago; xerb, Southern California; kxl, Portland, Oregon;
kvi, Seattle; and xent, Mexico, just below the Texas border.
In the second issue of this re-born Good News appeared
the very first article we ever published under the byline 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 appearedfor
the first time in the 18 years of this Work. The caption at the top
of the page was You Asked for Itfollowed by this sub-cap-
tion: Ten thousand of you have demanded Mr. Armstrongs
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 30 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 Christs message I sought to
747
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
focus attention onnot myself. In my pre-conversion years

I had been vain, egotistical, conceited. I knew full well that
God had brought me low, especially in an economic wayto
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 attitudeinduced willingness
to allow pictures to be published? It was a letter I received from
a radio listener. I cant quote that letter word for wordbut
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. Wouldnt you get suspicious? Wouldnt 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 mans character shows in his face. Are you
ashamed of yours? Why wont you publish your picture?
THAT DID IT!
I simply could not answer that mans argument any way
except to let himand all our readersknow 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 40s.
In 1952, for the first time in our history, we were able to
publish a 16-page magazine every month12 full issues! The
rapid development of studentsand, 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 bylines of Richard D. Armstrong and
Herman L. Hoeh.
748
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 Armstrongs life, up
to that time.
Speaking Like a Native

For years, seeing Paris had been the great dream of my son
Dicks 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 countrywithout 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 nativelyunless they had started
learning at about age 6.
Under old Prof. Mauler-Hiennecey, Dick became very
proficient after his four college years. It was the fulfillment of
his lifes 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
749
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 its 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 10 minutes Dick drove up, parked outside, and
strolled in. He began talking to the proprietor.
I dont understand! said the proprietor, in French. You
are a Frenchman; these people seem to be your parentsbut
they are Americans; and your car is English with a British
tag on it. Its 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, toofor here I had evidence that
Ambassador College taught French so students could speak
it natively, without accent!
750
60
A GIANT LEAP
TO EUROPE
W E 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 2-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 15 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 Portlandand 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
751
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 savingsactual reductions in necessary expenditures
for the operation of the broadcast workamounted to $1,100
per month! That figure I do rememberdefinitely!
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 broad-
cast 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 recordersthe 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 16-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 11 radio stations. We had gone
back on two more of the superpower border stationsxelo
and xerb, besides 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
752
60 | A Giant Leap to Europe
a college magazine for co-workers, substituting for the Plain

Truth, any longer.
Beginning with 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
January1, 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 18 centuries!
That gospel was first preached by the Apostle Peter on
the day of Pentecost, a.d. 31. Nineteen years later, a.d. 50,
adoor 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 19 years, so a door was opened for the
same gospel to go to Europe in our time, after 19 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 AirOver 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.
753
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 fundperiod! At all!
What There Wasand Wasnt

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 partand often a small partof 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 pros-
perous 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 exemp-
tion 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 broadcastbut that cost money. We had
nothing to sell, made no appeal for contributions. Rather we
754
constantly offered absolutely free literature. We published a

monthly magazinewhenever funds permitted, only it was
not coming out monthly then, because funds did not permit!
There was no subscription priceno 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 100 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 collegeespecially a man who was
devoid of any experience whatsoever as an educatorunder
those conditions. Im quite sure every appraisalif each
college president did not call you a fool for even asking such a
questionwould 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 Im 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 Gods Work
could not grow. Therefore I knew it was Gods will. And since
it was 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. Besides 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
755
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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
didnt really want government help after all. It would mean,
inevitably, government supervision, regulation and interfer-
ence as well. When government, big business or foundations
put large chunks of money in a college, they first assure
themselves that they are buying policymaking 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
Gods 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 policiesjust 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 Gods ways and
policies, Gods financial sponsorship will stop forthwith.
But thats 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 financiallyto an extent
almost beyond human beliefany person or institution that
will place himself or itself unreservedly and vigorously under
His direction!
Now, of course, there have been problemsobstacles
oppositionspersecutionssetbacks. It hasnt been easy! God
doesnt 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
756
to the limit of our capacity. In this sense, God has let us do

itHe 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
Himand voluntarilywith their tithes and offerings. Yet
God financed us! He did it through those He could use!
That is the secret of our success. Its the way to success
for anybody and everybodywhether individual, or group or
organization! And it has developed not only these campuses,
it has developed those of usand in constantly increasing
numberswho 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 Christs 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, 194849, 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, 194950, there were 12students
11men 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 195051, there were 22 students. The fifth
college year, 195152, there were 32 students. The college
was growing!
757
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
First Yearbook
At the close of the 195051 year, the students produced their
first annual, or yearbook, the Envoy. It contained 36 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 anywherea 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 whitethat is,
black ink only. But it contained 60 pages besides the cover, and
was a much improved production. The 1955 edition went to
68 pages, and improved contents, especially the photography
and artwork. The 1956 Envoy continued the improvement,
with 76 pages, but still black and white. By 1961 it reached
200 pages, a much finer cover, much improved photography
and design, and we were getting into color pages.
The Foreign-Language Clubs

By the 195152 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 spokenonly 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 classin actual continuous
conversationto help them learn to express themselves
fluently in that tongue.
758
We in Gods Work are commissioned to proclaim Christs

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
yearbut 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 busi-
nessmans 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
tabletopics 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 womens club was formed. These, too, have
continued to expand. Im quite sure they are different, at
Ambassador, from any other womens clubs. They have
a very definite effect in the cultural development of our
young women.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 smallmimeographed. In
due time it became a real printed campus paper of quality.
Comes the Ambassador Chorale

In the college year 195152 we had 32 students. In the spring
of that year, Mr. Leon Ettinger, director of the voice depart-
ment 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 Ill never know. But they did.
At the annual spring concert of the music department
consisting of piano and vocal solo numbers by studentsthe
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 thembut 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 12 singers for our little chorus.
We practiced faithfully for several months, always at
Ettingers 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.
760
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 Collegethe Ambassador Chorale. From that
small beginning it has grown into a musical organization
that I feel would do credit to any college or university 10 to
20 times our size.
At Last! ABC Network!

In autumn 1953, a new door was openeda national radio
network. For 19 years the vision of broadcasting coast to coast
over a great national network had been a dreamand 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 doora 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 90 additional radio stations.
Think of it!90 additional radio stationsincluding 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 90 stations, taking the remaining two thirds of the
page. There was a two-page map showing the location and
area of coverage of each stationblanketing 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.
761
61
OUR FIRST
EXPERIENCE WITH
TELEVISION
B
popular craze in the United States.
Y 1955 TELEVISION HAD BECOME THE
That year there were some 43 million television sets in the

United States. That year the manufacture of television sets hit
an all-time peak in the U.S.7.8 million sets manufactured.
Suddenly we became frightened. Almost in a panic, we
decided to make a frantic dash to put The World Tomorrow
on televisionbefore 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
762
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 18 centuries!
Even in the year 1930 there were comparatively few radio
sets in America. But by 1934, most U.S. homes had radio.
And THAT VERY YEAR that we started on the air1934
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
televisionstill in the experimental stages. It 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 thenbut television was
in operation on the air.
The sets at that time were mostly little 9-inch screens. I
bought one because I knew it would be developed and felt
Ineeded 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
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
were two local stations in Los Angelesktla (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, trans-
continental, 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 74 million
television sets in the United States. But the one year of 1955
saw the record production of 7.8 million sets.
We Race to Television
By 1955 the big-name network shows had all left radio for tele-
vision 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 60 million people.
This, and one other circumstance, conspired to give us the
jitters. We had learned that it was the every night, or daily,
broadcasting, seven days a week, which proved really effective.
We were spending big money, now, on coast-to-coast network
radioSunday onlyone 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 super-
power 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
superpower stations.
There were two reasons for that. One was the fact of the
daily broadcastingthe other the fact that most of the abc
stations we were using were comparatively small-powered
764
61 | Our First Experience With Television
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 10 to 50 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, Were 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. Theyre forgetting about Gods messageforgetting
about the rocking, reeling world they live indrugging 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! Gods 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!
765
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
The programs would have to be filmed at a Hollywood motion

picture studio. There would have to be sets. First, under direc-
tion 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 back-
ground. 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 in my office in Eugene, Oregonand 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 stockthat
is, news events on motion picture film obtained from the nbc
film library in New Yorkto 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 announcers voice announced From the beau-
tiful campus of Ambassador College, in Pasadena, California,
its president, Herbert W. Armstrong, brings you the real
meaning behind todays world news, with the prophecies of
the World Tomorrow!
Then, as the announcers 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 lambas a picture of tame animals in
tomorrows world (Isaiah 11:6-7).
Later we discarded this beginning, too. But we did start
out with it.
766
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 tamealmost, but we
dared not trust that he was altogether tame!
This liona 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 onto 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 tamehe 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 photo-
graphed 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
767
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
time on 12 television stations. So, once again, our organized

beginning on television, like so many other beginnings, started
out with 12. We didnt plan it to be 12. 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 13 stationsadding Hawaiibut we
started with 12.
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 19 peoplecameramen, electricians,
sound men, script girl, directors, helpersa full crew, with
two television cameras trained on mewell, 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 makeup man into
my dressing room, and announced I had to wear makeup.
What! I exclaimed indignantly. Me wear makeup? Never
in a million years!
Youll have to, Mr. Armstrong, replied the director sooth-
ingly. Everyone does who appears on motion picture film.
Let movie actors wear all the false faces and makeup they
wish, I replied defiantly. But Im not a movie actor, and I
wont wear makeup.
768
But, Mr. Armstrong, pursued the director, this is only to

make you look, on the television sets, perfectly natural. Your
face wont look natural, as the cameras show it, unless we do
put on makeup. 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 makeup, I
consented to let the makeup 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 didnt 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 afternoons work. I had lemon juice,
I remember. I also tried to get in a brief nap.
The afternoon was no better. By days end, we had shot and
wasted a lot of expensive filmout of which the film editor
was able afterward to piece together enough usable footage to
make the first half-hour telecast. I never did think it was any
goodbut 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
769
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
to have the first nine programs all readyin brief notes and
other materialbefore we even started this actual production.
But that first day we salvaged just one program out of a
hard and nerve-shattering days work. As I remember it, we
did a little better the second dayI 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
time1955the 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 entertain-
ment 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 $3,000depending on how big a name they
had. Of course, they go in for very expensive setswith
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 late11:30 p.m. But that does not seem so
770
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 Yorka station that 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 good9 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 p.m. to 10 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 an even 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, 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 10 to 20
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
stationsonly 12. It was bigger than from similar radio
771
broadcastsbut 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 12 stations, The World
Tomorrow was being viewed by a million or more people
perhaps 2 or 3 million. We were delivering a dynamic message
in power to a huge audience, who were not only hearingbut
also seeingfor 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-cent (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$40,000!
And that is lowest-cost economy!
As 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 broadcasta total of about
$3,600, plus about $2,000 for production costtotal, NOT
$40,000, as postal cards would cost, but only $5,600less
than one seventh as much as those small postal cards!
772
62
THE CROSSROADS
TV OR RADIO?
T HE YEAR WAS NOW 1955. THE WORLD
Tomorrow was on television, coast to coast in the United

Statesand 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 televisionQUICK!
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
773
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 14.5 million
radio sets were manufactured, and 7.8 million television sets.
Many people were beginning to buy two, three or four radio
sets per homeplacing 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 Christs 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 13 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 tele
vision, we were learning that radio was not dead at all.
We had not gone off radio. We had canceled 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 broad-
casting 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
774
62 | The CrossroadsTV or Radio?
all this costly television programming was coming from radio

listenersnot 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 percentage of listenerseither radio
or televisionever 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-workersfor 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 radiobut
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, produc-
tion 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 Co. 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
775
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 27 weeks of telecasting, I began
bringing certain men from the East to appear on televi-
sion with me in conversation, or as an interview. One was
Montgomery M. Green, a World Warii intelligence officer in
the United States Navy. I interviewed him on the program
about Russias 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, worlds 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 Loureno 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
776
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, besides
adding color and a heavier cover paper. Also that issue made
another big jump aheadit went to 24 pages. Until then, the
Plain Truth magazine had never gone beyond 16 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 Yorkthe
50,000-watt wabcopened a daily weeknight 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 15 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,
Oregonand 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 24 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
programmingand that it was a top-rated program that
777
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 yearsultimately
publishing these volumes.
By September 1957, The World Tomorrow took a really big
leap ahead. Only one more station was added at that timebut
it was to prove our most responsive stationthe superpower
wlac, Nashville, Tennessee. This great station cleared for us
the valuable time of 7 p.m., weeknights. Then by December
1957, came the breakthrough in Denver. Station kvod opened
a good time for The World Tomorrowseven nights a week.
New Policy Leaps Ahead

Beginning 1958, we added Radio Tangier International, and
we were broadcasting into Francos Spain. We were now on
Formosas 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 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 16but still once a week.
But by October 1958, another major radio station, San
Franciscos great kgo, began broadcasting The World Tomorrow
every night.
778
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 24 up to
32 pages.
The beginning of 1959 saw the Work of God gaining
momentum fast. The World Tomorrow was now broadcast
worldwide, on 5 million watts of radio power weekly.
This was the 25th anniversary of this Work. It was now
expanding everywhere as a major Work, constantly multi-
plying 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 60s. But this has brought us considerably beyond other
phases of this life story.
779
63
FIRST EVANGELISTIC
CAMPAIGN IN
BRITISH ISLES
N OW 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 autobiographythe 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
780
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 impos-
sibly distant I dont 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
page1 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 young man 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
781
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 boards 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 circum-
stances, 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 Dicks 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 11th-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
782
63 | First Evangelistic Campaign in British Isles
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 goodwithout 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 Titos 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 Franceand
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 todays
world events, we soon learned we had to become very familiar
with their policies, lest our analysis of todays world news be
construed as an allusion to things political.
November 22, 1952, was a historic day for us!
783
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 19 yearsone time-cycleafter 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 1953the 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 policiesand 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
4:15p.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 cara Hillman-Minxto 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 Britainbcm (British Crown Monomarks)
Ambassador, London, WC1.
He remained in London, handling the mail, until September,
when he returned to Pasadena. Old Prof. Mauler-Hiennecey
had retired, and Dick now took over the French-language
department at the college.
784
The British Monomarks 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.
Hes just the man we want, Dick told me. He wasand
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 Prof. Mauler-Hiennecey also gone,
our own graduates were beginning more and more to fill up
the faculty. Dr. Taylor was 77 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 195354 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 Londonthis 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.
785
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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 Dicks
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
786
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 Kings Lynn, north of London on
the sea, where her maternal great-grandfather had been
a Methodist minister. Dick drove us to Kings 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 riverbank.
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 Kings Lynn we searched out the little Methodist church
where Mrs. Armstrongs 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 tomb-
stones had been piled in an adjoining lot. We were just about
to give up our search when one of us stumbled onto the
great-grandfathers tombstone.
Later we drove in the Hillman-Minx on the Continent,
crossing the English Channel on a ferry.
We were taken all through the station at Radio Luxembourg.
Then we drove on to Germany. Dick showed us the incredible
recovery from the war, everywhere evident. Even the progress
787
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
since his visit in 1952 was unbelievableyet it was there

in plain sight. After visiting Frankfurt, Bonn, Cologne and
Dsseldorf, we drove into Holland.
As a boy I had read stories about HollandHansel and Gretel
and others. I had read of Haarlem, and supposed it to be a
little village. I was amazed to find it a big cityand Rotterdam
as big as San Franciscowith Amsterdam as big as Cleveland,
Ohio, and bigger than Pittsburgh, or Boston, or many major
American cities. We also drove through The Hague, about as
large as Rotterdam. Then back through Belgium, and another
ferry across the Channel to the white cliffs of Dover in England.
This was the 10th of September. It was good to rejoin
Roderick Meredith in London. We had enjoyed and profited
from the trip on the Continent. But always, after being on
the Continent, it seems just like coming home to be back in
England! After all, the British and Americans are the same
people. Certain national differences have developed through
the last two centuries, but we are the same peopleand both
nations ought to remember that.
And NOW! UK Speaking Tour

Late Sunday afternoon, September 12, Mrs. Armstrong,
Dick and I started driving north in the Hillman-Minx. Over
the weekend, our then advertising agent from Beverly Hills,
California, Jack Parmalee, flew in to London. He wanted to
attend the meetings on the speaking tour. He and Roderick
Meredith met us in Belfast on Tuesday morning. They
had driven from Dublin in a rented car after, it seems in a
not-too clear memory, having flown to Cardiff, Wales, and
then to Dublin.
We stopped off Sunday evening for dinner at a hotel in
St.Albans. Little did we dream, that Sunday evening in
September 1954, that we would, within a few years, have a
college already larger than the Pasadena College was then,
with a St.Albans mail address!
After dinner we drove on north, bypassing Birmingham, and
arriving in Manchester around midnight. Next morning we
continued north. It was the first opportunity for Mrs.Armstrong
788
and me to see northern England, and we found it a very

interesting experience. We stopped at Carlisle for lunch. As
a boy I had often visited a small town in Iowa named after
this northern England city. It was just 12 miles south of Des
Moines where I was born and reared. An uncle and aunt lived
there, with a sonmy cousinjust a year younger than I.
Carlisle is only a few miles from the Scottish border. Soon
after lunch we were driving westward in Scotland. In the
late afternoon we reached Stranraer. There was considerable
excitementand no little suspenseconcerning our ability
to get passage on the evening ferry across the north channel
of the Irish Sea. We had dinner in a hotel near the docks
while anxiously awaiting the verdict. If we failed, I might
have missed the following nights meeting at Belfast entirely.
We finally persuaded an official to let us on. There were more
cars and passengers than they could accommodate.
It was interesting watching the cranes pick up Dicks car,
swing it from a cable through the air, and drop it down onto
the ship. But soon we were steaming the 36-mile distance to
Larne, Northern Ireland, where we had hotel reservations for
the night.
Next morning, we drove the short distance down to Belfast,
and met Roderick Meredith and Mr. Parmalee. We visited
the hall that had been engaged for our meetingone seating
about 1,000 or 1,200 people. We found everything would be
in readiness for the meeting. Then we went sightseeing
around Belfast and vicinity.
We had heard of a very old historic place of ancient Druid
worship a few miles outside Belfast known as the Giants
Ring. We drove out to it. Then we proceeded to the giant
shipbuilding yards at Belfast. The size of this operation was
truly astonishing. Belfast is a major port.
Evening came, and time for the meeting. Arrangements
had been made for ushering in people at the hall, so we did
not appear until five or 10 minutes before time for the service.
The large hall, located in the very heart of the city center
business district, was well filled. We found approximately
750 people waiting for us.
789
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
There had been a small advertisement in the newspaper

giving notice of the meeting, but no attempt had been made to
draw any audience beyond our own interested radio listeners.
So an audience of 750 was a very, very warm welcome to
Belfast. People had come from miles around. One had pushed
another interested listener a great distance in a wheelchair
to a bus, in order to attend. My message that night was on
Whats Prophesied for Britain.
The message was not intended to be for entertainment.
This was my first opportunity to speak in person before an
overseas audience. The time was serious, and the message
was serious.
I said: Last week, and part of the week before, I spent
five days in Germany. And what I saw, in a Germany only
eight years ago almost shattered from the war, was emphatic
evidence that the world war is not yet over! We are now merely
in the second recess of the war.
What is prophesied for the United Kingdom, and for the
United States? I have crossed America and the Atlantic
Ocean to tell you things I cant say on the radio. What Im
now going to say is not popular! But it is as certain as the
rising and setting of tomorrows sun! Yet on beyond it all, after
our peoples have been punished as no nations ever were before,
world peace is coming, in our time!
The audience showed tremendous interest!
After the service our two cars were driven on a boat. We all
had sleeping accommodations on the boat for the night. Next
morning we were docked at Glasgow.
That night another good audience, equally warm and
friendly and interested, assembled in a hall in downtown
Glasgow. The crowd there was smallerperhaps 450 or 500.
Thursday we drove down to Manchester. The hall there
was on the third or fourth floor of a building. There was
only the one lift (elevator to our American readers). The hall
here was smaller, but we had an overflow crowd, much to
the displeasure of the lift operator. Extra chairs had to be
brought into the auditorium, and several had to stand. I must
have spoken about an hour or a little over, but after about
790
45 minutes the lift operator came in, interrupted the service,

and wanted me to stop talking so he could close up the lift
and go home.
But I had come a long distance to deliver a super-serious
life-and-death message to hundreds of my radio listeners, and
I was not going to cut that message off to please a disgruntled
lift operator. The hall had been engaged for the entire evening.
A good many had to hear more of this mans bad attitude
before everybody had finally been taken to the ground floor,
after the meeting was dismissed. And I was so thoroughly
disgusted with his uncalled-for ill behavior, I expressed
myself rather sharply to him as I descended in the final trip
of the lift for that night.
The crowd there was slightly smaller than at Glasgow, but
still an overflow crowd.
First Convert Baptized

On Friday we drove back to London. We had a request from
a lady at Crewe, home city of the Rolls-Royce factory, for
baptism. So we drove by way of Crewe. She was Mrs. Edna
Palin. We found that she operated a beauty shop for women
in front of her home. We also met Mr. Palin and talked to
him. We were satisfied that Mrs. Palin really was ready for
baptism. She knew of a riveror, I believe probably more
properly, an irrigation streamsome few miles from town.
We drove there. And my son Richard David performed the
very first baptismal service resulting from this Work on
this side of the Atlantic. Later, after the Work was better
established in Britain, Mr. Palin was baptized by one of our
other ministers.
Returning to London, we had meetings scheduled in a very
nice downtown hall for the following Tuesday, Wednesday
and Thursday, September 21 to 23.
While in London, a certain coincidence reminded us very
much of the Ambassador College campus in Pasadena.
Mrs.Armstrong and I were staying at the Dorchester Hotel,
and Dick and Roderick Meredith at the Cumberland, only a
few blocks away. But when we called them on the telephone,
791
their hotel was on the ambassador exchange; and when they
called us, the Dorchester was on the Mayfair exchange. And,
as I think most readers know, Mayfair is the name of one of
our principal girls student residences at Pasadena.
We returned to the United States on the S.S. America, a
very beautiful ship.
792
64
FIRST
MIDDLE EAST
TOUR
M Y TIME WAS ALMOST COMPLETELY
absorbed, after our return to the United States, with the

coast-to-coast broadcasting over the abc network, the
television scare, and intensive preparations to leap from
radio over to television.
Our original telecasting experience lasted 27 weeks. By
January 1956, we had become satisfied that radio was far
from dead. Radio had been forced to change its formattrue!
Radio had adapted itself to a different type of programming.
But it had survived! People were actually buying more radio
sets than ever!
Planning Our First Middle East Tour

I had used a great deal of film stockthat is, motion-picture
footageto illustrate whatever I was talking about on
television. I felt we needed some very special motion-picture
film of Palestine, the ancient area of Babylon, such places as
Tyre and Sidon. Also I had for some time felt the need of a
personal visit to those lands, to obtain material for articles
793
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
and broadcasts. I knew that if I visited the ancient Bible

lands, got the feel and experienced the very atmosphere
of these lands, my preaching, lecturing, broadcasting and
writing would be far more effective. The places I would be
speaking about would be far more REAL to me, and therefore
I could make them more real to listeners and readers.
We were now well along on our new road of daily radio.
I was no longer tied down with the furious night-and-day
grind of intensive television production. And I really needed
a change of scenery.
So we began making plans for a tour of the Middle East,
and an every-night evangelistic campaign in London.
Our son Dick, with George Meeker, an Ambassador grad-
uate and ordained minister, had sailed back to Britain and
Europe on June 29, 1955. A considerable mail response was
coming from the broadcasts on Radio Luxembourg, and the
broadcasts on Radio Ceylon, and into South Africa. Those
men were needed in London to handle much of the response,
although the general mailing list was still maintained at
Pasadena headquarters.
But it was becoming impossible to process, answer and
handle this increasing volume of mail from Pasadena. We
needed an office in London.
Late in August, 1955, Dick obtained occupancy of a small
suite of offices he had located on Cranbourn Street, Leicester
Square, in the very heart of downtown London. He had
returned to Pasadena for some three weeks in October 1955,
speaking on the television program while here.
Once it was decided that Mrs. Armstrong and I would
take the Middle East trip, to be followed by the nightly
evangelistic campaign in London, Dick began planning the
itinerary through American Express in London. He was to
accompany us.
But at that time the Middle East began to sizzle as the
worlds trouble spot. Nasser was soon to seize the Suez Canal.
Trouble was brewing between Jews and Arabs. War seemed
imminent. Russia had been supplying Nasser with arms and
planes. The Suez crisis might result in British intervention.
794
64 | First Middle East Tour
That might result in Russian intervention against Britain.

World Wariii could suddenly flare up out of this crisis.
Then, suddenly, the crisis quieted down along about
February. The way was opened for us to proceed with plans
for the trip. The war scare remained quiet until our tour was
finished. Then, on our return to America, the crisis boiled hot
again. Nasser did take over the Suez Canal on July 26. I wrote
an article on it for the September Plain Truth, immediately
on our return.
That article said: The war clouds that have hovered over
the Middle East were cleared just long enough to permit
Mrs.Armstrong, our son Richard, and me to visit Cairo,
and the capitals of the Middle EastBaghdad, Amman,
Damascus, Beirut, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv . Now that we
have returned to America, our mission accomplished, the
crisis explodes all over againthis time over the seizure
of the Suez Canal! It was quieted just long enough to allow
Gods emissaries to complete their visit.
Mrs. Armstrong and I left Pasadena during the latter half
of March 1956. We stopped off a few days at what is now
the site of the third Ambassador College campus (opened
September 1964) near Big Sandy, Texas. We traveled by train
to New York. One of our Ambassador graduates drove our car
to New York, loaded with the entire mailing list for Britain,
Europe, Africawhich we were then transferring to the new
London office.
We boarded the Queen Mary, sailing for Southampton,
England, on April 11, 1956.
Mrs. Armstrong kept a diary of this trip. Her comments,
written on the spot at the moment, are far more accurate
than anything I could now write from memory.
Mrs. Armstrongs diary was published in the Plain Truth in
three installments, in the October, November and December
1956 issues of the Plain Truth. They evoked a tremendous
interest among our readers. Many exciting and interesting
things happened. I feel that her diary belongs as a part of this
record, so I shall reprint it herebreaking in, as I may, from
time to time, with comments of my own.
795
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
PART ONE by Loma D. Armstrong
We arrived in New York after our train ride from Longview,

Texas. We encountered varied weather conditions on the trip:
dust storms in Texas, Missouri and Illinois; rains, of almost
cloudburst intensities, in Indiana and Ohio; and heavy fog in
Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.
The weekend, in New York, was very windy and today
(April8) we awakened to see several inches of snow on the
ground. It is still snowing. We hope that the weather will
clear soon and allow the sun to come out.
Arriving in Europe
We arrived in Southampton on Monday, April 16, at 2:45 p.m.
Our son Dick and George Meeker were on the dock to meet
us. Dick was so glad to see us that he whirled me around
until I was almost dizzy. When our car was unloaded at the
dock it had three flat tires, but they held air when inflated.
George Meeker drove Dicks car to London and Dick drove
our car, with us.
The drive from Southampton to London, in the bright
English sunshine, was beautiful. Our drive was interrupted
with a stop at a quaint little tea room for tea. We arrived in
London after dark. Dick took us first to the apartment where
he and George live; then we went to our hotel. After our baths
we enjoyed a good nights rest.
Tuesday, April 17
We had to completely repack our trunk and pack our suitcases
as lightly as possible for our trip by airplane to Zrich,
Switzerland, on our first lap to the Middle East.
Wednesday, April 18
We arrived in Zrich, Wednesday afternoon. It was a cold,
rainy dayrain mixed with snow. In places the ground was
white with snow.
In London, we were told that we would not need coats, and
that it would be very hot over the whole area in which we
796
would be traveling; so, before leaving London, at the airport,

we gave our coats to George to take to their apartment until
we returned. As a result we were damp, soggy and shivering
before we were in Zrich many minutes. Mr. Armstrong
bought a Bolex movie camera for our motion pictures.
We left Zrich by train for Rome, having to sit up until
midnight. When we arrived in Milano, we changed trains for
the remainder of the trip. Mr. Armstrong left his hat on the
first train, so we arrived in Rome with him bareheaded. He
remedied that soon after we arrived, however, by buying a
new hat.
We were in Rome only a few hours. The nearer the time
came to fly across the Mediterranean Sea the more tense I
felt. I do not like to fly.
Our flight was in the bright sunshine and the sea was
beautiful. We flew along the Italian coast over the Bay of
Naplesnear Mount Vesuvius, over the Isle of Capri, across
the boot of Italy, over Stromboli, then out to sea. In the middle
of the Mediterranean we saw an American aircraft carrier
and several cruisers.
Destination Egypt!
Though trouble had quieted down between the Arab
Egyptians and Israel for a while, military ships were in
evidencestanding byin a number of places.
It was dark when we reached the shores of Africa. We flew
over Alexandria and the delta of the Nile.
We arrived in Cairo at 9:30 p.m., April 18, to a strange
and different world. At the airport, an Arab and a Nubian
checked our passports. Because we were Americans, we were
held up until our names were checked against a list they had
of spies or political undesirables.
The friendliness of the personnel at the English and Swiss
airports was sadly missing here. We were looked upon as
sympathizers of the British, who are hated in Egypt.
We were taken to our hotel in a bus driven by an Arab
dressed in robesin fact, all people here dress in robes. It was
a long drive and so surprising. We saw block after blockmile
797
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
after mileof large, modern apartment buildings, four to 12

stories high.
After arriving at the Semiramis Hotel, we had baths and
brushed our teeth in water from the Nile (along its banks,
Moses was hidden in the bulrushes when he was a baby). It
flows deep and wide, just outside our window and across the
street. Ex-King Farouks yacht is anchored just below and is
used as an annex to this hotel. A young lady from Long Beach,
California, a school teacher, was on our plane and has a room
on the yacht.
It was 1:40 a.m. when I finally got to bed.
Friday Morning, April 20

A guide from the American Express officea young Arab named
Sayed, who speaks English very well, dressed in a red robe
and red fezcame to the hotel after us. He had a nice cara
Chryslerand an Arab driver who could not speak English.
What Egypt Is Like

We drove all through the native quarters where we saw the
narrow streets filled with donkeys pulling carts of hay or
vegetables; donkeys being ridden by men who were like giants
on them (the men were so long-legged that their feet almost
dragged on the streets); cars, mostly American, being driven
by Arabs; and people wearing dirty and so often ragged robes.
In the midst of it all there were children and dogs. Our driver
used the horn on the car to drive through. All other cars were
doing the same. Horns honking incessantly. The drivers of the
donkey carts were yelling; people chattering; dogs barking;
and the smell was awful. The motion pictures we took could
not bring back with us the sounds or the smells. Actually, no
one paid any attention to the honking of the horns. We had to
wind our way slowly though the whole mess. The streets were
as filthy as the people.
Some of the shops are crude holes in the wall where
different craftsmen are plying their trades. We saw one man
carving large copper and brass trays by hand. These trays
were intricate with beautiful designsvery beautifully done.
798
Herbert Armstrong visits with His Majesty Leopold iii of Belgium.
top
bottom His Majesty presented the last of four watches cast

from a World Wari cannonball to Herbert W. Armstrong for his
contribution toward world peace.
top Herbert W. Armstrong
visits Israeli Prime Minister
Golda Meir in her Knesset
office in Jerusalem in 1971.
middle Indian Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi reviews a copy
of the Plain Truth during a
1970 visit by Mr. Armstrong.
bottom Mr. Armstrong greets
President V.V. Giri during the
same trip to India.
Mr. Armstrong climbs aboard
top
the Grumman Gulfstream ii on

one of his numerous trips in the
1970s to visit world leaders.
bottom At the garden tomb in
Jerusalem
top Herbert W. Armstrong
wears his personalized hard
hat at the groundbreaking
ceremonies for Ambassador
Auditorium in January 1972.
middle Flanked by personnel
of the construction
company, he addresses the
audience at the ceremonies.
In front of the podium is a
model of the auditorium.
top Mr. Armstrong reviews
blueprints during construction
of the auditorium.
middle The completed auditorium
is surrounded by mirror pools
and the egret fountain designed
by Sir David Wynn.
bottom Herbert Armstrong walks
with pianist Arthur Rubinstein.
Mr. Armstrong meets with
top
longtime friend Nagendra Singh

(left) and President Manfred
Lachs, of the World Court.
bottom He greets President
Suharto of Indonesia in 1972.
bottom Mr. Armstrong talks with
South Vietnamese President
Nguyen Van Thieu on October
4, 1973.
top He visits with President Jomo
Kenyatta of Kenya in 1975.
He greets King
middle left
Sobhuzaii of Swaziland in 1976.

middle right He visits Emperor Haile
Selassie of Ethiopia in June 1973.
bottom Mr. Armstrong and
Jordans King Hussein meet.
Portrait of Herbert W.
top
Armstrong taken in Japan

bottom The Order of the
Sacred Treasure, Second
Class, was conferred on
Herbert Armstrong by His
Majesty the emperor of Japan.
Over a period of more than a decade Herbert W. Armstrong had the privilege
to know and to discuss world problems with Japans prime ministers.
Prime Ministers Sato, Tanaka, Miki, Fukuda, Ohira and Suzuki.
left to right from top
top Mr. Armstrong
visits with President
Anwar Sadat of Egypt,
whom he regarded
as a leader who came
to understand the
importance of peace
among nations.
middle He embraces
Prime Minister Begin
of Israel in 1978.
bottom Mr. Armstrong
met with President
Suleiman Franjieh of
Lebanon in 1973.
The Redwood Library and social
top
hall on the campus of Ambassador

CollegeBig Sandy, Texas
bottom Mr. Armstrong, even
in his later years, attended
commencement exercises at the
Pasadena campus whenever he
was at headquarters.
Mr. Armstrong addresses a
top
luncheon in Bangkok, Thailand,

after being presented the royal
Thai decoration of Commander
of Our Most Noble Order of the
Crown of Thailand (center).
bottom Thailands Prime Minister
Prem Tinsulanonda personally
congratulates Mr. Armstrong
for the royal Thai decoration
conferred on behalf of His
Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
top Mr. Armstrong addresses an audience of more than 4,500
people in Manila at the Convention Center in his 90th year.
left He speaks before the Rotary Club in Manila.
right The Presidential Merit Medal was bestowed on
Mr. Armstrong in 1983 by the Philippine president.
Herbert W. Armstrong arrives at 10 Downing Street
top
on invitation by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

bottom Charles, Prince of Wales, greets Mr. Armstrong
as a benefactor of the Royal Opera House in London.
Mr. Armstrong performs
top
a symbolic tree planting at

the Jomo Kenyatta School of
Agriculture and Technology, a
school partially funded by the
Ambassador International Cultural
Foundation and Japanese
friends. Kenya has a population
explosion and its leaders, since
independence, have had to focus
on the countrys agricultural and
forestry needs.
bottom President Moi of Kenya
receives Herbert Armstrong in
November 1982.
top His Majesty King Juan Carlos of Spain receives
Herbert Armstrong on the kings estate outside Madrid.
left King Hussein of Jordan, a longtime friend,
receives a gift of Steuben crystal from Mr. Armstrong.
right He tours the Bunyat Special Education Center in Amman, Jordan.
Linked by satellite and microwave network
top
to dozens of halls and auditoriums worldwide,

Mr. Armstrong addresses more than 100,000
members during the annual Church convention.
bottom Senior students converse with the chancellor.
top Mr. Armstrong enjoys a lighter moment in
conversation with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
left President of Israel, Yitzhak Navon, receives
a personal protocol gift from Mr. Armstrong.
right Children in Liberty Bell Park, Jerusalem, surround Mr. Armstrong.
His Majesty King Bhumibol
top
Adulyadej of Thailand and

Her Majesty Queen Sirikit
receive Herbert W. Armstrong
in 1984. Mr. Armstrong
became acquainted in 1971
with the many agricultural,
engineering and cultural
projects of Their Majesties on
behalf of the hill tribes and
rural and needy Thais. As a
result of the royal projects,
opium growing has been
reduced 95 percent.
bottom This medal was
bestowed on Herbert W.
Armstrong by Her Majesty on
occasion of the royal visit.
Mr. Armstrong enjoys a light moment with Prince Mikasa of Japan
top left
and officials of the Mideast Cultural Center in Tokyo as they examine

artifacts the Ambassador Foundation helped the center to acquire.
bottom left Japanese Prime Minister Nakasone examines the Plain Truth.
top Children at the Summer Education Program in Australia welcome
Mr. Armstrong.
Mr. Armstrong uses his
top
typewriter on the Grumman

Gulfstream iii to work on
Mystery of the Ages, the last
book he wrote.
bottomThe Plain Truth appears
in Norwegian, Spanish,
Dutch, French, German and
Italian. All seven languages
are printed compatible
each issuea quantitative
challenge no other magazine
has undertaken to date.
Mr. Armstrong holds up the 50th anniversary issue of the
Plain Truth at the R.R. Donnelley and Sons Printers in Kentucky.
Mr. Armstrong delivered World Tomorrow television
programs into the beginning of his 94th year.
Teleprompters were long in use when Mr. Armstrongs eyesight failed;
shown are first pages of scripts he wrote by hand in his 90th to 93rd years.
top The Honorable Deng Xiaoping,
leader of China and Honorary
Chairman of the Soong Ching-
ling Memorial Foundation, greets
Mr.Armstrong as Chairman of aicf.
middle King Birendra of Nepal
receives Mr. Armstrong in
November 1984.
bottom He converses with President
Jayewardene of Sri Lanka.
Her Majesty Queen Sirikit of Thailand explains to Mr. Armstrong and staff the
goals of the royal cultural projects among the hill tribes in northern Thailand.
Her Majesty Queen Sirikit toured the United States in March
1985. The queen visited Ambassador College in Pasadena March
1926, and honored Mr.Armstrong with a most special royal gift.
The Ambassador International Cultural Foundation sponsors a tour
top
of the United States for China's Little Ambassadors of Shanghai, which

includes a visit with Grandpa Armstrong on the Pasadena campus
bottom A highlight of the tour is a visit at the White House with First
Lady Nancy Reagan.
top Mr. Armstrong presents
Mystery of the Ages to
sophomores at Pasadena.
left He cuts the ribbon on the
walkway by the library.
right Mr. Armstrong enjoys
playing the piano in his home.
Mr. Armstrong travels to Des Moines, Iowa, his hometown, during the
top
last summer of his life.

bottom Though most of his writing was in the form of advertisements,
magazine articles, booklets and broadcast scripts, Mr. Armstrong summarized
his literary work in these five volumesand, of course, the Autobiography.
The moon rises over Armstrong Auditorium and the Swans in Flight
top
sculpture by Sir David Wynne. Modeled after Ambassador Auditorium,

Armstrong is constructed of some of the finest materials on Earth, including
American cherrywood veneers, Azerbaijani onyx, Spanish marble, Baccarat
crystal candelabras, and Swarovski strass crystal-trimmed chandeliers.
bottom Herbert W. Armstrong College, located in central Oklahoma,
sprawls across a 160-acre campus just north of the states bustling
metropolis. The campus is also home to the world headquarters of
the Philadelphia Church of God.
We were taken to the City of the Dead. It is a place outside,

or in the outskirts of the city. It is the place where the poor
are buried. When we arrived, a pickup truck was unloading a
body, merely wrapped in cloth, to be put in a hole which they
dig in the clay banks and afterwards close up.
There were many caves in the hillsides. We found many
people living in some of these dirt caves, sitting on the ground
outside their openings in the dirty, dusty streets, even though
they were in the midst of the City of the Dead.
We were then taken to a large mosque. We were told that it
is the largest in the world. When we entered the courtyard of
the mosque, we had to don canvas slippers over our shoes. No
one is allowed inside in shoes. All Arabs remove their shoes
and go in either barefooted or in socks. In the center of the
courtyard is a large fountain, around which the Arabs sit and
wash their hands and feet before entering the mosque.
As we entered, we were surprised at the beauty of the
place. Its only furniture was a high altar reached by an
ornate stairway from which the Koran is read. The floor
was completely covered by a beautiful red carpet on which
a number of Arabs were sitting or lying down. They were
scattered over the large room, not in groups. We tried to take
pictures inside the mosque but the lighting was too dim.
We have never in all our lives seen so many diseased
eyes. Many people are blind and deformedespecially with
twisted feet.
After seeing Cairo, we left in the evening by train for ancient
Thebes, now called Luxor450 miles south, up the Nile.
As the train pulled slowly through the city, we saw how
the people live. There were mud or adobe apartmentsjust a
conglomeration of rooms placed anywhere, one on top of the
other. There was no plan, but they were placed as if they had
been blown together by a strong wind and stuck just as they
happened to light. The Arab women and children sit on the
ground wherever they take the notion. It makes no difference
what surrounds them.
After we were no longer able to see the country through
which we were traveling, we went to bed in our tiny
799
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
compartments only to awaken in the night choking with dust.

The only way a person could breathe was by holding the sheet
over the face. The dust was thick in the air.
Daylight came very early so we were able to see the country
through which we were passing. A canal, beside the track,
seemed to provide water for use in their homes and huts as
well as for irrigation. The black-robed women were dipping
the water in huge pitchers or bottles which they always
carried on their heads.
We would also see people in water up to their waists and
water buffalo wading. A highway ran along the opposite side
of the canal, and, early as it was, early dawn, we could see
many men and women walking briskly along. Some of the
men rode small donkeyswith their feet almost touching
the ground, while the women carried baskets or jars on their
heads. Others rode camels. Children were driving goats or
water buffalo. There were people scattered over the fields
working with their hands in the soil. A few had crude hoes.
Once in a while we saw a donkey and camel yoked together
pulling a crooked stick or a plow. Their agricultural methods
were primitive. But the soil appeared rich.
Ancient Egypts Grandeur

We arrived in the early morning at Luxor and were taken to
our hotel in an antiquated motor-driven hack. There was no
room for Dick, so he was driven in a horse-drawn buggy.
This was Luxor, built on the site of the ancient city of
Thebes, capital of the ancient Egyptian domain when Egypt
was at the zenith of its splendor. Luxor, today, includes also
the village of Karnak, six miles from the main village.
All the wealth of war, the booty and the shipments of goods
from other countries were once hoarded in Thebes, the capital.
Today, we saw the remains, only a number of rich monuments,
and supporting columns of temples and tombs. Once they were
overlaid with gold, silver, alabaster or marble; now there is
nothing but timeworn stone. The temples had been connected
with one another by courtyards and lobbies. Now, however, the
massive columns are all that remain of the former splendor.
800
Our guide, an elderly and scholarly Egyptian, walked over

the ruins hour after hour with us, explaining the history and
the religion of the people who worshiped at the temples. It
was all worship of the sun god, Ra.
We were there during the Muslim fast called Ramadan.
Although our guide was in his 70s, he carried on all day
through the hot sun, with no food. The fast lasts a month and
no food can be eaten from sunrise until sunset; however, they
eat during the night.
After a long day we sat on the large veranda of the hotel
overlooking the Nile. The moon was full and the stars seemed
so near and so very bright. It was a beautiful evening.
Our beds in the hotel were covered with high canopies with
curtains of mosquito netting. We did not pull the netting over
us when we went to bed, but we soon found it was impossible
to sleep without it, after being bitten a number of times by
mosquitoes.
The food was terrible. I could not eat any breakfast, so I
drank some hot tea. At least the water had been boiled.
King Tutankhamens Tomb

This morning we crossed the Nile River in a felucca or sailboat
built as they used to build them thousands of years ago. A
driver with an old Ford car met us on the other side and we
rode over hot dusty roads to the tomb of King Tutankhamen.
His tomb was discovered in 1922. He is said to have died at
the age of 18. His tomb was the last of the pharaohs tombs
to be found.
The tomb is deep underground, down a tiled and decorated
passageway, past a false entrance, and thence to the real
entrance where the inner coffin lies. In the room were images
of the history of some part of his life. These images were in
the tile on the walls.
The contents of the tomb filled one whole wing of the
museum at Cairo. It took several years to move all the
contents from the tomb. The mummy is in a museum. The
wealth buried or stored in the different treasure rooms of the
tomb was fantastic.
801
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
After leaving the kings tomb, we entered the tomb of

Ramses vi. I did not go to the end of the passageway down
into the tomb, but Dick and Mr. Armstrong did. I felt that
the long climb back up was more than I wanted to try. I did,
however, go into the tomb of Seti.
After our visit to those tombs we were taken to the temple
of Queen Hatshepsut, which was carved out of a mountainside.
She is said to have ruled Egypt from 1503 to 1483 b.c. She
reigned like a king and the large figures or statues at her temple
have been made with false beards. She claimed she was the
daughter of the sun god himself. The story of her birth and of
her reign is depicted on one of the terraces of the temple ruins.
After returning to our hotel we packed our bags for our
return through the night to Cairo. Once more a dusty trip.
Cairo Again
When we reached Cairo our guide who had previously taken
us over the city was at the station to meet us with the same
Chrysler car and chauffeur. He had planned a trip to the
pyramids and a campout in the Sahara Desert.
Our next visit was to the site of the ancient city of Memphis,
where Moses and Aaron pleaded with the pharaoh to let
the children of Israel go. Only a few ruins which have been
excavated remain now of the ancient city.
We drove from there to the pyramids at Saqqara which, we
were told, were the oldest of the pyramids. There were also,
in this area, a number of tombs over 2,500 years old.
We then drove through the city of Giza, out into the Sahara
Desert past the Great Pyramid where we found our camp.
We were quite surprised to find it really just our camp. We
expected to find others there, but the four tents were just for us.
Mr. Armstrongs and my tent was quite large. It was white
on the outside but very colorful on the inside with each panel
of the tent a different design. The sand had been smoothed
out level and covered with oriental rugs. There were two cots
nicely made up with sheets and wool blankets (it is very cold
in the desert at night). There were also a table, large pitcher
of water, wash bowl and soap; and hung on the center pole
802
were towels and a mirror. A large bouquet of flowers adorned

the table. Dicks tent was like ours but smaller. Another large
tent we found was our dining room. It also had a rug over
the sand. In it was a large table with a centerpiece of flowers.
There was a table for serving, and chairs with cushions. A
short distance away was another tentthe cooks tent. Here
was a cook, an assistant cook and a waiter.
Sayed had brought his little 7-year-old son, Mohammed,
out to spend the day and the night. They slept out under the
stars on cots.
We arrived at the camp before lunchtime.
After lunch, three camels with their leaders were outside
our tent. We were helped aboard and had our first camel ride.
We really enjoyed our camel ride to the Great Pyramid of Giza.
We went into the pyramid through its long, low passageway
to the Kings Chamber. It is a marvelous building, and
although the Kings Chamber is in the center of the huge pile
of stone, it is ventilated by built-in shafts.
I waited while Mr. Armstrong and Dick walked stooped
over in the shorter low passageway to the Queens Chamber.
When we once more mounted our camels, we rode back
across the desert to our camp, where the cooks had prepared a
huge dinner which none of us could eat, because of the size of
the lunch they had served before we left for the pyramids. Our
guide told us that he had asked some Arab entertainers from
the village to come out that evening to put on a show for us.
We saw them coming by foot across the dunes in the
moonlight. Then the dining tent was made ready for the
entertainment. Although it was bright and beautiful out in
the moonlight, the wind was cold.
There were six entertainers, all men, in their Arab robes.
Four with strange musical instruments which they played
with rhythm and not much music. The other two were dancers,
and the dances were weird imitations of animals. Finally, one
danced the dance of a demon. Our guide stopped him before
he danced himself into a frenzy because he noticed that I was
shocked by it.
After they left we tried to eat some of the huge meal that
803
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
had been prepared for us. Then we went to our tents for a
night out on the Sahara Desert. The air was so clear we could
hear the Koran being read over the loud speakers from the
minarets of the mosques of Cairo.
When we awoke and had had our breakfast, the car came
to take us back to Cairo. We first visited the sphinx again,
then on in to Cairo.
We then went to the museum where we saw room after
room of the fabulous furniture, vases, jewelry and other
material taken from Tutankhamens tomb.
Sheikh Hafiz Wabba

During the afternoon, we returned to the hotel to pick up our
bags that we had checked there while we were on our trek
to the desert. We found that Sheikh Hafiz Wabba had called
and had left us his telephone number.
He and his wife and three daughters came later in the
afternoon to see us. While Mr. Armstrong and Dick talked to
the sheikh (whom Mr. Armstrong had met in San Francisco
at the first meeting of the United Nations and later in London,
England), I had an interesting visit with his wife. They
had lived in London while the sheikh was the Ambassador
Extraordinary from Saudi Arabia to Britain for 25 years. His
wife was very irked to have had to dress in the black robe
and veil of the women of the Middle East, and to be forced to
walk several paces behind her husband. She was quite well
educated and her daughters had been educated in London. All
were dressed in Western clothes when they came to see us.
After our visit with them we went to bed early and were
called at 3 a.m. to go to the airport for our flight over the
Dead Sea and the Jordan River to Jerusalem, our first stop.
The airport at Jerusalem was so far from the city that we
could see nothing of it. After a 30-minute stop we flew to
Amman. That was a rough flight and for the first time on the
trip, I became airsick, or perhaps it was flight sick.
When we arrived at Amman airport, UN Secretary General
Dag Hammarskjlds plane was there. He was sent by the
United Nations to quiet matters.
804
Now to Babylon!
We were delayed in Amman about an hour while some repairs
were made on our plane. Then we flew on to Baghdad, where
we arrived in the early afternoon. For some three or four hours
we flew over nothing but desolate, waste, desert land. Our
American Express guide met us at the airport and took us to
our hotel. The hotel was a modern, air-conditioned building,
opened only five months before. It is surprising to find, all
over the Middle East, very new, modern apartment buildings
and hotels. Our hotel was on a narrow side street just a half
block off the main street of Baghdad.
I was too tired to look at Baghdad but Mr. Armstrong and
Dick walked a mile or so through the main street but came
back to get away from the swarms of beggars. Everywhere
children and grown-ups besiege one every few steps begging
and blocking ones way, following along determined not to
leave until they are given money.
We went to bed early and were called at 6 in the morning.
After a breakfast of tea, toast and orange juice, our guide met
us and we drove 65 miles by car over the roughest, dirtiest
roads to the site of ancient Babylon.
A very small part of Babylon was excavated by the Germans
prior to World War i. We saw the Ishtar gate with the dragons
and bulls in the brick walls. There was also the lions den into
which Daniel had been thrown. A picture, or rather a brick
form of a lion, is still on the wall (den). The inscriptions iden-
tifying this very pit as the lions den into which Daniel was
thrown were taken to Berlin by the Germans.
The Processional Way from the Ishtar gate to the ruins
of Nebuchadnezzars palace have been excavated. The paving
stones are just as they were when Daniel and the three Hebrew
children were there, but the palace is in ruins and a stork had
built its nest on top of one of the ruins. The owls were there
just as is prophesied in the Bible. We also saw the ruins of
the hanging gardens, one of the seven wonders of the ancient
world. Miles of the ancient city is still under 15 or 20 feet of
sand, soil and rubble.
It was so strange to realize we were walking over the same
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
paved street that the Prophet Daniel, with Shadrach, Meshach

and Abednego, walked over. To be in the place where Daniel
had been thrown into the lions den and the other three into
the fiery furnace and to realize that one like the Son of God
had been there too, and delivered them all from death, was
awesome. All of those events seemed so real to us even though
the proud old city is now in ruins.
On our way to Baghdad we passed through two villages.
How any of the babies there ever grow up is a mystery to me.
The villages are very unsanitary.
We were covered with dust when we returned to our hotel
and after a good bath had naps until dinnertime.
Although it was only April 26, the heat was terrible and
our air-conditioned room was such a relief.
On the next day our guide took us all over the city of
Baghdad. Our first trip was through the streets to the Gold
Mosque. None but Muslims are allowed in the mosque.
There Are Dangers, Too

As we took movies of the open door of the mosque, a crowd began
gathering around us. Their manner plainly told us we had better
move from there fast! Our guide took us through the crowd and
into a building where we climbed three flights of narrow, very
steep stairs to the roof and had a good view of the Golden Dome.
We took movies from that vantage point unmolested.
After leaving the mosque we were taken to the market, or
bazaar (as they are called there). There were narrow streets
packed with peoplein discolored robes. There were open
shops on both sides of the streets. A number of times in the
crowd we were separated from our guide and from Dick. There
were many square blocks of these shopsmostly filled with
sandals, cloth goods, Arab headdress materials, or copper and
brass wares. We finally came to a wider street or passageway
where men and boys were pounding out pans and other
vessels from copper. It was a regular bedlam, but we stayed
long enough to take movies of them and their handiwork.
We were so surprised to see on the main street of Baghdad
men selling their wares outside the buildings. Along the
806
curbs there were men with trousers or jackets for salewith

tape measure over their shoulder to measure the prospective
customer. There were baskets of bread for sale, put upon the
dirty sidewalks, covered with flies and dust.
Many of the people are diseased and blind and crippled
or deformed. It is a miserable existence, but they know of
nothing better.
We drove out of the city several miles to the southeast to
the great Arch of Ctesiphon, built by King Kisra of ancient
Persia, long after the days of Alexander the Great. It was an
immense arch! We also saw a part of the kings palace. This
palace of King Kisra had been excavated by the Germans. We
took pictures of the storks on the ruins.
When we were returning from the arch, we passed a tribe
of gypsiessome of them riding on donkeys. One woman was
nursing her baby as she walked along. All their tents and
equipment were carried on donkeys.
At Baghdad we were 11 hours sun-time from homealmost
halfway around the Earth.
Our flight back west to Damascus from Baghdad over the
Euphrates River and the desert took several hours.
We saw the green trees surrounding Damascus from the air
and they were a welcome sight after the wasteland of the desert.
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65
THE HOLY LAND
PART TWO by Loma D. Armstrong
(Written February 1965)
T HE CITY OF DAMASCUS IS A MIXTURE
of beautiful modern buildings in the new city and dilapidated,

old structures of the old city inhabited by Arabs. The fine
apartments are the foreign embassies and the residences of
English, American and other businessmen.
Our American Express guide here in Damascus looked
like ex-King Farouk of Egypt. He met us at the airport and
took us to our hotel. The building was beautiful and modern,
but the dining room was so filled with fly spray that it was
difficult to breathe. We still had Arab food, some of it very
strange. We were served licorice leaves in the hors doeuvres.
We went to bed early and arose early the next morning to
see the city. Damascus is said to be the oldest continuously
inhabited city on earth. And early as it was, the streets of
this ancient city were crowdedas they were in Cairowith
people, donkeys, carts, dogs and cars. The car horns were
continually being honked.
We first went through the marketplace with its narrow
streets packed full of people as were the streets in Baghdad.
Then we went through the Arch of Jupiter to a large mosque.
This mosque has an intriguing history. Centuries ago, after
the worshipers of Jupiter were driven from it, the Romans
808
made a church out of it. When the Turks took over, it was
changed to the present mosque. It is a large building with
many, many beautiful oriental rugs completely covering
the floor. On or along the east wall were niches to show the
people which way to face Mecca when they pray. Many of the
people were sitting on the floor in scattered groups bowing
with their heads touching the floor. Many beggars were also
among them.
We Visit a Harem
We were then taken to the former palace of the early Turkish
rulers and also to the harem of the sultans. In their different
rooms were life-size wax figures dressed in their native
costumes and representing the different uses that each room
was put to. In one, a woman was portrayed rocking a baby in
a low cradle. In another, the seamstresses were fitting a bride
for her wedding dress.
Each room was beautifully furnished. There were many
pieces of furniture inlaid with mother-of-pearl and camel
bone with ivory. There were also Persian rugs covering the
floors, and one room contained the usual Turkish coffeepots
in five sizes. They have five pots for this reason: First, the
coffee is put into a large pot, then boiled down to the size of
the smaller and so on until there is just enough remaining
to fill the smallest pot. By that time it is thick and black and
very strong!
In the courtyard of the palace was a beautiful fountain and
pool, surrounded by porches and couches where the women
of the harem used to lounge. This courtyard is enclosed and
kept from view from the outside.
Street Called Straight

Later, we were taken to the street called Straight where Paul,
on his way to persecute the Christians, entered Damascus
after he was stricken with blindness by Christ. The old street
Paul walked on and the gate through which he entered was
14 feet below the present street and only the gate and a small
part of the street have been excavated.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Our guide took us from there to a place underground which

he called the house of Ananias where Paul received his sight.
It is obviously a fake, for it is only a cave 21 steps down. It is
now a very small religious shrine with the usual idols and the
usual hands held out for money.
Leading off from this was a smaller, darker cave called the
Confessional. It made me think of an evil birds hauntand
if one were able to see clearly, he surely would have seen bats
on the walls!
We were then driven by an Arab to a refugee campthe
most miserable place we had yet seen. We saw 100,000 Arabs
living in huts made from old oil cans or anything else they
could find. The dust was thick under our feet and the people
were sickly and ragged. They were covered with flies. Most of
them were beggars.
America had an Atoms for Peace display in Damascus
while we were there.
We drove by the old wall of Damascus to the possible place
where Paul was let down in a basket and escaped from those
who plotted to kill him. After seeing the old part of the city, we
were driven up winding streets to the top of a hill. Along these
high winding streets were beautiful apartment buildings
where the American and English businessmen, oilmen and
others, along with ambassadors, live. This area was such a
contrast to the part of the city we had gone through.
Easter Eggs at Baalbek

On April 30, we left our hotel at 9 in the morning with another
guide who had driven down from Beirut in a car. He was sent
to take us through Syria to Lebanon.
It was a beautiful drive through the mountains and fertile
plains of Lebanon. We were surprised to see the fields of grain
and other lush growth. We drove through a large and well-
watered valley where the streams came down from Mt. Lebanon.
We arrived at Baalbek, a city dating from the third to first
century b.c. It was the site of the ancient temple of Jupiter,
built by Phoenicians, destroyed partially by the Greeks,
rebuilt by the Romans, destroyed by them, then rebuilt again,
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65 | The Holy Land
and finally destroyed by God, with far greater devastation,

through an earthquake.
Everywhere from Cairo, Luxor, Baghdad, Damascus and
now Baalbek we found eggs carved in the architectural embel-
lishment of buildings and temples. The guides all call them
the symbol of fertility. We have close-up pictures of eggs on
the ruins of Babylon.
After lunch we drove back through part of the beautiful
valley, then drove into the mountains where we came to a
view of the seaport city of Beirut and the Mediterranean Sea.
When we reached the city of Beirut, capital of Lebanon,
we found that most of the people were dressed in Western
clothes and not in the robes of most Middle Easterners. Very
few women were wearing veils over their faces. The streets
were crowded by now with hundreds and hundreds of cars.
Most of the autos were American.
We Visit Tyre and Sidon

Our first day there, we drove along the Mediterranean Sea
to the site of old Sidon and old Tyre. We found old Tyre
completely gone and the city the Romans tried to rebuild on
the island (now part of the mainland, which Alexander joined
to the mainland by filling in the channel between with the
ruins and topsoil of old Tyre) in complete ruin. We walked
over the fallen columns and the walls or foundations of the
ancient buildings excavated many years ago by the Germans.
We found among the ruins pieces of shattered pottery which
our guide, who lived nearby, let us take with us.
We were not able to take pictures of Tyre, for it is in a military
zone and the guards on the highway leading to Tyre took our
cameras until we returned from having visited the place. We
were very near the Israeli soldiers machine-gun nests.
We drove past great banana, loquat and orange groves.
On our return to Beirut, as in all Middle Eastern cities, we
saw the usual beautiful apartment buildings and homes. The
most outstanding ones were especially near the city of Beirut.
We were so hungry when we arrived at our hotel that we
were ready to eat anything. And we did!
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
The evening before, when we first entered our hotel at Beirut

and asked for mail, we found a telegram from our son-in-law,
Vern Mattsonour daughter Dorothys husbandsaying
that our little granddaughter had arrived and that the baby
and mother were just fine. He also said that their 7-year-old
daughter Carols only comment was Shucks! She wanted a
baby brother!
It was quite a relief to us.
We had expected the baby a whole month before and looked
every day on the ship from New York to London, and in every
place we had been since then, for a cablegram. Now it had
arrived and everyone was all right! We were happy and very
grateful to finally receive the news.
That evening, Mr. Armstrong and Dick went down to the
office of the American Express to check up on our trip, for we
had advanced our schedule several days.
Had Dick Met With Violence?

Around 6 oclock, Mr. Armstrong came back to the hotel alone.
I asked where Dick was and he said that he was remaining
downtown to see the city and that he would be back by 8 p.m.
for dinner. Then Mr. Armstrong, worn out from the trip, took
a nap.
Eight oclock came and Dick had not come! Mr. Armstrong
was still asleep. I was not worried then, but kept waiting,
thinking that Dick would arrive any minute. I was going to
let Mr. Armstrong sleep until then.
Nine oclock came, and 10, and still there was no sign of Dick.
Mr. Armstrong was still sleeping. By this time, I could stand
it no longer. I was really worried. So I called Mr.Armstrong
and told him that Dick had not come back. He was startled.
Our room was directly above the hotel entrance, five floors up.
He leaned out the window, looking down, and began to listen
for and watch for cars as they drove up to the entrance to see
if Dick were arriving by taxi. The window ledge was so wide
it was difficult to stretch over it far enough to see.
Around midnight, although I had had Dick paged in the
lobby with no results, Mr. Armstrong walked down the five
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65 | The Holy Land
flights of stairs (the elevator was not running) to see if he could

possibly be in the lobby. I had kept our room door open and
had made dozens of trips to look down the stairwell for Dick,
but Mr.Armstrongs trip down to the first floor was fruitless.
I had called at Dicks door, adjoining ours, a number of
times and knocked, but there was no answer. I had them ring
his room, but still no answer.
Mr. Armstrong finally called a bellboy to come up and let
us in Dicks room. He was unable to unlock the door. By this
time it was 1 a.m. Three bellboys came up. One came into our
room and again phoned or tried to get Dicks room. Still no
answer. Had Dick been attacked in downtown Beirut? Had
he met with foul play or violence?
The other two men decided to walk out on the window
ledge from our window to Dicks window. His room was next
to ours but it was quite a distance to be walking on a window
ledge five stories above the street. One fellow reached Dicks
open window and yelled and came backing hurriedly to the
other fellow. Both came quickly crawling back into our room
saying, There is someone in there all right! He threatened to
shove me off the ledge!
All of us, with that news, ran quickly down the hall to
Dicks door and pounded hard on it.
It was Dick! He called out, Whats going on around here?
His father said, Open the door, Dick, and a tousled, sleepy
but startled Dick opened the door to ask again, Whats going
on? He had come to the hotel before 8 oclock and had gone
directly to bed. He was as tired and exhausted as his father,
and so sound asleep that he knew nothing of the excitement
he had caused until he saw and heard the two men at his
open bedroom window standing on the ledge high above the
street! Dick was startled to see a prowler peeking into his
room from outside and said, Shove off! The bellman on the
ledge thought he had said, Ill shove you off.
Prior to coming to the hotel, Dick had met a man in down-
town Beirut with whom he had talked about conditions in the
Middle East. This man told him that if he really wanted to
know, he would take him where several men were meeting.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Dick, being an American, was not too welcome. They

expressed their views and evidently Dick expressed how he
felt about their views of America.
When he saw these two men at his open window late in
the night, he thought for a moment they were men who had
followed him from that meeting and were there to do him
bodily harm. We then learned why they so hurriedly scram-
bled back through our window into our room. Because Dick
was so suddenly roused from his sleep, he sprang up in bed
and yelled, Shove off.
They saw that he was startled and that he sounded as if
he meant business, so like scared rabbits they tumbled back
through our windows. After all the excitement was over, we
finally got to bed and to sleepbut not Dick. He said he got
no more sleep the rest of the night.
On Wednesday morning, we went through the museum
at Beirut. All the museums in all the ancient cities are an
education. Although we saw them all, the most outstanding
in our memory is the Cairo Museum with its immense amount
of loot taken from King Tutankhamens tomb.
We left Beirut after lunch to fly to Amman, the capital of
the kingdom of Jordan. Our plane stopped for 20 minutes at
Jerusalem, at the airport on the Arab side of the city.
It is not a long flight from Jerusalem, but after all the
flying we had done I still gave a sigh of relief when I felt the
first bump of the wheels of the plane touch the runway.
Again, an American Express agent, named Yasser, met us
at the airport and took us to our hotel. Then came a surprise.
American Tourists
When we were in Baalbek, a number of tourists were there
walking over the ruins of the temples and among them was a
tall, austere, gray-haired American lady with a cane, traveling
alone. A guide was showing her aroundand receiving such
a torrent of complaint! She scolded him because there was no
railing built on the steep stair leading to a lower level and she
criticized the people and everything else she could think of.
When we reached the hotel in Amman, here was the
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65 | The Holy Land
same woman. She came up to us and our guide and loudly

complained about the staff there in the hotel. Yasser asked
her what they had done to displease her. She replied they had
heckled her.
All the clerks were sullenly listening to her and we had
felt the antagonism to Americans in a most direct manner.
We noticed this in a number of places. We became quite
concerned listening to her tirade, but all we could do was to
walk away and leave her.
On to the Rose-red City of Rock

Yasser soon followed us and we made our plans for the next
dayour longed-for trip to Petra.
Yasser told us we would leave the hotel at 6 in the morning
by car. We went to sleep until 3 a.m. when, from the minarets
of the mosques of the town, the Koran was read over loud
and I mean loudspeakers.
Why at that time in the morning they read the Koran, Ill
never know. I got no more sleep.
On our way to Petra, I asked Yasser if anyone ever listened
to the reading at 3 a.m. in the morning. He said that the Koran
used to be read by the priests, but now it was on recordings
and was automatically read every so often and sent out over
loudspeakers from the minarets.
We were ready to leave, with our lunches all packed, by
6a.m. Our driver was also an Arab in robes and a cloth over
his head. Yasser was dressed in a suit.
It was quite cool when we started out at sunrise, but as the
sun grew higher, it warmed up as we drove over the plains
of Moab.
We drove almost due south from Amman, along the plains to
the east of Mount Nebo. This whole area east of the Dead Sea is
a hilly plateau. Here the Israelites camped before entering the
Promised Land. It was in this locale that King Balak ordered
Balaam (Numbers 23:13) to curse the advancing Israelites
and where, instead, God caused him to give them blessings
rather than cursings.
I do not remember the order of all the towns through which,
815
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
or around which, we passed, but all were on the ancient trail

of the Israelites, where Moses, as their leader, suffered their
grumbling and rebellion against God and against him.
However, one of the towns was Madeba. In this small town
there was a Greek Orthodox church that was built in 1896 on
the site of an ancient Byzantine church. On the floor, which
was a part of the ancient church, was a map made in mosaic.
It covered a large area and depicted biblical Palestine as well
as the northern regions of Damascus and Byblos; Memphis
and Alexandria in the south; the Mediterranean Sea in the
west; and in the east were Amman and Petra. It is said to be
the oldest map of Jerusalem in existence. (I believe they said
it was constructed in the sixth century.) Also on the map were
depicted vegetable and animal life. Among the animals shown
were lions, which prove that these animals were inhabiting
the region of Moab until that late date.
This land was where Moab and Ammon, the sons of Lots
daughters, settled in the days of Abraham. It was so level
here that the grain waving in the wind could be seen for
miles. However, the grain fields thinned out as we neared the
Wadi Arnon.
Actually, the Wadi Arnon is a river at the bottom of a deep
canyon. As we approached the fords of Arnon by way of the
flat plateau country to the north, we could not see the Arnon
until we arrived at the canyon rim. It looked like the Grand
Canyon as it had a sudden drop of 4,000 feet.
We descended to the bottom over the narrowest winding
road we had ever been on. No car could possibly have passed us.
Looking down on my side of the car, it seemed as if we
were in space. It was hours, it seemed, before we reached the
bottom of Arnon. Yet on that lonely barren road, which was
very high and miles from an inhabited place, we would meet
a lone Bedouin walking. A few miles later there was another
one riding a donkey.
We had passed many Bedouin tents before we reached the
fords of Arnon. All of their tents are made of black goat hair.
They are open on one side, and all are surrounded with herds
of black goats and camels.
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65 | The Holy Land
We also passed many herds of camels feeding on the

hillsides and along the road. Our car had to slow down to
make way for them in many places.
The gorge of the Arnon, however, was barren until we
reached the bottom. There we found a small stream with the
most beautiful and luxuriant oleanders lining its banks. All
were in full bloom. We took color pictures of them.
After a few minutes rest, we started on the long climb
up the opposite side. When we reached the top, we passed
through another area of green fields. Feeding in one of the
fields was a flock of eight storks. We tried to get pictures of
them but they were startled and flew away.
When I expressed how thankful I was that all that
climbing was behind us now that we were on level ground,
our guide informed us that we would have still another deep
canyon to cross.
Between these two canyons we drove up to the ancient city
of Karak to refill the gas tank of the car. Karak was built with
adobe or mud on top of a dry, desolate, dusty hill, inside the
ruins of a high, ancient wall.
The agricultural lands surrounding Karak are rich and
green; but the city itself, with a population of 5,000, is desolate,
dirty and built of stone and adobe. We saw the green trees
and fields below the city, and we marveled at the choice that
the people had made for their city and their homes. The guide,
however, explained that the city had been built on the hill as
a protection from other tribes; and that the people used to
leave their homes and work in the fields, always returning to
the safety of the city in the evening.
This city is the ancient city of Kir-Moab of the Bible
(Isaiah15:1); also called Kir-haresh (Isaiah 16:11) and
Kir-heres (Jeremiah 48:36).
The people of the city today seem about half Roman
Catholic (or Greek Orthodox) and the rest Muslim.
We reached the bottom of the next canyon safely, however,
and found a larger stream flowing across the road. We had to
drive through this one.
It was now noon and we ate our lunch under the ancient
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
fig trees that grew along the banks. Nearby was a Bedouin
camp and, as we walked up the stream to eat, there followed
several children, peeking shyly from behind large boulders
or trees.
Our guide handed each of us a sack which contained a
sandwich of hard coarse bread with beef, also one of cheese,
and one with butter. There was also an orange and a tiny
banana. I gave part of my sandwiches to a little Bedouin girl,
but I felt safe in eating the cheese, a hard-boiled egg and the
fruit. I had learned by this time to eat only what I could peel
or to drink only what had been boiled.
Approaching Petra
At the small town of Shoubak built within the walls of an
ancient fortress, we descended to Ain Musa, a spring, where
there was a green and cool garden.
From Ain Musa the road descends to Wadi Musa and to
the police station at Eljy. When we arrived, we found all
arrangements had been made by our guide for our horses
to ride into Petra. It was mid-afternoon when we arrived
dusty and tired. What a relief it was to leave the car and
mount the horses.
Our bags were piled on a small donkey (poor thinghe
was almost hidden, with luggage for four people). I wondered
if he would ever make the trip, but he didallowing only one
suitcase to fall.
A bridle path leads from Eljy to the entrance of the Siqthe
narrow ravine leading into Petra. It was rough going over
rocks and rills to the Siq. Then we entered the winding path of
the ravine itself. It is a dry stream bed of rocks and boulders
with sheer cliffs of 200 to 300 feet in height on each side. At no
place in the ravine is it wider than 10 or 12 feet. The walls are
of fantastic shapes and colors and in places appear almost to
meet high above. We often brushed by oleanders in full bloom
growing in the Siq in every crevice. It was such an inspiring and
interesting trip through the Siq. My horse stumbled several
times, and I lost my hat a time or two but it was recovered by
the Arab boy who led my horse. We had to go single file all the
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65 | The Holy Land
way, and the little overloaded donkey plodded along behind.

It is impossible to express the feeling that one receives
from going on the trip to Petra. It was a different world
altogetheras if someone had turned back thousands of
years and we were living in history.
Suddenly we came to the end of the narrow part of the Siq
and there before us, carved out of the mountainside, was the
immense Khazneha temple to Isis. It is called the Treasury
of Pharaoh by the local people, and is the best preserved
temple in Petra. Some believe that it was hewn out of the
rock by some Nabataean king.
As we passed the Khazneh, the valley widens a little with
great tombs or caves on either side. Further, on the left, were
the remains of an ancient theatera sort of amphitheater
cut out of the mountainside. There were half-circular rows of
stone seats for the audience. We could see how the Romans had
sliced away many tombs in constructing this amphitheater.
From here on, the valley widens and we soon saw the ruins
lining an ancient paved street. As we started to go north on
this street, I could hardly help but think of some of the history
of this great city.
This was the ancient city of the family of Esau and later of
the Nabataeans. Five hundred years before Christ, this place,
now in ruins, was occupied and was a hustling, thriving city.
Then came the Romans who built some of the buildings and
constructed some paved streets. (One of these streets we later
walked on.)
Along the way we saw the walls of the only real building
standing in Petra. It was formerly a Roman temple to a
pagan god. We also viewed hundreds and hundreds of caves
and facades of temples carved out of the mountains, but not a
one of them could be called a building.
As we came to the north end of the ancient street, we saw
many white tents. It was a camp for tourists that was called
Nazzals Camp. In the center was a large dining tent. On
the north side of the camp and sheltering it is the great rock
mountain el Habis. The whole side of this mountain is dotted
with caves.
819
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
We had the choice of a tent or a cave in which to sleep.

Because a cold, stiff wind was blowing, we chose the shelter
of one of the caves. It looked as if the tents would not be able
to stand in the wind. So we climbed up a stairway cut in the
side of the mountain to a large cave. It was sectioned off into
rooms by canvas sheets. There were two cots in each section
and a large room in the center space.
I was so thoroughly chilled that I went right to bed. Soon,
though, I found that I had to get up and put on part of my
clothes and call for an extra blanket.
The Arabs cooked for the other guests in a cave below our
tier of caves and served the food in the dining tent. I had
learned by this time what not to eat, so I tacitly ate an orange
that our guide had given me before and then went to bed.
With hunger and cold I began to see that Petra was no bed of
roses but a place to really rough it.
I had gone to bed quite early and despite the hunger and
cold was sound asleep when suddenly I was awakened by a
crowd of 28 people who had just arrived from Eljy, who had
come into the cave to hear a lecture by an English woman
archaeologist who was here from the English Antiquities
Society. She, with a number of Bedouins, was carrying on
excavations in Petra. It seems it was too cold in the dining
tent to hear the lecture, so she brought them to the large cave
where we were. It must have been after 10 oclock when she
completed the lecture and all was quiet in the cave again.
Soon after everything had settled down, I heard other
occupants of the cave, including my husband, Dick and our
guide come in and go to their cots. Once more quietness
prevailed until all in the cave were sound asleep, except me.
Suddenly I was startled by frightening sounds. A number
of dogs began barking, which startled a number of donkeys
so that they began to bray. That, then, started the jackals
and the hyenas to yelping and screaming. I never heard such
bedlam before. I was certainly thankful that I was in the cave
and not in a tent.
Next morning I learned that the animals were scattered
over Petra and not near the camp. In fact, as we walked
820
65 | The Holy Land
throughout Petra, we saw none of them save the donkeys.

After having tea and an orange, we started the climb to
Petras famous high altar. We began the climb behind the
ruins of the ancient Roman temple.
Soon we came across a little Bedouin girl about 10 years
old, herding a flock of black goats. I gave her some money to
have her stand beside me and have her picture taken. She
was dressed in black robes with a piece of black cloth over her
head, a ring in her nose, beads around her neck and bracelets
on her arms. All were made of cheap materials.
After she had stood for her picture, she called in an ordi-
nary tone of voice to someone way across the valley, and in
her Arabic tongue told them of the coin she had received. The
incredible acoustics of Petra carried her voice as if by a super
loudspeaker. She held her hand high, with the coin, to show it
as she called. I am sure that their sight is not as clear in Petra
as the sound, for many of the Bedouins have diseased eyes.
But we were amazed at being able to hear sounds so clearly
over great distances.
One evening Dick was across from our cave on another
hilltop quite a distance from us. Mr. Armstrong tried out the
carrying power of his voice and in a quiet tone asked, Can
you hear me, Dick? Dick answered, Very clearly.
There are very few of these Bedouins in Petra. Children
were more in evidence than adults. They are the ones that
herd the black goats over the hills and even up the sides of
the mountains. We were surprised to see them no more than
9 or 10 years old skipping around from rock to rock on a steep
mountainside as nimble, almost, as the goats.
After getting the little Bedouin girls picture, we continued
on our climb to the high altar. The going became more
difficult and we had to stop and rest often. It was quite
frightening to look down and we began to wonder whether to
go on further. Our guide told us that it would be dangerous to
try to descend now. He said if we would just keep climbing we
could go down on the other side of the mountain. The climb
was difficult. In some places we had to crawl on all fours.
As we ascended, we came face to face with a sculptured
821
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
lion cut in the face of the rock. We rested here and took
pictures of this beast which had been carved out of the stone
many centuries ago. It was not in the best of condition for the
weather had almost erased his head.
At last we reached the top. Here were two giant obelisks. They
had been made by hewing away the whole top of the summit of
the hill. These were two of the gods of the ancient Nabataeans.
Ascending to another high point we came to the ruins of
a temple situated high above the whole rock city of Petra. A
wonderful view!
Yet still higher up was the high altar. By this time
Mr.Armstrong and I were perfectly willing to sit and rest by
the temple ruins and let Dick and Yasser, our guide who had
been with us all the trip, and the native Bedouin guide go on
up to the high altar.
The high altar is a platform with an altar hewn out of the
rock. It is 47 feet by 21 feet. On one side, a bench was cut in
the rock for those who brought their sacrifices.
As we sat on the mountaintop, we looked across to a
mountain called Jabel Haroun.
When Dick and Yasser and the Bedouin rejoined us, we
started our precarious descent to camp. The going was not too
difficult, that is, until we came to a large boulder much taller
than any of us, down which we had to go. The Bedouin hopped
down to a ledge below. Yasser, too, hopped down but not too
easilythe Bedouin had to help him. There was not too much
room left for us on the ledge, but I was finally lifted down by
two of them and was placed at a little distance away. Now the
problem was, how was Mr. Armstrong going to get down?
On the sheer side of the rock there was nothing to hold onto.
If he slid down and did not land on the narrow ledge, he would
fall a great distance. Dick had gone on far ahead of us. We
called to him but he was too far below to return. Finally, the
Bedouin bent his back and encouraged Mr. Armstrong to step
on him. Yasser stood near to steady him. We spent some time
getting out of this predicament and were very thankful when
we got out without accident.
The descent was not so difficult from this point.
822
65 | The Holy Land
Dick had waited for us and we stopped often to view the city
of caves, temples and tombs. Far across we could see Bedouin
children here and there with their herds of black goats. We
marveled at their ability to climb around on the steep places
with seemingly no difficulty at all, while we had to be so careful.
We continued down, finally coming to a narrow stairway
hewn out of the rock. Here we saw and photographed an
exquisite blue lizard with the most beautiful amber eyes. I
hope that the picture comes out good.
We finally emerged near the Roman theater and then
walked back to camp.
Dick explored much more of Petra than we didat least in
the higher mountains. One mountain climb was enough for us.
We spent the afternoon in the lower hills, photographing
a number of the colorful natural caves as well as many that
were man-made.
We were rather weak from lack of food most of our stay
in Petra. We drank tea because the water had been boiled.
Perhaps the water as it came from the spring was good, but it
was brought to camp in square tin cans slung over the back of
a donkey that was led by a very dirty Bedouin.
We could not see far into the kitchen cave, but what we
saw did not look too clean. However, Mr. Armstrong and Dick
both ate dinner. I stuck to the tea and as a result spent the
night in wakefulness. Even without the tea I would have
not been able to sleep because the same bedlam of the night
before broke loose. The bloodcurdling sounds of wild animals
seemed to continue for hours.
Early the next morning, we arose and found that our horses
had already arrived from Eljy and along with them had come
our faithful little pack donkey.
We left the camp before sunup and soon reached the
Khazneh. It was still too dark to take pictures so we waited
until the sun began to shine on the marvelous carved temple.
We obtained some clear pictures of it.
Once more we mounted our horses and bade farewell to
Petra. We rode single file through the Siq on our way back to
civilizationthat is, Arabic civilization.
823
66
AT LAST!
JERUSALEM
I M SURE EVERY TRUE MINISTER OF JESUS
Christ has dreamed of visiting Jerusalem and the Holy Land

and so have millions of others as well.
This cradle of three religions had always seemed, somehow,
to be a mystic, almost unreal land far offscarcely part of
this same Earth. Now we were to be privileged to visit this
land we had heard so much about and read about ever since
we were old enough to read the Bible.
And we were to learn that it is, indeed, a real land right
here on this same Earth on which we live. The land there is
composed of the same kind of Earth we have always lived on.
Our visit made the Bible come alive! The Biblethe records
of Abraham, Moses and ancient Israel, David, Nehemiah,
Jesus Christ, the apostlessuddenly became REAL!
Here, now, is the third part of Mrs. Armstrongs diary.
PART THREE by Loma D. Armstrong
We arrived back in Amman, Jordan, May 7, 1956, in the

evening, tired and dusty. We then picked up our bags we had
left at the hotel and, after looking in vain for mail from home,
continued toward Jerusalem.
824
From Amman to Jerusalem
This trip was so very interesting. The country is more
beautiful and every bit of the way filled with the history of the
Israeliteswith their wars, not only with the pagan nations
around them, but among themselves.
We saw the place where Absalom was killed. It is no longer
a wooded area, but today a bleak land denuded of trees. There
are no oak trees. Remember how Absalom tried to escape the
armies of David by riding on a mule through the area called
the wood of Ephraim? How his long hair was caught in the
thick boughs of a great oak before he was slain by Joab?
We went through Jericho where God caused the walls to
fall as the Israelites marched around the city.
We saw the mountain from which Moses viewed the
Promised Land before he died.
Every mile of the way was breathtaking. We were seeing in
our imaginations, again, the tribes of Israel before and after
they reached the Holy Land, then a land of rich vegetation, a
land flowing with milk and honey; but now, because of their
sins and their idolatry it is a land under a curse. The only trees
are those recently set out. Most of the land in Arab hands is
uncared for.
Nearing Jerusalem
We went through Bethphage and Bethany. Bethany is where
Mary, Martha and Lazarus lived and where Jesus raised
Lazarus from the dead. When Jesus went into the city of
Jerusalem, He often went to Bethany or out to the Mount of
Olives to spend the night.
We passed the garden of Gethsemane on our way to the
hotel in Jerusalem which was situated outside the walls of the
city. We looked forward to a good bath and a good bed after
the long days ride from Petra. We were quite disappointed
however. After viewing the bathroom in connection with our
rooms, we felt it would be cleaner to go to bed without a bath.
So, after washing ourselves in sponge baths we tried to rest in
very uncomfortable beds.
We arose early, anxious to see all there is to see in ancient
825
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Jerusalem. The old Jerusalem of Jesuss time is not there

now, except a few places where excavations have been made
some 30 feet below the present surface. Many shrines exist
over deep holes or caves. To get to them one has to go down a
steep stairway through dank, dark passageways; then there
is a cave or hole where candles are burning and where people
are kneeling, kissing rocks or cave walls. They believe these
shrines to be the places where this or that happened in the
life of Christ.
One such place, called the Church of the Holy Sepulcher,
was crowded with people all overawed by a stone. Some
were rubbing their hands over it and then over their bodies.
Another had an airplane bag (the Pan-American bag that is
given with purchase of ticket) that he was rubbing over the
stone. Another man lifted himself up and scooted around on
the rock, rubbing his hip over it. Perhaps he expected healing
from this procedure. Everyone backed out of the place crossing
himself or herself.
The Site of the Crucifixion

The original level of the ancient city in the time of Jesus
was 20 to 30 feet below the present level. Two walls have
been built in different places since the original wall around
Jerusalem, and only a small part of the old wall has been
excavated. The base of the old Damascus Gate has recently
been excavated under 20feet of debris.
From this place can be seen the place of the skull. No one
can fail to see the resemblance. There is a low eroded forehead,
two deep hollows that make the eyes, a nose and, near the
ground level, twisted lips.
We viewed this skull from a spot near the tomb in the
garden; then walked past an ancient winepress to enter the
nearby tomb.
It was impossible fully to realize where we werewhat we
were seeing! To actually visit, to really see, and to walk into the
sepulcher from which Jesus rose immortal from the deadthe
actual spot where the angels sat, at the right of the entrance
was an experience we couldnt fully comprehend until later.
826
66 | At Last!Jerusalem
It is an unfinished sepulcher; only one tomb was completed.

Two others were partially finished. We saw the stone where
the angel sat and also where the linen cloths lay that Peter
and John saw as they stooped down and looked into the tomb.
We walked in the garden where Mary met the resurrected
Christ. We saw the place where the stone had been moved in
the groove to cover the opening of the sepulcher. Near all this
are evidences of rocks split by earthquakes. All of this, at the
foot of Golgotha, was excavated in the year 1893. This is the
place where Joseph of Arimathaea hurried to bury the body
of Jesus as the high-day Sabbath drew on.
The Sepulcher
This tomb is at the foot of the place of the skull. There is a
garden surrounding the tomb. It all is as the Bible describes,
while the place in the city called the Holy Sepulcher is under
a church, down a steep stairway to a hole in the ground where
there is a rock.
We visited many places in the Old City where churches and
shrines were built over spots purported to be where Christ
did this or that. They probably are fakes. All have their boxes
out for money.
The ancient city of Jerusalem was destroyed. The Arab city
now in existence on the site is crowded. Their mosque, or Dome
of the Rock, now is at the site of the temple Solomon built.
Inside this Dome of the Rock, which is built on Mt. Moriah, is
a huge boulder surrounded by the dome. This boulder is covered
and protected by glass on the circular hall around it. There is
an entrance to a cave below this rock to an ancient threshing
floor. There we found Muslim women bowing, kneeling and
touching their heads to the floor in their worship. On top of
the rock, they claim, is the place Abraham led Isaac to sacrifice
and near the place where the ram was caught in the bushes.
Near the Dome of the Rock is the gate called Beautiful where
the lame beggar was healed by Peter and John.
We were driven out to see the Valley of Hinnom (Gehenna),
or hell as the Authorized Version reads.
We drove to Bethlehem to the church built over the place
827
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
claimed to be the stable where Christ was born. This also is a

deep hole under the church, down steep stairs, through dank,
dark rat-runs to a cavenot a stable or anything resembling a
stable or manger where Christ was born as given by Scripture.
Here was an idol in a cradle. There were also numerous
candles and odd lamps burning; and people were also kissing
walls and floors and crossing themselves.
Adjoining this is a Greek Orthodox church over another
hole they claim is the birthplace of Christ. Here there was
another statue in another cradle and other candles and other
people kissing stones, floors and walls. Our guide told us that
the two churches, or the priests of the two, get into real fights
sometimes. Each church has out its money boxes, and each
watches the other in jealousy.
We drove by Rachels tomb on the way to and from
Bethlehem and stopped there for a few moments. She died
here at the birth of Benjamin.
When Not to Eat Lamb!

When we returned to our hotel, we were tired and hungry. I
tried to eat. Muslims do not eat unclean meats but the lamb
they served had been a lamb many years ago. Although I lost a
lot of weight, I dont believe Ill be able to eat lamb again for
months or maybe years. From Egypt on, everything has been
lamb. Strong, smelly, tough lamb! Everyone and every place
smells of sheep, goats and camels. I wonder if I will ever be
able to get the sheepy, goaty, camel-ly smell out of my memory!
The next day we went to the top of the Mount of Olives.
This was a real inspiration. This is the place where Christ
spent much of His time, and the mountain from which He
ascended into heaven and on which His feet will again stand
when He returns to this Earth a glorified Christ and King of
kings. We who overcome and are faithful unto the end will be
there with Him. I may never again see the Mount of Olives
in my mortal life but I expect to see it again then with Him.
We walked down into the beautiful garden of Gethsemane
among the ancient olive treessome over 2,000 years old. We
walked in the place where Christ prayed and sweated great
828
drops of blood in His agony before He was betrayed by Judas.

It is impossible to express the thoughts, the sensations and the
inspirations that one experiences here. It is so cold on paper,
but to be there and experience it makes it all very real. To me
the Bible is a new book nowso alive and real!
Our time in the Old City of Jerusalem, under Arab control,
was up. We were driven to the Mandelbaum Gate where we
were to pass out of Jordan into Israelthe Jewish section.
Yasser took us to the gate and through it to a small shed which
is the Arab border customs house. Just outside are cement tank
traps, tangled barbed wires and many bombed-out buildings.
From here on for 100 yards was no mans land.
Entering Israel
No Arab was allowed to help us across to the Israeli side; so
Yasser stood on a cement tank trap waving to us as we started
out on foot across this precarious ground. Mr. Armstrong and
Dick were loaded down with bags. I had the two cameras,
Dicks blue airplane bag, my hatbox and the handbag.
Watched behind by the Arabs and in front by the Jews, we
caught the feeling of animosity that exists between the two
enemies. Soon we were faced by a sand-bagged shack on the
Jewish side. We were watched through a small window used
as a place to shoot any intruder.
An Israeli met us when we had finally made it across no
mans land and helped us into Israeli customs. We had to call
American Express from here and found out that our Israeli
guide had gone to Tel Aviv. We then called a taxi and went to
our hotelthe King David.
What a change! It was like suddenly entering a new world.
All was different here. The streets are clean and wide. The
children playing on the lawns are clean and healthy looking.
The hotel is beautiful and clean. The luxury of baths in clean
bathrooms and eating in a clean dining room was such a
wonderful feeling. I spent one day sick abed.
Our tour over all Israel was so different from the Arab
countries. There were no more Arab robes, nor diseased,
crippled and deformed people. These were more like the
829
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
people of our country, yet they are not from America but from
the countries of Europe, Asia and Africa.
We spent a couple of days seeing the Israeli side of
Jerusalem. It is a comparatively new city, and very modern.
It probably was open field in Jesuss day. None of old historic
Jerusalem is in Israeli hands [in 1965].
After a visit to the tombs of the Sanhedrin and to the town
where John the Baptist was born, we drove to Tel Aviv, over
the ancient territories of Judah, Benjamin and Dan. Tel
Aviv, of course, is on the Mediterranean seacoast. From here,
stopping only to check for mail, we proceeded north along the
coast through the ancient lands of Dan, Ephraim and into
Manasseh, then northeast over into the Valley of Jezreel and
to Megiddo. This place is the Armageddon of Bible prophecy,
where armies assemble for the future battle of the Great Day
of God Almighty.
In this valley more battles have been fought than any other
place in the world. Once again blood will flow unto the horse
bridles at this place. In the distance, across the valley, we
could see Mt. Tabor.
Approaching Nazareth
We continued along the highway northeast to the town of
Nazareth, where Jesus lived as a boy. Nazareth is located
on a rather steep hill. The ancient city of Jesuss boyhood
is goneburied underneath todays city. The present city is
now and has been for hundreds of years occupied by Arabs.
The Arabs have built their city with adobe and stone.
Again we were taken to a dirty cave over which is a church.
They claim it to be the boyhood home of Jesus. There was
another they called the home of Marys girlhood. But Jesus
was a carpenter; and they did not live in dirt caves. Here
again were fakes for money-getting.
We were taken to a synagogue that had been excavated.
This was the site of an earlier synagogue where Jesus did
attend and where He stood up for to read (Luke 4:16).
After another Arab lunch in Nazareth, we drove past Cana
of Galilee where Jesus performed His first miracle.
830
As we neared the Sea of Galilee, we stopped and viewed it

first from a high hill. The sea is approximately 700 feet below
sea level.
As we drove over all this country between Nazareth, Cana,
Capernaum and the Sea of Galilee, it brought again to life the
New Testament. Jesus walked over these hills along this way.
He too viewed the blue Sea of Galilee from this high point, for
it is on the way to Capernaum.
We drove along the seashore where even today the
fishermen launch their boats and mend their nets. This is
where Jesus called Peter and Andrew, and where they left
their nets and followed Him.
We went over the hills where He fed the 5,000, and we could
view the place, across the lake, where He cast the demons
out of the two demoniacs, and the swine ran down the steep
embankment into the sea.
We passed through Magdala, the home of Mary the
Magdalene, and then on to Capernaum. The town is gone but
the synagogue has been excavated. It is in ruins now. It is
a much larger place than the one in Nazareth. Here again,
though, they have a high iron fence around the place and
expect money to be given for looking at it.
Jesus devoted a large part of His ministry to this region
around the lake of Galilee, especially around the northwest
portion of the lake where we were, and it was a very impressive
experience to be there on the very spot.
It was growing late in the afternoon, so we drove on across the
Valley of Jezreel again, forking northward, arriving in Haifa in
the early evening. Haifa is a very busy seaport city, located on a
bay overlooked by the north tip of Mt. Carmel. We registered at
our hotel and went for a walk around the city. A United States
cruiser was in port, and we saw a number of American sailors.
A Jewish Wedding
When we returned to the modern hotel for dinner, we found
that hotel guests were not being admitted to the main dining
room, located on the lower level below the street-level lobby. A
Jewish wedding feast was in progress and the wedding guests
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
completely filled the large main dining room. Hotel guests

were being served in a smaller room on the same floor. It was
filled, and we had to wait in this lower-level lobby some 30
minutes for a table. This gave us opportunity to observe a
little of the Jewish wedding feast. This was most interesting,
after having passed by Cana of Galilee that day, where Jesus
attended a Jewish wedding more than 1,900 years ago, and
turned the water into wine. We learned that Jewish weddings
are elaborate affairs. The bride and groom came out in the
lobby to have their pictures taken while we were there.
We spent the night in Haifa. Next morning we were driven
all over the city, and stopped to go through a Jewish industrial
fair being held there at the time. Here we saw displayed
exhibits of the various products now being manufactured in
the new nation of Israel. It was an eye-opening revelation. It
seemed to us that the Jews who have returned to Palestine
are now manufacturing there almost every commodity and
gadget that they need to be self-supporting. We saw literally
thousands of different items of modern Jewish manufacture,
for home, farm, office or factory.
Then we were driven up on Mt. Carmel, which overlooks
the city.
We ate lunch on Mt. Carmel where Elijah lived. We drove
past the place where Jezebel and King Ahab lived when she
was thrown out of the window and the dogs ate her. We also
saw the place of their summer palace, and the place where
Elijah dared the prophets of Baal to call down fire to burn up
the sacrifice, and where God, at Elijahs prayer, sent down
the fire that not only burned the sacrifice but the altar, the
stones and the dust. We were over the hills and dales where
the prophets of Baal were slain.
From there we proceeded south and visited one of the
Hadassah farms where Jewish children, from all countries,
many of them orphans, are entered at the age of 10 and
schooled and trained until they are 18. It was a fruitful and
beautiful place.
The children do all the workcare for the buildings, the
chickens, the stock and the farm. The supervisors train them
832
to do each job well. They are so happy there that even though
they sometimes leave for a visit to their homes they are
always in a hurry to return.
We took pictures of this place. The overseer turned on a
beautiful fountain for us and showed us the flowers. We took
pictures of them in color.
Some of the boys took Mr. Armstrong and Dick to show them
the stock. They are all very proud of their place and their work.
As we drove through the fertile fields, I stopped and
picked some of the lovely lavender hollyhocks that grow wild
everywhere along the roads.
Much of our journey from Haifa to Tel Aviv was along the
Mediterranean Sea. It was such a beautiful trip.
We visited a communal farm between Haifa and Tel Aviv
where families live and have everything in common. These
are very productive farms, and because the land of Palestine
has had its rest, it is very fertile.
These people live in large buildings and have a common
dining hall, kitchen and living room. The barns and dairy are
nearby, while the fields go for miles in all directions.
They drive out in the morning to cultivate the land. Each
group has its certain work to do.
That American Tourist Again!

When we reached Tel Aviv we found a modern city. It was
Friday afternoon when we arrived. Our hotel was a beautiful
modern building on the seashore. When we entered the dining
room here again was the woman whom we had seen and heard
at Baalbek, Amman and again at the King David in Jerusalem.
It seemed wherever we went she was there. We did not want to
start a conversation with her or rather have her try to start one
with us, so we veered off to another corner of the dining room.
Our rooms here were very nice. On leaving us after taking
up our bags, the boy said, Shalom. Each time anyone greeted
us this was the word they used.
We had a new experience the next day. Everything all over
the city was closed. It was the Sabbathno buses, no street-
cars, not even any mail delivery to the hotel. Yet the Sabbath
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
is not observed as a sacred day. The only synagogue we saw

was a small one. All streets within two or three blocks of it
each way were closed to traffic. However, the other streets
were full of people out walking or on the beach swimming,
surfboard riding and playing games. It is a day used by many
for their pleasure.
The land now called Israel is being rebuilt by Jews who are
leaving God entirely out of their plans.
I sat on the beach at the rear of the hotel and a Jewess
from New York was there with a Hadassah group. She talked
to me of the wonderful things they were doing for the children
and of the general upbuilding of the land of Israel. But when
I tried to talk of the part their religion had in the building of
the country there was no answer. She just was not interested.
God is not in the picture at all.
We had driven out to the ruins of Ashdod, a totally ruined
and deserted Arab town since 1948. Thence we went to
desolate Ashkelon where some of the ruins of the ancient city
have been excavated and where part of the ancient wall still
stands. God said that this city would be completely destroyed,
and it was.
We drove to Ekron where we took pictures of a group of
Yemenite Jewish children. They are very dark.
After another night in Tel Aviv, we flew to Istanbul,
Turkey. We had to fly over the Mediterranean Sea, the island
of Cyprusone of the worlds trouble spotsAsian Turkey,
over the Sea of Marmara and the Bosporus before arriving in
Istanbul, which is located in European Turkey.
We stayed at the Hilton Hotel in Istanbul that was built by
the American hotel man, Conrad Hilton.
Viewing the Black Sea Near Russia

Our first trip here was a boat ride up the Bosporus to the entrance
of the Black SeaRussian waters. We saw the submarine nets
near the entrance to the Black Sea, put there by the Turks to
prevent Russian submarines from coming through.
The trip was tiring because the boat was packed and we could
hardly find even standing room. This was because we were
834
there during the time of the completion of the Ramadana

30-day Muslim fast, which is ended with three days of feasting
and holiday. Although the Turks are Muslims in religion, they
do not wear the Arab dress or the fez, the robes, the veils for
women, etc. These were all outlawed by Ataturk, a former ruler.
Our guide this time was a woman. She was a very nice-
looking Turkish woman, who in summer works for American
Express and in winter teaches in a girls school.
At the end of our boat trip up the Bosporus, we landed at a
large village and took a car back through the country to Istanbul.
Many of the buildings in Istanbul are modern, but many
also are very, very old frame houses so ancient they look as if
they are ready to cave in; yet people live even up in the third
and fourth stories of these old firetraps.
Our guide took us through the old mosque and also the
palace of the king, now a museum where we saw the largest
collection of china on Earth. There was room after room filled
with it from all parts of the world.
Our stay in Istanbul was short. We left there May 17 and
flew over the Golden Horn, the Sea of Marmara and the
Aegean Sea to Athens, Greece.
Greece and Its Statues

The German president and his retinue had taken over this
hotel where we had reservations; so we had to find another.
The beds were just thin pads on wooden slats with no springs
and not enough cover. The bathroom was dirty, so we only
spent a few hours in our rooms and the rest of the time looking
over the city where the Apostle Paul spent so much time.
There is always a silver lining to every cloud. Even though
we had to stay in a very uncomfortable place, we were not in
the same hotel with the lady whom we first met at Baalbek
who did get in the hotel where the Germans were.
We had to avoid her. She caused trouble wherever she
went. At the King David while in Jerusalem, she had several
waiters trying to soothe her ruffled feathers and finally, before
we left, the head waiter had been called to try to calm her. We
scurried out of sight of her in this hotel.
835
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Our guide was a womana Greek Orthodoxand our driver

was a man. We drove to the museums, then past the palace and
back to the hotel for lunch.
During our visit in the museums, our guide was disgusted
with us and frustrated at our lack of enthusiasm over the icons
and religious trappings and pictures. She would exclaim, Isnt
this beautiful? over some picture and receive no response
from us. Finally, Mr. Armstrong told her what he thought of
superstition and gave her a good explanation of what life is all
about. She heard the gospel for the first time in her life.
We went to the marketplace where Paul disputed with the
Athenians. We also saw Mars Hill where Paul told the Greek
wise men that they were too superstitious and declared to
them the true God. We went up to the famous Acropolis and
spent some time there.
Our stay was not long in Athens, but we were able to see
all the Bible places connected with Pauls ministry.
On to Rome
As we flew over the Mediterranean, across the boot of Italy,
along the coast of Italy, the Bay of Naples and then to Rome,
we were contemplating staying no longer than two days; we
were now one week ahead of schedule. However, when we
arrived May 18, we called the hotel in London by telephone
to try to advance our reservations there five days, but found
they were crowded and no space was available until Friday,
May 25; so we stayed the full week in Rome.
The city is so very interesting. We spent every day in
historic places. On Thursday, May 19, we drove to Naples
along the Appian Way where Paul entered Rome after landing
near or in the Bay of Naples. It was a very beautiful drive to
Naples with many interesting places to see.
After seeing Naples, we drove to the ruined city of Pompeii.
This was the most startling place we have seen. In the year
a.d. 79, Pompeii was completely covered with ashes from
Mt.Vesuvius. It was the city of 20,000 people. While thousands
escaped from the city to the sea, hundreds perished in their
homes and in the streets.
836
In the year 1860, excavations began. We walked down

the narrow cobblestone streets worn by chariot wheels and
saw public buildings still standing. Only the walls remained.
The roofs were gonefallen in from the weight of the ashes
and cinders.
We entered the doors of many homes and saw, in some, their
household gods. These were near the entrance to the homes.
We saw the bodies of the victims that have been found
preserved in the ash. These were in the museum. Even the
expressions on their faces are preserved. One dog still with
the chain around his neck was twisted, with his head under
his body, showing the agony it suffered before it died.
There are two loaves of bread preserved and hardened.
Here was bread 2,000 years old.
There was also the body of a woman with her arm over
her face to protect it. An expression of stark fear and agony
was on her face. Some of the bones of the hand and leg were
showing through the encrusted body.
We walked past their pagan temples and through the city
center. One has to visit the place to really understand. It was
overwhelming. One feels shocked beyond expression and has
a great pity for these people, even though they have been dead
over 1,800 years. It is impossible to realize that it happened
so long ago when you are there and viewing their bodies.
The Image of Mary

We drove back to Rome. On the way we passed a funeral in one
of the villages. The hearse was a highly decorated, immense,
horse-drawn affair; and the whole funeral procession was
more like a parade.
When we entered the suburbs of Rome, we got into a traffic
jam that seemed hours before we moved. When finally we
began to inch along, we found what had held up traffic. It was
a life-size statue called Mary that was on a brightly lighted
truck used in a political campaign. An election was coming
up, and the Christian Democrats were urging everyone to
vote to defeat the Communists.
It seemed that wherever a statue called Mary was seen in
837
Rome many worshipers would stop and stare in worshipful
awe. They will even stop city traffic.
Statue of Peter
We went through St. Peters Cathedral again, once more
watching people as they pass the seated statue in the
cathedral, kissing its big toe. One after another they kissed
the big toe, even lifting up little children. Whether diseased,
dirty or clean, all were crossing themselves and kissing the
toe that was now worn shiny from years of this procedure.
A halo has been placed over the heador perhaps its called
a crown, and huge keys made and fastened in the hand. It is
now called St. Peter with the keys to the Kingdom of God.
We went through the treasury in the church and saw
millions of dollars worth of jeweled religious robes, crowns and
all sorts of things. Among them was the triple crown of the
pope. In some jeweled objects were bones, small bones or piece
of bone from some pope or saint.
We went through the Vatican Museum on two different
days. It was our third visit to these places.
Home Again!
We were glad when we were able to leave Rome and once
again fly (even though I dislike flying) to England. We flew
over the Mediterranean, and then over the Alps. We flew very
near Mt.Blanc and that was awe inspiring and beautiful. It
is the highest mountain in the Alps. All the flight across those
snowcapped mountains was so beautiful that I almost relaxed.
It was beginning to become dark as we flew over France
and the English Channel.
When we arrived in London, George Meeker, from our
London office, was there to meet us. It was almost like
arriving home.
Our long, long trip over Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon,
Jordan, Israel, Turkey, Greece and Italy was over. The
English seemed like home folks. London looked so good.
Here we finally had letters from home and at last good clean
food and comfortable beds, and, of course, George Meeker.
838
67
TOURING EUROPE
BY CAR
M RS. ARMSTRONG, OUR SON RICHARD
David and I returned by air to London from our Middle East

tour Friday, May 25, 1956.
Before leaving London on this tour of the Bible lands,
arrangements had been completed for holding a two-week
speaking engagement at Dennison House, a hall in Londons
downtown West End near Victoria Station. The office had been
left in charge of George Meeker while we were gone. He and
the office staff in London had sent out notices of the meetings
to those in and near London on our mailing list.
Speaking Campaign in London

Almost two years before, I had engaged a hall and spoken
three successive nights in London. So this was the second
time for speaking before our radio listeners in London.
Customarily, in earlier years, I had held evangelistic
meetings six nights a week for six weeks. But these were not
evangelistic meetingsbut rather speaking engagements
for the purpose of meeting those who had become regular
radio listeners.
Commencement exercises at Pasadena that year were
held on Friday, June 1. Our son Garner Ted graduated on
839
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
that daythe first commencement at Pasadena I had missed.

Immediately after his graduation in 1956, Ted and his wife,
Shirley, flew on over to meet us in London.
Actually, before leaving London on the Middle East tour
I had written a letter, to be printed later and mailed to
our mailing list for the area, inviting them to these special
services. At the time of writing, we did not yet know just where
the meetings would be held. I had arranged for our London
advertising agency to work out the booking of a suitable hall
with Mr. Meeker. Mr. Meeker was to add this information to
my letter.
Although I had written this letter in April, before our tour of
the Bible lands, it was finally dated May 22, when Mr. Meeker
posted it. It was sent only to those radio listeners already
on our mailing list. It said: I hope to meet you personally
here in London very soonand for some of our friends, it will
be for the second time. Then the meetings were announced,
beginning June 4, for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and
Friday nights of that week, and Monday through Friday the
following week. On the second week, my son Dick spoke one
night, and Garner Ted the following night. I did the speaking
on all other nights.
Touring Europe
Early Sunday morning, June 17, the five of usDick, Ted
and Shirley, Mrs. Armstrong and Ileft in my car, which we
had brought over with us on the Queen Mary, for a brief tour
of the Continent.
I do not remember all the events of that tour, but we crossed
the Channel from Dover to Calais on a ferry, and drove on to
Paris. Tuesday we drove on to Luxembourg. On the way we
examined many scenes of both world wars. Seeing the actual
battlefields made the wars seem much more real.
At Luxembourg we visited the radio station, then on to
Frankfurt. Mrs. Armstrong, Dick and I had driven through
Germany and visited Frankfurt am Main in 1954, and Dick
had been there in 1952. We were tremendously impressed
with the amazing progress in restoration of bombed-out
840
67 | Touring Europe by Car
areas; the war had devastated most of the cityand other

German cities as well.
When Dick had visited Frankfurt in 1952, people were
living in quickly erected temporary little cabins or shacks.
They were then rapidly rebuilding their industrial sections,
with apparently inspired zeal. Retail stores were operating out
of temporarily roofed-over, mostly destroyed business district
buildings. Their temporary little wooden cabins were being
made neat, with patches of lawn and carefully planted flowers.
When we had visited Frankfurt with Dick in 1954, almost
unbelievable progress had been made. The giant factories
were then restored and steaming full-blastmany 24 hours a
day. The retail business districts were well toward complete
restoration, and almost endless blocks of flats and apartment
dwellings being rapidly erected. But there still were many
whole blocks of stark devastation, as yet uncleared.
But now, in 1956, few vacant blocks remained from wars
destruction. Work was rapidly nearing completion in expanding
the retail district and residential areas. German cities had
made far greater progress at restoration than had London.
Even 10 years before, people of other countries were
saying Germany would never rise againor, as some
cautiously admitted, it would take 50 to 100 years to restore
devastated Germany.
We spent a day driving over various parts of Frankfurt.
Then on Friday, June 22, we drove on to Munich on the
famous German autobahn. Someone of us became careless.
The car ran out of fuel. We were out in a wide expanse of
country, miles from any town. One of the party remembered
passing a petrol station a couple miles back. So, with the
car pulled over to the side of the highway, Mrs. Armstrong,
Shirley and I waited while Dick and Ted started afoot back
along the autobahn.
About an hour lateractually much sooner than we
expected themthey returned in a car which had taken them
in, with a can of gasoline.
At Munich we saw the same miraculous restoration
streets lined with gleaming modern new buildings. On
841
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Saturday night we visited the historic beer hall where Hitlers

Beer-Hall Putsch started, November 8 and 9, 1923. Actually,
this beer hall might be called the site of the beginning of
World War ii. On November 12, 1923, Hitler was arrested for
leading the putsch, and imprisoned at Landsberg. There he
wrote Mein Kampf.
We didnt remain long in this beer hall. Hundreds of
robust Bavarians were drinking their beer, shouting with
deafening, throaty voices, holding their giant beer steins aloft.
Mrs.Armstrong wanted to leave immediately. Nevertheless,
it was quite an experience.
En Route to Switzerland
Sunday, June 24, we drove on southwest toward Zrich. En
route we passed through a corner of Austriahad lunch at
a restaurant in an Austrian town, probably Bregenz. The
Bavarian countryside between Munich and the Austrian
border was very scenic. We were impressed with the large
farm dwellings, where the barns for livestock were part of the
same building as the family dwelling. Their system of gath-
ering hay also was something we had not seen before.
Then came a unique experience. We entered and crossed
one of the tiniest little countries in the world, Liechtenstein.
There was a certain amount of mountainous scenery and a
castle atop a small mountain.
But very soon we entered scenic Switzerland and, between
Liechtenstein and Zrich, one of its most scenic highways.
Much of it was along two elongated lakes, the Walensee and the
Zrich. There was just enough mountain scenery, combined
with the beauty of the lakes, to make it breathtaking and
exciting. The higher mountains, of course, are a little farther
south. Switzerland undoubtedly offers the most stupendous,
breathtaking scenery of any part of the world I have visited
and I have traveled completely around the world.
We merely spent the night in Zrich. A grand-scale festival
was in progress, and we were only able to get our car within
about two blocks of our hotel. We had to carry suitcases afoot
through the throngs of happy festival participantsmany in
842
native costumes. The gaiety lasted well past midnight. We

viewed the excitement from our hotel windows, but finally were
able to get some sleep after the noise and din began to subside.
Monday morning we walked up and down the
BahnhofstrasseZrichs main business street, and did some
shopping for wristwatches. There I purchased the watch I
wore for many years, a Rolex Chronograph. It gave the day of
the week, day of the month and was also a stopwatch.
When I purchased this watch, Dick solemnly shook his head
in mock disapproval, saying, Its no good, Dad. It doesnt tell
what year it is.
By noon on that Monday we arrived at Lucerne in time
for lunch.
Then we proceeded along the way of exciting scenery and
beautiful lakes to Interlaken, arriving a little late for evening
dinner. However, the kitchen staff hurriedly prepared a
special meal just for us. Switzerland is just about as famous
for its good cooking as it is for its fantastic mountain and
lake scenery, its watches, and its trains which always run on
timeyou can set your watch by the arrival or departure of
a train.
The Spectacular Alps

Next morning, early, we boarded one of the mountain trains
which daily transport awestruck crowds up to the top of the
spectacular Jungfrau, one of the highest peaks in the Alps.
We changed trains twice, as the climbing became steeper,
proceeding on a cog railway.
The steep journey winding upward is simply one
breathtaking and exciting view after another. Cameras
click constantly. Arriving at the top, we found it necessary
to purchase specially dark sunglasses. The brilliant sun,
reflecting on the glistening white of the snow and glacier is
almost blinding to the natural eye on a cloudless day.
We had lunch in the large restaurant at the toptook the
few tunneled side tours, and then started the slow descent on
the cog railway. The afternoon was well spent on returning
to Interlaken.
843
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Wednesday morning we were back in our car resuming

our journey. Retracing our way some little distance, we
then proceeded east and south toward Lugano, which
Mrs.Armstrong and I had visited in 1947. We passed through
some of the most spectacular mountain scenery in the world.
Arriving at the famous St. Gotthard Pass, we decided to load
our automobile on one of the flatcars which the railroad makes
available for that purpose, and ride through the railroad
tunnel, rather than drive the car on the winding figure-eight
roadway over the mountain.
At Lugano we again contacted and visited Madame Helene
Bieber, whom we had gone to Lugano to see in 1947. At that
time we had visited Madame Biebers villa, Heleneum, with
a view to its possible purchase for the European branch of
Ambassador College. We had envisioned this branch college
in Europe even before the opening of the college in Pasadena.
We then drove on to Milan, northern metropolis of Italy, for
the night.
The next morning, Thursday, after visiting the great
cathedral in Milan, we drove on to Genoa, on the beautiful
Mediterranean Sea. I had read about Genoa even as a boy.
It was exciting to visit it for the first time. We drove around
the city a bit, had lunch there, and then proceeded west along
the Italian Riviera. I had always heard a great deal about the
Riviera. But when one speaks of the Riviera, he is speaking
of the French Riviera, farther on westespecially that bit of
coastline from Monte Carlo on past Nice and Cannes.
Bustling Italian Riviera

But we found the Italian Riviera one continuous winding
coastline of jam-packed beaches, with a continuous congestion
of town after town, and perhaps hundreds of Mediterranean-
front hotels. Only these hotels were not the large, elegant,
luxury-class hotels of Cannes and Nice frequented by the
rich of the world. The Italian Riviera, we found, was far more
densely populated with pleasure-seeking vacationists than
that of the French coast. But that was true because it is a
much lower-cost type of resort area.
844
We found going quite slow along this Italian Riviera

because of traffic congestion. By evening, we reached Monte
Carlo, where we had reservations for the night at a hotel.
Next morning, Friday, now the 29th of June, we drove,
first, up to the palace of Monaco, which is ruled by Prince
Rainier iii. He had married the American motion picture
actress, Grace Kelly, April 18, just a couple of months before
our visit. As we approached the palace, atop a hill, we began to
wonder why all visiting sightseers seemed to be staring at us.
We learned that, although we were not driving an expensive
limousine, such as one would expect royalty to ride in, but
just an ordinary car in the Chrysler line, Prince Rainier and
Princess Grace drove the same model car we were driving!
Monaco is another of these very tiny nations. Its entire
area is only a half square mile! Its population is around
20,000, and that includes the city of Monte Carlo, a small city
of only 9,500 resident citizens. But of course the hotel popu-
lation of visitors swells that considerably. This little nation is
entirely surrounded by France, except for the Mediterranean
coast. Yet it has existed as an independent principality for
300 years! This miniature nation has no income tax. But
it is one of the worlds famed tourist resorts. It derives its
government income from gambling at the casino, the sale
of postage stamps, the indirect taxation on money spent by
tourists, and a tobacco monopoly. This made two of these very
little countries we had visited this trip.
As we proceeded west toward Spain, we made brief stops at
both Nice and Cannes, which we had never visited before. But we
had no inclination to join the playboy vacationers lolling around
on the beaches in front of the luxury hotels. We continued on to
Marseilles, France, where we had hotel reservations.
One interesting thing I remember about Marseilles: The
Harlem Globetrotters professional basketball team was
there. We did not attend any performance, although we
assumed they probably were giving one. But we had seen
them at performances back home. They stage a hilarious
performance. The things they can do with a basketball must
be seen to be believed.
845
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
On Sunday morning, now July 1, we continued our trek

along the Mediterranean, entering Spain, and arriving by
evening at Barcelona. This was our first visit to Spain. It
was necessary to visit Spain because Garner Ted speaks
the language fluently. We noticed at once something we had
not seen previously in other countries. Dictator Franco had
his armed gendarmes stationed at frequent intervals along
the highways.
At Barcelona we were put in one of the finest hotel suites
I had ever seen. This was not of our choosing. American
Express, London, had arranged all bookings. The bathroom
off the room Mrs. Armstrong and I occupied had one of these
elaborate sunken Roman baths. But when we checked out
on Tuesday morning, the hotel office overcharged us rather
outrageouslycompletely above the price quoted by the travel
agency. Protest did no good. This is somewhat of a European
custom. But we had the consolation that we had enjoyed
exceptional accommodations, at least. Barcelona is a city of
about 1.5 million people. We found it interesting, but I do not
remember anything worth recording here.
Tuesday was another day of driving. Tuesday night we
checked in at the Castelana Hilton Hotel in Madrid. It was a
comparatively new hotel. Certain parts of the building were
still unfinished. But we learned that certain parts of virtually
all buildings in Spain are left unfinished. It seems that once
buildings are almost completedsufficiently to be occupied
they simply never do get around to completing them.
Inside Spain
We found Madrid to be an exceptionally beautiful city of
2million population. It has broad avenues and boulevards,
with beautiful parking alongside, and the streets lined with
imposing and beautiful buildings.
Dick had been there before. He had made the acquaintance
of a young man of a family of the former nobilityprior to
the Franco regime. This young man had visited Ambassador
College in Pasadena, so we had all met him. We spent one
enjoyable evening at the home of his widowed mother and
846
two sisters. The mother was an accomplished pianist. They

had a grand piano, and she played for us.
The next day, July 4, our American Independence Day, this
young manI believe his name was Franciscoarranged for
a friend, Juan, to drive us out past the outskirts of the cityI
believe the direction was north or slightly northwestto one
of the most unusual structural operations I have ever seen.
General Franco was secretly building a tremendous cathedral,
to become a surprise gift to the Catholic Church. Im sure there
is nothing like it. It begins on the side of a small mountain.
Actually this church or cathedral is a gigantic tunnel under
the mountain, coming out on the far side of the mountain. As
I remember it, it had a ceiling higher than any other room in
the worldand it was unbelievably long. Also, it was being
done in magnificent and ornate cathedral style. We drove
around the mountain to the rear entrance.
There, on level ground just beyond the far side of the
mountain, was a most beautiful building. It was beautiful
in its very plain simplicity. It had been built as a monastery,
which the generalissimo had wanted to present as a gift to the
monks. But the monks had refused to accept it. It was too fine.
The monks have taken a vow of poverty. They seem to feel
they must live in surroundings so plain that they are gloomy,
depressing, utterly lacking in anything fine and beautiful.
Incidentally, this very experience impressed on me an
outstanding difference between Ambassador College and other
universities. Between the sixth and 12th centuries, the only
colleges in Europe were the cathedral schools and the monastic
schools. The monastic schools were colleges for training the
monks, usually if not always located in the monasteries.
After the founding of the first modern-type university in the
12thcenturythe University of Paristhe monastic tradition
seemed to cling to all educational institutions as an inviolable
policy. That is the reason classrooms, libraries, study rooms,
lecture rooms, halls, in so many colleges and universities have
always been so excessively plain, foreboding, gloomy, depressing.
At Ambassador College we strive to create even a physical
atmosphere of equality, character and beauty. We find quality
847
and cultural surroundings much more conducive to inspiring
education than a bare, colorless, depressing atmosphere.
While shopping in Madrid we strolled into the lobby of one
of the luxury European-type hotels. At a cigar-news-souvenir
counter, we found a beautiful gaily dressed Spanish doll of
perhaps 14 or 18 inches in height. Mrs. Armstrong liked it,
and I purchased it for her.
That started a hobby. Mrs. Armstrong continued collecting
dressed-up dolls in various countries we have traveled through,
usually in the native dress or costume of that country. Her
doll collection has been used in elementary schools to help
children understand the people of other countries and how
they dress.
The night of July 4 we were unable to sleep until long
after midnight. In a hotel court below our window a group of
Americans were celebrating Independence Day. The alcohol
was flowing and the voices were not only merry, they were
loud! So even though we were far from America, there was a
4th of July celebration going on!
On Thursday, July 5, we started driving back north. We
reached San Sebastian, in northern Spain on the Atlantic
and near the French border, for lunch, and spent the night at
the French town of Poitiers. We stopped off at Versailles on
the way in to Paris.
The next day we were spending a quiet day in our hotel suite.
848
68
PURCHASING
AMBASSADOR HALL
O UR OVERSEAS TOUR OF 1956 HAD BEEN
a long and eventful one. From Paris, we drove our car back
to Londoncrossing the Channel, Calais to Dover, by ferry.
At the time, we had left George Meeker in charge of the
London office. After checking in at the office in London, within
a few days we again boarded the Queen Mary for the return
voyage to the United States.
The 1956 Return Voyage

All four of the larger British and American transatlantic
ships conduct table-tennis tournaments during the crossing.
On most voyages I have noticed there are no real expert
table-tennis players on board. But on this particular crossing
there were four or five who were fairly goodamong them
the former Maureen Connolly, nicknamed Little Mo, three
times womens world champion lawn tennis playerusually
ranked with Helen Wills as one of the best women tennis
players of all time. Maureen was rather good at table tennis,
although not of the topflight championship class she had been
at lawn tennis.
As I remember, our younger son played her during the
tournament, but neither he nor I remember now who won.
849
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Garner Ted had been, nine or 10 years earlier, a rather good

table tennis player.
Before sailing from Southampton, Dick had sold his
Hillman-Minx car, receiving almost as much for it as he had
paid new two years before.
Arriving in New York, Dick purchased a new Mercedes
one of the smaller modelsand drove it back to California.
Garner Ted and his wife Shirley, anxious to get back to their
children, flew home from New York. And Mrs. Armstrong
and I drove our carwhich we had taken with us to Europe
across the country. That left Mrs. Armstrong and me alone
for the drive from New York to Pasadena.
I had wanted to drive through the city of my birth, Des
Moines, Iowa, especially to see my uncle, Frank Armstrong,
who had virtually steered my earlier life, beginning at age 18.
Death of My Uncle
Those who have read the Autobiography from the beginning
will remember that, at age 18, I had put myself through a
vocational-guidance analysis, and decided I belonged in the
advertising profession. My Uncle Frank was the leading
advertising man of the state of Iowa, and naturally I went
to him for counsel and guidance. After moving to Oregon in
1924, I had seen very little of my uncleespecially after my
conversion and my being drawn into the ministryexcept on
rare occasions when I happened to be in Des Moines.
I felt that, since he was now past 80, this might be my last
opportunity to see him.
But arriving in Des Moines, I telephoned his office and
learned that he had died while Mrs. Armstrong and I had been
in the Middle East on this same trip. So it already was too late.
However, I felt I should at least telephone my aunt, now
widowed. But she did not care to see me. She had been very
cordial to me during the advertising dayswhenever I was in
Des Moines. But her cordiality cooled noticeably after I had
entered the ministry. Now, I was disappointed to learn, it had
chilled completely. I hung up the receiver, deeply disappointed.
Thousands who will be reading these words have learned
850
68 | Purchasing Ambassador Hall
this same thing by experience. When God really gets hold of

ones lifewhen that life becomes changed by the indwelling
of Gods Holy Spiritones contacts, friends and especially
relatives will often chill decisively. A certain underlying
hostility will be sensed, if not openly displayed. Actually it
is not the converted human they resent. It is the living Jesus
Christnow living His life within the converted one, who is
the real object of the hostility. However, the carnal mind does
not realize or understand this phase of its own working.
I felt intense sorrow and disappointment over my aunts
cold and blunt statement that she did not care to see me. She
said, icily, she had never approved of my religion. I had
always been very deeply grateful to my uncle for his advice
and counsel. It had become a long-standing feeling of affection.
Someday, in a resurrection, her eyes will open. I think she
will be quite astounded when they are opened to the truth.
A Fabulous Property Offered

While we were in London on this 1956 tour, before leaving for
the Middle East, I received a transatlantic telephone call from
Mr. Roderick Meredith at Pasadena headquarters. It was near
midnight in Londonbut shortly before 5 p.m. in Pasadena.
He asked me whether I felt the college would like to acquire
the estate of multimillionaire Hulett C. Merritt. One other
200-foot-wide property stood between this estate and the
Ambassador College campusas it then was. This Merritt
property was considered the most fabulous in Pasadena. The
mansion on it, built in 19051908, had cost $1.1 million at that
time. Several years ago an architect told me that the place
could not have been built for $6million thenIF the rare
woods and materials could be obtainedwhich they couldnt.
The question came like a bolt out of the blue. I had always
considered this fabulous property as utterly inaccessible for
us. Extending the campus in that direction had not been
considered in our future planning.
Mr. Merritt had died before I left Pasadena on this tour.
His wife had died previously. Mr. Meredith explained that
the executor of the estate was going to put it on the market,
851
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
but first, privately, it was being offered to us through an

insurance and real estate broker and his associates.
This broker had an offer to purchase the estate for less
money than the ornamental iron fence around the Orange
Grove Boulevard front of it would cost today. His proposition
was that he and associates would purchase the estate at this
low figure, and then donate the property to the college.
It appeared they had privately checked with some Internal
Revenue people as to whether they could deduct this donation
on their income taxes for something like a half million dollars.
Apparently they felt assured they could. They could purchase
it for less than half of that.
How Would We Use It?

My mind was doing some fast thinking. One doesnt turn down
such a gift without consideration. But how would we use it?
Could you gain access to the place yet tonight? I asked.
Mr. Meredith said they could.
All right, I replied. I want you and Dr. Hoeh to go over
there immediately. Go completely through the building. List
how many rooms could be used as classroomsand send me
a telegram stating how many rooms could seat 65 or more
students, how many 50 or more, how many 35 or more. Your
telegram should be here by the time I wake up in the morning.
Then Ill give my decision. I wouldnt want to accept this prop-
erty unless we need it for actual college purposesotherwise
wed have to pay taxes we cant afford for something we
couldnt use.
The telegram was waiting for me on arising next morning.
The ornate and fabulous building would be ideally suited to
become our chief classroom building of the college.
I telegraphed the decision: Accept it.
Plain Truth Grows

While we were on this Middle East tour, the April issue of the
Plain Truth came out an enlarged magazine, and with a new
front cover. This had been planned before leaving Pasadena.
Only once before, a special issue announcing the new
852
Ambassador College, January 1947, had the Plain Truth

appeared with a front cover. It merely had a masthead, with
the lead article beginning on the front cover. This April 1956
number also went up to 24 pages. At the time this seemed a
big leap forward. It had contained only 16 pages previously.
But the 24 pages was small compared to todays 32 pages,
including cover. It was still black and whiteno color printing.
But it was advancing, improving, growing!
From Cairo we had a long-distance telephone talk with
the Pasadena office about the Merritt property, the purchase
of which had hit a snag. The heirsall grandchildrenhad
rejected the price tentatively agreed to between the executor
and our prospective donors. They insisted the place be sold at
auction, thinking it would bring a higher price.
Returning to Pasadena, I found the broker and his
associates had bought the property at the auction. They had
made the high bid, which was only slightly more than their
original purchase offer. However, it seemed their funds were
not immediately available, and our office had loaned them
$5,000 to bind their bid.
Saving Ambassador Hall

The auction purchase terms had been one half down, with
the balance spread over some seven or eight years. The due
date for the balance of the one-half down payment had come
due, but our prospective donors still had not had the funds
available. They had obtained a 30-day extension.
I contacted these people. They assured me the money
would be available by the final extended due date. A week
before that date I contacted the broker again by telephone. He
was positively reassuring. Two days before the deadline date I
was becoming quite concerned.
My associates and I will be in Pasadena with the money
day after tomorrow, he said, positively, over the telephone.
Everything has worked out all right. Dont worry about it.
I had told him that, having gone this far, I did not want to
lose this valuable property. It had totally changed our general
master planning for the campus. I told him that, if his people
853
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
were going to come up short, I wanted time to raise the money

myself, rather than lose it.
The crucial day arrived. Our would-be donors were on
hand, but the necessary funds were not. They had flunked
out completely.
I went to the executor, who had been Mr. Merritts business
manager. I asked for another 30-day extension to allow time
for me to raise the money.
Ten-Day Margin
But this matter is in probate court, he said, and another
30-day delay in meeting the obligation would undoubtedly
cancel out this purchase, and open the property up to another
auction. Some of the people building these multiple-family
garden apartments along the boulevard now regret they didnt
bid higher. In another auction they would bid up as high as
necessary to acquire this property. They realize now that it
went for too low a bid.
Nevertheless, he called his attorney. The attorney agreed
with his opinion, but felt they might give me a 10-day extension.
I was under pressure, but we managed it. I had an offer of
a $20,000 loan from a loyal co-worker, and I had borrowed
$30,000 at the bank, neither of which, on the 10th day, I
needed. I did accept the $30,000 bank loan, however, and then
left it on deposit at the bank to improve our credit standing.
It was worth paying the interest.
And so the fabulous Merritt property, which had been
named Villa Merritt Olivier, became ours, and was renamed
Ambassador Hall.
New Academic Center

To leap far ahead of this chronicle of events for a moment, two
exceedingly beautiful ultramodern new classroom buildings
were later built flanking Ambassador Hall and the formal
Italian sunken garden, with a magnificent plaza in the center,
joining the three buildings and the Italian garden into an
outstanding academic center. One of the new buildings is our
Science Hall, the other the Fine Arts Building. The entire
854
grouping was named in memory of my wife of 50 years, the

Loma D. Armstrong Academic Center. An oil portrait of her
now hangs in the grand hall of Ambassador Hall.
Escrow at the bank on the purchase of the Ambassador
Hall property finally closed October 29, 1956. The 4-acre
estate was then ours.
Manor Del Mar Acquired

Meanwhile, we had ourselves negotiated another important
purchase of former Merritt property through the executor of
the estate. This fine property, a block to the south of the campus
as it then existed, had been the three-story mansion of Lewis
J. Merritt, father of Hulett C. Merritt. This property, too, was
obtained at a very low price and on very favorable terms. An
extensive remodeling job was undertaken at once, and two
large rooms were added. This property was named Manor Del
Mar, since it was located on Del Mar Boulevard, which forms
the south boundary of the campus as it is today. Manor Del
Mar became our number one mens student residence.
After returning from the European trip, my elder son,
Richard David, joined Roderick C. Meredith in a long-planned
evangelistic series of meetings at Fresno, California, with
splendid success.
Dick Needed a Wife

Dick had spent many monthsincluding most of two dreary,
lonesome wintersalone in London. Those of us in the family,
as well as students and faculty, had somehow neglected
writing him most of the time. Dick had come to feel the
desperate need of a wife. He was now 28. It just seemed that
the right girl had never come along.
Meanwhile there was a young married man from Iowa
here attending college classes. His wife was very pretty.
Mrs.Armstrong had become fond of her. This woman had a
younger sister, attending university in Omaha. Mrs.Armstrong
had heard glowing reports on the younger sister, Lois Lemon,
and had shown a picture of her to Dick.
Sensing his mothers interest in the girl from Omaha, Dick
855
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
immediately set up a prejudice against her in his mind. Much

as he felt the need of a wife, Dick was not going to let his
mother select her for him. But meanwhile Mrs. Armstrong
and Miss Lemons sister were doing their best by letters to
interest Lois in the advantages of Ambassador College.
Would GOD Select a Wife?

During the two years previous to this time I had had a
number of talks with Dick about the matter of marriage. I
had counseled him to simply put this problem in Gods hands,
and rely on God to bring him and the right girl together. I had
urged him not to rush blindly into any romance.
Even before I had been convertedhad come to really know
God, His truth and His waysin my carnal-minded days I had
somehow realized that God had given me my wife. I did not
pick her out. Even before conversion I did pray occasionally.
Everything about those prayers, however, was selfishexcept
one thing: I always thanked God for giving me my wife!
Dick always agreed with me that he should leave it in
Gods hands. He asked me to pray that God would work it out
in the right way. I knew that he had asked others to pray for
this same solution. But even though Dick was willing to have
God provide his wife, he was not willing to have his mother
pick her out. This, of course, was only human nature at work.
Most any other young man would react the same way.
While Dick was on his field assignment in southern Texas
that winter, Lois arrived on campus and registered to attend
classes beginning the second semester. Mrs. Armstrong just
could not resist calling Dick long distance.
Now wait a moment, Loma, I said to her. If you want to
talk to Dick a while, go ahead and call him. Id like to talk to
him, too. But whatever you do, dont say one word about Lois
being here. Youll only drive him the other way if you do.
Prejudice Aroused
Mrs. Armstrong partially heeded my advice. But not alto-
gether! She just would not resist mentioning, in a tone
supposed to be very nonchalant, casual, disinterested and
856
incidental, By the way, Lois Lemon is here, and has regis-

tered for classes.
That did it!
She didnt sound one whit casual or incidental to Dick.
When Dick returned to campus a few weeks later, he
avoided Lois as though she were poison.
It seemed that everyone on campus sensed romance in the
air between Dick and Lois as soon as Lois arrived. It seemed
just like a natural to everyone. Naturally, Lois had sensed
this from talking to the girls. This set Lois against Dick just
as positively as he had set his mind against her.
My Advice
So they went around, each determined to avoid the other.
After about two weeks, I called Dick to my office.
Dick, I said, years ago when I had been reduced to the
depths of financial depression, just after my conversion, I had
prayed earnestly for God to provide me with a new overcoat
among other things. We then lived in Portland, Oregon. It
was in January, and cold. I needed an overcoat seriously, so I
asked God for it. The next day I stopped at my brothers office
a moment. He noticed the big hole in the side of my overcoat.
Herb, he said, you need a new overcoat. Today is the
20th of January, and Meier & Frank have a sale on overcoats.
Anything I charge on my charge account beginning today will
not be billed until March 1. Ill have until March 10 to pay and
keep my credit good. Go over and select an overcoat, and during
noon-hour Ill come over and have it charged on my account.
But I resisted immediately. It would be rather humiliating
to have my younger brother buy me an overcoat.
Oh no, Russ, I said, I couldnt let you do that!
And just at that instant it flashed to my mind, almost as
if God Himself were speaking and saying, Didnt you ask me
for a new overcoat? And now you dont want to take it the way
I am giving it to you!
So instantly, I continued, to Dick, I changed my mind
and told Russell I would do as he said. And now, Dick, didnt
you pray and ask God to send you the right wife of His choice?
857
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
And didnt you ask me to pray for it, tooand even several
others? And here you are, when everyone on campus seems
to just know that Lois is the answer to that prayer, you are
avoiding her like the plague!
Just Two Dates Only?

Now I dont want to intervene in your most personal problems,
Dick, or try to pick out your wife for you. But I do say that
after you asked God about this, and have prayed about it so
long, you are acting rather foolishly to completely and coldly
avoid Lois altogether. Now all that Im going to ask you, Dick,
is this: I ask you to get a date with Loisjust once. IF this
is Gods doing, give it a chance! Then dont date her again
for a weekbut a week later, have just one more date with
her. Then if youre satisfied she is not Gods answer to your
prayers, dont ever date her, again! Now how about it?
Dick grinned.
OK, Dad, he said rather sheepishly. Ill do as you say.
That same evening Dick had a date with Lois. But he did
not do as I said, fully. He did not wait a whole week for the
next date. Their next date was the very next night! And for
the next few weeks they were seen together quite frequently.
One day in March, Dick and Lois came to Mrs. Armstrong
and me, hand-in-hand.
Dad and Mom, said Dick, weve got something to tell you!
Of course, we knew what it was!
Were going to be married, Dick announced.
Later he told me what had happened.
That afternoon they had gone for a talk in Dicks car.
Suddenly Dick pulled over to the side of the road and stopped
the car.
Lois, he said, I cant stand this any longer. Ive been
fighting this, trying to steel my mind against liking you, and
trying to resist itbut I cant resist it any longer. I know Im
in love with you!
And he said that Lois then said she had been fighting
against him in the same wayand she couldnt resist it any
longer, either.
858
So then they drove straight to tell Dicks mother and me

they were going to be married.
The Happy Wedding

I performed the ceremony, as I had for our other three
children, on June 11, 1957, in the outdoor garden theater
on the Ambassador College campus, with a reception at our
home afterward.
Dick and Lois took a honeymoon trip up to Oregon, the scene
of his early boyhood. Meanwhile I had given them a little help
in purchasing a small but very nice new home, which was ready
for them on their return. Their marriage lasted just a little
more than a yearwhen it was suddenly and unexpectedly
cut off by Dicks untimely death resulting from an automobile
crash while Dick was out on a baptizing tour.
But they lived a rather full lifetime in that one year. And
Dick left behind a little 3-month-old son, Richard David ii.
859
69
AMBASSADOR
COLLEGE EXPANDS
I SNT IT STRANGE? WHEN ONE TRIES TO
remember past events, ones memory seems so much sharper

in recalling events of childhood and early adulthood than in
remembering events of 10 years ago.
I have not yet come to the year, in this autobiography, of
my mothers death. She lived to the ripe and happy old age
of 95. But in her last years she was becoming noticeably
more forgetful. She would ask a question, hear and plainly
understand the answerand then a little later ask the same
question. Her mind simply did not retain the knowledge as
well as formerly. She had a good mind. That is just the way
of all flesh!
Consequently, I am having to question many people
younger people of sharper memoryto help me remember
events of sufficient interest to record from 1957 to the present.
Actually, as I write, I am now trying to remember the
happenings that were taking place while I was writing the
earlier chapters of this serial. The first installment of the
Autobiography appeared in September 1957!
Perhaps I should have been writing about what was then
happening while it was happening. That, of course, never
occurred to me. I had no idea, when I started this story of
860
my life, I would still be writing it many years later. Actually,
I think I vaguely envisioned it lasting for perhaps 10 or 12
installments. But the response showed readership interest,
and I began filling in more details.
The Campus Expands

Through 1956 and 1957 the Ambassador College campus in
Pasadena began expanding with increasing momentum.
During the lifetime of multimillionaire Hulett C. Merritt,
we had envisioned our campus as occupying the area begin-
ning on the north with Mayfair, and the half-block dead-end
street of Mentoria Court, and south to Del Mar Boulevard.
As I mentioned earlier, the idea of Mr. Merritts fabulous
mansion ever becoming a part of the college simply had never
occurred to me.
But with the acquisition of his property in 1956, our whole
concept of the future campus was altered. Immediately on
acquiring this superb property, we conferred with city offi-
cials for a use permit for a change of occupancy. Changing
the mansion from a private dwelling into a college classroom
building brought it under a different code.
We were required to install a fire sprinkler system
throughout. Mr. Merritt had built a penthouse on the flat-
roofed central portion of the building, with an elevator running
from the basement to the penthouse. We were required to
remove the penthouse, or come under a different code applying
to three-story buildings that would have necessitated exces-
sively expensive alterations. We were required also to seal off
the elevator so it could not be used.
A Real Scare
Next, the city inspectors threw us a real scare. There is a code
which requires all public buildings to be reinforced against
earthquakes. Pasadena is almost directly over the famous San
Andreas Fault. It is earthquake country. Since Mr. Merritt
had built his mansion long before this code was introduced it
was naturally assumed the building had not been constructed
to conform to this strict code. It was going to cost a fortune to
861
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
add this reinforcementif indeed it could be done. We faced

the possibility of having to demolish the building and build
another, or give up using the property altogether.
City inspectors made a series of tests. They bored through
the outside walls at certain points, and looked into the interior
walls. We had good news. They found the building had been
constructed far beyond code requirements.
Our relief was only temporary. Next, inspectors said the
mortar used 50 years ago would not conform to present
standards. Once again we had good news. Tests showed
the mortar equal to or superior to present standards. Next,
they insisted on testing the bricksbut they, too, met all
required standards.
Finally, in December 1956, city engineers approved class-
room usage of the building. But that did not mean we could
start holding classes then. The sprinkler system had to be
installeda major plumbing operation requiring several
months. There was serious question about the ornate dual
winding staircases. They did not conform to code for our new
use. On this point we argued strenuously. To remove those
staircases would destroy the beauty of the building. Finally,
city officials agreed to let them remain, provided we build
a new outside stairway on the west portico. The pillars on
that half-circle portico had to come downmore earthquake
regulations. A rear staircase had to be taken out.
For several months work was proceeding to put the newly
named Ambassador Hall into condition for classroom usage.
My elder son, Dick, set up his office in one of the future second-
floor classrooms. One or two other men set up temporary
offices in other rooms. This usage, of course, was permissible
while the work on the building was in progress.
Certain other remodeling had to be donelike providing
adequate restrooms, refinishing much of the fabulous wood
paneling, certain painting, a complete remodeling of the rear
first floor wing into home economics labs. It was finally more
than two years after acquiring the property that it became our
finest classroom building. It was first opened to classes with
the opening of the 195859 school year, early September 1958.
862
69 | Ambassador College Expands
It had been a lot of work, accompanied by anxiety and

suspensebut it was worth it. Few institutions have a building
so elegant and with such magnificent grounds. Actually we
had a multimillion-dollar property acquired for less money
than the ornate iron fence around the South Orange Grove
Boulevard front would cost today. It had come to us for a very
small fraction of its actual value.
Our entire concept of the future campus was now greatly
altered. We knew the campus eventually would have to include
the four-block area from Green Street on the north to Del Mar
Boulevard on the southand from millionaire row South
Orange Grove Boulevard on the west down to the Union Pacific
railroad tracks on the easta 12-square-block area.
Earlier we made mention of the acquirement of Manor Del
Mar, our finest mens student residence. This had been the
mansion of Lewis J. Merritt, father of Hulett C. Merritt. It
also was built with rare and beautiful wood paneling. It also
had spacious grounds and a sunken garden. Here also we
were required to install a fire sprinkler system throughout.
This fine property, also, had come to us at an exceedingly low
priceactually a fraction of its present value.
New Office Building

From this time, we were in the process of gradual acquisition
of additional properties within our ultimate campus area.
Next, by donation, the college acquired a two-story building
on the northwest corner of Vernon and Camden Streets, one
block east of Ambassador Hall. This building had housed
Jensens Furniture Store.
Meanwhile we had completely outgrown our circulation
and mailing department quarters, and our little printing
shop. These departments had occupied the ground floor of
our administration building. I have explained before that
this building, part of the original initial property purchase,
had been built as horse stables, with servants living quar-
ters on the second floor. Later the large center room on the
ground floor had been converted into a four-car garage, with
servants living rooms on each side of it. We converted the
863
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
larger center room into our main workroom, for mailing list
files, and mailing room; and the rear rooms into one room for
our printing department.
We then operated two small Davidson duplicating machines
as presses. We printed all of our booklets on these. Type was
set by an outside firm. We had the small hand-lever paper
cutter, and the small folding machine we had brought from
Eugene, Oregon, also in this small printing shop.
After remodeling the Jensens Furniture building to our
needs, we moved the printing shop into the rear part of it,
and the circulation and mailing department into the front
portion of the ground floor. This more than doubled our floor
space for these operations. But the Work was growingat
the average rate of 30 percent increase each year. It wasnt
long until we had to partition off the second floor into rooms
and offices, and expand these departments into that.
In January 1958, when we moved into this building, we
installed two small-size Miehle presses. But to us, then, after
some years with the little Davidson duplicating machines,
these seemed like great giant presses! Yes, they made us
realize the Work was growing!
1957, 1958 and 1959 were years of gradual expansion and
growth on the Pasadena campus.
Neighbor Heckling
As the campus little by little expanded, with occasional
additional property purchases, we found ourselves in a
situation of trying to operate a liberal arts college with
neighbors living next door, across the street, and sprinkled
here and there in between us.
Ambassador students always have been exceedingly well
behaved. We were making every effort to keep noises down
and to avoid disturbing neighbors. Im sure we did a more
than creditable job at this. Nevertheless, our student body
was growing every year.
As careful, courteous and considerate as our students tried
to be, a few neighbors became irritated at times.
Once the students were putting on a short play in the
864
69 | Ambassador College Expands
Tempietto, which forms the stage, or platform, for our garden

theater, in what we have called the Lower Gardens. Two
elderly ladies living across the street called the police. Soon a
police car drove up. The officers only grinned when they saw
what was going on, asked us to do our best to keep noises at a
minimum, and asked if they could stay for a while and see part
of the show. They explained that even though they disliked to
interfere, when a complaint came in they had to investigate.
A short time after that we were having an afternoon wedding
in the garden theater. There have been many of these, since.
I looked across the street, and sure enough the two elderly
ladies were sitting on their front porches. Ah-ha! Were we
going to have the police called out to stop the wedding?
Just before time for the wedding ceremony, while guests
were beginning to arrive, I walked across the street, smiling,
and asked the two ladies if they would honor the young
couple by attending the wedding. I have always noticed that
women never outgrow their interest in romances of young
people and weddings. The ladies graciously accepted, and I
escorted them across the street and ushered them into seats.
They could not have seen any of it, otherwise, because our
garden theater is secluded by high trees and thick shrubbery
along the street side.
These ladies became very friendly and never again raised
any objection to any student activities.
865
70
TRAGEDY STRIKES
RICHARD D.
ARMSTRONG
B Y JANUARY 1958, THE
Tomorrow program was being broadcast over every inhabited

continent on Earth. We were using more than 4million
WORLD
watts of radio power every week. We were broadcasting from

Okinawa, from Mozambique into the Republic of South Africa,
and into India, over into Burma and the East Indies, and
into Eastern Africa by the three superpower beams of Radio
Ceylon, besides Radio Luxembourg, worlds most powerful
station in Europeand beamed over the British Isles.
These were very powerful stationsreaching out as far
as 2,000 miles, covering vast areas. With our coverage in
South America, we were reaching out over areas containing
approximately half of the entire worlds population.
Of course I do not mean that that many people actually
tuned in and listened to the broadcastbut that many could,
if they all owned radio sets and tuned in to hear it. Actually,
our estimate was that some 4 or 5 million actually did hear
the program during an average week of broadcasting. But
thats a vast audience!
866
But we knew well that we were only barely started!
The big growth was yet before us!
By September of that year1958another million watts
of radio power per week had been added.
Most significant among the new doors of radio being opened
to The World Tomorrow was the powerful kgo, San Francisco.
This is one of the few AA-class 50,000-watt radio stations on
the West Coast that was heard clearly up and down the Pacific
Coast from Alaska to Mexico. We were given a good time, seven
nights a week. Also newly added by that September were such
valuable stations as wpit, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; kgbx,
Springfield, Missouri; and kwjj, Portland, Oregon.
Also, by October, that year, the Plain Truth had been
increased to 32 pages. It had been printed in two colors since
February 1957. With the November 1958 number, we began
publishing, serially, The Bible Story written and illustrated
by Basil Wolverton. By that time, the circulation of the Plain
Truth had gone up to 175,000 copies.
During the early part of summer, 1958, Mrs. Armstrong
and I had driven once more back up to Oregon for a period
of fasting and rest on one of the Oregon beaches. Dick was
left in command at headquarters. In more ways than one he
showed excellent executive ability and good judgment.
We returned to Pasadena after two or three weeks.
It was along about this time that two significant events
occurrences that would seem incredible to manydirectly
involved Dick.
One, the birth of a baby. It was a most serious breech birth.
The situation was becoming desperate, and since Dick was
the ranking minister then at headquarters, he was called in
on the emergency. He drove immediately to the home where
the baby was being delivered. The doctor and the nurse were
near exhaustionperhaps more of hope than physicaland
the mother near physical exhaustion. Of course all Dick could
do was pray but pray he did, and in faith. He kept reassuring
the others but the situation was fast becoming hopeless.
Finally the doctor gave up hope, said there was nothing he
could do, unless to take the baby by cesarean section, which
867
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
the family refused to allow. The doctor went home. The

husband and the wife were counseled by Dick not to become
frantic or to lose hope but to rely on God. Dick refused to
lose faith. He continued to pray. And finally his faith was
rewarded. The fetus turned over in the womb. The doctor was
called back, and the baby was born in a normal manner.
The other incident, more amazing, involved a war veteran. He
was paralyzed in his back, in his legs and both armshelpless.
He had to be moved in a wheelchair. The military hospitals
had done everything for him that medical science could do. It
was an incurable case. He was confined to helplessness for life,
and put on a life pension for special financial support.
This man called for Dick to pray for him and ask God to
perform a miracle that he might be restored to a life of usefulness.
This was one of Dicks last acts. He did go to this man, and
following the New Testament instruction in James 5:14-15,
anointed him with oil and laid hands on him as he prayed,
asking the Eternal Creator to do what man was unable to do
and had pronounced impossible to be done.
This man, a former Yale football player, was healed and
quickly restored to the full use of arms and legs and his whole
body. He entered Ambassador College and soon was climbing
up and down ladders painting buildings.
The Last Baptizing Tour

It was shortly after this incident that Dick was off, with an
assistant, on a baptizing tour up the Pacific Coast. A number
of people had sent in written requests for counsel with a
minister and for baptism.
At the time I was using, for an office, a very small room in
what we called the penthouse atop the library building. The
room was so small that I was having to use a small womans
boudoir table for a deskan ordinary business desk was too
large for the room.
I shall never forget, of course, how Dick came briskly
running up the stairs to say goodbye.
Well Dad, he said with cheerful enthusiasm, Im off on
this trip.
868
70 | Tragedy Strikes Richard D. Armstrong
A few days later his companion, Mr. Alton Billingsley,

called me on the telephone.
Tragedy Strikes
Mr. Armstrong, he said in a voice that signaled even before
his words that something was very wrong, Weve had a
terrible accident, and Dick is in very critical condition.
Quickly I asked for all of the facts. The accident had
occurred a short distance north of San Luis Obispo, which is
about halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, on
the Coast Highway. It had been a head-on collision. Both our
men had been thrown completely out of the car. The right
third of our car had been virtually sliced clear off. Dick had
been sitting in the right front seatoften called the death
seatand had he not quickly moved to the left he would
have been killed instantly.
As I learned later, they were driving north on the Coast
Highway 101 after having baptized a man that morning. As
Mr.Billingsley was driving, Dick had opened his briefcase and
was checking his list of people to visit planning their next few
stops. They had been on a dual highwayone way traffic only
on each side of a divided highway, with a short space in between.
The divided highway had ended but somehow neither of them
had noticed it. A half block or so to their left was another paved
road running parallel to theirs, which Mr. Billingsley noticed,
supposing it to be the other two lanes of the divided highway.
Assuming that they were still on the divided highway with
only one-way traffic on their two lanes, they were driving
on the left lane to pass another car. Suddenly, from over a
slight hilltop, came another car in their lane heading directly
toward them. At this precise second they were almost past
the car on their rightbut not far enough to turn right in
front of it in order to miss the oncoming car in their lane.
There was no time for that, anyway.
Dick shouted, Turn left! Turn left!
Mr. Billingsley had only a fraction of a second to turn
partly to the left. There was not enough time to turn out of
the way of the oncoming car. Two cars, for example, speeding
869
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
toward one another at 50 miles an hour or more, seeing each

other about 150 feet away, will crash into each other in less
than one second!
The oncoming car hit them head-on, its right side striking
our mens car slightly to the right of center, and Dicks car
crashed the oncoming car into the third car that our men
were then passing. It was a three-car crash!
But I didnt wait for all these details then. I got the essential
details and I was off in a flash for San Luis Obispo. Dick had
been unconscious and taken in an ambulance to a hospital in
San Luis Obispo.
I had our switchboard telephone operator call our college
physician, Dr. Ralph E. Merrill, asking him to be ready as
I would be driving past his office in Glendale on the way to
San Luis Obispo. I asked Mr. Norman Smith, our radio studio
manager, to go with me. Dr. Merrill was ready as we drove
past. I drove as fast as I dared, consistent with safety.
Right then I was terribly aware of the danger of highway
driving, and although I wanted to make the fastest time
possible, caution and care in driving came first. It was a
strenuous drive of approximately 200 miles.
Arriving at the hospital, we found that Dick had been
transferred to another hospitalthere were two hospitals in
this little city.
We found him now conscious, but in very critical condition.
His right arm was broken at the elbow; his pelvis had been
broken badly, and they had him in traction. His jaw had
been broken in three or four places; X-rays showed that his
heart had been knocked over to the rightto the middle or
slightly right of the middle of his chest; his left lung had been
collapsed. Mr.Billingsley had been examined and released,
not sufficiently injured to remain in the hospital.
Dick wanted to rely on God for healing without medical aid.
The doctors asked for a conference with me and Dr. Merrill.
They explained that Dick was already in their care and to
protect their reputation and that of the hospital, they had to
administer medical aid or else have him moved, in which case
he probably would die before we could get him home.
870
Dr. Merrill, who himself had been healed by direct prayer

and understood both sides of this problem, advised us against
moving him in his very critical condition. The hospital doctors
agreed to give him the very minimum of medical aid consistent
with their own and the hospitals protection. I learned later,
however, that in practice that meant giving him everything
medicine knew how to give. It was a very difficult decision
to makebut with so many bones broken, it certainly seemed
that we would be directly causing his death to move him out
of the traction and other trappings and contraptions that
they had him in.
Then followed one of the most tense, strenuous weeks vigil
of my life. I telephoned my wife, and she with Lois, Dicks wife,
and their 2-month-old son came to San Luis Obispo on the
train. Of course Mr. Smith and I had anointed and prayed for
Dick immediately. It was a week of almost constant prayer.
Registered nurses were required to be in constant atten-
dance around the clock. We had one RN, as they are called
in hospitals, at the college and another had applied for
entrance to Ambassador College that autumn. By telephone,
I arranged for these two to come immediately to the hospital,
and the hospital supplied the third nurse. We preferred to
have our own nurses at his side so far as possible.
It was too agonizing a week to go into in detail. Dr. Merrill had
to return to Glendale, but the rest of us remained in the hotel
in San Luis Obispo to be in as constant attendance as possible.
The accident occurred on July 23, 1958. By the evening of
July29, a very serious decision had to be made. Dicks kidneys
were not functioning enough to keep him alive much longer.
The doctors at San Luis Obispo had called specialists from
ucla Medical Center to come up for consultation. They told me
that it would be necessary to attempt to remove Dick to the
medical center in Westwood (Los Angeles) where they could
use an artificial kidney to stimulate normal action by his own
kidneys. By carrying him suspended in traction on the special
kind of pallet bed that he was strapped on, driving slowly
in an ambulance through the night, they felt that they could
successfully move him to the Los Angeles medical center. Our
871
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
two nurses and one or more of their doctors went along in the
ambulance. Also, Mr. Norman Smith, who had remained the
week with me, went along with them.
We tried to get a little sleep through part of that night,
rising and leaving about 5 a.m. for Los Angeles. We felt we
should arrive not too much later than the ambulance, since it
was to drive very slowly.
During the week, Dick had had various ones of us read the
Bible to him. In spite of the pain and the terrible condition,
he kept in good spirits. Once, in prayer, he began thanking
God for the many, many blessings that had been lavished on
him. The nurse in attendance said that this continued a long
timehe had so very many things to be thankful for.
I had typed out a number of biblical promises that God had
made to us, from various parts of the Bible, for our nurses to
read to Dick in the ambulance when he was awake.
As we approached the Los Angeles area on the morning
of June 30, strange premonitions seemed to come into my
mind. I didnt tell the others. I didnt want to cause them any
concern, worry or lack of faith. This I had to fight out within
my own mind by prayer and mental concentration. Finally, it
seemed that I had won a victory over these premonitions and
I had gotten my mind again into a state of faith.
We drove into the ucla Medical Center parking lot. We left
the others in the car while Lois and I went to see Dick or to
get a report on his condition. As we approached the entrance,
Mr.Smith and our two nurses approached us with the news
that just before they could get the artificial kidney connected,
Dick had died.
There were present some of the most famous surgeons
and specialists in the nation. They cut Dick open near the
heart and tried to massage his heart back into actionthey
tried frantically everything that such specialists know, but
to no avail.
Dicks body was then sent to a mortuary in Pasadena.
It hit Lois as if she had been shot. I grabbed her, steadied her.
Steady, Lois, I said as calmly as I could. Remember you
have another very precious little life to nurse and keep alive now.
872
You must keep calm so that your milk will not be disturbed.
Lois responded bravely, like a trouper. Then we discussed
how to break the news to Mrs. Armstrong. We tried to break
it gently so it wouldnt come as too much of a shock. We tried
to keep normal composure.
Theyve taken Dick back to Pasadena, I said, trying to be
casual as if everything was OK. But no one ever could mislead
my wife. She almost faintedfor she knew that we were only
trying to ease the blow. But she always was a real trouper too,
and she quickly recovered without going to piecesthough
naturally wounded to the very depths.
873
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25TH ANNIVERSARY
his mother and me.

I T WAS AN AGONIZING WEEK FOR LOIS,
No one, of course, but a mother, can describe or fully appreciate

a mothers love for her son. But fathers love their sons, too. And
my affection for Richard David had been greatly deepened by
the special circumstances under which he had been born.
My Time of Trial
It is, of course, natural for every father to want a son. When
our first child was a girl, I was not disappointed. Few fathers
would be. Nor was I disappointed when our second child was
another daughter. But when the ranking most famous obstet-
rical specialist in the world, in a Chicago hospital pulling my
wife through a near-fatal mid-pregnancy toxemia eclampsia
with 30 percent albumin in the urine, warned us gravely that
she could never undergo another pregnancy without fatal
results to her and the child, I was disappointed beyond words
to describe. I had to resign myself to a sonless life.
And this medical pronouncement was confirmed by two
other doctors.
We didnt know then, and Im not sure these doctors knew,
the real reason. Apparently not too much was understood
at that time by the medical profession about this negative-
positive Rh blood-factor condition. But my wife and I were
opposites in that regard.
874
I had been forced to resign myself to a future without
possibility of ever having a son.
Then, eight years later, in Portland, Oregon, Mrs.Armstrong
had beenas recounted earliersuddenly, completely
healed of several serious complications by a positive miracle
resulting from believing prayer. We knew then, by faith, that
whatever had been the disturbing factor to render another
pregnancy fatal had been removed by this healing.
I knew then that God would give me a son.
And ever since, I felt that the day Richard David was born
was the happiest day of my life.
I was perfectly satisfied then. God had blessed me with a son.
He had been conceived less than a year after my conversion.
But the great God had plans I did not know. I was perfectly
satisfied with the one son. We did not plan to have another. A
year and four months later, Garner Ted was bornand I then
felt doubly blessedwith two sons.
But when God took from meor allowed to be takenmy
firstborn son, on July 30, 1958less than three months
before his 30th birthdaywell, it seemed that I could have
some little understanding of how Abraham must have felt
when he expected to have to give up his son Isaacor even
God the Father of all, in giving His Son Jesus Christ for me as
well as for the world.
The Ordeal
Dicks death occurred early Wednesday morning, July 30,
1958. The accident had occurred the preceding Wednesday
morning. The funeral was set for Friday, August 1. The day
in between, Thursday, July 31, Mrs. Armstrong and I shared
a very sorrowful 41st wedding anniversary.
On Wednesday we conferred with Messrs. Roderick Meredith,
Herman Hoeh and Norman Smith regarding funeral arrange-
ments. They felt unanimously that it was my duty to officiate
at the funeral, which we planned for a simple graveside service
only. Through the day I drove in my car to inspect cemeteries
which I had not had occasion to do before in Pasadena. I do not
now remember whether Mrs. Armstrong and Lois went along.
875
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Necessary arrangements were completed. Lois accompanied

us to the mortuary to select the casketselecting one in the
type of wood Lois said was Dicks favorite.
To say that my comparatively brief graveside sermon was
an ordeal would be a gross understatement. I had learned,
many years before in conducting many funerals, to steel
my nerves and remain calm with controlled emotions. But
speaking at Dicks funeral was altogether different. I found
myself speaking in a louder, more concentrated voice than
usual in a supreme effort to prevent emotional loss of control.
I remember quoting a portion of Lincolns Gettysburg
Address regarding the duty of those of us remaining to carry
on the great Work to which God had called us.
My first impulse was to remain away from the Saturday
afternoon college church service. I didnt want to see anybody.
Nor did Mrs. Armstrong. But then I realized it was my duty
to attend.
I thought of entering at the last moment and sitting in the
front row before anyone could speak to me or offer condolences.
But then I realized that some of the students had erroneously
assumed that ministers were under such divine protection
that no such tragedy could occur to one of them. Dicks
accident and death might shatter this faith. I knew I had
to bring a message that would bolster and strengthen, not
destroy, faith.
These experiences were perhaps the most severe test I had
ever been called on to experience. But of course I knew where
to go for strength, wisdom and help.
We Travel to Springfield
Loiss parents had come for the funeral. She and they planned
for them to stay on a while with her in the home she and
Dick had purchased new just over a year before. Lois felt that
perhaps, with her parents in the house, she might adjust to
remaining there without Dick.
I had assisted Dick and Lois with the down payment for
the purchase of the property, and it probably was still less
than half paid off. But Dick had been thoughtful in providing
876
71 | 25th Anniversary
insurance which paid off the property in full. He also had

provided insurance for Lois. And there was an additional
$15,000 due Lois from group insurance carried by the college.
However, the few days of attempts at adjusting to living in
the house without Dick had convinced Lois, by that weekend,
that she could not live there alone.
Mrs. Armstrong, Lois and I planned a trip to get away
from the trauma-shock we had undergone. I had learned that
nothing is so quieting and relaxing to distraught nerves as
a long trip on a train. So we planned a trip to Springfield,
Missouri, to meet Ted and be with him for the final service of
his evangelistic campaign. The death of Dick had caught Ted
in a campaign he could not leave at the time.
We left almost immediately, taking either the Chief or
the Super-Chief of the Santa Fe Railroad as far as Kansas
City, changing there for a train to Springfield. Little Dicky
Richard David iiwas carried in a sort of crib basket.
It did Ted and his wife a great deal of good to have us
with them in Springfield. He, too, had undergone a most
severe ordeal.
After a few days there, we journeyed on down to the location
in Texas that later became the third campus of Ambassador
College. We were then building there, of comparatively inex-
pensive all-steel construction, what we believed to be the
largest church auditorium in Texas, as a tabernacle for an
annual eight-day festival or conventionseating 8,000.
After a day or two there, we journeyed back to Pasadena.
Soon we were engrossed in the many responsibilities of
carrying on the Work to which the living Christ had called us.
We had, shortly before this, acquired the mansion of
Mediterranean architectural design located between Mayfair
(girls student residence), and Ambassador Hall. We had done
a certain amount of remodeling to convert this property into
another girls residence on campusrenamed Terrace Villa.
Since Lois felt she could not endure living alone in the
home she had shared for a year with Dick, we converted one
wing of the ground floor of Terrace Villa into an apartment
for her and little Dicky.
877
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
This proved to be the best solution possible for Lois. She

was on campus, where there was much activity. Many other
girls were under the same roof, though she had the privacy of
her own apartment. Also, she was abundantly supplied with
babysitters whenever needed.
Frequently, from that time, during the next few years, we
all dreamed occasionally about Dick. It often seemed, in my
dreams, as if he had come back from the dead and was living
againas indeed he shalland in the not too distant future.
Surprise Banquet
On Sunday, January 4, 1959, Ted and Shirley called at our
home for Mrs. Armstrong and me. They had arranged a few
days before that we four should go to a restaurant for dinner
that eveningsince it was the 25th anniversary of The
World Tomorrow.
It was midwinter and they were wearing coats. We didnt
notice that they were in evening dress. After driving a couple
of blocks Ted suddenly said: Oh, by the way, Dad and Mom,
I wonder if youd mind stopping off at Ambassador Hall
first. Weve plenty of time, and Shirl hasnt seen the big new
chandelier we just installed in the Grand Hall. Id like to
show it to her. Would you mind?
Of course we didnt mind.
Entering fabulous Ambassador Hall, we found it all dark
which was natural on a Sunday evening. I switched on the
lights in the Grand Hall. Shirley was thrilled. For a few
moments we four stood admiring the ornate chandelier of
Czechoslovakian crystal. Then Ted suggested we have a look
at the new crystal ceiling light fixtures installed, at the same
time, in the Rosewood Room. When the doors to the Rosewood
Room were opened, a mystified Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong
were bewildered. For there seemed to be many obscure and
shadowy figures in the very dim, partially candlelit room.
The lights suddenly flashed on, to the shouts of surprise!
coming from 70 voices.
Allexcept Mrs. Armstrong and mewere in evening
dress, sitting around beautifully decorated banquet tables
878
forming one large U shape filling the large room. Huge

floral arrangements of red and white carnations decorated
the immaculate linen-covered tables gleaming with sparkling
crystal, china and silverware.
Accompanied by enthusiastic applause, Ted and Shirley
escorted Mrs. Armstrong and me to the head table. There, for
all guests to see, a red and silver banner at the base of the
large floral arrangement read: 25th anniversary.
Student waiters appeared in full dress, and began serving
a banquet of superb cuisine, probably prepared by girls in the
Home Economics class. Then I glanced over the room to recog-
nize the guests. There were all the ministers so far at the time
ordained and their wives (except two who were in England);
all faculty members of Ambassador College and wives of male
members; intimate personal friends of Mrs. Armstrong and
myself who had been associated with the Work since the early
days; and those business and professional men, who were
closely associated in a business or professional way with the
Work, and their wives.
Perhaps the keynote of the banquet was the playing
of a recorded Memory Tape, prepared by Mr. Norman
Smith, director of our radio studio. It recounted through
loudspeakers, by means of re-recording old recordings, even
back in the electrical transcription days, many memories
of the early days of the broadcast back in Eugene, Oregon.
There was a running commentary tracing the history of The
World Tomorrow, outlining the beginning and progress of
the Plain Truth magazine. We were vividly reminded of the
days in 1934 and 1935 in the stuffy little windowless office,
devoid of ventilation. In that little room many mimeographed
editions of the Plain Truth were edited and printed.
Mrs. Helen Starkey, who had been our first employee in
that unventilated office, was present with her husband, and
at my request she rose to relate a few personal experiences
of those days.
At Teds request, I rose to give our guests (or was not Iwith
Mrs. Armstrongthe guest?) a glimpse of the happenings of
those days.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Highlight of the Banquet

Perhaps the highlight of the Memory Tape was the repro-
duction of a portion of a World Tomorrow broadcast, in
which the listening audience had been taken to Paris, where
Dick cut in with our first on-the-spot broadcast, along
the Champs Elyses, reporting the military display of the
Bastille Day parade.
But the highlight of the entire evening was a presentation
to Mrs. Armstrong and me of a most unusual and superb gift,
commemorating a quarter century of broadcasting. Garner
Ted read the presentation. He said:
No anniversary would be complete without a gift. But a gift
presents a serious problem. Mr. Armstrong has repeatedly
said Mrs. Armstrong was fully 50 percent of his ministry. She
has been with him through much of the actual programming
during the last 25 years. No run-of-the-mill gift would do.
And so, in selecting an appropriate gift for the occasion, I
found the article I wanted could not possibly be purchased
on such short notice, not even at the finest jewelry stores,
silversmiths or trophy makers on the Pacific Coast.
I found it would have to be made by silversmiths in San
Francisco. And so I had to decide whether to have a gift to
present to Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong tonight, or to sacrifice
presenting it tonight in order to have a wonderful memento
specially created by master craftsmen as a permanent, lasting
memorial of this first Sunday of 1959, the 25th anniversary of
the World Tomorrow broadcast.
I decided in favor of the quality instead of the time.
And so, it gives me great pleasure to make this special
presentation to Mr. and Mrs. Herbert W. Armstrong.
As a lasting memorial of this 25th anniversary celebration,
we are having made by silversmiths in San Francisco a
beautiful desk set. The thick, long base is to be one solid
piece of specially rolled and carved sterling silver! Beautifully
matching pens will be specially made by the Sheaffer Co., and
theyll also be of sterling silver! Theyll repose in sterling pen
holders, on each end of the base. In the center, a specially
cast, hand-engraved miniature microphone, also of solid
880
sterling, will stand beside a hand-finished miniature solid

sterling silver world!
In the center, immediately in front of the mike and the world,
a gold inscription plate will read: To Mr. and Mrs. Herbert W.
Armstrong. In deep and lasting gratitude for unselfish service
as instruments in the hands of God through 25years of radio
broadcasting.
881
72
PROVIDENTIAL
ACQUISITION OF
ENGLISH CAMPUS
N OW WE COME TO THE YEAR 1959. THE
office my son Dick had opened in London had expanded as

far as it could expand. It then occupied the entire floor of an
office building in downtown London.
However, the office building occupied but small ground
area, and each floor consisted of only three office rooms,
besides corridor and lift (elevator to Americans).
When Garner Ted and I boarded an sas (Scandinavian
Airlines System) polar-flight DC-7 plane at Los Angeles
International Airport in early June 1959, we had no idea
whatsoever of establishing another liberal arts college campus
in England. Our purpose was to find larger office quarters.
We did have in mind combining new and enlarged office
space with an altogether different kind of college. We felt it
might be advisable to open a small college for men only, of
various races and nationalities. The idea of such a college was
to make it primarily a college for training men either as minis-
ters or for religious service among various races and countries,
as the broadcast and the Plain Truth developed need.
882
We arrived in Copenhagen about 3 oclock in the morning.
It was already becoming daylightCopenhagen is far north
where the days are very long in summer and very short in winter.
There was some mix-up in our hotel reservations. I think we
were to go to one hotel and learn there what hotel our travel
agent had booked for us. Anyway, I remember that after an hour
or two waiting in the lobby of the hotel to which our taxi first
took us, we transferred to another hotel several blocks away.
First Ship Radio Station

This was our first visit to one of the Scandinavian countries.
We took this flight, stopping first at Copenhagen, because we
wanted to contact the first radio station that we had heard of
operating offshore from a ship. The offices of this station were
in Copenhagen. Also, we wanted the thrill of a polar flight,
and, as I remember, only this sas flight from Los Angeles to
Copenhagen was then operative as a polar flight. Flying on
the pre-jet prop plane was much slower than todays jets.
I was not able to contact the manager of the station, who
was out of town. However, I did contact him later by telephone.
Nothing definite came of it at the time, but it did open to
our investigation the idea of broadcasting from offshore ship
stations to countries where no radio time can be purchased or
used by The World Tomorrow.
We enjoyed a day in Copenhagen, and then flew on to
Cologne, Germany. We carried with us a portable Ampex tape
recorder. In fact it was the first of the Ampex 600 modelsI
believe ours was the first set from the factory. This was the
first portable tape recorder that was of professional broadcast
quality, so that programs recorded on it would be acceptable for
broadcast by the largest, most discriminating radio stations.
At Cologne, in our hotel room, I recorded a program, which
I wanted to do from inside Germany.
German Enthusiasm for Work

We were much impressed by the phenomenal progress the
Germans had made, since our last visit, in recovering from
the war. Now factories and downtown business blocks and
883
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
stores and offices not only had been rebuilt, and residential
apartments constructed, but we noticed a much finer, more
expensive quality of merchandise displayed in store windows.
Cologne suffered one of the worst beatings by Allied
bombing of any city80 percent to 90 percent destroyed. In
all their cities, the Germans rebuilt first their factories and
industrial and production facilities. People lived in temporary
shacks or small temporary houses. They kept them neat and
planted roses, flowers, shrubs for beauty outside working
hours. Stores operated, at first, from bombed-out wreckage or
any temporary kind of quarters.
Production came first, not fine living. In 1956 and 1958 I
was awakened frequently in hotel rooms by Germans walking
briskly to work about 5 or 5:30 a.m., yodeling or singing lustily.
While the English, supposedly the victors of the Second World
War, lolled around, came to tea and took an occasional work
break, the Germans worked with enthusiasm, vigor and purpose.
Today the whole world sees the result. I talk a good deal
about cause and effect. Every condition is the result of a
cause. If Britain has gone down economically, no longer a
world power, virtually bankrupt today, there has been a cause.
The English, in their proud and stubborn attitude, have
refused to acknowledge the cause they were producing. Now
they are down and, as an important nation in the world, out!
They have toppled the bars of moral restraint. They have gone
in for laziness, indolence, gambling and haughty, stubborn
indifference. They are beginning now to really reap what they
have been sowing!
The British have written a lesson they still refuse to learn
or admit.
But every visit we made to Germany, we noticed the cause
of a dynamic economic upsurgehard work, industry, vigor,
purpose. They have purposed to come back. They are once
again beginning to shout: Deutschland ber alles!
Office Hunting in London

From Cologne, Garner Ted and I flew over to London. There,
Raymond McNair, in charge of the Work in Britain and
884
72 | Providential AcQuisition of English Campus
Europe, and our business manager of the London office had

been searching for a larger, more suitable office space prior to
our arrival, hoping to have a few desirable selections for our
decision. This time we wanted office space in a building where
additional office rooms could be leased as our needs expanded.
But up to that point their efforts had not been very
rewarding. Most of those they had inspected were not suitable
or worth showing to us. They did have three or four, one of
which they termed the least of the evils. After looking them
over, we agreed with their appraisal.
One we inspected was a three-story, old, badly maintained
apartment building. We supposed it could be used for the
kind of college we had in mind, for a small numberperhaps
not over 35men of different races. They could live in the
apartment rooms, mostly very small, and the one or two
lounge rooms might be enlarged by tearing out a few partitions
and doing a remodeling job. These might be used as offices
and classrooms. But the place was of third-rate quality, old,
ill-keptand the price was too high.
It was very discouraging.
Lastly, they showed us the least of the evils. It had once
been a mansion, or home of very good quality, three stories,
and a block and a half north of Regents Park. It was fairly
close to the downtown business section. The location was
good. It occupied a lot of about 75 or 85 feet width. But it, too,
had been neglected, poorly maintained. Of course we knew
we could give it a going-over. It could provide sufficient office
space, and perhaps we could use it for our small, limited-size
college of the type we then had in mind.
And ThenOut of the Blue!

We had spent two or three days looking. Mr. McNair had
spent several days looking prior to our arrival. It began to
seem like we were going to have to settle for this least of the
evils. It could be bought, and on terms we could handle. But
we were not a bit happy with the idea.
Mr. McNair had entered Ambassador College in October
1948, in the second year of its existence. He had always been
885
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
a steady, balanced, persistent pluggernever quitting

never giving up. He didnt give up now. He continued to
telephone estate agents.
Then, suddenly one of these agents suggested something
he didnt suppose we would be interested inbut he ventured
to suggest it; a place just outside greater London, north by
northwest, in the Green Belt. It was a fairly large house, larger
than the least of the evils. It had a few acres of grounds.
Could you handle the office work from a location that far
out? I asked.
Yes, said Mr. McNair, I think we could if the place were
otherwise satisfactory.
Why dont we go out and have a look at it yet this evening?
I suggested.
It was arranged.
Finally, after we had gotten completely out of London, we
had to drive down a lane, and then a still narrower, winding,
twisting lane. It didnt raise our anticipations. But then, we
were getting used to disappointments.
Finally we turned in to the place. There was a sign:
Hanstead House. I dont know why, but that name sounded
very unattractive to me.
Then suddenly we came to the iron gates in front of the
mansion. It was like turning suddenly from the back alleys
of discouragement and dilapidated disappointments into a
millionaires beautiful mansion and grounds!
This place, too, had been neglected for two years. Weeds
were hip-high. But the house looked proud and majestic. We
could not see in very wellit was almost darkbut what we
could see appeared to be in reasonably good condition inside.
The building was of stone and stucco. It had a very attractive
and fairly impressive entrance. There was, on the south side,
what appeared to have been an expanse of lawnnow high
in weeds. But on either side of that weed-grown lawn were
rows of the most beautiful and stately cedars of Lebanon we
had ever seen.
We were a little excited. This began to look promising!
I want to see the inside of this mansion, I said. Can you
886
72 | Providential AcQuisition of English Campus
arrange for us to come back tomorrow morning, with the

agent, to let us inside?
Well stop by his home on the way back to the hotel and try
to arrange it, Mr. McNair responded. It was arranged for a
complete inspection at 10 the next morning.
This time two others of our staff went along. We planned
to arrive at 9:30, to go carefully over the grounds and talk it
over privately among ourselves before the agent arrived.
When we arrived, in full daylight, all four of us were
tremendously impressed. We began walking around. I
noticed three large urns in what appeared to have been a
garden in front of the front entranceone a very large and
costly urn. Then we discovered that there was an aviary. We
discovered a little brook running down what appeared to
have been a very fine and costly garden. At least I noticed,
among the weeds, several plants I knew to be very fine and
expensive shrubs.
We also had noticed that there was an informal English
sunken garden on the east side of the mansion, and there
were four large greenhouses.
We didnt know, then, that there was such a beautiful
formal garden on the west front, the most magnificent rose
garden we had ever seen, and a very exotic Japanese garden
through which the little brook ranthese were so thickly
covered with weeds we did not discover them.
The young men began to shout.
Almost in unison, we all exclaimed, This is providential!
This means God wants another full liberal arts coed college
in England, just like the one in Pasadena! It was like a
sudden realizationa knowinga recognizing of the divine
guidance and intervening to show us His will!
The other fellows were shouting for joy.
Hey, pipe down! I said. Not so loud! If that estate agent
arrives and hears you fellows, the price will double! Besides,
we havent bought it yet, and we dont know whether we can!
There was not really any doubt in our minds, though. It
was like recognizing a revelation straight from God. We knew
this meant we were to establish a college in England. Not the
887
kind of college we had in mind. The kind we now recognized
God had in mind.
This may seem preposterous to some readers, I know. But
we are engaged in Gods Work. We have learned how God
works. It was like God had flashed a message straight from
heaven like a sudden bolt of lightning.
Here was a college campus, already there! We knew that, for
this purpose, we would need additional buildings for admin-
istration offices, for dormitories, perhaps for additional class
and lecture rooms. We knew, too, that in the Green Belt it
would be almost impossible to obtain a building permit to erect
additional new buildings.
But on this place we noticed there were quite a number of
very superb horse stables, cow barns and even a building for an
electric generating plant. We felt sure we could obtain a permit
to remodel those existing buildings suitable for our usage.
Of course we knew there were many problems to hurdle.
We had, first, to see whether the county authorities would
grant us a change of occupancy permit to operate a college at
that location. And there was the rather big matter of negoti-
ating for the purchaseand whether we would be able.
When we inspected the inside we saw that this Hanstead
House, as it was then named, was a very ornate building of
fine qualitycomparable in quality and size to Ambassador
Hall on our Pasadena campus. Ambassador Hall is the former
Hulett C. Merritt mansion and estate, the most fabulous place
in Pasadena. Ambassador Hall had come to us virtually as a
gift. When we saw the ornate interior of Hanstead House, we
began to have misgivings. Perhaps we would find the price
completely beyond our reach.
Besides, the estate agents office had intimated that twa
was considering the purchase of the property to be used as a
school for stewardesses.
Yet this mansion, with these outstanding gardens, the
aviary, greenhouses, cedars of Lebanon, all finally came to us
for 8,000 (us$22,800)the not uncommon price of a five- or
six-room cottage on a 40- or 50-foot lot in Americaand that
on terms that gave us several years to pay.
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AFTERWORD
EDITORS NOTE
The events of 1959 were the last that Herbert W. Armstrong wrote
for his autobiography. These appeared in the Plain Truth magazine
in 1968. This afterword summarizes the remaining 27 years of
Mr. Armstrongs life based on his public letters and editorials.
19591965
In June 1959, Mr. Armstrong announced the providential
purchase of one of Englands fine, spacious country estates.
The 10-acre estate included landscaped lawns, rose gardens,
stables, accommodations and a stately 33-room mansion for
classroom space, offices, mailing rooms and student housing
for a new campus: Ambassador CollegeBricket Wood.
As he oversaw the myriad decisions leading up to opening the
new campus, Mr. Armstrong continued to direct the expanding
Work of the Church. Soon after the college opened, he took his
first trip around the world to Sydney, Australia, to book 39
additional radio stations, giving the World Tomorrow broad-
cast coverage of about 98 percent of the Australian population.
In February 1961, Mr. Armstrong wrote co-workers that
a string of new, major metropolitan American radio stations
had agreed to air The World Tomorrow seven nights a week.
Station managers had been skeptical about clearing time for a
religious program but changed their minds when they learned
that The World Tomorrow did not solicit donationsand that
in cities like Denver and Nashville, it was the most listened-to
radio program on the air. After describing several improbable
strings of events that led to the securing of one 50,000-watt
station after another, Mr. Armstrong wrote: Co-workers, does
889
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
this give you a little clearer idea why I need to ask you contin-
ually to pray for this Work? Without divine intervention, we
would not be able to get on any of the really major superpower
stations. I know that hundredsmaybe thousandsof you
co-workers were praying earnestly for this Work the past two
weeks. That is why all these miracles happened so suddenly
all at once!! Never has anything like this happened before!!
In March 1963, Mr. Armstrong began our austere year.
Although The World Tomorrow continued to add stations, it
did so at a slower rate, and it cut lower-performing stations.
Necessary construction and the growth of the student body
continued at the two Ambassador College campuses, but
opening the third campus in Big Sandy, Texas, was post-
poned a year. Maintenance of the campuses continued, but
beautification projects were postponed. And still the Work of
God continued to grow, staffed by hundreds of trained men
and women and now reaching an estimated 22 million people
or more around the world.
The growth continued and the year of austerity ended:
Ambassador CollegeBig Sandy, Texas, came on line in the
fall of 1964.
In 1965, a phenomenon caught Mr. Armstrongs attention,
to which he devoted his August Plain Truth Personal. It was
the fact that Ambassador Collegewith its three campuses
each starting humbly with nothing but small groups of people
and faith in Godwas now attracting students, graduates and
post-graduates from more than 160 other colleges, including
Oxford, Yale, Harvard and other famous universities across
the United States and in Canada, Mexico, England, Australia,
New Zealand and beyond. They came from prestigious univer-
sities to Ambassador College, as undergraduates, to receive
an education they could obtain nowhere else on Earth.
19661970
The year 1966 brought Mr. Armstrong on another around-
the-world trip to Australia, this time accompanied by his wife.
Over the previous 5 years, hundreds of Australians had
come into Gods Church, and the Churchs message on radio
890
Afterword
and in print was continuing to reach thousands and even

millions of Australians.
In February 1967, Mrs. Armstrong was stricken with a
serious intestinal condition. What seemed to be an attack
of appendicitis proved to be something more critical. With
advice from a member with a medical background, Mr. and
Mrs. Armstrong did everything they could without putting
their faith in doctors. But then, Mr. Armstrong wrote, The
time had come to stand still, and commit it into Gods hands.
A month and a half later, Mr. Armstrong wrote with
sorrow: [M]y wifes critical illness has ended in the manner
least expectedin her death just after midnight Saturday
morning, April 15. In the next second of her consciousness
she will awake in the resurrection, completely healedand,
far more than we beseeched God in our earnest prayers, not
in the corruptible body of this mortal flesh and blood, but in
an immortal spirit body, in glory in Gods eternal Kingdom!
Even after the death of Loma D. Armstrong, the woman
through whom Mr. Armstrong himself learned about the
truth, who helped him build Gods Work, and to whom he
was married for nearly 50 years, the Work continued to soar.
In June, Plain Truth circulation hit 1 million.
On December 10, 1968, Mr. Armstrong announced a dramatic
open door of a new and different kind: Ambassador College had
entered a joint archaeological project with Hebrew University
of Jerusalem to excavate at the south side of the Temple Mount
under Prof. Benjamin Mazar. Mr. Armstrong wrote that this
several-acre project would lend prestige to Ambassador College,
contribute to the known fund of knowledge, and prepare for
Jesus Christs supernatural return to Jerusalem by cleaning
up the filth and rubble in the original area of Jerusalem and
the City of David.
In August 1969, Mr. Armstrong wrote that the Work,
which had grown by an average of 27 to 30 percent year
over year for 35 years, was now facing a significant financial
shortfall. The reach of the Work had grown 65 percent over
the previous year, he said, but the income had grown by
11percent, less than half of what the Church had budgeted
891
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
for. Mr. Armstrong was forced to cut print advertising in half

and to cancel some of the stations the Church had worked
hard to convince to accept The World Tomorrow. In response,
radio station managers sent to The World Tomorrow piles of
letters from listeners who pleaded for it to stay on the air.
Even with the financial dip, Mr. Armstrong was able to
write at the end of 1969, What a decade it has been! It has
seen this great Work of God grow to more than 10 times the size
and scope of January 1, 1960! Since that date, circulation of
the Plain Truth jumped from about 210,000 to more than 2.1
million. Its staff multiplied from 4 to 73. The World Tomorrow
grew its total radio power from 9 million watts to more than
90 million watts, and its potential listeners from 10 million
to more than 150 million. The Church also now published
Tomorrows World (circulation: 350,000), and The World
Tomorrow was on television. The Work of the Worldwide
Church of God reached 1 in every 23 people on Earth.
But most important of all, Mr. Armstrong wrote, the
number converted by the Spirit of the living God, and baptized
by the ministers of this Work of God, is also more than 10
times the number of 10 years ago!
And so, co-workers with Christ, let us take encouragement
in the fact that God has used us of today in multiplying the
harvest of His Work 10 times in 10 years!
But storm clouds were on the horizon, and Gods Church
was about to face much more serious trials in the new decade:
the 1970s.
19711975
The 1970s brought a series of new, unexpected and massive
open doors for Mr. Armstrong and the Work. In a 1971
co-worker letter, Mr. Armstrong revealed a turn of events
that was more than providential; it was miraculous. The door
had first begun to crack open in 1968.
Coincidence number one, Mr. Armstrong wrote, was that
the wife of the Churchs office manager in West Germany
happened to show an Ambassador College yearbook to a friend
in Brussels. The friend was so impressed that he showed the
892
Afterword
yearbook to one of his other personal friends: Belgiums King

Leopoldiii.
King Leopold was so intrigued by the quality of the photo-
graphs, and the qualities of the Ambassador students who
were in them, that he asked to meet the founder of the college.
This meeting grew into a cordial relationship and collabora-
tion with the kings Belgian Foundation.
Coincidence number two came in September 1968, when the
colleges dean of faculties urged Mr. Armstrong to visit Israel
and consider approving an Ambassador College archaeological
excavation there. Mr. Armstrong was initially uninterested.
But when they arrived, Mr. Armstrong was amazed by the
scope of Prof. Benjamin Mazars work. This project became the
big dig joint participation between Ambassador College and
Hebrew Universitya collaboration that Tourism Minister
Moshe Kol said should become an iron bridge relationship.
Upon committing to the agreement, Israeli President Zalman
Shazar became the first head of state to receive Mr. Armstrong
at the presidential palace.
Coincidence number three came as Mr. Armstrong
left Jerusalem for Hong Kong and Tokyo to consult with
advertising representatives from Readers Digest magazine.
There, he discovered that Ambassadors chairman of the Asian
studies department was acquainted with Prince Mikasa and
had shown him a copy of the 1966 Envoy. The prince, brother
of Emperor Hirohito, asked to meet Mr. Armstrong. When
Mr.Armstrong returned to Tokyo two years later, Prince
Mikasa held a dinner in his honor, asking him to address
60professors from Japanese universities.
These coincidences led to more coincidences, which led
to even more coincidences.
Mr. Armstrong did not initiate meetings with the king, the
professor or the prince. Nor would he initiate meetings with
the presidents, first ladies, kings, queens, prime ministers,
legislators, judges, ambassadors, professors, educators and
other leaders he would meet during the 1970s. Yet he visited
more of them than perhaps any other man alive.
In the first half of the 1970s, Mr. Armstrong met a huge
893
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
number of world leaders. In one six-month period, he took

three around-the-world trips.
In the early 1970s, Mr. Armstrong met with Israeli Prime
Minister Golda Meir twice; leading German politician
Franz Josef Strauss; Indian President V.V. Giri; Japanese
Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Eisaku
Sato; Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos; Indian Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi; King Mahendra of Nepal; King
Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand; Jerusalem Mayor Teddy
Kollek; Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) Prime Minister Sirimavo
Bandaranaike; U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Keating; Japanese
Diet members Bunsei Sato, Keiwas Okuda, Mitsuiro Ishii and
Kazuo Shionoya; Japanese Minister of Commerce and Industry
Kakuei Tanaka; Indonesian President Suharto; Indian
International Court of Justice Judge Nagendra Singh; Thai
Prime Minister Thanom Kittikachorn and Princess Sukhuma;
Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer; Okinawa Gov. Chobyo Yara;
Lebanese President Suleiman Franjieh; Bangladeshi Prime
Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and President Aby Sabeed
Choudhury; Israeli President Ephraim Katzir; Ethiopian
Emperor Haile Selassie; Netherlands Prince Bernhard; King
Hussein of Jordan; and numerous others.
Mr. Armstrong also met hundreds of other leaders in various
offices: prime minister, foreign minister, governor general,
minister of education, minister of social welfare, minister of the
environment, high commissioner, crown prince, prince regent,
adviser, ambassador, consul general, judge, university presi-
dent, professor, chairman of university board of governors, and
othersfrom Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Singapore, Hong Kong,
Saigon, Nepal, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Cambodia,
Israel, Lebanon, Indonesia, Romania, Mexico, Guatemala,
Costa Rica, Panama, Argentina, Peru and elsewhere. Some
of these legislators, mayors, professors, princesses and kings
accompanied Mr. Armstrong on the Churchs private jet to
other world capitals and to the Ambassador College campus.
Some of their children attended Ambassador College.
Dozens of heads of state and other leaders met Mr.Armstrong
not just briefly on one occasion, but repeatedly and at length in
894
Afterword
their official offices or residences. Some of these were covered

by national news media, and on some occasions Mr.Armstrong
was treated like a diplomat. Many of these prominent leaders
arranged banquets in Mr.Armstrongs honor or asked him to
speak to gatherings of dozens of ambassadors, legislators and
other prominent men and women.
In 1972, a monumental two-year construction project
began to alter the landscape of the Church and the skyline
of Pasadena. Ambassador Auditorium opened its doors for its
inaugural concert on April 7, 1974. For 20 years, the building
would host more than 2,500 concerts and recitals in addi-
tion to other events, bringing thousands of visitors onto the
Ambassador College campus to see Luciano Pavarotti, Plcido
Domingo, Claudio Arrau, Leontyne Price, Vladimir Ashkenazy,
Victor Borge, Horacio Gutierrez, Alicia de Larrocha, Arthur
Rubinstein, Andrs Segovia, Yo-Yo Ma, Jean-Pierre Rampal,
Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Sammy Davis Jr., Benny Goodman,
Frank Sinatra, Emmylou Harris, Oscar Peterson, Marcel
Marceau, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic,
Juilliard String Quartet, the Chieftains, and hundreds of
other performers.
During this time frame, Mr. Armstrong also decided to begin
public-speaking campaigns in major cities. These campaigns
attracted tens of thousands of Plain Truth subscribers. The
first was scheduled for Manila, the Philippines. But just as Mr.
Armstrong arrived in the city, a major blow struck the Church.
A group of 35 ministers led a major rebellion, largely against
the authority of Garner Ted Armstrong, but also against Mr.
Armstrong. Garner Ted, Mr. Armstrong wrote, was making
day-to-day decisions as executive vice presidentand some
major, unauthorized decisions that Mr. Armstrong discovered
later. Misunderstandings about divorce and remarriage and
other doctrines caused serious problems. Accusers also said
Mr. Armstrong and others at headquarters were mishandling
funds. The group and those who followed along rejected the
belief that God was behind Mr. Armstrong.
Mr. Armstrong was forced to cancel the Manila campaign
before it started and fly back to Pasadena.
895
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
This crisis in loyalty among a group of Church members

sparked an interesting reaction among the world leaders who
knew Mr. Armstrong well. Government officials sent messages
of loyalty and support, including one group of Japanese
legislators who signed their telegram: Yours respectfully,
Your eight Japanese sons, Bunsei Sato and other Members
of Japanese Diet.
The attempt to wrest control of the Church from Gods
apostle, Mr. Armstrong, failed. But 35 ministers and about
2,000 members were gone. During this same year, troubles
in England forced Mr. Armstrong to close the Bricket Wood
campus after 14 years of operation.
Two months after he had been forced to cancel the Philippines
campaign, Mr. Armstrong enthusiastically reported that it
had been successfully rescheduled. In Manila, Mr. Armstrong
was greeted by prominent members of the city and provided
with a siren-blaring police escort for the duration of his
nine-day stay. He spoke to hundreds of people, met the mayor
at a press conference, appeared in newspapers and radio news,
sat for several interviews, saw a Worldwide Church of God
documentary aired on Philippine network television, received
an honorary doctorate of humanities, dined with junior
chamber of commerce leaders, and addressed an auditorium
of university students and faculty at the largest university in
the Philippines.
But now we had come to the big event! Mr. Armstrong
wrote. After being introduced by the vice president of a major
university (one of three Asian university presidents who had
recently visited Ambassador College), Mr. Armstrong spoke
in person to a largely filled, 24,000-seat coliseum on three
consecutive nights. He would go on to deliver another major
campaign in Kenya. [T]his is the most important of the things
Gods tithes, which you send in, are going for! Mr.Armstrong
wrote. God has opened the doors. God has been in itit has
gone out in power! It is now full steam ahead!
In mid-1975, Mr. Armstrong established the Ambassador
International Cultural Foundation, a non-profit organization
to oversee the Churchs humanitarian projects that were
896
Afterword
being conducted in large part through Ambassador College

extension programs: archaeological excavations in Jerusalem
and Tel Zeror; the International Cultural Center for Youth
in Jerusalem; anthropological explorations in New Guinea by
King Leopoldiii of Belgium; efforts to educate the mountain
people of Nepal; an initiative to help Thailand hill tribes replace
opium crops with vegetable crops; archaeological excavations
in Iraq; cultural-educational activities with the shah of Iran;
worldwide fund-raising for handicapped children; supporting
the World Wildlife Association; aiding the blind, elderly, and
crippled children in some American cities; the Ambassador
Auditorium concert series; and many more projects.
The living God has moved these past four years to give me,
as your fellow minister whom you call Gods apostle, and as
Gods chosen servant for getting His true gospel into all the
world, for a witness to all nations just before the end of this
age, almost unbelievable prestige, favor and stature in the
eyes of many kings, emperors, presidents, prime ministers
and other high leaders of many nations, Mr. Armstrong
wrote to Church ministers on February 22, 1974. I am now, by
Gods grace, received in many world capitals as an ambassador
for world peace. I can assure, with authority and confidence,
world leaders and heads of state that world peace not only is
possible, but is definitely coming in our time. And this in spite
of the fact that the efforts of world leaders for 6,000 years
have brought no peace but repeated wars.
19761980
The latter half of the 1970s brought more flights to world
capitals and meetings with world leaders. During one trip to
South Africa, Mr. Armstrong spoke to 30 groups, gave press
conferences and radio and television interviews, met Prime
Minister John Vorster and former President J.J. Fouche,
met mayors and leaders from Port Elizabeth and Edenvale
(most of whom had been reading the Plain Truth for years),
and spoke to crowds of 750 or more Plain Truth subscribers
at public appearance campaigns in Capetown, Durban and
Johannesburg. Nine months later, he met and addressed about
897
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
80 delegates in Southwest Africa (now Namibia), including

Windhoek Mayor Dries Yssel, as they drafted the countrys
new constitution. The special session at the Turnhalle in
Windhoek was held especially to hear Mr. Armstrong.
During this period, Mr. Armstrong met with Israeli Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin; Kuwaits ruler, Sheikh Saba al
Salem al-Sabah; Chilean President Salvador Allende; Thai
Prime Minister Thanin Kraivichien; South African President
Nicolaas Diederichs; Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta; and
Swaziland King Sobhuzaii. He also addressed ministers, the
legislative assembly and citizens of the Republic of Transkei
(now dissolved) as it was being created; met with the mayor
of Pretoria, South Africa, a keen Plain Truth reader; dined
with the Israeli ambassador to Japan and other members of
the Israeli embassy; delivered a keynote address in Tokyo to
a banquet including several high-ranking Japanese officials
and 13 ambassadors from 13 countries. The Diet members
who called themselves Mr. Armstrongs Japanese sons
increased from eight to 15. Between the early 1970s and the
end of his life, Mr. Armstrong met seven Japanese prime
ministers: Eisaku Sato, Kakuei Tanaka, Takeo Miki, Takeo
Fukuda, Masayoshi Ohira, Zenko Suzuki and Yasuhiro
Nakasone. Mr. Armstrong even introduced Diet members to
other government leaders they had not yet met.
In August 1976, Mr. Armstrong wrote Church members
and co-workers with an update on the cultural foundations
work in Jerusalem. Mr. Armstrong visited Israel numerous
times; during one four-year period he returned to Jerusalem
about 50 times.
Our very important friends in Israelfrom the president
and prime minister of the country on down in the government
and from President Harmon and vice president [Bernard
Cherrick] on down in the university, have been not only most
friendly and cordial, but moreaffectionate!
Mr. Armstrong wrote that Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek
led a tour of the Old City and showed Mr. Armstrong the
site of the childrens playground at a city park that had been
sponsored by the Ambassador Foundation.
898
Afterword
Regarding his world travels, Mr. Armstrong wrote in May

1977, Right now this is first on the priority list in Gods
sight, because the first thing on Gods mind is restoring the
government of God to this Earth, and this new phase of the
Workthe open door operation worldwide is the present
activity leading to it.
In April 1977, Mr. Armstrong wrote a letter to the members
announcing his marriage to a woman named Ramona Martin.
He wrote about how he had been traveling constantlyin the
previous year, 300 out of 365 daysand how loneliness has
reawakened me to the serious need God recognized when He
said, It is not good that a man should be alone. He said that
God had provided him a wife, and that the two of them were
married in an informal and simple ceremony, attended only
by our respective families on Sunday, April 17.
In August of that year, Mr. Armstrongs heart stopped.
[T]he nurse who was in charge has told me that she came in
and saw that my face was ashen white, and immediately she
took my pulse and there wasnt any, he told ministers at a
March 1978 conference. So the blood was not circulating, not
to show even one point on the blood-pressure instrument. So
then they started working over me, and I think Ted anointed
me. My wifes sister was there. This was because my wife,
who feared something like this, had kept her there, because
she was experienced in first aid and things of that kind. She
and the nurse used mouth resuscitation and heart massage
until they got me breathing.
The nurses estimate from the time she had noticed this
until I began taking the first breath was at least 30 seconds.
Shortly after theyd told me what had happened, I felt that
if my work in Gods hands were finished and God didnt have
any further use for me in His Work, that I would rather have
remained dead. Because if they hadnt intervened, I would
have been buried in two or three days.
But I realize that God has shown me something by two
miracles. No. 1, He restored my life when I was already past 85
years of age. And, second, neither I nor my nurses had ever
heard of anyone of like age being restored by that process after
899
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
almost complete loss of mind, my brain virtually a vegetable.

And I was restored with my mind just as intact as it ever was.
In 1978, Mr. Armstrong finished what I believe to be the
most important book since the very first century! Never in
our time has any book or writing spoken as this new book will!
Its title is The Incredible Human Potential. It is the message
of the entire Bibleput together as never before . The book
was made available in bookstores all over the United States
and the English-speaking world, and was also distributed
directly by the Church free of charge, like the Churchs other
literature. Mr. Armstrong also updated many of those vital
booklets that built the Work including The United States
and Britain in Prophecyback to full length!
By 1979, Herbert W. Armstrong was recognized in distant
capitals as an unofficial ambassador for world peace. In
December, he became the first Christian church leader to
officially visit government leaders inside Communist China.
What Mr. Armstrong said may be his most important trip
to date included a meeting at the Great Hall of the People
with Tan Zhenlin, vice chairman of the National Peoples
Congress and one of the top three leaders in China. The visit
culminated in an address where Mr. Armstrong spoke about
prophetic events that would unfold in Europe, the Middle
East and Asia to elite Chinese leaders and diplomats repre-
senting 57 nations.
In mid-1978, Mr. Armstrong had taken on another huge
responsibility: He began broadcasting again on The World
Tomorrow and initiated a push to reacquire hundreds of radio
and television stations to air the programs. This was because
of what had happened with his son, Garner Ted.
In the 1960s, Garner Ted Armstrong had taken over much
of the World Tomorrow broadcast responsibilities. As listeners
and viewers tuned in throughout the decade, the man they
heard and saw was Garner Ted. He was listened to by millions
of people daily. But by September 1971, Mr. Armstrong later
wrote, his personal and emotional problems forced me to
quietly and privately disfellowship him. This event presaged
a turbulent year for Garner Ted Armstrong and for the Work.
900
Afterword
The younger Armstrong convinced his father to let him return

for the Feast of Tabernacles, but midway through the festival,
word reluctantly was given to me of totally improper behavior
and excessive drinking at the Feast sites he had attended.
With other ministers, Mr. Armstrong made an overnight flight
to intercept his son and bar him from further participation in
the Feast.
Late in 1971, Garner Ted again convinced his father that he
was repentant. But early in January 1972, an event happened
more serious than any before, Mr. Armstrong wrote. Along
with 10 or so evangelists, Mr. Armstrong met his son and
officially disfellowshiped and marked him. In June, Garner
Ted convinced Mr. Armstrong and three other high-ranking
ministers that he had made the necessary change of mind
and attitude. He rejoined the Work and within seven months
was reinstated as executive vice president as the workload
became too great for Mr. Armstrongs current second- and
third-highest-ranking Church executives.
Mr. Armstrong wrote later that he learned that his son was
ignoring his instructions and was making major decisions,
promoting officials he perceived to be more loyal to himself
and demoting longtime officials he thought more loyal to his
fatherthreatening to fire them if they told his father what
he was doing.
Under Garner Teds guidance, Mr. Armstrong wrote,
Ambassador College became increasingly secular and sought
accreditation. Garner Ted even appointed a man his father
did not even know as president of the college. The college had
degenerated so badly that Mr. Armstrong was forced to close
the Big Sandy campus in 1977, and then to close the Pasadena
campus in 1978 and start over with a new freshman class.
Meanwhile, Mr. Armstrong said, Garner Ted spread the
insinuation that his father was becoming too old, too mentally
senile, to lead the Church.
For a year those now in top administrative positions have
implored me to step in and once again take over complete control
under Christ as it was until some 10 years ago, Mr.Armstrong
wrote in a lengthy June 28, 1978, letter to Church members
901
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
and co-workers. I say this Church and its Work was built by
the living Christ! It was His Spirit that inspired, motivated
this entire Work, but He was being put out.
Mr. Armstrong took action, ordering his son to take a compul-
sory leave of absence. His son refused, and engaged in verbal
and letter exchanges with his father that were full of hostility.
In a member and co-worker letter, Mr. Armstrong announced
that he had taken the painful step of disfellowshiping his son,
and repented for tolerating his actions in an attempt to show
Christian love and to cover a multitude of sins.
The havoc surrounding Garner Teds actions did not end
with his excommunication. The younger Armstrong went to
the press with accusations and established his own church.
He also took part in what turned out to be a major assault on
Gods Church.
During the autumn of 1978, six disfellowshiped wcg
members began to plot a class action lawsuit against
the Church. Mr. Armstrong wrote in the June 24, 1985,
Worldwide News, This resulted in an ex parte order by a
judge. Secretly without prior notice, deputies on order of the
attorney generals office swooped down on the Church on the
morning of January 3, 1979. This launched what became the
single greatest attack against Gods 20th-century Church as
a whole to that point.
The main accusation made by Garner Ted was against
his fathers lavish spending. The charges (which were later
thoroughly disproved) prompted the state attorney general
to appoint retired Judge Steven Weisman as the receiver of
the Church.
On the morning of January 3, Judge Weisman and his
associates entered wcg headquarters in Pasadena and
summarily fired Herbert Armstrong, or so they thought.
At the time, Mr. Armstrong was residing in Tucson, Arizona,
which left him somewhat protected from the state of California.
Lawyers representing Weisman, followed by police officers,
entered the Pasadena campus and demanded access to all
documentsand full control of the Church.
Two and a half weeks later, Church members began to
902
Afterword
take action. They took time off work and school and came to
Pasadena headquarters. A slow trickle of people soon became a
flood that converged on the Hall of Administration. Thousands
of members arrived, many bringing food and bedding to
stay in the Churchs buildings and protest the receivership.
Mr.Armstrong did not organize the event. None of the Church
leaders anticipated it. It was a spontaneous reaction of faith
and courage. When threatened with imprisonment, several
members responded that they were scared of jail, but they
were still going to stand up for what they believed in.
Church officials organized an actual church service in the
Hall of Administration where the receiver wanted to set up
an office and take control of the Church. By this time, the
news of the attempted overthrow was national and was being
covered by major news networks and newspapers.
Mr. Armstrong responded from Tucson in a telephone
call to the members in Pasadena: The people of God have
always been willing to suffer whatever they have to do for the
living God! And I tell you, this has drawn us together. He
advised the members to be subject to the law, but obey God
rather than man! He said, If we have to begin to suffer the
persecution of being thrown in prison, I will be the first to go.
God is fighting this battle for us, and God is stronger than
man! That evening, the headline for the late edition of the
Los Angeles Times blared, Ready for JailArmstrong.
While fighting against an unconstitutional attack that
sought to establish state power over churches, the wcg received
the support of dozens of other churches that recognized
the danger of such an attacksupport from churches with
different doctrines, but all clinging to one common belief:
freedom of religion.
On October 14, 1980, after siphoning off hundreds of thou-
sands of dollars or more from Church funds to pay for the
unjust and illegal receivership, the state of California dropped
the case against the Church when the legislature passed a
law barring the attorney general from investigating religious
organizations the way they had accosted the Worldwide
Church of God.
903
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
19801985
After the initial attack and the response by the Church
and its membership, the litigation receded into the back-
ground as the Church entered a new decade. Meanwhile the
Church continued its Work. At this point, the Ambassador
International Cultural Foundation was supporting 42 projects
in 26 countries, and Mr. Armstrong had visited every country
in Europe, the Middle East, northern and southern Africa,
much of Asia, and every country in Central and South America.
Mr. Armstrong traveled as much as 300 days per year,
putting thousands of hours on the Churchs private jet, a tool
that enabled him to walk through more open doors of world
leaders than would otherwise be possible. While in the air,
Mr. Armstrong wrote Church members and co-workers about
these advances in the Work and typed out articles for the
Plain Truth and other publications.
In the first half of the 1980s, even more doors to world leaders
would open to Mr. Armstrong. He traveled to Auckland, New
Zealand; Melbourne and Perth, Australia; Malaysia; Thailand;
Sri Lanka; Hong Kong; Beijing and Shanghai, China; Dhaka,
Bangladesh; Vancouver, Canada; Kathmandu, Nepal; and
beyond. He addressed a large banquet of prominent leaders
in Egyptian higher education and government; spoke at a
banquet hosted by Mayor Kollek in Jerusalem, and visited
areas for youth that had been named after him; sat for a tele-
vised meeting with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat; spoke
at a banquet of Japanese leaders in Tokyo; gave speeches,
press conferences and public campaigns attracting thousands
of people in the Philippines; met European politician Otto
von Habsburg, King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya of Nepal,
and King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit of Thailand.
At the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the United
Nations, Mr. Armstrong was invited to sit at the speakers
tables, and received an offer by an ambassador to visit the
Soviet Union.
On July 30, 1982, Mr. Armstrong met British Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher at her official residence, No.10
Downing Street. On May 17, 1984, he went to the White
904
Afterword
House and met United States First Lady Nancy Reagan,

who thanked him for the cultural foundations support of
the Shanghai, China, Little Ambassadors group. On August
13, 1984, Mr. Armstrong hosted Chinese Ambassador Zhang
Wenjin at Ambassador College in Pasadena. On November7,
1984, he met with Chinese Premier Deng Xiaoping in the
Great Hall of the People. Mr. Armstrongs visit was televised
throughout China and in Hong Kong and appeared on front
pages of national newspapers with a circulation of 200 million.
Mr. Armstrong continued to fight resistance and disloyalty
to the end of his life. The betrayal reached all the way to his
marriage, when his second wife, Ramona, proved unwilling
to stay by his side in Pasadena or in travel. It appeared that
there are other agents bearing influence in this matter,
Mr.Armstrong wrote; he was forced to file for divorce in 1982.
Yet the Work moved forward. In 1985, Mr. Armstrong
reported, Never before has God given us such a leap forward
in television coverage and Plain Truth circulation as in
these past six months. During this period, Mr. Armstrong
also recorded new television and radio programs for The
World Tomorrow and took an even keener interest in young
people. He established Youth 81 magazine, reopened the Big
Sandy campus as a junior college for Ambassador, devoted
funds to the Summer Educational Program summer camps,
and oversaw the Youth Opportunities United program for
teenagers and Youth Educational Services program for
children. He underlined his mission: to turn the hearts of the
children to the parents, and the parents back to the children
(Malachi 4:6).
Meanwhile, he was working on yet another bookhis last
and best work. Since last December I have been working dili-
gently on the largest and most important book of my life, he
wrote on September 23, 1985. In real fact I feel I myself did not
write it. Rather, I believe God used me in writing it. I candidly
feel it may be the most important book since the Bible. It is
named Mystery of the Ages. This book would summarize the
doctrines, prophecies and other truths that God had revealed
to him from the Bible throughout his long life.
905
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
In late 1985, Mr. Armstrong wrote that his physical health

had been deteriorating over the previous five months. He
had been unable to leave his home or to dress in more than
bedclothes and robes for several weeks. I am now in my 94th
year, he wrote. God may grant that I may continue in this
very limited manner to direct the Work for some time, but the
occasional severe heart pains that I have endured have made
me feel the necessity of letting the entire membership know of
the condition as it is. In the letter, Mr. Armstrong instructed
that the college in Big Sandy be closed and its resources used
elsewhere in the Work. I thank you, beyond words to express,
he concluded, for your loving concern and for the many
thousands of cards and well wishes that have been coming in
from great numbers of you from all over the world.
1986
This is my first letter to you in 1986, and could very well be
my last, Mr. Armstrong wrote on January 10. Now in my
94th year I am in a very physically weakened state enduring
severe pain and with virtually no strength whatsoever. I
briefly described my condition in last months co-worker
letter to you, and now it has worsened. It may be that the
Work God has given me to do is complete, but not the Work of
Gods Church, which will be faithfully doing Gods Work till
Christ, the true Head of this Church, returns.
Each of you must commit yourself to support Gods Work,
to fast and pray. Gods Work must push ahead this coming
year as never before. God is opening new doors in television
and in the Plain Truth distribution. Help us walk through
them. Praise and thank God, and pray for His Work. Thank
you very much from the bottom of my heart for your prayers
for me personally.
Between the late 1970s and the year Mr. Armstrong died,
the Plain Truth circulation went from 1 million to more than
8million, World Tomorrow television stations jumped from
50 to nearly 400. The Churchs annual budget leaped from
$75million to $200million. In 1986, the number of calls
received by the Churchs call center in the United States was
906
Afterword
just under 2 million, with about 90,000 additional responses

to The World Tomorrow from the Churchs regional offices.
In the U.S. alone, the number of publications mailed reached
96million.
On January 16, 1986, Herbert W. Armstrong died. He left
behind a massive body of work in leading Gods Church into
a new era and restoring lost biblical doctrines to the Church.
Millions had heard his voice, and 120,000 to 140,000 had
committed to become members of Gods Church attending
Sabbath services. News media, world leaders and the everyday
people around the world recognized Mr. Armstrong and the
Work he led as something uniqueand special.
Condolences flooded in from world leaders: the king of Nepal,
the secretary general of the United Nations, consul generals
of China and Japan, the king of Thailand, ambassadors from
Thailand and Israel, mayors, members of parliament and
others, including United States President Ronald Reagan,
who wrote, To the congregation, Worldwide Church of God:
Nancy and I join all those mourning the loss of Herbert W.
Armstrong. As founder and leader of the Worldwide Church
of God, Mr. Armstrong contributed to sharing the word of the
Lord with his community and with people throughout the
nation. You can take pride in his legacy. Our prayers are with
you. God bless you.
But the lives he affected the most, and those he cared about
the most, were those whom God had called through him: the
members of Gods Church.
To learn about what happened to the Church after
Mr.Armstrongs death, request a free copy of our book Raising
the Ruins.
907
What happened to the work of
HERBERT W.
ARMSTRONG?
Here is the shocking, gripping
story of the doctrinal hijacking
and spiritual destruction of the
Worldwide Church of God after
the death of its founder.
It is the story of a cabal of leaders
who destroyed Mr. Armstrongs
work, sold the churchs assets
and hoarded the money.
It is the story of the life-and-
death, six-year court battle that
ensued when a faith-filled few
held fast to his mission and
sought to defend his legacy.
Request your own free hard-
bound copy of Raising the Ruins.
I CANDIDLY FEEL
IT MAY BE
THE MOST
IMPORTANT
BOOK
SINCE THE BIBLE!
[T]HE
BEST WORK
OF MY 93 YEARS OF LIFE.
[T]HE
MOST
VALUABLE
GIFT
I COULD POSSIBLY
GIVE TO YOU.
Read Herbert W. Armstrongs last and most important book.

Request your free copy of Mystery of the Ages.
Many additional works by Herbert W. Armstrong are owned, published

and freely distributed by the Philadelphia Church of God. Among them:
The United States and Britain in Prophecy, The Incredible Human Potential,
The Missing Dimension in Sex and The Wonderful World TomorrowWhat
It Will Be Like. We will gladly send you copies at no cost to you.
50 YEARS
OF ACCURATE
FORECASTING
Herbert W. Armstrong used Bible prophecy
to make bold predictions about world events.
His track record will astound you.
You can prove the accuracy of his prophetic

statements by reading He Was Right.
Request your free copy today and see the
certainty of biblical prophecy for yourself.
[F]or that day shall not come, except there
come a falling away first, and that man of
sin be revealed, the son of perdition.
2 T H ES S A LO N I A N S 2: 1- 3
A great falling away signals that Jesus Christ

is about to return. This falling away has already
happened. The Second Coming is extremely close.
To learn about this earthshaking event within the
Church of God, request Gerald Flurrys free book
Malachis Message to Gods Church Today.
CONTACT INFORMATION
To reach the Philadelphia Church of God to order
literature or to request a visit from one of Gods ministers:
MAILING ADDRESSES WORLDWIDE
UNITED STATES: Philadelphia

Church of God
P.O. Box 3700, Edmond, OK 73083
CANADA: Philadelphia
Church of God
P.O. Box 400, Campbellville, ON L0P 1B0
CARIBBEAN: Philadelphia
Church of God
P.O. Box 2237, Chaguanas, Trinidad, W.I.
BRITAIN, EUROPE AND MIDDLE EAST:

Philadelphia Church of God, P.O. Box 16945
Henley-in-Arden, B95 8BH, United Kingdom
AFRICA: PhiladelphiaChurch of God

Postnet Box 219, Private Bag X10010, Edenvale, 1610
AUSTRALIA, THE PACIFIC ISLES, INDIA AND SRI LANKA:

Philadelphia Church of God
P.O. Box 293, Archerfield, QLD 4108, Australia
NEW ZEALAND: PhiladelphiaChurch of God

P.O. Box 6088, Glenview, Hamilton 3246
PHILIPPINES: Philadelphia
Church of God
P.O. Box 52143, Angeles City Post Office, 2009 Pampanga
LATIN AMERICA: Philadelphia

Church of God, Attn:Spanish Department
P.O. Box 3700, Edmond, OK 73083 United States
WEBSITES
PHILADELPHIA CHURCH OF GOD: www.pcog.org

THE TRUMPET: theTrumpet.com
ARMSTRONG INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL FOUNDATION: ArmstrongAuditorium.org
HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG COLLEGE: HWACollege.org
CONNECT WITH US
EMAIL: letters@pcog.org
FACEBOOK: facebook.com/PhiladelphiaChurchofGod
TWITTER: @PCG_News

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COPYRIGHT 19571986, 2016 PHILADELPHIA CHURCH OF GOD

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

F ROM BEGINNINGS HUMBLE AND SMALL

without parallel, to the magnitude of todays enterprises and

But how did it all start?

Most commercial businesses and enterprises do well to

and radio broadcast, aired weekly in nearly every market

I had been born and reared of upstanding and stable

But when listeners, viewers and readers ask to know

E VEN FROM EARLIEST MEMORY, LIFE

always has seemed unusual, eventful, exciting.

Also there is still memory of my maternal great-grandfather,

Swearing Off Chewing

I do remember, though, that my father had a different

Those Important First Years

Old Century OutNew Century In

up and play or run around, just quietly watching the old

The Pigeon Milk Hunt

Our barn in Union was badly infested with rats. I deter-

Hurry! Come quick! Here goes a horseless carriage!

Another condition of the time illustrates how recently this

Early Religious Training

and counsel in founding Ambassador College in 1947.

The AwakeningSpark of Ambition Ignited

I had never realized before that I possessed any abilities.

Lifes Turning Point

rebellionsthe hippie movementthe campus protests, riots

A T AGE 18 I FOUND A BOOK IN THE

public library, titled Choosing a Vocation. It took the reader

proper textbooks to study in general educational areas, as well

Applying Laws of Success

self-confidence. I was snappy, confident, self-assuredyet

The Goat Work

the bell. The landlady opened the door, instantly recognizing

Finding a More Effective Way

did she appear big enough to attempt throwing me out bodily.

worldwide. Results were more than gratifying. Two such

She had a good laugh. That joke sounds about as corny

Getting Ads by Phone

prospective roomers to want to see it. I explained that the

My First Display Ads

psychology. It took the combination of all the selling psychology,

The $2-per-Week Lesson

agency of his own in Des Moines, which, I believe, gained some

Learning Rules of Success

true supreme goal. Actually I had set out on a wrong goal

at the very low price of $2 per weekly lesson. In 1947, and

The First Sidestep From the Goal

lumber mill in southern Mississippi. I was first to work a

The First Meeting With a Millionaire

First, I want to give you some advice about traveling, said

Introduction to the South

those days blacks were called Negroes and colored people.)

The New Job

besides various department managers and top-ranking

A Fish out of Water

Escape From Death

a great many dates up to this time. One thing, however,

in, a tiny typhoid germ, according to medical theories, found

T HIS DETOUR WAS MY FIRST EXPERIENCE IN

real travel. But on this job I was a total misfit.

Hiring Myself a Job

would be years before youd even work up to being noticed