I
C · · 1 · · and a fi· nanc;al l r,u+r~u-.~ .J' 1v1 war, nationa ism, ea ers ip crisis, ~ ~ --1 · 1. 1 d h ·
crunch all came to Biol a in . China in the 1930s. The H. B·. I.·- family
divided over several issues, and in some cases the old unity was
never regained. The first real blow to the Institute was financial,
and it hit first at Biola in Los Angeles. The collapse of the
stock market in 1929 nearly destroyed Biola's att~mpt to pay an
indebtedness on a second mortgage. 72 Biola was struggling and
such difficulties had immediate ramifications ·at H.B.!., whose
normal funding then became spasmodic. In 1930, the Hunan work - 73 wa~ threatened with closer; followed by the threat of being - 74·· sold in 1935 and again in 1937.
Beyond that ominous threat, donated monies designated to
Biola's "China Fund" became enmeshed in an effort to save Biola's
·i-argest endowment bequeathed by Lyman Stewart in 1923: ·The We~t~ri Machinery Company. 75 clandestine handling of the -"China donations" resulted in a heated . i __ __ letter to-~>the;·~Biol-a~ Board- Chairman, -. pr. -~ Charles = · ~. "Fuller, in -i ·::- '('__-::· - - :_ -- - - ·1. ·- _ ... - . -~ - . . -76 . - - ' - . 1933 from~l~e11er·. _, · Fi.s·cal s~·rains of ' the·· Great . Depression ! 1 prompted misunderstandings between the Los Angeles off ice and Discovery of this unwise and rather
Biola in China; not the least was the question of how funding
should -be sent to China. Keller always maintained that all
donations should be sent directly to Hunan from Biola - with the names and amounts of ·the donations - as per an agreement in 1925. 77 Gt. clrhJv Mr. Carpenter, Biola's business manager, contended that the \ A reason H.B.I. had not rP.ceived funds in 1931-32 was due to Keller's failure to submit a budget upon which a rnontly allotment could 78 be based. Biola's next business manager, Mr. Lucy, held a
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