PREFACE

    I KNOW a boy who started out in life fearfully handicapped.
    He was $8,000 in debt.
    He started practicing as a Chiropractor, calling himself a doctor, at seventeen years of age.
    Little was known about Chiropractic then.
    He succeeded.  Why?
    Because Innate told him that in that backbone was the cause of all dis-ease; that the correction of the vertebral subluxation would get sick people well, and that was what sick people wanted; that getting sick people well was the patient’s ultimate buying objective and it was the Innate’s ultimate delivering objective.
    He stuck to that principle and practice, never deviating from it one thought for one second of time from then to now.

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    The first twenty years of this boy’s life were spent in being educated to hate people and everything they did or were connected with.
    His mother died when he was 1½ years old.  From then on, he was at the mercy of five cruel stepmothers, each worse than the one before.
    Because of brutality at home, he was often forced to sleep in dry-goods boxes in alleys, often with the weather below zero, curled like a rat in a nest with paper packing, with open face of box backed up against brick walls; under kitchen sinks of hotels; or by boilers of boats on the Mississippi.
    He worked for a time as floor scrubber, window-washer, spittoon cleaner, and special delivery boy for a department store in his home town, getting three dollars per week as salary.  He used to take out five cents a week for a bag of peanuts.  This was his only luxury, for which he regularly got a beating.  He was a derelict football being kicked around.
    This is just a beginning of tales he could tell of horrors of his early family and home life.
    When in his teens, he was forced by circumstances beyond his control to begin his professional career as a Chiropractor, starting in his own home town where he once lived as an alley-cat and wharf-rat.
    It was then he began to know what it was to face a hostile, belligerent, prejudiced home town folk.  They considered him a fake, fraud, mountebank, a grafter on sick people.  He was socially, commercially, professionally, and financially ignored by everybody.
    The struggle to be recognized as a man amongst men, as a business man amongst business men; to be accepted as a financial pillar bringing millions of foreign dollars into his home town every year; to be accepted socially in society; to be looked up to as worthy and well qualified in secret organizations — all this was denied him and constituted a bitter struggle of thirty years he had to go through.
    Our purpose of touching some of these many phases of this colossal struggle, where he faced the music and refused to run away from any of it, where he grew up from boyhood to manhood in the same town, is to show from what this boy began, that you might compare it with today, demonstrating where he has gone.
    As the Chiropractic movement grew from one city to every state, province, and nation; as Chiropractors multiplied from one to two, from two to many thousands; as patients increased from one man to millions daily; as the influence of millions who were sick got well — as all this continued to spread, it was taking dollars and bread from the medical man’s pockets and putting them into those of the Chiropractor.
    It was to be expected that medical men who had bolstered their position with strong legislation and endless court decisions would loosen their thunderbolts with legal persecutions and prosecutions under the language of and in violation of medical practice acts of “practicing medicine and/or osteopathy without a license so to do.”

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    From early days, this man saw the necessity of banding together sincere men who had courage of their convictions, into a national group for the purposes of defense and protection.  From the beginning of the old U.C.A. to date, more than 19,000 cases have been defended, under his guidance, in every state, province, and many foreign countries, from police courts to supreme courts, winning so consistently that such trials now are practically stopped.
    One man spear-headed these movements of defense of cases and offense in legislation.  He gathered about him groups of honest men who saw eye-to-eye with him.  It was a long struggle but, Innate directing, how could we lose?
    Who was behind this man, other men who banded themselves with him to accomplish these great super-human tasks?  Was it the Innates in these men at work?  A bit of Innate, being right, can overcome errors, evils, machinations, prejudices of thousands of medically educated legislators.
    It was the necessity for the survival of a principle and practice vital to the welfare of men which had been overlooked and never found by medical men down through their centuries.  Innate knew and Innate directed these campaigns.  Innate knew this principle and practice now born and being developed had to be preserved in its purity for posterity.
    While this struggle of prosecutions and defenses was going on, with this man traveling hither and thither as an expert witness for the defense, he was building a school worthy of Chiropractic; teaching classes of the purity of the stream of thought; developing a philosophy, science, and art as strong as truth within itself demanded.
    This required more courage, strength, and power than one mere man possessed.  Where else could he turn to get more?  Naturally, to the exhaustless and resourceful Innate within him that kept him spurred on, everlastingly on the job to see that it was done.
    As if all this was not enough, he began toying with a radio station; at first, one — later, two — then, three, and even today two of these have developed into AM-FM-TV sections.

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    Would he have gone from away below the bottom to somewhere up the ladder, if he had not had the support, strength, and wisdom given him from some more superior source than his own?  Could his early education of hating people have changed without the flow of love of humanity that comes from a source greater than his hatred?  Only a power greater than anything his meager education gave; only a wisdom greater than all his opposition; only a personality within that knew better than he, could have possibly directed his footsteps and kept him keeping on climbing the hard road to overcome these gigantic obstacles, impediments, and handicaps.
    While Innate within was relentlessly pursuing and pushing him forward and upward to accomplish his destiny, it was also causing him to multiply himself manyfold by bringing to him men of equal Innate values to help carry the load in many subdivisions.  Some of them failed to live up to expectations; others carried the load for a while and then faltered; but a few of the tried and not-found-wanting remained down through the years.  They became lieutenants of Innate to the Innate’s general.  To the observant, Innate was seen everywhere.  To the non-observant, the success was called “luck,” “chance,” or “the exercise of good judgment.”  It was all these plus that Innate that was essential.

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    No wonder, then, this boy who is now a man can speak with emphasis and conviction of what caused him to climb the ladder beyond that of many men.  No wonder he desires to pass on knowledge of this great directing force that he might help others to do as he has done, as he has done it.
    His rise from an alley-rat to international fame; from a beggar for a bag of peanuts to a great fortune, is a Horatio Alger fairy tale — to educated men.  To Innate, it is a mere incident in the passing, to fulfill some great scheme of things in the lives of living animate objects.
    No wonder the proof of his life is an example, and his method of living which he has taught so many thousands, has been an inspiration to so many to “go thou and do likewise.”

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    At seventeen, he “found himself.”
    This boy had no education.
    Educationally, as the world understands it, he was far short.
    Innately, he had the wisdom of the ages working for him, with him.
    This boy was not educated as that term is commonly understood and believed necessary.
    He claims to have a bit of knowledge and wisdom about the natural ways of life and living.
    He had little schooling out of books, semesters, diplomas, etc.
    He has had a tremendous opportunity to work with Innate in giving others a natural and normal understanding of life and health.
    People who have sat at the feet of this boy, and now man, who have drunk at his fountain, and who accept his teachings, go away from here with something more than a formal education, more than a means of punching backbones, more than a means of making a living, more than amassing a fortune.
    They have learned a better way to live with themselves and with others, a means and method of intercommunicating within themselves, to draw out from within the greater self that usually lies buried, thus developing a greater person with which to live throughout their more than normal span.

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    Educationally, he had problems.
    Educationally, he didn’t know or have the answers or solutions.
    Whatever the problem is, it is no problem to Innate.  It has been worked over millions of times, on millions of people, for millions of years.
    That being true, why should he wonder and worry what the answer should be to meet some educated standard or to meet the quirps of educators’ theories.  If Innate knows a better answer, why not get it from Innate?  One who has given the problem millions of years of study knows the fullest, most complete, and correct answer.  Mere man who has given the problem but a few years of blank repetitious answers would not know it as well.
    He did not ask Innate for the solution or answer.  If he was entitled to know, Innate would tell him, in due course and at proper time, if he was receptive and willing to receive.
    It is a fault of education to take precedence over Innate knowledge and/or wisdom.
    We think we must rob Peter to pay Paul.
    The more education we think we possess, the less Innate knowledge or wisdom we get or have to use.
    Many a man who has little education possesses more Innate knowledge and wisdom and succeeds where men of great education fail.

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    There isn’t a day but what this man runs into problems for which he seeks an answer.
    Yesterday, he had one such.
    He went to bed with it unsolved.  He did not stew, or fuss, or feud with himself for the answer.
    He knew Innate would tell him if he was entitled to know.
    He went to sleep.  At 2:00 A.M., he woke up.  The answer was coming through.
    He always has pads and pencils by his bed.  He made notes then and there.
    Ideas came faster than he could write.  They were clear, concise, true.
    Having written, he could now go to sleep again, quickly.
    Had he not written them, Innate would have annoyed and kept pestering him until he did.
    Having had this experience many times and frequently, he no longer avoids Innate when it wants him to record its opinions.
    In the morning, he filled in the outline writing it out in full.  He was pleased, satisfied.  So was Innate.
    Innate, knowing he was receiving, will gladly come again when he needs it.
    Had he ignored Innate then and there, Innate would ignore him in the future on other problems.
    Any time he disregards advice and counsel of Innate, he loses.
    Whenever he places his education over and above Innate’s, he loses.
    When he becomes egotistical and thinks he knows more than Innate, he loses.
    When he becomes humble and lets Innate direct, he wins.

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    A problem is presented him.  He very often gives a quick, decided, emphatic answer in a second of time.  Some call this “snap judgment.”  It isn’t.  Innate has prompted him what to say.
    We call all this common sense, horse sense, hunches, intuition, or what have you.

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    What does he know about how to run a cafeteria?  Innate does!
    The sole idea of running a cafeteria here is to produce a service to the people he serves.  In this, our cafeteria does many things for our student body.
    If this chap had been obliged to attend a 4-years-of-9-months cafeteria school on how to serve meals in a cafeteria, to secure a how to serve meals in a cafeteria education, to graduate, to secure a diploma on how to serve meals in a cafeteria, and was then compelled to appear before a how to serve meals in a cafeteria State Board, to take an examination, to secure a license, before he could serve that first meal to a hungry student body in his school, he wouldn’t be serving meals yet.
    It takes no great education to know that simple solution to a problem.

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    What does he know about how to run a printing plant?  Innate tells him!
    The purpose of his printing plant is to produce Chiropractic literature, to educate people to what Chiropractic is, to carry the gospel into the highways and by-ways, to produce more Chiropractic patients for Chiropractic graduates.
    Every printing plant has apprentices, printer’s devils.  They must go through a long period of schooling to know how to do things necessary to produce printery products.  He never had one day or years of schooling, yet he runs a printing plant, fully equipped, and produces mighty fine products of the printer’s art.
    If this chap had been obliged to attend a 4-years-of-9-months printing school, on how to set type and run a printing plant, to secure a how to set type and run a printing plant education, to graduate, to secure a diploma on how to set type and run a printing plant, and was then compelled to appear before a how to set type and run a printing plant State Board, take an examination, to prove his proficiency, to secure a license, before he could set his first stick of type, run a press, or feed paper into them — he wouldn’t be running a printing plant yet.

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    What does he know about how to build a school?  So he builds one along lines Innate tells him.
    He knows no more about how to run a school than does any child in its crib.
    Many a university professor, college graduate, and otherwise educated men have sat at the feet of this educationally-ignorant president of this institution.  They have criticized his methods and means, many times, many ways; yet they come, absorb his ideas, go out and succeed or fail in exact ratio as they accept or reject the teachings of this man whom they call ignorant because he is not supposed to know how to run a school.
    Most frequently the ignorant president of this institution rejects most of the educated man’s ideas.
    If this chap had been obliged to attend a 4-years-of-9-months college or university on how to teach and run a school, to secure a how to teach and run a school education, to secure a diploma on how to teach and run a school and was then compelled to appear before a how to teach and run a school State Board, take an examination, to prove his proficiency and efficiency, to secure a license, before he could build a school or teach his first class — he wouldn’t be teaching now nor would he have one of the many buildings in which to teach students how to get sick people well; nor would any of you Chiropractors be where you are, because The Dear Old P.S.C. was the first Chiropractic school — the Chiropractic fountain head.
    Running through the warp and woof of this controversy, still remains the fact that, had these educated men been a success in their chosen work, they would not be here.  Had the ignorant president of this institution been a failure in running this school, he would probably be teaching in some school the little that he thought he knew, and drawing down a pittance of a salary for so doing.
    The reason why educated men come here to sit at the feet of the ignorant president is to learn what the president knows, hoping they can go out and make a better success of their lives than that which they had been formerly doing.  And it frequently turns out that way.
    This president had a heritage of Chiropractic to give to the world of sick people.  When Chiropractic is kept uppermind, it is kept clear of any and all entangling alliances, kept pure and clear at its fountain head stream.  When P.S.C. is run in accordance with that in mind, running a school is simple and easy.

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    There are thirty-two “Palmer Enterprises” which this man supervises: A school of 1500 students; the world’s largest private Chiropractic clinic; a cafeteria serving 2,000 meals daily; a printing plant using a carload of paper per month; a factory manufacturing an instrument in general use by Chiropractors; another factory for X-ray equipment; two radio stations (WOC and WHO) with AM-FM-TV; a 25 per cent interest in a third (KMA); president of the International Chiropractors Association, with legal and legislative problems; A Little Bit O’ Heaven, with oriental gardens; a circus museum; rose gardens for public pleasure; clinic gardens; five farms; plays pipe organ on the $75,000 organ in his home; lectures on varied and multiple subjects and prints many of his lectures for public consumption; has talked to varied and many organizations in this and other countries; he has traveled 1,325,000 miles (1949) around the world in recent years.
    Speaking of having a pipe organ in B.J.’s home, I remember of his telling how, when he was a kid, he used to pump the pipe organ in the First Methodist Church which was then across the street from where the Palmer campus is now, which is now the Hastings Apartment.  He got five cents an hour.  It was one of those up-and-down pump handle affairs and when the organist had on the full organ it was all B.J. could do to pump it fast enough to keep enough air to keep it going.

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    He maintains a free public clinic.  The number of patients cared for and the value of service rendered follows:

    (Above figures indicate number of patients given free service in The PSC Public Clinic as well as the actual value of that free public service rendered these patients.  Figures are based on annual reports of the Director of this clinic.)

    Public clinic service is free to the sick.  Rate charged against patient is low and consistent with overhead cost.  No “drive” is ever put on, neither was this valuation contributed in any part by any local community or private endowment.  It was this man’s contribution to the health welfare of the community in which he lives.  Figures prove it was no small service rendered annually.
    He maintains two spinograph and X-ray departments in which, since 1910, more than 1,300,000 X-rays have been exposed.

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    B.J. is often referred to as “peculiar,” “unusual,” “different.”  He does many things differently than anybody else.  When you get his slant on why he does what he does, as he does it, it becomes a practical application of his life.
    On the walls of his many buildings, outside and inside, are epigrams.  In elevator shafts, cafeteria, printing plant, down stair wells, toilets, on “Up-E-Nuf” tower, in fact, everywhere.  Why?
    One of them explains: “Why these epigrams?
                                             What is before you, you see.
                                             What you see, you read.
                                             What you read, you think.
                                             What you think, you act.
                                             What you act, is you!”
    Another says: “Anything I do, you don’t do, is queer.  Queer, isn’t it?”
    In the ladies toilet off the cafeteria: “Beauty is only skin deep.  Many people need peeling.”
    On the Memorial Building smoke stack:
               “Keep Smiling
                 Equal Rights.”
    On the huge clock on the sidewalk there are others.
    On chimes tower: “Is life worth living?  That depends on the liver!”
    Hundreds everywhere.  B.J. believes in making bare walls work.  Many people go about copying them in note books.  In self-defense, he printed them in a book titled As A Man Thinketh.
    On top of Administration Building is a set of Deagen chimes which are played daily.  Why?  To smooth out the wrinkles on the business man’s brow, to harmonize worries and to make life more pleasant.
    Many thousands of visitors come annually to wander through A Little Bit O’ Heaven, Palmer Campus, Memorial Building, Administration Building, Radio Station WOC, PSC Printing Plant, Palmer School Cafeteria, PSC Class Room Building, B.J. Palmer Chiropractic Clinic, Clinic Gardens, Rose Gardens, Circus Museum, etc.
    B.J. often quotes Elbert Hubbard who said: “Every great institution is the lengthened shadow of a single man.”
    B.J. says he was wrong, for he should have said: “Every great institution is the lengthened shadow of a married man.”
    One of the remarkable facets of this man is his innate ability to switch from one conference to another, from one subject to another, retaining a full understanding of the intricate details of each.  In conference, he quickly drops one type and picks up another of a different type.  His executives wonder how he does it, even when they find it difficult to follow the one line they are directly connected with.

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    Each year, for many years, The PSC of which this man is president, holds an annual one week Pre-Lyceum Post-Graduate Course, a two-day National Convention of the International Chiropractors' Association, of which he is president, a five-day Lyceum, as well as a two-day conference of the G-P-C movement.  Speakers of national and international fame speak before these gatherings.  Lecture sessions are held mornings, afternoons, and evenings.  B.J. Palmer is the key-noter, opening the meetings on Sunday evening.  In recent years, the registration has exceeded 5,000 who come here once a year to learn of the latest developments and advances made in Chiropractic for that year.
    A specially made fire-proof tent, 100’ x 120’, owned by The P.S.C. is erected on school grounds.
    The following was an editorial in The Davenport Democrat, August 27, 1946:

“B.J.” — HUMAN DYNAMO

    Fifty years ago a new science was given birth in Davenport.  At the time it was unknown beyond the boundaries of Davenport and but scantily recognized here at home.  Today this science is known the world over and has practitioners on every part of the globe.  It is called Chiropractic, founded by the late D. D. Palmer and developed to its present magnitude through the master mind of the son of the founder, Dr. B.J. Palmer.
    Many Davenporters will remember the early trials and tribulations of “B.J.” as he labored day and night to put over something he had outlined as his life work.  He was both persecuted and prosecuted by his adversaries.  But that is no more, for “B.J.” has won out through his tireless efforts and labors in behalf of the work he set out to do.  Instead of enemies, “B.J.” has only friends today.
    This week, on the 50th anniversary of Chiropractic, over 5,000 visitors from every state of the union and from many foreign countries, are assembled in Davenport to attend the annual Lyceum and Homecoming and to do honor to Dr. B.J. Palmer.
    Both as an individual and through his various enterprises, “B.J.” has contributed more to the prosperity and welfare of this community than any other individual.  Over 20,000 men and women have graduated from his school.  These during the years of their residence here have spent millions of dollars.  Radio station WOC, erected by Dr. Palmer, was one of the first outstanding radio stations of the country and has done more to advertise Davenport than any other agency.  His “Little Bit O’ Heaven” has been visited and admired by hundreds of thousands.
    Today Davenport extends a hearty welcome to the thousands of Chiropractors who are visitors in the city.  They are a fine class of people, alert and enthusiastic in their work.  Many of them are occupying positions of importance in their home cities, as well as practicing their chosen profession.  And in Davenport at this time they are constituting one of the most impressive gatherings the city has ever known.
    Today, Chiropractic is known the world over, and so is Dr. B.J. Palmer.  What he has done for Davenport, he has likewise performed for the Chiropractors of the world.  To all of them he has been a friend and benefactor.
    “B.J.” may be small in stature, but oh my, what a giant in intellect and perseverance.  He is a human dynamo, and never runs out of power.
    And once again, we say, “Welcome Chiropractors!”

    The Daily Times (Davenport, August 21, 1948) had a full page story with six large cuts, with the following heading:

PALMER DOMAIN GROWS WITH DAVENPORT,
LOOKS TO NEW PROGRESS

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    FM and $500,000 Television Installation Are Next Steps in Operating Radio stations.

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