# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S875
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

MISSIONS 875

coin of the respective country. In Argentina the subsidy is paid
in pesos. In Brazil in cruzerios. Salaries are not paid in U. S.
dollars.

The fixing of salaries of our South American missions has
ever been a problem for our South American District Home Mis-
sion Board. And this largely because of the prevailing standard
of living in South American countries. Our missionaries and their
wives coming from North American homes and going to the far-
away colonies in Brazil and Argentina must forego the use of many
conveniences found even in the most ordinary homes in the United
States. They must do without refrigerators, electrical appliances,

washing machines, carpets, carpet sweepers, ete. These are
’ lyxuries” which we find nowhere except in a few parsonages in
the metropolitan centers. In the rural areas the furnishings in
the parsonages are quite primitive. Many of the missionaries
made their own furniture to have a chair to sit on and a bed to
sleep in. Then, too, the majority of our missionaries in Brazil
have no autos, not only because an auto and the upkeep of an auto
are altogether beyond their financial ability, but also because road
conditions make the use of an auto impossible. They must be
satisfied to ride the burro for miles and miles.

But could the Mission Board not do something about it that
at least the North American missionaries could have the usual
conveniences? Said one of the missionaries on furlough a few
years ago: “If I could only live in a parsonage like one I saw in
Iowa. You ought to see my home.” But when we finally agreed to
find ways and means to build a parsonage such as he saw in Towa,
present it to him without any cost, fully equipped with a refrigera-
tor, a radio, carpets, and all of the electrical conveniences, we
asked whether he would take it, we giving him the assurance
that the cost of any repairs and of the upkeep would be forth-
coming. Without hesitation he answered: “No, never! I could
not accept such an offer. If I did, my home would be a barrier
between me and my parishioners. I would be so much out of line
with their way of living. I would, after all, prefer to live in the
humble parsonage which I now have.”

To differentiate between the North American missionaries and
the missionaries born and reared in Brazil and Argentina and
accustomed to their standard of living and the humble surround-
ings, to have a double standard in salaries, one for the missionaries
coming from North America and another for the missionaries from
South America, for obvious reasons would not serve the best
interests of the cause. When the very question of establishing a
double standard was discussed some years ago, the missionaries