# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1950_S1223
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

732 FINANCIAL MATTERS

Mr. Lewis W. Klitzke, in due time reported to the Board of
Directors as follows:

I. The committee held two meetings: the first in Fort Wayne,
Ind., in April, 1948; the second, in Buffalo, N. Y., in December, 1948,

II. The committee report is based upon

A. the data on pages 172—174 in the Statistical Yearbook
of 1947;

B. the fifty-three returns from the questionnaire sent to the
institutional missionaries listed in the 1948 Lutheran Annual.
A copy of the questionnaire is attached to this report.

C. additional data supplied by the president and the vice-
president of the Associated Lutheran Charities,

III. From the evidence at hand, the following facts pertinent
to the advisability of creating the office of an Executive Secretary
of Social Welfare are brought to your attention:

A. Organized welfare within our Synod has developed into
a major activity. To wit: More than fifty institutions and agencies
are operating within our Synod and, in a limited degree, within
synods affiliated with us in the Synodical Conference and within
synods not affiliated with us. The personnel required to perform
the services they offer exceeds 2,500; the number of persons served
directly is approximately 100,000 a year. The property value is
conservatively estimated at 12,000,000 dollars. In 1946 the income
was reported to be $5,780,463, derived largely from the persons
served. The amount contributed by our membership for current
expenses is estimated at $250,000.

B. In no instance is an institution or agency owned or con-
trolled by Synod or a synodical District.

C. The attitude of Synod towards organized welfare within its
borders has been a benevolent one, as is evidenced from its
practice of permitting the synodical Districts to hear and receive

reports and requests from institutions and agencies and to pass
resolutions encouraging them in their work.

D. The unmet needs expressed by the institutions and agencies
in their answers to the committee’s questionnaire may be listed
and summarized as follows:

1. Leadership centralized in one man, properly trained in
theology and social work, to advise institutions and agencies as
to the best methods suited to changing conditions in the social
_ order,

2. Availability of a well-organized clearance and recruitment
program for staffing the institutions and the agencies with a per-