# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1878_S45
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 45 —

To this it was answered, on the other hand: we cannot count on our previous treasurer, for he has declared that he will not resume the office under any condition, because his own business no longer permits it; and we are not in a position to win over some other personality suited to this office for its unpaid administration — quite apart from the fact that it could also at some point become very awkward to entrust large sums of synodical money to the management of a man who runs his own business. The temptation lies too near at hand to use our funds to the advantage of his own business; and should he suffer a loss of his own money — even one for which he is, on his part, entirely blameless — our synodical funds would be lost along with it. Nor can we well secure ourselves by having a surety [bond] put up for him. For even though this demand is not in itself unreasonable, it would not be fitting for us to make it of a man toward whom we must, from the very outset, extend the greatest trust. And suppose the case: our treasurer had furnished a surety; the money entrusted to him were lost; the surety would have to make it good — would not the surety's money seem to many of us like a foreign good, bringing no blessing? No, our synodical treasurer should no more run a business of his own involving the turnover of money than our general agent should. — Consider further that the book business of our synod demands such considerable sums for its operation that we can no longer possibly impose the steady handling of it upon a man who must devote all his strength to his own calling in order honestly to support himself and his family. Let no one be surprised, then, that every businessman who has his own business to run shrinks from taking on this office. Apart from the time this office consumes, it brings its holder, if he faithfully attends to it, ever heavier cares than one supposes. Now that the synod's book business has attained so great an extent that the office of treasurer can no longer be administered, without detriment to both interests, by a man who must also head a business of his own, one should recognize that the time has come which lays upon us the necessity of appointing a salaried treasurer. We pay salaries for offices that are less full of responsibility than that of treasurer; why then should one shrink so from the thought of having to have a salaried treasurer, especially since we can no longer have one without pay at all? As for the district treasurers, they should not be compared with the general treasurer. These have to do with no other funds than those of Christian charity, whereas the general treasurer, besides that, must handle very considerable sums of money required exclusively for the operation of the synod's business. To pay a salary to a treasurer who receives and administers almost nothing but gifts of charity is, to be sure, a...