# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1884_S22
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

22   Proceedings of the 19th General [Synod], or

Our periodicals have done their work in the old, tried and tested
way. But all of us should truly do more to spread them. Our English
monthly ceased publication because the collaboration that had been
requested, and in part promised, failed to materialize. Another paper
can barely cover its costs. Now it is true enough: once a paper has
ceased to meet a need, it should be allowed to drop. Should changes be
proposed regarding the periodicals that continue (as indeed several
motions of that kind have come in and will be submitted to a
committee), they will be gladly accepted, provided they are
improvements. But once that has happened, not only the pastors but all
members of our congregations should really make more honest effort
to spread our papers.

Besides the actual organs of our Synod there are, as is well known,
several private church papers. Regarding these, the wish has here and
there been voiced that they should all be merged with the
"Lutheraner," which would itself be proportionately expanded and
perhaps even published weekly, in such a way, however, that each issue
(or at least alternately) would contain a column for the East, the South,
etc., to be composed by the respective special editors. I would, however,
urge very strongly that the matter be weighed from every side before
anyone takes it in hand. The well-known local papers have, without
doubt, rendered services to their own circles — and still do — that the
"Lutheraner" would not have been able to render. And whatever loss
they may cause the "Lutheraner" at first will, in due course, surely
already be offset by the fact that it is precisely they who will, more and
more as time goes on, gain the "Lutheraner" entry among their readers.
So then: by all means strike the private receipts [acknowledgments of
individual payments] from the "Lutheraner" and simplify the others as
far as can ever be done; make the "Lutheraner" (NB., through
contributed articles) as popular and interesting as one can and as is
compatible with its actual purpose. But otherwise let our oldest paper
continue in its old form and also at its old length. For readers such as
we mostly have, there is reading matter enough in it. With most of our
church members we must, after all, be glad if, after finishing the day's
work, besides the Bible, the prayer book, and the postil [book of
sermons for home reading], they still read as much as the "Lutheraner"
offers them.

As for one of those private papers, namely the "Lutheran Witness,"
I have been instructed by its owners to offer it to the General Synod as
its property, should its continuation still be considered necessary and
its ownership seem desirable.

Our publishing house [*Buchverlag*], as will appear from the reports
of the revision committee, the board of directors [*Directorium*], and
the general agent, has been managed with faithfulness and skill. Entirely
free of debt, and with property whose value runs into the hundreds of
thousands, it has, despite