# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1899_S103
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Ninth Delegate Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, 1899. 103

1899, $19,806.58 — was on hand. At every audit we also had the
securities, which now amount to $10,500.00, shown to us, along with
all other documents. All expenditures were documented by receipts;
the receipts were checked by us against the reports called for from
each district treasurer.

"Again a significant decline, namely one of more than $18,000.00,
must be recorded in the Synod's financial position. This is explained
by the excess expenditure that came upon the synodical treasury
chiefly from taking over the preparatory schools [Progymnasien] in
Neperan and Concordia, an excess that was offset neither by an
increased net profit of the publishing house nor by sufficiently
increased contributions to the synodical treasury. Further details on
this we have added to the treasury report, which is available in
print.

"The building-fund debt has decreased by only $7447.71 and still
amounts to $22,249.34. The Synod must seriously consider how this
large debt can be brought down, since without special effort it will
not decrease substantially in the coming triennium either.

"The resolution of the last Delegate Synod, that the Board of
Directors should call upon all those who still hold shares or notes
from earlier times to send them in for redemption, has not been
carried out. We therefore renew our proposal to that effect. Our
Treasurer lists $11,000.00 in his report as "borrowed against notes."
Of this, however, about $4000.00 was lent to the Synod by individual
members at the time our synodical printing house was founded, and is
probably regarded by them as a gift to the Synod. Still, clarity
should be reached on this. This is probably best done by issuing a
call to all holders of shares and notes issued more than ten years ago
to send such notes in for renewal, since otherwise they would, by law,
be regarded as having lapsed.

"The Commission for the Administration of Bequests is still not
certain whether the register of bequests, their yield, and the use
made of them, which it prepared with much effort, is accurate and
reliable. This highly important matter needs a satisfactory
clarification on all sides.

"Bequests must be invested as advantageously as possible, but also
as securely as possible, and their yield must always go, undiminished,
to those persons whom the testators intended to benefit. Furthermore,
a public, thorough report, at least annually, in the "Lutheraner" is
necessary, to keep the members of the Synod informed and to convince
them of conscientious management. To achieve this purpose, all
[bequests] directly related to the Synod at large, that is, immediately