# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1911_S76
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

76 Proceedings of the 28th General or

without this support we would not be able to keep up our institution,
to found and carry on which we have repeatedly been encouraged by the
Reverend Synod. The institution belongs to the Southern District, and
this district is only a small group with very few self-supporting
congregations. Apart from a debt of $600.00 still resting on the
college property, we need at least $2,600.00 a year to maintain the
institution, and according to our experience so far, we cannot raise
more than $1,100.00 a year in our congregations, even including
whatever tuition may be collected. A reduction of expenses is
certainly not to be thought of, since our dear professors, despite
their heavy and self-denying work, must already content themselves
with an almost too meager salary.

We do recognize that our institution is a relatively costly one, but
we also believe that it confers a blessing that would otherwise be
lost, and that should not be buried. Not only does the existence of
our college indirectly exert a beneficial influence on our local
congregations, in that they are thereby stirred to more active
participation in the work of God's kingdom in general, but the
institution's direct results are also by no means to be despised.

Our director, Prof. K. Niermann, reports on the results achieved so
far as follows: "In the seven years of its existence our college has
been attended, for a longer or shorter time, by 71 students. Of
these, two young men have passed their teacher's examination and have
been called as teachers by local congregations. Three girls trained
with us are teaching school in parish schools. One of our former
students passed his examination in Seward, Nebr., and is now in the
teaching profession. Another former student is still studying at our
sister institution at Concordia, Mo. This student, along with our own
first three seniors, will, God willing, enter the seminary at St.
Louis this coming fall. And a good number of former students who
attended our institution in order to acquire a higher education on a
Christian foundation now stand in a Christian calling and serve God
and their neighbor in it." "You see," our director closes his report,
"our work is not in vain in the Lord." And who would contradict him?

In the current school year our institution was attended by 28
students, 23 boys and 5 girls. Among the 23 boys, 19 had set
theological study as their goal. Unfortunately, however, 3 of these
withdrew again during the year, so that only 16 "theologians" remain.
These are only small numbers; but we are, after all, working in a
small field, and it is for this very reason that we are compelled to
ask the Reverend General Synod for support. We live in the joyful
hope that the sum requested will again this time be granted to us
with gladness. —

Resolved, to grant the requested support of $1,500.00 per year for
the triennium.