# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1911_S100
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

100 Proceedings of the 28th General or

The Local Conference of Philadelphia therefore asks the Venerable Synod to place an emigrant missionary here, who would look after our fellow believers landing here, assist them with advice and action, and direct them into the church, for the following reasons:

1. A pastor who has a congregation to care for cannot properly also hold the office of emigrant missionary, since steamers often dock on Sunday, and other official duties arising in the congregation make his presence at a steamer's landing impossible.

2. The work of an emigrant missionary is of the greatest benefit to our Synod. The missionary writes down the addresses of our immigrating fellow believers and sends them to our pastors, in whose parishes the emigrants intend to settle, so that the pastor can seek them out at once and direct them into the church. A good number of letters from pastors of our Synod have reached the writer of this petition, in which they report that they have won for their congregation not only the immigrants themselves but, in some cases, even the family to whom they were traveling. From March 1910 to March 1911, 724 emigrants were directed to our congregations, and 221 pastors were given their addresses.

3. Philadelphia is becoming ever more important as a port city. The government has purchased a large piece of land at Gloucester, N. J., across from Philadelphia, and will build a landing place for emigrants there. As soon as this immigrant station is built, still more shipping companies intend, as the writer has been told by well-informed people, to establish Philadelphia lines, because Ellis Island in New York has become too small and landing fees in New York are so high. Since Philadelphia, so far as the landing of passengers is concerned, has become the country's second most important port city, our Synod should have an emigrant missionary here who can devote his whole time and strength to this blessed work.

The conference named above therefore proposes:

1. That the Venerable Synod place an emigrant missionary in Philadelphia with a salary of $1000.00 a year (plus reimbursement of costs for telephone, postage, and streetcar fares). This missionary should try to obtain the agencies of the various [shipping] lines, so that he could sell ship tickets and thereby considerably reduce expenses. The writer already holds the agency of the Norddeutscher Lloyd;

2. That the Venerable Synod elect a Commission for Emigrant Mission from the pastors and laymen of Philadelphia's congregations, which would direct and oversee the missionary's work.

This petition for the appointment of an emigrant missionary was also supported by the Baltimore District Conference, and it...