# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1911_S278
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 64 —

Amendments to the Regulations for the Emigrant Mission Commission.

To the Reverend German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri,
Ohio, and Other States, assembled in St. Louis, Mo., as the 13th
Delegate Synod.

The Commission for Emigrant Mission at New York hereby asks the
Reverend Synod to examine the deed of title (deed) of the Lutheran
Pilgrim House at New York and to make the necessary arrangements
so that § 5 of the "Regulations for the Emigrant Mission Commission
at New York" can, should the need arise, also be carried out. This
paragraph reads:

"The commission, as trustees of the General Synod, has the authority
to act in matters concerning the Lutheran Pilgrim House as best serves
the emigrant mission, so that the commission has a free hand, should
it prove necessary and advantageous, to sell the Pilgrim House (whether
on account of the relocation of the landing place for immigrants or
for other reasons), to carry out the sale itself in consultation with
the General Präses [president] and the District Präses, and, if
appropriate, to acquire other property and to make other changes
regarding the house as seem advisable." (Report of the 12th Delegate
Synod, p. 86.)

Although the wording of this paragraph leaves nothing to be desired
in the way of clarity, the commission's hands are nevertheless tied
when it comes to actually selling the Pilgrim House. Under state law
the members of the Commission for Emigrant Mission are not "trustees
of the General Synod"; they therefore cannot convey the property,
which was duly transferred to the General Synod twenty-five years ago,
to a prospective buyer in the manner required by the state; in the
event of a sale of the house they cannot give the buyer a legally valid
title. Nor do we know who could do so. Recent experience — namely
the almost insurmountable difficulty in selling the institution at
Hawthorne, N.Y. — has amply shown that the Reverend Synod has as yet
made no provision for how such real property, once conveyed to the
Synod, can be sold in the legal manner the state requires, even after
the Reverend Synod has resolved on the sale.

We therefore ask that the necessary arrangements be made to enable
the Commission for Emigrant Mission at New York, should the need
arise, to carry out the resolutions of the Reverend Synod laid down
in § 5 of the regulations.

With all due respect,
The Commission for Emigrant Mission
at New York.