# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1911_S286
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 72 —

grant mission in Baltimore is to be separated, associate ourselves
with it, and join this commission in asking the Reverend Synod that,
just as it took on full responsibility for this mission when it assumed
it, it now also take on the burden of the missionary's salary, so that
the emigrant missionary in Baltimore need no longer be supported in
part, as heretofore, by the Baltimore congregations, to the detriment
of their own mission work.

In the name and on behalf of the City Mission Society of the
congregations belonging to the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical
Conference, its officers sign with all due respect:
D. H. Steffens, president.
E. G. Steger, secretary.

Emigrant Mission in Philadelphia.

This mission was established and undertaken in March 1910 by
Pastor E. Totzke, with the consent of the Reverend General Präses
[president] and the Reverend General Vice-Präses. Four large
steamship companies — the North German Lloyd, the Hamburg-America
Line, the American Line, and an Italian steamship line — have their
passenger steamers, which bring many immigrants, call regularly at
Philadelphia, so that no week passes without emigrants landing here.
In 1910, 49,771 immigrants landed here, even though the North German
Lloyd had only established its Philadelphia line in March and the
Hamburg-America Line only in November of 1910. Had these two
steamship companies brought immigrants to Philadelphia throughout the
entire year, the number would have been considerably higher, and if
immigration does not decrease at all, the above figure will be far
exceeded in 1911, especially since other large steamship companies
also intend to have their steamers call at Philadelphia.

The local conference of Philadelphia therefore asks the Reverend
Synod to be willing to appoint an emigrant missionary here who will
take charge of the fellow believers landing here, assist them with
counsel and action, and give them churchly guidance, for the
following reasons:

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