# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1916_S104
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104 Proceedings of the twenty-sixth convention

Following the Printed Report
Rev. Drewes, chairman of the commission, laid before the convention the following orally: On account of the importance of the work in the so-called "Black Belt," the commission had resolved to call Director Bakke as superintendent of this field, and Director Bakke was also willing to follow the call. The office of mission director is to remain vacant for the time being.

On both the printed and the oral report the following committee report was presented and adopted:

The committee to which the report of the Commission for Negro Mission was handed over for appraisal herewith submits the following to the Honorable Synodical Conference (*Synodalkonferenz*):

We report to the Synodical Conference that the Commission for Negro Mission has resolved to call Director Bakke, because of his eminent qualification for this work and the importance of the field, as superintendent for the Alabama territory, and that Director Bakke has declared himself ready to follow such a call. We recommend to the Honorable Synodical Conference to approve this action of the commission and to encourage it to grant the future superintendent for the present $135 monthly, with the understanding that he is to defray from this salary also any visits to his family. A telegram addressed to the Synodical Conference and laid before the committee by the Presidium, from some colored brethren, concerning this matter, was received by the committee, but could not move the latter to depart from its recommendation, since the dispatch proceeded from the incorrect view that Director Bakke had been removed from his office. Through another letter, signed by Miss Rosa Young, the committee was further confirmed in its recommendation.

On the commission's report, which lies before us in print, we take the liberty of making the following recommendations:

On 1: The commission is encouraged to raise the salaries of our colored missionaries, where it considers it necessary, by $5 to $10 monthly.

On 5: The circumstance that our mission schools were open to all who wished to come has without doubt contributed much to bringing children under the sound of the Gospel whom we could hardly otherwise have reached.

The fact that this our kindness is often abused by such as do not want to place themselves under our pastoral care ought not to hinder us from holding fast, in general, to the principle of the open door for our mission schools.

But where, because of overcrowding, children must be turned away, those children who put themselves wholly under our pastoral care, that is, who also attend Sunday school and church, shall always have preference.

On 7: We express our joy over the gifts,