# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1920_S33
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1920. 33

teachers should take the spread of them to heart. The number of readers has become smaller owing to the new postal laws. The Pioneer has about 5100 subscribers, the "Missionstaube" about 21,000. These figures could be doubled in one year with little effort. Let everyone help here. The net profit flows into the mission treasury and helps to build the kingdom of our dear Savior among the Negroes. — But the net profit will probably soon be at an end if the subscription price is not raised. In the printing trade, too, everything has gone up. We ask the Rev. Synodical Conference to determine what is to be done in this matter.

Salary Increases.

Four years ago the Commission was encouraged to raise the salaries of our colored workers, where it considered it necessary, by $5 to $10 a month. That has been done. To regulate the whole salary matter better, the mission board two years ago also introduced a salary scale. With the rising cost of all provisions, however, the sum set was not sufficient. So an increase was made on three different occasions, amounting in all to 30 percent. That was and is, to be sure, not enough; for provisions have gone up in price not only by 30 percent but by more than 60 percent. The last increase alone was granted at a time when the treasury was not in good condition. It was, however, granted in trust in God and the dear Christians. Shall our trust be put to shame?

Our Mission Treasury.

The charitable gifts of our friends of the mission and the contributions of our colored fellow Christians have increased, thank God. In the year 1917 the total income was $70,884, in 1919 on the other hand $75,319 (increase in two years: $4435). The total income of the year 1917 included $8416 from our Negro Christians, that of the year 1919 $14,325 (increase in the gifts of our colored fellow Christians in two years: $5909). Had the charitable gifts of our white friends and patrons increased in the same measure, the mission treasury would have a surplus instead of being in debt.

If our work of rescue, which God has so visibly blessed, is not to begin to subsist miserably again, the mission treasury must be supported more generally and more vigorously. How often the Commission saw its hands tied because the income did not keep pace with the expansion of the mission field! May our dear Christians help vigorously with their prayers and gifts, so that the poor Negro, who like a poor Lazarus lies before our door, may obtain the treasures that Christ has purchased with his heart's blood!