# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1941_S181
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Reports on General Missions 179

A Synodical Representative at Washington, D.C.— We be-

— lieve it to be in the interest of efficiency and economy of the various

, educational, missionary, and other synodical departments to have

a synodical representative or a synodical committee at Washington,

D.C:, whose duty it shall be to represent the various synodical
* departments in Washington, D.C., as necessity demands, be this
“with the Department of State, the War Department, with the am-
“*bassadors, or with the consuls of foreign countries. To have one
‘qualified man or one qualified committee well versed with the

proper procedure and conduct of affairs will eventually prove to .

‘be in the interest of efficiency and also in the interest of economy.

Under present arrangements, with no synodical representative, it
will be necessary for the various boards to conduct their work by
correspondence, which experience has proved to be unsatisfactory,
or by repeated costly trips to Washington, D.C., to consult per-
sonally with the powers that be.

Salaries. — During the past triennium the salaries were some-

‘ what improved; some few were fully restored. The salary question,

however, remains to be a vexing problem, with which not a few
of our mission boards in the homeland and in foreign countries

“must wrestle. In foreign countries, particularly in war-torn areas,

the rise in the cost of living causes no little distress. And in the
homeland similar situations confront us.

The salary problems are not so easily solved; even if the neces-
sary funds were at all times available, this would not be possible.

We find that District mission boards hesitate to improve the salaries

‘of their missionaries

1) because some of the subsidized parishes make no real effort
to do their proportionate share toward the support of the work in
their own midst;

-2) because it is feared that an increased subsidy or income to
make higher salaries possible cannot be guaranteed for the future;

3) because many of. the self-sustaining congregations of the
Districts offer even lower salaries than are given to the District
missionaries.

To meet the specific needs of the missionaries, some mission
boards granted assistance not by an increase of salary but by
a one-time annual bonus. To enable District boards to meet emer-
gencies in the drought-stricken areas, upwards of $15,000 was
granted from Synod’s Board of Relief. Our South American mis-
sionaries in Brazil received a bonus of $4,058.42 plus a liberal
amount for medical care; those in ‘Argentina received a bonus of

— $1,600.

Another problem arises if comparisons of salaries are made.
Comparisons are odious. Comparisons are made between the
salaries offered in the East, the North, the Middle West, the West,