General Conference Appropriations for 1911
By W. T. Knox
BEGINNING March 22 the General Conference Committee was in council for the greater part of the remainder of the month, the principal features of its work consisting in the completion of the audit for 1910, appropriating to the mission fields abroad and at home, and giving consideration to the many calls for additional workers and increased facilities coming from every quarter. While with the scarcity of workers and our limited means, these continually increasing demands are a source of embarrassment to the committee, they are equally encouraging as an evidence of the rapid development of the work and the advancement of the message. The problem before the committee was how to meet, with a prospective income of $400,000, demands and necessities totaling $475,000, this amount including estimated needs of the Asiatic field, some portions of which field had not yet sent in their requisitions. Much careful study was given to this work; but it was evident that all requests for increase of working forces must be denied, much as the committee disliked to take such a stand. On this basis, the following appropriations were voted, covering the work in foreign fields, and such parts of North America as are dependent in part upon the Mission Board treasury:— Deficit, Jan. 1, 1911 .......... $ 9,234.72
Atlantic Union Conf. ........ 13,250.00
Australasian Union Conf.... 8,500.00
Bahama Islands ............ 240.00
Brazil Union Conf. ........ 6,000.00
Canadian Union Conf. ...... 7,250.00
China Un. Mis. (estimated) 40,000.00
Columbia Union Conf. ...... 13,300.00
Europe .................... 5,000.00
Hawaiian Mission .......... 600.00
India Mission ............. 32,000.00
Japan Mission (estimated).. 12,250.00
Korean Mission (estimated) 11,200.00
Mexican Mission ........... 8,000.00
Philippine Mission ........ 2,300.00
Singapore Mission ......... 2,300.00
South African Union Conf.. 29,000.00
South American Union Conf. 16,000.00
Southeastern Union Conf.... 6,000.00
Southern Union Conf. ...... 7,700.00
Southwestern Union Conf. .. 7,300.00
West African Mission ...... 6,500.00
West Indian Union Conf. ... 16,000.00
West. Canadian Union Conf. 2,500.00
Negro Department:—
Oakwood Industrial School 5,000.00
Southeastern Union Conf. .. 5,500.00
Southern Union Conf. ...... 11,500.0015Southwestern Union Conf. $ 3,000.00
Columbia Union Conf. ..... 2,000.00
Jewish work .............. 2,200.00
General Conference laborers
in field .................. 26,611.63
Depart. and executive expense 42,009.93
General Conf. office laborers 2,507.83
Asiatic Division .......... 2,000.00
Miscellaneous ............. 29,311.92
Emergency fund (return of
missionaries on account of
sickness, unexpected calls,
etc.) .................... 25,000.00
Total ..................... $419,066.03 By this it will be seen that the work has as it now exists, without provision for any expansion, exceeds the prospective income by $19,066.03, a condition that must at once receive the attention of our people, and have their careful consideration in their plans for gifts and offerings during the present year. We are encouraged by learning that already some conferences are planning on increasing their donations to a rate of fifteen cents a week per member instead of ten cents, as formerly; and surely every conference worker and church officer will from now on be dissatisfied with anything short of ten cents a week for each member in their conferences and churches. To encourage liberality and systematic giving, and also to avoid the confusion that has existed in the past, the following action was taken by the committee:— Voted, That inasmuch as the arrangement agreed to at the fall council of 1910, concerning the reckoning of the collections of the Negro Department as an addition to the ten-cent-a-week fund, has not proved satisfactory to all the conferences, we rescind that arrangement and understanding, subject to the approval of the biennial council in July, and that hereafter all donations intended for work for which appropriations are made by the General Conference shall be included in the ten-cent-a-week fund; and,— Further, That with the addition of the Negro Department, and the enlargement of the North American Foreign Department to include the French and Jewish work, it is evident that ten cents a week per member will not be sufficient, every effort should be made by all the conferences to exceed this amount per week per member. While this action of the committee may at first react upon our mission funds to their disadvantage, it is hoped that it will induce increased liberality from all, especially as the General Conference has, in providing for the Jewish and French work in North America, very materially increased its financial responsibilities.