Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1915-09-01
By GRANT HTLTRER Rs.

it is just As years since the Lutheran
general conference was organized,
during which time it has held 81 con
ventons. 1t is of special interest TO
note that of the 50 conventions. 10
were held west Of Ohio or in what is
called the middle west; two in In
diana. one in Michigan, four in I'LL
nois, one in wisconsin, and two in
Minnesota. While every meeting Of a
general council has been of greater or
less importance. nearly all held in the
middle west marked an epoch in its
history.
Although the events leading up TO
its organization transpired in Penusyl-
vania, and the call looking toward a
closer union Of the Lutheran svnods of
the several nauoDalities in our land,
was issued by the mother synod, the
ministerjum of Pennsylvania. the first
convention. when an organization was
effected, was held in the middle vest
at Fc~t Wayne Ind, in the same
church where the year before the rup-
ture in the general synod took place
The first convention was a momen-
tous one and stupendous issues con
fronted it, Lutheran unity was in a
chaotic condition. but those who met
at Fort Wayne in the fall of 1867. had
the highest welfare of the whole
church At heart 1t proved the one
ness in faith is . stronger bond than
nationality. Among the representa-
tives were. besides German and Eng
iish, Swedes and Norwegians A con
stituton was adopted in which it is
declared that the languages in general
use in the congregations shall have
equal rights. While the English was
from the beginning recognized as the
official language, being the language of
America, the German members for
years made use of their privilege to
use the tongue in which they were
brought up. inasmuch as at first some
Of the delegates understood that fairly
we'll The Swedes. on the other hand.
never asserted their right to use the
Swedish language, knowing that but
very few outside OF their own delega-
ton would understand it, showing 2
marked degree Of generosity toward 4
using only the English, often with diff
iculty, This generosity was not al
ways reciprocated by some of the Ger
man delegates who could use the Eng
lish quite well. but insisted on using
the German in debate which later some
OF the Swedish delegates could not I'M
derstand At the meeting of the coun-
ell in Monroe, Mich. in 1884. DR.. En-
land Carlson entered a protest. say
ing. IF YOU German brethren that can
speak English insist on using the Ger
man language which many Of US can
rot understand, you insult US
From that time on the English has
almost exclusively been used in de-
bate, so that all might perfectly I'M
derstand the proceedings
The third convention was held in
the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran I'm
manuel church, Chicago. DR.. Erland
Carlson. pastor. in 1859 This conven-
5iOn marked q new era in the work
0f the general council, showing that 1t
had a broad outlook The subject OF
ministerial education called forth an
earnest discussion, after which resolu-
tons were unanimously adopted Civ
ing the deliberate judgment OF the gen
eral council that the time had come
when the wants of the Lutheran church
in the western states require the es-
ta5lishing at some central point OF q
theological seminary l commission
vas appointed to prepare a charter. a
constitution and bylaws for a theo-
logical seminary, which was 10 be To-
Gated AZ or near Chicago. On that com
mittee we're the names OF Rev ErIand
Carlson and Rev c. J Hattlestad This
shows clearly that il was not from the
beginning intended that the general
council be al advisory body only At
this convention the general council
also resolved 70 inaugurate foreign
mission work by taking over the mis-