Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-03-03
PRESBYTERfANS TO ASK
NO AID OF CARNEGIE
Church Has Pension Fund on
Actuarial Basis, the Rev. DR..
Foulkes Tells Foundation
UNLIKE EPISCOPAL PLAN
Contributory System of Ministerial Re-
lief Put Into Effect
in 1912

| No money will be asked Of the Carnegie
| Foundation by the Presbyterian Church for
! the support of its aged and retired minis
| ters This has been announced by the Rev
| Dr William Hiram Foukes, general see
| ietary of the Combined Boar rds OF Minis
| terial Relief and Sustcntaton Fund of the
| Presbyterian Church in the United states.
| IN a letter sent to Dr >enry $, Pritchett
| Of the Carnegie Foundation.
The announcement Of Doctor Foulkes fol-
| lowed the contribution Of S32i,Ii4 by the
| Carnegie Foundation to the pension fund
| Of the Episcopal Church, The campaign to
| raise money for the pension fund for the
| Episcopal clergy has been endeu, and total
| Of s65OO,0OO, including the Carnegie gift
| has been subscribed,
DOCTOR FOJLKES'S LETTER
The letter to Doctor pritchett follows in
| part:
My Dear Doctor pritchctt:
"'The cheering news that the Carnegie
| Founda ton has appropriated S32i7iiS1 in
| aid Of the Church Pension Fund Of the Prot
! nstant Episcopal Church reached me yes
| terday
MY purpose in writing is not CAS- II
| might reasonably be assumed IL would he)
| TO lay any claim TO the money Of tho foun-
| 1ation for the work Of our board. My
| motive is an earnest desire that adequate
| recognition he given to the fact that the
| Presbyterian Church has adopted q pension
| plan upon sound actuarial basis that II
| Is steadily growing and JustIfying itself,
| am sure that nothing that ! am writing
| can be construed as he fainteSt reflection
| upon the eminent wisdom and success of the
| Protestant EpisCopal plan That plan Is
| admirably suited TO tho Church which has
| so successfully promoted IT, AS YOU are
| well aware. the S5.O0O00 which has just
| been pledged is not the sum Of money that
| IS needed to establish the pension, but only
that sum necessary TO take care of accrued
| liabilities. The continued solvenCy of the
! fund rests upon the willingness and fidelity
| If the various parishes Of the Protestant
Episcopal Church to pay the seven per cent
assessment.
For nearly 200 years the Presbyterian
| Church in the l.. $ a confined its work for
| its aged ministers and missionaries to the
| scheme OF relief with all of its humiliating
| features and it's essential limitations. Some
| ten years ago the plan of the Contributory
pension was devised studied, modified and
| finally adopted, As you are doubtless aware,
| in 1912 the General Assembly of our Church
combined under one directorate the old re-
lief corporation and the newer Ministerial
Sustentation Fund We have been making
steady progress since that hour. Our report
| to the coming General Assembly will show
| that I'm actual bonds, mortgages and cash
awaiting investment the relief corporation
will have approximately Si000,000 and the
| sustentation corporation 81 900, 900. In ad-
| than $1,000 bona fde subscription cards.
| covering limited period of years and
| aggregating approximately Si000,000. We
have n small shrinkage upon these subscrip-
| tiOns. due to the cancellation made neces-
| sary by death and in a few cases by busi-
ness reverses.
II need not refer I'm this Communica ion
| to the work of our relief department 1t is
| through this department that we are taking
| care of our accrued liabilities looking at
| the ministry as a whole. That is to say,
| those ministers and missionaries who were
| unable to begin TO make provision for them
selves on the basis of n cooperative pension
| are being cared for by the relief department
| We will have appropriated this fiscal year
| approximately $S6O,OOO direct to our relief
| annutants.
PENSION SYSTEM
our pension system is contributing
| one wherein the person uniting pays one
| nth of the cost Of the pension, graded ac-
| cDrdnG TO his or her age at entrance 1t
| very definitely embodies the principle out =
| lined in your preliminary statement to
| bulletin No. Q, page ten Roman VII, "A
| pension system on the reserve plan sus-
| tanned by joint contributions of employer
| and empoye.'
There is of course, a radical difference
| between our sustentation plan and the pen
| sion fund of the Protestant Episcopal
| Church. The latter is "A pure pension plan.
| installed at once by the securing of large
| fund for accrued liabilities. Since our
| Church is, in technical sense dem
| ocratic Church, and since il does not re-
| spond readily to assessments upon parishes,
| we were clearly of the opinion, and con-
| tinue TO be so today, that the only wise way
| for us to build up pension fund was to
| build II up gradually. taking every new
| step upon a sound actuarial basis and only
promising TO pay what we were permitted
| to pay by our actuarial calculations. Last
| year, before going to the General Assembly,
we secured an Independent actuarial inves-
| tgation, at the hands Of Mr. oliver w. Per-
| rim, an actuary Of the Penn Mutual Life In
| surance Company, who, with his assistants
| made thorough analysis Of our basis of