The Morgan County press. (Wartburg, Tenn.) 1916-1926, 1918-02-22

For Release February 18TH
:. ). !, 10th.
$3.50, 900 Fund War Time Ser
vice Lutheran Church Campaign
Week, February lSth-26th.
The Story Of the National Ln'h-
eran Com mission for Soldiers a"u
Sailors Welfare.
The campaign for. $4,000 for war
time service on the part of the Lu.herAns
in America is focussi & attention ON the
work which the National Lutheran Com
m ssion for Soldiers and Sailors well
fire is doing.
The saying has been that Lutherans
NOV deliberately. All Lutheran records
for quick action were broken by the Ma.
tional Lutheran Commission. And men
ON other denominations confess frank
that the Lutherans in this case have
set mark for them which it will be diff
f:ult for them to equal.
The National Lutheran Commits sion
is the representative body made up Of
representatives from the different Luth-
eran Synods. The singular unprecedent-
ed fact about the Commission is that H.
it are representatives from every Luth-
Gran body in America So that It's work rs
hacked and made effective by ten mil
lion baptized members in the Lutheran
denomination.
This concentration Of Effort and en-
ergy in the problem most vital in church
life touAy was not attained at first. Al
.irst the various synodS appointed their
own" War Boards" totake care of theis
smaller sphere Of interest withour regarl.
to the other Lutheran bodies. $780,
1t did NOS lake long. how ev1TTO drive
home The fac that the tas4 - ex option
al and that tne very life and at ire q.
the Church is involved in it and that on
~ the most heroic measures will answe'
! the emergency.
At present there are 10000 Lutheran
men with the colors, that figure is verified
in two ways. The reports Of consrega-
tions to the National Lutheran commits
sion headquarters in New York City give
fair idea of the percentage o, men
which have left the congregations. Tie
figures arrived at that way tally with the
figures resulting from an estimate reacl..
ed by using the number Of men enlisted
the total church membership the total
population in the United States and t
census figures of men between 2I-3I, L..
many sections of the country Lutnerans
are preponderant in the camps as religi-
Gus censuses show. Camp Dodge it is
claimed has over ten thousand Lutheran
soldiers. Similarly the camps that house
the men from Pennsylvania and the
Mississippi Valley States 1t finally
means that over 50 per cent of the young
manhood of Lutheran congregations left
home to 60 to camps and that the men
who are to make the congregations of
tomorrow are today in the service of the
US .-.,s
When these facts began to become
clear to Lutheran leaders they made pro-
vision at once to meet the situation in as
big way as the emergency called for.
The National Lutheran Commission
for Soldiers and ilors Welfare was or
gained with headquarters at New York
City in the Knabe Building. DR. F H Knu-
bel was appointed Chairman.
Rev VIM Freas as office secretary I'M
dertook the task of canvassing every Luz
theran congregation for the names and
location of their men in the service. Rev
H r Gold and Rev A o Stub as Field
secretaries the one IN the East and the
other in the West, visited every camp to
study the situation first nand and report
on the needs to meet the emergency.
In short tine the poli:y was establish
ed, that where the men are the Church
must go. or that the object of the COM
mission is to bring Christ to its men in
camp in France in the first line trenches
and to keep him there.
TODD that the Lutheran Church was
secured for the best men for this service