Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1920-02-27
MINISTER'S COST
LESS THAN AUTOS
World Survey Figures Revea
How Badly United States Is
Paying Its Pastors.
MANY LIVING ON 5000 A YEAR
One of the Aims of Present Protestan
Cooperation Is to End Disgrace
of Underpaid Preacher-Pen-
sions Also to Be Provided.

What are the chances Of a yoInS
man who intends to be a lawyer OF
making $4,000 a year? What are thu
doctors chance? What of the minister
or the manufacturer?
The lawyer has exactly n chance
in five. The doctors chances are one
in seven. 1t is ten to one against thu
manufacturer. The modern minister
however, who formerly ranked with thu
doctor and lawyer as a member of the
Learned professions" has fallen hope
lessly behind. He is a 100 to l shot.
These figures are part of a OF
astonishing facts brought to light By
the world survey being made by the
Interchurch World Movement and
whose sources of information are such
that many economists and statisticians
are availing themselves of the results
This survey puts Americas minister
at the bottom of the ladder of the ma
tons income receivers-and with re
sponsibilities which equal those of any
captain of industry.
A worker in q silk mill, a laborer in
a rubber plant, a paper maker, a work.
er in a shoe factory-all are getting
higher average wages, the survey
shows, than does Americas minister
city or country. Nor does the city
man receive the luxurious salary thai
many persons, including many country
parsons, believe he does. Not fOul
ministers in a thousand, according to
the survey, receive $1,000 a year In
no instance, whatever the denOrnin0
ton, does a majority receive $1,000.
Cotton Pickers Better Off.
Are you a Congregationalfst? In
2,7S3 churches the yearly pay to your
ministers has been less than $1,000
Are you a Presbyterian? You are theH
on the less than $1,000 list with Gala
ministers. In the event that you are a
Methodist the charge is that 4,719 pas.
tors are trying to exist on the $40 q
week that you pay them. E~piscopalians
do a little better, yet half of their rec.
tors receive less han the $500 a year
which government economists regard
as the minimum on which a family can
be decently maintained.
The initial cost of the cheapest "f1iv.
ver'' on the market is less than 9,
but a very good, Conscientious pa. OF
it is shown, can be hired for a year oI
that sun
Ministers in the South are preaching
to fifty or more cotton pickers who in.
dividually are paid more for p ng
cotton than their entire neighbornood
pays to the preacher in "a year.
One of the aims of the present co-
operation of the worlds Protestant de-
nominations is to end this disgrace Of
the underpaid minister. With uniyer-
stiles, business houses and municipaii-
ties daily taking action TO provide Or
the comfort of their workers, the
church is to keep pace with the times,
and to arrange not only for adequate
pay for it's workers, but to provide pen
sions for those no longer able to work.
1t is to move the public to prevent
~unfavorable comparison of pastors and
puddlers. Until then, as for a puddler
swapping jobs with a pastor drawing
an Ordinary" salary-never! The
lowest salary paid to pastors is lower
than any wages paid in the entire steel
industry.