measures and motives adapted to their circumstances, compels them to accept its benefits.
Our Plan contemplates nothing short of revolutionising the character of those whose faults are the reason for their destitution. We have seen that with fully fifty per cent. of these their own evil conduct is the cause of their wretchedness. To stop short with them of anything less than a real change of heart will be to invite and ensure failure. But this we are confident of effecting–anyway, in the great majority of cases, by reasonings and persuasions, concerning both earthly and heavenly advantages, by the power of man, and by the power of God.
By this Scheme any man, no matter how deeply he may have fallen in self-respect and the esteem of all about him, may re-enter life afresh, with the prospect of re-establishing his character when lost, or perhaps of establishing a character for the first time, and so obtaining an introduction to decent employment, and a claim for admission into Society as a good citizen. While many of this crowd are absolutely without a decent friend, others will have, on that higher level of respectability they once occupied, some relative, or friend, or employer, who occasionally thinks of them, and who, if only satisfied that a real change has taken place in the prodigal, will not only be willing, but delighted, to help them once more.
By this Scheme, we believe we shall be able to teach habits of economy, household management, thrift, and the like. There are numbers of men who, although suffering the direst pangs of poverty, know little or nothing about the value of money, or the prudent use of it; and there are hundreds of poor women who do not know what a decently-managed home is, and who could not make one if they had the most ample means and tried ever so hard to accomplish it, having never seen anything but dirt, disorder, and misery in their domestic history. They could not cook a dinner or prepare a meal decently if their lives were dependent on it, never having had a chance of learning how to do it. But by this Scheme hope to teach these things.
By this Plan, habits of cleanliness will be created, and some knowledge of sanitary questions in general will be imparted. This Scheme changes the circumstances of those whose poverty is caused by their misfortune. To begin with, it finds work for the unemployed. This is the chief need. The great problem that has for ages been puzzling the brains of the political economist and philanthropist has been “How can we find these people work?” No matter what other helps are discovered, without work there is no real ground for hope. Charity and all the other ten thousand devices are only temporary expedients, altogether insufficient to meet the necessity. Work, apart from the fact that it is God’s method of supplying the wants of man’s composite nature, is an essential to his well-being in every way– and on this Plan there is work, honourable work–none of your demoralising stone-breaking, or oakum-picking business, which tantalises and insults poverty, Every worker will feel that he is not only occupied for his own benefit, but that any advantage reaped over and above that which he gains himself will serve to lift some other poor wretch out of the gutter.
There would be work within the capacity of all. Every gift could be employed. For instance, take five persons on the Farm–a baker, a tailor, a shoemaker, a cook, and an agriculturist. The baker would make bread for all, the tailor garments for all, the shoemaker shoes for all, the cook would cook for all, and the agriculturist dig for all. Those who know anything which would be useful to the inhabitants of the Colony will be set to do it, and those who are ignorant of any trade or profession will be taught one.
This Scheme removes the vicious and criminal classes out of the sphere of those temptations before which they have invariably fallen in the past. Our experience goes to show that when you have, by Divine grace, or by any consideration of the advantages of a good life, or the disadvantages of a bad one, produced in a man circumstanced as those whom we have been describing, the resolution to turn over a new leaf, the temptations and difficulties he has to encounter will ordinarily master him, and undo all that has been done, if he still continues to be surrounded by old companions and allurements to sin.
Now, look at the force of the temptations this class has to fight against. What is it that leads people to do wrong–people of all classes, rich as well as poor? Not the desire to sin. They do not want to sin; many of them do not know what sin is, but they have certain appetites or natural likings, the indulgence of which is pleasant to them, and when the desire for their unlawful gratification is aroused, regardless of the claims of God, their own highest interests, or the well-being of their fellows, they are carried away by them; and thus all the good resolutions they have made in the past come to grief.
For instance, take the temptation which comes through the natural appetite, hunger. Here is a man who has been at a religious meeting, or received some good advice, or, perhaps, just come out of prison, with the memories of the hardships he has suffered fresh upon him, or the advice of the chaplain ringing in his ears. He has made up his mind to steal no more, but he has no means of earning a livelihood. He becomes hungry. What is he to do? A loaf of bread tempts him, or, more likely, a gold chain which he can turn into bread. An inward struggle commences, he tries to stick to his bargain, but the hunger goes on gnawing within, and it may be there is a wife and children hungry as well as himself; so he yields to the temptation, takes the chain, and in turn the policeman takes him.
Now this man does not want to do wrong, and still less does he want to go to prison. In a sincere, dreamy way he desires to be good, and if the path were easier for him he would probably walk in it.
Again, there is the appetite for drink. That man has no thought of sinning when he takes his first glass. Much less does he want to get drunk. He may have still a vivid recollection of the unpleasant consequences that followed his last spree, but the craving is on him; the public-house is there handy; his companions press him; he yields, and falls, and, perhaps, falls to rise no more.
We might amplify, but our Scheme proposes to take the poor slave right away from the public-houses, the drink, and the companions that allure him to it, and therefore we think the chances of reformation in him are far greater.
Then think of the great boon this Scheme will be to the children, bringing them out of the slums, wretched hovels, and filthy surroundings in which they are being reared for lives of abomination of every description, into the fields, amongst the green trees and cottage homes, where they can grow up with a chance of saving both body and soul.
Think again of the change this Scheme will make for these poor creatures from the depressing, demoralising surroundings, of the unsightly, filthy quarters in which they are huddled together, to the pure air and sights and sounds of the country. There is much talk about the beneficial influence of pictures, music and literature upon the multitudes. Money, like water, is being poured forth to supply such attractions in Museums, People’s Palaces, and the like, for the edification and amelioration of the social condition of the masses. But “God made the country, man made the town,” and if we take the people to the pictures of divine manufacture, that must be the superior plan.
Again, the Scheme is capable of illimitable application. The plaister can be made as large as the wound. The wound is certainly a very extensive one, and it seems at first sight almost ridiculous for any private enterprise to attempt dealing with it. Three millions of people, living in little short of perpetual misery have to be reached and rescued out of this terrible condition. But it can be done, and this Scheme will do it, if it is allowed a fair chance. Not all at once? True! It will take time, but it will begin to tell on the restering mass straight away. Within a measurable distance we ought to be able to take out of this black sea at least a hundred individuals a week, and there is no reason why this number should not go on increasing.
An appreciable impression on this gulf of misery would be immediately made, not only for those who are rescued from its dark waters, but for those who are left behind, seeing that for every hundred individuals removed, there is just the additional work which they performed for those who remain. It might not be much, but still it would soon count up. Supposing three carpenters are starving on employment which covered one-third of their time, if you take two away, the one left will have full employment. But it will be for the public to fix, by their contributions, the extent of our operations.
The benefits bestowed by this Scheme will be permanent in duration. It will be seen that this is no temporary expedient, such as, alas! nearly every effort hitherto made on behalf of these classes has been. Relief Works, Soup Kitchens, Enquiries into Character, Emigration Schemes, of which none will avail themselves, Charity in its hundred forms, Casual Wards, the Union, and a hundred other Nostrums may serve for the hour, but they are only at the best palliations. But this Scheme, I am bold to say, offers a substantial and permanent remedy.
In relieving one section of the community, our plan involves no interference with the well-being of any other. (See Chapter VII. Section 4, “Objections.”)
This Scheme removes the all but insuperable barrier to an industrious and godly life. It means not only the leading of these lost multitudes out of the “City of Destruction” into the Canaan of plenty, but the lifting of them up to the same level of advantage with the more favoured of mankind for securing the salvation of their souls.
Look at the circumstances of hundreds and thousands of the classes of whom we are speaking. From the cradle to the grave, might not their influence in the direction of Religious Belief be summarised in one sentence, “Atheism made easy.” Let my readers imagine theirs to have been a similar lot. Is it not possible that, under such circumstances, they might have entertained some serious doubts as to the existence of a benevolent God who would thus allow His creatures to starve, or that they would have been so preoccupied with their temporal miseries as to have no heart for any concern about the next life?
Take a man, hungry and cold, who does not know where his next meal is coming from; nay, who thinks it problematical whether it will come at all. We know his thoughts will be taken up entirely with the bread he needs for his body. What he wants is a dinner. The interests of his soul must wait.
Take a woman with a starving family, who knows that as soon as Monday comes round the rent must be paid, or else she and her children must go into the street, and her little belongings be impounded. At the present moment she is without it. Are not her thoughts likely to wander in that direction if she slips into a Church or Mission Hall, or Salvation Army Barracks?
I have had some experience on this subject, and have been making observations with respect to it ever since the day I made my first attempt to reach these starving, hungry, crowds–just over forty-five years ago–and I am quite satisfied that these multitudes will not be saved in their present circumstances. All the Clergymen. Home Missionaries, Tract Distributors, Sick Visitors, and everyone else who care about the Salvation of the poor, may make up their minds as to that. If these people are to believe in Jesus Christ, become the Servants of God, and escape the miseries of the wrath to come, they must be helped out of their present social miseries. They must be put into a position in which they can work and eat, and have a decent room to live and sleep in, and see something before them besides a long, weary, monotonous, grinding round of toil, and anxious care to keep themselves and those they love barely alive, with nothing at the further end but the Hospital, the Union, or the Madhouse. If Christian Workers and Philanthropists will join hands to effect this change it will be accomplished, and the people will rise up and bless them, and be saved; if they will not, the people will curse them and perish.
SECTION 4.–SOME OBJECTIONS MET.
Objections must be expected. They are a necessity with regard to any Scheme that has not yet been reduced to practice, and simply signify foreseen difficulties in the working of it. We freely admit that there are abundance of difficulties in the way of working out the plan smoothly and successfully that has been laid down. But many of these we imagine will vanish when we come to close quarters, and the remainder will be surmounted by courage and patience. Should, however, this plan prove the success we predict, it must eventually revolutionise the condition of the starving sections of Society, not only in this great metropolis, but throughout the whole range of civilisation. It must therefore be worthy not only of a careful consideration but of persevering trial.
Some of these difficulties at first sight appear rather serious. Let us look at them.
Objection I.–It is suggested that the class of people for whose benefit the Scheme is designed would not avail themselves of it.
When the feast was prepared and the invitation had gone forth, it is said that the starving multitudes would not come; that though labour was offered them in the City, or prepared for them on the Farm, they would prefer to rot in their present miseries rather than avail themselves of the benefit provided.
In order to gather the opinions of those most concerned, we consulted one evening, by a Census in our London Shelters, two hundred and fifty men out of work, and all suffering severely in consequence. We furnished a set of questions, and obtained answers from the whole. Now, it must be borne in mind that these men were under no obligation whatever to make any reply to our enquiries, much less to answer them favourably to our plan, of which they knew next to nothing.
These two hundred and fifty men were mostly in the prime of life, the greater portion of them being skilled workmen; an examination of the return papers showing that out of the entire number two hundred and seven were able to work at their trades had they the opportunity.
The number of trades naturally varied. There were some of all kinds: Engineers, Custom House Officers, Schoolmasters, Watch and Clockmakers, Sailors, and men of the different branches of the Building trade; also a number of men who have been in business on their own account.
The average amount of wages earned by the skilled mechanics when regularly employed was 33s. per week; the money earned by the unskilled averaged 22s. per week.
They could not be accounted lazy, as most of them; when not employed at their own trade or occupation, had proved their willingness to work by getting jobs at anything that turned up. On looking over the list we saw that one who had been a Custom House Officer had recently acted as Carpenter’s Labourer; a Type-founder had been glad to work at Chimney Sweeping; the Schoolmaster, able to speak five languages, who in his prosperous days had owned a farm, was glad to do odd jobs as a Bricklayer’s Labourer; a Gentleman’s Valet, who once earned #5 a week, had come so low down in the world that he was glad to act as Sandwich man for the magnificent sum of fourteenpence a day, and that, only as an occasional affair.
In the list was a dyer and cleaner, married, with a wife and nine children, who had been able to earn 40s. a week, but had done no regular work for three years out of the last ten.
We put the following question to the entire number: — “If you were put on a farm, and set to work at anything you could do, and supplied with food, lodging, and clothing, with a view to getting you on to your feet, would you be willing to do all you could?”
In response, the whole 250 replied in the affirmative, with one exception, and on enquiry we elicited that, being a sailor, the man was afraid he would not know how to do the work.
On being interrogated as to their willingness to grapple with the hard labour on the land, they said: “Why should we not? Look at us. Can any plight be more miserable than ours?” Why not, indeed? A glance at them would certainly make it impossible for any thoughtful person to assign a rational reason for their refusal–in rags, swarming with vermin, hungry, many of them living on scraps of food, begged or earned in the most haphazard fashion, without sufficient clothing to cover their poor gaunt limbs, most of them without a shirt. They had to start out the next morning, uncertain which way to turn to earn a crust for dinner, or the fourpence necessary to supply them again with the humble shelter they had enjoyed that night. The idea of their refusing employment which would supply abundantly the necessaries of life, and give the prospect of becoming, in process of time, the owner of a home, with its comforts and companionships, is beyond conception. There is not much question that this class will not only accept the Scheme we want to set before them, but gratefully do all in their power to make it a success.
II.–Too many would come. This would be very probable. There would certainly be too many apply. But we should be under no obligation to take more than was convenient. The larger the number of applications the wider the field for selection, and the greater the necessity for the enlargement of our operations.
III.–They would run away. It is further objected that if they did come, the monotony of the life, the strangeness of the work, together with the absence of the excitements and amusements with which they had been entertained in the cities and towns, would render their existence unbearable. Even when left to the streets, there is an amount of life and action in the city which is very attractive. Doubtless some would run away, but I don’t think this would be a large proportion. The change would be so great, and so palpably advantageous, that I think they would find in it ample compensation for the deprivation of any little pleasureable excitement they had left behind them in the city. For instance, there would be–
A Sufficiency of Food.
The friendliness and sympathy of their new associates. There would be abundance of companions of similar tastes and circumstances– not all pious. It would be quite another matter to going single-handed on to a farm, or into a melancholy family.
Then there would be the prospect of doing well for themselves in the future, together with all the religious life, meetings, music, and freedom of the Salvation Army.
But what says our experience?
If there be one class which is the despair of the social reformer, it is that which is variously described, but which we may term the lost women of our streets. From the point of view of the industrial organiser, they suffer from almost every fault that human material can possess. They are, with some exceptions, untrained to labour, demoralised by a life of debauchery, accustomed to the wildest license, emancipated from all discipline but that of starvation, given to drink, and, for the most part, impaired in health. If, therefore, any considerable number of this class can be shown to be ready to submit themselves voluntarily to discipline, to endure deprivation of drink, and to apply themselves steadily to industry, then example will go a long way towards proving that even the worst description of humanity, when intelligently, thoroughly handled, is amenable to discipline and willing to work. In our British Rescue Homes we receive considerably over a thousand unfortunates every year; while all over the world, our annual average is two thousand. The work has been in progress for three years–long enough to enable us to test very fully the capacity of the class in question to reform.
With us there is no compulsion. If any girl wishes to remain, she remains. If she wishes to go, she goes. No one is detained a day or an hour longer than they choose to stay. Yet our experience shows that, as a rule, they do not run away. Much more restless and thoughtless and given to change, as a class, than men, the girls do not, in any considerable numbers, desert. The average of our London Homes, for the last three years, gives only 14 per cent. as leaving on their own account, while for the year 1889 only 5 per cent. And the entire number, who have either left or been dismissed during that year, amounts only to 13 per cent. on the whole.
IV.–They would not work.
Of course, to such as had for years been leading idle lives, anything like work and exhaustive labour would be very trying and wearisome, and a little patience and coaxing might be required to get them into the way of it. Perhaps some would be hopelessly beyond salvation in this respect, and, until the time comes, if it ever does arrive, when the Government will make it a crime for an abled-bodied man to beg when there is an opportunity for him to engage in remunerative work, this class will wander abroad preying upon a generous public. It will, however, only need to be known that any man can obtain work if he wants it, for those who have by their liberality maintained men and women in idleness to cease doing so. And when it comes to this pass, that a man cannot eat without working, of the two evils he will choose the latter, preferring labour, however unpleasant it may be to his tastes, to actual starvation.
It must be borne in mind that the penalty of certain expulsion, which all would be given to understand would be strictly enforced would have a good influence in inducing the idlest to give work a fair trial, and once at it should not despair of conquering the aversion altogether, and eventually being able to transform and pass these once lazy loafers as real industrious members of Society.
Again, any who have fears on this point may be encouraged by contrasting the varied and ever-changing methods of labour we should pursue, with the monotonous and uninteresting grind of many of the ordinary employments of the poor, and the circumstances by which they are surrounded.
Here, again, we fall back upon our actual experience in reclamation work. In our Homes for Saving the Lost Women we have no difficulty of getting them to work. The idleness of this section of the social strata has been before referred to; it is not for a moment denied, and there can be no question, as to its being the cause of much of their poverty and distress. But from early morn until the lights are out at night, all is a round of busy, and, to a great extent, very uninteresting labour; while the girls have, as a human inducement, only domestic service to look forward to–of which they are in no way particularly enamoured–and yet here is no mutiny, no objection, no unwillingness to work; in fact they appear well pleased to be kept continually at it. Here is a report that teaches the same lesson.
A small Bookbinding Factory is worked in connection with the Rescue Homes in London. The folders and stitchers are girls saved from the streets, but who, for various reasons, were found unsuitable for domestic service. The Factory has solved the problem of employment for some of the most difficult cases. Two of the girls at present employed there are crippled, while one is supporting herself and two young children.
While learning the work they live in the Rescue Homes, and the few shillings they are able to earn are paid into the Home funds. As soon as they are able to earn 12s. a week, a lodging is found for them (with Salvationists, if possible), and they are placed entirely upon their own resources. The majority of girls working at this trade in London are living in the family, and 6s., 7s., and 8s. a week make an acceptable addition to the Home income; but our girls who are entirely dependent upon their own earnings must make an average wage of 12s. a week at least. In order that they may do this we are obliged to pay higher wages than other employers. For instance, we give from 2 1/2d. to 3d. a thousand more than the trade for binding small pamphlets; nevertheless, after the Manager, a married man, is paid, and a man for the superintendence of the machines, a profit of about #500 has been made, and the work is improving. They are all paid piecework.
Eighteen women are supporting themselves in this way at present, and conducting themselves most admirably. One of their number acts as forewoman, and conducts the Prayer Meeting at 12.30, the Two-minutes’ Prayer after meals, etc. Their continuance in the factory is subject to their good behaviour–both at home as well as at work. In one instance only have we had any trouble at all, and in this solitary case the girl was so penitent she was forgiven, and has done well ever since. I think that, without exception, they are Salvation Soldiers, and will be found at nearly every meeting on the Sabbath, etc. The binding of Salvation Army publications– “The Deliverer,” “All the World,” the Penny Song Books, etc., almost keep us going. A little outside work for the end of the months is taken, but we are not able to make any profit generally, it is so badly paid.
It will be seen that this is a miniature factory, but still it is a factory, and worked on principles that will admit of illimitable extension, and may, I think, be justly regarded as an encouragement and an exemplification of what may be accomplished in endless variations.
V.–Again, it is objected that the class whose benefit we contemplate would not have physical ability to work on a farm, or in the open air.
How, it is asked, would tailors, clerks, weavers, seamstresses, and the destitute people, born and reared in the slums and poverty-hovels of the towns and cities, do farm or any other work that has to do with the land? The employment in the open air, with exposure to every kind of weather which accompanies it, would, it is said, kill them off right away.
We reply, that the division of labour before described would render it as unnecessary as it would be undesirable and uneconomical, to put many of these people to dig or to plant. Neither is it any part of our plan to do so. On our Scheme we have shown how each one would be appointed to that kind of work for which his previous knowledge and experience and strength best adapted him. Moreover, there can be no possible comparison between the conditions of health enjoyed by men and women wandering about homeless, sleeping in the streets or in the fever-haunted lodging-houses, or living huddled up in a single room, and toiling twelve and fourteen hours in a sweater’s den, and living in comparative comfort in well-warmed and ventilated houses, situated in the open country, with abundance of good, healthy food.
Take a man or a woman out into the fresh air, give them proper exercise, and substantial food. Supply them with a comfortable home, cheerful companions, and a fair prospect of reaching a position of independence in this or some other land, and a complete renewal of health and careful increase of vigour will, we expect, be one of the first great benefits that will ensue.
VI.–It is objected that we should be left with a considerable residuum of half-witted, helpless people.
Doubtless this would be a real difficulty, and we should have to prepare for it. We certainly, at the outset, should have to guard against too many of this class being left upon our hands, although we should not be compelled to keep anyone. It would, how ever, be painful to have to send them back to the dreadful life from which we had rescued them. Still, however, this would not be so ruinous a risk, looked at financially, as some would imagine. We could, we think, maintain them for 4s. per week, and they would be very weak indeed in body, and very wanting in mental, strength if they were not able to earn that amount in some one of the many forms of employment which the Colony would open up.
VII.–Again, it will be objected that some efforts of a similar character have failed. For instance, co-operative enterprises in farming have not succeeded.
True, but so far as I can ascertain, nothing of the character I am describing has ever been attempted. A large number of Socialistic communities have been established and come to grief in the United States, in Germany, and elsewhere, but they have all, both in principle and practice, strikingly differed from what we are proposing here: Take one particular alone, the great bulk of these societies have not only been fashioned without any regard to the principles of Christianity, but, in the vast majority of instances, have been in direct opposition to them; and the only communities based on co-operative principles that have survived the first few months of their existence have been based upon Christian truth. If not absolute successes, there have been some very remarkable results obtained by efforts partaking somewhat of the nature of the one I am setting forth. (See that of Ralahine, described in Appendix.)
VIII.–It is further objected that it would be impossible to maintain order and enforce good discipline amongst this class of people.
We are of just the opposite opinion. We think that it would –nay, we are certain of it, and we speak as those who have had considerable experience in dealing with the lower classes of Society. We have already dealt with this difficulty. We may say further–
That we do not propose to commence with a thousand people in a wild, untamed state, either at home or abroad. To the Colony Over-Sea we should send none but those who have had a long period of training in this country. The bulk of those sent to the Provincial Farm would have had some sort of trial in the different City Establishments. We should only draft them on to the Estate in small numbers, as we were prepared to deal with them, and I am quite satisfied that without the legal methods of maintaining order that are acted upon so freely in workhouses and other similar institutions, we should have as perfect obedience to Law, as great respect for authority, and as strong a spirit of kindness pervading all ranks throughout the whole of the community as could be found in any other institution in the land.
It will be borne in mind that our Army system of government largely prepares us, if it does not qualify us, for this task. Anyway, it gives us a good start. All our people are trained in habits of obedience, and all our Officers are educated in the exercise of authority. The Officers throughout the Colony would be almost exclusively recruited from the ranks of the Army, and everyone of them would go to the work, both theoretically and practically, familiar with those principles which are the essence of good discipline.
Then we can argue, and that very forcibly, from the actual experience we have already had in dealing with this class. Take our experience in the Army itself. Look at the order of our Soldiers. Here are men and women, who have no temporal interest whatever at stake, receiving no remuneration, often sacrificing their earthly interests by their union with us, and yet see how they fall into line, and obey orders in the promptest manner, even when such orders go right in the teeth of their temporal interests.
“Yes,” it will be replied by some, “this is all very excellent so far as it relates to those who are altogether of your own way of thinking. You can command them as you please, and they will obey, but what proof have you given of your ability to control and discipline those who are not of your way of thinking?
“You can do that with your Salvationists because they are saved, as you call it. When men are born again you can do anything with them. But unless you convert all the denizens of Darkest England, what chance is there that they will be docile to your discipline? If they were soundly saved no doubt something might be done. But they are not saved, soundly or otherwise; they are lost. What reason have you for believing that they will be amenable to discipline?”
I admit the force of this objection; but I have an answer, and an answer which seems to me complete. Discipline, and that of the most merciless description, is enforced upon multitudes of these people even now. Nothing that the most authoritative organisation of industry could devise in the excess of absolute power, could for a moment compare with the slavery enforced to-day in the dens of the sweater. It is not a choice between liberty and discipline that confronts these unfortunates, but between discipline mercilessly enforced by starvation and inspired by futile greed, and discipline accompanied with regular rations and administered solely for their own benefit. What liberty is there for the tailors who have to sew for sixteen to twenty hours a day, in a pest-hole, in order to earn ten shillings a week? There is no discipline so brutal as that of the sweater; there is no slavery so relentless as that from which we seek to deliver the victims. Compared with their normal condition of existence, the most rigorous discipline which would be needed to secure the complete success of any new individual organisation would be an escape from slavery into freedom.
You may reply, “that it might be so, if people understood their own interest. But as a matter of fact they do not understand it, and that they will never have sufficient far-sightedness to appreciate the advantages that are offered them.”
To this I answer, that here also I do not speak from theory. I lay before you the ascertained results of years of experience. More than two years ago, moved by the misery and despair of the unemployed, I opened the Food and Shelter Depots in London already described. Here are a large number of men every night, many of them of the lowest type of casuals who crawl about the streets, a certain proportion criminals, and about as difficult a class to manage as I should think could be got together, and while there will be 200 of them in a single building night after night, from the first opening of the doors in the evening until the last man has departed in the morning, there shall scarcely be a word of dissatisfaction; anyway, nothing in the shape of angry temper or bad language. No policemen are required; indeed two or three nights’ experience will be sufficient to turn the regular frequenters of the place of their own free will into Officers of Order, glad not only to keep the regulations of the place, but to enforce its discipline upon others.
Again, every Colonist, whether in the City or elsewhere, would know that those who took the interests of the Colony to heart, were loyal to its authority and principles, and laboured industriously in promoting its interests, would be rewarded accordingly by promotion to positions of influence and authority, which would also carry with them temporal advantages, present and prospective.
But one of our main hopes would be in the apprehension by the Colonists of the fact that all our efforts were put forth on their behalf. Every man and woman on the place would know that this enterprise was begun and carried on solely for their benefit, and that of the other members of their class, and that only their own good behaviour and co-operation would ensure their reaping a personal share in such benefit. Still our expectations would be largely based on the creation of a spirit of unselfish interest in the community.
IX. Again, it is objected that the Scheme is too vast to be attempted by voluntary enterprise; it ought to be taken up and carried out by the Government itself.
Perhaps so, but there is no very near probability of Government undertaking it, and we are not quite sure whether such an attempt would prove a success if it were made. But seeing that neither Governments, nor Society, nor individuals have stood forward to undertake what God has made appear to us to be so vitally important a work, and as He has given us the willingness, and in many important senses the ability, we are prepared, if the financial help is furnished, to make a determined effort, not only to undertake but to carry it forward to a triumphant success.
X.–It is objected that the classes we seek to benefit are too ignorant and depraved for Christian effort, or for effort of any kind, to reach and reform.–
Look at the tramps, the drunkards, the harlots, the criminals. How confirmed they are in their idle and vicious habits. It will be said, indeed has been already said by those with whom I have conversed, that I don’t know them; which statement cannot, I think, be maintained, for if I don’t know them, who does?
I admit, however, that thousands of this class are very far gone from every sentiment, principle and practice of right conduct. But I argue that these poor people cannot be much more unfavourable subjects for the work of regeneration than are many of the savages and heathen tribes, in the conversion of whom Christians universally believe; for whom they beg large sums of money, and to whom they send their best and bravest people.
These poor people are certainly embraced in the Divine plan of mercy. To their class, the Saviour especially gave His attention when he was on the earth, and for them He most certainly died on the Cross.
Some of the best examples of Christian faith and practice, and some of the most successful workers for the benefit of mankind, have sprung from this class, of which we have instances recorded in the Bible, and any number in the history of the Church and of the Salvation Army.
It may be objected that while this Scheme would undoubtedly assist one class of the community by making steady, industrious workmen, it must thereby injure another class by introducing so many new hands into the labour market, already so seriously overstocked.
To this we reply that there is certainly an appearance of force in this objection; but it has, I think, been already answered in the foregoing pages. Further, if the increase of workers, which this Scheme will certainly bring about, was the beginning and the end of it, it would certainly present a somewhat serious aspect. But, even on that supposition, I don’t see how the skilled worker could leave his brothers to rot in their present wretchedness, though their rescue should involve the sharing of a portion of his wages.
(1) But there is no such danger, seeing that the number of extra hands thrown on the British Labour Market must be necessarily inconsiderable.
(2) The increased production of food in our Farm and Colonial operations must indirectly benefit the working man.
(3) The taking out of the labour market of a large number of individuals who at present have only partial work, while benefiting them, must of necessity afford increased labour to those left behind.
(4) While every poor workless individual made into a wage earner will of necessity have increased requirements in proportion. For instance, the drunkard who has had to manage with a few bricks, a soap box, and a bundle of rags, will want a chair, a table, a bed, and at least the other necessary adjuncts to a furnished home, however sparely fitted up it may be.
There is no question but that when our Colonisation Scheme is fairly afloat it will drain off, not only many of those who are in the morass, but a large number who are on the verge of it. Nay, even artisans, earning what are considered good wages, will be drawn by the desire to improve their circumstances, or to raise their children under more favourable surroundings, or from still nobler motives, to leave the old country. Then it is expected that the agricultural labourer and the village artisan, who are ever migrating to the great towns and cities, will give the preference to the Colony Over-Sea, and so prevent that accumulation of cheap labour which is considered to interfere so materially with the maintenance of a high wages standard.
SECTION 5. RECAPITULATION.
I have now passed in review the leading features of the Scheme, which I put forward as one that is calculated to considerably contribute to the amelioration of the condition of the lowest stratum of our Society. It in no way professes to be complete in all its details. Anyone may at any point lay his finger on this, that, or the other feature of the Scheme, and show some void that must be filled in if it is to work with effect. There is one thing, however, that can be safely said in excuse for the short comings of the Scheme, and that is that if you wait until you get an ideally perfect plan you will have to wait until the Millennium, and then you will not need it. My suggestions, crude though they may be, have, nevertheless, one element that will in time supply all deficiencies. There is life in them, with life there is the promise and power of adaptation to all the innumerable and varying circumstances of the class with which we have to deal. Where there is life there is infinite power of adjustment. This is no cast-iron Scheme, forged in a single brain and then set up as a standard to which all must conform. It is a sturdy plant, which has its roots deep down in the nature and circumstances of men. Nay, I believe in the very heart of God Himself. It has already grown much, and will, if duly nurtured and tended, grow still further, until from it, as from the grain of mustard-seed in the parable, there shall spring up a great tree whose branches shall overshadow all the earth.
Once more let me say, I claim no patent rights in any part of this Scheme. Indeed, I do not know what in it is original and what is not. Since formulating some of the plans, which I had thought were new under the sun, I have discovered that they have been already tried in different parts of the world, and that with great promise. It may be so with others, and in this I rejoice. I plead for no exclusiveness. The question is much too serious for such fooling as that. Here are millions of our fellow-creatures perishing amidst the breakers of the sea of life, dashed to pieces on sharp rocks, sucked under by eddying whirlpools, suffocated even when they think they have reached land by treacherous quicksands; to save them from this imminent destruction I suggest that these things should be done. If you have any better plan than mine for effecting this purpose, in God’s name bring it to the light and get it carried out quickly. If you have not, then lend me a hand with mine, as I would be only too glad to lend you a hand with yours if it had in it greater promise of successful action than mine.
In a Scheme for the working out of social salvation the great, the only, test that is worth anything is the success with which they attain the object for which they are devised. An ugly old tub of a boat that will land a shipwrecked sailor safe on the beach is worth more to him than the finest yacht that ever left a slip-way incapable of effecting the same object. The superfine votaries of culture may recoil in disgust from the rough-and-ready suggestions which I have made for dealing with the Sunken Tenth, but mere recoiling is no solution. If the cultured and the respectable and the orthodox and the established dignitaries and conventionalities of Society pass by on the other side we cannot follow their example.
We may not be priests and Levites, but we can at least play the part of the Good Samaritan. The man who went down to Jericho and fell among thieves was probably a very improvident, reckless individual, who ought to have known better than to go roaming alone through defiles haunted by banditti, whom he even led into temptation by the careless way in which he exposed himself and his goods to their avaricious gaze. It was, no doubt, largely his own fault that he lay there bruised and senseless, and ready to perish, just as it is largely the fault of those whom we seek to help that they lie in the helpless plight in which we find them. But for all that, let us bind up their wounds with such balm as we can procure, and, setting them on our ass, let us take them to our Colony, where they may have time to recover, and once more set forth on the journey of life.
And now, having said this much by way of reply to some of my critics, I will recapitulate the salient features of the Scheme. I laid down at the beginning certain points to be kept in view as embodying those invariable laws or principles of political economy, without due regard to which no Scheme can hope for even a chance of success. Subject to these conditions, I think my Scheme will pass muster. It is large enough to cope with the evils that will confront us; it is practicable, for it is already in course of application, and it is capable of indefinite expansion. But it would be better to pass the whole Scheme in its more salient features in review once more.
The Scheme will seek to convey benefit to the destitute classes in various ways altogether apart from their entering the Colonies. Men and women maybe very poor and in very great sorrow, nay, on the verge of actual starvation, and yet be so circumstanced as to be unable to enrol themselves in the Colonial ranks. To these our cheap Food Depots, our Advice Bureau, Labour Shops, and other agencies will prove an unspeakable boon, and will be likely by such temporary assistance to help them out of the deep gulf in which they are struggling. Those who need permanent assistance will be passed on to the City Colony, and taken directly under our control. Here they will be employed as before described. Many will be sent off to friends; work will be found for others in the City or elsewhere, while the great bulk, after reasonable testing as to their sincerity and willingness to assist in their own salvation, will be sent on to the Farm Colonies, where the same process of reformation and training will be continued, and unless employment is otherwise obtained they will then be passed on to the Over-Sea Colony.
All in circumstances of destitution, vice, or criminality will receive casual assistance or be taken into the Colony, on the sole conditions of their being anxious for deliverance, and willing to work for it, and to conform to discipline, altogether irrespective of character, ability, religious opinions, or anything else.
No benefit will be conferred upon any individual except under extraordinary circumstances, without some return being made in labour. Even where relatives and friends supply money to the Colonists, the latter must take their share of work with their comrades. We shall not have room for a single idler throughout all our borders.
The labour allotted to each individual will be chosen in view of his past employment or ability. Those who have any knowledge of agriculture will naturally be put to work on the land; the shoemaker will make shoes, the weaver cloth, and so on. And when there is no knowledge of any handicraft, the aptitude of the individual and the necessities of the hour will suggest the sort of work it would be most profitable for such an one to learn.
Work of all descriptions will be executed as far as possible by hand labour. The present rage for machinery has tended to produce much destitution by supplanting hand labour so exclusively that the rush has been from the human to the machine. We want, as far as is practicable, to travel back from the machine to the human.
Each member of the Colony would receive food, clothing, lodging, medicine, and all necessary care in case of sickness.
No wages would be paid, except a trifle by way of encouragement for good behaviour and industry, or to those occupying positions of trust, part of which will be saved in view of exigencies in our Colonial Bank, and the remainder used for pocket money.
The whole Scheme of the three Colonies will for all practical purposes be regarded as one; hence the training will have in view the qualification of the Colonists for ultimately earning their livelihood in the world altogether independently of our assistance, or, failing this, fit them for taking some permanent work within our borders either at home or abroad.
Another result of this unity of the Town and Country Colonies will be the removal of one of the difficulties ever connected with the disposal of the products of unemployed labour. The food from the Farm would be consumed by the City, while many of the things manufactured in the City would be consumed on the Farm.
The continued effort of all concerned in the reformation of these people will be to inspire and cultivate those habits, the want of which has been so largely the cause of the destitution and vice of the past.
Strict discipline, involving careful and continuous oversight, would be necessary to the maintenance of order amongst so large a number of people, many of whom had hitherto lived a wild and licentious life. Our chief reliance in this respect would be upon the spirit of mutual interest that would prevail.
The entire Colony would probably be divided into sections, each under the supervision of a sergeant–one of themselves–working side by side with them, yet responsible for the behaviour of all.
The chief Officers of the Colony would be individuals who had given themselves to the work, not for a livelihood, but from a desire to be useful to the suffering poor. They would be selected at the outset from the Army, and that on the ground of their possessing certain capabilities for the position, such as knowledge of the particular kind of work they had to superintend, or their being good disciplinarians and having the faculty for controlling men and being themselves influenced by a spirit of love. Ultimately the Officers, we have no doubt, would be, as is the case in all our other operations, men and women raised up from the Colonists themselves, and who will consequently, possess some special qualifications for dealing with those they have to superintend. The Colonists will be divided into two classes: the 1st, the class which receives no wages will consist of: —
(a) The new arrivals, whose ability, character, and habits are as yet unknown.
(b) The less capable in strength, mental calibre, or other capacity. (c) The indolent, and those whose conduct and character appeared doubtful. These would remain in this class, until sufficiently improved for advancement, or are pronounced so hopeless as to justify expulsion.
The 2nd class would have a small extra allowance, a part of which would be given to the workers for private use, and a part reserved for future contingencies, the payment of travelling expenses, etc. From this class we should obtain our petty officers, send out hired labourers, emigrants, etc., etc.
Such is the Scheme as I have conceived it. Intelligently applied, and resolutely persevered in, I cannot doubt that it will produce a great and salutary change in the condition of many of the most hopeless of our fellow countrymen. Nor is it only our fellow countrymen to whom it is capable of application. In its salient features, with such alterations as are necessary, owing to differences of climate and of race, it is capable of adoption in every city in the world, for it is an attempt to restore to the masses of humanity that are crowded together in cities, the human and natural elements of life which they possessed when they lived in the smaller unit of the village or the market town. Of the extent of the need there can be no question. It is, perhaps, greatest in London, where the masses of population are denser than those of any other city; but it exists equally in the chief centres of population in the new Englands that have sprung up beyond the sea, as well as in the larger cities of Europe. It is a remarkable fact that up to the present moment the most eager welcome that has been extended to this Scheme reaches us from Melbourne, where our officers have been compelled to begin operations by the pressure of public opinion and in compliance with the urgent entreaties of the Government on one side and the leaders of the working classes on the other before the plan had been elaborated, or instructions could be sent out for their guidance.
It is rather strange to hear of distress reaching starvation point in a city like Melbourne, the capital of a great new country which teems with natural wealth of every kind. But Melbourne, too, has its unemployed, and in no city in the Empire have we been more successful in dealing with the social problem than in the capital of Victoria. The Australian papers for some weeks back have been filled with reports of the dealings of the Salvation Army with the unemployed of Melbourne. This was before the great Strike. The Government of Victoria practically threw upon our officers the task of dealing with the unemployed. The subject was debated in the House of Assembly, and at the close of the debate a subscription was taken up by one of those who had been our most strenuous opponents, and a sum of #400 was handed over to our officers to dispense in keeping the starving from perishing. Our people have found situations for no fewer than 1,776 persons, and are dispensing meals at the rate of 700 a day. The Government of Victoria has long been taking the lead in recognising the secular uses of the Salvation Army. The following letter addressed by the Minister of the Interior to the Officer charged with the oversight of this part of our operations, indicates the estimation in which we are held: —
Government of Victoria, Chief Secretary’s Office, Melbourne.
July 4th, 1889.
Superintendent Salvation Army Rescue Work.
Sir,–in compliance with your request for a letter of introduction which may be of use to you in England, I have much pleasure in stating from reports furnished by Officers of my Department, I am convinced that the work you have been engaged on during the past six years has been of material advantage to the community. You have rescued from crime some who, but for the counsel and assistance rendered them, might have been a permanent tax upon the State, and you have restrained from further criminal courses others who had already suffered legal punishment for their misdeeds. It has given me pleasure to obtain from the Executive Council authority for you to apprehend children found in Brothels, and to take charge of such children after formal committal. Of the great value of this branch of your work there can be no question. It is evident that the attendance of yourself and your Officers at the police-courts and lock-ups has been attended with beneficial results, and your invitation to our largest jails has been highly approved by the head of the Department. Generally speaking, I may say that your policy and procedure have been commended by the Chief Officers of the Government of this Colony, who have observed your work.
I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient Servant,
(Signed) ALFRED DEAKIN.
The Victorian Parliament has voted an annual grant to our funds, not as a religious endowment, but in recognition of the service which we render in the reclamation of criminals, and what may be called, if I may use a word which has been so depraved by Continental abuse, the moral police of the city. Our Officer in Melbourne has an official position which opens to him almost every State institution and all the haunts of vice where it may be necessary for him to make his way in the search for girls that have been decoyed from home or who have fallen into evil courses.
It is in Victoria also that a system prevails of handing over first offenders to the care of the Salvation Army Officers, placing them in recognizance to come up when called for. An Officer of the Army attends at every Police Court, and the Prison Brigade is always on guard at the gaol doors when the prisoners are discharged. Our Officers also have free access to the prisons, where they can conduct services and labour with the inmates for their Salvation. As Victoria is probably the most democratic of our colonies, and the one in which the working-class has supreme control, the extent to which it has by its government recognised the value of our operations is sufficient to indicate that we have nothing to fear from the opposition of the democracy. In the neighbouring colony of New South Wales a lady has already given us a farm of three hundred acres fully stocked, on which to begin operations with a Farm Colony, and there seems some prospect that the Scheme will get itself into active shape at the other end of the world before it is set agoing in London. The eager welcome which has thus forced the initiative upon our Officers in Melbourne tends to encourage the expectation that the Scheme will be regarded as no quack application, but will be generally taken up and quickly set in operation all round the world.
CHAPTER 8. A PRACTICAL CONCLUSION.
Throughout this book I have more constantly used the first personal pronoun than ever before in anything I have written. I have done this deliberately, not from egotism, but in order to make it more clearly manifest that here is a definite proposal made by an individual who is prepared, if the means are furnished him, to carry it out. At the same time I want it to be clearly understood that it is not in my own strength, nor at my own charge, that I purpose to embark upon this great undertaking. Unless God wills that I should work out the idea of which I believe He has given me the conception, nothing can come of any attempt at its execution but confusion, disaster, and disappointment. But if it be His will–and whether it is or not, visible and manifest tokens will soon be forthcoming–who is there that can stand against it? Trusting in Him for guidance, encouragement, and support, I propose at once to enter upon this formidable campaign.
I do not run without being called. I do not press forward to fill this breach without being urgently pushed from behind. Whether or not, I am called of God, as well as by the agonising cries of suffering men and women and children, He will make plain to me, and to us all; for as Gideon looked for a sign before he, at the bidding of the heavenly messenger, undertook the leading of the chosen people against the hosts of Midian, even so do I look for a sign. Gideon’s sign was arbitrary. He selected it. He dictated his own terms; and out of compassion for his halting faith, a sign was given to him, and that twice over. First, his fleece was dry when all the country round was drenched with dew; and, secondly, his fleece was drenched with dew when all the country round was dry.
The sign for which I ask to embolden me to go forwards is single, not double. It is necessary and not arbitrary, and it is one which the veriest sceptic or the most cynical materialist will recognise as sufficient. If I am to work out the Scheme I have outlined in this book, I must have ample means for doing so. How much would be required to establish this Plan of Campaign in all its fulness, overshadowing all the land with its branches laden with all manner of pleasant fruit, I cannot even venture to form a conception. But I have a definite idea as to how much would be required to set it fairly in operation.
Why do I talk about commencing? We have already begun, and that with considerable effect. Our hand has been forced by circumstances. The mere rumour of our undertaking reaching the Antipodes, as before described, called forth such a demonstration of approval that my Officers there were compelled to begin action without waiting orders from home. In this country we have been working on the verge of the deadly morass for some years gone by, and not without marvellous effect. We have our Shelters, our Labour Bureau, our Factory, our Inquiry Officers, our Rescue Homes, our Slum Sisters, and other kindred agencies, all in good going order. The sphere of these operations may be a limited one; still, what we have done already is ample proof that when I propose to do much more I am not speaking without my book; and though the sign I ask for may not be given, I shall go struggling forward on the same lines; still, to seriously take in hand the work which I have sketched out–to establish this triple Colony, with all its affiliated agencies, I must have, at least, a hundred thousand pounds.
A hundred thousand pounds! That is the dew on my fleece. It is not much considering the money that is raised by my poor people for the work of the Salvation Army. The proceeds of the Self-denial Week alone last year brought us in #20,000. This year it will not fall short of #25,000. If our poor people can do so much out of their poverty, I do not think I am making an extravagant demand when I ask that out of the millions of the wealth of the world I raise, as a first instalment, a hundred thousand pounds, and say that I cannot consider myself effectually called to undertake this work unless it is forthcoming.
It is in no spirit of dictation or arrogance that I ask the sign. It is a necessity. Even Moses could not have taken the Children of Israel dry-shod through the Red Sea unless the waves had divided.
That was the sign which marked out his duty, aided his faith, and determined his action. The sign which I seek is somewhat similar. Money is not everything. It is not by any means the main thing. Midas, with all his millions, could no more do the work than he could win the battle of Waterloo, or hold the Pass of Thermopylae. But the millions of Midas are capable of accomplishing great and mighty things, if they be sent about doing good under the direction of Divine wisdom and Christ-like love.
How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the Kingdom of Heaven! It is easier to make a hundred poor men sacrifice their lives than it is to induce one rich man to sacrifice his fortune, or even a portion of it, to a cause in which, in his half-hearted fashion, he seems to believe. When I look over the roll of men and women who have given up friends, parents, home prospects, and everything they possess in order to walk bare-footed beneath a burning sun in distant India, to live on a handful of rice, and die in the midst of the dark heathen for God and the Salvation Army, I sometimes marvel how it is that they should be so eager to give up all, even life itself, in a cause which has not power enough in it to induce any reasonable number of wealthy men to give to it the mere superfluities and luxuries of their existence. From those to whom much is given much is expected; but, alas, alas, how little is realised! It is still the widow who casts her all into the Lord’s treasury–the wealthy deem it a preposterous suggestion when we allude to the Lord’s tithe, and count it boredom when we ask only for the crumbs that fall from their tables.
Those who have followed me thus far will decide for themselves to what extent they ought to help me to carry out this Project, or whether they ought to help me at all. I do not think that any sectarian differences or religious feelings whatever ought to be imported into this question. Supposing you do not like my Salvationism, surely it is better for these miserable, wretched crowds to have food to eat, clothes to wear, and a home in which to lay their weary bones after their day’s toil is done, even though the change is accompanied by some peculiar religious notions and practices, than it would be for them to be hungry, and naked, and homeless, and possess no religion at all. It must be infinitely preferable that they should speak the truth, and be virtuous, industrious, and contented, even if they do pray to God, sing Psalms, and go about with red jerseys, fanatically, as you call it, “seeking for the millennium”–than that they should remain thieves or harlots, with no belief in God at all, a burden to the Municipality, a curse to Society, and a danger to the State.
That you do not like the Salvation Army, I venture to say, is no justification for withholding your sympathy and practical co-operation in carrying out a Scheme which promises so much blessedness to your fellow-men. You may not like our government, our methods, our faith. Your feeling towards us might perhaps be duly described by an observation that slipped unwittingly from the tongue of a somewhat celebrated leader in the evangelistic world sometime ago, who, when asked what he thought of the Salvation Army, replied that “He did not like it at all, but he believed that God Almighty did.” Perhaps, as an agency, we may not be exactly of your way of thinking, but that is hardly the question. Look at that dark ocean, full of human wrecks, writhing in anguish and despair. How to rescue those unfortunates is the question. The particular character of the methods employed, the peculiar uniforms worn by the lifeboat crew, the noises made by the rocket apparatus, and the mingled shoutings of the rescued and the rescuers, may all be contrary to your taste and traditions. But all these objections and antipathies, I submit, are as nothing compared with the delivering of the people out of that dark sea.
If among my readers there be any who have the least conception that this scheme is put forward by me from any interested motives by all means let them refuse to contribute even by a single penny to what would be, at least, one of the most shameless of shams. There may be those who are able to imagine that men who have been literally martyred in this cause have faced their death for the sake of the paltry coppers they collected to keep body and soul together. Such may possibly find no difficulty in persuading themselves that this is but another attempt to raise money to augment that mythical fortune which I, who never yet drew a penny beyond mere out-of-pocket expenses from the Salvation Army funds, am supposed to be accumulating. From all such I ask only the tribute of their abuse, assured that the worst they say of me is too mild to describe the infamy of my conduct if they are correct in this interpretation of my motives.
There appears to me to be only two reasons that will justify any man, with a heart in his bosom, in refusing to co-operate with me in this Scheme: —
1. That he should have an honest and intelligent conviction that it cannot be carried out with any reasonable measure of success; or,
2. That he (the objector) is prepared with some other plan which will as effectually accomplish the end it contemplates.
Let me consider the second reason first. If it be that you have some plan that promises more directly to accomplish the deliverance of these multitudes than mine, I implore you at once to bring it out. Let it see the light of day. Let us not only hear your theory, but see the evidences which prove its practical character and assure its success. If your plan will bear investigation, I shall then consider you to be relieved from the obligation to assist me–nay, if after full consideration of your plan I find it better than mine, I will give up mine, turn to, and help you with all my might. But if you have nothing to offer, I demand your help in the name of those whose cause I plead.
Now, then, for your first objection, which I suppose can be expressed in one word–“impossible.” This, if well founded, is equally fatal to my proposals. But, in reply, I may say–How do you know? Have you inquired? I will assume that you have read the book, and duly considered it. Surely you would not dismiss so important a theme without some thought. And though my arguments may not have sufficient weight to carry conviction, you must admit them to be of sufficient importance to warrant investigation. Will you therefore come and see for yourself what has been done already, or, rather, what we are doing to-day. Failing this, will you send someone capable of judging on your behalf. I do not care very much whom you send. It is true the things of the Spirit are spiritually discerned, but the things of humanity any man can judge, whether saint or sinner, if he only possess average intelligence and ordinary bowels of compassion.
I should, however, if I had a choice, prefer an investigator who has some practical knowledge of social economics, and much more should I be pleased if he had spent some of his own time and a little of his own money in trying to do the work himself. After such investigation I am confident there could be only one result.
There is one more plea I have to offer to those who might seek to excuse themselves from rendering any financial assistance to the Scheme. Is it not worthy at least of being tried as an experiment? Tens of thousands of pounds are yearly spent in “trying” for minerals, boring for coals, sinking for water, and I believe there are those who think it worth while, at an expenditure of hundreds of thousands of pounds, to experiment in order to test the possibility of making a tunnel under the sea between this country and France. Should these adventurers fail in their varied operations, they have, at least, the satisfaction of knowing, though hundreds of thousands of pounds have been expended, that they have not been wasted, and they will not complain; because they have at least attempted the accomplishment of that which they felt ought to be done; and it must be better to attempt a duty, though we fail, than never to attempt it at all. In this book we do think we have presented a sufficient reason to justify the expenditure of the money and effort involved in the making of this experiment. And though the effort should not terminate in the grand success which I so confidently predict, and which we all must so ardently desire, still there is bound to be, not only the satisfaction of having attempted some sort of deliverance for these wretched people, but certain results which will amply repay every farthing expended in the experiment.
I am now sixty-one years of age. The last eighteen months, during which the continual partner of all my activities for now nearly forty years has laid in the arms of unspeakable suffering, has added more than many many former ones, to the exhaustion of my term of service. I feel already something of the pressure which led the dying Emperor of Germany to say, “I have no time to be weary.” If I am to see the accomplishment in any considerable degree of these life-long hopes, I must be enabled to embark up on the enterprise without delay, and with the world-wide burden constantly upon me in connection with the universal mission of our Army I cannot be expected to struggle in this matter alone.
But I trust that the upper and middle classes are at last being awakened out of their long slumber with regard to the permanent improvement of the lot of those who have hitherto been regarded as being for ever abandoned and hopeless. Shame indeed upon England if, with the example presented to us nowadays by the Emperor and Government of Germany, we simply shrug our shoulders, and pass on again to our business or our pleasure leaving these wretched multitudes in the gutters where they have lain so long. No, no, no; time is short. Let us arise in the name of God and humanity, and wipe away the sad stigma from the British banner that our horses are better treated than our labourers.
It will be seen that this Scheme contains many branches. It is probable that some of my readers may not be able to endorse the plan as a whole, while heartily approving of some of its features and to the support of what they do not heartily approve they may not be willing to subscribe. Where this is so, we shall be glad for them to assist us in carrying out those portions of the undertaking which more especially command their sympathy and commend themselves to their judgment. For instance, one man may believe in the Over-Sea Colony, but feel no interest in the Inebriates’ Home; another, who may not care for emigration, may desire to furnish a Factory or Rescue Home; a third may wish to give us an estate, assist in the Food and Shelter work, or the extension of the Slum Brigade. Now, although I regard the Scheme as one and indivisible–from which you cannot take away any portion without impairing the prospect of the whole–it is quite practicable to administer the money subscribed so that the wishes of each donor may be carried out. Subscriptions may, therefore, be sent in for the general fund of the Social Scheme, or they can be devoted to any of the following distinct funds: —
1. The City Colony.
2. The Farm Colony.
3. The Colony Over-sea.
4. The Household Salvage Brigade.
5. The Rescue Homes for Fallen Women. 6. Deliverance for the Drunkard.
7. The Prison Gate Brigade.
8. The Poor Man’s Bank.
9. The Poor Man’s Lawyer.
10. Whitechapel-by-the-Sea.
Or any other department suggested by the foregoing. In making this appeal I have, so far, addressed myself chiefly to those who have money; but money, indispensable as it is, has never been the thing most needful. Money is the sinews of war; and, as society is at present constituted, neither carnal nor spiritual wars can be carried on without money. But there is something more necessary still. War cannot be waged without soldiers. A Wellington can do far more in a campaign than a Rothschild. More than money–a long, long way– I want men; and when I say men, I mean women also–men of experience, men of brains, men of heart, and men of God.
In this great expedition, though I am starting for territory which is familiar enough, I am, in a certain sense, entering an unknown land. My people will be new at it. We have trained our soldiers to the saving of souls, we have taught them Knee-drill, we have instructed them in the art and mystery of dealing with the consciences and hearts of men; and that will ever continue the main business of their lives.
To save the soul, to regenerate the life, and to inspire the spirit with the undying love of Christ is the work to which all other duties must ever be strictly subordinate in the Soldiers of the Salvation Army. But the new sphere on which we are entering will call for faculties other than those which have hitherto been cultivated, and for knowledge of a different character; and those who have these gifts, and who are possessed of this practical information, will be sorely needed.
Already our world-wide Salvation work engrosses the energies of every Officer whom we command. With its extension we have the greatest difficulty to keep pace; and, when this Scheme has to be practically grappled with, we shall be in greater straits than ever. True, it will find employment for a multitude of energies and talents which are now lying dormant, but, nevertheless, this extension will tax our resources to the very utmost. In view of this, reinforcements will be indispensable. We shall need the best brains, the largest experience, and the most undaunted energy of the community.
I want Recruits, but I cannot soften the conditions in order to attract men to the Colours. I want no comrades on these terms, but those who know our rules and are prepared to submit to our discipline: who are one with us on the great principles which determine our action, and whose hearts are in this great work for the amelioration of the hard lot of the lapsed and lost. These I will welcome to the service.
It may be that you cannot deliver an open-air address, or conduct an indoor meeting. Public labour for souls has hitherto been outside your practice. In the Lord’s vineyard, however, are many labourers, and all are not needed to do the same thing. If you have a practical acquaintance with any of the varied operations of which I have spoken in this book; if you are familiar with agriculture, understand the building trade, or have a practical knowledge of almost any form of manufacture, there is a place for you.
We cannot offer you great pay, social position, or any glitter and tinsel of man’s glory; in fact, we can promise little more than rations, plenty of hard work, and probably no little of worldly scorn; but if on the whole you believe you can in no other way help your Lord so well and bless humanity so much, you will brave the opposition of friends, abandon earthly prospects, trample pride under foot, and come out and follow Him in this New Crusade.
To you who believe in the remedy here proposed, and the soundness of these plans, and have the ability to assist me, I now confidently appeal for practical evidence of the faith that is in you. The responsibility is no longer mine alone. It is yours as much as mine. It is yours even more than mine if you withhold the means by which I may carry out the Scheme. I give what I have. If you give what you have the work will be done. If it is not done, and the dark river of wretchedness rolls on, as wide and deep as ever, the consequences will lie at the door of him who holds back.
I am only one man among my fellows, the same as you. The obligation to care for these lost and perishing multitudes does not rest on me any more than it does on you. To me has been given the idea, but to you the means by which it may be realised. The Plan has now been published to the world; it is for you to say whether it is to remain barren, or whether it is to bear fruit in unnumbered blessings to all the children of men.
APPENDIX
1. The Salvation Army–A Sketch–The Position of the Forces, October, 1890.
2. Circular, Registration Forms, and Notices now issued by the Labour Bureau.
3. Count Rumford’s Bavarian Experience.
4. The Co-operative Experiment at Ralahine.
5. Mr Carlyle on the Regimenation of the Out-of-Works.
6. “Christianity and Civilization,” by the Rev. Dr. Barry.
THE SALVATION ARMY
The position of our forces. October, 1890.
Corps or Outposts Officers or persons Societies wholly engaged in the work.
The United Kingdom … 1375 — 4506
France … … ) 106 72 352 Switzerland … )
Sweden … … … 103 41 328
United States … … 363 57 1066
Canada … … … 317 78 1021
Australia–
Victoria … …)
South Australia )
New South Wales ) 270 465 903 Tasmania … …)
Queensland …)
New Zeland … … 65 99 186
India … … …) 80 51 419 Ceylon … …)
Holland … … 40 8 131
Denmark … … 33 — 87
Norway … … 45 7 132
Germany … … 16 6 75
Belgium … … 4 — 21
Finland … … 3 — 12
The Argentine Republic 2 — 15
South Africa & St Helena 52 12 162 —- —- —-
Total abroad 1499 896 4910 —- —- —-
Grand total 2874 896 9416
THE SUPPLY (“TRADE”) DEPARTMENT At Home. Abroad
Buildings occupied … … … 8 22
Officers … … … … … 53 15
Employes … … … … … 207 55 — —
Total 260 70
THE PROPERTY DEPARTMENT.
Property now Vested in the Army;–
The United Kingdom … … … #377,500
France and Switzerland … … 10,000
Sweden … … … … … 13,598
Norway … … … … … 11,676
The United States … … … 6,601
Canada … … … … … 98,728
Australia … … … … … 86,251
New Zealand … … … … 14,798
India … … … … … 5,537
Holland … … … … … 7,188
Denmark … … … … … 2,340
South Africa … … … … 10,401 ——–
Total #644,618
——–
Value of trade effects, stock, machinery, and goods on hand, #130,000 additional.
SOCIAL WORK OF THE ARMY.
Rescue homes (fallen women) … … 33 Slum Posts … … … … … 33
Prison Gate Brigades … … … 10 Food Depots … … … … … 4
Shelters for the Destitute … … 5 Inebriates Home … … … … 1
Factory for the “out of work” … 1 Labour Bureaux … … … … 2
Officers and others managing those branches 384
SALVATION AND SOCIAL REFORM LITERATURE
At home. Abroad Circulation Weekly Newspapers … 3 24 31,000,000 Monthly Magazines … 3 12 2,400,000 — — ———–
Total 6 36 33,400,000 — — ———–
Total annual circulation of the above 33,400,000 Total annual circulation of other publications 4,000,000 ———–
Total annual circulation of Army literature 37,400,000 ———–
The United Kingdom–
“The War Cry” 300,000 weekly
“The Young Soldier” 126,750 weekly “All the World” 50,000 monthly
“The Deliverer” 48,000 monthly
GENERAL STATEMENTS AND STATISTICS.
Accommodation Annual cost. Training Garrisons for Officers
(United Kingdom) 28 #11,500 (Abroad) 38 760
Large Vans for Evangelising the Villages (known as Cavalry Forts)
Homes of Rest for Officers 24 240 10,000
Indoor Meetings, held weekly 28,351
Open-air Meetings held weekly
(chiefly in England and Colonies) 21,467 ——-
Total Meetings held weekly 49,818 ——-
Number of Houses visited weekly
(Great Britain only) 54,000
Number of Countries and Colonies occupied
Number of Languages in which Literature is issued 15
Number of Languages in which Salvation is preached by the Officers 29
Number of Local (Non-Commissioned Officers) and Bandsman 23,069
Number of Scribes and Office Employes 471
Average weekly reception of telegrams, 600 and letters, 5,400 at the London Headquarters
Sum raised annually from all sources by the Army #750,000
Balance Sheets, duly audited by chartered accountants, are issued annually in connection with the International Headquarters. See the Annual Report of 1889–“Apostolic Warfare.”
Balance Sheets are also produced quarterly at every Corps in the world, audited and signed by the Local Officers. Divisional Balance Sheets issued monthly and audited by a Special Department at Headquarters.
Duly and independently audited Balance Sheets are also issued annually from every Territorial Headquarters.
THE AUXILIARY LEAGUE.
1.–Of persons who, without necessarily endorsing or approving of every single method used by thee Salvation Army, are sufficiently in sympathy with its great work of reclaiming drunkards, rescuing the fallen–in a word, saving the lost–as to give it their PRAYERS, INFLUENCE, AND MONEY.
2.–Of persons who, although seeing eye to eye with the Army, yet are unable to join it, owing to being actively engaged in the work of their own denominations, or by reason of bad health or other infirmities, which forbid their taking any active part in Christian work. Persons are enrolled either as Subscribing or Collecting Auxiliaries.
The League comprises persons of influence and position, members of nearly all denominations, and many ministers.
PAMPHLETS.–Auxiliaries will always be supplied gratis with copies of our Annual Report and Balance Sheet and other pamphlets for distribution on application to Headquarters. Some of our Auxiliaries have materially helped us in this way by distributing our literature at the seaside and elsewhere, and by making arrangements for the regular supply of waiting rooms, hydropathics, and hotels, thus helping to dispel the prejudice under which many persons unacquainted with the Army are found to labour.
“All The World” posted free regularly each month to Auxiliaries.
For further information, and for full particulars of the work of The Salvation Army, apply personally or by letter to GENERAL BOOTH,. or to the Financial Secretary at International Headquarters, 101, Queen Victoria St., London, E.C., to whom also contributions should be sent.
Cheques and Postal Orders crossed “City Bank.”
THE SALVATION ARMY: A SKETCH.
BY AN OFFICER OF SEVENTEEN YEARS’ STANDING. What is the Salvation Army?
It is an Organisation existing to effect a radical revolution in the spiritual condition of the enormous majority of the people of all lands. Its aim is to produce a change not only in the opinions, feelings, and principles of these vast populations, but to alter the whole course of their lives, so that instead of spending their time in frivolity and pleasure-seeking, if not in the grossest forms of vice, they shall spend it in the service of their generation and in the worship of God. So far it has mainly operated in professedly Christian countries, where the overwhelming majority of the people have ceased, publicly, at any rate, to worship Jesus Christ, or to submit themselves in any way to His authority. To what extent has the Army succeeded?
Its flag is now flying in 34 countries or colonies, where under the leadership of nearly 10,000 men and women, whose lives are entirely given up to the work, it is holding some 49,800 religious meetings every week, attended by millions of persons, who ten years ago would have laughed at the idea of praying.
And these operations are but the means for further extension, as will be seen, especially when it is remembered that the Army has its 27 weekly newspapers, of which no less than 31,000,000 copies are sold in the streets, public houses, and popular resorts of the godless majority. From its, ranks it is therefore certain that an ever-increasing multitude of men and women must eventually be won.
That all this has not amounted to the creation of a mere passing gust of feeling, may best be demonstrated perhaps from the fact that the Army has accumulated no less than #775,000 worth of property, pays rentals amounting to #220,000 per annum for its meeting places, and has a total income from all sources of three-quarters of a million per annum. Now consider from whence all this has sprung. It is only twenty-five years since the author of this volume stood absolutely alone in the East of London, to endeavour to Christianise its irreligious multitudes, without the remotest conception in his own mind of the possibility of any such Organisation being created.
Consider, moreover, through what opposition the Salvation Army has ever had to make its way.
In each country it has to face universal prejudice, distrust, and contempt, and often stronger antipathy still. This opposition has generally found expression in systematic, Governmental, and Police restriction, followed in too many cases by imprisonment, and by the condemnatory outpourings of Bishops, Clergy, Pressmen and others, naturally followed in too many instances by the oaths and curses, the blows and insults of the populace. Through all this, in country after country, the Army makes its way to the position of universal respect, that respect, at any rate, which is shown to those who have conquered. And of what material has this conquering host been made? Wherever the Army goes it gathers into its meetings, in the first instance, a crowd of the most debased, brutal, blasphemous elements that can be found who, if permitted, interrupt the services, and if they see the slightest sign of police tolerance for their misconduct, frequently fall upon the Army officers or their property with violence. Yet a couple of Officers face such an audience with the absolute certainty of recruiting out of it an Army Corps. Many thousands of those who are now most prominent in the ranks of the Army never knew what it was to pray before they attended its services; and large numbers of them had settled into a profound conviction that everything connected with religion was utterly false. It is out of such material that God has constructed what is admitted to be one of the most fervid bodies of believers ever seen on the face of the earth.
Many persons in looking at the progress of the Army have shown a strange want of discernment in talking and writing as though all this had been done in a most haphazard fashion, or as though an individual could by the mere effort of his will produce such changes in the lives of others as he chose. The slightest reflection will be sufficient we are sure to convince any impartial individual that the gigantic results attained by the Salvation Army could only be reached by steady unaltering processes adapted to this end. And what are the processes by which this great Army has been made?
1. The foundation of all the Army’s success, looked at apart from its divine source of strength, is its continued direct attack upon those whom it seeks to bring under the influence of the Gospel. The Salvation Army Officer, instead of standing upon some dignified pedestal, to describe the fallen condition of his fellow men, in the hope that though far from him, they may thus, by some mysterious process, come to a better life, goes down into the street, and from door to door, and from room to room, lays his hands on those who are spiritually sick, and leads them to the Almighty Healer. In its forms of speech and writing the Army constantly exhibits this same characteristic. Instead of propounding religious theories or pretending to teach a system of theology, it speaks much after the fashion of the old Prophet or Apostle, to each individual, about his or her sin and duty, thus bringing to bear upon each heart and conscience the light and power from heaven, by which alone the world can be transformed.
2. And step by step, along with this human contact goes unmistakably something that is not human.
The puzzlement and self-contradiction of most critics of the Army springs undoubtedly from the fact that they are bound to account for its success without admitting that any superhuman power attends its ministry, yet day after day, and night after night, the wonderful facts go on multiplying. The man who last night was drunk in a London slum, is to-night standing up for Christ on an Army platform. The clever sceptic, who a few weeks ago was interrupting the speakers in Berlin, and pouring contempt upon their claims to a personal knowledge of the unseen Saviour, is to-day as thorough a believer as any of them. The poor girl, lost to shame and hope, who a month ago was an outcast of Paris, is to-day a modest devoted follower of Christ, working in a humble situation. To those who admit we are right in saying “this is the Lord’s doing,” all is simple enough, and our certainty that the dregs of Society can become its ornaments requires no further explanation.
3. All these modern miracles would, however, have been comparatively useless but for the Army’s system of utilising the gifts and energy of our converts to the uttermost. Suppose that without any claim to Divine power the Army had succeeded in raising up tens of thousands of persons, formerly unknown and unseen in the community, and made them into Singers, Speakers, Musicians, and Orderlies, that would surely in itself have been a remarkable fact. But not only have these engaged in various labours for the benefit of the community. They have been filled with a burning ambition to attain the highest possible degree of usefulness. No one can wonder that we expect to see the same process carried on successfully amongst our new friends of the Casual Ward and the Slum. And if the Army has been able to accomplish all this utilisation of human talents for the highest purposes, in spite of an almost universally prevailing contrary practice amongst the Churches, what may not its Social Wing be expected to do, with the example of the Army before it?
4. The maintenance of all this system has, of course, been largely due to the unqualified acceptance of military government and discipline. But for this we cannot be blind to the fact that even in our own ranks difficulties would every day arise as to the exaltation to front seats of those who were formerly persecutors and injurious. The old feeling which would have kept Paul suspected, in the background, after his conversion is, unfortunately, a part of the conservative groundwork of human nature that continues to exist everywhere, and which has to be overcome by rigid discipline in order to secure that everywhere and always, the new convert should be made the most of for Christ. But our Army system is a great indisputable fact, so much so that our enemies sometimes reproach us with it. That it should be possible to create an Army Organisation, and to secure faithful execution of duty daily is indeed a wonder, but a wonder accomplished, just as completely amongst the Republicans of America and France, as amongst the militarily trained Germans, or the subjects of the British monarchy. It is notorious that we can send an officer from London, possessed of no extraordinary ability, to take command of any corps in the world, with a certainty that he will find soldiers eager to do his bidding, and without a thought of disputing his commands, so long as he continues faithful to the orders and regulations under which his men are enlisted.
5. But those show a curious ignorance who set down our successes to this discipline, as though it were something of the prison order, although enforced without any of the power lying either behind the prison warder or the Catholic priest. On the contrary, wherever the discipline of the Army has been endangered, and its regular success for a time interrupted, it has been through an attempt to enforce it without enough of that joyous, cheerful spirit of love which is its main spring. Nobody can become acquainted with our soldiers in any land, without being almost immediately struck with their extraordinary gladness, and this joy is in itself one of the most infectious and influential elements of the Army’s success. But if this be so, amid the comparatively well to do, judge of what its results are likely to be amongst the poorest and most wretched! To those who have never known bright days, the mere sight of a happy face is as it were a revelation and inspiration in one.
6. But the Army’s success does not come with magical rapidity; it depends, like that of all real work, upon infinite perseverance.
To say nothing of the perseverance of the Officer who has made the saving of men his life work, and who, occupied and absorbed with this great pursuit, may naturally enough be expected to remain faithful, there are multitudes of our Soldiers who, after a hard day’s toil for their daily bread, have but a few hours of leisure, but devote it ungrudgingly to the service of the War. Again and again, when the remains of some Soldier are laid to rest, amid the almost universal respect of a town, which once knew him only as an evil-doer, we hear it said that this man, since the date of his conversion, from five to ten years ago, has seldom been absent from his post, and never without good reason for it. His duty may have been comparatively insignificant, “only a door-keeper,” “only a War Cry seller,” yet Sunday after Sunday, evening after evening, he would be present, no matter who the commanding officer might be, to do his part, bearing with the unruly, breathing hope into the distressed, and showing unwavering faithfulness to all. The continuance of these processes of mercy depends largely upon leadership, and the creation and maintenance of this leadership has been one of the marvels of the Movement. We have men to-day looked up to and reverenced over wide areas of country, arousing multitudes to the most devoted service, who a few years ago were champions of iniquity, notorious in nearly every form of vice, and some of them ringleaders in violent opposition to the Army. We have a right to believe that on the same lines God is going to raise up just such leaders without measure and without end.
Beneath, behind, and pervading all the successes of the Salvation Army is a force against which the world may sneer, but without which the world’s miseries cannot be removed, the force of that Divine love which breathed on Calvary, and which God is able to communicate by His spirit to human hearts to-day.
It is pitiful to see intelligent men attempting to account, without the admission of this great fact, for the self-sacrifice and success of Salvation Officers and Soldiers. If those who wish to understand the Army would only take the trouble to spend as much as twenty-four hours with its people, how different in almost every instance would be the conclusions arrived at. Half-an-hour spent in the rooms inhabited by many of our officers would be sufficient to convince, even a well-to-do working man, that life could not be lived happily in such circumstances without some superhuman power, which alike sustains and gladdens the soul, altogether independently of earthly surroundings.
The Scheme that has been propounded in this volume would, we are quite satisfied, have no chance of success were it not for the fact that we have such a vast supply of men and women who, through the love of Christ ruling in their hearts, are prepared to look upon a life of self-sacrificing effort for the benefit of the vilest and roughest as the highest of privileges. With such a force at command, we dare to say that the accomplishment of this stupendous undertaking is a foregone conclusion, if the material assistance which the Army does not possess is forthcoming.
THE SALVATION ARMY SOCIAL REFORM WING.
Temporary Headquarters 36, UPPER THAMES STREET, LONDON, E.C.
OBJECTS.–The bringing together of employers and workers for their mutual advantage. Making known the wants of each to each by providing a ready method of communication.
PLAN OF OPERATION.–The Opening of a Central Registry Office, which for the present will be located at the above address, and where registers will be kept free of charge wherein the wants of both employers and workers will be recorded, the registers being open for consultation by all interested.
Public Waiting Rooms (for male and female), to which the unemployed may come for the purpose of scanning the newspapers, the insertion of advertisements for employment in all newspapers at lowest rates. Writing tables, &c., provided for their use to enable them to write applications for situations on work. The receiving of letters (replies to applications for employment) for unemployed workers.
The Waiting Rooms will also act as Houses-of-Call, where employers can meet and enter into engagements with Workers of all kinds, by appointment or otherwise, thus doing away with the snare that awaits many of the unemployed, who have no place to wait other than the Public House, which at present is almost the only “house-of-call” for Out-of-Work men.
By making known to the public generally the wants of the unemployed by means of advertisements, by circulars, and direct application to employers, the issue of labour statistics with information as to the number of unemployed who are anxious for work, the various trades and occupations they represent, &c., &c.
The opening of branches of the Labour Bureau as fast as funds and opportunities permit, in all the large towns and centres of industry throughout Great Britain.
In connection with the Labour Bureau, we propose to deal with both skilled and unskilled workers, amongst the latter forming such agencies as “Sandwich” Board Men’s Society, Shoe Black, Carpet Beating, White-washing, Window Cleaning, Wood Chopping, and other Brigades, all of which will, with many others, be put into operation as far as the assistance of the public (in the shape of applying for workers of all kinds) will afford us the opportunity.
A Domestic Servants’ Agency will also be a branch of the Bureau, and a Home For Domestic Servants out of situation is also in contemplation. In this and other matters funds alone are required to commence operations. All communications, donations, etc., should be addressed as above, marked “Labour Bureau,” etc.
CENTRAL LABOUR BUREAU. LOCAL AGENTS AND CORRESPONDENTS’ DEPARTMENT.
Dear Comrade,–The enclosed letter, which has been sent to our Officers throughout the Field, will explain the object we have in view. Your name has been suggested to us as one whose heart is thoroughly in sympathy with any effort on behalf of poor suffering humanity. We are anxious to have in connection with each of our Corps, and in every locality throughout the Kingdom, some sympathetic, level-headed comrade, acting as our Agent or local Correspondent, to whom we could refer at all times for reliable information, and who would take it as work of love to regularly communicate useful information respecting the social condition of things generally in their neighbourhood.
Kindly reply, giving us your views and feelings on the subject as soon as possible, as we are anxious to organise at once. The first business on hand is for us to get information of those out of work and employers requiring workers, so that we can place them upon our registers, and make known the wants both of employers and employes.
We shall be glad of a communication from you, giving us some facts as to the condition of things in your locality, or any ideas or suggestions you would like to give, calculated to help us in connection with this good work.
I may say that the Social Wing not only comprehends the labour question, but also prison rescue and other branches of Salvation work, dealing with broken-down humanity generally, so that you can see what a great blessing you may be to the work of God by co-operating with us.
Believe me to be, Yours affectionately for the Suffering and Lost, etc.
LOCAL AGENTS AND CORRESPONDENTS DEPARTMENT.
Proposition for local agent, correspondent, etc.
Name………………………………………………………….
Address……………………………………………………….
Occupation…………………………………………………….
If a Soldier, what Corps?……………………………………….
If not a Soldier, what Denomination?……………………………..
If spoken to on the subject, what reply they have made?…………….
……………………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………..
Signed……………………………………………..
Corps………………………………………………
Date………………………. 189 .
Kindly return this as soon as possible, and we will then place ourselves in communication with the Comrade you propose for this position.
TO EMPLOYERS OF LABOUR.
We beg to bring to your notice the fact that the Salvation Army has opened at the above address (in connection with the Social Reform Wing), a Labour Bureau for the Registration of the wants of all classes of Labour, for both employer and employe in London and throughout the Kingdom, our object being to place in communication with each other, for mutual advantage, those who want workers and those who want work.
Arrangements have been made at the above address for waiting rooms, where employers can see unemployed men and women, and where the latter may have accommodation to write letters, see the advertisements in the papers, &c., &c.
If you are in want of workers of any kind, will you kindly fill up the enclosed form and return it to us? We will then have the particulars entered up, and endeavour to have your wants supplied. All applications, I need hardly assure you, will have our best attention, whether they refer to work of a permanent or temporary character.
We shall also be glad, through the information office of Labour Department, to give you any further information as to our plans, &c., or an Officer will wait upon you to receive instructions for the supply of workers, if requested.
As no charge will be made for registration of either the wants of employers or the wants of the unemployed, it will be obvious that a considerable outlay will be necessary to sustain these operations in active usefulness, and that therefore financial help will be greatly needed.
We shall gratefully receive donations, from the smallest coin up, to help to cover the cost of working this department. We think it right to say that only in special cases shall we feel at liberty to give personal recommendations. This however, will no doubt be understood, seeing that we shall have to deal with very large numbers who are total strangers to us. Please address all communications or donations as above, marked “Central Labour Bureau,” etc.
WE PROPOSE TO ENTER UPON A CRUSADE AGAINST “SWEATING.” WILL YOU HELP US?
Dear Sir,–in connection with the Social Reform Wing a Central Labour Bureau has been opened, one department of which will deal especially with that class of labour termed “unskilled,” from amongst whom are drawn BOARDMEN, MESSENGERS, BILL DISTRIBUTORS, CIRCULAR ADDRESSERS, WINDOW CLEANERS, WHITE-WASHERS, CARPET BEATERS, &c., &c.
It is very important that work given to these workers and others not enumerated, should be taxed as little as possible by the Contractor, or those who act between the employer and the worker.